POPULAR AMERICAN SOUBRIQUETS. WACHUSETT, wah-choo'set (Ind.), | we-tum'kah (Ind.), 541 otherwise, beautiful lake of the high land. WINOOSKI, we-noos'ke (Ind.), beautiful stone river. WISCASSET, wis-kass'et (Ind.), place of yellow pine. WISCONSIN, wis-kon'sin, wild rushing channel. YUCATAN, yoo-kah-tan', from the Ind. juca tan, "What do you say?" a name given by the Spaniards from the answer returned by the natives to an inquiry concerning the name of the country. name ACADIA, the original, and now the poetic, name of Nova Scotia. ATHENS OF AMERICA, a sometimes given to Boston, Mass. BADGER STATE, a name popularly given to the State of Wisconsin. BAY STATE, a popular name of Massachusetts, which was originally called the Colony of Massachusetts Bay. BAYOU STATE, a name sometimes given to the State of Mississippi, which abounds in bayous, or creeks. BEAR STATE, a name by which the State of Arkansas is sometimes designated, on account of the number of bears that infest its forests. BLUE HEN, THE, a cant or popular name for the State of Delaware. BUCKEYE STATE, the State of Ohio; popularly so called from the Buckeye tree, which abounds there. CITY OF BROTHERLY LOVE; Philadelphia is sometimes so called, this being the literal signification of the name. CITY OF CHURCHES, a name popularly given to the City of Brooklyn, N. Y., from the unusually large number of churches which it contains. CITY OF ELMS, a familiar denomination of New Haven, Conn., many of the streets of which are thickly shaded with lofty elms. CITY OF MAGNIFICENT DISTANCES, a popular designation given to the city of Washington, the capital of the United States, which is laid out on a very large scale. CITY OF NOTIONS, a popular name for Boston. CITY OF ROCKS, a descriptive name popularly given to the city of Nash, ville, Tenn. CITY OF SPINDLES, a name popu larly given to the city of Lowell, Mass., the largest cotton-manufac CITY OF THE STRAITS, a name turing town in the United States. 542 POPULAR AMERICAN SOBRIQUETS. popularly given to Detroit, Mich., CRESCENT CITY, a popular name DIAMOND STATE, a name some- EXCELSIOR STATE, the State of New York, sometimes so called from the motto, "Excelsior," upon its coat of arms. FALL CITY; Louisville, Ky.; popularly so called from the falls which, at this place, impede the navigation of the Ohio River. FATHER OF WATERS, a popular name given to the river Mississippi on account of its great length (3,160 miles), and the very large num ber of its tributaries, of which the Red, the Arkansas, the Ohio, the Missouri, the Illinois, the Des Moines, the Wisconsin, and the St. Peter's or Minnesota, are the most important. The literal signification of the name, which is of Indian origin, is said to be, " great river." FLOUR CITY, a popular designation of the city of Rochester, N. Y., a place remarkable for its extensive manufactories of flour. FLOWER CITY; Springfield, Ill., the capital of the State, which is distinguished for the beauty of its surroundings. FOREST CITY; Cleveland, O., so called from the many ornamental trees with which the streets are bordered. Also, a name given to Portland, Me., a city distinguished for its many elms and other beautiful shade trees. FREESTONE STATE, the State of Connecticut, sometimes so called from the quarries of freestone which it contains. GARDEN CITY, a popular name for Chicago, a city which is remarkable for the number and beauty of its private gardens. GARDEN OF THE WEST, a name usually given to Kansas, but sometimes applied to Illinois and other of the Western States, which are all noted for their productiveness. GARDEN OF THE WORLD, a name frequently given to the vast country, comprising more than 1,200,000 square miles, which is drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries-a region of almost unexampled fertility. GATE CITY; Keokuk, Ia., popularly so called. It is situated at the foot of the lower rapids of the Mississippi (which extend twelve miles, with a fall of twenty-four feet), and is the natural head of navigation. A portion of the city is built on a bluff one hundred and fifty feet high. GIBRALTAR OF AMERICA, a name often given to the city of Quebec, which, from its position and natural and artificial means of defense, is the most strongly fortified city in America. GOTHAM, go'tham, a popular name for the city of New York, first given to it in "Salmagundi" (a humorous work by Washington Irving and William Irving and James K. Paulding), because the inhabitants were such wiseacres. GRANITE STATE, a popular name POPULAR AMERICAN SOBRIQUETS. for the State of New Hampshire, the mountainous portions of which are largely composed of granite. GREEN-MOUNTAIN STATE, a popular name of Vermont, the Green Mountains being the principal mountain range in the State. HAWKEYE STATE, the State of Iowa, said to be so named after an Indian chief, who was once a terror to voyageurs to its borders. HOOSIER STATE, hoo'zhur, the State of Indiana, the inhabitants of which are often called Hoosiers. This word is a corruption of husher, formerly a common term for a bully throughout the West. HUB