The Grange advance., 1874-11-11

O
The death of each days lifo, sore iabor's bath,
Chief nourisher in iiis' feast.
-Shake.peare.
To all, rich and poor, high and low,
to the man who works and the man who
is idle, sleep is necessity, but it does
not always come as a restorer Of wasted
powers, it is not always a nourisher Of
life's FEAST How often does sleep
leave US in the morning with a dull
headache, a langu id, heavy feeling, af-
fecting both body and mind. The
sleep of the laboring man is not always
sweet One of the reasons of this is
told us by recent writer:
OF the eight pounds which man eats
and drinks in day.it is thought that no
less than five pounds leave his body through
the skin. And of these five pounds, a con-
siderable per cent, escapes during the
night while he is in6bed. The largest por-
tion Of this is water, but in addition there
is much effete and poisonous matter. This,
being in great part gaseous in form, per-
meates every part Of the bed, mattress, and
blankets as we'll as sheets, which soon be-
come foul and need puriication. The mat
tress needs the renovation quite as much as
the sheets. To allow sheets to be used,
without washing or sehanging, three or six
months would be regarded as bad house.
keeping; but 1 insist if thin sheet can
absorb enough of the excretions of the body
to make it unit for, use in a few days, a
thick mattress, which can absorb and re-
poisonous excretions, needs to be purified
sheet can be washed. A mattress can.
not be renovated in this way. Indeed,
there is no way of cleansing mattress but
by steaming it or picking it to pieces, and
thus, in fragments exposing it to the rays
Of the sun. ;.
AS these processes are scarcely practi-
cable with any Of the ordinary mattresses,
l am decidedly Of the opinion that the
good old-fashioned straw bed, which can
every three months be changed for fresh
straw, and the tick be washed, is the sweet
est and healthiest Of beds. If, in the win
try season, the porousness Of the straw bed
makes it little uncomfortable, spread over
it comforter or two woolen blankets,
which should be washed as often as every
two weeks. With this arrangement. if you
wash all the bed-coverings as often as once
in two weeks, you will have q delightful,
healthy bed. Now, if you leave the bed to
air, with open window during the day, and
not make it up for the night before evening,
you will have added greatly to the sweet
ness Of your rest, and, in consequence, to
the tone of your health. Only those who
have thus attended, to this important mat
ter can judge Of the influence on the gener-
al l-hsslth aaa~spiFits.
An impure bed is not the only reason
that sleep is not always "sore labors'
bath,' reinvigorator Of the physical
system, keeping up the flow of life and
spirits which are necessary to the per-
formance of the arduo2s duties of life.
Sleeping apartments are very often the
lowest and most poorly ventilated rooms
in the house, and the sleeper is COM
PEELED to breathe over and over again
the poisonous gases that are thrown of
from the lungs with the breath. This
neglect Of ventilation has, in more than
one instance, resulted not only in de-
stroying the restoring influence Of sleep
and in bringing.ill health, but in the
destruction of the life of the sleeper.
Yet in the face of these facts people
keep in the old rut, disregarding the
means Of health, and daily complaining
Of headaches, dqllness and poor health.