The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-11-25
A RAINY DAY PARADE
BY LOIS RoBINETTE.

Books of etiquette have some way
overlooked the point of giving the cor
rect angle at which an umbrella
should be carried. This is obviously
quite a serious omission, especially
where those with social aspirations
are concerned. For if you yearn to
be a popular member of the younger
set or charming young matron, or a
leader of the 400-or if of the sterner
sex. you crave having a way with
wimmin'." or being numbered with
the way in which you carry this rainy
day accoutrement oftimes proves to
be the deciding factor in your social
climb.
The poet SAYS, There is a tide in
the affairs Of men, which, taken at its
flood, leads on to victory"
So it is with the umbrella There
are divers ways of handling these I'M
wieldly objects-so many tits SO
many directions in which you may
point them, that it is only by close
and careful observation of a rainy day
crowd that you may find the tilt that is
gest suited to your particular type and
personality.
are women-whether the men consider
the carrying of one as effeminate or
whether they just don't want to be
bothered. has never quite been decided
but tenny rate it isn't done amonS
the sterner sex.
The high school flapper or coed
will attract the eye first in any such
crowd. Like the animals going into
the ark, they always go two by two,
or three by three. with arms inter
locked and with their elaborate,
brightly colored, ivory pronged UNI
brellas held straight ahead of them,
they patter and chatter down the mid
die of the sidewalk. The crowd parts
before these sweet young things-or
rather, their umbrellas as did the
waters of the Red Sea before the
Israelites
A person who obtains equally as
much right of way is the woman who
scarcely needs a handle for her UNI
bella Grasping it somewhere in the
vicinity of the opener" and shutter"
she draws it closely over her head,
making a rain hat of it
Another of the weaker sex. without
whom the rainy day crowd would not
be complete, is the one whose mind is
a thousand miles away-perhaps try
ing to untangle some love affair or
to plan a party dress in
her minds eye. AS a rule her UNI
brella is pitched in the opposite di-
rection from the wind and rain, and
as she rambles along in this fit of abb
stracton, more than one person is
forced to abdicate the sidewalk in her
favor.
Another of the feminine portion of
the crowd, by resting the handle on
her shoulder, makes background of
her umbrella
Very seldom does any woman, from
the most brainless napper to the col |
lege graduate with her string of de-
grees, ever stop to consider from |
which direction the rain is coming, |
but, be it a north rain or a south rain |
or a straight-down rain, she carries |
her umbrella in the self-same way. |
And the men say, with a plying look /
In their eyes, Just like a woman,"
But witness how they manipulate |
one of these articles. The man has /
not yet been found who can hold an /
in one position for any two /
consecutive minutes. He's either in
its spokes with the hair /
and hair net of his fair companion |
or he's holding IL high in the air, |
4 la parachute, or carrying it nine /
-enths over himself, thus leaving the /
one-tenth. which is mostly /
spoke, to drip and drain either on the /
hat or down the neck of the lady in
question
So it's about a draw as to which
are the most proficient in the art
men or women, and as to which of
he various tt ) is the most desirable.