Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 February 1918 — RACES QUICK TO AMALGAMATE [ARTICLE]

RACES QUICK TO AMALGAMATE

Intermarriage of French and English in St. Louis Began Promptly and Continued. “Mimi” was a pet name for girls in the old French families a century ago. It was Indian and meant little pigeon. “Virginia” was a fhvorite name for daughters angong the French families. The suggestion did not come from the Old Dominion state. Baby girls were christened Virginia because the mothers had read, tearfully, the story of Paul and Virginia. Bernardine de Saint Pierre’s novel came out in 1797. It circulated all over the world and reached St. Louis. The romance made the first literary impression on the village. It prompted the use of the name the heroine many times. Comfningling of the elements of the population of St. Louis came promptly. There was no line of exclusion in business or matrimony. The evolution of the typical St. Loulsan'was rapid. Of the more than one thousand descendants of Madame Chouteau, the mother of St. Louis, not two hundred have borne French names. Tn the present generation these descendants are rep resented in families of six formter na tionalities. From “Missourian One Hundred Years Ago,” by Walter B. Stevens.