room; "I am here at the desire of my | you would, at any rate for the present, mother. She thinks there has been some make your home with her." mistake that you did not receive the note she wrote to you last week." "I have not received any note from Mrs. Grainger," replied Margaret, pressing her hand upon her side, for her heart was wildly beating at the presence of one whom she still fondly loved, "except one she kindly wrote me when papa died." Margaret did not answer. She was struggling to suppress her rebellious feelings. "If you would but put up with her ailments, she says, and be free and gay as in your own home, she would be more happy than she has been since the death of Isabel. Allow me to urge the petition also, Miss Channing." "Not that; you replied to that, I be- Margaret shook her head, but the tears lieve; this one was written on Thursday dropped forth uncontrolled, and she covor Friday last. Its purport, Miss Chan-ered her face with her hands. Mr. Grainning, was to beg the favor of your spend-ger advanced; he drew her hands away; ing a little time with her when you leave he bent over her with a whisper. here. I"-he hastened to add-“am no longer living at home. My mother is alone." The tears rushed into Margaret's eyes. "Every one is so very kind," she said. "I am much indebted to Mrs. Grainger for thinking of me; but I must decline. Though I will certainly go down and personally thank her. She is no longer able to move out of doors, I believe." "Not now; not for several months past. She wished me to inquire your plans: though I know not whether you may deem it an impertinence." "No, no," answered Margaret, scarcely able to prevent the tears falling, so miserably did old recollections, combined with present low spirits, tell upon her that evening. "I feel obliged by Mrs. Grainger's interest. I am going to-morrow to Mr. Padmore's for a week or two; he and Mrs. Padmore would have it so. By the end of that time I hope to have found a permanent home. Friends are already looking out for me. I must turn my abili ties to account now." "But it is not well that you should do so," he rejoined, with some agitation of manner; "it is not right for Dr. Channing's daughter. We heard of your determination from Mr. Padmore, and it grieved and vexed my mother. She would be so delighted, Miss Channing, if "Margaret! I would rather urge one of my own. That you would come-after awhile-to my home." She rose up shaking.. What did he mean? "Has the proper time come for me to ask you once again to be my wife? Oh! let me hope it has! Margaret, dearest Margaret, it was in this room you rejected me; let it be in this room that you will atone for it." "I can never atone for it," she replied, with a burst of anguish. "Do not waste words upon me, Mr. Grainger; I am not worth it." "You can atone for it, Margaret. You can let my home be your home, my name your name; you can join me in forgetting this long estrangement, and promise to be my dearest wife. I will accept all that as your atonement." "But I do not deserve this," she sobbed. "I deserve only your contempt and hatred." "Hush, hush, Margaret! You shall take my love instead-if you will treasure, now, what you once flung away." "Indeed I do not deserve it," she murmured; "it is too great reward for me." "Is it?" he answered, as he wound his arms round her. "It shall be yours, Margaret, for ever and for ever." it is only in very rare instances of some gross individual infamy that families abandon their cognomen, except in compliance with the condition of some valuable bequest that forces the change upon an heir or a legatee. WHILE the turbulent struggles of public | good name," and we think that we pay a life in the United States startle or astound high price for our good fortune. In fact, the observer; while election riots, civil war, and bloody personal encounters shock the European sense of all that is stable and secure, there are small analogous traits in the quieter pursuits of the American mind that stamp it as the most unsteady of all human combinations. Among these, none is more striking and few are so absurd, independent of political or party versatility, as the mania for the changing names; not merely of surnames a thing rarely effected in England, and then only as a necessity, attended by the acquisition of property, by bequest, inheritance, or marriage-but of Christian names also, changed at will, and on the payment of a small fee; not always from dishonest designs, but often from mere caprice, good or bad taste, or love of variety-from any motive, in short, that might induce an individual elsewhere to change a house, a horse, or a picture. This very common custom, besides leading to infinite confusion as to personal identity, the verification of facts, and the titles to property among a people so wandering, affords a painful illustration of the little real respect as yet generally prevalent among our cousins for family records or family associations. In Europe, attachment to a family name is a sacred