subs. (military).—Straw; STROMMEL (q.v.). Fr. piausser sur plume de Beauce = to sleep in the straw.
1879. Correspondent of Notes & Queries, 5 S. xii. 246. Is this bit of ironical slang worth preserving? An old man, lately emerged from what we North-countrymen call the ‘Bastile,’ objected in my hearing to that institution, because, inter alia, ‘you had to sleep there on LONG FEATHERS,’ that is, upon bedding stuffed with straw.
