The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-05-01
WHAT WE SLEEP ON.
The Kind of Stuff Mattresses are
Stuffed With.

Stuffed With.
1t is generally computed that third of
mans life is spent in bed, yet few peo-
pie know on what material they rest
their weary hours, third of their lives.
No part of a household is of as great i'm
portance relatively to health and comfort
as a good clean and elastic mattress.
Many cases of sickness are attributed to
bad water and bad drainage, which origi-
mates in neglected and unclean mat
tresses, which can very easily become a
hotbed and breeding ground of various
and numberless disease germs.
A discussion Of the various materials
employed for stufing mattresses and
their value may be of interest, said Mr..
c. B. Warrand yesterday.
The best and most expensive mattress
stuffing material is undoubtedly curled
horse hair, but on account of its high price
comparatively few people can afford to
use it, and many substitutes are en-
ployed. African fiber or properly treated
SHREDDED and curled palmetto fiber are
probably the best substitutes and, as they
cost about one-twentieth what prime
horse hair costs, these fibers are within
reach Of everybody.
A mattress made from fiber is lust as
clean, elastic and lasting as horse hair,
and is even preferred by many, as it is
! cooler during the summer and easily vent
Hated.
Spanish moss or flock moss if well
cured makes very good substitute for
| horse hair. is, however, very liable to
pack or knot, and these kind of mat
| tresses have to be made over and picked
at least once a year, while a horse hair
or fibre mattress; may grow thinner by
use, but always retains its elasticity.
llsa1f Il
| used, Mr.. Warrand says, as continual
| dry rotting process takes place, which
offers disease germs a fruitful field
| for propagation Cotton makes a very
! good mattress, but as it has no elasticity
it soon will be hard, unless the mattrass
is very thin and used with a fibre or
! horse hair mattress. Corn shucks finely
SHREDDED, also make a cheap, servicable.
| clean, healthy mattress, and its only OBJ
! lection is want of elasticity.
| The cheapest grades of mattresses are
made from excelsior and straw; both are
! healthy enough, but as they have no elias
! ITCHY whatever they soon become COM
| pact and as hard as a board. In the north
many people use mattresses made from
| wool, which is, however, too warm for
| this climate Shoddy from old wooden
clothes is also used. These are undoubt-
! eddy the most objectionable of all as far
as disease germs are concerned, as second
hand, wornout wooden clothes may carry
almost any kind of infection
n city of the size of Savannah uses
about 10000 mattresses year and mat
! tress-making is one of the many small
/ industries that ought 10 pay well, as the
! local manufacturer has always the
amount of freight from distant points as
a margin Several factories of this kind
would doubtless do well supplying Savan-
nah and its legitimate territory with
mattresses. IL is strange that Savannah
should buy its straw mattresses from At
lanta, Richmond, Va, and Charleston,
;. g, its cotton mattresses from Chicago
or Baltimore, and its excelsior mattresses
from Atlanta and Charleston. There is
an unlimited quantity of material avail
able. The demand certainly exists and
the chances for the successful operation
of mattress factory are seemingly un-
/ surpassed.