Bedclothes

“ A little flannel jacket for a young child who throws its arms outside the bedclothes is a good plan, and saves them from many a cough or cold. In the case of a delicate, chilly child, I would even recommend a flannel bed-gown or dressing-gown to sleep in in the depth of winter, for it saves a weight of clothes over them. I never use a quilt at night for children; it keeps in the heat too much, but blankets of the best possible quality are a great advantage. ”

“ Then she extinguished the lamp, put the book away and got into bed.
It was almost as if she had attempted to lie upon the empty air: the mattress sagged under her weight as if it had been a hammock; and something tore with a ripping sound. There was a crash, and a choked yell from a muffled voice somewhere, as the bed gave way. For an instant, Laura fought wildly in an entanglement of what she insufficiently perceived to be springs, slats and bedclothes with something alive squirming underneath. ”

“ There is no law to say that the beds in a lodging-house must be comfortable. This would be quite an easy thing to enforce–much easier, for instance, than restrictions upon gambling. The lodging-house keepers should be compelled to provide adequate bedclothes and better mattresses, and above all to divide their dormitories into cubicles. ”

“ Then knit 19 rows plain knitting. Go back and repeat from the 19th row.
The Economy Quilt.
Bedclothes become an expensive item when there are several beds for young people to be made up, as well as those for their elders. Yet warmth is essential, if their health is to be maintained.
In the winter, there usually comes a night of sudden cold, so raw and so intense, that it seems next to impossible to put too much on the beds. Every spare blanket is turned out, and every eider-down, and still there is not enough! Next morning someone is sure to say they never got warm all night! ”

“ The despotism of fashion is not recognized in mountain camps. A pair of linen trousers, a hunting shirt, and loose necktie suffice for a hygienic summer-dress. In the afternoon remove the necktie and roll up the sleeves. It can do no harm to imbibe fresh air by all available means and let the cutaneous lungs share in the luxury. Nor is there any excuse for the widespread fallacy that it is dangerous, even in the most sultry nights, to remove the bed-blankets. Kick them into the farthest corner if they become too warm, and sleep in your shirt and drawers, or under a linen bed-sheet. ”

“ Very pretty comfortables, to be folded like a silk quilt, and thrown over the foot of the bed, can be made of paper muslin, in dainty colors, or of cheese-cloth, lightly filled with cotton batting, and knotted with bright colored wools. Cotton comfortables are not so serviceable as blankets, but they are much cheaper, and it is well to keep a supply on hand for use in cold winter weather, or to make up an extra bed with in case of emergency. ”

“ The cloathing and bedding given each of the boys, are a felt hat, a worsted cap, a kersey pea jacket, a kersey pair of breeches, a striped flannel or kersey waistcoat, a pair of trowsers, two pair of hose, two pair of shoes, two handkerchiefs, three shirts; a bed, pillow, blanket, and coverlet; a pair of buckles and buttons; thread, worsted, and needles; a knife, a Prayer Book and Testament to those whose Captains desire them, and a bag to put their cloaths in. ”

“ The women and men always wear a night-dress when in bed, generally consisting of a wrapping gown and a quilted jacket; for the coverlet, being wadded with cotton, and about one inch thick, does not, from its stiffness, keep in the warmth sufficiently—the sheet, moreover, is sewed to it ”

“ Of all the Customs of Clothing, the most extremely absurd is the usual arrangement of Bed Clothes, which in order as the chambermaid fancies to make the Bed look pretty in the Day time—are left long at the head, that they may cover the Pillows; when they are turned down, You have an intolerable load on your Lungs, and that part of the Body which is most exposed during the day—is smothered at night—with double the quantity of Clothes that any other part has. ”

“ Also breeches and waistcoats; a leather suit of doublet and breeches of oiled leather; a pair of breeches of leather, “the drawers to serve to wear with both their other suits.” There was also full, yes, generous for the day, provision of rugs, bedticks, bolsters, mats, blankets, and sheets for the berths, and table linen. There were fifty beds; evidently two men occupied each bed. Folk, even of wealth and refinement, were not at all sensitive as to their mode of sleeping or their bedfellows. The pages of Pepys’s Diary give ample examples of this carelessness. ”

