San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-05-29
MADAME'S ROCKER.
It Is One of the Things the New Move
ment Has Not Bapished.

ment Has NOT Bantshed.
At an important meeting of woni, II
not long since, women who represented
| everything that was radical and strong
and "new," it was funny thing TO see
the stage strewn with rocking chairs,
Of all things the insignia and symbol Of
frail femininity. What was more, the
"new" women, presiding officer and all,
sat in the chairs, and rocked placidly
away during the reading of reports and
minutes, the passing of resolutions, the
seconding of motions and all the rest of
| it, just as though it were a matter of
course. Butitwas homogeneous. Those
swaYng, lively chairs suggested the
nursery and sewing-room and kindred
domestic details that were somehow
strangely ut variance with the other
wise business, practical aspect of
affairs. One fell to wondering whether
the presiding officer would not be adj
dressed as Madam Rocking Chairman"
But one also wondered whether the
rocking chair was not an unacceptable
thing for wcm3n-the American
woman, that Is to say; whether she
could no more get away from or get rid
of it than she could her own identity.
1t is true that good taste, coupled with
a growing appreciation of foreign
standards, has banished the rocker from
the American drawing-room, but it still
holds its own in boudoir, nursery and
other none the less important because
more intimate apartments. It is said
that the rocking chair is gradually maxi
ing its way into otbfr countries. The
English women sDS even those of the
more conservative continent are begin
ming to realize the boon and the blessing
that it is to womankind. 1t is curious
fact that it is tc wonankind alone tina.
it appeals. Men rarely sit in rocking
chair, and when they do it is with an
uneasy, non-accustomed air that be-
trays their misrepresentation at once.
1t is the proud boast of Philadelphia,
says an exchange of that city, that its
drawing rooms contain more rocking
chairs than any other city in the world.
A physician once said: "The rocking
chair is nothing more nor less than an
cApTcSSlOu VI NHc hcINOuShCSS VI thO
American woman. She must have some
vent for her surcharged feelings, her
over-wrought, highly-strung sensibili-
| ties, and she resorts to the rocker. l
don't know that it is an Objectionable
habit-'rocking. 1t is, in measure, an
outlet, an escape valve fAr much that
would otherwise be pent mp and react
upon the woman herself. 1 do know
this, however; you can always tell q
nervous woman by the amount of rock
ing she does. Under pressure of any
worry, excitement or irritation, sho
flies to her rocker as the drunkard to his
bottle or the opium iend to his pipe.
And she rocks, rocks rocks, first Violent
ly and spasmodically; then, as her ex-
element cools, more slowly and steadi-
ly, until the worry or irritation or what
ever else it may have been abates. Then
the rocking ceases altogether, and the
woman sits tranquil and quiet. No,
l should not call the rocking chair the
American woman's enemy; her best
| friend, rather, for it acts like a kind Of
lightning rod, carrying off force that
| might otherwise wreck and ruin her.
Detroit Free Press.