St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-08-04
THE PASSING OF A NAME.

Time was, and that within the
memory of the present genera ton,
when the Smiths We're the most
numerous of all our multi-named cit
izenry. Many and many are the
hoary-headed chestnuts grown on
their multiplicity. There was that
one about the man entering a the
alter and announcing: "Mr. Smith,
your house is on fire." Whereupon
half the audience sprang up. Assured
that it was John Smiths house that
was ablaze, a quarter of the risen
ones sat down. A Southern paper
tells of minister who asked Broth
dozen responded. His explanation
that he meant John sent only two
or three to their seats, and the re-
naming nine went on leading. The
Smiths were in the ascendency a
generation ago, but their supremacy
is now overthrown by the Johnsons.
rectory will settle it as a fact.
Various and curious causes have
helped both sides Of this change.
There have been a good many de-
serrtions from the Smiths. There
came to be many of them, of refined
and sensitive temperaments, who
gibes by modifying the photography
of the name. Hence came the
Smythes and the Smithes and
Smyths, changing their spelling with
out decreasing their fecundity, and
segregating themselves from the
great root family. Then, too, some
escaped by the process of hyphena-
ton, linking some maternal or an
cestral name to the Smith by n.y.
phen. The result was a decrease, a
large one, of the old stock, while, on
the other hand, it received no ac-
cretions from immigration. Smith
is not an Indigenous English name.
It crossed the North sea and the En-
glish channel centuries ago with the
rowing Angles and Saxons whose
gutturalS, in the course Of time, lost
their harshness in the mellowing
ants who come to Us retain the
Schmidt and Schmitt and Schmied,
and the other variations rung on the
original patronynlic, with true Teu-
tonic tenacity, and refuse to merge
their names in that Of their very
remote kinsmen who reached this
country by way of the British isles
So what with desertions on one side
and refusal to amaIgamate on the
other, the Smiths have dropped ito
second place. {
The Johnsons now have the lead:
The John Johnsons eclipse the John
Smiths. The directories offer irref-
ragable proof of this, howsoever
disputable they may be when it
comes to questions OF population, and
especially of comparative popuIss
tons. Johns sons have been a prs
life set Of fellows; and, wherever
they were, have obeyed the Scrip tufr1-
al injunction to increase and multi
ply and fill the earth. Whether they
were Jahn's sons OF the Scandina-
Wan peninsulas, or Jchann's sons of
the tribes Teutonfc, or John Bulls
Johnsons, they are all Of one family,
and here the varieties easily blend
into one common, universal John
son. There are, to be sure, the Jen-
sens-sons of Jens-who struggle
against the popular tide to keep their
distinctive spelling; but it is hard
work, and sooner or later they will
have to yield to the stubborn per-
sistence of an undiscririnating pub
dc that dubs them Johnson. The
Johnsons who came to as from. the
English side and the Johnsons who
came from Norway anG Sweden and
Denmark, and the Johansons of Ger
many, who become Joilnsons before