Yeatman High School - Yeatman Life Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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,.,., . f LZ, ,,.. ,,,. ,, , . Humiliation cannot describe the feelings of the person who came late. An umbrella accompanied by many small bundles in the arms of a passenger is as dangerous as a long hat pin in a street car. An umbrella, a hat, an armful of books and are enough to trip any school boy when ascending the stairs. So you see that, although an um- brella is a friend, sometimes it is a treach- erous enemy. As for the handles of umbrellas, they va- ry in shape from an ordinary knotty piece of wood to an elaborate gold or ivory horse head. They were originally solid, but since Prohibition there has been some talk that they would be made hollow and with a screw top. One good sized handle ought H1 to hold a pint. An umbrella like this would be exceedingly Wet. An lmbrella han- dle is a very important thing because if you have a good mental picture of it, you can always identify your umbrella if lost or borrowedg therefore get acquainted with your umbrella handle. Many other things could be said about the umbrella, for instance, the tilt at which it should be held, ibut then that de- pends upon the angle at which the rain is fallingl, or which hand it should be car- ried in or what it is made of, orfOh, any number of things concerning it, but as these of which I have spoken are the most important, I will leave you to consider them gravely and earnestly. SCX X fndfa pw' rip-lx., Ixagfvov F' fm, XA dxf? Ove? . M l X yy Il? i X l Q, fl l lu im ilu l l l Q! -...,........-fv W s,X so lights' N A Q .X lu:ivgL5.iiiiiLlyi4J,,g, ,V ...yi Y it i za egg i glGi.lUG?Gllyf Alias, Q ' L f- ea a ' A ' Inv? TI-I li S EN lOR'S lf,-XRliWl-'l ,l. 151.56 I m'1,v-Sf' 71

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Z M Z Z Z2 ? ,v,,:, ..f.,. W Z ,,.. ,,,, I ,4A U M B R E L L A S AT ANOTHER ANGLE ADLAI TOENNIES g ' Q N UMBRELLA is just an ordinary QAN . . M3526 thing. People have never written books about it, but there are some very important things concerning it that every one ought to know. Why is it car- ried? If it is a gayly colored parasol car- ried by some similarly clad young lady, one realizes at once that it will do her as much good as a pair of ear-rings, for she would not think of getting it wet for any- thing in the world. A young man of about eighteen years of age, walking down the street on a fairly cloudy day and carrying a neatly rolled umbrella, is not thinking of catching cold from getting wet. He is thinking, rather, of that fine crease in his trousers or of that stiff collar he is wearing. If, on the other hand, an umbrella is car- ried by an elderly man or woman, one can judge in a minute that they are carrying it to be prepared. If a small boy is dragging it along on the sidewalk, one can be sure that, down in his heart, he is ashamed to carry it. Still, umbrellas were made to be used, so let every one carry his according to the way he likes. Now, let us turn to the history of the umbrella. In Eastern countries from the earliest times, the umbrella was the insig- nia of royalty and power. Kings and some times lesser noble men going in processions would be shaded by an umbrella of a crude and clumsy nature carried by a servant. The Mahretta princes of India had among their titles, lord of the umbrella, and the King of Burmah, in 1855, when addressing the Governor-General of India, referred to himself as the monarch who reigns over the great umbrella wearing chiefs of the Eastern countries. Imagine President Harding saying such a thing as that, to- Pzzge Forgf-Six day. The umbrella, in that part of the world, was and is still regarded as a luxury belonging to those of the upper class. The Roman and Greek ladies used as a sunshade a fancier type than that of the East, but the using of an umbrella of any shape by the men was considered a sign of effeminacy. From this, I think that the eleven-year-old boy of today gets his idea that a boy who carries an umbrella is a sissy. Along in the Eighteenth Century, the umbrella was kept in the coffee houses of England to lend to any one caught in the rain. Right here began the big mistake. It is no wonder that the managers of the coffee houses went broke and the manufac- turers of umbrellas became rich. Besides, it started a bad precedent. Today, it is no uncommon thing for a person to go out in rainy weather, meet some of his friends and recognize several familiar umbrellas. So through all the years, the umbrella has flourished and we still use it for practically the same purposes. Its construction, too, has remained the same throughout all these years, except, that at first the umbrella was made to be held open by the hand. The fellow who invented bumbershoot variety, was the man with brains, for he supplied thousands of children with thrills and thousands of repair men with jobs putting in new spring Still, the child must have some pleasure, and besides, bumbersh0ot springs don't cost a fortune. There are times when the umbrella comes in handy, but there are also times when it does not. For instance, a person enters a church late on a rainy morning. The prayer is halfway through when the person takes a seat in the last row without a bit of noise. Then the tricky, gold-han- dled umbrella falls clattering to the floor.

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Page Farly-Eight THE ROGUES' GALLERY