“ The second series of folderies to which the novice was initiated concerned themselves with his bedding. This consisted of a mattress, three blankets and a pillow. It is an outfit at which no one need turn up his nose. I never spent a bad night in army blankets, though when out on leave I am sometimes a victim of insomnia between clean cold sheets. But the moment the Réveillé uplifted you from your couch, that couch had to be made ship-shape according to rule. No finicky "airing"! The mattress must be rolled up, with the pillow as its core, and placed at the end of the bed. ”

“ What woman would like to wear a cotton waist and skirt six months without washing? Yet it would not be half so dirty as the more absorbent dark woolen dress that she would wear as long without a scruple.
Beds and bedding are likewise elements of importance in the general health, although not always sufficiently considered. Soft, and especially feather, beds are weakening. The harder a bed, consistent with comfort, the better. Good hair mattresses are the most wholesome. ”

“ Blankets were served out as the material for body-clothing: every man was his own tailor. For bedding, the woollen curtains that had formerly decorated our berths supplied us with a couple of large coverlets, which were abundantly quilted with eider-down. Two buffalo-robes of the same size with the coverlets were arranged so as to button on them, forming sleeping-sacks for the occasion, but easily detached for the purpose of drying or airing. ”

“ The bed-clothes of the affected persons, as well as the pillowcases, should be frequently renewed, the latter every day, since they collect and disseminate the discharges falling on them from the patient. ”

“ It is always more economical to buy the cloth and make them at home, for two hems do not mean much work. Unbleached sheeting may be made up, and bleached on the grass. Buy unbleached cotton for servants’ sheets and pillow cases, but do not make them too small. If the bed linen be made of generous proportions it will protect the bedding, and be more comfortable for the sleepers. ”

“ This is the sleep of the just and must be earned.
Before retiring all the clothes worn during the day should be removed. The night apparel should be light—cotton, linen or silk. The bed should be comfortable, but not too soft. There should be enough covering to keep the sleeper comfortably warm, but not hot. Those who cover themselves with so many quilts or blankets that they perspire during the night are not properly refreshed. ”

“ Meanwhile others have been busy making the new garments in which the body is to be dressed. Every part of the garments and the fittings of the casket must be new, the mattress, blanket, pillow, overcoat, coat, waistcoat, trousers, socks, wristlets, leggings, head-band and all. ”

“ The bearer arranged my bed, and Boggley took a glance round, asked if I were all right, and departed to his own place. Isn't it a queer idea to carry one's bedding about with one? Pillows, blankets, and a quilt, all done up in a canvas hold-all, accompany people wherever they travel—in trains, hotels, even when staying with friends. ”

“ For many persons, cotton and linen are found to be more restful, for night wear, than garments made of wool. Even when woolen underclothing is worn with comfort and satisfaction during the day, there is, to some persons, a pricking sensation, a slight surface irritation, in the use of woolen night wear which is destructive of rest. The activities of the skin, as well as the other bodily functions, require a measure of repose. ”

“ There is no better kind of a bedstead than an iron or brass one, because of cleanliness and strength and the ease with which it may be taken apart and put together again. The pillows deserve almost equal consideration with the mattress. Since the feathers used in stuffing pillows may be cleaned, it is economical to see that these are of the best quality. Bed clothing is often selected under the mistaken impression that weight is synonymous with warmth, and heavy quilted comforts are chosen instead of lighter, woolen blankets. ”

“ Occasionally a huge pair of dazzling shirt gills, out of which a black visage grins as out of some vast white paper cornet, adorns the sable footman of the establishment, but unfortunately without at all necessarily indicating any downward prolongation of the garment; and the perfect tulip bed of a head handkerchief with which the female attendants of these 'great families' love to bedizen themselves, frequently stands them instead of every other most indispensable article of female attire. ”