sentiment. If it has been rendered eminent by an individual, or even reputable by a succession of honest bearers, few would change it, even if they could. It may not be euphonious; yet we are endeared to it for the sake of those by whom it was borne before us. It may not be celebrated; but we hope to preserve it unsullied. It may have been disgraced; and, in that case, we resolve to redeem it from the stain. Even when its change for some other brings an increase of worldly wealth, we feel that the donor who has coupled his gift with the hard condition of displacing our own patronymic by his has "filched from us our But who in the (old) world would ever, under any circumstances, think of changing his Christian name for any other whatever? Many an Englishman dislikes his familiar appellation, wishes his godfathers and godmothers had had more music in their names, or more forethought for his sensitiveness; but, however harsh or ignoble his Christian name may be, he is usually satisfied with it, and cherishes it-even as a parent does an ugly child - in honor of old associations, and as a part of himself. The general subject of the invention or adaptation of surnames in England is amusing, and instructive too. It has been calculated that there are, in existence among us, between twenty and thirty thousand surnames, derived from almost every possible combination of personal qualities, natural objects, occupations and pursuits, localities, and from mere caprice and fancy. But once established, they are handed down from generation to generation, with respect if not reverence; occasional changes in orthography taking place to hide their original meanness; or, as Camden says, "to mollify them ridicu lously, lest the bearers should seeme villified by them." In America, however, these changes are not confined to slight alterations in spelling, but are adopted bodily and by wholesale. Levity and conceit are the undoubted chief causes for this perpetual ringing of the changes on names. It would be scarcely possible, in most cases, to trace the custom to any reasonable or respectable motive. The changes themselves are, in the majority of instances, abundantly ludicrous; but the forwardness with which the commonest persons thrust themselves | band-but evidently under the inspiration (by implication) into known and well-con- of the last sixpenny novel; and, from sidered families, and endeavor to identify themselves with eminent individuals, is equally remarkable. Here are a few examples from the yearly list published by the Legislature of Massachusetts. I should like to have each individual's head subjected to a phrenological examination, to ascertain if it would bear out my notion of the respective characters of those name-changers. The following eight would show, perhaps, a vain-glorious pride dashed with great effrontery: James Colbert takes the name of Colbert Mortimer; Caleb C. Woodman that of Emerson Mortimer; Hazan R. Fitz that of Hazan Wellington; Lyman Cook becomes Lyman Van Buren; Diodate G. Coon takes the name of Diodate Calhoun; John Pickard that of Daniel Webster; and Noyes Coker that of Edward Byron; and John Lawrence that of George Washing ton. Every one will understand the motives of such a choice-if choice was to be made -of names so gilded with historic and literary fame as those of Mortimer, Wellington, Washington, and Byron. But, many, many Englishmen are not aware that there are, or have recently been, in existence American political celebrities called Van Buren, Webster, and Cal houn. The bump of patriotism must be lamentably deficient in those who abandon the peculiarly national prenomen for any other; as Jonathan Kimball Rogers, who takes that of John K. Rogers, and Jonathan Kendal that of Henry Kendall. This is like giving up Yankee Doodle for Hail, Columbia! the former air smacking of vulgarity, and the other having a fine flavor.* The romantic and lackadaisical developments must be strong in the following young ladies, several of them having abandoned their good old English name not, be it observed, for the sake of a hus *The very ordinary tune, Yankee Doodle, was adopted during the Revolution as the national air, from its having been played by a country fifer as a quick-step during the march of a small detachment of gallant countrymen to the fight of Bunker's Hill-a glorious title to distinction, and far superior to that of the composition which has superseded it among the fashionable society of America. Caroline Follows. Sophronia Bradford. Amelia Livingstone. Aravilla Carter. Sarah Robbins, becoming Adelaide Austin. Maria Bray. 66 Malvina Townsend. Phidelia Prescott. Alvina Calista Hubbard. Almeda Taber. Almira Aurelia Hawkes. Sabrina Ames (of ditto.) Miss Clara Frinck cannot be blamed for changing to Clarissa Wilson, or Abby Craw for becoming Abigail Sawtell. Triphena Moore, Derdamia Finney, Othealda Busk, and the Widow Naomi Luddington are unexceptionably elegant and need no change; yet changed they are to other fanciful appellations. What