Umbrellas and their History

Umbrellas and their History

Project Gutenberg's Umbrellas and their History, by William Sangster
Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the
header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is
important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how
the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a
donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since
1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of
Volunteers!*****
Title: Umbrellas and their History
Author: William Sangster
Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6674] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on January 12,
2003]

Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII, with some ISO-8859-1 characters
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK
UMBRELLAS AND THEIR HISTORY ***

Avinash Kothare, Steve Schulze, Charles Franks and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team. This file was produced from images
generously made available by the CWRU Preservation Department
Digital Library

UMBRELLAS AND THEIR HISTORY
BY
WILLIAM SANGSTER.
"Munimen ad imbres."

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY
CHAPTER II.
THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE UMBRELLA
CHAPTER III.

THE UMBRELLA IN ENGLAND
CHAPTER IV.
THE STORY OF THE PARACHUTE
CHAPTER V.
UMBRELLA STORIES
CHAPTER VI.
THE REGENERATION OF THE UMBRELLA
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
Can it be possibly believed, by the present eminently practical
generation, that a busy people like the English, whose diversified
occupations so continually expose them to the chances and changes of a
proverbially fickle sky, had ever been ignorant of the blessings
bestowed on them by that dearest and truest friend in need and in deed,
the UMBRELLA? Can you, gentle reader, for instance, realise to
yourself the idea of a man not possessing such a convenience for rainy
weather?
Why so much unmerited ridicule should be poured upon the head (or
handle) of the devoted Umbrella, it is hard to say. What is there comic
in an Umbrella? Plain, useful, and unpretending, if any of man's
inventions ever deserved sincere regard, the Umbrella is, we maintain,
that invention. Only a few years back those who carried Umbrellas
were held to be legitimate butts. They were old fogies, careful of their
health, and so on; but now-a-days we are wiser. Everybody has his
Umbrella. It is both cheaper and better made than of old; who, then, so
poor he cannot afford one? To see a man going out in the rain
umbrella-less excites as much mirth as ever did the sight of those who

first--wiser than their generation--availed themselves of this now
universal shelter. Yet still a touch of the amusing clings to the "Gamp,"
as it is sarcastically called. 'What says Douglas Jerrold on the subject?
"There are three things that no man but a fool lends, or, having lent, is
not in the most helpless state of mental crassitude if he ever hopes to
get back again. These three things, my son, are--BOOKS,
UMBRELLAS, and MONEY! I believe a certain fiction of the law
assumes a remedy to the borrower; but I know of no case in which any
man, being sufficiently dastard to gibbet his reputation as plaintiff in
such a suit, ever fairly succeeded against the wholesome prejudices of
society. Umbrellas may be 'hedged about' by cobweb statutes; I will not
swear it is not so; there may exist laws that make such things property;
but sure I am that the hissing contempt, the loud-mouthed indignation
of all civilised society, 'would sibilate and roar at the bloodless poltroon
who should engage law on his side to obtain for him the restitution of
a--lent Umbrella!"
Strange to say, it is a fact, melancholy enough, but for all that too true,
that our forefathers, scarce seventy years agone, meekly endured the
pelting of the pitiless storm without that protection vouchsafed to their
descendants by a kind fate and talented inventors. The fact is, the
Umbrella forms one of the numerous conveniences of life which seem
indispensable to the present generation, because just so long a time has
passed since their introduction, that the contrivances which, in some
certain degree, previously supplied their place, have passed into
oblivion.
We feel the convenience we possess, without being always aware of the
gradations which intervened between it and the complete
inconvenience of being continually unsheltered from the rain, without
any