The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1907-10-31
FEATHER BEDS DOWN SOUTH.
It's Turning Time Now From Maryland
to North Carolina.

to North Carolina.
Now Is the time when the people living
south Of Mason and Dixon's line from
Maryland clean down to North Carolina
turn their feather beds. They do not turn
them inside out or even upside down, but
the feather bed Is put next the Stats or
sacking bottom or spring and a hard mat
tress of hair or felt Is placed on top.
some folks like to sleep directly on the
feather bed all summer long and there are
hotels in the region where the guest Is
asked in July whether he will have feath-
ers or not. But most people turn them.
The feather bed is the southern sign of
r~espectability and ancient lineage. Every
family of old Tespectability had half a
dozen feather beds a generation ago, and
a good many are still in use. They are
handel down as heirlooms, cherished with
pride and care, and In the best families
c~leansed and reticked from time to time,
summed thoroughly at least once a week
and treated as articles of the highest con-
~sideratiOn.
Whenever there is a country vendue in
the belt from Mason and DiXon's line 200
miles southwark half the community Is
on the lookout for a chance to buy feather
beds cheap. They are regularly sold by
the pound, and even the Oldest, II in good
condition. fetch pretty good prices.
Really old fashioned folks still save their
goose IeallcTS 10 make DeuS OF, tuOuBn
the fetch of the feather is not what 1t
used to be, and the doctors are against It
as an article of unwholesome luxury. New
ertheless, when southcrners come north 10
live they are apt 10 fetch along their
Feather beds. There are old ladies who
would sooner leave behind the family bible
than their feather beds, and. this very
night there will be scores of southerners
in New York sleeping on feathers.
DNhnra Do No nnaGnuafnn thot "a anlA~nl
family in the south takes greater pride in
than a feather bed. 1t usually comes into
the possession of such a family second
hand. but sometimes II is the result Of pa
tient years given to the measuring Of goose
feathers.
An old colored woman who came to New
York from Virginia leaving a husband be-
hind was vastly disturbed when she
learned that he was Ill. The family in
which she was employed condoled with her
and tried to cheer her up, but abandoned
the attempt when the old woman said:
II feared eff he dies deyW sell my feath-
GER bed"
He did not die. but the old woman had
the bed sent north before he had a chance
Ito fall i'll again.
The value Of the feather bed lies in the
fact that 1t is practically indestructible
jand Is always an available asset. If the
Feathers are properly cured and the bed
Is properly cared for 1t as good at the
end Of a hundred years as on the day It
was made
: There Is always somebody south of Ma
son and Dtxon's line who is ready to pay
a fair price for a feather bed and If by
amy accident It has lost part OF its con-
tents so that 1t is too thin to serve its
original purpose the dealers are always
ready to buy 1t and make the feathers up
into pillows. In this form the feather bed
has a new and long lease of life. People
the country over are pillowing their heads
upon feathers that once soothed the
SAUNDERS OF Virglnia's best families.