, 1872-12-08
N]CkNAMES.
BIZ PROFESSOR WILLIAM MATTHEW'S, OF TEE UNI
VERaITY or CHICAGO.


standing it's bitterness, 80 few nicknames we're
used. The London Saturday Reo1eso, in an
article upon this class Of words, expresses the
opinion that their moral influence has never
been sufficiently considered by philosophers.
It is, indeed, no easy thing to estimate the force
and influence Of these ingenious appeladons.
In politics, it has long been observed that no
orator can compare for q moment in effect With
him who can give apt and telling nicknanes.
Brevity is the soul Of wit, and Of all
e1oquence a nickname is the most concise
and irresistible. It is terse, pointed,
shorthand mode OF reasoning, condensing
3 volume Of meaning into an epithet,
and is especially popular in these days Of
steam and electric telegraphs, because it saves
the trouble Of thinking. There is 3 deep in
stinct in man which prompts him, when engaged
in any controversy, whether OF tongue orpen, to
assume to himself some honorable name which
begs the whole matter in dispute, and at the
same time to fasten on his adversary name
which shall render him ridiculous, odious, OF
contemplate. By facts and logic you may COM
mand the assent Of the few; but by nicEnames
you may enlist the passions OF the million on
your side. Who can doubt that, when in the
styled themselves 'sthe Cody" and their
opponents ''the MaGgnants," the question at
issue, wherever entrance could be gained for
these words, WAS already decided? Or who
doubts that the odious name, "Copperheads,"
which WAS go early in our late civil war affixed
to the Northern sympathizers with the South
had an incalcu1able influence in gagging their
mouths and in preventing their numbers from
multiplying?
There is no man 60 insignificant that he may
not blast the reputation Of another by fastening
upon him an odious or ludicrous nickname.
Even the most shining character may thus be
dragged down by the very reptiles Of the
race to the depths Of infamy. par-
rot may be taught to call names, and,
it you have e spite against your neighbor,
may be made to give him deal Of annoyance,
without much wit either in the employer or the
puppet. HotBpur would have had starting
taught to speak nothing but Mortimer in the
ears of his enemy. Who could dissociate with
the name Of Van Buren the idea Of craft or cum
ming, after he had become known as the Kin
derhook Fox" or who ever looked up with awe
or respect to President Tyler as the Chief Mag
istrate Of the nation, after he had been po1it1-
cally baptized as ssHis Accidency?" Who can
tell how far SCOTS prospects for the Presl-
dency we're damaged by the contemptuous nick
name of ssOu Fuss and Feathers, Especially
after he had nearly signed his OWL political
death warrant by that fatal a1lusiou to "a hasty
plate OF eoup," which convulsed the nation with
laughter from the st. Croix to the Rio Grande?
The hero of Chippewa found it hard to breast
the torrent Of ridicu1e which this derisiye title
brought down upon him. 1t would have been
easier far to stand up against the iron shock Of
the battlefield. Who, again, has forgotten how
the wou1d-be naval bard Of America, "The-sun
has~gone- -down-with-hi battle -staned-eye Pat
ten, was :; damned to everlasting fame " by 3
verbal tin-pail attached to his name in the form
Of one OF his own yerses2 II have heard an
eminent character boast" says Hazlitt, t:that
he did more to produce the war with Bonaparte
BY nicknamiog him The Corsican, than all the
state papers and documents on the subject put
together" Give q dog bad name, says tie
proverb, and you hang him. It was only Shec~
easa1y to nickname Burke The Dinner-Belt to
make even his rising to speak signal for q
general emptying of the house.
a nickname is the most stinging Of MI species
Of satire, because it gives no chance Of reply.
Attack a man with specific, point-blank charges,
and he can meet and repel them but q nickname
battles reply by its very va5ueness it presents
no tangible or definite idea to the mind, no horn
Of dilemma with which the victim can grapp1e.
The very attempt to defend himself only renders
him the more ridiculous it looks ike raising m
ocean to drown q fly, or dscharging q cannon at
wasp, to meet e petty gibe with formal testi-
uony or elaborate argument. Or, if your de-
fence is listened to without jeers, it
ayails you nothing. It has no efect,-does not
tell,-excites no sensation The laugh is against
you, and all your protests come like the ply
sician's prescription OF the funeral, too late.
The Significance Of nicknames is etrikingly il
Iustrated by the fact that, as the Reuie10 sug-
gests. you cannot properly hate man of differ
e1t opinions from your OWL till you have Ia
belled him with some unpleasant epithet. In
theological debates. 0 heretic may be defined as
man with a nickname. Till We hare succeeded
in fastening name upon him, he is confounded
among the general mass Of the orthodox :; his
pecu1iaritios are presumably not sufficient
to constitute him into a separate species
But let the name come to us by d fash OF
inspiration, and how it sticks to the victim
through his whole life! That prince Of polen-
les, Cobbett, Was mastery inventor Of nick
names, and some Of his fe1icitous epithets will
not be forgotten for many years to come.
Among the words and phrases by which he
stuck his claws into his enemies were Ct the
pinh-nosed Liverpool" 9; the unbaptized, but
tonless blackguards" (appied to the Quakera),
and "Prosperity Robinson" The nickname,
sold Glory" given by him, stuck for life to Sir
Francis Durdett, his former patron and lifelong
creditor; st42olus Canning" provoked uneztin-
guishable laughter among high and low; and it
is said that Of all the devices to annoy the bril-
liant but vain Lord Erslzine, none WIS more
teasing than being constantly addressed BY his
second title of SHARON CEnca7naannon."
An account Of the Ways in which nichnamea
are suggested would fill 3 volume. One Of the
commonesti is by glaring contradiction between
a mans name and his charaoter,-when he is
ridiculed as aai ling under false colors, claim
ing merit which does not belong to him.
Thus jerome, one Of the Fathers Of the Church,
being engaged in controversy with one Wig
ilantius, i. e., '' the Watchful,'' about certain
vigils which the latter opposed, stigmatized hin
as sDornitantius," Or the Sleeper" But
more frequently the nickname is suggested bJ
the real name where there is no such antago,
- +Ia1 1otfo so