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Show Your First Name VT BY FRANCES MARSHALL. Gerard, Gerald, Garrett, Gertrude and Geraldine are spear names and come from the long-ago times when a man, and a woman, too, must fight, for life and snfot3 Tho bearers of tho earliest earli-est forms of these n.unos were, as their names suggest, true spear-men and spear-maidens. Gemot was a bold Teutonic Teu-tonic warrior and Gcrdurd was one of the fierce Valkyrie maidens of Teutonic mythology. But the famous men and women of the names in historic times have with a few exceptions won their way to fame along roads of peace. There have boon a few exceptions like Gerard Lake, the popular English com- m.mrlr- wlm fnrt- Ilnllvi 5n Frilin tn keep up tho tradition of tho first warlike war-like Ghernot and pugnacious Gordrud. But against these few are arrayed an ever-increasing group of peaceful saints and churchmen, poets, chroniclers, scholars, schol-ars, reformers, singors. actresses, writers, writ-ers, philanthropists and statesmen. In 1466 at Rotterdam in the Netherlands Nether-lands was born porhaps the greatest of all tho spear-men of peace. He was called Dcslderius Erasmus, two names supposed to be tho Latin and the Greek equivalents for Gerhard, his father's name. Delicate throughout his life of sev-ent' sev-ent' years, and forced to mako many concessions to his frail bGdy. poor, and sometimes persecuted by his literary enemios, Erasmus, as he is generally known, rosp. to hr mia of flir fnrnmnzt scholars of his age. So bent was he on study that he used to buy '''Greek-books '''Greek-books first and clothes afterward." Tn search of learning he traveled Europe from end to end, and bocame acquainted acquaint-ed with tho most prominent men of England, Germany, Prance, Italy and Holland. In his youth Erasmus was for a short fcimc a tutor to young noblemen among them the son of Jamos IV. of Scotland and for a time he held a chair at Cambridge. Cam-bridge. As he refused to accept pay from poor students he did not make his professorship a very paying businoss, and anj-wny he did" not 'liko teaching, so according to tho custom of his day, he allowed his friends to support him. lie used to receive gifts of all sorts from swoets and comfits sent by the nuns at Cologne to large purses of money given by powerful ecclesiastics and statesmen. Erasmus felt no false pride about accepting these gifts; indeed, he used to send a horseman on errands for the printing press ho helped manage at Basel, with instructions to stop on his way back and see what Cardinal So-and-bo and Lord This and-That had in tho way of donations and gifts. He was not so very economical, either, with has gift money. His dolicatc constitution made it necessary for him to have certain kinds of food and wine, and as ho could nor. stand tho iron stoves usual for heating heat-ing ho always had to have porcelain stoves or open fires put in the rooms where he worked and lived. Then, too. he did not like to travel alone, and had to go to tho extra expense, when traveling, travel-ing, of paying for the services of a courier and an extra horse. Nevertheless, ho was well liked, and was one of the really important men of Ins da'. Tho earliest of these Geralds and Gertrudes of peace wore tho mediaeval saints and churchmen of the name some half dozen, perhaps, who gained tamo. Ono of thein was Gertrude, or Gerdrud, a daughter of ono of the early Prankish chiefs. Pepin of Baden. She was brought up in her father's palace, and almost from babyhood determined de-termined to take ihe veil. Although she was sought by many suitors among them King Dagobert I. she kept to her childhood pledge, and entered a nunnery which her father had built for her at Nivollc in Brabant. In the year 646, when she was 20 years old, she became abbess, and spent the rest of her life in the nunnery. Saint Gertrude was a gentle saint, and although she subjected herself to rigid hardships, she comforted the sorrowful and took care of tho poor. So her memory was greatly loved bv the Franks, and her name did not need tho additional noto which throe or four other saints gave it to become one of J GERALD -j f GERTRUDE 4 T v Peaceful Bearers of tho Famous v Spear Names The Teutonic War- nor Ghernot. and tho Valkyrie v Maiden Gordrud Wore tho Pore- y runners of the Gorards. Geralds, v Garret ts, Gertrudes and Gcraldiiics -r ot Later Times Gerald Lake. In- I dian Conqueror, One Warlike Bear- r er of the Name The Founder of r f an Order of Knights, and the y Pounder of a Brotherhood A y Man Named Gerard in Latin and -r y in Greek. ; . . , groat popularity in early Prance and Germany. A little after St. Gertrude's death there flourished an Anglo-Saxon Saint Gerhold, who did for the namo Gerald what the gentle abbess of Nivello did for Gertrude. Gerald became u monk in Irclaud, and there are manv strange legends told about his life and' wor' One is that he. with throe hundred otner saints, was turned out