Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1898-01-27
MAY DAY MOVING.
What It Was Like In New York Fifty
Years Ago.

What 1t Was Like In New York Fifty
Years Ago.
The real estate custom of making
yearly leases to date from May is
not, general throughout the United
States, and is, in fact, rather to be
regarded as local custom in New
York, for in many other cities the
real estate year and the calendar
year are the same, beginning on
Jan. 1. In New York, however, the
custom of dating from May 1 has
been SO long observed that it has
now the sanction of law, and in de-
fault of other date lease is gener-
ally supposed to begin OF. May / and
to conclude at noon on May 1 fol
lowing. Before the era of flats and
tenement houses the number of
yearly tenants in New York was
larger relatively than it is now,
when the ordinary rule is of
monthly tenancy, and May 1, there
fore, was more important occasion
than is now the case, for the changes
of domicile were many and the dis
comfort and inconvenience arising
therefrom greater.
In commenting upon May day so
years ago one OF the newspapers of
that time described it as ''the ami
versary Of confusion, trouble, dust
and dirt and noise, which took place
last Saturday, and was celebrated
by the ''tax ridden, compelled to
move citizens of Gotham" From
the rising to the setting of sun, says
this narrative, every street, lane,
alley, highway and byway of New
York was the scene of as much con-
fusion, disorder and trouble as pre-
vailed at Babel when the inhabitants
of the earth were suddenly deprived
of the power of conversing with one
another. ''We doubt very much, y
declared the writer, whether the
confusion which was exhibited in
our city was not even greater than
that of Babel,'' and in order to show
the extent of the injury to business
one of the daily papers published
statement of the expenditures en-
tailed upon citizens of the city by
May moving.
The figures may seem almost in
significant now, but at that time
they were formidable, though the
computer seems to have sought ac-
curacy at the sacrifice of round
numbers, which are usually accept
ed as the best sort of guide for esti-
mates. Here is his table:
The carriage of 5000 families at 81 per
FAMILY ......... 5000 90
The amount of damage to furniture,
say IS to each family. ................ $4,000 90
The damage to crockery and looking
glasses: ...:..................... s,eO5 So
Wear and tear Of body. 2,628 90
Wear and tear Of conscience, 76,0OO
oaths at the price charged by magis-
trates shilling. Observation-Disclosures. $500 90
Five thousand rents in breeches...... 1850 90
Articles lost from the carts. 1850 90
Iotal. 1856, 1874 81
"This sum-" says the chronicler
of SO years ago, cannot, we ac-
knowledge, be relied upon for exact
accuracy-it may be a few cents
over or a few cents under the mark
but it is near enough for all pur-
poses This is a tremendous sum,
and where is such expenditure to
stops" Then he added, "Who shall
describe the noise-from the squall-
ing of the infant in arms to the
crack voiced sco1ding of the matron
of 80 years-the confusion Of furni.
ture, of sofa bedsteads, chairs, TIA
bles, crockery, fiddles, fddlestrings,
glassware, stovepipes, Boston rock
ing chairs, kettles and pansG"
May day SO years ago was regard
ed as a sort of general holiday, and
all work except moving was for the
time suspended. It would appear
that the chronicler whose testimony
The Sun quotes was single man,
or resident in bachelor apart
ments, for he makes no allowance
for the demand on the fortitude of
housewives. He reckons only the
oaths of men at shilling apiece
and the rents in breaches.
| York Sun.
His Past.