In fact, so long as the climate of England remains
as it is, so long will Umbrellas hold their ground in public esteem,
and we do not believe that the clerk of the weather will allow
himself to be bribed into any alteration, at least for trade
considerations.
Another remarkable proof of the utility of the Umbrella may be found
in the universality of its use. It has asserted its sway from Indus
to the Pole, and is to be met with in every possible variety, from
the Napoleon blue silk of the London exquisite, to the coarse red or
green cotton of the Turkish rayah. Throughout the Continent it forms
the peaceful armament of the peasant, and no more curious sight can
be imagined than the wide, uncovered market-place of some quaint old
German town during a heavy shower, when every industrial covers
himself or herself with the aegis of a portable tent, and a bright
array of brass ferrules and canopies of all conceivable hues which
cotton can be made to assume, without losing its one quality of "fast
colour," flash on the spectator's vision.
The advantages of the Umbrella being thus recognised, it must be
confessed that it has hitherto been treated in a most ungrateful and
step-motherly fashion. We fly to the Umbrella when the sky is
overcast--it affords us shelter in the hour of need--and the service
is forgotten as soon as the necessity is relieved.
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