Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-12-10
CURIOSITIES OF
NAMES OF PLACES
An Old Joke That Turned Out to Be
New-Gallipoli in Turkey and
Gallipolis in Ohio-Town
Named by Wrestler

| THIS morning, as / was coming into town
| l. on the elevated train, l noticed on the
| face of the passenger sitting opposite an
amused expression, which evidently had it's
cause somewhere in the pages of his news
| paper The look of amusement spread itself
| quickly and pleasantly all over the mans
broad and steadily widening countenance.
Surely he was going to his work in the right
mood. But the contagion of his good humor
had immediate effect.
The smile was by no means content with
remaining a smile, and speedily developed
into Chuckle, which drew simultaneously q
smile and a glance from his neighbor in the
same seat. The chucltle continued and like
wise the neghbor's interest. The party of
the first part pointed out the cause of it all
and the other found the place in his own
paper. Then the two laughed together and
as the rhetorcians say-were friends. When
! reached my station l bought a copy of the
paper. which they had been reading, and re-
membering that the item I sought was
the page which contained the taXicab adver-
tisement l quickly satisfied my curiosity.
This Is what l found (under the heading,
Name of this Town Has Dual Pronuncia-
tlon'D
A conductor and brakeman on n Montana
railroad differ TO the proper pronunciation
of the name Eurela. Passengers are often
startled at this station to hear the conduc-
tor yell,
You're a liar, You're liar"
And then from the brakeman at the other
end of the car:
you really are! You really are!"
Was I disappointed? Not a bit of it,
though 1 had heard the story years and years
before. Here was proof conclusive that no
story is so old that it isn't new to somebody.
This Muddling War
There is no place-name poor that il
hasn't a story to tell Pronunciation is some
times the source of interest-or of the
sources-for every name has variety of as
sociations, genealogical, historical and other
wise, besides still other fascinating qualities.
Out in Gallia County, Ohio. is a town
named Gallipolis. 1t owes some of its pres
ent fame, which isn't yet of very large pro-
portions, to a name familiar to readers of the
news. Gallipoli, as everybody knows.
has the accent On the second syllable. The
people of The little Ohio town can't get used
to 1t. They have been accustomed from
childhood to saying "Galli-poIice," with the
accent on the first and last syllables, espe-
cially the last. Galia County was settled by
the French about 1885, The French gave it
the name the Romans gave to the old coun-
try, and drew on Latin and Greek for the
name Of their county seat. II is stated that
there are seventeen places in this country
the names of which contain the Greek
''pOlls," the word for "clty" They are In
dianapolis, Minneapolis. Annapolis, Copper
opols, Demopolis. Kanopolis Cosmopolis,
Metropolis Opols and Gallipolis. There's an
Indianapolis in Oklahoma as we'll as in In
diana; Minneapolis in Minnesota another
in Kansas and third in North Carolina:
while Annapolis is found in Maryland, Cali
fOrnia, Illinois Missouri and Ohio
Some place-names are manufactured for
descriptive purposes, as philadelphia" is
Greek for "City of Brotherly Love" and
"Cynwyd' is Welsh for "Thou art first"
"St. Petersburg" or 'Petrograd, is a per-
petual reminder OF the romance of the found
ing of the city. and the mere mention of the
name Rome" speaks volumes. The street
names OF London are treasury of historical
lore The "City of Thousand Gates" has
still its Newgate. the fifth portal in the orig
nal Roman wall of London and the scene of
the executions; 1t has it's Canonsgate, its
Billingsgate. and. one might think the whole
thousand, Mount street is so called because
divers Mount, a point in the fertilization /
lines built around London by Oliver Crom-
wells men, stood beside the highway I'm /
those times. Golden Square gets it's name /
from inn called 1.-The Gelding." which for
merly stood in the neighborhOod. The Square |
was first called Gelding Square. but the peo-
pie didn't like il and changed the mama nv
usage. Pail Mall was the scene OF many a
game Of pall mall, So it goes with the other
names-covent Garden. Westminster. Tenn
pie Bar Piecadily Circus-all having inter
esting origins and associations. Charles III
kept ayiary In the locality now known as
Birdcage Walk. AMI the keeper OF the ayiary
Edward storey. lived HARDLY in a neIghbor
hood which is known today as storey's Gate
Piaee-namss too. are record OF migra-
lions In New England the people Of Con-