The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-21

recenHyin issuing uklss rechristeniny soms |
forty vessels of the United States navy. His
order robs them of the names under viii IN
some of them made for themselves a proud
place In the history of our country, and sub |
stitutes therefor miscellaneous collection of
cognomina, culled without sense or reason
from a dictionary of the mytholo gicd per-
sonages of the Greeks and Latins. Conto.
cook, Tippecanoe, Miantonomah, ETC., are to
give way to Ajax, Castor, Hercules, Circe,
etc. The names which have direct refer
ence to the history of our country, and
which are quite common in Maine and Coa-
necticut are abolished for those whose we trers
were not of character which would qualify
them for being welcome guests in refined So
ciety. For instance, the honorable Secretary
has rechrstened one of the vessels Fury, au1
another Harpy. But as there were three
Fures and more than one Harpy, future gene
rations will be at loss to determine which
individual parsonage of these celebrated fami-
lies he was desirous of commemorating.
large number of the gunboats and other ves-
sells in the British navy are named after gods.
demigods, goddesses, and other discreditable
personages of history (no doubt in Difference
to that well-known veneration of the English
mind for the classic, as the word is applied
to education), and it is not difficult to reach
the inference that Mr.. Borie is infringing on
a patent to which he has not the shadow of
a claim. In addition to that act of piracy
he robs the seamen who manned our navy
during the war for the Union of all the glory
honor and reputation which they won in
those vessels Jack Tar, on being asked in
what vessel he served, will give the name it
bore when chasing Rebel privateers and on
being questioned as to her whereabouts now.
will answer, as ''his pumps start working,
II don't know; they changed her name and I
can't tell what's become of her. Captain
Winslow, of the Kearsarge, enjoys a reputl-
tion extending from pole to pole; but who is
Captain Winslow of the Jupiter? Echo
onswers, ''Who?' He has, also, by his inju-
dicious action, destroyed that popularity of
nomenclature which has added materially i'll
giving distinct character to our navy, and
making it known as the navy of the United
States in every port in every sea. Some few
pedants, who harp on the euphony of
the Greek and Latin, objected to the use
of the Indian names with which our
navy was so profusely chrstened dur
ing Mr.. Welles administrations and, no
doubt, in Difference to their opinions Mr..
Borie has made the change. To fall back on
the mythologico-naval, Mr.. Borie has evil
IDENTIFY run aground ON Charybdis, while en-
deavoring to steer clear of Scylla both of
which were studiously summed by the naval
secretaries of those nations from which he has
borrowed so much Congress should, at its
neAU SeSslon, pass an act restoring 10 Ine navy
the nomenclature of which it has thus been
deprived for no good reason. Far better
have the quaint Indian names which Weles
bestowed (and which was nearly the most
sensible thing he did in office) than such bom-
bastic titles as Centaur, Erebns Spitfre, aud
the like, which, besides being foreign to our
civilization, are nearly every one duplicates of
the names of vessels in the navy of the
''blarsted Britishers." Give hls American
names for American vessels. The Secretary
has slavishly copied from foreigners his de-
vice has not even the merit of originality; let
us stick to our own ab-originality.