Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-02-08
THE ART OF GOING TO BED
hi"fcuious Practice in Otherwis,
Weli-Ordered Households.

Ridiculous Practice in Otherw;so
Weli-Ordered Households.
From the Providence journal.
Mr.. ernest Hart, d. c. L., is lecturing i'm
London on the cart of Living" He thinks
that at the end of 5000 years very few of
US understand the elementary principles of
comfort and health, and then treats what
seems the not too complicated subject of
going to bed. The management Of the bed
room and the art of going to bed would
seem to be very simple matters as tn
which some rational principles and COM
Portable and healthy customs might be ex-
pected to prevail. Let US see If this is So
Take the case of the ordinary welI-to-do
Enghshman. He leaves in the winter a
warm, well-lightei, and perhaps s,lmptu-
ousiy furnished room, and he ascends
through cold staircase to a room of which
the temperature is not determined and is
very apt to be below GO degrees In how
lew OF our homes are the passages and
staircases warmed by basement stove or
base burner. If he is thoughtful and
what is called seif-indulcent he will have
the room warmed by a coal fire or a gas
stove. This is, however, by no means a
universal rule, and is frequently reserved
only for the heads of the establishment or
for what are called delicate people The
room is rarely well or conveniently lighted,
ana the fittings commonly are centuries be-
i
here and there that hot and cold water
are laid on, or that the lighting can be
without effort shifted from the dressing
table to the bed head, and controlled from
convenient place near the bed. The
clothing is then removed, and the unhappy
person then puts on something which is
called a ''nightgown," a sort Of linen or cot
ton sack With sleeves, which leaves the
lower limbs and feet more or less uncover
ed, and at once makes man an uncom-
fertabie and ridiculous object 1t is the
clothing of the primeval savage. If a
ridiculous situation is needed for a farce
it is commonly created by a night alarm
at which IT, sleepers appear in this ridicu-
lous guise at the bed room door,
The bed is ridiculous contrivance, hav-
ing the worst of all coverings, linen sheets,
the foster mothers of rheumatism and the
worst of all materials for contact with the
SKIN 10 counterbalance its defects and
increase the miseries heavy superabund-
ant mass OF blankets and quilts is imposed
and to prevent any comfortable or free
movement of the limbs these are tucked
IN around the edges, constituting a huge
set OF swaddling clothes such only saw
ages now employ even for children. The
hre now is generally allowed to become ex-
tnct, if ever lighted, and those who have
passed their days in warm rooms often
spend the night in a chamber in which the
temperature is not much above freezing
point, and to mitigate which a complete re-
clothing of the body is required. The rea-
sonabie practice would require, first. that
for the present hdeous and ridiculous
nightgown pajamas OF various degrees of
warmth or thinness should be provided
The present bedstead and bed clothing
should be altogether discarded, and two
light eiderdowns like the Indian resai or
the Japanese fulon should be substituted.
Night socks should be worn of a texture
suited to the season. Near the couch
81 0orita be provided book shelf with the
and well-known favorites Montague, es-
says, Pepys' Diary. Browns Religio Medi-