The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-09-01
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

other. but there is a reason for 1t, as you will see If you do not skip this col umn.
 { I had something to say about the umbrella as a symbol Of power in east ern countries. and l was greatly inter- ested in some pictures showing the va rious types used. One discovered by Layard at Nineveh has tasselled edge and lowered top. saw one dated from the time of Tiglath- -Pileser, the third monarch of that name in Assyria, and familiar to old Testament stu dents.
 It may not be generally known, but the word umbrella Is employed in way to make it hard to distinguish be- tween the article as we now know 1t and fans. In one of the old books writer speaks of the umbrella as a fashion of round and broad fans, where- with the Indians (and from them our great ones) preserve themselves from the heat of the sun or fire; and hence any little shadow, fan, or other thing  wherewith women guard their faces.
 It will be seen that umbrella was the name formerly given to a sort of fan used to protect the face from the sun, but is now applied to light canopy of silk, cotton or other cloth, extended on a folding frame composed of bars or strips of cane, steel, etc. The small and light form Of umbrella. carried by of the sun, often in gay colors or or namented with ribbons. lace, or other trimmings, is hab.tually known as a parasol.
 I spoke of the use of a state um- brella by the doge Of Venice, and Mon- taigne Q533-1592), the great French essayist, in allusions show that in his day it's employment as a sunshade in Italy was quite common. However, umbrellas though seen in Egyptian and Assyrian sculptures. on Greek vases and figurines, and in medieval manuscripts, were not used in Europe until the eighteenth century shell ters from rain, according to some au thorities.
 saw a statement that they were common in London in 1710 but this is hard to reconcile with a letter from Colonel Wolfe, who, writing from Paris in 1752, mentions the carrying of um- brellas there as a defense against both rain and sun. and wonders that they are not introduced into England. It seems that surgeons introduced them both in Edinburgh and Glasgow. In Queen Annes time the umbrella is mentioned both by Swift and Gay as employed by women
 The former saying, in "A City Shower"
 The tucked-up seamstress walks with
 hasty strides.
 While streams ran down her oiled um-
 brella's sides"
 And the latter in "Trivia:''
 "Oh underneath the umbrellas only Safe thro' the wet on clinking pattens
 treads.'
 Michael Drayton in his "Muses Ellzi um" (1630) says, speaking of doves: And. like umbrellas, with their
 feathers Shield you in all sorts of weathers."
 Some have tried to throw this out by holding that Drayton evidently refers to bI,t rla I tried to show that when traced down, um- brella will cover them, both being used for the same purpose. But the strangest use of the word I have been able to discover was that made In Quarles' "Emblems," to signify the Deity hidden in the manhood of Christ" Nature is made tn umbrella of the Deity"
 We know that it was the custom to keep an umbrella in the coffee houses in London early in the eighteenth cen tury, for in the Tatler, In No. 23S (Oc- tober r, 1710), we read: The young l gentlemen belonging to the custom l house borrowed the unlbrel- la from Wilks' coffee house." This is abundant proof that umbrellas were kept for hire Or for the purpose of be- ing lent at that date.
 
 Even Lecky the great historian. In | his England in the Eighteenth Gen. 1 tury," is my authority for the state ment that "Hanway. the famous trav- eler and phiianthropist, who returned to England in 1750. Is said to have been the first Englshman who carried an umbrella" And I learned through an- other source that he brought the idea with him from Persia. He created public disturbance when he first ap- peared on the streets with his rain um- brella as the sedan, porters and pub lie coachnlen looked upon 1t as an in- fringement upon their business.
 
 It was in Baltimore in 1772 that a Ealtimorean was seen on the streets walking under an umtrella which he had purchased from Baltimore ship that had just arrived from India. It is related that at, sight of the innovator with hts novel weather shield women were scared. horses ran away and chill dren pelted him with stones until a town watchman came to his assistance. If his name had survived I would sus gest to the umbrella manufacturers tablet to him on some public building in Baltimore, for, like all pioneers, he played the penalty of introducing a new article to the public.
 However. in spite of the hostile re- ception received by the Baltimorean, an account of the umbrella episode reached Philadelphia. where the new