Stevens County tribune. (Morris, Minn.) 1877-1880, 1879-06-12
Girls Names.

Girls Names. n
The following, which seems pertinent,
has been culled for the Household, from
an old number of Scribner's Magazine.
The tender but thoughtless habit.
which has at length crystallized into gen.
eral custom, -of~keeping up the nursery
or pet name of little girls until
they have passed through all the
the eras of young womanhood, has
lately received some forcible criti-
cism from one or two sources. 1t Is
habit which has chiefly arisen within
the past generation, but it has noticeably
grown within a decade or two, until
there is scarcely feminine name to
which diminuendo will stick that is not
speedily replaced by that fashionable
substitution or adornment. In olden
times Elizabeth was sometimes called
Betsy for ease or brevity, but now Betsy
glides away into the public Betty or Bes-
sic. In fact, the stately and vigorous
old nomenclature is now nearly all gone
into a vapid and tasteless iquidity that
seems utterly bereft of force There are
no GATHERINGS any more; they are all
Katies. The Harrietts have become Hat
ties. The Margarcts Zone of the strong
est names) are reduced to Maggies or
Margies; Mary, ii common. yet the ten
derest of all, gets transformed into Ma
tie, or Mamie, Charlotte into Lottie and
SO through the whole diversified chaper
In any modern school catalogue or news
paper list of names which you may
chance to meet you find an endless itera-
ton of the infection, i. e., as if the beau
ty or attractiveness, if not the respecti-
billty of the young ladies in some
way depended on theirs liquid and en-
dearing termination. In the short space
Of one page of the catalogue of promi-
nent young ladies' college, school of
much higher pretensions than the aver
age seminary students-one may find
| las we have satisfied ourselves by trying
at least the following varieties, viz: Jen-
ME, Mamie, Hattie, Minnie, Margie
Nettie, Allie, Addie, Lizzie. Lord Duff
FERN, when the digniied governor genera
of Canada, has lately chosen to bring this
tendency into notice land so we suppose
it prevailed in Canada, too) by making il
special topic in his address at the com
mencement of young ladies' school in
Quebec. But he credits the habit, OF
its exaggeration, to the United States
and thinks the practice, when it becomes
"a national characteristic is not without
significance" Some future philologist
perhaps, may pick it up as a remnant o.
the period when the young women of oul
most cultivated circles bore the badge o.
belittlement and patronage, and infel
therefrom that the Oriental type of IN
fantile helplessness had certainly survived
to this era even in Western lands. He viii
most likely conclude land does not the
evidence tend in that direction0 that il
our Centennial time, the true idea O.
"a perfect woman, molly planned,
To warn to comfort and command"
was not SO much suspected or sought
after. We do not remember that any
journal of "Woman's Rights" and enfran
chisement has ever thought it pertinent
to speak of this subject; but surely il
bears a direct relation to the menta
growth and capacity of the SEX The lit
erary nom de plume of feminine author
indicates to some extent the force of hel
mind; and we know just as we'll what tt
expect from Lettie Linwoods and Matte
Myrtles as we do from George Eliots
You can scarcely pen more suggestive
satire against the helpfulness and indie
pendence of woman than to wrap her III
in such terms of daily coddling and child
ish endearment as the pet names agains
which Lord Dufferin protests For in
stance, persistently to call the two chief
tains of women's advanced status, Lizzie
Cady Stanton, and Susie B. Anthony
would crush at one stroke the revolution
they have SO much at heart. Under sucl
sweet persifage it would sink into languid
imbecility, and furnish fresh food for
laughter. Duferin, in the address to which
we have made reference, said that ''the
daughter Of the occupant of the most au.
| gust position in the world, was, before hel
marriage, commonly referred to az
Nellie as though the paragraphists had
been her playmates in ''infancy;" and he
even stated that his own wife, Lady Duff
erin, had been spoken of as "Kate' by
the journals Of the United States. These
things were no doubt done with good
feelings, and without so much as a
thought of disparaging intent. The
writers may have the kindest regard but
the familiarity their usage implies is none
the less offensive and is curious symp-
tom of that lack of reverence which, in
reaction from the early Puritan extreme
| of formality, has become very nearly a
distinctive and to older civilizations, a
disagreeable trait of our republicanism.