The St. Johns herald., 1892-12-01
PROPERLY PRONOUNCED.
The Names of Some Celebrated
 Race Horses Defined.
As . Rule They Are Incorrectly Called by l. Even the Frequenters of Race Courses-Interesting Facts for
 Lovers of Horse1esh.

{ It is odd that the names of the three most celebrated horses in the world to- day are mispronounced as general thing. Those three are Palo Alto, Sunol and Arion. Column after column has been written about them ever since last fall, but it is probable that of the writers themselves not one in ten knows how the names of the great trio should be pronounced And it is equal ly probable that not one in ten knows what significance the names carry with them.
 It may shock the horse world horri- bly,, says the Stockton (CaL) Mail. to learn that the great two-year-old stal- lions name, when correctly pronounced, sounds almost as Irish as the name of the constellation Orion. The latter is pronounced as fit were spelled O'Ryan. The name Arion is pronounced the same as Orion, save that the initial sound is that of A instead of o. The ictus is on the second syllable, and the i has the long sound, as in the word wine" Most people in speaking of Arion put the ictus on the A and give it the long. sound.
 [ The two words Palo Alto are Spanish and should be pronounced as such. The should have the broad sound, as the in father" and the final letter O. should have the long sound as O in ''tone." The ictus should be on the first syllable. Properly pronounced the words are Pah-lo Ahl-to. They mean ''tall tree" The word palo means liter ally stick, but it is also used to desig- nate any tree having tall, straight trunk. The Palo Alto stables got their name from the place where they were located. and that place was named Palo Alto because there was an exceptional ly tall and straight tree growing on it. The early Californians were accustomed to name their ranches in accordance with some circumstance often trivial in itself. For instance, Fl Rancho de Les Pesos was so named because of the many water holes on it, the word Ia well) being used to designate such a hole; El Rancho Pescadero, because a fisherman lived on it, pescadero mean ing ''fisherman;" Fl Rancho del Campo de Los Franbeses, because some French men had established camp on it; Yer ba Buena (the old name for San Fran cisco) because of the fact that the herb known as yerba buena (good herb) grew plentifully at that place. In like manner the place Palo Alto most likely derived its name.
 The name Sunol is also Spanish, and should be pronounced with the ictus on the last syllable, and by giving the let ter the sound of ny. The word is pro- nounced as if it were written soon-yole, the doubled in ''soon" having the sound of doubled in ''foot'-not the broad sound of double-o in moon"
 Sunol is Spanish proper name which was well known to the early Californi- ans-that is, those who lived in Cali fornia before the days of the gold fever. Antonio Maria Sunol was a native of Spain and served in the French army. He came to this states in the FleRch naval vessel Bordelaii in 1877 and de- serted the service the following year. During his lifetime he held various prominent offices in this state under Mexican rule and acquired large pos sessions. He died in 1865, leaving an excellent reputation. The Sunol valley xyas named after him