World Wide Words; Panther City (1883, Fort Worth)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

WORLD WIDE WORDS
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1,700,000+ page hits a month. 750,000+ visitors a month.
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I hate World Wide Words!
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Google Adsense was added to my website, and for a while I was almost making
a modest $20 a day. In the past months, I've improved the website, adding a
search box and a Texas section and more.
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As I've written before here, Google re-jiggered things and my hits have  gone
down. For each of the past two days, I've earned all of--one dollar!
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Undocumented workers do better than this.
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Quinion must be doing this so I can jump off a roof somewhere.
Congratulations, anyway!
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PANTHER CITY (FORT WORTH)
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One of the most bizarre city nicknames is "Panther City" for Fort Worth.
America's Historical Newspapers (at the NYPL) has the digitized Dallas Morning
News and Texas Siftings, so perhaps someone can beat me to the posting punch on
 this one.
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This is not in the revised OED under "panther." Any HDAS interest?
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_http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/panther_city_fort_worth_nickn
ame/_
(http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/panther_city_fort_worth_nickname/)
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_http://www.city-data.com/us-cities/The-South/Fort-Worth-History.html_
(http://www.city-data.com/us-cities/The-South/Fort-Worth-History.html)

Post-Civil War reconstruction brought many disillusioned Confederates to
Texas in search of jobs and  new beginnings. Commerce grew along with the
population. Yankees wanted meat,  and Texas had a ready  supply. During this time
rumors grew of a panther that stalked and  slept on the city streets at night. A
Dallas newspaper ran a story claiming that  Fort Worth was so drowsy,  a
panther was found  sleeping on Main Street. Fort  Worth citizens good-naturedly dub
bed their hometown "Panther City," and many  local merchants and sports teams
adopted the animal in their logos.
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15 June 1883, Galveston (TX) <i>News</i>, pg. 2:
Fort Worth, "where the panther lay down" in daylight only a few years ago,
is now behind the rival city of Dallas as a place where "things that own not
man's dominion dwell." The technical bulls and bears on change in the city are
within speaking distance of the real beasts around it.
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21 January 1886, San Antonio <i>Daily Express</i>, pg. 4:
<i>FROM FORT WORTH.</i>
<i>Arrival of the Panther City's  Pet.</i>

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org