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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (March 13, 1904)
Housemoving as a Business Proposition ran kOTTSH moving In Omaha during th9 last year has been a very pood business. Outside of the ordinary run of business, sixty Iiuuhm have lieen moved from the (treat Western terminal tract and twenty ara Still wailing to liave the wheels put under thein. To tho ordinary person who sees a cot tage moving along t lio street on rollers, without apparent effort un the part of thj man who is conducting tho Job, housij moving sooma easy. In fact, it seems to ha the general opinion that the business of tho mover slides along as easily as tl. cottage. Hut this, upon Inquiry, will ba found to be an error. Few business enter prises conducted today contain more grief to the square inch for the man who en-g-ages In them than that of moving thu residences of other persons at so muvh pep move. In the first place, the house mover i considered tin) enemy of nil mankind, Vhcn a man desires his residence plckvl tip from where It stands and gently wafted) to another location he seeks tho movt r and asks for terms. Usually tho answer ho receives regarding cost will lead hli.i to believe that the mover has designs oil the entire property in return for his work, leaving nothing to the owner. It Is only necessary to prove that the charges ara not excessive, however, to point out that house movers seldom grow rich In the business, and really do not attain tho de gree of affluence usually enjoyed by mcii In other lines. The man who takes contracts for house transportation must name Ms price for tho work In advance, but when he names such price it is impossible for him to fore tell how hi! is going to como out when thu Job Is finished, for unlike any other business the dltlicultii s that are going to confront him during the journey of tho dwelling cannot be foreseen. Not only is diplomacy necessary as a part of the stock in trade of the mover, but ho must as well.be an inventor, an engineer, and he must possess an inex haustible stock of resources und tack. Contracting in other lines of work con be figured by well established rules which never vary. Not so with house moving, for no two contracts ever present the samo difficulties for solution. As one local con tractor expressed It, "I have been in the houso moving business for thirty years, and I never take a contract but that I Jearn something new." Tho last year's business In this city has not presented any exceptional difficulties, but in years gone by some of the most difficult work In tho history of the busi ness has been accomplished by local con tractors. For instance, the lowering of the Dupont echool building In Sheeley Town. This building Is of brick and n largo structure, and extreme care had to be taken so that the walla were not cracked In the operation. The building was set up on JaekB and the dirt was gradually removed underneath, the build ing being gradually lowered as the earth was removed. If this building had been allowed to sink at any one part so much as one Inch lower than any other portion It would have tiuffered irreparable dam age. This Is said to have been the most difficult Job ever accomplished In the west. The work wa3 done by II. W. Barnum & Co. X : " jiL,Mf 4f f f J:-.v A -tit I " ' " Jjjj I.O-vTKTlTNa A by a Staff TiARfJH DOUDLE HOUSE Artist. ON WEST LEAVENWORTH STHKKT PREPARATORY TO KK.UOVAU-l'li .to Tho same concern took the contract for moving one of the bridges which spanned the lagooti on the Transmississippi exi titlon grounds. The structure wHghed upwards of 300 tons, and the contract called for It to be located at Miller l'ark. None of the equipment In Omaha was considered strong enu"ugh to support the structure In Its journey overland, und spe cial equipment wa ordered from Can id i. Tho rollers onto which the bridge was lowered wrre made of hard maple and were extra heavy to suporl the Immense weight. When everything was t-et the bridge was let down upon the rollers, which flattened out until they were level on both top and bottom. It was seen at once that this plan of moving the struc ture was not going to prove suceesssful, so Mr Harnum brought his inventive fac ulties Into play and evolved the ste-d cylinder, which he now useis In all heavy work. These cylinders were manufactured at a cost of $i.50 each and a large num ber of them were made. Hy their use tho contract wan successfully carried out and tho bridge was laid down in the al lotted place, tiut it required a full force of men working twenty-threo weeks to accomplish the transfer. Tho general Impression the public has of the housemoving business is that of a small cottage on wheels rolling along tho street, but that does not Include but a very small portion of the work actually performed by the man with up-to-dato equipment who calls himself a housemover. Tho support of immense brick buildings while retaining walls are being built Is ono branch of it. Perhaps the largest contract of this kind ever