Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1914-04-17

IN DEFENCE OF CHAIRS.
From the Boston TRANSCRIPT

From the Boston Transcript.
That faithful friend of tired humans.
the chair. has been coming in for chal-
lenge from the Sunday afternoon lee
turer at the Harvard medical school.
The chair, declares DR.. Bradford, was
not a natural necessity: the early man
was so constructed that he needed no
chair" To contradict the facts offered
from those marble monoliths in the
F'enway is a very unsafe proceeding.
The utmost that can be done in behalf
of the chair is, under the circumstances
to MAKE as strong a case for its de-
fence as possible.
And the case is strong. From the
high chair. in which, be -bibbed and be
tuckered. we are first pushed up to a
tray to learn the rudiments OF table
manners; to the sofa. inseparable from
counting: to the steamer chair, bliss of
the luxurious idle; to the hearth-side
wing chair. in which old age sits doing
over its thick volume of "reminiscences,
the chair is as much q part of our life
as the hairbrush-and sometimes more.
At the office desk, IL swivel chair can
make or mar the days work by it's
discreet cooperation: the pianists are
so fussy over the fractions of inches
of their altitude above keyboard and
pedals that they mostly carry their own
chairs on their backs across oceans and
continents and as for the fashionable
photographers. one fails to comprehend,
how. without the big, carved chair. With
an arm over which to droop a jeweled
wrist. they could remain solvent at all.
The ariStocracy of chairdom eNcites.
to be frank. less warmth of advocacy.
The consular chairs look hard and COM
IortleSs. Most of the ~Jacobean chairs
ugge that set, which a cunning host
ess placed in a certain drawing room
whittier, it was understood, unwelcome
callers were to be ushered. These chairs
We're so ri1mnIant1y 1nrn,nfort.bl NJ
that the ordeal of the call rarely eX-
ceeded 10 minutes. To such would ap-
ply the lecturers remark that much
VIII necessarily be left to fashion and
taste. and in the majority of cases
are to be regarded as furniture" With
the discreet felicity of this last word
let us hasten to announce ourselves in
complete agreement. Everybody must
nave enjoyed the dubious privilege Of
Citing, at n time or another. on
chairs which can only be classified as
furniture" 1t has been suggested that
not a few chairs of state. for discom-
tort. s~uperfluouSness and u%nadaptabil-
ity to human needs. classify in the same
group. -
The chair reflects it's age more n
timately than architecture itself. You
read the follies of the period in those
fl1msy. f~lamboyant Louis QuinZe chairs,
IN the capacious ease and smooth ele-
sance OF the wing chair and the round
about o read the ceremonious man
ners n infinite leisure of the reigns
of Anne and the Georges. Collectors
of office chairs of the Nineteenth CEN
fury will wax learned and scholarly
over the development of the swivel and
tilt and the addition of the castors in
response to the increasing drive on
the clerk. the brain and nerve-work-
er who neglects his muscular SYSTEM"
to quote the lecturers precise defini-
ton.
So be it. But if the quest is for the
perfect chair. let them hear where it
is to be found. Not the rocker, which
1rltters away reservoirs of nervous en-
ergy: not the campstool; not that mod
ern hybrid for loafers-the Morris
chair. Search for a farmhouse kitchen.
where an armchair of hick-spindled
cherry or ash. uncushioned, polished to
a shlnlng surface by the garments of
three generations. stands at the head of
the table. awaiting the master of the
house. Money will not buy it: but if,
as a special privilege. you are permit
ted to sit in it. you have known the
perfect chair.