Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 98, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 August 1907 — The Sedan-Chair. [ARTICLE]

The Sedan-Chair.

Perhaps some expert in the Siamese language will tell us what is its word for “sedan-chair.” When the King of Siam's minister, protesting against his majesty’s favor toward motoring, suggested recently that “the royal sedanchair” was always at his disposal, it is improbable that he used a word reminiscent of the French town. For it is from the scene of Napoleon lll.’s collapse that the sedan-chair takes its name, qnd perhaps remote posterity will suppose that it had some connection with that event But Sedan first produced these conveyances centuries ago, and they were seen in England in 1581. One used by James I.’s Buckingham provoked great popular outcry against the employment of men as beasts of burden. Sir S. Duncombe ia credited with having Introduced them to London in 1634. And Bath knows the Pickwickian sedan-chair to this day. •—London Chronicle.