THE MATTRESS BEATER Englishmen are justly proud of their birthright.

The less they travel, moreover, the prouder they are, and the stronger is their conviction that England leads the world in thought and art and action.
They are quite unaware, for instance, that no country in the world is behind England (unless it be Scotland) in a small matter that affects very materially one-third of a human span of life, namely beds.

In any town of France, Germany or Holland, the curious need not seek long for the mattress-maker.

He is usually to be found in some open space at the corner of a market-place or beneath an arcade near the Maine exercising his health-giving trade in the open air.

He lives, and lives bountifully, by unmaking, picking over and re-making the mattresses of the people.
Good housewives, moreover, stand near him with their knitting to see that he does it well and puts back within the cover all the wool that he took out.