are exceedingly ugly. The artist
has kindly made a picture for you of a "natural" stick just as it is
brought from the ground where it grows, and, then again, the same stick
after it has been prepared for the umbrella.

Of the imported "natural" sticks, the principal are olive, ebony, furze,
snakewood, pimento, cinnamon, partridge, and bamboo. Perhaps you do not
understand that a "natural" stick is one that has been a young tree,
having grown to be just large enough for an umbrella stick, when it was
pulled up, root and all, or with at least a part of the root. If, when
you buy an umbrella that has the stick bent into a deep curve at the
bottom for the handle, you may feel quite sure that it is of partridge
wood, which does not grow large enough to furnish a knob for a handle,
but, when steamed, admits of being bent.

The "runner," "ferule," "cap," "band," etc., form what is called umbrella
furniture and for these articles there is a special manufactory. Another
manufactory cuts and grooves wire of steel into the "ribs" and
"stretchers." Formerly ribs were made out of cane or whalebone; but these
materials are now seldom used. When the steel is grooved, it is called a
"paragon" frame, which is the lightest and best made. It was invented by
an Englishman named Fox, seventeen or eighteen years ago. The latest
improvement in the manufacture of "ribs" is to give them an inward curve
at the bottom, so that they will fit snugly around the stick, and which
dispenses with the "tip cup,"--a cup-shaped piece of metal that closed
over the tips.

[Illustration: AN UMBRELLA HANDLE _au naturel_]

Of course we should all like to feel that we Americans have wit enough to
make everything used in making an umbrella. And so we have in a way; but
it must be confessed that most of the silk used for umbrella covers, is
brought from France. Perhaps if the Cheney Brothers who live at South
Manchester in Connecticut, and manufacture such elegant silk for ladies'
dresses, and such lovely scarfs and cravats for children, were to try and
make umbrella silk, we would soon be able to say to the looms of France,
"No more umbrella silk for America, thank you; we are able to supply our
own!"

[Illustration: CUTTING THE COVERS.]

But the "Yankees" do make all their umbrella gingham, which is very nice.
And one gingham factory that I have heard about has learned how to dye
gingham such a _fast_ black, that no amount of rain or sun changes the
col