The morning times., 1897-01-19
MODEL BEDROOMS.
The Last Thirty Years Have Wit
messed Great Improvement in Beds.

messed Great Improvement in Beds
In Cheyne Row, in the very heart of the
British Babel Mrs. Jane Carlyle surrounded
her sensitive husband with architectural for
tifications that banished ear-fretting noises
and lung-fretting dust without excluding
the light of the sun. Nine out OF ten houses
have tolerably quiet room on the side fur
thest from freighted depots and similar cen
ters or disturbance, and even such inexpen-
sive alterations as change in the location
OF window will make considerable diff
ference in the aggregate of troublesome
noises. BY way oreXperment hang couple
OF woolen blankets across the closed shut
ters, and notice how many annoying sounds
subsde to a faint hum. how the silent in
tervals have heightened from seconds to
minutes.
Ventilation, it is true, may be as inn
portant as sound sleep, but few land
lords Will refuse to let you compromis Sc
that matter by the construction of little
window-literally wind door louyeron
any queter side of the room which NAV
happen 10 coincide with the direction of
the prevalent air current. After their ex-
perIence with the four-footed nuisances of
CraieenputtoCh the Carlyles agreed with
Bill Nye that life has too many sorrows
of its own to add a cat" but your boy need
not abolish his private zoo for all That;
there are pets that sleep as soundly as
village constables. No oself-respecting poodle
dog will bark at the manin the moon: rab-
bits, marmots and squirrels are dumb com
panions in literal and permanent sense
Of the word. The assisted immigrants
col la1 icI
out as promptly as organ-grlnders.
Thelastthirty ty yearShav witneSseda Won
derful improvement in the manufacture OF
good-sized, comfortable beds-at least. in
Continental Europe-for the benchlike Rett-
steilenof Southern Germanyn ever tiisgraced
the hotels of the English-Speaking nations.
As early as 1855 French traveller acknowI-
edged the uniform excellence of the British
dOrinitories-'clean rooms, often carpeted,
always well aired broad blankets and solid.
enormous bedsteads.'' The latter adjective
really fitted the fact, if it is true that the
great bed of Ware" was twelvef feetIong by
eight broad, with canopy like circus
tent Bed curtains are not only entirely
Superfluous but positively ruinous to lung
patients, who are thus obliged to breathe
the same mcrobe-laden air over and over
again; but broad duplicate mattresses come
under the head OF rational luxuries. and are
outand out preferable to the woven wirss,lb-
stitutes. Hanmocks ON board shipa "a lesser
evil, but on terra firfna SIeepers should
build their hope of a sound nights rest on
the firmeSt possible foundation and the war
against the cradle superstition should be
waged without compromise
modern educator denounces it as the
cause Of virulent digestive disorders and
classes it with the paregoric outrage:
Never try to overcome sleeplessness by
Il resort to grading and narcotics: the
lethargy induced by rocking and grading
is akin to the drowsy torpor of q ;Seasick
passenger, and one might as well try to
benumb patient by whack on the head"
Feather beds have happily gone out of
fashion, but few housekeepers have as yet
recognized the sanitary advantages of
woolen blankets, as compared with heavy
padded quilts, that repress the organic ex-
halations, and cause night sweats and
troubled dreams. While the body is kent
comfortably warm, the breathing of pure.
cold air is a positive luxury, and The best
lung balm thus far dscovered-at least, to-
individuals who have freedtheir minds from
the haunting dread of the night air super
Stition, for there is no doubt that vivid illu-
sions can cause as well as cure diseases
The medium most propitious to sound SUM
ber is 10 degrees Fahrenheit. .-Chautauquan