Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1897-08-12
A Name For Tho Spring.
,DIToR OF THE HERALD:

WORKS spring, notlceu IN last week
Teller an unsigned article favoring
Azona or Eonia as highly suitable
names.
Eonia is from the Greek aion or
Latin aeon, and correctly spelled
should be Aeonia or Atomic Aeon,
as applied in geology, means period
of immense duration, as the Sil'rian
aeon or age. Applied to our spring
Aeoaia might denote (to those who
are blessed with scientific education
or who would take pains to consult
an encyclopaedia) never failing
fountain. That it would mean moth
ing more cannot be questioned. 1t
would tell nothing of the waters pur-
ity, its mineral properties or its loca-
ton We do not hear the water of
Waukesha springs spoken Of as
Bethesda water or Silurian water, but
as WaukeSha water. If our spring
were called the Lancaster Mineral
Spring the seekers after the blessings
of pure and abundant water would
not need to wander about seeking
Aeonia; their feet would be lead with
out straying to our fountain of youth.
The name would be a direct adver-
tisement for the city.
| suggest the latter name merely to
show the emptines of the former, for
this is certain, you may choose any
classical or fowery name like Eonia,
word of indistinct meaning which
requires a distinct and disagreeable
effort in pronunciation (and Ameri-
cans are VIGOROUSLY lazy in speech;)
you may select what name you please
with a stilted and encyclopedia ring,
our people will continue to call the
waterworks spring by its right name.
by the name it has always borne, the
GrtSwold Spring. The name is not
lacking in euphony, and Mr.. Girls
wold's action in parting with the
spring property under the clrcum-
stances and in the way he did is not
not undeserving of the slight in
memoriam recognition which con-
tinuance of the old name gives. He
knew very well before he conveyed
the property to the city of Lancaster
that he might reasonably ask for it
five times what he did. He knew the
value of the spring to the city, that it
was immeasurably the greatest and
most desirable Gf not the only water
supply. Yet he stuck to his word
(he was bound by no enforceable con-
tract) in case where many men
would have Iepudiated their promise,
and he sold us a treasure for song.
| believe it is the sentiment of a
majority of our citizens that the name
the spring now bears is good enough
and that it should remain unchanged.
If its present name is not suitable and
it becomes a question of seeking for a
name outside the English language,
it would in my humble opinion be far
more appropriate to choose one OF
Indian origin, one that smacks to the
soil, than to delve among the dry
bones of antiquity and resurrect some
Greek or Latin god that we may
transplant his dusty splendor and
make him guardian of our water sup
ply. OF course | am not now refer
ring to Azona or Eonia. The names
do not, so far as l am aware. occur in
mythology.
Let us not get flowery or classical.
A fowery or classical name mispro-
nounced Gas it always is by the
majority and the meaning of which
is at best only hazy. is provocative of
ridicule. The following (taken from
Littell's for July 3rd, 1897 is good
illustration of the vexatious results
that often attend attempts to be elias
steal or fiowery in our nomenclature:
1T is said, by boy, that when the
naming of the Falkland Islands Com
pany's new ship was under discussion
in 1898, an official of the company,
mindful Of certain figureheads of
heather nymphs under which he had
served, proposed to add to their num-
Der by christening the new snip the
"Hebe.n The managing director met
this with stern refusal. 1--WE have
been told" he said. already of the
Black 'Awk and the Sparrow 'Awk in
the islands, and | am not going to
risk the Fab That he bad cause
for his distrust of Falkland parlance
NAV be allowed when one hears
hapless s.orchid" converted into
s.orchard." whilst lone" is conf