The times., 1898-03-06
Tho Naming of Our Street.

The Naming of Our Streets.
For the last twenty years, in news
papers and periodicals, at irregular in
tervals, writer's have been discussing
the question of remaining the streets OF
Washington. 1t has been pointed out
that the present nomenclature is most
undignified. inconvenient and irration-
al. that there was no earthly reason
why a Cabinet minister should be
obliged TO reside on street with a
short and meaningless name, or why d
diplomat should be confused by the
similarity of NJ and y, Of T and D. and
II and Eighth Streets. 1t has been
shown that the remaining of the streets,
using the same initial letters, but the
names of Presidents Vice Presidents
and other notable men, would be one OF
the easiest things in the world. and
would add grace and dignity to our
capital. People have prepared lists of
various kinds, to show how easily it
could be done. TWO lists would, of
course, be required, one for the north
ern and one for the southern part of
the city, but this could be easily man
aged. Two or three OF the Presidents
would have to be left out, but there
would be little objection TO that, es-
pecially as there are various side
streets, places parks and other feat
ures of the city which could be named
after them. Mr.. Mckinley, unfortunate
! ly, would be one of the unnecessary
| Presidents, since even his most ardent
/ admirers would hardly care to Slight
! Madison or Monroe in his favor. The
| present Benjamin Harrison would be
! obliged TO stand aside in favor of his
| grandfather. the hero of Tippecanoe.
| There is no President whose name be-
gins with I, and there are several
whose initial is ]; it might therefore be
suggested that the ] be substituted for
the /, that jefferson and Jackson may
be honored. There is only one Fill
more-but surely Franklin is a good
| enough name for any street. There is
but one J., and that is Lincoln, but no
one could object to honorng Lafayette.
| Mr. Cleveland would be commemorated,
not only by reason of his two terms in
| the White House. but on account of
the fact that he is the only on the
list, and Washington himself seems TO
to be the only W to be had
There might be a few heartburnings
and jealousies over the apportionment
Of the other letters, but as most of the
people TO be commemorated are dead,
/ the situation is comparatively simple.
In the early days of the Republic. Of
course, things would have been differ
ent
/ One thing is certain, this remaining
should be done, and done quickly We
have put up with this alphabetical in
\ fant school business long enough. It
| is time we ceased teaching our people
the alphabet and began teaching them
the names of some Of our great men.
1t may not be very clear in the mind of
the Washington gamin where Connect
! iCut IS, but he knows there is such
a place, because an avenue of his ma
tive city bears that name. There is
some danger that the names of Jeffer-
| son, of Adams, of Monroe and Mad
! ison viii be completely forgotten if we
dc not commemorate them in some way
OF other.
One Of the strongest reasons for this
! change, however, is its convenience. In
this way the confusion in telephone and
other oral messages, created by sim
ilarity Of sound. will be avoided, and
the necessity Of dividing the town into
quarters become less obvious. We shall
have an east side and west side, but
that viii be all. Letters viii not go
astray so frequently Packages will be
| delivered more easily. And, finally.
the name of a statesman is less difficult
to remember than an arbitrary sign.
Let US have new, dignihed and appro-
pirate names for our streets without
unnecessary delay.