Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-12-07
coMIcAL GERMAN NAMES.

European country; but Germans do not
seem to suffer from the miseries of eccen-
trio nomenclature as keenly as do English
men, Frenchmen, or even Italians. Per-
haps their Indifference in this regard springs
partly from their natural shortcoming, as
far as a sense of humor is concerned, and
partly from the deep and solid self.satis-
faction which is one of their national char
acteristics. A glance over the pages of the
Berlin Directory will enable any one &C.
quainted with the German language to pick
out hundreds OF astonishingly incongruous
names, owned by persons holding distin.
guished positions in the official, COM
capital. No social class is exempt from
this quaint affiiction. Illustrous mobiles
are often as ridiculously named
as the humblest proletary. For instance,
one of the most ancient baronial families in
Prussia rejoices in the designation Gate.
keeper of HE'LL" and the name of the
wealthiest Count in the German Empire,
literally rendered into our vernacular, is
" Handle of Thunder Marrow" To our
apprehension these patronymics are not
whit less nonsensical and unfit for family
use than the utterly plebeian BLOOD
sausage" Whitecamel p" Twoyearold-
boar" that abound in Fatherland but
Germans see nothing funny or uncommon
in them, and are unfeignedly surprised
when the intelligent foreigner sojourning
in their midst ventures to hint that in any
other country names so extravagantly IN.
congruous would inevitably render life in
tolerable to their luckless possessors, by
reason of the inexhaustible banter, chaff
and satirical comment they could not fail
to suggest to social wags and comic jour-
nalists.
The majority of the more high. sounding
and poetical names that meet the eye upon
German shop fronts or in the advertising
sheets of the Teutonic daily press belongs
to persons of Jewish extraction. No more
than a couple of centuries ago, the German
Israelite, as rule, was forlorn of family
name. He was either known by a " front
name," supplemented by that of his
father, as "Aaron. ben David, or "Soio-
mon. ben Israel" or by some nickname
owing it's origin to the nature of his occu-
patton, or, perhaps, to a conspicuous physi.
cal popularity. This vagueness in his de-
nomination and his Grant commercial
habits enabled him to dodge the taxgath
erer and gave the German administration
a good deal of trouble in dealing with him
from fiscal point of view. 1t was there
fore resolved to make him distinctly iden-
tifable by the simple process of compelling
him to take family name, stick to
it during his own life. and trans.
nit it by legal act of registration
to his children. No restrictions
were imposed upon him in the matter of
al -,
prompted him to select patronymics signif-
cant of things beautiful or noble in ma
ture, of great provinces or stately cities,
kingly- birds and beasts, moral virtues and
picturesque thoughts. Hence the follow
ing names proper to German. Israelite fami-
lies of all classes Valley-of Roses, Mount
ain of Roses, Stone. of-Honor, Silician, Eng
lishman, Warsaw, Viennese, Eagle, Lion,
Whale, Honorable, Pious Humility, Trust
God, Peace of Countries, Rich-in- Virtue,
Lovely Home, Holiday Evening, Mount
ain-of Thanks, Ladies' Praise, and many
others as idealistic or romantic as the fore
going. Alike astute and artistic, the Jews
of the Fatherland, under stern compulsion
to establish their identity as rate.payers,
bestowed upon themselves all the prettiest
and noblest patronymics the German lam
guage could afford, leaving to their Christ
ian compatriots the ugliest and most igno-
minious.
But there be other by no means uncom-
mon German names, SO lntr1nsically eccen-
trio, anomalous and unreasonable that it is
scarcely possible to account to ones self for
their origin or appropriation. by sane human
beings. What, for instance, can have been
the motive prompting son OF Teut to call
himself "Efervescentweather." Door
nail" or Blistervillage From what
queer fancies or odd incidents did such
names as 50 Frothmountain," u" Cat'selbow,
Panhandle" Horsedeceiver, Tiger
stream" Doublefourisb," " Scissorscor-
ner" and ''Daily basin =" derive their
raison d'etre? Every conjecture l have
hitherto ventured respecting the genesis of
these astounding compound irrelevancies
has, am bound to say, been utterly lack
ing in verisimilitude. Perhaps some Of
your readers may be more successful than
myself in divining the ''unde derivatur !"
of such a perplexing front name" as,
let us say, "Kpucklevillage. l cordially
recommend it to their attention and re.
search.
There is, indeed, an inexhaustible
wealth. OF puZZleuOHl III OeIHidu hdiiics'
Why, in the name of all that is august and
illustrious, should the senior royal Duke of
the Fatherland, near relative of our own
Qaeen, and own brother to a deceased
magnate whose statue adorns fair Geneva,
bear such farccal title as Brown, be
silent?" OF what heinous cffense had the
capital of fourishiBg little German Dochy
been guilty that it should have been SUBJ
jected to the perpetual punishment of SO
unpleasant designation as Bowel TOWN.
High Taxer" may seem appropriate
enough, as descriptive family name, to
the supreme ruler of Germany, but 1t IS
certainly open to objection as an incessant
reminder to the srman people OF the least
agreeable characteristic of that great and
ancient house, whose venerable head now
wears the Imperial crown. -1Geneya Con-
tinental Times.
When tie London obelisk was placed
| upon the Thames embankment arrange
ments were made for thanking it on either
i