The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-07-14

been Russianized, and inconsistency has run riot. We have been daily con fronted with Feng- Wang -Cheng divid- ed Into syllables, and with Wafang- tien undivided, though assuredly if Feng- Wang -Cheng is correct. we should write Fang-Tien, and if Wafangtien is the true form. then we should adopt Fengwangcheng. For the thousand cases of such inconsistent ca 1t is easy to blame correspondents and editors, though it may not be as just as 1t is easy. Certainly the pro- fessional geographers are not entitled to cast the first stone. The most hur, ried stop press" dispatches in the morning papers are es accurate and as consistent in their use of names as the most carefully drawn and engraved maps of the standard aliases. Note, for example. how such a work deals with names, not only in Manchu- ria, but elsewhere. The work before us, one of the best extant. puts down Jafpur and Bhurtpur for our old-t time Jeypore and Bhurtpore-that "pur" has so smaart an air of superior learning!- yet 1t leaves Cawnpore and Lahore un- changed It transforms Bangalore in- to Bangalur, but spares Mysore. It insists upon putting the German K in what we used to spell Congo, but does not change Africa to Afrika. Why not? It changes the familiar Kowloon into Kaulun. but lets Rangoon remain as of old. It alters Cameron to Kam- erun. but fails to turn Karoo into Karu. The map is published by those who insist upon the old spelling of colour" and "honour," yet it makes "Mush' of Moush and "Batum" of Bd- toum.
 Nor is the work more consistent when 1t turns from alien lands to Europe it. self Cracow Is changed to Krakau, but on the same map Tarnow and Mos- COW remain unchanged. Courland and Cronstadt are printed Kurland and Kronstadt, but Crimea and Carpathian retain their ancient forms. On one map we find Kattegat and Cattegat side by side Coblentz is Koblentz, but Co., logne is not turned into Koln. Aix-la- Chapell is Germanized into Aachen, but Lorrains Is not changed to Lothringen. Elsewhere are the Bay of St. Michael and the Baie de la Seine; the Black Forest and the Bayerischer Wald; tho Carnic Alps and the Puster Thai; tho Carpathian Mountains, the Vulkan Majevica Planina, the Hegy Ollya, the Keilberg. the Joachimsthal. the Glein Ape, the Korse Vaara, and the Jaila Dagh! Remember 1t is not a polyglot. but an English atlas! The town of Ouessant is on the island of Ushant! The Riveria di Ponente fronts upon the Ligurian Sea. A single map bears the Mouth of the Seine, the Embre du Rhone, and the Embre de Ia Loire. There are also the Golfo de Rosas. the Golfe du Lion, and the Gulf of Cadiz; not to mention also Lubeck Bay, Stet- timer Half. and the Griefswalder Bod. den! There are Frankfurt-an-der-O Oder and Grabow- on- the Oder. There are Barwalde- in -theNeumark and Konigs- berg in -der-Neumark. There are the Lake of Bracciano and the Lago di Varano; there are Cape Tuzla. Capo del Faro, and Serves Burun.
 We submit that such eclecticism run mad is worse than anything our news papers have ever done. If at half-past l in the morning the night editor should take time to refer to the att lases for the approved spelling of every outlandish name that comes to hin,. the result would be about eleven times worse than the present state of af- fairs. We wish there might be soma Perhaps there will be. We shall keep on working for 1t. But if 1t comes. 1t will more probably begin with the newspapers and extend thence to the aliases and gazetteers than in the reverse order.