Feather bed

“ The spotted-leaf orchis flowers, which grow in moist and shady meads, lifting their purplish heads among the early spring grass, are called by the children "gran'fer goslings." To express extreme lack—as of money—they will say their purses are as bare as a toad is of feathers.
In these days it is the fashion to praise mattresses and to depreciate the feather-bed. Nothing so healthy as a mattress, nothing so good in every way. Mattresses are certainly cheaper, and there it ends. I maintain that no modern invention approaches the feather-bed. ”

“ People ought never to sleep on a feather bed, unless, possibly, very old and feeble persons, who have long been accustomed to them. In such cases it might not always be safe to make a change in cold weather suddenly. But for a pregnant woman to sleep on a feather bed is one of the worst of practices. ”

“ But you will be far more comfortable here. You are in the best bedroom in the house, the one in front of the staircase, the bridal chamber; and I have selected the largest and softest feather-bed in the house."
"My dear mother, if there is one thing more than another I dislike, it is a feather-bed. I should not be able to close my eyes; I beg of you to have it taken away."
Mrs Norton's face flushed. "I cannot understand, John; it is absurd to say that you cannot sleep on a feather-bed. Mr Hare told me you complained of insomnia, and there is no surer way of losing your health. ”

“ A South-German feather-bed is a Trophonian cave; the difficulty of turning from side to side crowds the brain with alarming phantasms, and the excessive warmth of the thing itself is apt to affect the imagination. The best bed is, indeed, a hard, broad mattress, or a well-stuffed straw tick, and, for reasons I have stated in the chapter on "In-door Life" a woolen blanket over a linen bed-sheet is preferable to a quilt. Those who find it uncomfortable to sleep in an absolutely horizontal position should slightly raise the head-end of the bedstead rather than use a thick bolster. ”

“ She is always very busy, and especially so at the beginning of the winter, for then she has to unpack her great feather bed, and after that is done she spends all of her time shaking it. Indeed she shakes it so much that she wears many holes in it, through which the feathers fly in all directions. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A mattress filled with horse-hair is preferable to a feather-bed, which heats and relaxes the body, and disposes it to pulmonary and hectic complaints. The bolster should be stuffed with horse-hair, and covered with a small pillow filled with feathers. The bedding might consist either of sheets, with blankets and a counterpane, or a single cover, thinly quilted with cotton wool: the latter might be easily washed, and will last for several years. In very cold seasons, a counterpane quilted with a few pounds of soft feathers, might be substituted for the former ”

“ Each feather bed, bolster, or pillow for sale shall be stuffed with one type of stuffing, that is, dry pulled feathers or with clean down alone, and with no sealed feathers nor marsh grass, nor any other corrupt stuffings. ”

“ In making new feather beds, put half a pound of cayenne, and half a pound of black pepper in each bed; this will prevent the moths from getting into new feathers that have not been well cured. It is best to air your beds frequently, and shake them up, even if they are not slept in. It is the oil in the feathers that makes them smell bad, and when in constant use the heat of the body dries it up gradually; when beds or pillows have acquired this unpleasant smell, open them and put a few pounded cloves in each. ”

“ In winter, people often sleep under feather-covers, not so heavy as a feather-bed. In the spring there is a great washing of bedclothes, and then the blankets are washed, which during winter supplied the place of sheets. ”

“ The bed on which the child now sleeps should be a mattress: at this age a feather bed is always injurious to children; for the body, sinking deep into the bed, is completely buried in feathers, and the unnatural degree of warmth thus produced relaxes and weakens the system, particularly the skin, and renders the child unusually susceptible to the impressions of cold. ”

“ In making up the bed, the mattresses should be turned every day, and if there is a feather-bed, it should be turned, shaken up, and beaten, that the feathers may not get into lumps, then smoothed and made perfectly flat, the feathers being spread equally over the whole surface, before the mattress is laid on the top. ”

“ Nevertheless, it should by no means be tabooed in the case of the old and infirm, who, having lost the quick pulsation so necessary for the warmth of the body, and still more the pliability of their limbs, require the surrounding softness of the feather bed to afford them the caloric they so much need, and a greater support and more yielding substance than the mattress to afford them rest. For them the feather bed is highly useful and desirable; but for the vigorous and the young there is not this excuse, and it should never be allowed. ”

“ Some prefer a feather-bed when they can manage it, some a bundle of rags, some an old newspaper or humble straw, while others believe the acme of comfort is to lie inside a lady’s bonnet or a gentleman’s wig. ”

“ The trade has not been entirely killed by the advent of the steel pen, for there are yet among us representatives of the people of the olden time who delight in the pretty little squeak of the quill pen as it assists them in their literary labors.
Man early learned to rob the birds of their coverings, not only for adornment, but also for warmth. Feather beds were once reckoned as evidences of wealth. Modern science has pointed out the unhealthful condition of a bed made soft and gaseous with feathers. ”

“ But, in addition to supplying man with some of his most tasty food, the goose also bestows upon him the most comfortable of beds. It is true that the hand of innovation has produced many contrivances of steel and iron, with complications of springs, to produce the same effect of elasticity as the bed stuffed with good goose feathers, and it may be owned that in summer time the spring bed possesses certain advantages, but in the depth of winter it is a poor substitute for the warmth and cosiness of the feather bed. ”

