The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1856-06-13
Lingering Nanes.

A very beautiful provision Of nature - Il
when Death has done his worst with N, and
sealed lips that shall never more be parted |;
when ths summer winds have borne away
upon their wanton wings the dust We have %
often clasped, and fancisd 70 be ourselves !;
when the hungry moths have devoured the
records We have left, and dreamed to be i'm
mortal when Time has turned to sands and
siftsd through this hour glass, the mansions
We have builded, and thought would last
till doomsday ! avery beautiful provision
| it, we say, that sometimes that second i'm
| mortality we lenged to leave, is con6ded to
NAME.
Its little humiliating, perhaps, that .
syllable, ripple in the air, should bear our
| memory on to other days-should be oil that
is left Of us; but so indeed it often is, and
| this idle word, this empty name, alone floats
away into the future, like little fleece OF a
cloud, betokening all the tempest Of life that
has passed, it's great clouds gorgeous with
hopes, or gold and CRIMSON in the sun.
We have already taken occasion to depre-
cate the barbarous taste that carries the
Romes and the Athenses and the Bostons
| round the world, to nickname for it ID
| nothing better, the beautiful new homes that
are sought and found to displacc for such
poor company, the musical articulations of
Nature, that the Indians quick and loving
ear caught and syllabled into names---the
echoes of the stream, the fores., and the
bird the voice Of the rain and the murmur
Of the wind; names as full OF appropriate
significance "a they are of music.
Those Who took charge of the work Of
| christening the new towns sp-inging up along
the line Of the Illinois Central Railroad, are
worthy Of oil commendation for restoring
the old Indian names by which the localities
had aforetime been known it was more than
| an exercise Of taste: it was q matter Of
duty, now that his trail has grown dim on
the prairie, and his fire no longer CLEANS red
in the forest, that the sweet echoes OF the
Indians passing away should be suffered
| to linger, rendering our land as classic in
name as il the bard of Scio had been con-
suited in the christening. Unlike the pale
face, the red man never repeats himself; the
applications he leaves are oil distinctive,
from the laugh Of Min ne-ha-ha to Ala
bama's soft repose.
Neither should the memory OF the pioneers
pass utterly away; the men who played
eourtier to the star Of Empire;' for whom
the bee wound its herald horn, and around
whose fee, the wild flowers fingered and
were not afraid. We have La Sale, q
MarQuettc 0nu uFunGy, anu SO Tar We nave
done well. II was deed over due to the
past s-as . legacy worthy OF transmits
! sion to tn ruture. But there are other
| names yet u.oiiden to HoAt down upon the
stream OF ,iA.a.. names now rolled up in
Dim old records names whose owners saw
these streams, these lakes, these nnshorn
pastures of the West, when they were
younger by many year than they arc to-
day.
Through the kindness of +. w. Tracy,
ESQ.,, OF this city, We are permitted to make
the following extract from y recent letter to
him, from the Hon. Jared Sparks:
"Don't forget what said to you about
having town in Illinois called Ioniy, who
was the first officer latter La Salle) in La
Salle's expedition. He was brave, ener-
getic, and honorable man, and commanded at
Fort St. Louis, in Illinois, during La Salle's
absence, and for sometime after his death.
He wrote his name Tonty, and not Ton.i, as
il is sometimes printed"
Henry De Tonty was an Italian by birth,
but entered the French service, and lost an
arm prior to his arrival in the West. Is
there not young city now dimly outlined
upon the prairie that is waiting for q name Z
Let it be called De ToNrr, and thus one
memory more be rescued from the dim and
remorseless Past Chicago Journal.