of a fort where they had takon rofnrm hv th wiCn f hlnF iii0mhan of Counoiiirht, nnd that Gerhold and all the three hundred there-u-on besought Providence to deliver Ireland from such a. king as Caomhan. Gerhold died in 732. A few conturios later there lived two famous Gerards, Gerard Tunc and Gerard Ger-ard Groot, who founded what in their day were' two powerful organizations, both of thorn organizations which worked for harmony and peace. Tunc was Italian, born at Amain" in 1040; Groot was Dutch, born at Deventer in 1340. j Tunc, nrobabl.y a merchant and a very worldly one at that, it is said went to Jerusalem some time at the end of the eleventh century. Ho became guardian of the hospice, or inn for travelers, which existed there, and when tho crusaders arrived at Jerusalem he was thrown into prison on suspicion of favoring thier projoct. And aCtor victory ho was released. He had undergone under-gone some change of heart, it is sup- - posed, during his imprisonment, and he now sot about founding tho order of the Knights Hospitalers of St. John, or Malta, an order which .bound its members mem-bers to holy service under the vow of chastity, poverty und obedience Tho Knights of Malta were supposed to go about tho world trying to relieve all Christians in distress, and for a long tuno the order was powerful. Groot. was a persevering scholar, but up to the time he was 34 he lived a somewhat indulgent and selfish life. Then, according to his biographers, he had a serious illness, and like Tunc in his prison cell, underwent a change of purpose. The next five years Groot. or Gerard the Groat, as he was called, spent his time in visiting monasteries near Brussels, and after that ho became a missionary, and went back to Holland. Hol-land. There he met with instant and unusual success. Thomas A. Kempis. ono of tho young men who came under his innuencc and training, said that the people left their meals and business to hear him speak, and the churches were not largo enough to hold the crowds that flocked to hear him. proot was a translator, and with a iriena ne gathered together some young men to copj' manuscript. Finally they decided to put their earnings in a common com-mon fund, and live together according to a certain rule. Thus started tho order of tho Brothers of tho Common Life, with Groot at its head. Ono of tho rules of the order was that tho brothers wore to earn, not beg, thoir daily bread, and for this purposo they pursued all sorts of handcrafts. With his private estate Groot endowed an order of sisters who did spinning and weaving and embroidery. The orders grew in numbers and influenco, but at the time of the reformation they died out. Gervase of Canterbury, who died in 1210, an English chronicler; Gerard of Cremona, who died in 1187, a mediaeval translator, and Geraldus Cambrensis, or tie Bcrri, born in 11-17 of a royal Welsh family, who at his own request was ap- i pointed legate to the Wol'sh so that he might excommunicate all who refused to pay thoir tithes of wool and cheoso, and who boasts that the Irish wore moved to melting tears when they heard his Latin sermons which they could not understand are other prominent mediaeval spear-men of the church. Gerard Dow, or Dou, born in 1G13, whose father was a glazier, and who was himself tho foromost of the so-called so-called "Little Dutchmen,' or genre painters; Gerard do Nerval, French lit-oratour, lit-oratour, born in 1S08, who was most of the time so poor that he had no house to live In, but who nevertheless managed man-aged to pay for the storage of the curios old pictures, china, etc., which it waa his hobby to collect. Gerrit bmith, born in 1707, famous abolitionist and philanthropist, who distributed to the poor tho fortune which his father had won with John Jncob Astor in tho tur trade, and Garret A. Hobart, who died in 1SDU, vice preadont in McKin-ley McKin-ley s first administration, are other men who have borne tho spearnames peacefully. Among the famous spear-maidens of modern timos are Geraldine Jewsbrav, lnghsh author, born in 1S12; Gertrude Mara, Gorman born in 17-19, who 'could play well on the violin whnn sho w.nc 7. and who became ono of the most gifted singers, of her da' she could easily reach three octaves; Gertrude Bloede, popular poet, whose father and mothor led from Dresden to tins country after tho troubles of 1S4S; Geraldine Farrar, grand opera singer; Gertrude Elliot, popular actress, wife of Forbes Robertson Robert-son and sister of Maxino Elliot, and Gertrude Atherton. American born novelist nov-elist who lives at Stratford-on-Avon. Grertrude means spoar; Gerald, Gerard, Ger-ard, &ornt, and Geraldine mean spear-firm. spear-firm. 1 (Copyright, 1010. by Frances Marshall.) Miss Marshall will be pleased to answer an-swer by mail all inquiries addressed to her concerning the origin nnd history " first names. In addressing Miss Marshall in care of this paper, please inclose a stamped and self-addressed envelope for the reply. |