The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1870-08-13
What's in Il Name -!

This is a weak point in the Democratic
nature. The party name has undergone
many changes in the last decade. But
aliases are characteristic of rogues. The
Democrats homely on our name concludes
like the story of Rasselas, in which moth
ing is concluded"
If some stranger, perchance, has read
that dissertation, and glancing at the head
of that sloppy sheet, saw G. w. Cruik-
shank inscribed as editor he doubtless
thought Witless Goose was SO clearly ap-
propriate, that the transposed cabalistic
initials could mean nothing else, cenclu-
sion, it is well to state, arrived at long ago
by the most intimate friends of the ginger
pop editor.
But the editorial penchant for names,
even cvercomes his veneration for family
escutcheon and other musty heir-looms, SO
often manifested in the vapid columns of
THE Democrat, the boasted ancestral sane
tity, proving too weak to restrain Master
Witless, from casting off the honored cog
nomen handed down from father to son !;
and .pilfering n name somewhat similar,
that a great artist has given world renown
to. If ga rose by any other name would
smell as sweet why not call weed a
rose? and with this specious reasoning
our Democratic contemporary is great To-
gician, as all who have glanced over the
frothy rhetoric of his columns, know-he
forthwith dropped his family name of
Croekshanks, and fastened on to the great
artist s, CRUIKsHANK! Some maypronounce
this shabby treatment of the ancestral
genealogicaltree but we must have char
ity for human infirmities. Family names,
where they can be traced to savage tribes,
are commonly found to denote some strongly
marked trait of character, or physical pc
culiarity in their progenitor, and nothing
more natural than to infer that our comely
editor may have sprung from some old boar
hunting Saxon, Celtic, or Highland brigand
chief, whose handy legs immortalized by
deeds of savage valor, have descended
through centuries, perpetuated in an hon
ored family name, to be spurned, alas in
these degenerate days, by an ungrateful
scion of the old cross bow and battle-axe
chieftain, caught, moth-like, by the daz-
zling splendor of a strangers name
Alas ungrateful boy let us hear no more
of those pulling monodies of the consecra-
ted past, which are wont to float like mala-
rious haze, through the pages of The Cecil
Democrat.
But why change ones name? thing
frequently done. There are variety of
reasons for the act. Some names are
changed to crafty the within of adopting
parents, who mourn their hard fate of being
left childless, and the nearest approach to
the coveted blessing, is to adopt some Off
spring of less wealthy, DuJ more Ioruuriate,
parents. In such cases, the subject of the
change is not consulted, and has its honcrs
or it's wealth thurst upon it. Again, the
authors of great crimes may change their
names to escape detection, or having suf-
fered the penalty of the offended law, con-
ceal their old family appellation, in attempt
ing to hide their shame under new cogno-
men. There are petty rogues who change
their names weekly to conceal their where
abouts from the officers of the law, while
they pick up precarious living by picking
pockets and robbing hat racks. There are
others, again, who springing from humble
origins, find themselves, by a freak Of
fortune, occupying positions widely differ
ent from their progenitors, and which they
fondly dream is more honored, and fly from
the old family name in order to conceal the
source whence they sprang. The latter
class are prompted by vanity, the most
contemplate of all vices. Among this
variety of melting influences to don a new
name, which of the many motives could
have influenced our neighbor in his action !?
No suspicion of ever having been great
criminal attaches to him, nor have we ever
heard the charge of a petty thief urged
against him, and are compelled to seek
among the latter class of causes for solu-
ton to the problem. Our hero, having in
herited the ambition, without the ability
to achieve greatness, was forced to make
amends fer what cruel fortune denied him,
by Selling on great mans name, as the
disconnected snail, in the fable, appropri-
ated the empty Holsters shell, fondly dream
ing that thus ensconced, he was as great as
the dead owner