The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1895-01-25
LAND OF sla-Nooeo MEN.
Arizona So Named Because of a Facial
Peculiarly.

Arizona So Named Because of Facial
Peculiarly.
Who would for a moment suppose,
says the st. Louis Republic, that the
word Arizona" which we associate
with balmy breezes, music, moonlight
nights and amazons, could mean moth
ing more or less than ''a great big
nosel' The southwestern portion of
what is now the United States was
originally inhabited by tribe of
natives noted far and wide for their
prominent, bealk-lilSe noses, and, al
though nature had been extremely
lavish in her gifts when. she conferred
nasal appendages upon these queer
aborigines, they sought to enlarge
those organs by piercing the vertical
septum or gristle between the nostrils
and wearing enormous ornaments
therein. One division of this big-nosed
tribe would wear ring hammered
from native gold or silver; another an
ornamented shell, while third were
content with sharp stick driven
through the cartilage in such o man.
ner as to permit of the ends projecting
several inches to the side of each nos
tril. To the early Spanish invaders
these queer but harmless creatures
were known as "the Big Noses" In
the Spanish language "nose" is nariz.
My authority says in that language
you can also express diminutive or an
augumentative by termination to the
name word. Thus, narizito would
mean "a little nose," and narizon "a
great big nose" The feminine of
nari2on would be narizona. The ''n"
having been eliminated by usage and
timc, we have the name as it stands
to-day In much the same
manner the state of Oregon receives
its name from a tribe of Indians
noted for their enormous ears. They
pierced the auricle and enlarged the
lobe much in the same manner that
the Narizons enlarged their noses. In
the Spanish, "ear" is oreja. Now at
tach on, the augmentative to the word
oreja, leaving off the final from the
word meaning ear, and we have
0rejon. Time, which, like care, will
kill eat, has changed the q" to "g"
and given us the word "0regon."
Marriage in England.
Some curious marriage statistics OF
England and Wales have recently been
made public. Taking all persons
above I5 years of age, there are S,7l6,-
1858 unmarried males, 4,s51,54S mar
ried males, and $4,000 widowers,
against s,e0s,665 unmarried females,
4,0l6, ,e40 married females, and 1,124,S10
widows. English socialists have these
rather puzzling questions to answer;
Why does the number of widows so
greatly exceed that of the widowers?
And again, how can there be 4,916,049
married females and only 1851, ,54S
married males, unless some 100000 or
so persons hove been guilty of bigamyp
CAST OFF FROM A WRECK.
TaIlless cats Which Founded u Community
on the New Jersey Coast.
Long Beach, the narrow strip of sand
seven miles from the mainland on
which the village of Beach Haven,
NJ j., stands, contains the only tribe
Of tailless cats in the United States.
These cats were not detailed, says a
correspondent of the st. Louis Globe
Democrat. They were born without
tails, Early in this century large
English brig was wrecked on that
part of the Jersey coast. She became
a total wreck, but the sailors lives
were saved, and so were the lives of a
lot of cats. These felines came from
the Isle of Man and belonged to o
curious breed found only on that
island known as Manx cats. At first
the animals were quito tame, and FREE
quented the vicinity of the lighthouse,
where they nightly held open-air con-
certs that were not harmonious enough
to merit the appreciation of the
lightkeepers, and ultimately resulted
in their being driven away The
felines took to the woods and managed
to subsist during the first winter on
birds, thousands of which lived in the
swamps. The eats increased rap
idly in number, and in 8