Morning journal and courier., 1891-06-04
MONEY IN UMBRELLAS.
What 1t Costs New Workers Ever
 Year 10 Keep Dry.

From the New York Recorder
 stThey cost New York a good deal of money every year." said the fat umbrella man as he deftly rolled silk umbrella and placed it back in the case. "The amount must run so far up in the thou sands it would seem an eIaggeration to one who didn't know anything about it. If the amount was expended in charity no one in this town need go hungry.
 "The ratio of people who carry um- brellas is larger in this town than in any other in America. I suppose it is because we have so many rainy days. Probably eighty per cent. of the adult population of New York carry umbrellas, and ten per cent of the children over twelve years of age. have been in the umbrella business for twenty years, and I have watched it pretty closely.
 s'The average life of good umbrella is about a year. Sometimes an umbrella will wear four or five years. You can tell nothing about them. There is nothing more uncertain. The man who will guar antee an umbrella is foolish. The sever est tests will not reveal anything, because every good umbrella is carefully examined DeIOT6 lL IS put Ou Sdlo. pdII Ol IL passes through the hands of an expert. The silk is passed upon, the framework and the stick. If anything is found not up to the standard it is sent back, and yet | it is very common thing for an umbrel- la to go all to pieces inside of three weeks. The best umbrella expert in this town can tell nothing about them.
 GAS said before, the average life of an umbrella is about year, if the owner can keep it as long as that, which is seldom the case. There seems to be many men who make it business to lose umbrellas as fast as they buy them, while others never lose an umbrella. The average life of an umbrella and the average service oi
 I suppose that the latter is about sil
 months. As nearly as I can arrive at il
 from close observation about seven hun
 dred thousand people in Now York carry
 umbrellas.
 s'That is a good many, but I think tn,
 estimate is under rather than over the eI
 act truth. For, mind you, there are man,
 who have two or three umbrellas at once
 You can buy an umbrella for almost an,
 price. The average of the good cheal
 umbrellas is about two dollars. The aver
 age of the good silk umbrellas is five dol
 lars. The general average is about thre
 dollars.
 stNow you can readily arrive at an esti
 mate of the amount of money which Ne,
 Workers spend for umbrellas every year Ton will remember that I said that the ay craze service of an umbrella Is about si months, so that every one of these seve
 hundred thousand people have to spen
 six dollars every year to supply then selves with umbrellas. Just multiply thf and you will find that this big town spend four million two hundred thousand dollar a year. Mind, that is not e1aggerating the least. And the umbrella habit l growing. There is one firm in Philade phia alone which turns out ten thousan
 umbrellas day.
 "There is something strange about un : brellas. To begin with, is their gener | contrariness about wearing. Then the have a curious effect upon human natur , | I wouldn't trust my brother with an un ? | brella, and he is as honest 8 man as ev, - lived. He could have all the money
 have, but not my umbrella. A man cal not be honest about them. I don't kno | what there is in the things, but do kno
 that is the effect they have upon peopl <, in here and wants the stick and handle 1t an umbrella changed when both are pc t fectly good. We know well that the ur l. brella belonged to somebody else, but, course, we never say anything.
 T. 'I remember once that @ man bought }; umbrella from us, and remember it | d cause of @ peculiar mark.
 e ''Not long after another man brought
 in and had another handle put in it. V J. put in two other handles for different me d and then the original owner brought in t a- umbrella. We put in the handle that W V, first in it and he never discovered it. s never saw man who would not approp le ate an umbrella if there was any possif
 excuse for so doing. A man who "
 withstand all other temptations is utter st helpless at the sight of an umbrella. r. don't pretend to offer any explanation ,d it; I simply know that it is fact, a - that the man who takes the umbrella is HI more to blame than the kleptomanisc W ed steals from dry goods stores.
 Id ''It is hard work to sell umbrellas P |, pie always rebel against having to b :. them. They seem to think that they { LIS being imposed upon and resent it accol nc ingly You have to answer more qu tic tions than man at an information eo reau, and guarantee the weather for ut next ten years. And we do meet Tn cranliest lot of cranks. The other da ral man came in here and spent an hour 6