The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1856-01-05
INVENTIVE GENIUS BAFFLED.

INVENTIVE GENIUS BAFFLED.
The triumph of American ingenuity in
the mechanic arts has been demonstrated
in all the great expositions Of national in
dustry, both in this country and in Europe.
Our contrivances for reaping and plough
ing, for sowing grain and sewing seams, for
extracting stumps from land and decayed
roots from mouths, for picking cotton and
picking locks, for setting type without hands
and Matching eggs without hens, have excl
ted the wonder and admiration of Foreign
ers. Nor have our inventors confined their
cunning to the discoveries which promote
the comforts and convenienccs Of life-we
have contrivances by which we can kill peo-
pie more scientifically, and kill more Of them,
in given time, than ally other nation on the
globe. There are labor saving machines in
war as well as in peace-machines which
''execute," like job printers, "with neatness
and Dispatch
But strange to say, there is one depart
ment in which we have made no progress
whatever-one in which the failure in the
inventive genius of our people is so humil-
iating that we cannot now allude to it with
out deep modification.
Long ago, while the Waterman and OBJ
server newspaper was published in this city,
an advertisement appeared in its columns
calling for the invention of umbrellas and
overshoes which would turn Sunday rain,
and protect from Sunday mud. This adj
vertisement was generally copied in other
papers-in fact went all over the Union,
for it gave expression to a great popular
want. And yet, incredible as it may ap-
pear, this disideratum has never been sup
piled! There are indeed secrlar umbrellas
which will keep man dry under water
spout-there are ''week day. boots in which
duck hunters can wade swamps and traverse
miry boys, with dry stockings; but when
rainy Sunday comes all confidence in UNI
brellas ceases, +and il&ip rubbers are so con
temned as not to be thought worthy even
to be trodden under foot.
Here is a phenomenon demanding scien-
tifc investigation. Both Sunday rain and
Sunday mud require special analysis, and
some impervious material which will serve
as protection against both is unquestion-
ably the great demand of the times Such
a discoverer would not only immortalize
himself, but what is better, would make his
fortune, even in the Richmond market alone.
We specify Richmond, because we know of
no place where such an invention would be
more appreciated. Here weather which on
any other day would be callod damp or
showery, on Sunday is called inclement or
stormy. Enter any church on such day
and the number of the audience will be so
decidedly finite as to remind one OF the old
story of Dean Swift and his ''dearly beloved
Roger" These detentions at home must be
sore privations to a people, who evince
such love for church as ours-for let a
bright cloudless Sabbath come, and every
church is crowded.
Is this evil remediless? Is there no pro-
lection against inclement Sundays? Is this
the only instance in which American inven-
tive genius is to be forever baffied7 If
man has lost a leg we can supply him with
another of better shape and less liable to
rheumatism than the original. If one is
minus nose, we can confer upon him
another, Grecian, Roman, Nubian or pug,
as he may prefer. We have invented a
method by which we can make his very
shadow stick and can render every scar
mole and wrinkle of his face, in Photograph,
Daguerreotype, or Ambrotype. We can
annihiate time and space-but can we in
vent no umbrella imperyious to Sunday
rain-no oyershoes which will protect feet
feminine or masculine against Sunday mud7
If not why were such people as Day and
Goodyear created!
We commend the whole subject to our
esteemed friends of the Philadelphia Press
bvterian and n. Y. Observer, living as they
do in the great marts where inventors and
manufacturers most do congregate.
TTTTJE nORRTT