The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-02-03
ALL ABOUT UMBRELLAS.
CHINESE LEGENDS CONCERNING
THEIR ORIGIN.


Stieks-MateriaIs Have Been Used.
The Lord of Twenty-FOur POrta-
bile Shelters
From the Chicago Times.
Not. forsooth. its origin. That apears
to be lost beyond hope of recovery in the
remotest mists of time. BY some its in
vention is credited to China. which is re-
sponsible for the creation of so many OF
our most cherished institutions. and a
pleasant legend supports this theory. As
tho financial world owes much 10 Tubal
Cain, who placed the first shares-pIough-
shares-on- the market. so are traders
indebted 10 one Of his countrywomen for
the umbrella It was in the time of the
earliest dynasties. says the Chinese leg
end. that the happy thought occurred TO
the wife of Los-paU. a celebrated carpen-
ter. Ny Lord" said this admirable woman
to her husband. the houses YOU build
so cleverly to shelter men are beautiful
but immovable have it in mind TO inn
prove on your creations and to produce
a portable shelter-one that may be car
ried, even a thousand leagues"
And the astonished Lou-pau then saw
unfolded before him the mystery of the
first parasol
1t took the umbrella something like
1900 years to travel from China to Eng
land. and progressive though they deem
themselves, the English appear TO have
been the last Of all nations of the earth
to enter upon the enjoyment of this en-
viable possession. Everybody used UNI
brellas before we did The Egyptians,
the Greeks. the Romans. the Indian ma
lions, the Arabs. the Moors. all the Afri-
can nations. and in later times the Ital-
ians the Germans. and the French, kept
themselves dry in winter and cool in sum
mer. while they, in futile stoicism, went
about soaked or sunburned.
Insular pride would fain suggest that if
they had needed umbrellas they should
have acquired them. as they have other
possessions-India and the colonies, and
the influenza, to wit But has then the
climate undergone so signal a change
in the last 200 years?
Though backward. it is still consolatory
to note that England was not more than
a century or so behind other civilized
countries in this matter The umbrella
was very little known in France even
toward the close of the sixteenth century.
In common with fans, the cuisine
rhuile and wholesale poisoning, it was
imported thither from italy by the Med
icis The Italians had already long
known the ombello and as far back as
the fourteenth century, in the mystery
plays. for which Italy was at that time
famous il was not uncommon during
the representation of the "Deluge" for
the enactor of the creator to promenade
the stage with an umbrella over his
head But in France it was still new.
Amiable French romanticists have. to be
sure, depicted for us hunting scenes of
the time of Henry H. and Henry III.
in which the bellies ct honestes chas-
seresses rode their palfreys down the
forest glades, parasol in hand. Alas!
remorseless statistics force the convic-
ton that there was anachronism, for
the only umbrella then known in France,
and it was very rare, was so polIierous
and mighty an instrument that its burden
on horseback, even in the open, would
soon have tried the strength of a stall
wart man at arms, while in forest glades
but there let 1t go
Even at a later period folks thought
twice before taking out an umbrella.
and with reason. inasmuch as the luxury
weighed about fourteen pounds, and in
England so late as 1856 the umbrella
was still so rare that Tradescant thought
one worthy Of place among the marvels
Of his collection of rarties at South Lam
beth The earliest mention of it, indeed,
in orr literature Is in Beaumont and
| Fletcher's play. Rule Wife and Have
a Wife" where the hero is compared to
an umbrella. Ben Johnson also alludes
| to the umbello as does also Drayton IN
| 1920 But Defoe was really the first En-
| glish writer who made mention or 1t in
/ any great length-in Robinson Crusoe.
! And as a tribute to his genius, De II
! said the class of instrument which we
stvle a CAMP is in Paris called 'un
! Robinson" to this day A little later
| SUift often alluded to the umbrella as,
| for instance in the lines describing the
effects Of shower Where
e'The tucked-up seamstress walks with
! hasty strides,
| While streams run down her olled UNI
brella's Sides
cav. too. speaks of the umbrella s
OILY she'd" which would seem to show
! that the instrument at this time was made
! OF some material akin to tarpaulin. Even
! a hundred years later Cheapslde trades
man boasted loudly that his superlative
/ umbrellas were so prepared that they
would not stick together. Even the re-
! spectacle bingham, now an antique, was
! unknown until well on in the present
! century.
For a long time after it had become
! known English opinion held the carrying
| of umbrellas to be effeminate. In great
houses one was kept for the protection
| of guests passing to and fro from their
| coaches and coffee houses had one Tor
| the use of their customers, by whom,
however. it was so generally condemned
that the young beau who borrowed that
| of Wills coffee house from the mistress
was formally notified in the Female Tat
| tier that he would be welcome to the
maids pattens as well. Its Introduction
! into general use, indeed, was very slow.
/ In 1852 Gen. Wolfe. writing from Paris of
| the common employment of parasols and
umbrellas in that city, expressed sur
prise that we should hold out against so
useful a practice Six years later Horace
| Walpole describing the punishment of
DR.. Shebbeare for libel says; The man
stood in the pillory, having a footman
holding ar umbrella to keep off the rain.
! James Hanvay. the traveller, in 1855 is
| said to have been the first person to
walk the streets habitually with an UNI
brella, though more than twenty years
later one, John Macdonald, a footman,
was nightly ridiculed for carrying one
which he had brought from Spain.
With the present century the fashion
of umbrellas came in with rush, and
. q