The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-08-23
WOMEN
 AND THINGS


 weeks ago and the sun was beating down on the bleachers. I was struck
 by the that in the bleachers oc- cupied by the whites there was only one umbrella whire in the coIored sec ton I counted ten. the percentage of negroes carrying them being sccentu- ated further by the fact that there 1 were probably five times as many white persons in the bleachers as col 1 ored people.
 It called to mind a story my father told me when I was a boy. Said he: Shortly after the war one of the lib- erated slaves who worked daily in the fields, bought silk umbrella, giving for excuse that he wanted to use it on moonlight nights in going to and l from church." Before the war such a thing as a negro protecting himself city.
 Bear in mind that I have no crow to pick with the "colored brother for adopting the style of white folks in toting around umbrellas as sun shades, but am merely commenting on some | thing which l saw with my own eyes as being, to say the least, a rather l queer thing which may be peculiar | of Birmingham so far as I know any thing about it. It might be of inter est to learn if the custom has become general. | l For the fortieth or four hundredth time, l know not. but without stop i ping to get the statistics I'll remark that l was reared in Eufaula. Now, l think if the Eufaulians do not kick because of my constant boast of the fact, the general public ought not to 1 kick. I would not do it often, but in reminiscening, if one wishes to be true l to history he must give dates and To- cations. 1 What I started out to say is that when was growing up it was the custom for men, women and children to either carry umbrellas or parasols My father was a physician and he used one and we were encouraged to do likewise I remember he was partic- ularly insistent that we should make use of them from July through Octo- Der. He seemed to think lthe Septem- Der sun peculiarly dangerous. l But father wasn't anything like as 1 particular as my uncle Samuel Barnett | Of Washington, Georgia, when it came to the selection of umbrellas. He was 1 the most susceptible man to cold that ever knew. One day he was down 1 on the public square, standing out in | the sun talking to friend, when he i sneezed Looking up, he remarked that. he was catching cold as he had inadvertently picked up his silk um- l brella instead of his alpaca one. Mo- I am not trying to string" you. for this is one of our standing family 1 jokes.
 A quarter of a century back for man or woman to appear on Broad street in my home town without a paraso or umbrella during the sum mer months while the sun was shining ] was to give the impression either of 1 being eccentric or tempting Provi- dence. A respectable citizen would I have felt as III at ease walking through the downtown section without 4 at home It was an unheard of thing. l For twenty five years of\ my life was slave to the umbrella habit. I | wish I could set down here all of the money I have spent for them and give some idea of the number borrowed. from me never to be returned, or to ] those which were taken through mis- take. It has always been held that an umbrella, like a thought belongs to 1 the man who can appropriate it. and | there be many plagiarists when it l comes to the former
 I haven't looked up the. question in law, but l doubt if any jury would | give complainant verdict against a defendant who had been arraigned for lifting some one else's umbrella for it would be hard to find twelve men in any community who at some critical stage in the weather had not mistaken the other fellows umbrella for "his'n." Always of course, with the mental reservation that when the rain held up he would return 1t with apolo- gies
 Because of this well-known fact, many owners have tried to make it i nconvenient for their friends to be tempted ins any such manner and therefore have resorted to the expedi- ent of having their name printed in 1 bold letters either on the inside or outside of their umbrellas Some even go further and politely ask that if taken under delusion as to the own- ership it be returned, and I have seen suspicious persons who in front of their name put the tell tale words
 Stolen from" but this only protects in small towns where everyone knows one another.
 l 1 know the story of timd man lwho early one morning in his hurry to get out of, the street car picked up
 an umbrella which belonged to the
 lady sitting next to him under the idea that he had brought his along. She called his attention to his mis- take and he apologized with many bushes. It SO happened that he had | the day before left several at the 1 umbrella menders to be repaired. In
 the afternoon he went for them and
 on entering the car on his way home
 found out that the lady across the aisle was the one whose umbrella he
 had taken up in the morning. He
 was nbashed, but not she. for with a sarcastic smile. she acidly said: "I
 congf atulate you: l see your mistakes
 today have been quite profitable" 1 I owned up to having been a victim 1 of the umbrella carrying mania (the vi, ,nt taE