The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1898-11-05
MANY GEORGE WASHINGToNs.
Their Names Are Numerous I'm the Dt.
rectOrIcs of All of Our
Large Cities.

A man who recently met in Washing
ton 4 Mr.. George Washington seemed
to think that he must have been related
TO the great general.
You will find that it is a common
honor to have hat name down here"
the other said, and a number of them
you will find are colored. You see, in
slavery days, they usually were desig-
mated by the name of the family or
plantation to which they belonged, and
thus many colored George Washing
tons are also found scattered through
out the country"
Becoming interested, the young man
looked up some of the Nashingtons OF
the large cities. The capital seemed to
be the home of George Washingtons,
as there are no less than Al living there
to-day. Curiously, not n of these is
recorded as being colored, although
this cannot be altogether correct, espe-
ciaIIy as the number includes 81 labor
ers. Four are drivers, there is a paint
er, a barber, a janitor, five walters, a
coachman, a bricklayer, a porter, a con-
IeCIlOneT, anu one ClC- h-hOA SNShH PAO
fessional man, much less a president
Baltimore came next in the list of TIE
cities, there being 81 named after the
father of his country; then he found
&c in New Orleans, &c in st. Louis, Is
in Richmond, 16 in Philadelphia, Is in
Savannah, IL in Charleston, S. C., 10 in
Louisville, 10 in Kansas City, Q in Chica-
go and in Pittsburgh. But, strange TO
say, New York city records only 4, and
within an hours investigation fully 300
George Washingtons were recorded in
some thirty odd cities. This number
would probably be doubled if all the
cities of the country had been includ-
ed: and, with the addition of those liv-
ing outside of city limits. it is safe 10
say that there are nearly a thousand
George Washingtons in the United
States to-day.
The occupations of those recorded
show that with few exceptions they are
among the manual workers. There are
drivers, j~anitors, BARRIERS, conductors,
cooks, lumbermen, carpenters, black
smiths. icemen. shoemaEers, porteTs.
~laundrymen. restaurateurs, cOachmen,
rivermen. brickmakers, a clothes clean
er, a leather decorator, a millwright, q
Iampmaker, a clockmaker, a book
keeper, and one real estate dealer
among them. Scarcely any of those re-
corded had a middle initial.
One of New York's colored George
Washingtons keeps n barber shop. He
is getting old, has lost his sight. u he
still e~ntertains his customers while his
men do the work. When asked about
his name he-said: "Iknow a good many
George W~ashingtons and some of them
tell queer stories about tracing their
family name, but | tell the straight
story about mine. My great-grand-
father was in W~ashington's army. He
adopted the name, and there have been
three George Washingtons in our fam
iIy since. Yes. there are a good many
more men of that name thai are record
ed in the cities. Why. l know of half a
dozen right around here; one Of them
died recently"
1t occurred to the investigator that
rhere were probably a like number of
Abraham Lincolns s%pringing up
throughout the country. and especially
among the colOred people, but this was
not the case, there being zone in most
of the cities, and not more than two or
three in any one.-N. Y. Sun.