The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-06-29
Sleeping ih o Hammock.

81 see they say that soldiers in
Cubs ought to sleep in hammocks for
their healtb's sake said veteran Of
the civil war. ~ never slept in
hammock but once, and tina was when
| was in the army at the time Of the
civil war;. But my purpose in sleep
ing in hammock was not to guard
against malaria or dampness or any
thing of that sort, because we were at
that time in settled camp that was
tolerably salubrious. and where we
had beds raised off the ground, made
of barrel slaves, cracker box covers.
and one thing and another; my ham
mock was solely for comfort. It was
very hot in the tent and l thought l
might be little cooler in hammock,
and made one myself out of my blan-
ket.
"There was plenty Of wood around
where We were then, and we, that is
the folks in our tent, had set up a
couple Of tall, stout posts about six
feet apart alongside of our tent and
strung line between them to hang
our washing on. 1 used these two
posts for hammock posts. 1 took
down the clothes line and tied piece
Of good, stout cord around each end
of my blanket, leaving plenty of end
on each, and then l made these ropes
fast securely around the posts, pretty
well up, and then was all rig 1T; all
| had to do was to get in and go to
sleep.
''But had the greatest time get
ting into that hammock you ever
heard of, and I thought before l got
in that I should kick in the side of
the tent and wake up everybody; but
| didn't and finally managed to get
over into it. had no spreaders and
no pillow to spcad it out, and l found
it crowded me very hard, head and
foot, and it sagged down in the mid
die like bag. 1t was the first time
Id ever been in hammock, and it
was about as uncomfortable as could
be. suppose that was due largely to
the hammock itself, or the way it was
slung, for there must b. such thing
as comfortable hammock, because
there's plenty Of men that sleep in
hammocks every night and like 'em,
and fnd it hard work to get used to
beds again at first, when they 60
ashore, but I found it hard work to-
get used to my hammock, and there
was one thing hadn't counted on at
all, and that was the mosquitoes.
They were bad enough in the tent,
but out here they had free approach
from all directions, and the blanket
was just no impediment to them at
all; it didn't even bend their beaks;
nothing short of sheet-iron or wooden
blanket could have kept them out.
"But sort Of felt, as a matter of
pride, that ought to stick it out and
did. I lowered up my head and pref
ty socn l went to sleep, hanging there
between the two posts But l didn't
stay there all night. Along some
time in the morning, when it was still
pitch dark and the whole camp was
very still, l dreamed l heard dull
thud and woke up and found my feet
still up in the air. but my shoulders on
the ground. The rope at the head end
of the hammock had parted and let my
head drop to the ground.
81 didn't put the hammock back.
l took down the other end aud put the
clothes line back on the posts and crept
into the tent quietly and lay down on
my barrel slaves. After trying the
hammock I found the bed more COM
Portable. "-Nc,o l'ork. Sun.