“ Always sleep in a well ventilated room, for reasons given in our chapter on fresh air. Place upon yourself enough bed-clothing to keep you comfortable, but do not bury yourself under the mass of heavy bed-clothing that is common in so many families—this is largely a matter of habit, and you will be surprised at how much less bed-clothing you can get along with than you have been using. ”

“ Do you think you could leave something in your bed that looked vaguely like you in the dark? A bolster with a pyjama-coat round it, and one arm outside the blanket, and a pair of socks or something for the head. You know the kind of thing. ”

“ It is important to add, that when the patient's shirt or the sheets of his bed are changed, which should be done as frequently as possible, the dirty linen is to be plunged immediately into cold water. ”

“ The pure woolen blanket is the ideal bed-covering and in various degrees of thickness may serve for all of the bed clothes save the sheets, and the light white coverlet, which is placed over all merely for appearance.
With increasing attention paid to hygiene, single beds rather than double are coming into favor. Even where two people occupy the same room they will be more comfortable in different beds. ”

“ Your dressing gown is to hang behind the door; there is a hook here for your bath towel, which, by the by, you are never to leave in the bathroom; your sponge must go in the lefthand sponge basket, and your bedroom slippers under this chair. Your coats must, of course, always be kept in the wardrobe, but your boots are to go downstairs. You may lay your writing case and paintbox on the chest of drawers, or keep them in your locker in the playroom. ”

“ Just as it is desirable, in the interests of health, that wool should be used exclusively for clothing during the day, so it is that the surroundings of the body during the night should be of wool, and the bed or mattrass, being, as it is generally supposed to be, stuffed with hair, wool, or feathers, should be cased in woollen material. ”

“ If the dress is such as causes no constriction of the abdomen, the chest, or the neck, such as gives free motion to the limbs, and is of such material that it makes the body neither too hot nor too cold, it is all that is required. Generally too much clothing is worn at the time of labor. It is safer to be on the side of too great coolness than of the opposite extreme.
283The Bed.—This has been called by different names; the lying-in bed, bed of labor, bed of pain, bed of misery, little bed, etc.
Some women will not make use of any sort of couch whatever. ”

“ Shutting the door with his elbow, as he flew through it, pushing me before him, he cast off, more rapidly by far than I can relate it, his green blanket garment, then his coat, then an outer waistcoat, which last he flung on the table before me along with the bowie-knife saying, “Strayinger!—no words—oblige me by unripping that parcel as fast as you can;” pointing to a flat package of something, like a diminutive pillow, about eight inches by five, enclosed in a bandana silk handkerchief, which was neatly sown by a hundred small stitches to the inside of the waistcoat behind. ”

“ Sleeping Clothes.--Some travellers prefer to have their blanket at once made up into a loose coat, trousers, and cap, pockets ad libitum, and a tape in the trouser band. An extra suit is thus always at hand, the sleeper loses little of the advantages of comfortable bedding, and is always, in some sense, dressed for any emergency. ”

“ The vests can then be retained for night wear, and the drawers taken off with the other clothes. Many people, however, think it advisable to change the underclothing at night, and I have heard this especially recommended for consumptives, on the grounds that, after having been worn all day, the underclothing is, as it were, poisoned by the excretions of the wearer. If this is done, great care is needed in order to prevent chill. It must be borne in mind that on retiring to rest, and throughout the night, the human body is at its minimum of power. ”

“ Bed Clothes.—The perfection of dress, for day or night, where warmth is the purpose, is that which confines around the body sufficient of its own warmth, while it allows escape to the exhalations of the skin. ”

“ Many people, when, travelling, they are obliged to sleep in strange beds, are actuated by the fear of damp sheets, and wisely elect to sleep between the blankets; and although this would not be considered comfortable by the fastidious, such beautifully soft and smooth materials are now made of wool, that there is no reason why woollen sheets should not be substituted for linen or cotton ones. Expense may, perhaps, be an obstacle, for neither pure woollen materials nor unadulterated bedding can be sold for a low price ”