Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-04-24
Cities and their Godfathers.
London Globe


London Globe.
Most cities were founded by &C
cident. There was no deliberate plan.
A hut or two grew into a village,
and a town into a city. London, for
instance, had no godfather. The first
barbarian who landed from his canoe
and fixed his habitation under the hill
now crowned by the cathedral of St.
Paul, little knew he was founder of a
city. to which Rome at the height of
it's glory was Insignificant in it's pro-
portions, it's numbers, and it's wealth.
A place sometimes derived it's name
from the physical features which
distinguished it. Oxford, Cambridge,
Milford, Newport, Redhill, Black
water, Yarmouth, are instances in
point. AT times some natural advant-
age it possessed was the occasion of
it's name. Thus the Spaniard Pedro
de Mendoza named the capital of the
state he founded in South America
Buenos Ayres. to celebrate the ex-
cellent climate; and Valparaiso was
so called as an intimation that its
position is such as to be the very
valley of paradise
The cities founded by the god
fathers after whom they were named
are the most famous in existence.
No name seems to have been above
the ambition of perpetuating himself
in that way. Alexander the Great
gave his name to the Egyptian city
which he founded, and which the
Ptolemies made one of the most
magnificent of the ancient world. In
Candahar, too, we recognize the
Asiatic name Qskander) of the great
conqueror who founded it. Cologne
(Colonia Agrippina), which has come
to be regarded as the symbol of Ger
man unity, owes it's name to the
incestuous mother of Nero. who was
born there. Saragossa, capital of the
old kingdom of Aragon, is only cor
ruption of Cesarea Augusta, so called
after Augustus, who rebuilt the
Carthagenian town formerly on it's
site, and named the new city after
himself. This refounding an old
town and giving it new name was
common in antiquity. When Adrian
restored what the ancient writers
called Uscudama, he imposed upon it
his own name. and thenceforward it
was known as Adrianople, just as
when Philip the III. Of Macedon,
formed new city on the site OF
Eumolpias, it was converted into
Philipopolis. In the same way Con.
stantine. when transferring the seat
of empire to Byzantium, renamed the
city on the Bosphorus Constantinople.
The representative of the modern
Byzantine empire has his seat in a
city also called after it's founder-St
Petersburg. When adventures from
this country named the chief town
in Nova Scotia, they were virtually
addressing predatory dedication to
the earl of Halifax, first commission.
er of trade and plantations. Charles.
ton was so named in honor Of Charles
H., the reigning monarch. Bal.
timore received it's name in 176e
after Lord Baltimore. It was only
just that when, in 1893, the founda.
ton stone was laid Of the federal
capital of the United States, the forth.
coming city should be named after
the father of this country-W Washing
ton. In the same way the capital OF
Victoria was named after the prime
minister of the time, Melbourne; that
Of South Australia. Adelaide, after
the Queen Dowager; that Of New
South Wales after the then secretary
for the colonies, Sydney; and that OF
New Zealand after Lord Auckland.