The Portland daily press., 1895-04-22
HIS is A MOVING TALE
A Man Who Lives in Flats Tells How He
Acquired the Migratory Habit

although it is little early IN The sea-
son. remarked member Oh VhaG great
army of human beings in chicago Who live
in flats, to the Tribune. "that irresistible
impulse which comes on most women as
spring approaches has taken possession of
my wife. l used to disbeleve That story
about the wandering Jew. but am inclined
since have grown older and married
man, to think there may be a good deal in
it. When on gets the moving habit its
of the hardest things in the worlG to shake
off. l disliked it at first, but now am
rather fond of it. have been married 10
years. have one child and have moved
eight times. These are my principal family
statistics.
I've have traversed this town regularly
every year, like pair of migratory swans,
ever since we We're married. rlrst OF all,
we took a top fiat with two flights of stairs
attached. My wife selected the top fat
because it was SO much lighter than any of
the others. AS the following lst of May ap-
proac he'd, however, the long journey from
the street up to our little eyrie proved too
much for my wife, and as she found a fiat
OH the ground floor in another part of town
w $500
place suited me frst-rate. and / began to
cherish faint hope that we could slide
safely by the LIST of May into another year.
But it was not to lie. A 81 ound floor Eat in
a building across the street was entered by
burglars along about the middle of April.
and my wife RENE mbered the next morning
that she had heard mysterious noises at one
Of our windows the same night.
'sWhen l read the item at the breakfast
table and she made that remark, l looked at
her with sicRly smile. I knew what was
coming. She said that that was the trouble
with these ground floor flats; n burglar
could raise window and step right in any.
where; could slip into the Auditorium
tower, steal all the weather predictions for
year ahead, and hold them for a ransom
from the agricultural department if he
wanted to.
"Of course it did no good. We folded our
beds like the Arabs and took a Hat on the
second floor sufficiently far away to make
1t an object fol- the drayman. There we
abode happily until it occurred to my wife
that the baby ought to have a littla bit of
outdoors o play in. / agreed and we went
10 the bottom again. Ny wife hadn't heard
of any burglaries in the immediate neigh
bornood while weIwere there. SO that this
daDgersdidn't occur 10 her. During the
winter one of the children In another of
the ground floor flats was taken with what
the doctor said was diphtheria. He said the
disease had probably been contracte in
some way from one of the garbage boxes
with which the alley was adorned. Of
course our baby was in the same danger.
ifo : 4 /,
run about on clean back porch than to be
on the ground where there were dirty gar
bage boxes.
az SO we took a top fiat again. My wife said
she didn't mind the stairs now. Wnen the
next year had almost rolled around and my
wife said nothing about moving l had a
vague sense of pain which ! could hardly
account for. I know now that the; habit
has grown more pronounced. that it was dis
appointment. But it was soon over. NY
wife found another fat with larger bath
room and more closets. I served notice on
or landlord of our intention to quit.
"1op fats, as my wife justly observed a
year later, ara no places TO entertain in
and we slumped to the bottom again. In
1898 We found them too convenient for en-
Pertaining. however, and besides the people
overhead made SO much noise that we
couldn't sleep early in the night. and we
are now receiving in sky parlor again.
My wife has just found a lovely cottage
with yard for the baby and furnace for
papa. and we are going there the LIST of
May. There are neither burglars nor bac-
terra to annoy or make afraid. but there is
that furnace. A friend of mine tells me he
used to have TO get up regularly to attend
to his every night during the cold spells last
winter.''