Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 April 1876 — Nicknames. [ARTICLE]

Nicknames.

Everyone who lias reached the meridian of life without such an appendage must surely congratulate him or herself on having escaped the burden of a nickname. We say. burden advisedly, for it is. surely little else, when a shriveled and elderly spinster" is : universally called “ baby,” or a stout and florid matron is found to answer to the equally Incongruous appellation of “Fairy.” Probably long use has drilled the victim’* feelings; stiU. evenso, it mush one would think, occasionally strike them how d uly absurd such' infantine nantes must sound to a stranger, who, seeing them for the first time in tbe evening of their days, can find no trace of rbe btfrly Chftrms that made the graceful endeftrment appropriate. We have.mentioned “baby” arid “Fairy’Uaa being in some sort representative nicknames common to the experience of most of our readers; But everyone’s acquaintance will at once supply a host of otheTß of “Kittens” who liavc ; Jong since become demure critfti or “Trots” who have seep many ft weftry year 'pass Since the name could have been appropriate; f*d a hundred other tpo common to require remark. As Applied to women thetee'hicknames lose their point and ap-' piipajipu from .be,lag gjven for some infantine grace that can, at its best, be but transitory;'while, in tile case of men, they generally owe thefr’ origin to somenursfery trick, or school-boy escapade, which knight welil be Suffered to sink into oblivion. Feminine nicknames, we may observe, are, as a rule, almost invariably complimentary.; while masculine ones are almost as invariably the reverse. But the complimentary appellation, so pretty grid so appropriate ’to sweet seven teeny*’ does but call, attention to the changes ■wrought by the scythe of ruthless Time' between that blissful age and forty-five ; while certainly thd. uncouth'’ cognomens usually bestowed on men. hardly sound dignified when addressed to them by their old companions iri ! their children’s hearing. And is it not often the cose that, w hen questioned to his boys and girls ap to the origin of Jnis riickuapic, the father does not particularly, care to recall the circumstances which saddled him with “ the incubus ?” Such being .the case, it is not wonderful tlfttt pfirehts shohld not steadfastly set their faces against nicknames lor firmness would convqr). nurse’s Missy” hot forthcoming, and the children grow up almost without-knowing the sounu ; of their'own namijs; for if* Edward (by flic strong protest which a boy does occasionally make against an infantile appelhitiou fts ibjurious to his dignity) succeed in ridding himself of the name of Baby, lie is tolerably.certain to be called Ned, or some other equally objectionable abbreviatioh. There seems, to be an impression—indeed we have more than once heard it gravely argued—that it sounds “cold” and harsh to call a child simply by its Christian name, and nicknames are used as terms of endearment. , .This i»ay be very well if the use of the pet name eould be by any means confined to the immediate relations of (he child; hut this con never je the case. —-John Puli, 'i... -)ii, v) ; - t .1 t' iyßwTJAnJfou,,Trade Association bfeen formed, in pan designed to iuppiy whftt the London"Jfeie* callk antetoundirig meagerness aud liaufficiency of detail in the returns of our iron productions The United States, it adds, have been beforehand with us In arrririging the stotis tics of the iron trade- , • A > Taa, Correctional Tribunal of Rouen has just been called upon to decide a case which has settled fl| Rrag-disputea question, viz., whether selling skimnled milk was a breach of the law. The Court decided ki the affirmative, milk without its cream must be considered as adulterated.