Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 December 1897 — GREAT AND HONORED NAMES [ARTICLE]

GREAT AND HONORED NAMES

Borne by New York Men in the Common Walks of Life. New York’s directory can turn out a few odd names, but an investigation] has shown rather remarkable and curious facts, which go to prove that the answer to Shakspeare’s question Is that there is nothing at all in a name. For William Shakespeare—the William Shakspeare of New York—is a humble printer. There is a John Milton in New York who, as the directory describes him, is an engineer. Victor Hugo is put down as a waiter in a restaurant. Edwin Booth is given as a nurse, and Francis Bacon appears in the role of a piano tuner. There are seven Thomas Jeffiersons, and one of them is a policeman. Of si round dozen Andrew Jacksons one is a valet, another a repairer of bicycles. Six George Washingtons vary in avocation from lawyer to stock broker. One Plato sells baits, James G. Blaine is a coachman, Jefferson Davis a driver, Henry Clay a laborer, and Julius Caesar Is a cigar salesman. There are two Ben Franklins, one William E. Gladstone, four Robert Burnses and any number of George Gordons—Byron’s name. There are twenty Tom Moores, a Virgil and a HOmer. There is but one Henry Heine in New York, two Richard Wagners, one Verdi, who is a musician, and a Gluck, who is a florist. This by no means exhausts the list of famous names whose owners were as obscure as their nominal prototypes were famous, but it shows the possibilities of Greater New York.