Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-28

flammable, and that is blessing The fire
/ department is scoffed ct by the young
American, and that is q good sign. Our
superb organizations for putting out fire are
really advertisements Of conditions of dan
ger.
The City Has Good Pavementa.
The pavements of Berlin are admirable,
and whether of blocks of hard stone or oi
wood, macadam or asphalt, their careful,
honest construction makes them excellent,
and there does not seem to be any difficulty
in keeping them decently clean. The
American who has not been away from
home long enough to forget Just how things
are in our streets, looks upon the broad,
well-kept psvements of the noble thorough
fares of Berlin with something more than
admiration-with surprise-and pride takes
a tumble in asking the question, Why can
we not do this sort of thing at home? we
do not do 1t in any town on our continent
| They seem to manage the telegraph wires
in Berlin in very sensible manner. Upon
tall houses at appropriate intervals are
erected frames of iron, and upon them are
| out of the way and not unsightly. There is
no tremendous array of poles The tele-
phone has entered into the life OF the
people, and the signs of public Offices for
telephoning are numerous I had no idea
| until this Journey revealed it that the
| telephone had so conquered Europe. L
wonder what q sleet storm would do for the
| high wiresi
lam q convert to the German system of
house heating The "Dutch stove" has
been regarded as an expression so con-
| temptuous as to be derisive. 1t is an insti-
| tuition possessing the largest merits The
usual stove in Berlin is tower of porce-
lain, bound in brass, extending nearly to
the ceiling, and an article of furniture pleas
ant to look upon. Stoves are artistic and
not fantastic.
Merits OF Berlin's Stoves.
They get the most out of fuel and are
clean. Within a few inches of the floor is
a thin brass door, not larger than page of
foolscap paper 1t has q light latch, and
| open discioses solid iron door of the same
size, and on a button hangs the key to
screw. Apply the key and open the door
and within is third door with air holes
Open that and there is chamber for fuel
The Germans have kindling in small Jumps,
that makes fire a sure thing, and little
black bricks of compressed slack, stuck to-
gether with tarry paste. Start the fire
and close the inner door, and when the
| bricks are glowing shut the second door,
screw it up tight, swinging the outer door
into its place and you need no more fire for
"a hours The porcelain tower becomes
warm, but not blisteringly hot, and ditfuses
warmth that is wholesome.
1t is magical that so much heat can be
evolved from so little fuel, and that the
process should be one of absolute cleanii-
| ness do not see Why this stove would
not become popular in the United States
and rid us of some of our terrors. Think of
Al. az, ir,v
smoke inspectors, of the general use of this
simple stove, which can be furnished of
plain material at cheap ratel One thing
is certain; it would not promote the profit
gate use of fuel, the dismal waste of our re-
sources in that respect, and the horrid over
heating of our houses, which is SO fashion
able.
Beds of the Triple Alliance.
I am not, however, a convert to the Ital-
ian, Austrian or German bed. The Triple
Alliance style of beds does not commend it
self TO me. do not object vehemently to
single bed, if one had room to turn over and
bedclothins that would permit change of
position. The last time I slept in good
bed up to this writing, deep in January,
was in Brooklyn, n. Y, on the night of No
vember q. The beds on the ship were mar
row, of course. One expects to sleep on a
ing up the blankets in copious sheet I.
remembered, on landing at Genoa, the mag
nifcent bees of Liverpool, and lamented
their absence The bed was narrow, and so
were the bedclothes. I am sorry for the old
Romans if thev had beds narrow as are now
in use in the Eternal City in the best hotels.
The same is to be said of Florence, Venice,
Vienna and Dresden.
The elimination has come in Berlin. The
beds are narrow and short, and there are no
bedclothes You dohot call putting the
blankets next to the mattress with q sheet
over them, and feather bed on that, bed
clothes, do you? The German bed is not a
delusion, for it is dreadful reality. It is
not a snare, for that deceives, and you are
not deluded in your German bed. You
know misery has a lien on you the moment
YOU discover the bed. do not know but
should have perished but for nice, broad,
long, thick, warm blanket of my own, which
has become nv best friend. understand
now the rugs with which an Engllshman
sets out on continental tour. What he
means by the laundering loads he carries
in shawl straps is that it is necessary to 60
armed with bedclothing. The German pill
low is limp, lank, fluffy bag of feathers.
suppose and hope these bags are filled
with feathers They never wear out be-
cause they always give way to the least
pressure.
A Thing That Always Crawls.
The covering-the ''kiverin' " as it were
lis another and bigger and limper bag,
regular fuzzy, guzzy of a bag, and the more
huge it is, the more hideous it must be; and
it has queer sort of intelligence. As soon
as YOU fall asleep it crawls to the floor,
noiseless, creeping thing. 1t lodges you
like shadow. What q blessed variation it
would be to sleep on a bed of straw, or on .
carpet before the fire, with buffalo robe
over you, or in q sheepskin bagl
If the German bed meant, in its narrow
ness and fufiness and inadequacy, economy,
1 would be willing to say nothing about it,
but it must be a national passion. I have
been knocking around in some of the
palaces, and where there is more room than
the royal folks know what to do with, still
the narrow bed prevails. 1 was shown
where several royal and imperial and his
torical personages, men and women, have
slept, and they were subjected to the narrow
bed. In an investigation carried on at Pots
dam / saw but one double bed, and the
guide said Napoleon slept there one night
in 1906. The beds upon which royalties
have died have been of the narrow pattern.
The Emperor William died in one of these
beds, according to engravings at the time,
and he surely deserved all the comforts q
faithful old man should have. Frederick
the Great, however, died in o chair drawn
up to an open window on a fine day, looking
out upon beautiful park.
wilhelm Invests in English Beds.
There is reason to fear the living Emperor
of Germany is a believer In the narrow bed
His favorite apartments at Potsdam, very