Year: 1876

One of the gayest hearted men in st.
Louis is a furniture car driver, whom,
by way of pet name, we will call Curly
Jim, usually contracted into Curly. He
has way of always lookingso contented
and so entirely at peace with all the
world that the rest of mankind (Vide
President Taylor's message) are ever
disposed to treat with him on tho most
friendly terms, and he is Old Popularity
himself with the female portion of the
moving world.


Curly's wagon always seems to be
loaded with the better class of furniture,
as if he were employed only by genteel
families, and he has knack of piling it
on so as to present a shipshape, if not
an artistic appearance. He is quite a
philosopher, too, IN his way, and has a
pretty good insight into the labyrinths
of the human heart.


"How is it, Curly, that you get the
moving of all the millionaires in town p
said a Republican reporter to him the
other day.


"Well, you're a little out of plumb
there" replied Curly; millionaires
never move. get pretty nice loads, to
be sure, and that is partly luck and part
ly little knack that these common fell
lows don't understand"


must be one of the common fellows,
too, replied the reporter, for l don't un-
derstand either. Explain.


"Did you ever buy box of strawber-
ries in the market2"


Many time"


And didn't you always find the nice,
plump berries on top9"


always"


"Well, that is the way 1 make up my
loads. Now most families have got a
few nice things, and nearly all, even the
very best, have got an awful sight of
trash; and suppose you have got to
move them, and is there any sense in
piling all the nice things in the bottom
and covering them up with trash so as to
look as if you were moving Junk shop
or second hand furniture store2 For
instance, here's this load I've got on
now. The only nice things the people
have are the wardrobe, bureau and
washstand. AS I pass along the street
you don't notice anything else on the
load but them, do you? That's owing
to the way they're put on. When we get
to the house they are being moved to
the best things will all stand on the
sidewalk, while the old traps and rub
bish will be fetched into the house as
fast as it can be taken from the wagon.
The neighbors, of course, will all be
peeping through the blinds and out of
the corners of the windows, and will
say: THAT is very genteel family
moving in; they have got pretty nice
things Don't you see 2"


"That all looks very plausible; but
do people who are moving care, as q
general thing, for the appearance their
traps will make in being moved2"


"You bet they do. The other day 1
was moving family into row and an
other carman was moving family into
next door. I accidentally overheard the
lady at this house say: 'How provok-
ing That abominable carman seems
to take special pains to make as much
display as possible of every broken
legged chair and rickety piece of furni-
ture we've got. Our things are nicer
than those next door folks, but while
theirs look SO genteel one might think
we were moving from the poorhouse. "


"Then you believe in always putting
your best foot foremost, as the saying
is 2"


"True for you. It's the grand secret
of success in the world. And when /
put other peoples best foot foremost for
them they like it, and that is the way /
keep my business"