There was a time, particularly during the gold rush to California, when the rough humor of the country showed itself in the invention of extravagant and often highly felicitous place-names, but with the growth of population and the rise of civic spirit they have tended to be replaced with more seemly coinages. [Pg295] /Catfish/ creek, in Wisconsin, is now the /Yahara/ river; the /Bulldog/ mountains, in Arizona, have become the /Harosomas/; the /Picketwire/ river, as we have seen, has resumed its old French name of /Purgatoire/. As with natural features of the landscape, so with towns. Nearly all the old /Boozevilles/, /Jackass Flats/, /Three Fingers/, /Hell-For-Sartains/, /Undershirt Hills/, /Razzle-Dazzles/, /Cow-Tails/, /Yellow Dogs/, /Jim-Jamses/, /Jump-Offs/, /Poker Citys/ and /Skunktowns/ have yielded to the growth of delicacy, but /Tombstone/ still stands in Arizona, /Goose Bill/ remains a postoffice in Montana, and the Geographic Board gives its imprimatur to the /Horsethief/ trail in Colorado, to /Burning Bear/ creek in the same state, and to /Pig Eye/ lake in Minnesota. Various other survivors of a more lively and innocent day linger on the map: /Blue Ball/, Ark., /Cowhide/, W. Va., /Dollarville/, Mich., /Oven Fork/, Ky., /Social Circle/, Ga., /Sleepy Eye/, Minn., /Bubble/, Ark., /Shy Beaver/, Pa., /Shin Pond/, Me., /Rough-and-Ready/, Calif., /Non Intervention/, Va., /Noodle/, Tex., /Nursery/, Mo., /Number Four/, N. Y., /Oblong/, Ill., /Stock Yards/, Neb., /Stout/, Iowa, and so on. West Virginia, the wildest of the eastern states, is full of such place-names. Among them I find /Affinity/, /Annamoriah/ (/Anna Maria?/), /Bee/, /Bias/, /Big Chimney/, /Billie/, /Blue Jay/, /Bulltown/, /Caress/, /Cinderella/, /Cyclone/, /Czar/, /Cornstalk/, /Duck/, /Halcyon/, /Jingo/, /Left Hand/, /Ravens Eye/, /Six/, /Skull Run/, /Three Churches/, /Uneeda/, /Wide Mouth/, /War Eagle/ and /Stumptown/. The Postal Guide shows two /Ben Hurs/, five /St. Elmos/ and ten /Ivanhoes/, but only one /Middlemarch/. There are seventeen /Roosevelts/, six /Codys/ and six /Barnums/, but no /Shakespeare/. /Washington/, of course, is the most popular of American place-names. But among names of postoffices it is hard pushed by /Clinton/, /Centerville/, /Liberty/, /Canton/, /Marion/ and /Madison/, and even by /Springfield/, /Warren/ and /Bismarck/.