Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1889-10-23
A Good Bed.

APART from those conceded requ isIte
a good conscience and good digestion
| there is another Indispensable necessit
to all who covet sleep, and who hav
passed the hey-day of youth and tn
buoyant health which youth claims a
its peculiar dover, and that, need w
say? is a good bed. When We remem
Der that the one elixir of life, daily re
peated, and constantly efficacious In 1T
beneficent results on brain, and nerves
and within reach of the poorest as o
the richest, free as air, sunshine, anC
water. is a good nights rest, It'll strange
that we take SO little thought about the
means of gettingi it. Housewives defer
for years the purchase of a hair mat
tress, sleeping or hsf-sleeping OF
knobby and protuberant beds of straw,
corn husks, or excelsior, or smotherinG
or tossing on feathers, which rise about
their wearied bodies in waves of smoul
dering fire, while money is spent lavish.
ly for gowns, trinkets, and superfiuous
table luxuries. True, the first cost of q
mattress of curled hair, laid over g
frame of woven wire, is greater than
that of an inferior bed, but II lasts, with
proper care, an ordinary lifetime, need
ing only occasionally to be taken apart
and made over, when it is as good as
new, and being always clean and sweet
is pledge IN itself of refreshing rest.
Pillows, too, should be adapted to in
dividual preferences, if sleep Is to come
without too much counting. An i'm
mense pillow which breaks ones neck,
so to speak, or tiny little thing which
slips away and leaves the head uncom-
fortably low, is in either case mistake.
h.
lows to each member of the family a
choice as to pillows, and who, when en-
acting the role of hostess, gives the
guest at least two of kind from which
to make selectioni
The compar stive merits of linen and
cotton sheets depend upon climate, and
also on the taste of the sleeper, There
are those who shiver in linen, and dis
like 1t for a certain clamminess even in
warm weather, while again to some peo-
pie the touch of cotton Is abhorrent.
Old and very delicate persons sometimes
sleep most comfortably between sheets
of soft fine flannel, the wool giving a
sense of ease, and soothing the nerves
as no other fabric can. But whatever
material may go to fashion the sheets,
pray let there be enough of it, SO that
they may be of goodly length for tuck
ing In at the head and the foot of the
bed, and come well down at either side
And beware of wrinkles. A sheet should
fit the bed as smoothly as the paper fits
the wall or the glove the hand. Sheets
are usually seamless, but are sometimes
made of two widths of narrow muslin,
overhanded down the middle, and a
careless bed-maker, with utter want of
thought putting the wrong side of the
seam uppermost, has succeeded in i'm
parting great deal of discomfort to the
unfortunate victim obliged to stretch a
tired body upon this corrugation.
Now a word about blankets Why do
ten women out of a doZen-intelligen
women, too, not merely unthinking
peasants from the bogs of old Ireland
or the skirts of the Black Forest-in
making bed, put the open end of the
blankets at the foot and the doubled
end at the head of the bed? The Other
way Is obviously the right one, because
If one be too warm with both folds, a
single thickness of the blanket will keep
off a chill, and toward morning, when
the air is always sensibly colder, one
may draw up the other fold, and be
Which of us has not had
often to instruct maids in this branch of
bCu- -hiahlhS- OlItu 10 lhNe called aIUen-
ton to 1t as of prime Importance, when
with sensible women and good
in the country, having
been thought "pernickity" for our
pains, but insisting nevertheless?
Another thing too often overlooked is
he impropriety of putting children to
sleep in the same bed with old or feeble
people, a course always detrimental to
he health of the young. 1t is frequent
Y noted that the pale, anamic condition
)f young girls blood has been directly
raceable to the fact that she has slept.
or the sake of convenience, with her
and physicians viii tell
'ou that many cases of consumption NAV
De attributed to the sleeping of a girl,
n apparently buoyant health, with
lister or mother whose lungs have felt
he morbid taint of tuberculous deposit
nd growth. Each child should, if pos
ible have his CT her own bed, and if |
ooms are to be shared, then let ar
angements for privacy be made by |
Greens or curtains, while plenty of |
resh air is admitted by windows open |
ng both at the TOP and bottom.