Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 April 1890 — A NOVEL UMBRELLA. [ARTICLE]

A NOVEL UMBRELLA.

A* Umbxwlla Which Rinmlnet— the Bight br Shooting Off Fireworks. A Philadelphian who arrived home recently from Europe, says the Inquirer, has an umbrella that was bought at the Paris exhibition, with which he has been alarming or amusing, as the case may be, his friends. Cue evening last week he was walking with a companion along a lane near his suburban residence. It was raining slightly and the umbrella was hoisted. While they were in deep conversation a noise like the firing or a toy pistol was heard, followed by a slight whizzing sound, as if some light body was rushing rapidly through the air. In a second a pretty piece of fireworks burst overhead and sent down a glittering shower of multi-colored fire. The friend made a startled movement, peered cautiously around in the darkness and remarked that it was a queer sort of a night for anybody to give a pyrotechnic exhibition out in the country. The owner of the umbrella assented and they resumed their walk. Pretty soon there was another explosion and a second rocket burst high up in the air. A third and a fourth followed in rapid succession, causing the mystified man to jump and rush about in a greatly excited condition. He was quickly calmed, however, when the umbrella’s proprietor handed it to him and told him to touch a small protuberance that appeared to be simply a part of the elaborate ornamentation. Then the fifth rocket ascended. ■ ‘The show is over,” said the returned traveler, “for you can only load the stick with five pieces of fireworks at a time. I paid $125 for the v umbrella and 100 loads, but I think it is worth the money. The stick is, of course, hollow; and the ferrule is closed with a lid that works on a ihiage. A detonationg apparatus is worked by the pressure which you have just made on the handle and makes the spark which communicates with the miniature rocket. The whole thing is ingenious but simple when you come to understand it.”

B. Forsythe was in Cincinnati last week attending a manufacturer’s closing out sale of Spring and Summe clothing and yon can now see the largest stock in Rensselaer and buy clothing at regular wholesale price at Chicago Bargain Store.