Mineral Point tribune. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1854-1858, 1856-06-10
Iingsr!rg Names.

Lingering Names.
Avery beautiful provision of nature is it, when
Death has done his worst with US. and sealed
hips that shall never more be parted when the
summer winds have borne away upon their wan
ton wings the dust we have so often clnsned
and fancied TO be ourselves; when the hungry
moshs have devoured the records we have left
dreamed to be immortal; when Time has turned
to sands and st,ed through his hour-gla.s. the
mansions we have builded and thought would
: last till doomsday ;" vrey beautiful provision
Is II, we say, that sometimes that second inn
mortality We longed to leave IS cenfided to a
NAME.
1t is little humiliating perhaps, that syl-
liable, ripple Ia the air. should bear our mem
ory ON to other days-should be all 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 cloud betoken-
ing all the tempest of life that has passed. ats
great clouds gorgeous with hopes, or gold and
crimson in the sun.
We have already taken occasion TO deprecate
the barbarous taste that carries the Romes and
the AtEenses and the Bos'ons round the wcrld
70 pictaa'nc. Tor ii IS nothing better the beau
tlfui new homes that are sought and found 10
displace for such poor company, the musical ar
ticulations of Nature, that the Indians Quick
and loving ear caught and syliabled into names
the echoes of the stream the forest and he bird ;
the voice Of the rain and the murrner of the
wind names as fall OF appropriate significance
as they are OF music
Those who took charge of the work of chris
tening the new towns sprlnging ap along the
line OF the Illinois Central Railroad, are worthy
of all commendation for restoring ihe old In
dian names by which the localities had afore-
tsme been known; it was more than an exer-
else of taste; 1t was matter of duly. now that
his trail has grown dim on the prairie, and mis-
fire no longer CLEANS red IN the forest, that the
sweet echoes OF the Indians passing awav,"
should be suffered to linrer, rendering our land
as classic in name as if the Bard of Scio had
been consulted in the christening. Unlike the
pale free, the red man never repeats himself ;
the appellafions he leaves are all distinctive
from the laugh of Min-ne-ha-ha to Alabama's
soft repose.
Neither should the memory of the pioneers
pass utterly away the men who played court
ier to the star of Empire :" for whom the bee
wound It's herald horn, and around whose feet
the wild flowers fingered and were not afraid
We have a La Sale, Marquette and Grundv.
and so far we have done we'll 1t was deed
over due TO the past it legacy worthy of
transmission to the future. But there are other
name yet unbidden 10 float down upon the
stream of time names rolled up in dim
old records; names whose owners saw these
streams, these lakes, these Unshorn pastures of
the West, wien they We're younger by many
year than they are to-day.
Through the kindues of E. W Tracy, Esq, of
this city. We permitted to make the follow
extract from recent letter to him, from the
Hon. Jared Sparks
:" Don't forget what | said to you about hay-
ing town in Illinois called 7oydy. who was the
first officer. after La. Sale, in La sales expedi-
ton. He brave, energetic and honorable
man. and commanded at Fort ST. Louis. during
La Sales absence, and for some time after his
death He wrote his name 7onty, and not Ton
ii, as it IS sometimes printed"
Henry De Tonty was an Italian by birth, but
entered the French service. and lost an arm
prior 10 his arrival in the West Is there not
young city now dimly outlined upon the praiile
that is waiting for name Let it be called
De ToNTA and th one memory more be res
cued from the dim and remorseless Past-tAic-
aqo Journal