The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1901-02-27
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
xiitt''dntts Constitution.

wars for two hundred years at last
made friends aud chose David al
Howell for their king, and he had q
son named Evan. He was q good mar
and his subjects called him Howell
Ia Howell the good. That must be
our Evan of the Atlanta Constitution
lie has just been hid out all these
years. see that the chamber of com
iGaToo gavs a banquet yesterday and
Evan Howell responded to the toas,
Good Fellowship That suited him
exactly, l know, and had I been there
l would have told how his great an
cestor was called tho '.Da' and was
the last king of Wales. I called him
over the phone this morning and
said "Hello, Dar' and he answered.
"HereI'
| Now, about Bill Higginbetham
That is old Anglo Saxon, aud means a
mountain ark. The old name was
hickeh. Probably the old ancestor
took his name from an ash tree that
shaded his house. Names were scarce
and people took their surnames from
objects OF nature, such as hill, foun-
tain, dale, peak, pine, plant, oaks,
chestnut, grub, twigs, branch, water,
pool. moon, star, cloud and SO forth;
or from their occupations as baker,
farmer. carpenter, mason, miller, gar
dener, granger and all the family of
smith who were the smitcrs of iron
and silver and gold. All who were de-
tailed to watch for an invading enemy
were called smiters or smiths. John
Smith was originally John, the smiter,
Captain John Smith was an ilustrious
type of that class. When names were
too long to pronounce readily, they
were shortened up. Peter, who lived
at the Seven Oaks. was called Peter
Sy oaks; then Peter Shocks, and that s
how our Atlanta friend came by his
name.
The pane Coward was originally
COW herd IA herder Of cattle-and was
not improved By the change The ad-
jutant of our brigade was named Co
ward, aud the army had no braver sol
dier. He lost an arm at tChickahominy. G
He always signed his name A. Coward, :,
adj't gen1., and being asked why he
did not sign his full name, said:
"Well, my first name, unfortunately,
is Adam, and it is not quite so bad to
be a. coward as it is to be adam CO.
ward.
A few centuries ago every civilized
nation had to adopt prefix or suffix
SO as to prevent the confusion of names.
The English added son to most of their
nanss, as johnson, Will .mson, Jack
SOD, Thompson, etc. The Scotch pre-
fixed with Mac. The Irish with Mao
Or DC for son and o for grandson.
The Normans used Fitz or fils (from
Latin or flius, sony The Russians
took witch from the same word.
Then there are many nicknames to
be accounted for, such as Bob, Bill,
Dick, Jack, Jim, Sally, Polly, Betsy,
etc. Idon't know how these started,
but some Of them came out the col
lieries Of England and the quarr;es of
Wales. for every miner has nick
name as Nosey, Soaker, Shanks, Jig
ger or something easy to call. I had
schoolmate whose name was Mel
vile Young. One day he was trying
to do sum in Fellowship at the black
board and wrote down what he intend
ed-To-D-but it looked like tod, and
the teacher said "What do you mean
by tod?s That was enough for the
boys. They began to ,all him Tod,
and they never quit, and he was
known as Tod Young all his. after
life.
But the girls arc not so much inter
ested IN names, fur almost every girl
expects to change hers when the right
young man comes along. She is not
obliged to marry a man named Cruik
shanks or Snoozlefanter or Hogg, but
I've known them to do it, and they
did well.
BILL ARP.
p. Sin my last letter the types
made me say 266,0OO Confederate col
diers. It should be 766 O0O-all told
from the beginning to the end of the
war. B.A.
How to cure the Grip.
Remain quietly at home aud take