A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from June 28, 2008
“Texas is so big that the people in Brownsville call the people in Dallas ‘Yankees.’”

“Texas is so big that the people in Brownsville call the Dallas people Yankees and citizens of El Paso sneer at the citizens of Texarkana as being big snobs from the effete East.”
 
This joke is part of a speech given in 1921 exaggerating the size of the state of Texas. How could any Dallas citizen be a “Yankee”?
 
   
1 May 1921, Fort Worth (TX) Star-Telegram, “Texas Woman’s Oratory Sways Church Council,” part 3, pg. 12:
As delegate to the Methodist Missionary Council in Richmond, Va., Mrs. Nat G. Rollins of San Antonio distinguished herself as a Texas silver tongued orator. The winning of the 1922 council meeting for San Antonio is attributed to Mrs. Rollins’ “invitation speech” which was in essence an apostrophe to Texas including the following:
 
“Texas occupies all of North American except a small part for United States and Canada.”
 
“Texas is so big that Brownsville people call citizens of Dallas Yankees.”
 
1 May 1921, San Antonio (TX) Light, pg. 11A, cols. 3-4:
CONVENTION WON
BY ADDRESS OF
LOCAL DELEGATE
 
Clever Speech of Mrs. J. P.
Curry Makes Impression
at Richmond.

 
TELLS ABOUT TEXAS
 
Women’s Missionary Council
Will Meet Here Next
Year as Result.

 
A speech filled with clever epigrams and forcefully expressed facts about Texas and San Antonio, delivered by a San Antonio woman, Mrs. J. P. Curry, won for this city the next annual convention of the Women’s Missionary Council of the Southern Methodist Church, to be held in April, 1922.
 
Mrs. Curry, with other Texas women, presented Texas attractions so well that the conference held at Richmond, Va., last week, at once voted to hold its next meeting in San Antonio and the delegates were demonstrative in their appreciation of the speakers. Richmond newspapers printed lengthy excepts of Mrs. Curry’s address, which, in part, follows:
 
“Texas occupies all the continent of North America, except the small part set aside for the United States and Canada. Texas owns all the north of the Rio Grande, the only dusty river in the world; also the only one, with the possible exception of the Trinity, which is navigable for mud cats and pedestrians.
 
Texas is bounded on the north by 25 or 30 states, on the east by all the oceans in the world, except the Pacific and on the south by the Gulf of Mexico and South America, and on the west by the Pacific ocean, the Milky Way and the sidereal universe.
 
Rest on Fresh Water Sea.
“If Texas were chopped off loose from the rest of the United States and the Panhandle, it would float out into the ocean, as it rests upon a vast subterranean sea of fresh water.
 
“Texas is so big that the people in Brownsville call the people in Dallas Yankees, and the citizens of El Paso sneer at the citizens of Texarkana, Tex., as being big snobs from the effete East.
     
19 January 1922, Moberly (MO) Weekly Monitor, “Suppose All The Texas Steers Were One Steer” (Roy K. Moulton in New York Mail), pg. 6, cols. 1-2:
Texas Tells The World.
Texas has prepared a brief which proves the state believes in advertising. The brief was written in Laredo, Texas, and is being circulated in a perfectly cold blooded manner by an official body. It runs along as follows:
 
“Texas occupies all the continent of North America except the small part set aside for the United States and Canada. Texas owns the north of the Rio Grande, the only dusty river in the world; also the only one, with the possible exception of the Trinity, which is navigable for mud cats and pedestrians.
 
“Texas is bounded on the north by twenty-five or thirty states, and on the east by all the oceans in the world except the Pacific, and on the south by the Gulf of Mexico and South America and on the west by the Pacific Ocean, milky way and the real side of the universe.
 
“If Texas were chopped loose from the rest of the United States at the Panhandle it would float out into the ocean as it rests upon a vast subterranean sea of fresh water.
 
Strangers in Its Own Fold.
“Texas is so big that the people in Brownsville call the Dallas people Yankees and citizens of El Paso sneer at the citizens of Texarkana as being big snobs from the effete East.”
   
18 August 1939, Amarillo (TX) Globe, pg. 2, col. 3:
I believe it was a Mrs. Collins of Texas who once said: “Texas occupies all the Continent of North America except that small part set aside for the United State and Canada. Texas owns all North of the Rio Grande, the only dusty river in the world; also the only one, with the possible exception of the Trinity, which is navigable for mud-cats and pedestrians.” Anyway, very few people realize that Texas is so big that people living in Brownsville call the people living of Dallas Yankees, and the people living in El Paso call the people of Texarkana big snobs from the East.

Posted by Barry Popik
Texas (Lone Star State Dictionary) • Saturday, June 28, 2008 • Permalink


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