could have induced Mrs. Betty Henderson (no second marriage giving cause) to change to Betty Grimes? Or where was the occult motive that influenced Philander Jacobs to change to Philander Forrest; Ossian Doolittle to Ossian Ashley; Jeduthan Calden to Albert Nelson; or Allan Smith to go to the very end of the alphabet and become Allan Izzard? Under sundry unfathomable influences, Horace Fish and his wife Rhuhemah take the surname of Tremont; Curtis Squires that of Pomeroy Montague: William H. Carlton that of Augustus Carlton; Ingebor Janson that of Ingebor Anderson; George Hoskiss that of George Puffer. John Jumper shows good taste in becoming simple John Mason. Daniel Ames merely changes a letter, and is Daniel Emes. Dr. Jacob Quackenbush, finding his name unwieldy, sinks a couple of syllables and the quack at the same time, and is transformed to Jacob Bush, M.D. Nathaniel Hopkins, betaking | highly estimable family, the Crowninhimself to rural life, I suppose, becomes shields of Marblehead, whose original Sylvanus Hopkins. But I cannot perceive name was Grunsel; and still another, the what John Cogswell gains (except ad- former Tinkers, who are the present Buckditional trouble) by inserting two more inghams. So much for them! very unmusical monosyllables, and becoming John Beare Doane Cogswell. I am sorry to perceive that some Irishmen have been infected by the epidemic; and, while renouncing their country, try to get rid of their national distinctions. For instance, Patrick Hughes changes to William Hughes; Timothy Leary changes to Theodore Lyman; Mason McLoughlin becomes Henry Mason; and six other persons of his name following his bad example, a whole branch of the family tree of the McLoughlins is lopped off. As a pendant to this anti-national picture, a group of five Bulls abandon the honest English patronymic of their common father, John, and degenerately change it to Webster. A good excuse may exist for the family of Straw, the man of it, as well as his wife and seven children (Cynthia, Sophilia, Elvina, Diana, Sophronia, Phelista, and Orestus), for becoming so many Nileses; while another, called Death, petition (through a member named Graves), and are metamorphosed into Mr. and Mrs. and the Misses Dickenson, Masters Ashael G., Jothan P., and Able S., their sons, also change from Death to Dickenson; but, strange to say, retain their villanous prenomens and unmeaning initials. One Mr. Wormwood, with some fun in him, asks to be allowed to change his name for some other; "certain," as he says, "that no member of taste will oppose his request." Another individual, Alexander Hamilton, also petitions for leave to change, on the double ground of the inconvenient length of seven syllables in writing or speaking (a true go-a-head Yankee), and on his inability to "support the dignity of a name so famous in history!" It must be observed that this smart mechanic did not refer to the Conqueror of Darius, but to the greatest Alexander he had ever heard of: Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury to Washington; and I only hope (for the sake of American amour propre) that a portion of my readers may know who is meant. To these instances of ever-shifting alterations, I may add one of a Miss Hogg who became Miss Howard; of another, a VOL. XL.-NO. II. In looking at this scanty number of examples, and reflecting that such arbitrary changes are every year taking place over the whole extent of the Union to a very large amount, we may imagine, apart from the absurdity of the custom, the confusion and the mischief it occasions. Yet, however strange it appears to us, it is perhaps more wonderful that considering the facility of the operation, it is not still oftener practised. A recent American paper tells us of a family in the town of Detroit, whose sons were named, One Stickney, Two Stickney, Three Stickney; and whose daughters were named, First Stickney, Second Stickney, etc. The three elder children of a family near home were named Joseph, And, Another; and it has been supposed that, should any more children have been born, they would have been named Also, Moreover, Nevertheless, and Notwithstanding. The parents of another family actually named their child Finis, supposing it was their last; but they happened afterwards to have a daughter and two sons, whom they called Addenda, Appendix and Supplement. Whatever exaggeration there may possibly be in these last-quoted instances, there is certainly, in New England as well as in the less established parts of the Union, a curious taste for grotesque, though less startling, combination in names. In what degree fathers or godfathers are responsible for this, or whether existing individuals have capriciously altered their children's Christian and surnames in the present generation, I cannot determine. It is equally puzzling to account, on either hypothesis, for such names as strike the eye on the shop-signs or door-plates, or in the newspapers of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and