New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1881-03-09
Beds and BedclOtlles.

HE KIND OF bed on which the body
should rest is question on which there
is extreme divergence of opinion.
whenever we leave our own bed to 20
to sleep elsewhere, in hotel or in the
house of a friend, it is like dropping
into light dough; we may find a soft
feather bed, or a soft mattress, or q
spring mattress, moderately hard
mattress, or a mattress as hard, 1 had
nearly said, as the plank beds some
times found in prisons. These differ
ences are determined by the taste of the
owner of the bed, without much refer
ence to principle, or to the liking of
any one else in the world-not a very
good or satisfactory state of things.
There ought to be some principle for
guidance in trial so solemn as that
which settles the mode in which our
bodies shall rest for third of our NOR
tai existence.
fear it is hard to fix on definite prin-
pies, but there is one principle, at any
rate. which may be relied on, and
which, when it is understood, goes long
way toward solving the question of the
best kind OF bed for all sleepers. The
principle is that the bed, whatever it be
made OF: should be so flexible, if NAV
use the term, that all parts Of the body
may rest upon it equally. It ought to
adapt itself to the outline of the body
in whatever position the body may be
placed. The very hard mattress which
yields nothing, and which makes the
body rest on two or three points of cor
poreal surface, is at once excluded from
use by this principle, and know of no.
imposition that ought to be excluded
more Vigorously. On the other hands
the bed that is so soft that the BODY is
enveloped in it, though it may be very
luxurious, is too oppressive, hot,
and enfeebling; it keeps up regular
fever, which cannot fail to exhaust both
physical and mental energies, and at
the same time it really does not adapt
itself perfectly to the GU line of the
body.
The best kind of bed, taking every
thing into consideration, is one of two
kinds. A fairly soft feather-bed laid
upon a soft horse-hair mattress, or a
thin mattress laid upon one of the elas-
tic steel-spring beds which have lately
been so ingeniously constructed of small
connected springs that yield in wave-
IKE manner to every motion. 1t is
against my inclination to try to write
out the time-honored old feather-bed
and mattress, but am forced to state
that the new steel-spring bed is, of me-
cessity, the bed of the future. It full
fills every intention of fexibility; it is
durable; it goes with the bedstead, as
an actual part of it, and it can never be
nest or receptacle of contagion or i'm
purity.
On the subject of bedclothes, the
points that have most to be enforced
are that heavy bedclothing is always a
mistake. and that weight in no true
sense means warmth. The light down
quilts or coverlets which are now COM
ing into general use are the greatest
improv ements that have been made, in
our time, in regard to bedclothes. One
OF these quilts takes well the place of
two blankets, and they cause much less
fatigue from weight than layer upon
layer of blanket covering.
AS to the actual quantity of clothes
which should be on the sleeper, 1 can
lay down no rule of numbers or quanti-
ties, because different people require
such different amounts. can, never
theless, offer one very good practice
which every person can learn to apply.
1t should be the rule to learn so to
adapt the clothing that the body is
never cold and never hot while under
the clothes. The first rule is usually
followed, and need not be dwelt on;
the last is too commonly broken. 1t it
practice too easily acquired to sleep
under SO much clothing that the body
becomes excessively heated, feverishly
heated. This condition gives rise to
exhaustion, to disturbing dreams, to
headache, dyspepsia, and to constipa-
ton. 1t is so injurious that it is better
to sleep with too little than with too
much clothing overthe body Hampers
Weekly.