Beds for Russian School Children.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVI, Issue I, 5 January 1901, Page 47

Beds for Russian School Children.

The school children of Russia have recently been made very happy by having- beds put in their bedrooms and large (dormitories. In Russia, nearly all l>oys, at least, and very many girls, are sent to boarding schools and colleges. And so many years of their lives are passed in studying, eating and sleeping, away from home.

Until recently, beds were quite unknown in Russia, save as a luxury for the higher classes. The peasants slept on top of their big bake ovens for warmth. The soldiers slept upon hard cots without bedding, while the middle classes of people and the students rolled themselves in blankets and lay down near stoves. Recently, however, all the children in the boarding schools and all the scholars in the colleges have been awarded beds by special and general agreement. Russian children have never had cradles, cribs, cots or beds.