PASSAIC 



PASSION PLAY 



to such individuals as they wish to honor. In 

 early times, wlien the word meant Shah's foot, 

 that is, one who helped the Shah in governing, 

 it was the title of the governor of a province, 

 then called a pashalik. Since 1867 such terri- 

 torial divisions have been called vilayets of 

 which there are thirty-seven in the Turkish 

 Kinpire and the governor is known as Vali. 

 To this is added the now purely honorary title 

 .so that his full title is Vaii />*/<. 

 .ntly. an officer went before such an offi- 

 cial, displaying a white horse's tail, reminiscent 

 the time when they were nomadic tribes. 

 But some pashas had 'more power than others, 

 a fact \\hich was shown by displaying two or 

 even three horse tails; hence there are three 

 lee of this honor, though their symbols are 

 no longer in 



tii If is now conferred on high govern- 



r officials, both military and civil, and is 



granted to distinguished private citizens, 



or even to foreigners who are in the Turkish 



government >ervice. The title appears after 



the name. 



PASSAIC, pata 1 . N. J., a manufacturing 

 and residential city in Passaic County, twelve 

 miles northwest of New York City and eight 

 miles north of Newark. It is at the head of 

 navigation on the Passaic River and is served 

 by the Erie, the Delaware, Lacka wanna <fe 

 \V. -MTU and the New York, Susquehanna & 

 Western railroads, and by electric interurban 

 The population in 1910 was 54.773; in 

 1916 it was 71,744 (Federal estimate). Slightly 

 more than fifty per cent of the inhabitants are 

 foreign born, and these include Austrians, Hun- 

 garians, Russians, Italians and Germans. The 

 city exceeds three square miles. 

 has an attractive residence section 

 and several parks, and contains the city hall, 

 a fine public library, churches and hospitals. 



is supplied by the r 



>ry products include woolen and worsted 



cloth, cotton goods, silk, rubber, m.-ial work, 



commodities and there are 



Passaic. known as \ :,k Landing un- 



til 1852, was ><mt 1676, wan incorpo- 



ii 1869 and became a city in 

 -ion form of g< was 



1 IM I'.MI 



PASSENGER PIGEON, j>a* 

 wild pigeon, al n inches in length, with 



! 'image and long, gra< 



wines and tail, found m laree numbers in East- 

 - nca until the latter part of 



nineteenth century. Through the activity. of 

 hunters the beautiful passenger pigeon is now 

 practically extinct. 



The accounts of early bird students concern- 

 ing the numbers of these pigeons seem almost 

 incredible. Wilson, in 1808, estimated that a 

 flock which he observed in Kentucky contained 

 more than two and a quarter billion birds, and 

 Audubon, in 1813, wrote that he watched pas- 

 ser pigeons pass for three days in succession 

 in a flock so dense and continuous that the sun 

 was darkened and the sound of their wings was 

 like thunder. Their nesting colonies covered 

 thousands of acres, which they practically deso- 

 lated, every large tree in the nesting area be- 

 ing loaded with dozens of nests. The birds 

 were strong fliers and ranged daily as far as a 

 hundred miles in search of food. 



PASSION, pash'un, FLOWER, a name ap- 

 plied by early Roman Catholic missionaries in 

 America to a group of climbing plants, whose 

 parts, they fancied, represented Christ's passion, 

 or suffering. For example, the fringes in the 

 flower they thought were symbolic of the crown 

 of thorns ; the five anthers, of the marks of His 

 wounds. The divisions of the pistil represent. .1 

 the nails of the cross, and the stamens, the ham- 

 mers that drove them in. The species of the 

 passion flower genus are found chiefly in the 

 tropical and semitropical regions of America. 

 Among them is the familiar passion flower of 

 the Southern states, a woody vine which trails 

 or climbs by tendrils. Its natural habitat is dry 

 soil in the states from Virginia to Florida, and 

 to Texas, but it is cultivated in the North, 

 where it is esteemed as an arbor or veranda 

 covering. In the Southern cotton fields it i- 

 sometimes a troublesome weed. The 1: 

 purplish and white flowers have a bell-shaped 

 calyx, with five divisions; within the five petals 

 is a crown of purplish hairs, or bristles, forming 

 a fringe. The fruit, an oblong berry which turns 

 yellow when ripe, is called Maypop, and is good 

 to eat. 



Another species, which grows in moist tlnek- 

 i- in iVnn-yUania and southward, beursgreen- 

 i-h-yellow flowers and a smaller berry. A Bruxil- 

 ian passion flower is widely cultivated in North- 

 -reenhouses for its beautiful blossoms, which 

 pale blue, white or rose-colored. This plant 

 will grow in the open as far north as Washing- 

 ton, D. C. 



PASSION PLAY, an impressive dramatic 

 performance, representing the passion and d< 

 of Chn-t ularly at Oberammergau in 



Bavaria, every ten yean. It is not a sun 