OF THE UNIVERSE, a burJesque and popular designation of Boston, Mass., originating with the American humorist, Oliver Wendell Holmes. IRON CITY, a name popularly given to Pittsburgh, Pa., a city distinguished for its numerous and immense iron manufactures. KEY OF THE GULF, a name often given to the island of Cuba, from its position at the entrance of the Gulf of Mexico. KEYSTONE STATE, the State of Pennsylvania, so called from its having been the central State of the Union at the time of the formation of the Constitution. If the names of the thirteen original States are arranged in the form of an arch, Pennsylvania will occupy the place of the keystone. KING OF WATERS, a name given to the River Amazon, in South America. LAKE STATE, a name popularly given to the State of Michigan, which borders upon the four lakes, Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Erie. LAND OF STEADY HABITS, a name by which the State of Connecticut is sometimes designated, in allusion to the moral character of its inhabitants. LITTLE RHODY, a popular designation of Rhode Island, the smallest of the United States. LONE STAR STATE, the State of Texas, so called from the device on its coat of arms. LUMBER STATE, a popular designation for the State of Maine, the 543 inhabitants of which are largely engaged in cutting and rafting lumber, or of converting it into boards, shingles, scantling, and the like. MASON AND DIXON'S LINE, a name given to the southern boundary line of the free State of Pennsylvania, which separated it from the slave States of Maryland and Virginia. It was run-except about twenty-two miles-by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, two English inathematicians and surVeyors, between November 15, 1763, and December 26, 1767 During the excited debate in ongress, in 1820, on the question of excluding slavery from Missouri, the eccentric John Randolph, of koanoke, made great use of this phrase, which was caught up and re-echoed by every newspaper in the land, and thus gained the celebrity which it still maintains. MODERN ATHENS, a name often given to Boston, Mass., a city remarkable for the high intellectual character of its citizens and for its many excellent literary, scientific, and educational institutions and publications. name MONUMENTAL CITY, the city of Baltimore, so called from the monuments which it contains. MOTHER OF PRESIDENTS, a name frequently given to the State of Virginia, which has furnished six Presidents to the Union. MOTHER OF STATES, a sometimes given to the State of Virginia, the first settled of the thirteen States which united in the Declaration of Independence. MOUND CITY, a name popularly given to St. Louis on account of the numerous artificial mounds that occupied the site on which the city is built. NUTMEG STATE, a popular name for the State of Connecticut, the inhabitants of which have such a reputation for shrewdness that they have been jocosely accused of palming off wooden nutmegs on unsuspecting purchasers, instead of the genuine article. OLD COLONY, a name popularly given to that portion of Massachu setts included within the original 544 POPULAR AMERICAN SOBRIQUETS. limits of the Plymouth Colony, which was formed at an earlier date than the colony of Massachusetts Bay. In 1692 the two colonies were united in one province, bearing the name of the latter, and, at the formation of the Federal Union, became the State of Massachusetts. OLD DOMINION, a popular name for the State of Virginia. The origin of this term has been differently accounted for by different writers. OLD NORTH STATE, a popular designation of the State of North Carolina. PALMETTO STATE, the State of South Carolina, so called from the arms of the State, which contain a palmetto PANHANDLE, THE, a farciful and cant name given to the most northerly portion of the State of West Virginia-a long, narrow projection between the Ohio River and the western boundary of Pennsylvania. PENINSULA STATE, the State of PRAIRIE STATE, a name given to companied by a colony of English QUEEN CITY, a popular name of QUEEN OF THE ANTILLES, an- SALT RIVER, a cant name for an SMOKY CITY, a name sometimes given to Pittsburgh, an important manufacturing city of Pennsylva nia. SUCKER STATE, a cant name given to the State of Illinois, the inhab itants of which are very generally called suckers throughout the West. TURPENTINE STATE, a popular name for the State of North Carolina, which produces and exports immense quantities of turpentine. WOLVERINE STATE, the State of Michigan, popularly so called from its abounding with wolverines. BIOGRAPHICAL REGISTER. CONTAINING THE DATES OF BIRTH AND DEATH OF THE FAMOUS PERSONAGES OF HISTORY, ART, SCIENCE, LITER ATURE, RELIGION AND POLITICS. NOTE.-B. C. before a date signifies before Christ, otherwise all dates will be understood as reckoned A. D., or since the Christian era. A blank space in the column of deaths signifies that the person is still living. A blank space followed by a question mark (?) signifies that the date is unknown, while a date followed by the same mark indicates it to be approximate. |