The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1914-04-17
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 .
Wrestling Match Was Child's Play.

Il came across Deu Wrench aI q
second hand curiosity shop uptown the
other day." said an old timer, "and IL
took me back to the boyhood days at
one jump.
"Don't know what q bed wrench Is?
or course you don't. Nobody born or
this generation does. That's because
they never had to put up cord bed
stead-ha1 the privilege Of sleeping In
the bed itrheld.
"The cord bedstead was JOY. Next |
TO putting up the stovepipe or putting
down the carpet with the base or a
fatirOn for q 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.
"The cord bedstead was the favorite
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 hole
was bored I'm two sides Of each post
facing each other when the footboard
and headboard posts were stood up 10
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 bedstead.
"These connecting pieces were round.
and on what was to be the top OF them
when the bedstead was set up was a
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 ana III
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
stout wooden hand wise. The cord,
rope like a clothesline but of better
quality, was run around the mushroom
like pegs, which were a 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 IL up somewhere In part OF the
cord where the Stutenlng up process
was to begin and by persistent lever
age around and about the bedstead Mt
last wrenched the cord to condition
of satisfactory tautness, and the tu-
mutt 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 1t takes to
tell about 1t. 1t generally required two
or three capable persons to tackle the
lob with any hope Of succeeding with
IL. for i'm the way Of refractory disposi-
ton and demonacal perversity the
cord bedstead Of the daddies had the
breechy COW in the garden skinned
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
I'm an effort to set it up and giving 1t
| their opinion of II as 1t wabbed and
slid and careened and skidded at tense
and critical stages of the getting of 1t
together
"Then when II was all up good and
solid and the smell Of sulphur got out
OF the room mother used to come III
and put the straw tick on the web OF
bed cord-the tick with the big slit In
II where we filled it with fresh rye
straw until IL looked like balloon all
ready to go 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 IL after surmounting the bed
with 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 In.
That's what bed wrench is, and
that's the cord bedstead IL wreDched
And when hear some reminiscent old
body barking back to the days of the
bed wrench and the cord bedstead and
declare that when II comes to going tt
bed at night sure of a sleep In ease and
comfort and OF getting up next morn
ing never so refreshed give him every
time, b'gosh. the old cord bedstest
with nothing between .he ropes anS
him but the straw tick and the feather
bed instead of the new tangled springs
and hair mattresses, greet him Will
Joy, grasp his hand warmly and gent!
but firmly tell him he's liar."-Nev
a York Sun.