within the lifetime of persons now living that this almost indispensable protection from the moist climate of England has become generally adopted. In the "Female Tatler" of December 12, 1709, appears a satirical notice informing the "young gentleman belonging to the custom-house who, for fear of rain, borrowed the umbrella at Will's coffee-house, in Cornhill, of the mistress," that "to be dry from head to foot on the like occasion he shall be welcome to the maid's pattens." Gay mentions the umbrella as early as 1712, in his poem of "Trivia," in which he describes the "tucked-up sempstress" walking in a shower while streams" run down her oiled umbrella's sides." Mr. J. Jamieson, a Scottish surgeon, brought with him from Paris in 1781, or 1782, an umbrella which was the first seen in Glasgow where he resided, and where it attracted universal attention.

The earliest specimens of the English umbrella were made, as mentioned in Gay's lines, of oiled silk, which, when wet, was exceedingly difficult to open or close. The stick and furniture were heavy and inconvenient, and the article very expensive. Its transition to the present portable form is due, partly to the substitution of silk and gingham for the heavy and troublesome oiled silk, which admits of the ribs and stretchers being made much lighter; and also to the many ingenious mechanical improvements in the framework which have been made from time to time, chiefly by English and French manufacturers, several of which have been patented. No change has proved a greater convenience than that from the old-fashioned ring and string, for securing the umbrella when closed, to the simple clip and

india rubber braid now in use; and yet, before this was accomplished, many transitions had to be passed through.

Though the umbrella is itself of older date, there is nothing to invalidate the story that it is to the good Jonas Hanway that we are indebted for the valuable example of moral courage in first carrying an umbrella in the streets of London. It is difficult now to conceive the amount of persecution which this strange proceeding entailed upon the unfortunate philanthropist, whose object was, doubtless, less the protection of his own person than that of showing his fellow-countrymen how they might avoid those continual drenchings to which they had so long submitted. The hackney coachman and the sedan chairman were the first to call out against the threatened innovation, declaring that they were ruined if it came into fashion. When they began to be carried, even a gentleman accompanied by a lady, under the shelter of the new-fangled rain protector, were hooted as they passed along; while a gentleman alone, carrying one, was certain to be attacked with cries of "Frenchman! Frenchman! why don't you call a coach ?" and other more offensive salutations.

THE OLD TELEGRAPHS.

AMONG the still primitive people of Montenegro a plan of transmitting information prevails which may be considered the rudest system of telegraphy still existing. When a shepherd in the mountains finds himself in want of society, he sends out at random a peculiar kind of yell with a view of attracting the attention of any one similarly situated who may chance to be within hearing upon some other mountain side, and may also feel a desire for conversation. It is well known at what a great distance shrill sounds may be distinctly heard in these mountainous regions. The unseen friend, whose ears have caught the sound, responds in the same way, and then begins a dialogue about their flocks and herds, or any other country gossip; and should there chance to be news of public interest, such as of any important person or foreigner passing that way, the receiver of the intelligence shouts it out in the open air for the benefit of the mountain nearest to him, and so it passes from one to another through a considerable part of the country. "This practice of calling from hill to hill," says a recent traveller, "also answers the purpose of an advertisement in a newspaper, and that with wonderful celerity. At any given time one half of this badlyhoused population may mostly be found in the open air, and their ears are astonishingly quick at catching these sounds. Any one who yells out his requirements may generally calculate on some one who has nothing else to do repeating them for him to the next living

telegraph. An acquaintance told me he was once in want of a mule that was at the time grazing in the mountains more than ten miles off. He accordingly began the hue and cry. the village of Brelizzu! Glenbotich, by the great boughs, my little lad Yonko is keeping my white-footed mule. Let him know that he is to come with it down to the road as fast as he can.' Thus the owner of the mule yelled at random into the air, and immediately some living echo took up his words, repeating them exactly; and so the message went till it reached the boy, and the owner of the mule found it waiting for him at the appointed place."

'Ho! ho! you people there in High up in the mountains of beech tree with the withered

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Beacon fires were the ancient mode of telegraphy adopted in Great Britain, and in an act of the Scottish Parliament of 1455, it is directed that one bale or faggot shall be warning of the approach of the English in any manner, two bales that they are coming indeed, and four bales blazing beside each other, that the enemy are in great force." The famous Bishop Wilkins, who pretended to discover the art of flying, describes certain alphabetic systems of transmitting information which depended merely upon the number and alternate display or concealment of lights. The Marquis of Worcester, in 1663, described a system by which, as he said, a man at a window, as far as the eye could discover black and white, could hold discourse with his correspondent; and the ingenious Dr. Hook, in 1684, explained to a meeting of the Royal Society a scheme for communicating one's mind at distances of thirty, forty, a hundred, or a hundred and twenty miles "in as short a time

almost as a man can write what he would have sent." His plan required the use of the telescope, and was of course dependent on weather and various accidents; but this was the germ of the old semaphore which was actually used by our Government, and was at work in this country as late as 1852 between Liverpool and Holyhead. About twenty years after Hook's scheme was unfolded, an inventor, named Amontous, brought forward a similar plan in France. Persons were placed by him in several stations at a certain distance from one another, and by the help of a telescope a man in one station was enabled to see a signal in the next before him. He was then required immediately to make the same signal, so that it might be seen by persons in the station after him. The signals used were either large letters of the alphabet or figures of various shapes to represent them. Amontous publicly demonstrated the practicability of his plan; but no system of signals was applied to any useful purpose till the period of the French Revolution. The telegraph then brought into use, in either 1793 or 1794, was the invention of M. Chappé, and, though similar in principle to the machine invented by Hook, it was greatly superior. The roof of the Louvre was his telegraphic terminus, and Chappé, having received from the Revolutionary Government a message to be forwarded to the army at Lille, he gave an understood signal to the heights of Montmartre, which was the second station, to prepare. At each station there was a watch-tower where telescopes were fixed, and the person on watch gave the signal of preparation throughout the line. The watcher at Montmartre then received, letter by