Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1893-07-29

al.sssg ~ ~ csfies. tshlsfs rAss fssh
fss = rsyias - nsviss.
When his boliuess tie fsfn y caf
fied in bic chair On tTaes SUPPORTED
On ne sbOat,f sod 81 .lffiids from
fhe aala Regis ~ The Histine chapel
and occasionally into ~ loggia
above the ptrticU ~ ~ Peters. he
practically Uses sedan without q
foof and II was IN these chairs on
poles ttat the Roman magnihcoes
sBeered nj ny Juvenai we're borne
through the crowded streets Of
Rome These uncovered sedans must
not be confounded with the ancient
ltters. which very much resembled
in shape the palanquin which may
b. seen every day in the streets Of
Calcutta pnd which were n kind Of
bed wherein the inmate reelined
either on his elbow or at full length.
/ Wealthy Romans when they trav-
eled through the provinces Of the
empire sat in a covered sedan chair
during the day and lay In a covered
litter throughout the night. 1t is a
curious fact as regards the oriental
palanquin that in 1854 the court Of
directors of the East India company
ordered that their covenanted serv-
ants shOull lay aside the expense Of
either hoIHe. chair or palanquin dur
ing their writership" on the ground
that mdulging these embryo nabobs
with chairs on poles borne by coolies
contributed not little to 'the neg
lect Of btsinsss and afforded them
opportunities for rambling"
Little more than half a century
afterward we find the frugal and
self denying Sir Arthur Wellesley
writing to Major Shaw to give or
ders for palanquin to be made for
him. Precise in this as in most
other matters, the hero of Assaye di-
rected that his palanquin should be
very light" that the panels should
be made of canvas instead Of wood
and the poles fixed as for a dhooEe -
Your Bengal palanquins, adds the
future victor of Waterloo, "are so
heavy that they cannot be used out
, of Calcutta.
To traveller of moderate means
the principle expense of the palan-
J quin was in the number of relays or
bearers required to carry it. This
mattered little to the Romans since
the bearers were nearly always
slaves, and the price of labor in Hin
i dostan is moderate enough to war
, rent the employment of a large mum
} Der of bearers, but in France in the
seventeenth century there was a
t Duchess of Nemours who half ruined
herself by her craze for travelling
backward and forward in her sedan
to her principality of Neufchatel,
which was situated at a distance of
] l3O leagues from Paris. Relays of
bearers amounting in the aggregate
: to so men always accompanied the
duchess on these journeys, one of
$ which took 10 days to accomplish,
. and the cost of paying, lodging and
: feeding these retainers was neces-
: sarily prodigious,
French experts stoutly MAINTAIN
that the sedan chair was invented by
:. La Refine Margot, the first wife of
# Henry ", but it can only be proved
8 that the sprightly queen in question
l. availed herself so constantly of the
Z facilities offered by an uncovered
, sedan that it is almost to be won
y dered at that the vehicle did not
It come to be called a ''margot" instead
i of a "ohaise a porteurs. In any
n case it is certain that the first GOV
e cred and closed sedans were intro
n duced into France at the beginning
,, of the reign of Louis XIII by the
2 Marquis de Montbrun and tha
h shortly afterward a concession fol
3 building them was granted to thret
r Partisan fnanciers. London Tele
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