ORIGIN OF "DIXIE LAND."

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 4, 28 January 1925, Page 61

ORIGIN OF "DIXIE LAND."

The Financial Times of London, in a review of the history of the Citizens’ Bank of Louisiana, at New Orleans, recalls the interesting origin of the word “Dixie,” as applied to the south, according to the Detroit News. It says: “The Citizens’ Bank was so closely identified with the South that it gave it the name of ‘ Dixie Land,’ since preserved in the famous southern war song, ‘ Dixie.’ “It came about in this way; Prior to the Civil War in the States, the Citizens’ Bank had the power to issue paper money notes. These hills were issued in denominations of $lO and S2O, hut preferably $lO, to the extent of a few millions. These $lO bills were engraved in French, and on the backs was the French word dix (ten) very prominent, and the Americans living along the upper Mississippi river called the bills Dixies.” “Finally, the bank’s money became so popular that Louisiana was referred to as ‘ The Land of Dixies,’ or Dixie Land.’ Afterward the term was made to apply to all the Southern States.”