The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-06-19
IT'S GoOD-BY TO THE BED?

says the Sun of that city, in the middle
of her parlor floor front and watched
two furniture movers taking down
massive walnut bedstead. That's the
third one I've had taken out this year
and the storage on them is costing
me more than the beds are worth"
why don't you sell them?" said the
new boarder who was the cause OF the
operations and therefore felt a certain
responsibility for them.
"Sell them!' repeated the landlady
scornfully. why my dear lady, you
can't sell beds nowadays. Everybody
is just like you. They want these
wire couches in their rooms so they
can cover them up with rug ana
few sofa cushions and make them look
like a sofa"
oh" said the new boarder, survey
ing her own woven wire couch with
increased interest. II did not know
that every body had got onto that
idea"
BLESS you, yes" replied the landlady.
"Why l can remember a time Wheh
ladies and gentlemen wouldn't nave
such a thing as that in their rooms
The landlady pointed scornfully at the
woven wire couch.
But nowadays they amt content
with the general parlor. They must
make a paror out of their bedroom;
You can hardly rent a room with oed
in it, Some of them come with their
own couches, just as you came
and then 1 have to take down the beos
for them"
"And do they put screens in front
of their washstands and fix up a desk
for a bureau" asked the new boarder
jealousy.
Some of them go further than that"
said the landady, with resignation Il
had one young lady who didn't have
closet in her room, and she hung up
her clothes in a big bookcase m
stead of on the hooks I'd put behind
the door"
1t is only too true. The great four
poster has dwindled steadily until II
has come down to a contrivance OF
steel and wire to be ANONYMOUSLY
turned up by day in an obscure cor
ner and covered with silkoline drap-
cry or converted into studio couch
with a gay rug and mass of sota
cushions. You'd be surprised" said
the furniture man, "at the different
kinds of contrivances they get up now
adays to get round having a bed any
where in sight. Almost all the people
who live in flats use these couCh
affairs.
you see, they are easy to manage.
The old fashioned sofa bed was about
as mean a thing as you could find
anywhere. 1t was uncomfortable and
then the bedclothes and pillows had to
be taken off and put away out of sight
every morning.
You don't have to do that with these
things. You have your spring right
in the makeup of the couch. Over
that there is a little thin mattress,
not much thicker than a good thick
comfortable, that ties on with tapes.
You put your bedclothes on over that,
and your rug over your bedclothes,
let down the side shelves of the couch,
and there you are, with as fine a sofa
as you would want to look for any
where.
What do you do with the pillows?
That's easy. You make a couple of
fancy covers, and in the day you slip
them over the pillows, and have just
so many more sofa cushions. Oh,
there's a lot of tricks to living these
days.
1.-THE folding bed? Well, that's going
out too. Folding beds always were
a nuisance People were never deceived
by them for a minute, and they are
awkward and ugly, and take up lot
of room after all. They are not useful
for anything in the day either, and
a couch bed makes a good couch when
it isn't a bed
Whats the reason for the decadence
of the bed? Well, the bachelor girl
has as much to do with it as anybody,
l guess.
You see, in lots of boarding and
rooming houses there isn't a common
parlor, and, even when there is, girls
don't always want to entertain their
callers where everybody else is enter
tanning. The studio room came along
then and the bachelor girls began fix
ing up their rooms ike parlors-or
| at least like living rooms. Bachelor
| girls are our best couch-bed custom
| ers.
"Then there's the fiat dweller. He
had a lot to do with it. You take a
bed and put it in a fiat bedroom, and
| you are not going to get in much else.
| On the other hand, if you put in one
| of these bed couches, you are going
to have quite a good deal of room left
| over.
Besides, there's the question of looks.
In small flats everybody can see pref
ty nearly every room in the place
but the kitchen from the parlor. Well.
fiat dwelers didn't like to have their
bedrooms absolutely staring their call
| converted them into sitting rooms with
these couch arrangements of various
kinds. Now callers think they are
looking into back parlor when they
are really staring right at the bed
, room.
"Of course, though, the thing goes
even deeper than that. 1t springs
| largely from the fact that people are
beginning to have an increased desire
for privacy. Now, even in flats. Won
Will find that, instead of a parlor and
a back parlor and library. there is
mothers room and fathers room and
Maud's room and Johns room-all
parlors. ga
Each member of the family has a
| little place to himself or herself that
| is his or her castle. It makes the
flats look prettier, too, and it doesn't
make callers feel as if they were
stumbling into rooms where thew didn't
belong all the time.
Then, there's the doctor. Medical
science has had something to do with
1T. Doctors don't believe in having two
people sleeping in the same bed anv
more, particularly if one of the persons
is a strong, healthy individual with
a lot of vitality and the other is a
small, delicate person whose vitality
is low, or If one of them is young and
the other is old. The stronger and
! the older persons sap the strength