Bunk bed

“ These poles extend from side to side of the cabin, and rest upon the logs of the wall, to which they are securely nailed. The ends [124] are further supported by a cross-plank, or pole, fastened to the walls, as a support for the side-rods of the bunk. Slats are made of sticks split in half and nailed to the side-bars, as shown in the plan. One bunk is placed over another, until there is no room for more, and then the three or more bunks are filled with straw, hay, or spruce boughs, over which the blankets are spread, and the bed is made.
With a mud-sill house you can
Make a Lincoln Bed. ”

“ The lower floors were filled with ten- and twelve-cent bed-cots; the upper floors were bunk dormitories. A bunk is a strip of canvas. For seven cents a night the lodger gained admission to the dormitory. Once there, he might stretch himself on the bunk, or he might take advantage of the floor. Of the three hundred guests, more than half were accommodated on canvas or on the floor.
The covering on the ten-cent bed was changed once a month; if a man wanted toilet accommodations, he paid for them elsewhere. The Bismarck never had a bath, nor a wash-basin. ”

“ I perceived that I was upon a low couch of elegant construction—without curtains—but in their stead a mosquito-netting spread its gauzy meshes above and around me. The snow-white colour and fineness of the linen, the silken gloss of the counterpane, and the soft yielding mattress beneath, imparted to me the knowledge that I lay upon a luxurious bed. ”

“ I found it a most uncomfortable thing to sleep on, as my feet hung at least six inches over the end of the lounge, and they were icy when I wakened in the morning. I then decided to go upstairs to one of the canvas bunks in the northeast room, and I find it much better every way. The bunk is long, wide and warm enough with a reindeer skin under me, and all my blankets and comforters over me, while I have the room alone, temporarily, at least. ”

“ The dusting and anointing of the bed-frames being completed, proceed next to switch and brush the bedding—an old riding whip is an excellent thing for switching bedding or the cushions of chairs, as anything heavy and unyielding is apt to cut them; as soon as you have made the bedding free from dust, replace it on the bed, and cover all up with a sheet, well tucked in, leaving the bed-curtains to be put up, and the bed-linen put on after the cleaning of the room has been completed. ”

“ In many instances where a customer is interested in investing in good bedding but cannot afford to buy the entire bedroom suite at one time, it may be well to suggest a box spring and mattress on legs with detachable headboard and a small dressing table with detachable skirt. An inexpensive chest of drawers completes the ensemble. Later the box spring and mattress can be used on the regular bed, the dressing table maintained or moved into the guest room, and the chest of drawers used in another part of the house. ”

“ I know what these occasional visitors beheld, because it, too, I have seen with my own eyes: seen the two balayeurs staggering downstairs with a bed (consisting of a high iron frame, a huge mattress of delicious thickness, spotless sheets, warm blankets, and a sort of quilt neatly folded over all) ; seen this bed placed by the panting sweepers in the thoroughly cleaned and otherwise immaculate cabinot at the foot of the stairs and opposite the kitchen, the well-scrubbed door being left wide open. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Finally, according to Havard, the true difference between a lit d’ange and a “lit vu de pieds” of to-day is not to be determined by the dimensions of the canopy, nor by the arrangement of the curtains or lambrequins, which are the same, but that the foot of the bed is not simply covered by a long courtepointe, or counterpane, but should have the squares of drapery (cantonnières) , hanging from the mattress repeating the form and trimmings of the upper valance and rest of the bed furniture. ”

“ I felt at the sides, and discovered that what had appeared to me, from beneath, to be the ordinary light canopy of a four-post bed was in reality a thick, broad mattress, the substance of which was concealed by the valance and its fringe. I looked up, and saw the four posts rising hideously bare. In the middle of the bed-top was a huge wooden screw that had evidently worked it down through a hole in the ceiling, just as ordinary presses are worked down on the substance selected for compression. The frightful apparatus moved without making the faintest noise. ”

