Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-12-19

Everybody knows that the Noriu
War changed the map OF Europe IN
many vital ways, but the latest prod
ucts Of mapmakers, coupled with the
efforts Of the International Postal
Union, telegraph and cable and ex'
press companies and tourist agencies
have outdone the war to IN up
setting geography a. the present gen
Grafton learned it in school. Ne"
maps of Europe are about to come
off the press. ard the student OF even
post war years will find himself quite
lost in a new maze of spellings which
will make him wonder how he secured
passing grades in geography.
Names of cities have been. so
thoroughly remodeled to meet with
the European spellings that a map
of the 1920 era Is almost az
ntiuue as the charts which IN
spired Columbus to suspect that the
world was round. Not only are
there scores Of simple changes. wnich
make Rome into Roma. Lisbon
into Lisboa, Genoa into Geneva ana
Moscow into Moskva. but there are
dozens Of more radical departures
Lexhorn Is now Livorno. The hague
has become Gravenhage, vienna
Wien. Revel is Tallinn, Monastlr IL
Hitoli. Gallipoli Is Galiboli and the
Russian changes are even more COM
plicated.
Ekaterinburg, where the late Car
was killed. Is now Sverdlovsk. ana
Tsaritsin has been named Stalingrad.
Jassy IL Iasi and Ekaterinodar Is
Krasnodar. In fact. Russia. or the
Union of sociaJistic Soviet Republics.
has been quite thoroughly mapped
for the first time, and the results
Of this enterprise alone may Wen
change geography from a nice, pleas
ant easv study into a perfect horror
for our youth.
Boundary Changes.
The changes in boundaries OF ma
lions and the creation OF new nations
nv the war have become somewhat
IA miliar. LAtvia, Lithuania, Estonla.
Poland. Czechoslovakia. Yugoslavia
and Albania all have existed long
enough to seem fairly real even 10
mans ended with the eighth grade.
nut we did not realize that these
changes also were going to promote
changes in spelling. Here we have
had a queen with US for months ana
have spelled her native land Rumania
and Roumania, only to have the ex'
perts burst upon us this year with
Romania as the one. sole and only
correct spelling.
People who travelled In Europe nave
known that American speiilngs OF
European cities were not aiWays VI
much help in trying to hnd those
rjaces on a. map made in Europe.
Wow travel and business correspond
enco have become so universai De-
tween this Nation and the old coun'
tries that the American mapmakers
have decided to go along WIN tne
commercial. tourist and postal au-
thorities and try to make our maps
| of Europe have a more genuine Valus
for the person who IL going ABROAD
| or writing to Europe.
During the war the American
neditionaries found out that go.
blsnce was really Coblenz. and that
Treves was Trier. and that Cologne
was Coin. These facts now appear
on the map. Little by little we IN
America agreed to let ST. Petersburg
ha Petrosrad. only to find 1t changed
to Inningrah. Then Christiania
ceased to be the capital OF Norway:
because the name became Oslo. anu
Constantinople disappeared unner tne
name OF Istambul. This process mas
been going steadily forward ana se.'
| ting steadily worse. from the view.
| point Of one who talks nothing ou'
English and not all OF that:
Warsaw In now the capital OF 70
land and not a Russian city, 80 y. 10
| Warszawa. Salonika 10 Thessalonike,
Belgrade 10 Beograd. Bucharest IS
Bucuresti and Venice Is veneha'
During the war we welcomed Ism
berg as q: relief from trying 10 pro
| nounce the other towns on the Aus
TRAN Russian frontier: Now IL ~ III
Poland, and, after being Lvov for
while, we are told 1t 10 really LiVo"'
German and italian Changes.
| To the American tongue there may
| be some sense to letting the Germans
say Munchen for Munich, but now
we must say 1t II we are more than
half educated. Florence was nice ana
easy. but they have made that Italian
beauty spot into Tirenzi, while Naples
la Napoii and Milan Is Milano.
Shakespeare's gay adventures are
not from Padua at all, but from
Padova, and Hamlet did not receive
ambassadors from Helsingfors. but
from Helsinki. The classic grandeur
that was Greece Is not what 1t was.
for Athens Is Athenai and Piraeus Is
Peiraievs.
Hardly a land on the grand old
continent of war ana culture has been
spared. Saragossa, Spain, 10 cara
goza, and Dura go, Albania, IL Durres.
Geneva Ia GenGUe. Copenhagen Is Ko.