The Hartford republican., 1914-04-24
CORD BEDS OF OLD
Traps In Whose Bulbous 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 ChiId's Play.


II came across a bed wrench at
second hand curiosity shop uptown the
other day." said an old timer, "and 1t
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 up Il cord bed
stead-had the privilege of sleeping in
the bed 1t held.
"The cord bedstcad was a joy. Next
to putting up the stovepipe or putting
down the carpet with the base of n
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 percmptory giving Of all the
Christian virtues vacation until the
job was done.
THE cord bedstcad was the favorte
bedstead Of commerce in those days.
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 Il hole
was bored in two sides of each post
facing each other when the footboarl
and headboard posts were stood up to
be connected. The holes were bored
with a thread to take the screw out on
the ends of the connecting pieces at
the sides and ends of the bedstead.
"These connecting pieces were round.
and on what was to be the top of them
when the bedstead was set up was
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 bedstend 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 a stout stick thrust
through the holes in the round pieces
the bed was ready to be corded up. ami
then the wrench came into play.
THE bed wrench was something like
q stout wooden hand wise. The cord. Il
rope like a 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 q big meshed net.
But the cord couldn't be drawn taut
enough with the hands. and so daddy
or big brother Pill. or perhaps the
IA; oil xx-rnnnh
gled it up somewhere in n part of the
cord where the tautcning up process
was to begin and by persistent lever
age around and about the bedstead at
last wrenched the cord to Il condition
of satisfactory tautness. and the tu-
multi and the shouting died.
"FOr don't go 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 it takes to
tell about it. 1t generally required two
or three capable persons to tackle the
job with any hope of succeeding with
1t. for in the way Of refractory dispOsi-
ton and demoniacal perversity the
cord bedstead of the daddies had the
breechy COW in the garden skinned n
mile ! have known the good wife to
take the children and go down in the
cellar while the old man and his aids
We're dallying with the cord bedstead
in an effort to set it up and giving 1t
their opinion of it as it wabbled and
slid and careened and skidded at tense
and critical stages of the getting Of 1t
together. ...
Then when it was all up good and
solid and the smell Of sulphur got out
Of the room mother used to come In
and put the straw tick on the web Of
bed cord-the tick with the big slit In
1t where we filled it with fresh rye
straw until it looked like a balloon all
ready to 60 up. Then she tumbled on
to the tick the feather bed. two or three
feet high. with its swelling fun Of live
geese feathers and almost burying you
out Of sight when you slowed yourself
away on it after surmOunting the bed
with a stepladder. Then with the
sheets and the blanket and the quilt
and the comforter and the big. bulbous
pillows the bed was ready to sleep ill., 1
"That's what II bed wrench is. and
that's the cord bcdstcad il wrcnched
And when l hear some reminiscent Old
body barking back to the days of the
bed wrench and the cord bclstcad and
declare that when il comes To- going 10
bed at night sure Of n sleep in ease ami
comfort ana of getting up next morn
ing never so refreshed give him every
time. b'gosh. the old cord be,lStcad
with nothing between the ropes and
him but the straw tick AMI the feather
bed instead of the new tangled springs
and hair mattresses. ] greet him with
Joy. grasp his hand warmly and gently
but firmly tell him he's liar,"-New
York sun.