The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-01-20
BY THE NAME OF sPALDINo.
A Paper Read Before the Maine
cenealoelcat Society. January 10,
1890.

[By James Alfred Spalding, Portland, Mel
If your name is Aldrich the poet and au-
thor, or Aldus the printer, or Albee the es-
sayist, or Callcot and Falconer the painters,
or Rale or Raleigh the great navigator and
statesman, or Waldeck the Princely, or
Waldegrave or Waldemar or Wallenstein
the renowned warrior, or If you are de-
scendant of the celebrated politician Wal
pole, or wonderful Walsingham, or of Waller
the poet, or of old Isaak Walton the poetical
angler, or if you are Waldron or Wallace
or Wallis, or Walters Of the London
Times, or Alden or Ball or Call, or If you
think Of Baldwin apple, or if Calderwood
the baker asks you to eat one of his cakes,
or If you are asked how to spell the name of
our genial lecturer Dalton, or If perchance
you 60 by the name Of Hall, or Salisbury, or
Salter, or Small, or Smalley, or Talbot, or
Talfourd, or Walker. or Walden; and, why,
almost forgot Lord Baltimore, and so on to
great lengths did space permit, no one of
you with such name has any fear Of having
against your will ''u" forcibly inserted
into your name wherever you 60. No matter
where people with these names leave their card
with their name spelled as they wish it, and
as it can only be properly spelled, or where
they pronounce aloud their name TO some in
quirer as it should be pronounced, they are
sure, except from the grossly ignorant, to
have that name spelled back to them cor
rectly, whenever it has occasion to be writ
denca id Ss Ona mas t Eon o II na
names, ana yet you are not one Of these
but Spalding, you will not find one person
In hundred who will not, to the waste of
time and space. persistently insert discord-
and French, of Spaldini in Italian and Span
ish, and of Spalding in English, the vast ma
jOrity Of Americans make the badly sound
ing and disfgured Spaulding with "u."
How this has been brought about, 1t is
difficult to tell, and Il Is all the more curious
since as 1t seems after long investigation
that there is not another name in the long
list OF personal names containing anywhere
an "ap which has ever had inserted into 1t
the offending "u," since colonial days at
least. 1t Is also very interesting and note
worthy fact, as you will undoubtedly agree
with me when you consider 1t, that whilst
Hall, or Small, or an Aldrich, or indeed
any one of the long list of people with an
ar In their names would never dream of
allowing any insertion of ''u" into his name,
these who would not think 1t the eminently
proper thing to do In the case of the unfortu-
nate name Of Spalding.
Now to reply that here are Pauls and
Pauldings with the N" and that therefore
Spalding ought of course to have a "u," is
net to the point at all, because il does not
appear that these names Paul and Pauldlng
were ever spelled in any other way than that
in which they now stand. No one ever heard
Of these names as Pal and Padding, whilst
has been spelled in any other way than with
the ''aP' in England, France, Germany, Italy
and Spain, where we find the name essen
TALLY the same for many centuries. en-
phasize this fact, by asserting that although
our ancestors were not renowned Tor their
spelling, 1t is nevertheless well known his
tOric fact, that In all documents prior to our
careless American days, the name was never
spelled in any other way tnan with the "al''
and without a trace Of the unnecessary ''u."
Before adding few historical data in re-
gard to the family, and the spelling of the
name, venture further TO remark, that in
the English dictionary, you cannot find
trace of the unnecessary insertion uf the USE
less "u' into the self-sufficient syllable ''al.'
Thus for the sake of showing my meanipg
more plainly, II you pick ,dlders sl day long,
or think that you have already enough, and
that you must also linger no more; Ii you
endeavor to alter an altar, or alternately
enter into alterations. although bald, ,n1.
Will soon neeu sOme bdlsdm; or if you play
6du you may make balk; or II you cdh a
morse 10 make cat upon lady, you would
hardly enter her hall with false fdlchioR;
nor would you halt U-neath the halter iur !,
pdtt1y bit of halibut; OF If you drunk malt
beer or act as a. mdItster; or II you cover the
dead with pail, OF 1t you are appalled, at
the sight OF ghost; or when you read the
psatter; OF quality yourself for any quality
vi official duty; or II y'u salt your meat or
are to be treated for sdltrhelm; or If you are
small in your ways; o, il trum neglect oI
vaccination you catch the small pox, OF
when you see the poor living in Squdtor; Or
If as yachtsman you are caught in squqHS
or when you stall your horses; or staM IL,
deer, or pluck flower by the Stdu; OF SUN
through the streets to vote the IdtpQrt
ticket; Oh when you install your rector or
elect a subdltern; or slcdllog a scatdtnq
draught; or tdik With tall man, or II yen
1cdlk along a tcdU with !CdU-eyed icdlt-
fiower. or Steal a mans lrdllet whilst he Is
arallolrinq in the mud; or eat a ludlRut
whilst ledlt.ing with q aralrIts, or chalk your
shoes before dancing with such a partner;