unknown to the English, but they use road for urban thorough- fares, which is very seldom done in America, and they also make free use of place, walk, passage, lane and circus, all of which are obsolescent on this side of the ocean. Some of the older Ameri- can cities, such as Boston and Baltimore, have surviving certain ancient English designations of streets, e. g., Cheapside and Corn- hill; these are unknown in the newer American towns. Broad- way, which is also English, is more common. Many American towns now have plazas, which are unknown in England. Nearly all have City Hall parks, squares or places; City Hall is also unknown over there. The principal street of a small town, in America, is almost always Main street; in England it is as in- variably High street, usually with the definite article before High.
I have mentioned the corruption of old Dutch street and neighborhood names in New York. Spanish names are corrupted in the same way in the Southwest and French names in the Great Lakes region and in Louisiana. In New Orleans the street names, many of them strikingly beautiful, are pronounced so barba- rously by the people that a Frenchman would have difficulty recognizing them. Thus, Bourbon has become Bur-bun, Dau- phine is Daw- fin, Foucher is Foosh'r, Enghien is En-gine, and Felicity (originally F 'elicit e) is Fill-a-city. The French, in their days, bestowed the names of the Muses upon certain of the city streets. They are now pronounced Cal'-y-ope, Terp' -si-chore, Mel-po-mean', You-terp', and so on. Bon Enfants, apparently too difficult for the native, has been translated into Good Chil- dren. Only Esplanade and Bagatelle, among the French street names of the city, seem to be commonly pronounced with any approach to correctness.
