September, i g 2 3 
79 
COMFORT in BEDS and BEDDING 
Bedsteads, Springs, Mattresses and Pillows, Their Many Types, 
Their Ingredients and Their Comparative Merits 
ETHEL R. PEYSER 
E very Domiologist prWes herself on 
knowing about beds. Yet we have 
encountered no end of ignorance on 
this very vital subject. There seems to be 
more tradition wound up in a bed spring 
and mattress than anything besides religion 
and politics. More confusion seems to exist 
and more discomfort results from these 
conditions than in any other department 
of the home. Now, to end this confusion 
this article will aim to take the bed out of 
Bedlam and restore to the home the sanity 
and intelligence in buying beds and bedding 
that is beginning to exist in the purchase 
of electric and other appliances necessary 
for home comfort and economy. 
Some day we would love to write the 
history of the bed from the ancient days! 
Think of the romance! Think of the adven¬ 
ture of writing about the bed in the time of 
Tristram and Yseult, Adam and Eva, 
Napoleon! Think of the history wound up 
in the bed! Think, too, of the tremendous 
interior decoration data we could gather. 
Well, some day we will do this enticing 
study, but now we are going to be practical, 
and with this subject it is heart-breaking 
so to be! Yet we will be Spartan and take 
the modem bed and the buying of it and 
try to make it, if not romantic, at least use¬ 
ful. 
Beds must be comfortable: that is the 
prime requisite of the bed. They must be 
beautiful and well designed, but if they 
have these qualifications and are not com¬ 
fortable and comforting you might as well 
sell them and lie on straw like the famous 
Marjory Daw. So, to this end, get the size 
bed that suits the occupant. If a person is 
exceedingly tall never try to fit him or her 
to the bed, but the bed to him or her. It is 
“done” and done often. Beds are usually 
made 6%' by for the full size, and 4' 
wide for the three-quarter. Single beds are 
usually y 2" wide and 6^^ Hng, and couch 
beds are usually wide. Cribs are 2^' 
wide and yy long. 
T he wooden bed, of course, is the one 
that most fine homes enjoy. These 
are the beds that match the furniture 
of the room, and if they are period 
rooms, the bed should be of like period. 
However, the metal bed is made in period 
designs, too. 
The main thing for us to know in buying 
such beds is whether we want wooden beds 
or metal beds. We can have the wooden 
bed if we have enough time or servants to 
keep the bed clean and free from invasion, 
because the wooden bed takes a little more 
scrupulous watching in these complex sub- 
wayed days of ours, even in the finest apart¬ 
ments where the Ught is not always too 
rosy! 
In buying the wooden bed, you must of 
course note its length, the space in which 
you must put it, and the height above the 
floor. Many a bed whose height from the 
floor has been a daily terror to the occupant 
has been bought for an old lady or gentle¬ 
man. Why? Because the bed is bought to 
fit an ideal and not the person! Here is 
where tradition persists again. 
Then beds often “squeak”. This squeak 
would never be tolerated in the motor car, 
yet it is tolerated where you sleep! But 
where the bed and not the spring squeaks or 
crackles it is usually due to bad joints where 
the foot or head boards meet the side rails. 
This is easily fixed by a good cabinet maker 
or easily obviated by buying a good bed in 
the beginning. Cheap beds are, like any¬ 
thing cheap, a lost project. However, if 
you do not mind sleeping in a talking ma¬ 
chine, you can buy a bed anywhere. 
When you buy the slatted bed the slats 
must stay put or else you will have the 
dread disease slatitis, and you will be roused 
from your dreams as if from the battlefield. 
Of course, the slat is a good dust gatherer; 
hence we would say. Avaunt! Yet the spring 
will not rest permanently in the bed-frame 
groove without the slats unless there is 
what is called the angle hook—a flat ad¬ 
justable flange that projects a few inches 
under the spring and holds it staunchly 
and dependably. This angle hook, so called 
because it looks like two flat sides of a 
square, will help you also to raise or lower 
your spring so that it will fit in the bed 
frame better. This is an arrangement very 
little known and we are glad to pass it on. 
The sum total of buying wooden beds is to 
buy the best and take care of them assidu¬ 
ously. 
T he canopy! and here we get into 
Romance! The canopy was used in 
the old days because the Lord and Lady 
slept in the sleeping hall, surrounded by 
their retainers, who slept on the floor to 
guard them from hostile hordes. This, too, 
is why the bed was high, so that the re¬ 
tainers themselves were cut off from invad¬ 
ing the comfort and privacy of their Lord 
and Lady. Maybe now you can see how 
strange and almost comical it is for us to 
use the canopy bed, which is so delightful 
a dust trap and such a care to the house¬ 
holder. Yet we admit its beauty in a room 
of ancient habiliments. But isn’t it amusing 
to realize the origin of this bed? Then, too, 
the castles at that time were exceedingly 
draughty and the curtained bed has per¬ 
sisted up to today for that very reason. The 
curtain keeps out not only prying eyes but 
prying winds. 
Today the bed must be chosen first from 
design, as we said before, then it must of 
course stand squarely on the floor, because 
a cradle is not a comfortable bed for grown¬ 
ups! The corners must fit and be made so 
that the bed is easily taken apart when 
necessary. And, finally, all the joints must 
be joined and not rickety; they must fit 
tight and be solid. 
W E would advise the best type of 
springs for the crib, for the way the 
child’s back lies at night will add much to 
its strength and health for all the days of 
its life. (See sections following on the 
question of springs.) 
Remember, too, that the day bed is used 
night and day, so unless the spring here is 
of the best you will have a dejected looking 
couch by day and a depressing bed by night, 
hlany a person forgets this double-duty bed 
and buys any old thing just because it has 
not the dignity of four posts, canopy, or 
exclusive night work. Reflect on this and 
your day beds in bungalow or city home 
will look better and be better. The day bed 
needs aristocratic design and makings to 
arrive at all. 
The day bed comes with railed back, 
slight head and foot boards, or minus these 
things. It is wise, when possible, to have the 
day bed so built that it contains the mat¬ 
tress and springs solidly, so that neither 
waver. In this way their lives will be longer 
and comfort greater. 
There is, too, the day chair, which by 
day is a rather obese looking chair and by 
night a bed. In this way, one can haA^e two 
camouflaged beds in the same sitting room! 
Metal beds have sprung into vogue with 
the craze for beauty, cleanliness and sani¬ 
tariness. At first we had the glittering brass 
round- and square-tubed bed, and that was 
so over-used that people became tired of it 
and thought out the enamel bed, which at 
first was made only in white. Now, how¬ 
ever, we have beds of metal that look for 
all the world like mahogany or oak or any 
other wood you please. Solid head and 
foot boards (not tubes necessarily) hiding 
their metallic stuff, but being of finer metal 
than other beds, give the room a warmer, 
more fashionable look. The manufacturers 
have been discreet in their designs and the 
square-tubed metal bed in wood styles is a 
truly fine thing. 
There isn’t any doubt that the metal bed 
is easier to keep “fool proof”, and the clean, 
absolutely clean, bed is a consummation 
devoutly to be wished for. 
The iron bed of course is cheaper than 
the brass bed and is very serviceable. Iron 
painted looks very well and will go with 
any wood you happen to have in your bed¬ 
room. The brass bed is the most e.xpensive 
of the metal beds. All the best beds are 
{Continued on page 88) 