“ If it is a box couch, further economy will be gained by its use as a place to store the bedclothes. But the simplest of all arrangements is a divan bed, formed of springs and mattress alone, and supported on legs nailed to the corners of the spring-frame. Over it a cover should be thrown during the day, and the pillows in use, if there is not room for them elsewhere, should be slipped into covers harmonious in color with the couch drapery. ”

“ You must often put the mattress on a sheet on the floor, and look all along the edge and in the corners and under the ties. The spring must be painted with turpentine, especially in the hidden places, and so must the corners of the bed. It is a good plan to use only metal beds with iron spring frames, for bugs like wood much better; they seldom stay where there is none. If you ever find a bug, or the tiny black speck it makes, get the white of an egg and beat it with a teaspoonful of quicksilver, and paint everything with it, and you will have no more trouble. ”

“ Next follows bedmaking, at which the cook or kitchen-maid, where one is kept, usually assists; but, before beginning, velvet chairs, or other things injured by dust, should be removed to another room. In bedmaking, the fancy of its occupant should be consulted; some like beds sloping from the top towards the feet, swelling slightly in the middle; others, perfectly flat: a good housemaid will accommodate each bed to the taste of the sleeper, taking care to shake, beat, and turn it well in the process. Some persons prefer sleeping on the mattress ”

“ How these six-foot men can sleep in any comfort in five-foot beds is a mystery. The mattress is a well stuffed feather bed, the coverlet is of eider down. The down is stuffed into a tick like a pillow and like a pillow it has a white case. One virtually sleeps between two feather beds. In the nightly struggles to kick the foot board out of my short bed, the overgrown pillow, used as a blanket, often fell to the floor and sometimes as a last resort to straighten out, I followed the coverlet to the floor, used it for a mattress and with a steamer rug slept in peace. ”

“ Some people prefer beds and pillows of an adamantine hardness, others of a luxurious softness. Either extreme is bad, in my opinion. As a rule, however, I should have the mattresses for children’s use rather hard—a firm horsehair on the top of a wool mattress, and children’s pillows should always be low. Some people heap bed-clothes over their sleeping children, but I am sure this is a bad plan. ”

“ It is best to lay the foundation of good-sized branches, cover them with smaller ones, and over all place a deep layer of fir twigs broken off the length of your hand and laid shingle-fashion, commencing at the foot of your bed, or the doorway of your shack or tent, each succeeding row of boughs covering the thick ends of the previous row. A properly made bough bed is as comfortable as a mattress, but one in which the ends of the sticks prod your ribs all night is not a couch that tends to make a comfortable night's rest. ”

“ Some lay the small bedding they have on a thin mat on the ground; others have a slight frame, made much like drink-stalls on which we place barrels, standing on four legs, corded with palm cordage, on which they put their bedding. Before they bring out their bedding, they sweep the streets and water them. As for my own part, I usually lay open, without any bed-covering, on the top of the house: only I took a linen cloth, dipt in water, and after I had wrung it, covered myself with it in the night ”

“ The centre piece of the bed was of stout canvas, sewn into pipes at the sides, through which the side bars passed. The head of the bed was formed by fixing two uprights in holes made for them, and then fixing a cross bar on their ends to keep them in place. A very thin cocoa-fibre mattress, cocoa-fibre pillow, and three thoroughly good brown blankets, are conveniently packed in a painted canvas bag, with the framework of the bed. Camp beds, of endless variety, are sold by all outfitters ”

“ Similarly tuck the upper sheet in with great care at the bottom of the bed, so that it will not work loose and leave the feet of a restless sleeper exposed. Be sure in laying on your blankets that the open end of them is at the top of the bed. A person often requires a second thickness of blanket before morning, and can arrange it as she wishes if the closed end of the blanket is at the bottom of the bed. ”

“ It is a good idea in every mountain cabin to provide one metal lined closet with floor space the size of a single bed mattress and high enough to store your entire supply of mattresses and bedding, as well as other things you do not wish to go into chipmunks’ and packrats’ warehouses. ”

