The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-02-11

poets-Their Significance in the
East.
From the New York Post.
About A hundred and forty or fifty
,,esrs ago a bloodless revolution was
Lr,rgbt about IN London by single man.
o. vas Jonas Hanway, a well-knOwn
-hnantbropist and founder of the Magda-
iar Hospital who first had the courage
babitually to carry and use an umbrella
n nublic Up to his time the umbrella
bo5 been considered as essentially an arti-
ole Of feminine equipment and luxury,
or5 the innovation was naturally for
Ionc time subject of derislon in general,
bnt most especially from the hackney
coacbmen and chairmen of the day, who
considered the use of them an invasion OF
tbeir vested rights. Macdonald, a liter
49,, footuan of that time, who wrote an
an{obiography, informed his readers that
Labad "a fine silk umbrella which he
brought from Spain; but that he could
NOT. with any comfort TO himself, use 1t,
the people calling out, 'trenchman, why
Son't YOU get a coach?'" So remarkable
Tras the appearance of an umbrella in
those DAYS, that the debut of one in
many other English towns was quite an
item like the monster gooseberry or sea-
SERPENT of later days. So we read of
red leghorn umbrella appearing in Bristol
about 1880 and creating quite sensation
In Edinburgh a DR.. Spens was said to
have been the first to carry one in public
Horace WalpOle tells also how Dr.
Shebbeare. who was prosecuted for sedi-
tious writings in 1858, stood in the pill
lory. having a footman holding an UNI
brelia to keep of the rain" For permit
ting this indulgence to malefactor, the
under sheriff was punished.
OF the antiquity of the umbrella or
parasol there can be no doubt; but the
origin of it is wrapped in considerable OBJ
scurity. Investigators of umbrella lore
have supposed that large leaves tied to
the extremity of a bough, suggested the
first idea others assert that it was prob
ably derived from tent; the tradition
existing in China is that the San, which
SIGNIFIES shade for sun or raiu, origin
sted in standards and banners waving in
the air. The humble mushroom can also
moaestly claim some share of the idea,
and this claim to the original patent is &C
knOwledged by the PaIisianS, who call
their shelters, erected for equestrlans in
the Bots de Boulogne "Champignons.
The unearthed Ninevite sculptures the
parasol appears frequently, and Layard
in his book called i"Stones Crying Out, -
gives a description of bas-relief of a
king in his chariot, with an attendant
holding parasol over his head. In Egypt
also the parasol is found in various shapes.
In some instances it is depicted as a fla
bellum," fan of palm-leaves or colored
feathers fixed on long handle, resem-
bling those now carried behind the pope
IN professions. Sir Gardner Wilkinson,
in his book on Egypt, has an engraving of
an Ethiopian princess travelling through
Upper Egypt in a chariot with a kind of
umbrella fastened to a stout pole rising in
the center To Judge from Wilkinson s
account, the umbrella was generally used
throughout Egypt, partly as mark of
distinction, but more on account of its use
full than its ornamental qualities.
AS in Assyria, so in most other Oriental
countries, the use of the parasol carried
with it a peculiar and honorable signif-
canoe. A very ancient book of Chinese
ceremonies, called "Tcheou-Li" or The
Rites of Tcheou," directs that upon the
imperial cars the dais should be placed
The figure of this dais contained in the
Chinese edition of "Tcheou-Li," and the
particular description of it given in an ex.
planatory commentary, both identify il
with an umbrella. In the second Tartar
invasion of China the emperor's son was
taken prisoner by the Tartar chief, and
made TO carry his UNI brella when out hunt
ing Starting from the royal significance
attached TO the umbrella came a feeling
Of veneration for it, very different from
the feeling with which we are nowadays
apt to regard it. 1t was represented by
many ancient natiouS as shading their
gods. In the Hindu mythology, Vishnu
Is SAID to have paid a visit to the internal
regions with his umbrella over his head
One would think that in few places could
an umbrella have been less appropriate
but doubtless Vishnu knew what he was
about and had his private reasons fol-
carrying his umbrella there
In Greece, as Becker tells us in his
"Charlcles," the parasol was an indis-
pensable adjunct to lady of fashion. II
also had its religious significance. In the
Sclrophoria, the feast of Athene Sciras, a
Wnlte parasol was borne by the priest
esses of the goddess from the Acropolis
10 the Phalerum. In the feast of Diony.
Slus the umbrella was used, and in an old
Das-rellet that god is represented as de-
Scending ad inferos with a small UNI.
Drella IN his hand, like Vishnu. There
was also another festival in which it APP
peared, though without any mystical sig
hllcaJlon. In the PanathenR the daugh-
ters Of the Metoeci, or foreign residents,
carried parasols over the heads of Ath-
ehlan women as mark of inferiority. In
greece its use seems to have been con
Aned to women, and for a man to carry
one was considered a mark of eSe ninacy
as appears from line in a fragment OF
oOlA. AlC GdIIlSS XII lNOIJ pdIdSOl
as women do"
From Greece it is probable that the use
0l Ihe umbrella or parasol passed tC
nome, where it seems to have been used
commonly by women, while 1t was the
custom even for effeminate men to defend
themselves from the heat by means of the
un oraculum, formed of skin or leather
dnd capable of being lowered at will. We
ma frequent reference to the umbrella in
tne Roman classics, and it appears that
IL was probably post of honor among
Hdfu servants to bear it over their mis-
CreSses. Allusions to it are tolerably fire.
qlent In the poets Ovid speaks of Her
CUES carrying the parasol of Omphale:
Aurea pellebant raoidos umbracula soles,
Qu4 tamen Herculea Sustinuere manus."
Ovid again advises lover to make him
sell agreeable by holding his mistress
parasOl:
Ipse tene distenta suis umbracula virgis
ASS. Am. H., POS
This shows that the umbrella was of
Hucn The same construction as ours.
Coming down to still later days, very
many curious facts are connected with
me use OF the umbrella throughout the
east where it was nearly everywhere
one OF the insignia of royalty, or al
ieast Of high rank Monsieur de la Lou
Uere, who was envoy extraoy.din arv from