The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1892-05-26
THE HOME CORNER.

sound all the depths of the misery
pertaining to moving days"
~
1t is singular fact that these load
ed vans are never seen in such
numbers or in such great variety as
on a good, comfortable, rainy day.
Whether there is something in the
atmosphere which always makes peo-
pie want to move when it is going to
rain, or whether il rains because peo-
pie are moving, do not know. Per-
haps the rain likes to catch people at
their happiest, as on picnic occhri,ns,
and therefore comes down upon Tho
mover when he is surrounded with
the wreck of matter and the crush of
worlds, and has lost all sense of re-
sponsibility and all care for conse-
quences.
~
1t is not so much the actual fact of
moving that stirs mans soul to it's
depths and makes him for the time
being an irresponsible creature; it is
the wild confusion that goes into those
vans, and that must needs come out
of them That any orderly human
being survives the shock of NOV
ing day with an unshattered
mind proves at once that the
mind is strong, and not that
the provocation is insufficient. Only
to watch that van unloaded, and find
the cofee-mill securely packed away
with the family Bible, and the photo
nh alhIIf,n raotirn RnciIu in tho
dishpan, while the ak and the shovel
pet-these are the sights that make
an unhappy mortal gray before his
time.
~
Iwatch the loads 60 jolting heavily
along the streets, through rain or sun
or whatsoever weather, with q care
less driver in front, careless people
glancing at it as they pass; but to me
they are never quite Indifferent. How
ever poor may be the materials that
compose the load, to outward SEEM
ing, they will be taken into some sort
of shelter at the journeys end, and
will, with infinite labor, be set into
order again. The pictures of dead
faces, the old nementoes of
hands that are still and foot
steps that come no more, will I
be clipped away into their old hid
ing places, and in the midst of this
visible and tangible something that
we call poverty will spring up another
invisible something which the weary
mover will call home.
W.
The movers almost all belong to the
fraternity who occupy rented houses
and who journey from one part of the
city to another, as the eXigencies of
rent day or the convenience of their
business may suggest. The rented
house furnishes an acceptable shelter,
and its four walls get to have fami-
liar and homelike look to the sojourn-
er. Very often he becomes very much
attached to them, as one must when
he remembers that in this house q
child was born, and in another some
placid sleeper lay still, ready to be
carried away to some other resting
place. Yes, even in rented houses
the Lares and Pinates are set up
with alteration even though they
must eventually be taken down and
packed away in the furniture van with
the coffee mill and the dishpan and
axe.
Nv
But oh, when one really has four
walls that he can call his own, when,
like Charles Lamb, he can allow his
household gods to "plant terribly
fixed FOOT" when he can hang his,
pictures on the wall knowing that
they will look down on him from their
familiar places when he can no longer
look at them; when every spot about
his home can become dear to him
through some tender or pathetic MEM
cries, and he has no fear of losing
the memory while he lives; when, in
short, his place has become hometo,
him in very truth, then he can look
with infinite compassion on the loaded
furniture vans going along the street.
JULIA TRUITT BISHOP.
Is For Dyspepsia and Liver Com
NInN L..