Show THE NAMING OP NAMES Kan kansas sELs city star in this world of ours there Is no end of giving names everything that it is desirable to distinguish from other similar objects from babies to mountains from the least unto the greatest must be named twe the north american continent and especially the portion embraced in the united states has haa been for the last two ceaf centuries the seat of an extensive and unparalleled naming business when the people arrived on these shores tw they brought extensive languages with theoal theo aa the natives whose places they took had very limited vocabularies two three or four hundred words and had done little toward d giving names except to the most prominent natural objects and their work had generally to be done over again with extensive additions the newcomers new comers filled the continent with new names the most numerous names of towns and cities in th the e united states and those which have beef been oft enest repeated and longest kept came from england this was because the names were fa familiar millar simple and originally meant something the terminations ham ton stead wick and field in the old time had a significance and told a story ham sign signified I 1 home birmingham the home ot or Bir binning ming either man family or tribe and so on an through the catalogue and that leads up to the general rule that a name when applied should tell something and mean something as for example oxford now known in england for a great university but before that as the ford where the cattle crossed the stream the use of names in the united states that mean nothing tell nothing commemorate me nothing indicate nothing and are not even rhythmical or melodious in ie a great calamity it to is recorded of certain railroad company that having a large number of new stations to name bame syllables were written on slips of paper and drawn dramn out of a bat three to a station and hence such navies names as klote kl kio ote te and po dunk us were scattered along tor for three or four hundred miles i these are specimens of the meaningless i and senseless names used to toe the number of several thousand in the united states disagreeable names should not be applied to any natural objects without special and convincing reason prairie dog doe creek may convey to future generations generate s the name of the first town in the neighbor bod and its inhabitants but dog creek is as bad as aa skunk river a leading watercourse in lowa iowa skull creek dry creek sand creek skeleton creek and the like perpetuate the ideas of hot winds and massacres atey show the lack of imagination agi nation and taste ia the wild and simple people do better than abb for to the north la is a river the french voyagers named Qu Appelle wha calls because of the mysterious noises wc risea like human voices voice heard jw the ice fee classical names were more in denand nand fifty or sixty years ago than begun to make tun fun of them rome athens corinth were made the ap pel lations ionis of little towns that never grew up mp to their big names and reminded beholders of the learned party who named his african w well ank and I 1 bad the mortification to see it occupied by colored folks and degenerate into town prom from the sad lessons of the past the who have yet much naming americans A Ameri cane to do should fasten on n nothing jahl which ch requires a naime an ugly meaningless absurd pretentious unintelligible telli gible unpronounceable disagreeable designations it is often urged that indian names should be kept or applied but tb this is should depend upon their character in the south many ludlan indian names are easy so to speak but the indian names of maine drawn out in sausage like prolixity are neither tb r names wh which ich refer to the local uke like that 0 ot f rip van winkles village ot of palling falling waters there are names of fair f air women and brave men to ot at great industries and gree greet great t works rr prom on all aji these shoud be chosen those wil lie h fall trippingly frown from taie ton tongue gue pleasant to the listening ear and have axe are ave a meaning to the brain and to the heart that the he rule it may also be added which applies to localities les and towns holds good alato also to objects and under takings within the and the chief fault to be in all cases is the choice of names that suggest nothing and that conal convey v not the slightest sligh teet intention of the motive which influenced their si selection lection |