Handbook of housekeeping for small incomes / by Florence Stacpoole.

  • Stacpoole, Florence
Date:
[1897?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Handbook of housekeeping for small incomes / by Florence Stacpoole. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    will contrast with a moss green or deep brown and terra- cotta carpet; grey and white wall-paper will be relieved and warmed by rose-coloured hangings and covers. Care and taste in these matters will produce a prettier bed- room at a small cost than a great outlay in expensive articles. There is one item of bedroom furniture upon which it is unwise to be parsimonious in the purchase, and that is the bedding. One of the greatest luxuries in life, and the one which people should least grudge themselves, is a good bed. Proper rest and good sleep contribute to longevity. If the body is well-cared for it will, like any other machine, last longer and do much better work than if it be neglected and ill-used, and a bed that conduces to such rest and sleep contributes to the health of its possessor; therefore in furnishing, of all things let thoroughly good bedding be provided, no matter what else has to be done without. The best, most com- fortable, most healthy, and most durable of all beds are those with a mattress of curled horse-hair. If this mattress lies on a spring bed—that is, a deep case covered with ticking containing coils of copper wire springs—it will constitute the most luxurious bed that it is possible to have. This will be a rather expensive bed as far as first cost goes, but it will be the cheapest in the end, because it will last for a lifetime. If, after years of lying upon, the springs sink in the middle, they can always be repaired at small cost, and the curled-hair mattress at the end of twenty years’ service can be leazed and recovered with ticking, and will then be practically new. For a double bed this kind is much better for comfort and use than the metal chainwork kind, which is very good for single beds, but is apt to get loosened in wear, and to sink in the middle when two people sleep upon it. The chainwork can, however, be wound up tight again when it has grown slack. If the curled-hair mattress and the enclosed spring cases are beyond the means of the furnishers, the next best bed is a wool mattress on a metal chainwork (sometimes called woven wire) frame. This is infinitely better than the old- fashioned straw palliasse, which always makes a hard bed
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