The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1901-02-28

1alhcrs customers was named Shad-
rack Began, and his three sons were
Shadrack, Mcshack and Abeducgo.
Another customer, David Allan, nam
cd his son Absalom, and for wonder
he Was good boy and made good
man, and his father, David, had no
occasion to say con, Absalom, my
son, my son ~
We'll in course of time tho people in
creased and multiplied 80 that their
children had to have two names, so as
to distinguish them, and 80 Johns son
was called Johnson in English, or John
Johns in Welsh. After awhile it be-
came John Jones. The Joncscs are all
Of Welsh origin. The Welsh were a
brave, religious people, and fought the
English for many centuries. They
never did submit until they were prom
ised that no king should rule them, cx-
ccpt one born OH their soil, and he
should be called the prince of Wales.
King Edwards sou happened to be
born at beautiful little Welsh town
named Caernavroa, and the w elsh ac-
cepted him as their future king and
called him the prince of Wales. anil
that is how the title started. lie was
King Edward II.
Now, there was another Welsh way
of distinguishing the son from the
father. The little word "Ap" means
son of, and it used to be written John
ap Jones, but in course of time the
little middle word was dropped. 1t is
little singular that away back in the
tenth century the Welsh people who
had been lighting each other in civil
wars for two hundred years at last
made friends and chose David ap
Howell for their king, and he had Il
son named Evan. He was good man,
and his subjects always called INN
Howell Da--Howcll the good. That
must be Iour Evan of The Atlanta Con-
stitution. He has just been hid out all
these years. l sec that the chamber
of commerce gave banquet yesterday
and Evan Howell responded TO the toast
Good Fellowship" That suited HIM
exactly, know, and had l been there
l would have told how his great ances-
tor was called the "Da' and was the
last king of Wales. called him over
the telephone this morning and said
"IIello Da" and he answered "Iicren'
Now, about Bill IIlgginbothan.
That is old Anglo Saxon, and means
Il mountain ark. The old name was
hicken. Probably the old ancestor took
his name from an ash tree that shaded
his house. Names were scarce, and
people took their 'surnames from OBJ
jects Of nature, such as hill, fountain,
dale, peak, pine, plant, oaks, chestnut
grub, twigs, branch, water, pool, moon,
star, cloud and so forth; or from their
occupations as baker, farmer, carpcn-
ter, mason, mille.', gardener, granger
and all Of the family of smiths who
were the smiters of iron and silver and
gold. All who were detailed to watch
for an invading enemy were called
smlters or smiths. John Smith was
originally John, the smitcr, Captain
John Smith was an illustriOus 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 Svnoaks 4;
then Peter Snooks, and that's how our
Atlanta friend came by his name.
The name Coward was originally
cow herd--a hcrder of cattle-and was
| not improved by the change. The
adiutant of our brigade was named
Coward, and the arC,y had no bravcr
soldier. lie lost an arm at Chicka-
hominy. He always signed his name
A. Coward, adj'tgcn', and being asked
Why he did not sign his full name,
said " Well, my first name, unfortu-
nately, is Adam, and it is not quite 80
bad to be coward as it is to be adam
coward.
| a few centuries ago every civilized
nation had to adopt a prefix or sutliX
80 as to prevent the confusion of names.
The English added son to most of their
names, as Johnson, Williamson, Jack
son, Thompson, etc. The Scotch pre-
fixed with Mac. The Irish with Mac
or Nc for son and O for grandson.
The French took De or Du. The Nor
mans used Fitz or fills 0rom Latin of
IilIus, SON. The Russians took witch
from the same word.
Then there are many nicknamcs to
be accounted for, such as Bob, Bill ,
Dick, Jack, jim, Sally, Polly, Betsy,
etc. l don't know how these started
but some Of them came oIt the collier
les of England and the quarrics of
Wales, for every miner has nick
name of Nosey, Soakcr, Shanks, Jig,
ger or something easy to call. | had
a schoOlmate whose name was Melville
Young. One day he was trying to dc
a sum in Fellowship at the blackboard
and wrote down what he intended
Tod but it looked like tod, and the
teacher said, "What do you mean by
tod ?" That was enough for the boys
They hogan to call HIM Tod, and they
never quit, and he was known as Tod
Young all his after life.
But the girls are not 80 much inter.
estcd in names, for almost every girI
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'vc known them to do it.. and they
did very we'll. BILL ARR.
p. Sin my last letter the type
made mo to say 2GG 900 Confederate