“ In the daytime an ample quilt thrown over the bedding will be quite drapery enough, and at night it is just as well to have a current of air beneath the frame of the bed. The new spring mattresses are very nearly perfect as regards the elasticity which is so necessary in a couch, and they can be suited to all tastes by having either soft or hard horsehair or finely picked wool mattresses on the top of them. ”

“ The frowsy old feather bed of one’s infancy has so completely gone out of favour that it is hardly necessary to place one more stone on the cairn of abuse already raised over it by doctors’ and nurses’ hands. A couple of thick mattresses, one of horsehair and one of wool, will make as soft and comfortable a bed as anyone need wish for. ”

“ The spare chamber of many dwellings seems to be an hermetically closed box, opened only twice a year, for spring and fall cleaning; but for the rest of the time closed to the sun and the air of heaven. Thrifty country housekeepers often adopt the custom of making their beds on the instant after they are left, without airing the sheets and mattresses; and a bed so made gradually becomes permeated with the insensible emanations of the human body, so as to be a steady corrupter of the atmosphere. ”

“ If your house is clean and you intend to keep it so, a wooden bed that has some relation to the rest of your furniture is the best bed possible. Otherwise, a white painted metal one. There is never an excuse for a brass one. Indeed, I think the three most glaring errors we Americans make are rocking-chairs, lace curtains, and brass beds.
MY OWN BEDROOM IS BUILT AROUND A BRETON BED
XV THE DRESSING-ROOM AND THE BATH
Dressing-rooms and closets should be necessities, not luxuries, but alas! ”

“ Select the furniture with such care and taste as your means will allow. It is not necessary that one should be rich to do this in the most perfect manner. Be sure that the bed is comfortably made, and at all times scrupulously clean. If used only for one night by one person, all the linen should be changed for every new-comer. A white spread, even if not of the best and heaviest, is always an improvement for any bed. ”

“ The roof of the bed should be left open—that is to say, the top of the bedstead ought not be covered with bed furniture, but should be open to the ceiling, in order to encourage a free ventilation of air. A bed-curtain may be allowed on the side of the bed where there are windy currents of air; otherwise bed-curtains and valances ought on no account to be allowed. They prevent a free circulation of the air. A youth should sleep on a horse-hair mattress. ”

“ As no room contains any article of furniture like a bedstead.—the bed consisting of wadded comforters, being made up temporarily upon the soft mats,—it is obvious that the bedding can be placed in any room in the house. The absence of nearly all furniture gives one an uninterrupted sweep of the floor, so that the entire floor can be covered with sleepers if necessary,—a great convenience certainly when one has to entertain unexpectedly a crowd of guests over-night. Certain closets are used as receptacles for the comforters, where they are stowed away during the day-time. ”

“ Before ordering a quantity of beds, it is well to get a trial bed, and thus be sure of the quality of mesh in the wire mattress, and that other details are satisfactory. No beds without back rests should be purchased, for in the majority of cases a back rest will be necessary. Separate back rests must be purchased and stored when not in use, and these are rarely as satisfactory as when attached to the bed. ”

“ The Bed.—The best kind of bed for the sick is a small iron bedstead, about 31⁄2 ft. wide and not too high, with firm, level, spring mattress, and light warm covering, avoiding large heavy linen counterpanes, which, though oppressively weighty, give but little heat. It should be placed in such a position as will be most out of draughts, and at the same time convenient for the nurse in performing personal services for the patient. It must never have either side against a wall, nor be between the door and the fire. ”

“ In the evening, bedrooms should be prepared for the night. Waste water should be carried away, pitchers filled, washstands tidied and beds opened. Shams and spread are removed from each bed and neatly folded. Leaving the sheet folded over the other bedclothes as it is already, turn them all back until they make a straight wide fold across the bed a little above the middle. Then straighten the coverings at the sides and tuck them under the mattress again, making everything very neat and straight. ”