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Show JOHNSONS LEAD. For a time tho celebrated Smith family fam-ily claimed the honor of having the most fighters in tho world war. Then tho Johnsons set up a counter-claim. A decision appears to havo been rendered ren-dered by the records of the war risk insurance bureau, which pass tho distinction dis-tinction to the Johnsons. The card index of tho bureau has listed 53,200 Johnsons, some of whom spell their names variously, as Johnston John-ston and Johnstono. The Smiths, although al-though losing first place, are a very close second. There are 51,950 of them. Third place goes to the Brown family, who were in tho fighting 48,-000 48,-000 strong. The Williamses come next, with 47,000. The Jones folks sent in 28,050, the Andersons 22,000 and the Walkers 18,500. Of tho 53,200 Johnsons, 2133 were christened John, and 2062 were William Johnson. Tho favorite Christian name in the Smith family is. William, being borne by 3412 Smiths; while John was the given name of 2625 Smiths. Of tho 48,000 Browns who woro tho uniform, 2000 wcre'named plain' John Brown. Of the Williams family, .2S0 signed up as "Willio. Williams,'"' and 170 as'"W'il-liam as'"W'il-liam Williams." There were 900 "John Andersons," 800 were christened chris-tened "Carl" and 600 "Charles." The files show that there were 175 John JT. O'Briens, the wives of fifty of whom were named Mary A. ; Of George Washingtons, there were 123; General Washingtons, 6; Robert E. Lees, 119; John Quincy Adams, 47; Abraham Lincolns, 5. The Rodriguez family of Porto Rico sent 894 men into the American forces. Among that number were only seven first names: Domingo, Francisco, Jose, Juan, Ramon, Tomas and Antonio. Some curious spellings have been discovered. dis-covered. For example, the name "Aloy-sius" "Aloy-sius" is rendered in forty-nine different differ-ent ways, and "Ignatz" in eighteen. Even the simple' name "John" is spelled in twenty-three ways: John, Giovanni,- Ian,- Jae, Jack, Jackie, Jacques, Jan, Jans, Hans, Jean, Jno., Joahn, Jock, Johan, Johannes,, !Johni', Johnie, Johnnie, Johnny, Johny, Jon, Juan. Some of the Indian soldiers bore strikingly descriptive names. A few samples of the "handles" of the red man in the army were: Harry Cries-for-Rib; George Sleep-f rom-House; Benjamin Ben-jamin Comes-Out Bear; David Drops-at-a-Distance; Charles Owl; Walks-in-tho-House; Wash Day Clouds; Isaac His-Horse-Is-Fast. The shortest name was "Ii," and was borne by two soldiers from Hawaii. In order to make as much as possible out of their foreshortened cognomen, they pronounced it in two syllables. The town of Salmon City, in our neighbor state of Idaho, sent ' to the colors a man with five given names: Harry Adolph Thomas Richard Eugene Bullock. |