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UMBRELLAS AND THEIR HISTORY
By William Sangster
"Munimen ad imbres."
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY
CHAPTER II.
THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE UMBRELLA
CHAPTER III.
THE UMBRELLA IN ENGLAND
CHAPTER IV.
THE STORY OF THE PARACHUTE
CHAPTER V.
UMBRELLA STORIES
CHAPTER VI.
THE REGENERATION OF THE UMBRELLA
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
Can it be possibly believed, by the present eminently practical
generation, that a busy people like the English, whose diversified
occupations so continually expose them to the chances and changes of
a proverbially fickle sky, had ever been ignorant of the blessings
bestowed on them by that dearest and truest friend in need and in
deed, the UMBRELLA? Can you, gentle reader, for instance, realise to
yourself the idea of a man not possessing such a convenience for
rainy weather?
Why so much unmerited ridicule should be poured upon the head (or
handle) of the devoted Umbrella, it is hard to say. What is there
comic in an Umbrella? Plain, useful, and unpretending, if any of
man's inventions ever deserved sincere regard, the Umbrella is, we
maintain, that invention. Only a few years back those who carried
Umbrellas were held to be legitimate butts. They were old fogies,
careful of their health, and so on; but now-a-days we are wiser.
Everybody has his Umbrella. It is both cheaper and better made than
of old; who, then, so poor he cannot afford one? To see a man going
out in the rain umbrella-less excites as much mirth as ever did the
sight of those who first--wiser than their generation--availed
themselves of this now universal shelter. Yet still a touch of the
amusing clings to the "Gamp," as it is sarcastically called. 'What
says Douglas Jerrold on the subject? "There are three things that no
man but a fool lends, or, having lent, is not in the most helpless
state of mental crassitude if he ever hopes to get back again. These
three things, my son, are--BOOKS, UMBRELLAS, and MONEY! I believe a
certain fiction of the law assumes a remedy to the borrower; but I
know of no case in which any man, being sufficiently dastard to
gibbet his reputation as plaintiff in such a suit, ever fairly
succeeded against the wholesome prejudices of society. Umbrellas may
be 'hedged about' by cobweb statutes; I will not swear it is not so;
there may exist laws that make such things property; but sure I am
that the hissing contempt, the loud-mouthed indignation of all
civilised society, 'would sibilate and roar at the bloodless poltroon
who should engage law on his side to obtain for him the restitution
of a--lent Umbrella!"
Strange to say, it is a fact, melancholy enough, but for all that
too true, that our forefathers, scarce seventy years agone, meekly
endured the pelting of the pitiless storm without that protection
vouchsafed to their descendants by a kind fate and talented
inventors. The fact is, the Umbrella forms one of the numerous
conveniences of life which seem indispensable to the present
generation, because just so long a time has passed since their
introduction, that the contrivances which, in some certain degree,
previously supplied their place, have passed into oblivion.
We feel the convenience we possess, without being always aware of
the gradations which intervened between it and the complete
inconvenience of being continually unsheltered from the rain, without
any kind friend from whom to seek the protection so ardently desired.
Fortunately a very simple process will enable the reader to realise
the fact in its full extent; he need only walk about in a pelting
shower for some hours without an Umbrella, or when the weight of a
cloak would be insupportable, and at the same time remember that
seventy years ago a luxury he can now purchase in almost every street,
was within the reach of but very few, while omnibuses and cabs were
unknown.
But, apart from considerations of comfort, we may safely claim very
much higher qualities as appertaining to the Umbrella. We may even
reckon it among the causes that have contributed to lengthen the
average of human life, and hold it a most effective agent in the
great increase which took place in the population of England between
the years 1750 and 1850 as compared with the previous century. The
Registrar-General, in his census-report, forgot to mention this fact,
but there appears to us not the slightest doubt that the introduction
of the Umbrella at the latter part of the former, and commencement of
the present century, must have greatly conduced to the improvement of
the public health, by preserving the bearer from the various and
numerous diseases superinduced by exposure to rain.
But perhaps we are a little harsh on our worthy ancestors; they may
have possessed some species of protection from the rain on which they
prided themselves as much as we do on our Umbrellas, and regarded the
new-fangled invention (as they no doubt termed it) as something
exceedingly absurd, coxcombical, and unnecessary; while we, who are
in possession of so many life-comforts of which those of the good old
times were supremely ignorant--among these we give the Umbrella
brevet rank--can afford to smile at such ebullitions as we have come
across in those books of the day we have consulted, and to which we
shall presently have an opportunity of referring.
We can happily estimate the value of such a friend as the Umbrella,
the silent companion of our walks abroad, a companion incomparably
superior to those slimy waterproof abominations so urgently
recommended to us, for, at the least, the Umbrella cannot be accused
of injuring, the health as _they_ have been, as it appears, with
very good reason. In fact, so long as the climate of England remains
as it is, so long will Umbrellas hold their ground in public esteem,
and we do not believe that the clerk of the weather will allow
himself to be bribed into any alteration, at least for trade
considerations.
Another remarkable proof of the utility of the Umbrella may be found
in the universality of its use. It has asserted its sway from Indus
to the Pole, and is to be met with in every possible variety, from
the Napoleon blue silk of the London exquisite, to the coarse red or
green cotton of the Turkish rayah. Throughout the Continent it forms
the peaceful armament of the peasant, and no more curious sight can
be imagined than the wide, uncovered market-place of some quaint old
German town during a heavy shower, when every industrial covers
himself or herself with the aegis of a portable tent, and a bright
array of brass ferrules and canopies of all conceivable hues which
cotton can be made to assume, without losing its one quality of "fast
colour," flash on the spectator's vision.
The advantages of the Umbrella being thus recognised, it must be
confessed that it has hitherto been treated in a most ungrateful and
step-motherly fashion. We fly to the Umbrella when the sky is
overcast--it affords us shelter in the hour of need--and the service
is forgotten as soon as the necessity is relieved. We make abominable
jokes upon the Umbrella; we borrow it without compunction from any
confiding friend, though with the full intention of never returning
it--in fact, it has often been a matter of surprise to us that any
one ever does buy an Umbrella, for where can the old Umbrellas go to?
Although that question has often been asked concerning the fate of
pins, the fact as regards the former, looking at their size, is more
curious--and yet, for all that, we treat it with shameful neglect, as
if ashamed of a crime we have committed and anxious to conceal the
evidences of our guilt.
Let us then strive to afford such reparation as in our power lies,
by giving a slight description of THE UMBRELLA AND ITS HISTORY,
making up for any deficiencies of our pen by the assistance of the
artist's pencil.