Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-04-24
AMERICAN TOWNS.

tailed.-St. James Gazette.
AMERICAN TOWNS.
A Chance For Improvement in Treir
Nomenclature.
David Dudley Field has been showing
himself to be a mar of good taste aud
judgment by remarks be made in a, re-
cent lecture on the names of American
towns. Mr.. Field objected to the man
ner in which many places in the United
States have been christened. The
natural superstition, he thinks, would
be that the names were selected by s.
half civilized people. He pities the I'M
happy lot Of the inhabitants of villages
afflicted with such names as You Bel,
Pop Corn, Wild Cat, Cut Shin, Big
Coon, Toad Vine, Black Jack, Skunk
Lake, Buzzard Roost. Cat Greek, Dirt
Town, Doctor Town, Jug Tavern, Cow
Skin, and Cut OF, all of which he found
in the list Of names in a railway guide.
Such names are certainly bad
enough. They are striking Instances
of absurd nomenclature because of their
grotesque singularity. But they are
not such violations of good taste as can
be found among the pretentious towns
Of New York. When one goes among
the Romes, Troys, Ut,cas, %Syracuses.
Ithacas and the many other classical
anne that renders the map Of that
State ridiculous, he feels that he could
go a considerable distance out of his.
road to kick the pedants who named
them.
Of all names given to towns. that of
Rome. an imitation of the eternal city.
is the most inappropriate and absurd.
There can be but one Rome. Its name
applied to any other town or city is a
ridiculous affectation and %conceit. The
New York Rome through the pedantxy
of its founders missed an appropriate
name, and one of which its citizens
could be proud, in not being called
Fort Stanwix. a designation similar to
that of Fort Wayne, which would have
associated it with an interesting revo-
lutionary event that happened in that
locality. Utica, which as a matter of
taste is almost as shocking a name to be
initiated as that of Rome, would not to-
day be a blemish to the map of New
York if its founder would have had
good taste and sense enough to have
adopted the term Oneida, which is APP
propriate to the neighborhood. There
is only one other name as applied to a
modern town, and particularly to an
insignificant town, that is pedantically
as bad as Rome, and that is Athens.
The nomenclature Of places in this
country is generally bad, but nowhere
else equal in that respect to New York,
where the idea seems to have prevailed
that stilted titles taken from a classical
dictionary were just the thing.
Mr.. Fields recommends Indian
names. They certainly have the adj
vantage in point of originality, but
many of them are 5arbarous i'll sound
and almost unpronounceable, which is
clearly Objectionable in the name Of a
town. This is especially the case with
the New England Indian names.
Father Wells made a nice mess Of it
when he christened the ships of the
navy after them during the war. max
ing the list of the National vessels such
a barbarous jargon that it twas enough,
in connection with Republican manage-
ment, to ruin that branch of the Ma
tional defense.
Mr.. Fields very properly objects to
willie" at the end of the name OF a
town. There is an unreasonable preju-
dice against the word ..town," and a
mistaken notion that the substitution of
willie" for it is an improvement. This
is an error of taste as well as of judg-
ment. Town" is an expressive,
euphonious and very suitable term.
.sJonestown' sounds better than
..Jonesville." There is more r:ng in
it. and it is Invested OF the absurdity of
attempting to ornament a very COM
mon name with q French termination.
A new horror that is springing up in
town nomenclature is the use OF the
term ..city'' as applied to insignificant
places. 1t is the offspring OF ignorance,
conce.t and bad taste. The Post-office
Department when asked to use it in
naming post-otfices should sternly put
it's foot down on the m~onstros!ty.
What could be more absurd than Smith
City?
II is about time that 81 movement
should be made for reform in the ap-
plication of names to the towns OF TINS
country. The Post-otfice Department
coufa do much good in this matter.
AS the town nomenclature o stands
If Is a diserderly collection Of incon-
ornous na,ne ranging from Red Dog
TO Rome, making a map OF the country
ne Ind crous as a comic almanac. a
vide field for improvement in this re-
s,ect is opened. which should 70 no
longer neglected. -Ha'v4s5ary (Pa.)
Pnt,.iOk. s,.