STATE NICKNAMES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2, 29 April 1912, Page 4

STATE NICKNAMES.

The latest addition to the States of the (American Union, Arizona, is to follow the example of its predecessors in adopting an unofficial nickname. It is to be called the Valentino State, as the proclamation admitting it to the privileges of sisterhood was signed by President; Taft on St. Valentine's Day. in the list of such nanus the Empire State for New York and the Bay State for Massachusetts are self-explanatory. A contemporary tells us that some States give prominence to their natural products, a? Kentucky, the Blue-

grass Stale; OJiio, the Buckeye Stair (the buckeye is the American horsr 1 chestnut); New Hampshire, the Granite State; South Carolina, the Pal-. nietto State; and Main;', tke Pine-tree State. In the Golden State California perpetuates tlie memory ol the mineral discoveries that first made her famous. Connecticut's nickname of the Nutmeg State refers to lier alleged interest in the manufacture • I wooden nutmegs. The fact that Texas was once an independent republic is recall'ed by her name of the Lime Star State. Pennsylvania is the Keystone State, as the central colony of the thirteen that form the Union. lowa is the Hawkeye State, from the name of an Indian chief once in authority in that region. Colorado was admitted to Statehood in 1576, the centenary of the Declaration of Independence, and so is called the Centennial I State. The pioneers of Wisconsin were Missouri men who spent only their summers in their new settlement, where they contented themselves for a few years with the shelter of the holes in the hills. They were hence called badgers, and Wisconsin became the Badger State. Delaware is distinguished by the old name of the Blue Hen State. The regiment it contributed to the Revolutionary War was known as the Game Cock Regiment, on account of its fighting qualities. One of its officers, a fancier of game cocks, maintained that a true game cock must be the progeny of a blue hen, and his theory was given a wider application than he intended.