The evening times., 1898-10-31
4 New Name for Us.

There are some people who spend
most Of their time in unintentionally
adding to the gayety of nations, and
one of these persons has recently been
writing letter TO the Westminster Ga
zette. The English people, collectively
and individually, take a great interest
in the United States. and they have to
speak OF il quite often, and il is this
correspondents idea that our name is
too long for perfect comfort He sug-
gests that inasmuch as ii takes much
eXertion and ink to write "a citizen Of
the United States of America" every
time one wishes to speak of such an in
diYidual, and inasmuch as the last part
Of this title is usually abbreviated to
u. S. A." it would be a good plan to
rechristen the country "Usa," and call
the people "Usans.' 1t is his idea that
as there are about twenty nations in
America, ii is not proper to call us
Americans" any more than it would
be to call Spaniards Europeans and
deny that title 10 the other inhabitants
of Europe. Hence. "Usans."
Now, Of course. if this gentlema1
really wants TO call the inhabitants of
this great and glorious country "Usans,"
and add, every time he says it, BY
that / mean a citizen of the United
States of America" =" and if he wants the
bother Of explaining afterward that he
is trying to accomplish a needed re-
form in nomenclature, of course, he can,
but il is not quite clear to the ordinary
mind how he expects to save time by
ii. Ii would seem to the average man
that the gentleman who is so Jealous
to give us a new name was really lay
ing out for himself a job of surprising
magnitude and difficulty. The troubles
included in this job are increased by
the fact that the author OF it lives in
England. He could explain that re-
form TO an American, even if he called
him a 'Usan," without very much trou-
bic. The American would take ii all in
after the first two sentences. But when
he goes to explain it to an Englishman
he viii have TO invite him home to din
ner.
The English mind has been troubled
for some time about the real meaning
of the word American" More than
one Creole aristocrat of New Orleans
has been mortally offended because his
English host mixed him up with the
half-breed millionaires of South Amer
ica or asked him how large a percent
age Of negro blood there was in his
family. 1t has been seriously supposed
by English minds that the war be-
tween the Northern and Southern
States was fought over the Isthmus
of Panama. Hence the particularly
with which LS Englishman, now that
he is beginning to learn his lesson,
takes care to say the United States
of America" when he means this faith
erland Of ours. If seems a little cruel
TO make him begin all over again and
learn to call us ''Usans," especially as
we shall not be likely to answer to the
name, and he will have to explain
what it means TO any chance American
traveller who hears il spoken.
No; as Boston paper says, if We are
to be called anything of that kind let
us be called "We-uns." That is COM
Portable, honey, and unostentatious,
and suggests, as the campaign orators
are now doing, that this is now united
/ country. We can call ourselves We
uns,' and as it is somewhat cumber-
some TO say "a citizen of the United
Kingdom If Great Britain and Ireland"
every time we need to, we will call the
gentlemen on the other side "You-uns."