Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-10-10
A Moving Tale

ITO MOVE is to be stirring, TO give signs
of life, To move is as truthfully 10 de-
raclnate, to tear up roots and to show no
unmistakable signs of folly in the process.
a little Philadelphia boy was once protest.
ing against the absurdlty of his studying
geography. II have lived in Philadelphia all
my life" said he "and nry father has lived
in Philadelphia all his life and the same
is true OF gran'dad. Why should / want to
know anything about any other place? Phila-
delphia is good enough for me-" So some
unhappy wretch who has always lived in
the same house or who entertains lively
membranes of antediluvlan days before the
last freshet may sorrowfully wall. II have
lived in this house all my life 7 have baked
and frozen in this house and its dust and dirt
have gathered on me. on mine and our
belongings. Why should I live, bake, freeze
or gather dirt In any other house? Any
house not on wheels is good enough for me"
ANIMALS move vegetables stay, put, il
A you do not put them too often Even
clams-whch we were so insistently con-
jured a year or so ago nevers to be--move
from their enveloped breakfasts 70 their enr
compassed luncheons. and the soth Is cred
ibly reported to stir between maps. Tn.
kangaroo carries his--or. rather her--family
about with her In a perpetual spring moving,
and the snail bears his house on his back
a convenient arrangement in these times of
high prices, in that IT cuts out the house
broker, with his broken promises: the land
lord, with his eNtortons the gasjnan, who
never comes, and the painters, who never go.
But the supreme moving animal, after all, Is
man. Since he moved out OF Paradise there
has lodged In HIS heart an Unsuitable desire
TO 60 somewhere else, t. abide in some other
place; that whether he creep on the all.
fours of childhood or stalk confidently on the
two legs of manhood or hobble on the three
legs of old age he IL always on the 60 Not
content with the locomotion provided for his
exit from the primeval state of bliss, he has
Invented new rect. strange legs, whirling
wheels and whizzing wings-what has he not
invented?-to facilitate this going somewhere,
this getting away, this moving forward up
ward, under, onward opening by these means
many an ingenious way and postern gate for
the last of all his moyings. the move out Of
this world into the next.
IITT Is not growing like tree" says old
Ben Jonson, that makes men better be-
or standing long an OAK to fail
log at last" All OF which is as admirably
true as 1t is admirably put And yet men
are remarkably like trees; for they take root
where they grow and it hurts and discour
ages to transplant them how ever they may
after flourish in new SOIL. ITO pull up
stakes may do very well as to the accidental
caravarisary Of the monreS-.. or as 10 some
transitory encampment unqer canvas as one
wanders from one place TO another. But
when man moves In the real sense-that is
when man takes himself and his from what
has been his domiclle to what he hopes may
In time become his domicile once more-"to
pull up stakes is phrase of the order OF
trivial persifage Moving Is the spoiation
of home. the tearing out OF roots, the deraci-
nation of the vitals of household that has
been. descent into the trenches Of pro-
fanity-and a deep and muddy one at that
can alone do justice in language to the proc
ess of moving. And 1t is no consolation that
1t sounds-as it is-heroic to be moving in
the van. Three movings we are told, equal
. fire. Any moving is worse than a fire.
because you hav. to live thereafter with
the mutilated corpses OF Things that were. or
at least organize for hospital work ON the
debris for many weary month TO come.
TIAS the happy reader who moves not
III ever thought about books as a topic of
weight? The avordupois Of books Is amaz-
ing. Age cannot wither them and their dry
ness, which exudes in dust only adds TO their
heaviness. Even such disturbers of gravity
as Charles Lamb and Sidney Smith bulk
weighty in old editions He is a strong thief
who steals a book. And yet there those
who prate about light reading ana the uplift
a letters. The atomic weight Of household
furniture. too. has never been scientifically
determined. II is something extraordinary.
II would seem that not only has the dining
table. the refrigerator and the plano sent
down tap-roots into the rubeoli 70 that each
seeuns literally inlbedded n ~ place; but
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