Morning journal and courier., 1889-02-04
The Masters Call.
French NIatfress-Piekers.


 It is usually during the spring or summer months that the mattress -piekers are most in request in France. At any hour after day light they will come with their carding ap- paratus and other implements belonging to the trade, and station themselves in the garden or court-yard, or any such conven
 tent place for accomplishing their task. The side seams of the tick ripped open, and the contents, whether wool or horse-hair, torn rather than combed with carding brush es. This separates the fattened masses and leaves them ready for the fagella tion which follows to clear them of dust and dirt, and restore them nearly as possible to their primitive condition. The pickers endeavor
 to persuade you some times that they have
 done more than this by their handiwork, and
 made the material superior to what it was when bought. After the thrashing and the combing, the wood which an hour ago was so closely matted together that it was only about three inches thick in it's covering, makes now such 8 formidable feecy pile that it seems though the tick would never suffice to hold it all. But when once it ia sown up in it's cover the long quitting needle soon reduces the giant pillow to a more req sonable level. Nevertheless, when returned l to it's habitusl place on the bedstead it lies 1 twice as high as it did before, and is pleas antly elastic to the touch. If two mattress l es have been thus arranged for the same bed stead the occupant requires the agility of 8 monkey to arrive at his destination for the night.
 If the material of which the mattress is made is good, the amount lost in rearranging 1 it is very tritling; unless, perchsnce, some of 1 it should get taken away by mistake in the | pickers' wrappers. The chances, however, | for such accidents are rare, as the workpee- | pie are usually seated where they caa be seen constantly by variety of persons, in- eluding those most interested in watching | them, namely, the owners of the mattresses. In country places the mattress-pickers may often be seen at their work on the gravel path ill front of their employers house.
 The implements used are not always of the
 same kind; some prefer the fails and brush-
 es with metallic bristles, others have ma
 chimes which tear the wool the wheel is
 turned slowly by the picker. In fact every
 quarter of France has its particular method
 or methods for accomplishing the task, the
 most approved being naturally that which causes the least waste of material; if econo-
 my of time and money are combined with
 this much the better. At the worst the outlay is not more than from two to four francs, according to the size of the mattress;
 and therefore within the reach of all but the
 poorest classes. Occasionally the tick may
 want renewing or washing, either of which
 services the picker will undertake if re-
 quested to do so; as also the supplying of fresh wool and horse-hair when necessary
 French mattresses are usually filled with a
 mixture of twe-thirds wool and the rest
 hoase- hair, which, when both the materials
 are good renders them agreeably warm and
 elastic to sleep apon. Some of the cheaper
 sorts are filled with seaweed, also the
 cushions of sofa-beds. Two good pickers
 will pick large mattress and put it together again in few hours; therefore the disturb- ance, like the cost, is trif1ing when com pared tie of win ordinsire, or the money to pur- chase it, is all that is expected by the pick CTS as pourboire; and few chairs, with an l old sheet or tablecloth on which to empty l the contents of the tick, completes the list | of requirements for their task. According I to these authorities, it is a mistake to sup l pose that 6 mattress which has not been l slept upon for year or so does not need to
 be picked. They affirm, on the contrary, 1 that the uRoccupied mattress breeds mott | and maggot, while the one in use hardly eyel | does so. There seems no reason to doubt 1 this assertion, though it may sometimes be 1 made from not quite disinterested motives l It is, perhaps, needless to say that the mat 1 tress-pickers are large community ir 1 France, finding occupation more or less al l the year round. Some of them are en- 1 ployed by upholstsrers and wholesale fur 1 nishers for the making of new mattresses l If any of these good people liked to make | the experiment they might, perhaps, make
 small fortune by bringing their implement
 across the channel and st6rting the fashior
 of annual mattress picking in England.