The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-25
N|CKNAMES GIVEN
 AMERICAN CITIES
Novel Titles Given to American
 Municipalities
WISE MEN OF GOT HAM'
How Some Cities Received Their Bly, Names-chicago Rejoices In Sew eral Odd Sobriquets-cin.
 cinnati's Honor Lost,

II ioiii llt 4NtW OTk Tribune
 It is a curious fact that what may be termed the bynames of cities are used much more in other places than they ara In the ones to which they are applied Persons who live away from New York are much more apt to call the metropolis Gotham than do the residents of the city at the mouth of the Hudson river In fact, the name Is almost never annlied to their own city by the residents of if lhis Is not because of any special ob- lection to the title, which was bestowed by Washington Irving on this city. but rom lack of any need to use any svno- mum for the actual designation. The name Gotham was taken from the so-called
 wise men of Gotham" who. by pretend Ing to be fools, deceived the English King who planned to pay a visit to their town. Tie mad sent his herald to proclaim his coming, and the need of preparation and, in order to save the expense of the entertainment, they acted in so foolish manner that the herald reported them utterly stupid and advised a different di- rection for the journey. So the "Gotham wise men'' saved their bacon But the term also came to be used derisively. as Tn the nursery rhyme of the three wise men of Gotham, who went to sea in n powl, with the summary conclusions: "If the bowl had been stronger, my story had been longer"
 Founded By William Penn.
 The appAeability of the name Quaker City. or City of Brotherly Love- to PhiIa- delphia, Is apparenet from the fact that II was founded by that eminent Quaker. William Penn, or from the significance of its name taken from the city in Asia Minor to which the designation was first given
 Plttsburg the second city in size in Pennsylvania, which was named in honor of the prime minister of England. after fort Duquesne, built on the spot by the French. had been captured by the Eng fish. in 175S. derived the name of Smokey City from the immense consumption of soft coal, due to the great iron and steel industries centered there
 TWO forms are bestowed on Boston the city In the Bay State which bears the name of the older and quainter English Boston, of which one of the ornaments is the church of St. Botolphs. The modern Boston IS called the Hub of the Universe and also the Modern Athens. The extent to which the name Hub has fastened It. self on the New England city is shown by the fact that Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes in his "Autocrat of the Break fast Table," writes that Boston State House is the hub of the solar system You couldn't pry that out of a Boston man if you had the tire of all creation sttaightened out for crowbar."
 Brooklyn Not City of Churches.
 When Brooklyn had an independent ex- fstence of her own, before her merger with the greater New York, now nearly ten years ago. 1t was popularly known as the City of Churches. It was popularly believed that the name was significant of the fact that the city possessed a great number of churches in proportion to the population, If not a greater number than any other city. But nothing could have been farther from the fact. In proportion to her population, which grew at a mar vicious rate after the opening of the first bridge over the East river Brooklyn had a relatively small number of churches. being surpassed in that respect by nearly all the other large cities of the country.
 Chicago is known to persons who do not hesitate to detract from it's desirability as a place of residence as the Windy City, byname which was given to 1t from the frequency of the gales which sweep through its streets from over Lake Michigan, which stretches seventy miles In width opposite the city and hundreds of miles to the northward. By dwellers within It's extensive confines 1t is known as the Lake Front City, and this name is also given to what is perhaps the most popular street for residence, promenade or driving in the city. the Lake Front drive
 St Louis reiolces in the sobriquet of Mound City from the fact that the origi- nal settlers found there many elevations which 1t is supposed were relics of that strange people who dwelt in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys and are known 10 modern times only as the mound build ers.