Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-03-16
Special Correspondence OF The Star.

Special Correspondence OF The Star
LONDON, March G. 1913.
TT YOU should set out to lCol for Peri
Wrinkle street when next you are in
London it is not likely that you will
find it-not under that name. anyhow.
For the residents of Periwinkle street,
which is a dingy little thorou2hfare in
the grubby East End district of Stepney.
are bent getting its appe;lauon
changed. and for the Identical reason
which recently led naturalizsd Amerl-
can named Egg to petition TO have MS
patronymic altered into Eek, namely, the
fact that it inspires continuous ridicule
and has serious economic results. too.
1t appears that all because of the name
of their thoroughfare the hreadwinners
Of Pe-iwinkle street find ii difficult 10 get
fresh jobs should they happen to lose
their regular ones or merely desire to
better" themselves. while the children
of the street share the fate of the crs;-
while John Egg, whose life was devoted
to ruthless inauisition by would-be funny
men as to whether he was fried. scrambled
or poached. So the Periwinklers, with
one solitary exception, have signed pc
tition addressed to the Stepney borough
council imploring that the name of the
street be changed. and it looks at present
as if the thing would come to pass.
Now. .'perwink.e.' as the term IS
used in these islands. is small edible
shellfsh highly popular At the seaside,
where it rivals the succulent whelk in
favor with the masses. According to
Webster, we have the same creature in
the United States under the appellation
Of plain "winkle" and it is thought that
the term penny winkle'' has gradually
been transformed into "periwinkle in
England where ''periwinkle originally
meant something quite different and in
snitely more esthetic. But never mind
that now.
PeriwinkIe street. Stepney. has been
Periwinklp street for seventy years or so,
and nobody ever complained actively UNI
til the ether day. when respectable
Periwinkleite-a misunderstanding to
better himself applied for a more am
ME lob i'm the reservoir line. His refer
ences were good and he was on the
point of being engaged when the foreman
happened to ask the simple and natural
question:
Where do you live?"
"Periwinkle street SIR" replied the
tank fashioner. blushing.
instantly the foreman became profane
and elected the maker of tanks with vio-
lFnce, informing MIN tHdi ts Hdu toiht u
the wrong place for .'larking."
1.-THE other day half murdered mar
who said he came from Whelk street. ht
remarked savagely. And now it's Peri
Wrinkle street There amt no sucf
place"
The ill-used fabricator of tanks ant
reservoirs tramped mooidly home and toll
of his experience TO the street. 1t was
then discovered that other Periwinklers
had undergone similar sighting expert
ences and not only they but their tender
offspring on the way to school and home
ward bound had been sneered at ano
"booed''-most rudely-with such remarks
as Yah. Periwinkle street. Go back t.
your she'll" and Lend us your Wrinkle
pin
X X
All agreed that this was carrying the
thing too far, hence the recent petition
to the municipal big wigs of Stepney.
The solitary individual in Periwinkle
street who declined to sign the petition
is an old man, once pedagogue, but now