Names That Live On

Evening Star, Issue 20058, 26 December 1928, Page 8

Names That Live On

[By Bassett Dioby, in the ‘Spectator.’] Even if by some chance Mr Herbert Hoover should not become the next President of the United States he is assured of immortality among the unborn astronomers of all the ages to come, for as a token of gratitude for the way ho distributed relief to the hunger-stricken population of Austria the University of Vienna recently gave the name ot Hooveria to the new asteroid star, No. 932. An asteroid is a small planet that docs not twinkle, and is visible only through a telescope. Hooveria was Hie 932nd of this typo of heavenly body located by astronomers, moving among the fixed stars, and with orbits lying between those of Mars and Jupiter. Another of them has been officially named Vesta—but not, I regret to state, in honour of the admirable Lady Dc Frece. The late Lord Oxford and Asquith was honoured by the christening of a newly-discovered peak near the South Polo with the name of Mount Asquith (Shuekleton did that), and the naming of what is claimed to he the precise geographical centre of the British Empire, Asquith town. It is an ambitious village near the Canadian city, Regina. In the United States two villages recently named Lindbergh have arisen to perpetuate the memory of the young colonel. America has about thirty places called Washington, nearly as many Franklins, and some twenty Lincolns. Most of her Presidents have had places named alter them. The late Mr Pringle, for many years Liberal M.P. for North'-west Lanarkshire and the Penistonc Division ot Yorkshire, was the perlcetor of a now and formidable parliamentary procedure now known as “ pringling ” —a process of dialectic pin-pricking by a series of disconcerting questions to speakers, which often upset elaborate arguments. “Nobody,” Sir John Simon lias declared, “ pringled more persistently' or with greater courage or with better temper. He slew his adversary a.s though ho loved him, “Jinking," it has been suggested, apropos a famous abstention iroiu voting at a momentous session of the Free State Parliament on the part of jovial Mr Jinks, should pass into the language. In sporting circles in India it is there already, signifying the sudden dodging of a wild pig when the hunter is getting close enough to spear it. Another immortalised M.P. was Samuel Pliiusull, who drew the line, and to whom a memorial is to be erected on the Thames Embankment. Sailormeii of every clime have indeed cause to bo grateful to him for putting a stop to the terribly prevalent custom of overloading old cargo ships. Whether there was, indeed, onec a Tommy Atkins, who by getting talked about in the army in consequence of dropping dead from a wound in the act of delivering a despatch to Wellington during the Waterloo campaign caused the adoption of his name a.s a universal nickname for the English soldier, is doubtful, despite the widespread belief in that legend. The War Office library lias no evidence to confirm it. That un-pleasant-looking weapon, the bowie knife, however, was certainly named •ifter a real American army officer, Colonel Bowie, of Texas, who got into i mix-up with some murderous Mexicans, and did a, lot of damage with that two-edged knife which he had made out of a blacksmith's file. The pistol called the “ Derringer ” is named after the American gunsmith who devised it. A good many people think that the 'em “ banting,” as applied to dieting with a view to becoming slimmer, implied becoming less like a large fowl mid more like an agile liitle bantam. But the derivation is from a certain William Banting, of Kensington, whose name came into prominence some sixty years ago, when he wrote a pamphlet praising the thinning treatment evolved by Dr'Harvey, consisting chiefly of a diet of lish and ITml. Wo hear less nowaday? about “ Fletcherising ” than we did a lew years ago, but it is a term that continues to he used as meaning Hie patient mastication of every morsel of food before it is .swallowed. Fashions in hairdressing and clothes and accessories ol dross have ol ten been named alter the person introducing them. To the present generation some of these seem odd ; lor instance, the quite respectfully intended “ Alexandra limp’ 1 affected as a mode of walking half a century ago by young society women, because the Princess of Wales had been lame for a time. Lady Do Bathe’s preferences, as the'beautiful young actress, Lily Langtry, led to the once widespread vogue <1 tho “ Langtry knot ’ and the “ Langtry «hoe.” Mine Du Pompadour’.-: style of hairdressing lias immortalised her name. In California the “ Lindy hob ” was recently exhibited with pride at a convention of the Statu master barbers. Witli its unruly wave and little tigerclaw side curl it purports, with varying success, to give a young woman a profile resembling Cobne! Lindbergh. The little heard known as the “ ini perinl " was called alter Napoleon 111. The mackintosh is named after a Mi Macintosh, who devised that useful garment. and the cardigan after the carl who lirst wore such a waistcoat. To tons of thousands of non-highbrow Germans a “ George Bernhard Shaw ” is a threepenny cigar. It is a very strong cigar, and on the bos is a gaudy picture of the sage of Whitehall Court, with a face so red that it appears to he blushing at the thought that the English tourist might assume that it was his favourite weed. As a matter of fact, Mr Shaw is a non-smoker. Cavendish tobacco is named after an Elizabethan ancestor of tho Duke of Devonshire, who discovered how to moisten tho stuff with molasses and to press it into hard cakes. A brand of cigarette widely smoked in the Holy Land is named “ The Balfour,” in gratitude to the statesman who has done so much for Palestine.' The taxi drivers of London have announced that they- are going to call tho new two-seaters “ jixis,” after the licensing Home Secretary. Sir William Jovnson-Hicks; and on the cab ranks the new sixpenny short-distance ride is called “ the Woolworth.”