The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-03-01
ART IN GOING TO BED.
Radical Change Is Necessary In the Gus
toms of the People.


From the Providence Journal. .r
Ernest Hart, ID. c. L., is lecturing In
London on the Art of Living" He thinks
that at the end of 5000 years very few
of US understand the elementary princi-
pies of comfort and health, and then
treats of what seems the not too compli-
Gated subject of going to bed. The man
agement of the bedroom and the art of
going to bed would seem to be very SIM
pie matters, as to which some rational
principles and comfortable and healthy
customs might be expected to prevail Let
us see If this is so. -
Take the case of the ordinary well-to-do
Englishman. He leaves in the winter a
warm, well-lighted, and, perhaps, sump-
tuously furnished room and he ascends
through a cold staircase to a room OF
which the temperature is not determined
and is very apt to be below 60 degrees
In how few of our homes are the pas
sages and staircases warmed by base
ment stove or base-burner? If he Is
Thoughtful and what is called self-indul-
gent. he will have the room warmed by a
coal fire or a gas stove. This Is, how
ever. by no means a universal rule, and
is frequently reserved only for the heads
of the establishment or for what are
called delicate people. Tho room Is rarely
well or conveniently lighted. and the fit
tings commonly are centuries behind our
IlOueTn hnOWleuBe. II 10 Oniy ncIc hHu
there that hot and cold water are laid on,
or that the lighting can be without eff
fort shifted from the dressing table to the
bed head, and controlled from a convent
ent place near the bed.
The clothing is then removed, and the
unhappy person then puts on something
which is called a might gown" a sort
of linen or cotton sack with sleeves,
which leaves the lower limbs and feet
more or less uncovered. and at once
makes a man an uncomfortable and ride
ulous object. 1t Is the clothing of the
primeval savage. II ridiculous situa-
ton is needed for q farce 1t is commonly
created by a night alarm, at which the
sleepers appear in this ridiculous contriv-
ance. having the worst of all coverings,
linen sheets. the foster mothers of rheu-
matism and the worst or all material for
contact with the skin. To counterbalance
its defects and increase the miserfes
heavy superabundant 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 swad-
ding clothes. such as only savages now
employ even for children. The fire now Is
generally allowed to become extinct, IL
ever lighted, and those who have passed
their day in warm rooms often spend the
night in chamber in which the temper
AZURE is not InuCn ABOVE lTeczlnB polnts
and to mitigate which a complete recloth-
ing of the body is required.
The reasonable practice would require,
first, that for the present hideous and
ridiculous nightgown pyjamas of various
degrees of warmth or thinness should be
pr divided. The present bedstead and bed
clothing should be altogether discarded
and two light eiderdowns like the Indian
resal or the Japanese fulton should be
substituted. Night socks should be worn
of a texture suited to the season. Near
the couch should be provided a bookshelf
with the favorite books. For myself /
select old and well known favorites, Mon
taigne Essays. Pepy's Diary Browns Re-
ligio Medici. Pickwick Burton's Anat-
omy of Melancholy. handy pocket
Shakespeare and Milton. with Virgil, Ho-
mer and Horace. Everybody will make
his own selection of we'll known and well
worn and therefore not too exciting au-
thors. The couch should be supplied with
a convenient headrest which falls forward
at a touch. BY the bed should be one
lever which controls the light. either a
may be most convenient. The room
should be kept at a temperature which
never falls below GO degrees. and in an
other part of II should be placed long
deck chair" with cushions to which, II
the sleeper grows restless. he can easily
transfer himself and repose at any angle.
That is how to go to bed nationally,
healthily, prepared for the emergencies OF
the night. whether OF sleeplessness or
household accident.