elsewhere. For instance: Apollo Munn, Quincy Tufts, Orlando Tomkins, Bea Tiffany, Polycretus Flag, Sylvester Almy, Peleg Sprague, Rufus Choate, Abiza Bigelow, Jabez Tarr, Asaph Bass, Azor Tabor, Hiram Shumway, Ransom Sperry, Nahum Capon, Elihu Amadon, Gigeon Links, Zichri Nash. Gideon, Hephzibah, Hasiph, Gibeon, Uriah, Seth, Elnathan, Jeduthan, Virgil, Pliny, Horace, Homer, with Faith, Hope, 18 Charity, and all the other virtues, are common prenomens all over the country. Many of these, while making us smile, recal associations Scriptural and classical, or of our own historic and puritanical absurdities; while some of the fancy names of America remind us of nothing. Mr. Preserved Fish was a well-known merchant of New-York. Perhaps the most whimsical of all is that of a young lady of a country town in the State of Massachusetts, Miss Wealthy Titus. Attractive and auspicious compound! Pray Heaven she will change it, and that without losing a day, like her imperial namesake! And who knows but that every one of those eccentric appellations here recorded are, by this time (like Uncle Toby's oath), blotted out for ever! make white appear so, especially in the Repudiating States. Fifteen Goshens, eleven Canaans, thirty Salems, eleven Bethlehems, testify to the respect in which Scriptural names are held; while homage has been done to classic lands in sundry log-hut villages, some of them fast swelling in population and prosperity. "Ilium fuit" is belied by the existence of sixteen Troys. There are twelve Romes, and eight Athenses; but only one Romulus-and I have not had the good fortune to meet with any of the Athenians. Many great writers have been honored in these national baptisms. There are several Homers, Virgils, Drydens, and Addisons, a couple of Byrons, but not yet (nor likely to be in any sense) a Shakspeare. There are, however, five Avons, However that may be in regard to in- three Stratfords, a Romeo, a Juliet; bedividuals or families, the national nomen- sides, defying classification, four Scipios, clature, as far as the names of places are six Sheffields, twelve Manchesters. There concerned, gives a permanent proof that are one hundred and fifty towns and counthe Americans are at once a remarkably ties called New somethings, and only six imitative and unimaginative people. In Old anythings. The most desperate effort the immense catalogue of the names of at invention is to be found in repetitions counties, towns, and cities, there is hardly of Springfields, Bloomfields, and Greenone they can claim as their own invention. fields. All the cities of the East are mulThey are all of foreign or Indian deriva- tiplied many times, with the exception of tion. The inconceivable repetition of cer- Constantinople, which does not figure in tain names of towns is, without joke, the list at all; but, in revenge, there is "confusion worse confounded." There one Constantine. There are very few atare one hundred and eighteen towns and tempts at giving to Yankee humor a local counties in the United States, called habitation and a name. But I have disWashington. There are five Londons, covered the funny title of Jim Henry atone New London, and I don't know how tached to a soi-disant town in Miller many Londonderrys. Six towns called County, State of Missouri; and I am Paris; three Dresdens, four Viennas, sorry to perceive the stupid name of fourteen Berlins, twenty-four Hanovers. Smallpox fastened (not firmly, I hope) on There are twenty odd Richmonds, sixteen one in Joe Davis County, Illinois. Bedfords, about a score of Brightons, The comparative popularity of public nine Chathams, eleven Burlingtons, six-men may or may not be inferred from the teen Delawares, fourteen Oxfords, as number of times their names may be found many Somersets, a dozen Cambridges, on the maps. It is remarkable that there twenty-five Yorks and New-Yorks, and other English names in proportion. There are twelve towns with the prefix of Big, four Great, and sixteen Little. There are nine Harmonys, double as many Concords (but no Melody); thirteen Freedoms, forty-four Libertys (and plenty of slavery). Twenty-one Columbias, and The indigenous fruits, shrubs, and trees seventy-eight Unions. There are one give titles to many of the streets in cities hundred and four towns and counties of and towns, but to few of the towns themthe color Green, twenty-four Browns, selves. There is one Willow, a few Oaks twenty-six Oranges, and five Vermilions (out of forty odd varieties of the forest -all the hues of an autumnal forest; but king), and not one Persimmon, nor, as far they shrink from calling any of them as I can learn, a Pepperidge, one of the Black, though they sometimes would most beautiful of American trees. are ninety-one Jacksons, eighty-three Franklins, sixty-nine Jeffersons, thirty-four Lafayettes, fifty-eight Monroes, fifty Madisons, fifty-nine Parrys, thirty-two Harrisons, twenty-seven Clintons, twenty-one Clays, sixteen Van Burens, fourteen Bentons; but there are only three Websters. |