Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1896-11-05
A RUSSIAN bedrooms
THE TRAVELLER FINDS IT HAS GONG
UNFAMILIAR FEATURES.

THE TRAVELLER FINDS IT HAS eoMa
UNFAMILIAR FEATURES.
In the First Place the Bed L. Danger
ously Narrow-Guests, Even ut the Best
Hotels, Must Furnish Their Own Bed
clothes-There Is No Privacy.
Much has been written about the Ger.
man bed. But how much might not be
written about the Russian bed? Nav
how much has not been written alreadyp
Even in decent country houses in Rus
sia the sleeping place is often merely q
couch or the top of a chest of drawere
covered with a rug. But in the towns
there are beds, and such bedsl The Ger"
man bed. as most people are aware. II
not from personal experience from Me-
Jerome K. Jerome's description of ID, is
placed In a deep box, into which you
climb and then pull the bed on top Of
you. The whole contrivanoe is so de-
sisned as to keep one half of the body
perspiringly hot and the other half shiv-
ering cold and to suffocate you il you
are not constantly on the alert. Its
grand redeeming feature is tl,..t you
cannot tumble out of it howove much
you toss about The Russian bed, on the
contrary, is an affair out Of which, or
rather off which, you cannot possibly
help tumbling however still you lie. It
is an iron or wooden frame, perfectly
destitute of rails and about the width OF
an ordinary coffin. Upon this is placed
a mattress, and the entire arrangement
is deposited in the middle of the room.
To get on to il is easy enough, for 1t Is
quite low. But to fall asleep on it is in
evitably to fall ON the floor It is too
narrow to turn in, and there Is nobody
who does not turn in his sleep unless
he is Russian, who, one may assume.
has been weaned from the habit by
countless fiops in the days Of his youth,
when he didn't mind that sort of thing.
He has brought himself into harmony
with his environment, as the evolution
lists say, and is comfortable. The stran-
ger has not, and suffers accordingly.
Most people before they enter the land
of Nod are apt to dream that they have
fallen over a precipioe and are going
down, down, down. Just as they are
about to touch the bottom they wake
with start and heave a sigh Of relief
as they realize that they are on nothing
harder than feathers. In Russia that
dream has terribly actual termination.
The visionary wakes with start to find
that he has "gone over" in very liter
al sense and is wallowing among his
trunks A cunning man will shift his
bed from the center of the room to the
wall. That saves him on one side. But
he is still open to disaster ON the other.
and bedroom companion of mine at
Moscow used to fall out of bed three
times regularly every night. and after
the third time lie talking in his sleep
until daylight, dreaming. fancy, that
he was about to break the record by fall
ing out again. The narrow bed is gen.
eral where beds are employed at all
Even the imperial residences are fur
nished with them, and the couch upon
which the murdered Alexander breathed
his last, still shown to visitors to the
Winter palace, is of the same type. The
Russians, like their Teutonio neighbora
have q good deal to learn about Bed.
fcrdshire.
"But what about the bedclothes2" IL
will be asked. Well, they are much
more easily described than the bed, the
fact being that they are invariably oon-
spiouous by their absence. 1t Is not the
a~ah;er. Is, nnesin to supply pedU1otn1ng.
even in the best hotels Tho traveller is
expected to bring his sheets and blankets
with him if he requires them, and the
same is the case i'll private houses.
Russian would no more think Of Offer
ing you secondhand bedclothes than
you would of offering him second
hand toothbrush. The railway officials
now supply one pillow, one sheet and
one blanket to each first class passenger.
Elsewhere, however, as stated, the
stranger, let him be invited guest or
paying lodger, is understood to provide
his own bedding. There arc considera-
tions which render this system highly
desirable But it is not without Its
drawbacks, and when we remember
that the mean annual temperature OF
northern Russia is below freezing point
1t will be admitted that no one should
be left in ignorance Of the custom. Its
discovery created no small consterna-
ton among the English tourists. who
were quite unprepared for it and who
arrived ut Moscow at midnight, tired
to death, and found themselves with
nothing to sleep in and with next to
nothing to sleep upon. How did they
manage? One slept for eight days In his
topcoat. another wrapped himself up in
his dignity and his dressing gown, while
third reposed in borrowed railway
rug.
Guests at Russian hotel, or In pri-
vato house, for that matter, ought, II
they are particular, to fasten their bed
room doors before engaging III serious
ablutions. Russian servants and walters,
male and female, give no warning OF
their approach. 1t is no moro the GUS
tom to knock ut door than 1t is to sup
ply bedclothes, and "a boots or cham
bermaid will invariably enter room
without any intimation, "as II, +" as one
writer has expressed it, Intentionally
ignoring such obstacles TO movement as
doors The fact that the room is a bed
room makes no difference whatever.
This free and easy style may not annoy
. Slav. but il is apt to provoke embar-
RAISING situations among Englishmen,
whose morning toilet is very extensive
affair, embracing every part Of the man
from the crown of his head to the soles
of his feet.-Cor Newcastle (England)
Chronicle.