The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-07-22
FOURTEEN MILLION SMITHS.
SOME INTERESTING STATISTICS
CONCERNING THIS PRODIGEoUS
FAMILY.

Brain as Well as Brawn-Th e
Name Is Constantly Adopted as a
Safe Mask Behind Which to Con-
ceaI Personal Identfty-The Des-
pernte Struggle Loving Smith Par
| ents Make to Secure Distinction
for Their Children by Means OF
Extraordinary First Names.
New York, July 20-Three thousand
years ago the Hebrews were under the
dominion of the Philistines. Then arose
/ perhaps the strangeat hardship ever i'm
posed upon a subject nation by con-
| quering one. The Scriptures themselves
tell the story In these graphic words:
Now there was no smith found through
/ out all the land of Israel, for the Phils-
tines said, Lest the Hebrews make them
swords or spears; bur all the Israelites
went down 10 the Phlistnes to sharpen
every man his coulter, and his ak, and
his mattox"
Thus the Hebrews were obliged to trav-
ell from one to two hundred miles to find
a smith, a hardship that is quite incon-
ceivable to-day when the country swarms
with them
If there had never been any artisan
smiths there would be no surname Smith
| o-day. Ard what would it mean to us If
there were no longer Smiths (by name),
in our land? 1t would mean vacancies in
| the professors chairs and upon the judi
| cial bench; IL would thin the ranks of the
lawyers. ministers and doctors. of the
merchants, brokers and manufacturers,
and of the railroad commercial and fnan-
| cial magnates; it would diminish the num-
Der Of scholars, reformers and philoso-
| pliers, and deplete the ranks of sailors,
| soldiers, farmers, mechanics and all the
rest of The great laboring world: the
| tramps. beegars and Jail birds would be
| less than often met with and cranks, pol
| iticians, drunkards and criminals fewer In
| number. In fact not a rank or graduation
of our whole social system but what woul /
| be affect d. Some genius of computation
| has figured out that If all the males Of
the earth were enrolled there would be
an army of seven million Smiths among
! them Allowing the feminine Smiths to
| he as numerous. the world has fourteen
| million living Smiths Whether the num-
her be as prodiglous as this or not, there
| is no question but that it runs into the
millions A family SO numerous and so
|
and class commands at least the respect
due recognized magnitude and aggregated
power.
| Literally smith means smiter, !. O., one
| who smites, or hammers. And in old days
when every bit of metal. copper, iron, sill
| yer, gold or brass, had TO be pounded and
hammered by mighty strokes into armor,
tools. plate. utensils and implements, there
were need of many smithers. These
TN, 80
| Drawn alone. They had to possess the
| ready brain and skill 20 sharpen alike an
| implement repair an armor. or shoe a
| horse Theirs was an honest and lucra-
! dvc trade, and every road street nud
| hamlet had its smiths Net only were there
many smiths, but different branches of
smlthery abounded, and thus numerous
| compounds and deriVaties of Smith came
| into existence. Among these are Smither,
| SmithlIins, Smithson, Arrasmith Arrow
| smith, Goldsmith, Silversmith. Copper
| smith, Hocksmith, Hockersmith. Drake
smith. Forcesmith, Smitham Sexsmith,
! Campsmitb, Bowersmith, Worksmith
| Watchsmith. Blacksmith. Wildsmith,
| Wintersmith, HoTsmith, Klenismith, and
| Smlthdeal. Strangest of all these per
| hops, is Fewsmithsi Sometimes TO distin-
guish several Smiths in one street or ham
! let a Christian name was incorporat ted
usage Smithpeter, Bilsmlth, Helensmith
! and Aaronsmith.
incidentally ii may be mentioned that
| the other languages have their Smiths
| also. The Germans have numberless
! schmidts, Schmitz and Schmidt; the
| French have lie Fevers, the Spaniards
| Gunsaulus. the Russians Smittowskies.
and the Irish have Gaven and Gowan,
| each meaning Smith, and McGaven and
q Of n
Perhaps because they were originally
'smithers," the Smiths have ever taken TO
war. There have been Gen. Smiths in ev-
! cry war that our nation has ever had. In
| the Civil War the Federals had no less
than six Gen. Smiths, and one rear adj
miral. If the Confederates had less they
certainly had one OF the grittiest of all
Smiths. He bore the absurd nickname of
Extra Billy Smith: His constituents can
him for Governor while he was away
fghting, and he has the unique distinction
In the worlds history of having been
elected the very day on which a battle
was raging, and in which he was wound
ed. He really did not like it that he was
elected and had to be almost forced by his
friends to go home and assume the reins
of office. Surely no one beside a Smith, and
an Extra" Smith atsthat. ever was angry
before at governorship being conferred
upon him.
The richest man in all Mexico is said
to be a certain Huan Smidio, or in plain
English, John Smith. 1t was a Smith
that discovered emery and corundrum In the
United States. 1t was a Smith that was
sent against Concord and Lexington in the
initial battles of the Revolutionary War
1t was Joseph Smith that was the founder
of Mormonsm, and that claimed to have
found golden plates of the famous book
of Mormon, where they had been hidden
as he believed hundreds of years before
by the prophet Mormon at Gods command
1t was a Smith that wrote America" our
most popular national hymn II was a
Simth afterwards Bishop of Gloucester,
that was one of the principal translators
of our common King James's Bible, and
that wrote the preface to it. 1t was a
Smith that wrote the best known Bible
dictionary. one of the foremost of all
political economists was Adam Smith, and
two Of the greatest Egyptologists and
Orentalists are George Smith and Piazza
Smith or Smyth, as it is sometimes writ
ten. Never before nor since have such
inimitable PAROLES been produced as the
poems written by the brothers James and
Horace Smith Canada is proud of her
erudite Goodwin Smith, always thoughtful,
always scholarly.
The only woman who has ever enjoyed
the distinction of having been the wife
of one President aud the mother of an
other, was in her girlhood Abigail Smith.
She has the distinction also of be-
ing among the very first Of her sex