The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1872-08-14
NOMENCLATURE.
TFrom Appleton's Journal

TIoil applSCou JUL uli'
Our names are part of ourselves.
They were settled on us long be-
fore recollections, and have always
belonged to. US. They come
through our parents from long lines
of ancestry, and seem, through the
vista of descent, to belong to the
eternal fitness of things. And yet,
in many instances, they have their
origin in the occupation or other
accident of him who first bore the
patronymic. Names are the keys
Of family history, unlocking for US
the secrets rof ancestral lineage.
Bestowed in the early dawn of So
cicty, they were taken either from
trade and occupation, or from To-
calities; from. characteristics of
mind or body; from hero-worship;
from the animal, mineral, or veget-
able kingdom; from war or peace,
or from some one Of the many
thousand cause which attach them
selves to the personality Of the hui
man race. Trades and occupations
have given a name to more Of the
inhabitants of the earth than any
other cause; perhaps more than all
other causes put together-as, for
eyamDlc. the innumcrablc Smith
family.
An honorable calling is that of
the smith; he was the leading
workman Of his tribe, when early
genius first suggested the sharpen
ing of flint arrowhead, or tried to
sonstruct a weapon out Of metal.
That Smith founded more families
than any other man that ever lived
1t was trade, too, that first gave
names to our Taylors, our Carpen-
ters, our Bakers and Alasons, our
Brewers, Sawyers, and Coopers !;
our Wrights, Barbcrs, Chambers,
Buffers, Carriers, Boardmans, Sla-
tiers, Chapmans, Poundstones, Bra
ziers, Brcwsters, Bankers, Cloth
iers, Curriers', Binders, Cutters,
Arkwrights, Bootmans, Sawins,
Cutters, Carriers, Cartwrights, Col
liers, Carriers, etc.
Rightly to understand the indi-
viduality Of names, we should
study their record in the Directory.
The New York Directory of last
year contains the names of two
thousand and ffty-nine Smiths,
five hundred and thirty Scmidts,
and over one hundred Smyths,
Smythes, etc all connected by re-
lationship somewhere this side of
Adam-probably, indeed, this side
of Noah. One hundred and fifty
nine of these residents Of our COS
mopolitan city are John Smiths :;
and we hardly envy the letter-carri-
er who has to distinguish John
Smith the seventeenth from John
Smith the one hundred and fifty
eighth. What is he to do with a
letter directed to etA1r. John Smith,
New York, N. Y? ?" Is he to run
the gamut of the whole hundred
and tifty-line till the right man be
found? And what tales and Sc
crets those miscarried letters must
tell! TO be sure, they are all about
the Smith family, and therefore
every Smith reader is interested in
hushing them up. We all remcm-
Der the case Of the gentleman who
came too late to the Broadway
| Theatre to find a vacant seat.
Looking round for an instant upon
the crowded house before him, he
quietly exclaimed: "Mr. Smith s
house is on fre!' There was q
great rush for that pit, and
the gentleman had a large number
of vacant seats to choose from.
But "Smitheries" abound else.
where than in America. It is but
a few years since that bet was
laid in London that no Old-Bailey
session had passed two years with.
out the trial and condemnation o1
John Smith. And, alas for the
family name! the records of the
court we're searched, and the bet
was won. In England, every sew.
enty-third person one meets is a
Smith; and it is estimated that two
hundred and fifty-three thousand
persons in the mother-country are
so called. And should some hum
BILE Debrctt trace back their lineage
to its hidden source, that name
would be found in every instance