The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1914-06-26
THE CORD BEDSTEAD
WAS ONE OF THE HOUsEuo,
PLEASURES OF OTHER Dave
An Old-Timer Tells of Pieca 90 n
niture That Was Both Joy and
Jonah" to the Owner

VOhoh 10 the owner
i came across bed wrench in .
second hand curiosity shop the otbor
day." said an old-timer, "and II too,.
me back to the boyhood days at ono
jump. Don't you know what q hod
wrench is? OF course you DONE
Nobody born of this generation does,
THE cord bedstead was iou
Next to putting up the stovepine ~
putting down the carpet with tho
base of fiatir0n for a hammer 70
pound the leather headed tacks with
the assembling of the cord bedstaoa
of our daddies was the lob that
called for the most peremptory Civ.
ing of all the Christian virtues va
cation until the job was done.
THE cord bedstead was the favor
tie bedstead of commerce in those
days. Briefly described, there were
four posts of any height or girth to
suit the person or his pocket. ANY,
where 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
1.-The 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 mushrooms.
"A hole about an inch in diameter
ran through each of the four con-
Meeting pieces. When the bedstead
was assembled by the fitting of the
connecting 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 and then the wrench came into
play.
1.-The bed wrench was something
like a stout wooden hand wise. The
cord. rope like a clothes line, 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 hand, and so
| daddy. or big brother Bill, or per-
haps the hired man, grabbed the
| wrench, tangled it up somewhere in
a part of the cord where the tauten-
ing up process was to begin, and by
persistent leverage around and about
the bedstead at last wrenched the
cord to a condition of satisfactory
tautness, and the tumult and the
shouting died.
at generally required two or
three capable persons to tackle the
job with any hope of succeeding with
it. for in the way of refractory dis
position and demoniacal perVersly
the cord bedstead of the daddies had
the breechy SOW in the garden beat
mile. l have known the good wife
to take the children and go down in
the cellar while the old man and MS
aids were dallying with the cord ped
stead in efforts to set it up, and CIV
ing their opinion of it as it waboleu
and slid and careened and skidded al
tense and critical stages OF the gel-
ting of it together.
Then when it was all up good ana
solid and the smell of sulphur got
out of the room, mother used TO conle
IN and put the straw tick on the wen
of bed cord-the tick with the Dls
split in it where we filled II WIN
fresh rye straw until it looked HAe
a balloon all ready to go up linen
| she tumbled onto the tick the IedVhei
bed, two or three feet high' WIN I''
swelling fluff of live geese 1eatHeis
and almost burying you out OF sign'
when you slowed yourself away OIL
! it after surmounting the bed Win q
stepladder. Then with the shee's
and the blanket and the guilt anu
the comforter and the big, DUBIOUS
pillows the bed was ready to siSSp
| in. a
That's what bed wrench Is an
that's the cord bedstead it wrencA0u.
And when l hear some remlniS'0Hs
old boy barking back to the Gays
the bed wrench and the cord Deu
stead. and declare that when 1t coni0'
to going to bed at night sure u
sleep in ease and comfort, and Oh 30
ting up next morning never So
freshed, give him every time 49,
the old cord bedstead, with hos''.
between the ropes and him Ou' -.
straw tick and the feather Oeu'
stead of the new tangled springs snI
hair mattress, I greet him win w. ~.
grasp his hand warmly ana
but firmly, tell him he's lar