taken in Omaha was that of supporting tho walls of the Kingman Implement company's warehouse, near tho llurllngton depot, while tho excavation was being made f r the station. In this work it required four days in one Instance to make a hole through the foundation of com reto on which the building rested sufficiently large to admit an iron beam over two feet broad. Several of these beams were pbiccd under the building and one entire side of the great structure was supported by the houremovor until the excavation was made and a new concrete foundation was con structed to bold up the wall. Paring the process the wnll was nut allowed to sag the fraction of an Inch. Two of the largest contracts In sight at the present time are the moving of the IToiighind residence from the corner of Six teenth and Howard stnets to Dundee I'lace. In order to transport this large dwelling It will be necessary to saw It Into two pieces, it will be sawed apart directly through the center and will bo Joined together again on Its new location, and the seam will be made so neatly when the work Is done that It cannot be discov ered except by the closest examination. The eupalos which surmount the building will also have to be sawed off to allow it to pass under tho wires In the street at points where the cables cannot be taken down. Another large contract will be that of supporting the walls of the ltoston store and the Patterson block while the excava tion Is being made for tho building to bo erected between the two by ITayden Pros. The walls of these buildings rannot be per mitted to sink even a trifle during the pro cess or after the work is completed. Improvements are being muda In the GANG OP HOUSE MOVERS AT THEIU WOIUC-Fhoto by a Staff Artist equipment of the housvmovcr from year ta year, as in other lines of business. in place of the old style hemp cable nlccl is now In use. Steel rollers have taken tha place of wooden ones, and In the east trac tion engines are used as motive power In place of horses. It is said that In a short time engines will be used for the work In nmaha, and ono i ntcrprlslng mover Is now planning to replace Ids horses with traction Conines the coming spring. As one mover expresses It: "If a mntt has the 1 ulliliiiK ami the money, no matter how large, what the style of the building or how far lie wants It transported, ws can do the work lor him. It will cost S".'"") to move the llonylaiul house." To Sip or Not to Sip Tho young men who come down to thfl great city each autumn from the colleges may not have bet n membeis of any of their college teams, although they bava dabbled In the fun and work of them all. They can pull a tolerable o il', pel haps, fill up, on a pinch, an empty place on a scrub eleven, or oblige n friend by helping to pace him over a four or live mile cross country Jog. In short, for four years of their lives they have grown accustomed to shaking out their dusty brains und logy muscles with a couple of hours' exercise in the late afternoon before dinner tlnis as they have to taking tho dinner itself. Tho practice lias assumed almost the dig nity of a, rite. Ami to be deprived of it, suddenly and without uny available sub stitute, as the majority of such young men believe themsi Ives to tie when they urn shut up on the somewhat isolated Island of Manhattan, comes hard; coma very hard Indeod. One may rldo In the park, p.'ihapsai agreeable and enlivening diversion at tended only with the ililli. ulty that keep a tiorso In New York Is Just ubout us i t pensive as keeping one's self, while tha riding of hired horses is a practieo at tended with as serious burdens to the im pecunious as that of frequenting the par quet seats of the Hroadway theaters. A T&alk uptown from the downtown ofllee 1 a substitute for exercise to which many, who do not lean to the amusements al ready mentioned, find themselves reduce I at last. A walk of three or four miles Is, to be sure, a certain sort of o'rclsc, and there in no doubt that it is extremely wearying; but to any but the moat slug glbh temperaments the benelils of a hur ried tramp over hard pavements, in the tioiso of tho late afternoon, and through at least a good many of the scenes among which one has worked during the d.iy, are, somewhat to be doubted. Kvcn those who affect it regularly are likely, It may ho observed, to find a cocktail somewhat of a necessity before dinner If only to wash the dust from one's throat and tin- nolso of tho streets from one's curs. There ura many who gradually allow this cocktail habit to take-the place of their old habit of late afternoon exercise, and who seem to be satislled that the temporary glow with whi::h they nit down to dinner is a Very tolerable substitute for that acquired by methods somewhat less effete. I am not prepared to enter forcn.-.ie-ull y into this delft-ate subject; but I am Informed by tha more enlightened of observer!! that this practice Is analogous to metonymy, which tho" rhetorics deflno as the substitution of tho sign for the thing signified. Withur lluhl in Outing.