The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-18
THE SEPTEMBER AAGAzINES.
"Thc GaInNy.o

Susan Fielding, by Mrs Edwards. Chap
ters AXVlI and XXYIIL (Wlth an illustra-
tion.) "The Two Ways by T.. r. Sill.
The Jersey Cows" by Charles Wyllys Ell
lott Our Mineral Springs" by John G.
Draper, M. d. The Story Of a Life" by
Anna L, johnson. ''The White Flag by
William Winter. "Our Criminal Population"
by Edward Crapsey. 'New York Journalists
Theodore Tilton,' by Eugene Benson.
Put Yourself in His Place, by Charles
Reade. Chapter MI. with an illustration
Without tL Stars, by George II. Calvert.
Little Bopeep,' i'll two parts. Part 1.
Death and Life" bye. Z. B.. "The Irish
Church Dethroned,' by in tin Mccarthy.
"The Unsociableness of Society," by Richard
Grant White. "The Galaxy Miscellany,
containing ''Paradoxical Words" by George
Wakeman THE Dickens Names" by w. W.
Fowler. ''Drift-Wood,' by Philip Quilibet,
containing Naval Names a Word and its
Uses Literature and Art ''Nebul@,
by he Editor.
We quote the following on "The Dickens
Names, by w. W. Fowler -
What's in a name? Very much, in a sue
cessful novel. The tragic, romantic, and
chivalrous in fiction, OF course, have their
distinct class of high-soundiug and musical
appellatives, just as the simply respectable
and commonplace have their appropriate
names: but the comic and grotesque call for
nomenclature both odd and ridiculous, and
the more marked in this respect the better
We could hardly imagine the character known
to us as Mr.. Briggs, the highly respectable
man of business in the ''bottle-green' jacket,
as figuring under the name and style of Lo-
renzo or Romeo, any more than we could sup
pose the practically maudlin Swivellerto have
changed names with the melancholy Alonzo
or the conventional Major Pendennis.
The modern system of hction-names, it
should be here noted, is quite different from
the antique. The latter consisted rather in
the use of significant words which describe in
set and unmistakable terms the parsonage
that bears them. The names of the drdDldtiS
perS0HG of Aristophanes, prince of Greek
comedy, are a case in point. Thus, for in
stance, the principal parsonage in his play of
the CLOudS, a cunning lout is called Strep-
SHADES, that is, the ''son of twister." The
modern system, on the other hand. consists
more generally in the fabrication or the
selection of names which by means Of the
, curio1s juxtaposition of vowels and consonants
Without any distinct meaning as words, by
their sound alone convey to the mind an idea
more or less clear of the characters to which
they belong. We get, in this way, at the
start, a kind of cabinet picture, in shadow,
light or dark, of the persons whose traits are
y
develops.
1t is of the Dickens names that we are now
to speak in this connection. For variety, sin
gularity, and fitness they may challenge COM
parison. not with that of one merely, but with
that of any ten authors, living or dead. In
deed, his selection of fiction names would of
itself prove him the judicious artist and the
consummate man of genius in all that relates
to the subtly humorous and the broadly gro
x,.l,,, 1,nL,
unite in the exclamation of the young French
man on reading Martin Chuzzlewit,' where
did theman get all his names?' Did he select
them from the very full and rich vocabulary
of English onOmatology, comprising, as it
does, twenty thousand or more surnames. or
did he evolve them, as some metaphysical
philosophers would say, from his inner con-
sciousness.' Largely, no doubt, from the
latter. Some are clearly such as we may see
any day, and are common enough Not d
few may be attributed to his wonderful power
of perception and association. The mind
of the great humorist is like a vast kaleido-
scope, crowded with mental daguerreotypC
negatives of impressions gathered from q
thousand sights and objects through life
from early childhood. This kaleidoscope the
master hand has only to shift trihe from
one side to the other, and straightway groups
of strange faces and forms are thrown upon
the pages, and then come troOping forth
names equally strange, and arrange themselves
in their proper places. Such names as Sli
derskew, Pumblechook, Sweedlepipe, Pod
snap Pogram, and a host of others, are purely
fancifu and yet full of the most ludicrous
suggestion; others sound like real names Gu
riously twisted and distorted, sometimes witt
queer diminutive tails tackled on, such as Tap
pertit, Creakle, Wititterly, etc; others, again
are word -caricatures, like Mantilini, Sneyel
icci, ,-Pecksniff, Veneering, etc.
But, strange as it may appear, the large
number of these fantastic names are now, o.
have been heretofore, borne by living flesh
and blood. Not only in Kent, the native
county of the great magician, and in London
but all up and down ''Merrie England, from
Devonshire to the 'land of cakes and brittle
Scots, they meet us like old, familiar faces
Not long since, traveller, stopping at Folke
stone pleasant village near Dover, in Kent
had his attention attracted by great
broad-shouldered, genial Englishman,' il
every line of whose rubicund face the wor
Jolly was patent. Hearing him addressed a
''Tapley a mischievous impulse, too stronl
to be resisted, urged our traveller TO addres
him, and inquire if this was Mr. Mark Tap
ley The surprise may be imagined when, i
the richest of South English tones, the an
swer came forth, ''Ihe same, at your service
sir" What made the coincidence still NOR
striking was the fact that he had actually bee
in America and was overheard by our informar
"damning the blarsted country with tru
British unction. Other Kentish names al
Chuslet contraction of Chuzzlewit Bubbl
and Hubble, Roker, Sloper and Soper, Tig
and Bigg, Noggs and Boggs, Wardle and VA
den, Jaeger and Bufkin, Weevil and Barli'
a Jenny Groves and Tom Goblin, not t
mention Ben Allen and Bob Sawyer, ma
also be found in the old name registers of thu