Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1895-05-31
BADGER AND SUCKER i
The Way Illinois and Wisconsin Came tG
Get Their Nicknames.

The Way Illinois and Wisconsin Came tG
Get Their Nicknames.
''If there had been no badgers in
Wisconsin,, said native of that state,
wisconsin would not be known as the
Badger State, and yet it did not receive
the name because badgers were there.
There were very few white people in
Wisconsin territory in its early days,
the population being confined to the
military posts, the missionary and trad
ing stations, and the lead mining re-
gions in the southwestern part of the
territory. The miners were Of two
classes, men who worked the mines all
the year round and men who came up
from the Illinois country in the spring
and worked until the fall, when they
returned to their prairies and groves.
The miners who were permanent dwell
ers in the region didn't bother to put up
cabins or even huts. In fact, material
for such dwellings was not abundant
They simply dug holes in the sides of
the hills large enough to give them
room to sleep and cook in. Nowadays
those burrows would perhaps be called
dugouts, but as they closely resembled
the subterranean homes of the badgers
they were promptly called badger holes,
and the miners who occupied them were
called badgers.
''Any one who cares to tramp through
that part of Wisconsin today will come
upon deep excavations in the rocks
regular quarry holes bearing every evil
dence Of having been made long ago.
And SO they were. Some Of them were
excavated 60 years ago and more. They
were the work of the lead miners who
went up from Illinois in the spring to the
mining region. They, being there only
for short season, did not mine by dig
ging shafts, as the permanent miners
did, nor did they live in burrows. They
blasted the surface rock, making large
pits by their work, seeking what was
called the float lead and ore that was
easily obtained near the top. They &C.
cupied the pits they made. as the other
miners did their hillside burrows
"Owing to the similarity Of the mi
grations of these quarry miners to those
Of that familiar fish which goes up
stream in the spring and down again in
the fall, they soon became known as
suckers, and their pits in the rocks were
called sucker holes. In the course of
years the names badger and sucker came
to be applied to the entire people of
Wisconsin and Illinois. Many of the
original badgers and suckers became the
leading citizens of their respective To-
calities and helped make the country's
history. When Wisconsin was admitted
to the Union, the badger was placed on
her coat Of arms in recognition of this
fact, and it was from the miners who
quarried in the rocks of Wisconsin that
Illinois got her name Of the Sucker
State. New York Sun.
WortIl's Generosity.
An anecdote of the great Worth's
generosity has been going the rounds.
Just where the generosity comes in,
however, is what have failed to detect
1t was during the days Of the empire
that leader of fashion in Paris, find
ing that she had overdrawn her hus-
bands munificent allowance, and that a
great fancy ball was imminent, went to
the great man milliner and prayed him
to hire her costume.
He was shocked. Such mean expe-
dents had never come in his line. The
lady prayed. The great man denied.
Finally the prayers Of beauty prevailed.
But she was to wear costume entirely
Of his devising
He dressed her as the flag of Paris.
The tricolor futtered in her skirts, on
her shoes, in her enameled earrings.
Her hair was dressed to represent a
stormy sea in which rode the famous
three masted galley bearing the arms Of
Paris. The lady was enraptured. The
great man only charged her 1900
francs The dress was hers for one
night only.