Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1891-10-02
JUST TO KEEP DRY.
New Workers Spend Four Million
, Dollars Yearly.
Interesting Particularly OF the Umbrella
Trade by q Dealers - Enormous
Prices Paid for the
ArtioIe.A

NSOO
every year." said the fat'umbrella man
to a New York Recorderreporter as the
former deity rolled a, silk umbrella
and placed it back in the case. '"The
amount must run SO far up in the
thousands it would seem an exaggera-
ton to one who didn't know anything
about it. If the amount was expended
in charity no one in this town need
ever be hungry. The. average life of a
good umbrella is about a year. Some
times an umbrella will wear four or
five years. You can tell nothing about
them. There is nothing more uncer-
tain. The man who will guarantee an
umbrella is foolish. The severest tests
will not reveal anything, because every
good umbrella is carefully examined
before it is put on sail. Every part of
1t passes through the hands of an ex-
pert. AS said before, the average life
of an umbrella is about a year, if the
owner can keep it as long as that,
which is seldom the case. The average
life of an umbrella and the average
service Of an umbrella are two very
different things. I suppose that the
latter is about six months. AS nearly
as I can arrive at it from close ,observa-
ton about seven hundred Thousand
people in New York carry umbrellas.
That is good many, but I think the
estimate is under rather than over the
exact truth. For mind you, there are
many who have two or three umbrellas
at once. You can buy'a umbrella for
almost any price. The average Of the
good cheap umbrella is about two
dollars. The average of the good silk
umbrella is five dollars. The general
average is about three dollars.
'Now you can readily arrive at an
estimate of the amount of money which
New Workers spend for umbrellas every
year. You will remember that I said
that the average service of an umbrella
is about six months, so that every one
of these seven hundred thousand people
have to spend six. dollars every year to
supply themselves with umbrellas. Just
multiply that andyou will find that this
big town spends four million two hun
dred thousand dollars year. Mind,
that is not exaggerating in the least.
And the umbrella habit is growing.
Theresis one firm in Philadelphia alone
which turns out ten thousand umbrellas
day.
"There is something strange about
umbrellas. To begin with their gen
erNll contrariness about wearing. Then
they have curious effect upon human
nature. wouldn't trust my brother
with an umbrella and he is as honest a
man as ever lived He could have all
the money have but not my umbrella.
A man cannot be honest about themi
st is hard work to sell umbrellas
People always rebel against, having to
buy them. They seem to think that
they are being imposed uponiand resent
it accordingly. You have to answer
more questions than a man at an infor-
nation bureau and guarantee the
weather for the next ten years.
''If you ever buy umbrellas yourself
let me tell you something as q guide.
You can buy the best umbrella that is
made for six dollars and fifty cents
| When you pay more than that you are
paying for the handle or a name. If
you want to spend a lot of money you
can go uptown to one of the big jewel
ry houses and spend anywhere from
twenty-five to one hundred dollars for
an umbrella, and the umbrella itself is
the same old six dollar and fifty cents
umbrella. And if you don't want an
umbrella of that kind you can get one
for three dollars, which will outwear
any silk umbrella that was ever made. -