St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-07-15
NIINNEPAoLA FoRsooTH /.

Somebody ought to build pen in
which there could be confined the wild
eyed etymologists who are trying to
mortise together the names of st. Paul
and Minneapolis. If they were safely
embraced within one Enclosure they
might prey on each other to their
mutual destruction without disquieting
the summer air with their eloquent
braying.
st. Paul is an honest name for an
honest town and perpetuates the MEM
DRY of an honest man who had the
courage of his convictions, who struck
great sledge- hammer blows for the
side he espoused, and who was not
dnwned until he had secured the judg-
ment of the court Of last resort on his
case. Nobody travelling anywhere in
Christendom need hesitate to write the
name of his home on the fairest hotel
register if he halls from this city, be-
cause to any one who knows anything
st. Paul suggests pluck, endurance and
all the other qualities which make living
delightful and human progress possible.
Minneapolis is great place, but it has
become so in spite of its name. The
people who were willing to Join an
Indian word to a Greek name
by an unnecessary and discordant
copula, and adopt it as the title
of their home, must have been sadly de-
1icient in a sense of humor and good
taste as we'll as in knowledge of the
laws of euphony and word formation.
But time cures all wounds. and if any
city can live down its early crimes, Min
neapoliS is now entitled to a pardon for
its insolent violation of the linguistic
principles, which are as dear to the
learned as pie is TO New Englander.
The word Minneapolis is conclusive evil
denee that there was an epoch in the
history of this state when a lower form
of barbarlsm prevailed than during the
dynasty of the redskins and prairie
wolves. But, if from such beginning
a stately structure like the Flour City
can grow, to glory in its early rudeness
is, perhaps, the part Of natural affection
and local pride.
But what shall be said of the be-
nighted creature who, in the year of
our Lord one thousand eight hundred
and ninety one, during the week imme-
diately following the convention of the
Young Peoples Society of Christian
Endeavor in Minneapolis. and hardly
fortnight before the great HALL-FITZ-
SIMMONS fight in st. Paul, has the
braZen effrontery to suggest that we
consolidate these two municipalities
and hand them down to the eXecration
of everybody outside of an insane
asylum under the cursed pseud0nym of
Minnepaul or Neapolis, MinnepaolO or
Dimapolis? Have teeming university
up the river. and the BROWNING clubs
and ChautauQua circles of st. Paul in
jected no leaven of culture into these
allied communities that we should so
rudely trample under foot all the an
cient grammarians from DoNATUs
downwards? Is the united city to be
neither fish, flesh nor fowl that it
should masquerade under a scandalously
epicene title of opprobrium like Min
nepaul? Or are we about to suffer
subjugating invasion of dagOes from
Louisiana, or of New Mexican greasers,
that we should bedaub the town we love
with an impossible name like Mime
pa0lO, suggestive OF Stlu-eyeu mlnSlIeIS
stunning guitars in the village of Tus-
caEy, or of swarthy Iberian maidens
tanning themselves before marble IA
cades on the banks of GuadalquiVir?
If this consolidation fad takes shapes
like this, it will drive part of our hon
est citizens to drink and make raving
maniacs of the rest. The pen for the
wild-eyed etymologists cannot be built
too quickly.