The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-02-24
ICELAND'S HOSPITALITY.
A PRIMITIVE MANNER OF GOING TO
BED THAT SHOCKS A TRAVELLER.
A Sleepins-Room Smokily and Dimly
Lighted by Seal Oil-Carbonic Acid
Gas by the Cubic Yard-Scarcity of Fur
naturalization and Turnips.

/ one room, and this, indeed, often serves all
/ purposes save that Of kitchen. Very narrow,
and from six to twenty feet long, according
/ TO the size Of the family, with a row of low
/ foUr feet wide down the centre,
: these rooms are lighted by one
small window at the end, ventilated by
: the door or the trap through which they are
entered from below and warmed by the heat
of the bodies collected in them. The steeply
pitched roof, constructed Of rafters and over
tapping boards and covered on the outside
with a thick layer Of growing turf, rests on
low walls, and makes it impossible to stand
upright, except under the ridge. The priests
houses and few others have guest chambers,
with sometimes stove, which Is only used on
extraordinary occasions, owing to the diff
Guilty Of Transporting fuel from the seaports
Parties. Of tourists stop where there is q
church and shiver out the night on the eight
inch wide benches, the vestment chests or the
floor, but If there are only one or two of you
and no guest room or that is already filled,
you generally share, for experiences sake, in
the somewhat promiscuous nightly packing
of the family-for experiences sake, mind
you, and you always get it, as well as the
only good idea Of the home life Of the people
CROWDED sLEEPING-RooM.
Upon this evening found myself in n roopn
smokily and dimly lighted by seal oil, burned
with wick Of cottongrass in a lamp of brass,
much like the ancient lamps of the Greeks
but furnished with an overhanging arm and
a swivel and boathook arrangement, which
permits Of its being stuck or hung wherever
tine user Wishes Two hunks ON one side and
one on the other were literally full In one
man and two boys, in another two women
and children, and in the third three men, all
sleeping like sardines in q box, the II of
one on the same pillow as the feet OF his I'D
fellows. and the space that was not occl
by human beings probably was by beings IN
human
After shaking up the many boxes and bun
dies under the rude mattress, and giving an
extra poke or two to the feather or down bed
which Is the only form Of covering known In
Iceland, one Of the girls motioned us to the
bed where we were to sleep IAN Iceland gen.
henlan was to share my bed, and then, as if
it were an everyday occurrence to shock the
senses Of a modest traveller, while we were
still undressing she. with two others, pro-
ceeded to disrobe and take possession Of the
bunk opposite ours, until "the las. in bed put
out the light" My companion somewhat sur
prised me by warning to secrete my valua-
bles might have, but as he was an Ice
lander 1 thought it better follow his advice
than to trust to the proverbial honesty of his
countrymen, and / was soon unconscious,
breathing carbonic acid gas by til cubic
yard, but iu sweet oblivion until awakened
during the general turnout next morning
NEED OF A LITE CLEAN AIR
The daylight revealed nothing new, except.
perhaps, the many little articles stuffed into
every nook and crevice. Furniture is scarce
and chest of drawers a luxury in an Ice
iandic habitation, and odds and ends are hung
on nails In the roof, stuffed into the cracks or
in boxes hidden away under the mattresses in
the hunks. Horn spoons, knives and forks,
bits OF cloth, needles, books and fishhooks
were tucked proniscuously away, and old
clothes and fish hung over lines stretched
lengthwiss of the ridgepole. 1t was interest
ing to sec the men, after slipping into the few
clothes they had removed upon retiring, sit on
the edge OF the beds chatting and slipping the
coffee brought by the women.
Several times was reused from my mus
;ngs by the rustling Of the disarranged covering
in q bed which I had supposed empty, and
presently half-nak,d child would start M
from the depths and stare in open eyed won
der at the stranger, who retured the gaz,
with a sense of the ludicrous rising within
him. From beds where had counted three
the night before four had already risen, and
how many more were to follow? At the other
end of the aisle . mattrass spread upon the
floor had served for the resting place of three
more girls, whose accustomed bunk myself
and companion had probably occupied. By
this time rhad begun to feel the need Of a
little clean air. and, getting into my clothes,
descended to the guest-room where break
tasted on mutton and turnips, but
this time with cup of chocolate
Philadelphia Press