The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-11-10
GENUINE ROMANCE FOUND EVERYWHERE.
Some Interesting Items in
 Home, Sweet Home
A MINE OF HISTORY
Every Article of Furniture Can Be Traced Back to a History That Fairly Thrills With Ro-
 nance

From London Answers.
 If you only knew it. queer little TO- mances are peeping out at you all over your house, from attic to cellar They are we'll worth looking for.
 Framed pictures had to have a be- ginning. They date back to about five hundred years ago, when peaceful monks painted the walls of their living rooms with Scriptural subjects. Then one day some one conceived the bright idea of mailing wood around these frescoes so as to separate the subjects. little later came gilding-and the evolution of the modern picture frame was simply mat ter of time.
 The drawing room Is a perfect mine of history. AS most people know, this is, strictly. the withdrawing room,' to which one withdraws after dinner, as the name implies. The antimacassars over the backs of the chairs similarly carry their object in life in their name. These more or less artistic things had their be- ginning some one hundred and fifty years ago. when every one used macassar oil for the hair. The mistress of the household then would no more permit greasy polls tc spoil her fine chairs than w3uld the mod. ern mistress. And. lol the antimacassar
 When Knights Were Bold
 Of chairs themselves. perhaps the most interesting feature is the familiar cross l lbar-technically known as the stretcher- which joins the front legs. Nowadays its purpose Is usually ornament, sometimes strength, though often 1t is absent alto gether.
 l It harlzs back to the days of the first chairs, when knights and danes wanted to keep their feet off the cold draughty, rush-littered floors. Hence the stretcher 1 Originally the stretcher was only a few inches above the ground; but when later on rugs and carpets came into more gen eral use and rooms became more com fortable. the stretcher gradually lost its | importance.
 It is curious to note that the cosy arm chair was the last stage of all. Cushions and padding were the first additions tc the plain seat. Then came painted chairs and afterwards carved legs, and, finally l a leisurely last-oame backs and arms.
 Curtains for All
 In point of fact the chair is easily tn, most important piece of furniture yoI have. historically speaking. To this day | taking the chair denotes taking tn, head of affairs. reminiscent of the tims when there was only one chair in a room three-legged stools at the most being pro vided for less important folk.
 Window curtains, agaips have their lit tie romance. Originally, all windows were in the roof. but in time came oper windows in the wall. Tn the middle age some one brought from China the idet of using cloth to cover the windows-anC there is the origin of your curtain, witt 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 Flu rope driven from their homes by Louis | XIV by the revocation of the edict of | Nantes in 1885.
 Even the drawer in the kitchen table | any table drawer, for the matter of that had to Se thought of; but nobody did manage to think of fixing a drawer to a table until some inveterate cardplayer- | his name is forgotten-wanted handy place for the cards when they were not in use. The very thingl And table draw CTS were invented.
 Feathers on Furniture "Kitchen," by the way, is derived from an Anglo-Saxon word, meaning Ito cook while 'scul1ery which positively has nothing to do with "scullion"-connes from a word meaning "a bowl"
 | Some of your furniture may well have | a political blasi It certainly is so if it bears that familiar design based upon the Prince of Wales feathers. Hepple- white, the famous furniture designer be- | gan 1t. Tn his time there was a strong tory party supporting George IT,, whilst the whig party was headed by the Prince of Wales. Hpplewhite was an ardent whig, and accordingly introduced Prince of Wales's feathers into his furniture de- signs on every possible occasion. Perhaps Tottenham Court Road will adopt the idea, and produce a home rule chair or a national insurance sofal Incidentally, the sofa Is an importation from the ease- loving Arabs, whose "suffah" was long bench outside the house
 And, finally, "hall' simply means a place which is covered in, and the word comes from exactly the same root as-the internal regionsl