STRANGE SLEEPING PLACES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXIX, Issue 13, 16 January 1895, Page 3

STRANGE SLEEPING PLACES.

Some people can sleep only wheh warmly : ensconced in their own beds, and cannot - obtain any sleep elsewhere. Sometimes even a strange bed is enough to banish their repose. Other people, however,' can sleep almost anywhere, and compose themselves to rest almost as placidly in a railway train during a long journey as in a comfortable arm-chair for an after-dinner ■ nap. Noise and racket of any kind whatever seem to have no effect on snch conveniently gifted individuals, and sleep appears to come at their call, even without -, the.exhanstion of fatigne, which most people find necessary before they can sleep in unusual positions or circumstances. A more remarkable position in which to fall asleep can hardly be conceived than that- assumed by a workman engaged in j slating the roof of some new building. He was seen in fnll daylight, after having taken his midday meal, to lay himself | down on the sloping roof only a foot or two ; from the eaves, at a height from the ground of fully 60ft, and then go to sleep quite composedly. When spoken to on the subi'ect he said he did it regularly, whenever ie felt inclined for a nap, and that he was not in the least afraid of falling over, as the moment he moved he at once awoke, anil he was so accustomed to movipg ahout in such positions that there was not the slightest danger. One could not help shuddering at the bare idea of going to sleep, or even of lying down, in such a precarious situation.

- Not many such freaks can be recorded of men in their sober senses, but tbe pranks of men nnder tbe influence of liquor in the matter of sleep are innumerable. Tbe drunken man sets out for bome, and presently imagines he has arrived and proceeds to take off his clothes, so that he is often found lying fast asleep in some extraordinary aud frequently dangerous position. One man was fonnd asleep on the parapet of a bridge, a stone ledge not more tban eighteen inches wide, and, accordingly, very unreliable considered as a bed. His clothes were all neatly folded up on the pavement, and had not he been seen by a late chance passer-by, there was every likelihood that he would either bave caught bis death of cold or have toppled over into the river beneath.

Less precarious, though not much more comfortable, was the position taken up by a townsman, who was found by the early policeman sound asleep in an area, into which he had climbed, at some risk, and certainly witb difficulty, after carefully .depositing his garments on tbe pavement and hanging his watch on a convenient hook on tbe wall. He got a rude awaking, and paid for his open-air lodging by a police court fine. ' Many a drouthy farmer has fallen into a ditch, wet or dry making little odds, on hiß way home from market, and slept there where he lay until morning. Sometimes it strikes bis muddled wits that he is going to bed in the nsual way, so ofi come bis clothes. A cornfield is not quite suoh a bad restingplace, bat who would, for choice, select a turnip-field? But it is all one to the tired tippler, homeward bound with rather more than he can carry under his belt. A belated youngster making his way home very late one evening saw a countryman of his acquaintance also homeward bound, but with very unsteady steps, taking a 'short cut across a field, when he was bronght up by a five-barred gate. Taking this evidently for his own house door, he began to knock, but getting no reply he composedly sat down on a convenient stone, and the amused spectator heard him mutter, as he. proceeded to untie his boots, "TVVeU, well, if they won't let me in, I must just make the best of it where I am.'' He he been left alone he would no doubt have taken off most of his clothes and laid himself down to sleep where he was, but this proceeding was, with some difficulty, stopped, and he was got home to more jomfortpble. quar ters. A variation of this prank of going to sleep in the open air was recently recorded in au Edinburgh newspaper. Shortly after four , o'clock one morning a policeman found ' lying on the bulwark at Trinity, close to the pier, a [suit of tweed clothes, socks, shoes, necktie, a watch and chain, pipe and tobacco, and a (shilling. The pocket of the coat contained an address in a street in Edinburgh, and when the pb^ce jpalled there they found £he man lying in bed fast ■ asleep, having walked all the way— some . two br tbree miles at least— minus hia clothing. l(ot infrequently some poor tramp attracted by the warmth of a lime-kiln, has lain down to sleep tbere, only to meet his death from the suffocating fumes.