The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1914-04-03
CORD BEDS OF old
Traps In Whose BuIbous Depths
Sleep Was Once Wooed.
PUTTING ONE UP WAS AGONY
The Job Required the Services of
Two or Three Husky Men and Was
an Athletic Feat Beside Which a
Wrestling Match Was Chid's Play.

TWO OF iHFSS flNShy MSH dHu was
an Athletic Feat Beside Which a
Wrestling Match Was ChiId's Play.
II came across a bed wrench at a
second hand curiosity shop uptown the
other day." said an old timer, and it
took me back to the boyhood days at
one jump.
Don't know what bed wrench is?
OF course you don't Nobody born of
this generation does. That's because
they never had to put W cord bed
stead-had the privilege OF sleeping in
the bed 1t held.
THE cord bedstead was Joy. Next
to putting up the stovepipe or putting
down the carpet with the base of a
fatiron for hammer to pound the
leather headed tacks in with. the as
sembling of the cord bedstead of our
daddies was the job that called for the
most peremptory giving of all the
Christian virtues vacation until the
job was done.
1.-THE cord bedstead was the fayorite
Briefly described. there were four
posts of any height or girth to suit the
person or his pocket Anywhere from
three to four feet from the floor a hole
was bored in two sides of each post
facing each other when the footboard
and headboard posts were stood up to
be connected The holes were bored
with thread to take the screw out on
the ends of the connecting pieces at
the sides and ends of the hedstead
'These connecting pieces were round.
and on what was to be the top of them
row of pegs shaped like so many mush-
rooms. A hole about an inch In diane
ter ran through each Of the four con
Meeting pieces. When the bedstead was
assembled by the fitting Of the con
Meeting pieces into the holes in the
posts and screwed up tight and in
place by means of stout stick thrust
through the holes in the round pieces
the bed was ready to be corded up. and
then the wrench came into play.
THE bed wrench was something like
a stout wooden hand wise. The cord a
rope like n clotheSline but OF better
quality. was run around the mushroom
like pegs. which were few inches
apart, and lengthwise and crosswise
from connecting piece to connecting
piece, like big meShed net.
But the cord couldn't be drawn taut
enough with the hands. and SO daddy
or big brother Bill, or perhaps the
| hired man. grabbed the wrench, tan
gled it up somewhere in part of the
cord where the tautening up process
was to begin and by persistent lever
age around and about the bedstead at
last wrenched the cord TO a condition
| of satisfactory tautness, and the tu-
mutt and the shouting died
"For don't 20 away with the idea that
| the work of setting up that cord bed
stead was accomplished with the ease
and in the brief time that 1t takes to
tell about it. 1t generally required two
or three capable persons to tackle the
| Job with any hope of succeeding with
| It, for in the way of refractory diSposi-
tion and demoniacal perversity the
cerd bedstead of the daddies had the
breechy COW in the garden skinned a
mile | have known the good wife to
| take the children and go down in the
cellar while the old man and his aids
were dallying with the cord bedstead
In an effort to set it up and giving II
their opinion of il as 1t wabbled and
! eIll c1ri AaH NJ
and critical stages of the getting of II
together.
Then when it was all up good ant
solid and the smell OF sulphur got out
of the room mother used to come il
and put the straw tick on the web OF
bed cord-the tick with the big slit il
IL where we filed it with fresh rye
straw until it looked like balloon al
ready to go up. Then she tumhled or
to the tick the feather bed. two or three
feet nigh. with its swelling fluff Of live
geese feathers and almost burying yot
out OF sight when you slowed yourself
away on it after surmounting the bee
with stepladder. Then with the
sheets and the blanket and the quill
and the comforter and the big, bulbou'
pillows the bed was ready to sleep in
That's what a bed wrench is, anC
that's the cord bedstead 1t wrenched
And when hear some reminiscent ole
body barking back to the days of th,
bed wrench and the cord bedstead an(
declare that when it comes to going tt
bed at night sure Of a sleep in ease anC
comfort and of getting up next morn
ing never so refreshed give him every
time. b'gosh the old cord bedsteaC
with nothing between the ropes anC
him but the straw tick and the feather
bed instead of the new tangled spring:
and hair mattresses. ! greet him witt
JOY, grasp his hand warmly and gently
but firmly tell him he's liar New
York Sun.