A Moving Article

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A MOVING ARTICLE.

That great American institution, the First of May, already begins to make itself felt.

“Like the first drops of a thunder-shower,”¹

the little and big samples of “moving” are to be seen in the streets, in advance; sometimes a cart-full of furniture—sometimes a big country wagon from the rural districts—and, occasionally, specimens of moving “by hand.” Such destruction and distress have people experienced, in old times, by waiting the actual presence of the First of May, before making their changes, that now, whenever possible, they get ahead of time.

The enactment by a citizen, of a new domicile (fleeing away, like the wicked, when no man pursueth), is partly a tragedy, part comedy, with dashes of the wholesome, and sprinklings of the philosophic. The mere fact of moving is itself a wonder, not to be explained. Why should a family move? We fancy we see the reader stare at so audacious a question. But take one year with another, who ever knew man, wife, and children, or what not, to be at the end any better satisfied in the second place than in the first—or in the third, more than the second?

To say nothing of breaking things (mirrors, crockery, fragile legs, and the like), very large quantities of human peace, good feeling, and matrimonial temper, are surely put in limbo, and, perhaps maimed for life, by moving. We think a marriage, or a friendship that can stand a couple of First of May removes, would be likely to be proof against the powers of the air, the earth, and the waters under the earth. We throw this out as a hint, possibly useful to persons contemplating wedlock.

The comic qualities belong to the First of May, and precede it, and follow after it. Who during many a night through April (and perhaps March), but has been filled with a ludicrous terror—all sorts of forebodings and anticipations—things that might happen, or might not happen, to his, her, or their great discomfiture and loss, when the fatal time drew nigh?

The sanitary effects of the moving institution make some recompense for the evils. The whitewash, the clean house, the thorough ventilation, purification, carpets shook, everything dusted and sent through the open air—these are all good. Upon the whole (excuse the abruptness, reader), we guess we will count ourselves satisfied with the First of May.

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