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Show Af ter J Hrf fit S I C 1 J It vjj I EASTERTIDE marks a parting of lti IL the ways not only in religious t B observances, but in domestic ' Aaw matters as well. Just after this festival comes the annual spring cleaning and In a number of coses a flitting of the entire household to a new home. When tho housewife decides that her lares and penates will be bct-ler bct-ler for a chance the dreary business of house hunting begins, and this spring season of the year has been selected from time Immemorial as the moving time. House hunting Is a wearisome task at best, requiring an infinite , amount of patience and good temper as 1 well as a certain amount of knowledge ind experience. Disappointment Is always al-ways met with at the beginning of the icarch, and for this It often happens lhat house agents are responsible. If people only knew what thoy wanted md the agents would only give the addresses ad-dresses of really suitable houses much unnecessary wa3te of time, trouble and tncrgy might bo spared, but if this tverc tho caso the millennium would save come, and we should not be Interested In-terested In material things. Another tource of annoyance'arlses from the wnors of houses who after saying that they wish to let their homes and plac-w,i plac-w,i Ing them in the real estate dealer's i hands frequently change their minds r rent the places themselves without i Informing tho agents. Before a house Is finally taken tho ' Iralnago must of course be carefully txamlned, and It Is better to have an npert'3 advice on this subjccL It la, jowever, the housewife's duty to see that the sinks In bathrooms and lavatories lava-tories are properly trapped and that :ho plumbing Is good. The house hav-ng hav-ng been selected, tho next step to con-ilder con-ilder is the actual moving of tho goods vnd chattels. Like measles and influenza, house novlng Is a calamity that few persons wcape at some period of their Uvea, but ' trained mover, like a trained nurse in :a3ca of Illness, may do much to allegata alle-gata the sufferers' pain. It is true that 'ome people profess to extract an tmount of real enjoyment from the irocess and Indorse and act upon ,tho ontlment expressed in tho lines Easter comes but once a year And when it comes we raovo from here. It has been remarked upon a number if different occasions that there Is no ccountlng for tastes; still this affllc-lon affllc-lon may be given a grace with proper care and precaution. Those who know declare that three moves are aa bad as a fire. Tho truth of this statement lies largely In the system used In preparing for the move and In the kind of van contractors employed. One great mistake the average woman wo-man makes is upsetting the old house too soon turning tho home for weeks beforehand Into a Junk shop and driving driv-ing the inmates to despair. After planning plan-ning so that the old belongings fit Into their respective positions In the new home, one Is ready for the winnowing of the chaff from the household w.hcat. Carpets should bo sent to tho cleaner's when necessary and rclald in the new house several days before the move and a fire lighted if tho houso has not been recently occupied. Now the storerooms arc to be gone through, boxes and drawers overhauled and the articles to be kept neatly tied up and labeled. A fatal waste of time In moving is caused by a multitude of little bundles, and It is wise to put up In one. package as many of the same kind of things as possible. The mover-has mover-has only two hands, and what is more ridiculous than to see a strong man tramping through a house with a kettle In one hand and a dainty little parcel In the other? H a dozen small articles arc placed In a soap box that means one trip vanward In place of half a dozen both In the new and old home. Space and timo are two gTeat problems which have engaged tho minds of philosophers phi-losophers for centuries, and space and time In a slightly different sense are the two great problems in house moving. mov-ing. The palm goes to the person who packs everything in the least possible space and In such a way as to take tho least time in transferring from house to van and vice versa. No drawer, basket, pall, box or even coal scuttle should go empty. China and earthen ware will fill baskets and barrels, linen and wearing apparel should occupy drawers', while ornaments nnd bric-a-brac may be carefully stowed a'way In smaller boxes. Pictures are troublesome articles to pack, but the modern padded vans havo simplified matters, and they are now seldom boxed except for long railroad Journeys, yet with the clumsiest handling han-dling there Is no reason why picture glas3 should be broken If the screw hooks are taken out and a ball of crushed crush-ed paper Is placed at each corner of the frame, another picture pressed down, and the process repeated until a half dozen of equal size arc laid one above tho other. A stout string Is tied around thorn or they are covered with a heavy wrapping cloth. This Is a very simple and effective method. Try It the next time you are In the throes of a removal. It wrings the heart of a book lover to see how some people 111 use the volumes vol-umes they possess when moving. Folio, Fo-lio, quarto, octavo size, cloth, paper and leather covers are clumsily placed together, to-gether, tied up and thrown down, t& BACKING PICTURES . be tossed Into the van to fill an odd corner. Small wonder that the string leaves Its mark on tho edges, that calf bindings are scratched and lhat a volume vol-ume one would handle lovingly and tenderly scarcely survives the or.deal of transportatlon. The correot way is to select books of a size and lay them one above another, and at tho top and bottom bot-tom of the pile put a piece of 'stout cardboard, wrapping the -wholo stack in heavy paper and tying "it firmly with a substantial string. Of course If boxes box-es aro plentiful It Is a good plan to lino them with clean paper and carefully pack them with books, using paper unsparingly un-sparingly between the volumes to prevent pre-vent any possible rubbing on the road. If you begrudge the time and trouble for this careful book packing, you do not deserve to own nnythlng better than a paper backed novel. Furnlturo legs should be wrapped with twisted straw, and In this way they will be saved much damage from the Journey. Handsome tables and odd cabinets should be sewed up in furniture furni-ture wrapping. Damaged thumbs, language not found In (ho dictionary and much valuable time will be saved by tying together the fixtures belonging together, Buch as ourtaln poles and their rings and plna. It will be found a great comfort If ono has a bag filled -with some simple tools, nails, plcturo wire and the llko. This bag can rest on the top of tho stcpladdcr, when one Is at work on that lofty 'pinnacle. In fact, you can always al-ways have It at your hand, dropping the tools Into It when they have served their purpose. It Is one of life's little mysteries how these articles refuse to remain where you put them In an upset up-set house. When carpets have been put down previous to the "move In" it is only a matter of being on hand to direct the men where to put pieces of furniture In position beforo things really look quite shipshape. The Indiscriminate dumping dump-ing down of articles makes the chaos one too often finds In the new house. One more word concerning the problem prob-lem of wagon versus rail removal. The opinion of a nomadlo friend whose worldly goods and chattels have moved around considerably Is unhesitatingly In favor of the former. By rail the goods havo to be handled oftener, and It Is a bother to be obliged to make everything ev-erything into a package fit for the ordeal or-deal of tossing and catching In the hands of the gentle freight people. EDITH MORRISSON. |