The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-03-13

sic, or at least, near classic. II came
from the works OF Charles Dickens.
In ''The Tale of Two Cities,' the
hero takes the place of another man
condemned TO die undor the knife of the
guillotine About the dreadful place,
sit terrible women, knitting a record
of the number of lives sacrificed TO the
sharp blade AS Sydney Carton IS head
rolls from the knife to the basket, the
women knit twenty three MIR.
Dickens makes n sentence, q paragraph,
of that word with great dramatic eff
feet, When the story of the book was
staged under the title 1.-The Only
Way the actors took up the use of
twenty three to Indicate that the
story was done, that the play was over,
that it was the end of things. The
stage hands took II up, and after awhile
it was common property. Like many
| other bits of slang, II was IN general
use In the West for n year before Man
haitian adopted it. Those who desire
further information should read the
last chapter Of "'The Tale Of Two
/ Cities.
Elbridgc Gerry Of Massachusetts re-
districted the State to his own advan-
| tage in 1911, and when some one looked
at the new district and remarked that
it looked for all the world like Il sala-
mander, some one else replied; Bet
ter say a Gerry-mander. And so the
name was born and has been kept TO
represent all such political redistrict-
/ ing. Borghese, very corrupt gentle
man Of the West in early days of his
tory, had such fashion of framing
| fictitious checks. notes and bills OF cN.
| change. playing on the creduhty of
traders, that anything in the line of
forged paper became to the Westerner
"borghese or bogus and so the name
has remained. David Bowie, of early
pioneer fame, inevented broad bladed,
sharppointed knife which has since
borne his name.
Buncome county, North Carolina, has
lent its namc to the country S voca-
bulary, and is a synonym of hypocrtI-
cal enthusiasm, not because that is Il
characteristic of the people Of that sec
ton. but because many years ago
member Of Congress, from Buncome
county, persisted in making A speech,
when n general exodus of the members
showed they didn't want TO hear 1T,
When ii was minated that he might
as well stop, he replied: Never mind,
| m talking to Buncome, The word
In its new sense was first applied to the
speeches that were made IN Congress !
for the express purpose of being sent |
home TO the admiring constituents, and |
later received it's present application.
The word that is most typicaly |
American in its coinage and use is pos !
sibly graft Like many other popu-
lar things, this name came out of the |
West and became at once incorporated |
into the language and customs of the |
people. It's origin is not definitely |
known, for though il first appeared in !
print in the writings of the late Jos
iah Flynt' Willard when he went
"Tramping with Tramps he never
claimed the word as his own, and au
thorlties show that il was known in the
West before he ever used it,
Another purely American term is go.
X. II was derived from the words
AuX Caves, from which place the best
tobacco and rum were brought over
century ago. The pronunciation was
O. X, and brevity-loving America i'm
mediately took the letters as means of
!ndorsing other things that were as sat,
isfactory as the tobacco and rum from
Aux Cages Enemies Of Andrew Jack
son have tried to prove that the magical
letters were nothing more than the
initials of 'Oll Korreck, the alleged
fashion of the general s spelling This
theory, however, has been disproved-
oorit-t SIX 'nsefactoryWKc ETAOIN
Barbecue, method Of preparing
meat that has lent its name TO all-day
picnics in the South, is said to be from
the French barbe-a queue, ''from snout
TO tail - Others claims that America
borrowed the name from the Indians of
Guiana. who grilled their meats on
wooden frame called berbekot. The
Southerncrs arc willing to accept either
origin of the word, so long as the art of
in
forgotten. Nobody cares to go further
back than Kentucky or Tennessee for
the origin of the word ''toddy," which
is AS American as the drink itself
The name Polly for parrot was
brought from New Orleans by early
berland and Ohio countries down the
Mississippi to sell their produce, They
saw these tropical birds swinging in
front of Louisiana homes, and heard
the owners call To the birds. '<Parle,
Parlc, meaning FTalk, talk When
Of the strange birds they called them
"pollies. The word schooner, as APP
piled To sailing vessel, came from
New England. where il was coined by
Gloucester boatman in l1l3. 4 new
vessel was launched, and one of the
workmen cried. out In great admiration:
'See how she scoons, means skim
word and called the boat a sooner
or schooner as II is now spelled.
The Spaniards loaned many words
10 fhe vocabularios of settlers in the
Southwest. The first gold discovery in
California was called a bonanza, from
the Spanish word meaning good
luck. - Broncho is Spanish American
for & mustang, but broncho- busting is
purely American in its origin and APP
plcation. Cayuse is also Spanish, as
is calaboose. provincialism for the
town lookup. Chapparral the only
vegetation on the long stretches of
desert region in the West gets its name
from the same land that gave pueblo,
sombrero and the larat TO this Ian
guage Guerrilla is also of Spanish orr.
gin.
The black NANNY of the South will
bake you corn-dodger at Your request,
and know you are Southern born. The
impression will be the same if YOU ask
la nf