The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1885-01-09
BEDS ABROAD.
Summary of a Travellers Experience
in the Line of Beds.
The Continental Bed-DOuble Beds
Rare in Europe--1ndia and
Japan-Typieal Bed OF
the Orient.
Foreign Cor. Inter Ocean.l

At the very top of this clean sheet of pa
per, before | have dalled my indignation by
any discussion of sac issues, desire to
placard my protest against the European bed.
Let it be recorded that room in IA Euro
pean hotel does contain a bed. When you
hire a room you have to set up housekeeping
for housekeeping out and purchasing soap,
candles, comb and brush, letter-paper, etc.
zone usually prefers buying them outside OF
the hotel but believe the bed is usually
included as part Of the furniture of the
room. Whatever else there may be deficient
let it be set down that the bed is on hand
! have yet to discover place also, where a
certain amount of water is not allowed to
each hotel guest. Let justice be done though
the heavens fall
The continental bed is good enough, what
there is of it, and there is enough of it, such
as it is. There is not enough of it, such as it
ought to be, however In other words, it
ends too quick. After thoroughly testing sew
eral score of them ! am convinced that, as
rule there ought to be a few more inches
pat on the average bed To be sure can
just manage to wedge myself in between the
head board and the foot board hut always
Morpheus what if / should swell up during
the night like a soaked Goldfish under the in
lIueace of this Iachrymal weather! And
am not a Titan in stature, either.
But the chief feature of the continental
bed against which 1 wish to launch the invec-
tives of my outraged manhood is its quilt.
There is sheet, a tain counterpane, and
then slender, puffy quilt filed with feath
ers a little iar.er thar pillow, 1t is sutti-
GENTLY warm and light, but 50 small that
the least motion may jostle 1t overheard
Eou carefully pui-c this curiosity upon the
pit of your stomach, and then lie perfectly
quiet for q few moments. The result is
most gratifying Rut presently you tire OF
this lvin5-stiil process, ahd discover
that YOU are uncomfortable This is IN
alarming discovery, for now you can not
be content until you have shifted yolr frasi-
tion and the moment you do so that dump
ling Of a feather quilt loses its equilibrium
Perhaps You get to sleep before any such a.
cident occurs. which is a remarkable st"uie
of luck; hut toward midnight you awake to
find that the aforesaid quilt has saunterei
off into one corner of the room
There is one remedy You can get a die-
tionary and put it on top of the quilt; hat
this renders it impossible for you To breathe,
and though If may be some satisfaction to
you to have thus circumvented the obstinate
quilt, it is quite incOuvient to lie unable to
breathe, Besides, the doctors say that it is
not conducive to longevity to be deprived of
the capacity TO breathe | believe many
felow-suiiereIs viii bear me out in these
statements; many who have twined their
Ia. L. !, Il
clutched in wild desperation at an Elusive
quilt.
But, really, the round -the-world traveller
might fill book with his experiences III the
line of beds, and then have said nothing
about the novel tuSsles with native beds.
After leav ing san Francisco slept ON slender
hedsteads of iron or brass until reached
Vienna period Of ten months, Never once
during all this time do | remember having
seen wooden bedstead and only once or
twice double bedstead, lin missionary
home5) Tropical climates and tropical III
sects are death on wooden furniture. Even
in the frequentcd parts Of Europe double
beds are rare.
After leaving San Francisco | slept under
musquito MEETINGS until / reached Athens,
except at Hong Kong and in the llimalaya
and japanese mountains, where insects do
not thrive Thus miserable is large part of
the world made by such commonplace pests
as mosquitoes. The mosquitoes were cs-
pecially yirulent in Egypt and Calcutta. As
for heas, give the chrome to Palestine with
ont moments hesitation. japan and Asia
Minor are bad enough, but in Palestine TIE
pestiferous things compel even the hsniy
Bedouins to move their camps.
In some parts Of India travellers ara eE-
pected to carry their own sheets, counter
pane. and pillowcaSe. just As you mast "a
ways do in railway carriage There if Yea
| propose to sleep en- route On one of tua
hanging shelves or cushioned seats. This :
| literally taking up your bed and riding. Ia
\ Japan | had screens oInamented wish
| painted forks around my couch While stul
| ping at the civilized European hotel. In Size
| interior two fiea-infested blankets or "fut,n.
| spread on the floor constituted my bed, white
| l usually rolled up third to put under my
| head rather han use che Of tie native wood Il
| pillows Shaped Ike n doube-ond fat-iron,
with ! aPered curve adaI ted to support the
| neck. The wooden pillow was suggestive Of
| the guillotine to my mind, and on the whole
| scarce preferable TO the guiiIotinc Bt SIDE
| this bed was the andCn, square paper ian
! tern on a frame two feet high with sau, el
! of grease and burning taper inside-the i'll
/ evitable all-night companion Of the sleeping
| Jap.
| The typical bed of the Orient for European
and American mage is a slender iron appara-
! tus, some four feet wide or less with tall
| iron rods at each corner, connected above,
| designed to support the musquito netting.
| Most often the netting hangs over this iron
| frame work, and loops each way on the side
| by which you are won't to enter This ar
rangemont looks well! but it is a mockery, a
delusion and a snare. The mosquitoes have
no trouble whatever in entering where 4 c
front strips overlap, and around the upright
rods at the bottoms where the netting is
tackled in. The ideal arrangement is net
ting as fine as chcese-cl0th suspended on The
inside of the frame work, and so long that
it can pass completely under the mattress
below
should not neglect to say that have alsC
slept on a steamers deck in tropic Gains, OF
divans in monasteries, ON the floor and ever
on the ground in Asia Minor, and | might
almost add on horseback during night ride,
in Palestine. In India "a native swayed {
punkan over me all night while / slept, ant
at Canton, the island Of ShaiHeen, where
| sojouned, was guarded by $40 ,oliieIg
every night, while CHASTITY ruins of palace,
on every hand attested the fury of the Can
tonese mob, from which they were suppose
to give protection.
Window Pictures.