“ Bed and Upholstery Feathers.—The qualities which render feathers available for stuffing beds, cushions, &c., are lightness elasticity, freedom from matting and softness. These are combined in the most satisfactory degree in the feathers of the goose and of several other allied aquatic birds, whose bodies are protected with a warm downy covering. Goose feathers and down, when plucked in spring from the living bird, are most esteemed, being at once more elastic, cleaner and less liable to taint than those obtained from the bodies of killed geese. ”

“ It is both enervating and luxurious; it heats and relaxes the spine, and enfeebles the whole frame. Notwithstanding that warmth is considered of the utmost necessity for an infant, feather beds are now never put in their cots or bassinettes, wool and hair mattresses being used instead. ”

“ The feathers used by the upholsterer, are purchased from the feather-merchants, who in turn procure them from country merchants and pedlers. The dealer in feathers also employs travelling agents to collect them in different parts of the country.
3. Beds and pillows are also made of down obtained from the nests of the eider-duck, which is found in the northern parts of Europe and America, above latitude [146] 45°. Eider-down is worth about two dollars per pound, and five or six times that quantity is sufficient for a bed of common size. ”

“ Even those who have emancipated themselves from the evils of feather beds usually retain the feather pillow. It is a wise old maxim, “to keep the head cool.” The head has blood enough, more than any other part of the system, to keep it warm. ”

“ When feather beds become soiled or heavy, rub them over with a brush dipped into hot suds. When clean lay them on a shed or railing, where the rain will fall on them till they get thoroughly soaked, let them dry in a hot sun for a week, shaking and turning them over each day. ”

“ Instead of easily applied blankets, that you can adapt to the temperature, you are given a great cloud of feathers, sewn in a balloon-like bag, which floats upon you according to your degree of restlessness, and leaves you for the floor, when in stupid sleepiness you endeavor to protect your whole person at once with its flimsy and wanton formlessness. As a rule the bed is built up at the head so that you are continually sliding down, down under the goose feathers, your nose and mouth are soon covered, and who can breathe with his toes! ”

“ Now it so chanced that as the young fellow picked up the last little bird from the nest, a feather detached itself from its tail, and floating away on the air, at length settled fair on the chest of an old man asleep in a hut some distance away. ”

“ I know women who had to climb upon a chair every night in order to scale the feathery heights. For my own part, being long of limb, I found a flying leap the most graceful means of access, but there are connoisseurs who recommend a short ladder.
Piled on the top of a palliasse and a mattress are a huge bed of feathers, spotless sheets, a single blanket, a coverlet, and then the crimson silk-covered duvet, over which is spread a canopy of lace. The cost must be fabulous, though oddly enough no one ever mentioned a probable price. But no refugee can speak of her lost lits montés without tears. ”

“ Screaming hysterically he dropped the kid and fell forward into the door of the house. The latch gave way with his weight and he tumbled into the cottage.
Dancing madly on the end of a thread was a blood red feather. ”

“ No person, not even the youngest infant, should ever sleep on a bed or pillow made of feathers. The animal effluvia coming from them is bad, and the too great amount of heat retained about the surface debilitates the system in every respect. ”

“ The old furniture has found its way to the garret, and the house is furnished from the ware-rooms of the best makers. Fancy carpets cover the floor of every room. The old high-posted bedsteads, which almost required a ladder to get into, went to the lumber heap long ago, and low, sumptuous couches take their places. The great feather tick has been converted into the more healthy mattress, and the straw tick and cords have been replaced by spring bottoms. ”

“ Any feathers which escape in this process a tidy servant will put back through the seam of the tick; she will also be careful to sew up any stitch that gives way the moment it is discovered. The bed-clothes are laid on, beginning with an under blanket and sheet, which are tucked under the mattress at the bottom. The bolster is then beaten and shaken, and put on, the top of the sheet rolled round it, and the sheet tucked in all round. The pillows and other bed-clothes follow, and the counterpane over all, which should fall in graceful folds, and at equal distance from the ground all round. ”

“ Goose feathers are most esteemed for beds, and they are best when plucked from the living bird, which is done thrice a year, in spring, midsummer, and the beginning of harvest. The qualities sought for in bed feathers, are softness, elasticity, lightness, and warmth. ”

“ 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. ”

“ With first one foot, then the other, she scratches her head with inconceivable rapidity. Then, getting a little oil from her receptacle, she begins to preen; under the left wing, down each feather, occasionally darting her bill like lightning upon some other feather that appears to her to need attention. Such screwing of the neck, twisting of the body, standing on tiptoes to get to the feathers on her body, such stretching to reach the tips! ”

“ The growth of the feathers is, however, certainly affected by the general health of the bird, mal-nutrition causing the appearance of peculiar transverse V-shaped grooves, at more or less regular intervals, along the whole length of the feather. ”

“ They are wooden four-posters, these native beds, with a cotton roof, usually red, set off by a frill of lace all round the top, above the mosquito curtains. Some of the bedsteads I have seen, made of native woods, are very prettily carved round the pillars, and a really handsome piece of carving fills the space at each end to the height of two feet or so. All right so far as looks go, but the bed itself is an appalling instrument of torture to lie on, for in pattern and material it is the same as the seats of cane chairs, and as hard as iron—all for coolness. ”