Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 January 1889 — Comfort from Newspapers. [ARTICLE]

Comfort from Newspapers.

Haay jmn ago, in ana at ch« mtom wtatar* when there waa ranch hardahif among the poor, a city paper BUggoeteS that old newspapers, spread over the bed would form an excellent substitute for blankets and coverlet*. This brought Upon the journal a great deal of harmless ridicule from other pep&w, but it brought comfort to many a poor family. In the matter of bed-clothing, especially, we are apt to associate warmth with weight, and do not consider that there is no warmth in the coverings themselves, but that they merely prevent the heat of the body from passing off. Whatever is e poor conductor of neat will make a warm covering. Paper itself is a poor conductor, out still poorer are the thin laymm of air that are confined when two o» three newspapers are laid upon one another. A few newspapers laid over the bed will keep one much warmer than some of the heavy, close-woven blankets. We do not propose newspapers as a substitute for blankets and comforters, but it is one of those make-shifts that it is well to know. In traveling one may, by the aid of a few papers, secure a comfortable rest in a thinly-clad bed, and if w<s cannot afford to give a destitute family a blanket |or a comforter, we may show them how to increase the useful. Dess of their thin coverings bv stitching a few layers of newspapers between them. It may be well to remind thos< who grow window-plants that, by tomoving them away from the window, and arranging a cover of newspaper* over them, they may be preserved from harm in severely oold nights. With th* plants, as with ourselves, it is not sc much that cold oomes in as that the heat goes off, and often a slight prrteotioa will prevent the escape of heal—4>ur toon JLjricndiib iM.