Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1912-12-29
ABOUT THE HOUSE
Little ROmanCeS That Are Linked
 With Its Furnishings.
EVOLUTION OF THE CHAIR.

l The LciSurcIy PrcSreS5 from the ! hree | Leaned Steel to the Luxurious Rock
 er--Crigin Of the Table Drawer-The 1 First Picture Frames.
 l If you only knew it, queer little TO- naIIyeS are uecpin% out at you all over your house. from attic to cellar They are Nr,l worth looking for. l Framed pictures had to have q begin uin~ They date back to about 500 i years ago. when peaceful monks paint ed the walls of their living rooms with Script lr&l subjects. Then one day 1 some uae conceived the bright idea of 1 uailil,@ wood around these frescoes so Hs to separate the subjects. A little l later cane @ilding-and the evolution If the modern picture frame was sim- 1 llN a matter of time.
 The drawing room is q perfect mine ef history. AS most people kaow. this 1 iS. strictly. the "withdra wing room" HS the name implies.
 ! The antimacass:lrs over the backs of the chairs similarly carry their object n life in their name. These more or less artistic things had their begin nin2s some lIO years ago, when every | ,nr used macassar oil for tie hair. 1 The mistress of the household then would no more permit greasy polls to spoil ier fine chairs than would the modern mistress And. To. the antima- "assar.
 i Of chairs themselves. perhaps the most interesting feature is the familiar rrossbar technically known as the, ,tret"her whi~h joins the front legs. l Nowadays 'i:$ purpose is usually for ornainentatiun. sometimes strength. though often it is absent altogether
 1t hurks back to the days of the first chairs. when knights and danes want ed to keep their feet off the cold. dratty. rush filtered floors: hence the strctcher. Originally the stretch ar was only q few inches above the ground. but when. later on. rugs and carpets came into more general use and rooms became more comfortable. the Stretcller gradually lost its impor- tance.
 It is curious to note that the c0zy armchair was the last stage of all. Cushions and padding Were the first additions to the plain seat. Then came painted chairs and aftcrward carved legs, and fnaly-a leisarely last came backs and arms and with them the luxurious rocker.
 In ppnt of fact the chair is eHSily the most important piece of furni'pre you have. historically speaking. To this day, talking the chair" denotes taking the head of affairs. reminiscent of the time when there was only one chair in d room, three legged stools at the most being provided for less important folk,
 Window curtains. again. have their little romance. Originally all windows were in the roof but in time came open windows in the wall. Iii the middle ages some ore brought from China the idea of using cloth 10 cover the win dows. and there is the origin of your curtain, with it's frills and loops.
 The glass chandelier. if you have one they are out of fashion now-can be put down to the Workmen refugees from FWanee driven from their homes by Louis XIV. by the revocation of the eeiict or Nantes in lt;S1.
 Even the drawer in the kitchen table any table drawer. fo" The matter of that had tu he thought uf. bat nobody did manage to think of fixing q drawer to q table until some invetelatc card p!ayct-- his name is forgotten wanted Il handy place for the cards when they were not in use The very thing. And table drawers were invented
 "Kitchen." by the way. iS derived from aH Anglo saxon word meaning" to cook" while "Scullery"- which pos itively has nothing to do with "Scul ion comes from d word meaning "a bowl"
 Some of your furniture may well have an English political bias. It cel' ;ainv is so if it bears that familiar de sign based upon the Prince of Wales feathers. Hepp!ewhite. the famous fur niture designer. began it. In his time there was a strong Tory party support ing George lll,. while the Whi.s party was headed by the Prince of Wa'es Uepplewhtc was an ardent Whig md accordingly introduced Prince of Wales feathers into his, furniture de signs on every possible occasion. In- ti'lcntally the sofa iS an Importation from the ease loving Arai~, whose "Suifah" vas q long bench outside the house
 And, finally, "hall' simply means d place which is covered in. and the word comes from exactly the same root as he internal regions! - Philadelphia Ledger.