The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-01-26
PET NAMES THAT CLING.
Terms of Endearment BESTOWED by
Husbands and Wives That Are RI
dicuIOuS
From the Chicago Record.

FROM lne chicago RECORD.
The little god of love betrays even dig
nified people into the most ingeniously in
congruous terms of endearment some
times. And this in defiance of the fact
that the real love words of every Ian
guage are the most unsteady beautiful
combinations of sound possible.
So sweetly melodious are our own "darl-
ing" dearest" sweetheart" that one
is fain to pity him or her who has never
! heard them uttered with special applica-
ton. While the French mon ami, -
''cherie," ma mignonne," etc, are spok-
en- music, and even the German ''meine
geliebste" might glorfy the ugliest, most
cultural of languages.
Honey" "dearie," sweet" are still on
the right side of the ridiculous Even
pet" is admissible, though it once occur
red to me to address a swarthy, siX-foot,
250-pOund Cuban at a pubic dinner as
petite might be just on the border land.
But where the divine passion is really
dominant all these expressions are quite
to commonplace.
1 know a well-built, well-groomed man
of the world, with a strong, masculine face,
a splendidly athletic figure, standing six
feet three inches in his stockings, and
stately and dignified in his bearing His
enraptured wife finds no word so express
sive of her appreciation of his charms as
kitten" She, by the way is a Juno, and
he, not to be outdOne in matters of the
heart, also calls her Kitten" So it is
Kitten and Kitten, until l am sure thew
possesses proper nouns in general usage
in polite society.
Then there is a fat man with pudgy
face and protruding figure. Nothing
seems to satisfy the soul of his dotng
wife but Birdie Birdie he is. Birdie he
must be, though all the world blush for it.
Then l cannot forget one of my dear
friends whose husband, twenty years her
senior, is a hard-headed business man.
who is said to sometimes wander into
ways that are dark and tricks that are
vain Happily | do not know just waat
she calls him during these periods But I
do know that during his temporary lapses
into virtue shea lis most devoted, low
ing wife, and that when her passion for
him is at moderate hight, she contents
herself. with. mall tweetess" and "cun.
ming single but when it rises to flood
tide she casts upon him the most loving
and Iangulshing Slances and balls him
Another tall, quaint. raw-boned ilI-fav-
ored friend is also worthy of passing men
ton. His hair is carrot-colored and scrag-
ely, his neck so thin that it resembles
nothing so much as a snarl of strings,
while his hands, feet and anatomy gener-
ally call up visions of Ichabod Crane.
His atfectionate spouse could find no
name Tor him that so pleased her fancy
as "Puddin." She Scolded him as "Pud-
din" and loved him "Puddin" AS
-Puddin" he was sowed, driven and but
lied, and as "Puddin he was coaxed
wheedled and caressed.
There is a well-known editor of one of
TINS country's great papers, a man of
liant intellect. To his wife is "Itty one ..
and she to him is 'Preshy" (precious1.
1t IS surprising that a delicate refined
high-bred woman could best express her
ardor for her husband in the words
'Snooks' and SLOPPY" vet I have
known such to be the case; and it would
seem as though dignified professor might
object to being called Hubby" but I
have seen him respond to it with smile
so wide that the Cheshire cat wasn't in II
One prominent literary man rarely ad-
dresses his young wife as anything but
kid" which is not inappropriate if some
what unmusical. But it is usually the
very little man with the enormous wife
whose ebulliitons of sentimental tender
ness can only find expression in calling
her Baby"
l These are by no means the vagaries of
youth and ineXperience.
was once travelling in one of the west
ern states, when a groom of about 20
came aboard with a blushing bride of per-
haps 60. They soon became obliVious, and
this conversation was heard:
He-"Whos title lammie?'
She Both of us"
And perhaps all are familiar with the
overheard conversation between the Con-
cord School of Philosophy professor and
the Nassar graduate.
Y. G.-"Darling?'
Phi. Dyes. darling"
v. G.-.NOthing-only darling"
Truly, is not the god Of love the god of
humor as well?