"I Love My Wife, But Oh, You Moving Day!"

1909

Charged With Desertion Husband Says Wife Changes House Too Often — 15 Homes in 3 Years Too Much.

BALTIMORE, Md., Oct. 6. — "I adore my wife, but I can't afford to move every other month," declared George W. Perry before Judge Llewellyn, when asked what he had to say about a charge of desertion.

"In our three years of married life, judge," said Perry, "we have moved fifteen times, which is five times a year, or once in every ten weeks. My wife has a mania for moving. No sooner do we get snugly fixed in one house than she suddenly decides that it is not comfortable, or something else, and starts to move. Many times I have been in ignorance of her intention to vacate, and upon my return home from work would find the house empty and would have to make inquiries as to where she had moved."

"Well, judge," said the wife, "he has beaten me oftener than we have moved." The judge gave the pair a little sound advice and then left the room, asking them to try to patch up their difficulties and agree to live in harmony for the sake of their two little children. When the magistrate returned he asked them if they had reached a decision. Neither replied. Then he turned to the wife.

"I don't believe you truly love your husband, madam," he said.

"No, I don't, and I wouldn't live with him again for anything," fairly shouted the little woman.

"Dismissed," said Justice Llewellyn.

Moving A House By Water

1896

A remarkable feat of engineering has just been successfully accomplished by a Pacific coast firm. An attorney named Ernest Sevier is the owner of a two-story house at Arcata, twelve miles from Eureka. Owing to a decline in the value of property at Arcata Sevier determined to have the house moved to Eureka, where he intended having it set up on some land that he owned.

A firm of contractors undertook to remove the house intact and set it up, uninjured, for the sum of $1,200. In case it was unfit for occupancy upon its arrival they were to receive the dwelling as their compensation.

The trip was made principally by water. To remove the house to the edge of the bay was the first difficulty to be overcome, as it necessitated taking the building over a large dyke and a marsh. This was accomplished satisfactorily and the house was transferred to two railroad lighters that had been lashed together in readiness for the trip.

The journey by water was completed with the aid of a tug without accident, and an immense crowd assembled at Eureka to welcome the strange craft.

Amid the cheers of the spectators and the tooting of steam whistles the lighters were made fast and the house transferred to land once more. It was a comparatively easy matter to convey it to its new site and the strange engineering feat was accomplished without any more damage being done to the house than a slight cracking of the plaster.