The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1901-02-20
PIANO MOVING AN ART.
Skill an Well as Strength Needed to
Get One Up or Down Stairs.


Skill an Well as Strength Needed to
Get One Up or Down Stairs.
"Piano moving" .saii II dealer In pi-
amos, "is business by Itself. There are
truckmen who devote themselves to
this work and some whose business has
descended to them srom their fathers.
Some piano manufacturers and dealer.
maintain their own trucking and piano
moving facilities, but with the increas.
cd amount Of piano moving the work
has come to be more of n trade now
than ever. What with the multipllca-
tion Of flathouses and the frequent ne
cessity OF carrying pianos up two. three
or four flights Of stairs, it Is work that
calls nowadays more than ever for the
exercise Of skill rs well as strength
u suppose people generally realize
this, and nowadays most folks when
they want piano moved employ pi-
ano mover. But occasionally somebody
has piano to move and to save dol
lnr 9: two gets an cXpressmnn or
truckman who Is not piano specialist
10 move his piano, and the express
man or truckman very likely takes this
job because he wants the money, and
he thinks he's UP to anything there is
doing In his line and that he can handle
pianos when they come his way. lie
gets through with it. very likely, all
right, but sometimes piano gets away
from him, and when it does it makes
dusty work
Il knew Of q case III which piano
got away like that from an cxprcsslnan
who he'd undertaken 10 carry it up to Il
fourth floor fiat. lie was good cx-
prcssman, all right, you know. lie
could handle anything in his way Just
as well as anybody could, but piano
moving was really not In his line. A
piano Is tremendously heavy thing,
but l don't suppose anybody except
those that have tried 1t know how hard
n piano does sag back when It's being
carried up flight Of stairs. The rcgu.
lar piano mover is more than strong
He's an expert III this work too. \
piano moving team hangs OH to Il
piano not only with strength and con-
stant watchfulness, but with constant
readiness, and they work together with
q mutual helpfulness that makes them
! practically invulnerahlc, and when n
bunch Of men not skilled in this way
undertake to carry q piano up stairs
they undertake big risk
well, the eXprcSsman and his men
| got that piano UP the first fight Of
stairs all right and pretty nearly up to
| the top Of the second, and then some
thing happened, somebody's foot slip
! ped or something, nobody knew just
what, and 1t didn't make any differ
cncc with the result anyway, and the
| piano got loose. l never knew what it
did to the stairs or the house. never
went there to sec, but it broke one arm
and one leg Of the expressman who
was running the job and who was one
| OF the men under the pianos heavy
end. 1t was only by the mercy OF
Providence that he wasn't ground and
smashed into pulp, along with the two
men with him at that end. They, in
some miraculous way, escaped alto
| gether.
"Thcy took the wounded man to the
hospital, and there he staid for weeks.
Ihey brought the piano here to see
what we could do In the way Of re-
pairing it. The back frame was bro
Ken, the cnse was split. and the whole
piano was wreck. It would have
cost 5000 to put 1t In order. and then
you wouldn't have been sure Of ro-
storing 1t to its original condition. They
took the piano away again, and how
they settled 1t all never knew.
The fact is that under present con-
dltions piano moving calls more than
ever for the exercise not only of
strength, but Of special skill, and l
should not for moment hesitate to
say, that If one had c piano to move,
especially out Of or into any difficult
place. the wisest thing he could do
would be to employ piano moyer."-
New York Sun.