OLD-TIME UMBRELLAS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 546, 1 March 1913, Page 7

OLD-TIME UMBRELLAS.

HEAVY, CLUMSY AFFAIRS. Nowadays all of us own at least one umbrella, and some of i:s have two, one to be used for common, and also a best Sunday-go-meetinj sil'v umbrella ; but there was a time when these conditions did not exist. Umbrellas were very .expensive and so rare that iew people possessed them. In the early days the umbrellas were composed exteriorly of feathers in imitation of the plumage of water birds. Then, later, oiled silli was the ordinary material. When these oiled silk affairs were wet they were exceedingly difficult to open and close. The sticks of these first umbrellas were heavy "and very inconvenient The umbrellas were originally formed and carried in a fashion the reverse of the present-day manner. They had a rin S at the top by which they were usually carried on the finger when furled, and by whub also they could be hung up when within doors. The wooden handle terminated in a point to rest on the ground. As it is, a good many of us object to carry umbrellas, but if we had to carry those old-time ones there is no telling what we would do. Hereafter,, when we are troubled because someone says it is going to rain and we must be sure to take our umbrellas, let us rejoice that we are not obliged to carry those byegene, affairs anyway.

Discoveries at Ninevah show that the umbrella was carried over the King and n6 other person. This umbrella was somewhat more elaborate than the later ones. It was edged with tassels, and usually adorned at the top by a flower or some other ornament.

In Rome it was the custom for women and effeminate men to defend themselves from the sun and rain with the umbrella at that period. This covering appears to have been formed of leather. It was hooped in the inside with Httle wooden hoops that extended tne umbrella to a large compass. In the reign of Queen Anne the umbrella was in common use in London, hut only by the women. A man who dared carry an umbrella was termed a "mincing Frenchman" by the mobMuch of the clamour which was raised against the general use of the umbrellas originated with the chairman and the hackney coachman who desired the public to use their vehicles for protection from the rain, instead of the umbrella.

During the latter part of the 18th century the umbrella was used in England by both sexes. Jonas Hanway was the first man to use one. He was in delicate health, and was thus justified in so doing. * Defoe, it will be remembered, made Robinson Crusoe describe the umbrella which he ■ had seen used in Brazil. Then he had Crusoe construct his own umbrella in imitation of them. He says—"l covered it with skins, the hair outwards, so that it cast off the rain like a penthouse, and kept off the sun effectually that I could walk out in the hottest of weather with greater advantage than I could before in the coldest." In' commemoration of this ingenious production a species of tlr.s oldfashioned heavy umbrella- was called "the Robinson."— "Brooklyn Eagle."