Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-07-03
THE SEDAN CHAIR
History OF the Curious Vehicle Fashion 40
About TO Revive.

History Of the Curious Vehicle Fashion 40
About to Revive.
Prom the London Telegraph
When his holiness, the pope, il carried in his
chair on poles supported the shoulders of
twelve servitors from the Sala Regia TO the
sixtine Chapel and occasionally into the loggia
above the portico OF st. Peters, he practically
uses q sedan without q roof. and it was in these
chairs on poles that the Roman magnifcoes,
sneered at by Juvenal, were borne through the
crowded streets of Rome. These uncovered
sedans must not be COMPOUNDED with the ancient
ifters. which very much resembled in shape
the palanquin. which may be seen every day in
the streets of Calcutta, and which were a kind
Of bed, wherein the inmate reclined, either on
his elbow or at full length. Wealthy Romans,
when they travelled through the provinces Of the
empire. sat in q covered sedan chair during the
day and lay In q covered litter throughout the
night. tits curious fact, regards the oriental
palanquin. that in 1854 the court OF directors Of
the East India Company ordered that their
covenanted servants should ''lay aside the ex-
pense of either horse, chair or palanquia dur
ing their writership, on the ground that i'm
dulging these embryo nabobs with chairs on
poles. borne by coolies, contributed not little
to "the neglect of business and afforded them
opportunities for rambling" Little more than
half century afterward We find the frugal and
self-denying Sir Arthur Wellesley writing to
Maj. Shaw to give orders for . palanquin TO be
made for him. Precise in this as in most other
matters. the hero of Assaye directed that mis-
palanquin should be "very light" that the
panels should be mnde Of canvas instead of
wood. and the poles fixed as for q dhoolie."
"Your Bengal palanquins," adds the victor Of
Waterloo, ''are 80 heavy that they cannot b
used out of Calcutta
To a traveller Of moderate means the prin-
cipal expense Of the palanquin was in the
number of relays Of bearers required 10 carry
ii. This mattered little to the Romans. since
the bearers were nearly always slaves, and the
price of labor in Hindostan is moderate
enough to warrant the employment Of large
number of bearers. but in France, in the
seventeenth century, there was a Duchess Of
Nemours who had half ruined herself by her
craze for travelling backward and forward in
her sedan to her principally Of Neufchstel
which was situated at q distance of $50 leagues
from Paris. Relays Of bearers, amounting in
the aggregate to fifty men, always accompanied
the duchess on these journeys, one Of which
took ten days TO accomplish, and the cost OF
paying. lodging and feeding these retainers
was necessarily prodigious. French experts
stoutly maintain that the sedan chair was in
vented BY La Refine Margot," the first wife Of
Henry ", but il can only be proved that the
sprightly queen in question awaited herself so
constantly of the facilities offered by an un-
covered sedan that il is almost 10 be wondered
at that the vehicle did not come TO be called q
''margot" instead OF ''chaise a porteurs. :"
In any case it is certain that the first covered
and closed sedans were introduced into France
at the beginning Of the reign OF Louis XIII by
the Marquis de Montbrun, and that shortly
afterward concession for building them was
granted TO three Partisan financiers.