Show I he e ROCKING CHAIR as a. a CURE a HE HE rocking chair which has been formally approved by the French Academy of Sciences Sc- Sc as the most hygienic of all chairs is isI r I Recommended by that body for general use in inh h 1 offices and homes hones i iNot Not only does the scientific world now ac- ac edge that the rocking chair is a tested aid he i he practice of therapeutics but standard and andt t ular ular literature offer much testimony in supt sup sup- t of f the rocker as s an influence for peace and lestic este tranquility Herewith is offered in evice evi- evi ce co four lines of a popular poem dear to the theo thes s gone o e by Mother Iother come back from the echoless shore ake ake ke me again to your arms as of yore iver r r my slumbers your loving watch keep ock me to sleep mother rock me to sleep Chaucer says l ij le cradel at hir beddes feet is set to Dryden offers this testimony in his of Ovid's epistle High in his hall rocked in a chair of state king hiking with his tempestuous council sat sate 1 Shakespeare I Sleep rock thy brain Dryden ifs His is fellow who the narrow bed had kept w Was s weary and without a ricker slept Wf f. M. M Baker in New Timothy je He has extracted a particularly important rie me one and leaning back in his rocking chair t that it cradle for up grown-up babies babies he he is obeying eying my Lord Bacon and inwardly di digesting di di- gesting cst ng the same r In the times of Charles I. I the Court Rocker ra fa distinguished official Baby Upon the Tree Top which S- S soothed most of us in the beginning is a time- time Anybody who has ever had a good nce ice to judge knows that rocking in a chair in old ld homo home kitchen is the poetry of motion The position of a person seated in a rocking it iris is declared to be physiologically the most get since the normal position of the skull on spinal inal column is preserved at all angles of inti in- in ti n of the chair This being th the ease case there o mechanical obstruction to the breathing no ter what position the sitter adopts The rock- rock chair li ir has tong ling been regarded as an American illustrious French scientist-physician scientist told world recently that the to much len who spend their vacation months at hotels l lot waste what time they spend rocking talk- talk and knitting on wide and airy veran- veran 3 Sut it exercise that exercise that is the key to health Not only key it appears The porch rockers have haven en n the better part says this French trench J I They relax and rest and enter into har- har via the undulations of the rocker porch rocking being an American diversion nerves nerves being largely an American problem having to do with American nerves Id seem Id-seem seem to be the tho obvious source of regarding tho the benefits of using a rocking r r. r ry Dr Flavius Packer a New York iwho who conducts a sanatorium for persons af- af ed au with nervous ailments should have some some- of interest to say on this subject When d about tho the effect of ot rocking chairs on nerves Parker Barker said Nell ell Ill I'll tell you an Incident I J was visiting lend lend in m New Hampshire A little girl was in race r e and her mother sentenced her to a corner orner of the room to sit and be silent She d down into a little rocking chair which the gift of an uncle She rocked furiously 1 time defiant and rebellious but obliged to We were amused and interested soon goon on noticed that the motion of the chair bee beless be- be e less violent and more regular Presently c called her mother and asked whether she lit hf come to her Her mother assented and the l aid she was sorry She had acquired un- un and calm by rocking I A student of human nature may learn a great 4 r. r 1 g NERVES W- W 1 k ry J dl l lOur I Our Modern Young Women Are Arc Less Serene T Than an Their Grandmothers Were The Even Even- Tempered Old Old Fashioned Fashioned Mother lother Who Had a Wise Knowledge of Life from Living It Normally Rocked lIer Her Restless Infant to Sleep in a Cradle deal of a mortal under stress by seating that Individual individual individual indi indi- vidual in a rocker and observing the manifestation manifesta manifesta- tion of nervous or muscular disturbance Under conversation a listless one may hold the rocker motionless More often as the interest or grievance grievance grievance ance is piqued the individual rocks furiously gradually reducing the motion to calm as serenity serenity serenity seren seren- Now in that would call ity develops case you rocking a symptom or an influence The sailor has his hammock hammock on on the principle principle principle of the rocker rocker and and the cavalryman his sad sad- dle The seasoned mariner and the seasoned rider find these seats restful The straight seat is more fashionable than the rocker I think Dr Packer continued The straight front corset does not permit the form to relax into the comfort of the rocking chair And AndI I think our modern young women are less serene than their grandmothers w were re Compare the fidgety disposition of the young woman condemned condemned con con- by fashion to seek one dimension in her figure with the girls of gracious curves and tranquil tranquil tranquil tran tran- quil disposition who charmed our male ancestors The tempered even-tempered old-fashioned old mother who had hada a wise knowledge of life from living it normally rocked her restless infant to sleep in a cradle Some parents have scrapped the he cradle cradle but but it will vill come back The babe of the future will be rocked to sleep again while mother sits in her low rocker and busies her hands with something equivalent to the knitting of other days It may maybe maybe maybe be with holding a book on science a brush or with the operation of a soundless typewriter Next Dr Packer described an old Atlantic seaboard seaboard sea sea- board home some of which are still in existence The kitchen is sunny he said and the kitchenette and alcohol stove for cooking have not invaded d the precincts of the surviving homes I know kitchens in which the odors sacred to the thelast thelast last generation used to preserving and fruit drying drying drying dry dry- ing are something more than ghostly They still have their big fireplaces and the old black rocking rocking rocking rock rock- ing chair with a picture of roses down its wide wid back panel And the rocking chair is still the throne of white a a mother Why when I was a boy there was a big ro rocking king chair in every kitchen And there were no bungalow aprons just the wide apron tied around the waist From that gracious seat of authority were dispensed understanding and forgiveness and sympathy and comfort Father sat and from his stiff arm chair near the other window and mother healed and soothed and blessed from her rocker Mother understood father and interpreted interpreted interpreted inter inter- him And all went well I do think the rocking chair is entitled to its share of credit I Ionly Ionly Ionly only wish that porch rockers could under existing existing existing exist exist- ing general conditions have hav the privilege this passing type of women had of swaying by kindness kindness kindness kind kind- ness and serenity by the rhythmic motion of that blessed old chair If one may use the term now I would say that the rocker chair is per cent American It has moved from sunny kitchen to shady porch but it is still with us I do not think you will find it in use in other countries except as a novelty If I did not remember having read of it in tales of olden times I would call it another Yankee in in- in I am sure in its perfected form it is essentially American and if you find yourself worried the doctors doctor's eyes twinkled take a rocking rocking rocking rock rock- ing chair to a sunny window and think it over The solution is likely to come At any rate all allI I have to say about the rocker is that I think it has made a case for itself in practically every American home |