Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Monthly Bulletin Published monthly, except in August and September, by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Forbes Street and Bellefield Avenue, Schenley Park, Pittsburgh, Pa. President, S. H. Church, Carnegie Library, Forbes Street and Bellefield Avenue; Secretary, J. D. Hailman; Treasurer, James H. Reed, 1027 Carnegie Building; Director, John H. Leete, Carnegie Library, Forbes Street and Bellefield Avenue. Subscription 50 cents a year. Vol. 26 July 1921 No. 7 The White Mountains Few places in America have been so much a mecca for individuals on vacation bent, or have become so vital a part of widely known works of some of the great figures in American literature, as have the White Mountains. An account of the history and tradition connected with the name White Mountains is, therefore, something which may add to the interest of many who have visited this section of our country, or of those who take pleasure in enriching their knowledge of the places of which they read. For such, is reproduced here a part of the introduction to Frederick W. Kilbourne's "Chronicles of the White Mountains." Seventy miles in an air line from the Atlantic, northwesterly from Portland, Maine, lies the grand and beautiful group of stern and lofty hills, with rugged valleys and gentle intervales interspersed, which is called by the commonplace appellation of the "White Mountains," or, sometimes, especially in literary use, the "White Hills." This name is applied both to the entire group (made by some to include, besides the New Hampshire ranges and peaks, the neighboring hills in western Maine), and also, specifically, to the range containing the highest peaks, now commonly designated, for obvious reasons, the “Presidential Range."... The epithet "White" alludes, of course, to the appearance of the summits and seems most appropriate in the six months, more or less, when they are covered with snow. The winter dress of the Mountains, which is often worn temporarily in other seasons, would seem to furnish the most probable explanation of the origin of their name, for which the early navigators along the coast, to whom they were a landmark, appear to be responsible. This very plausible supposition becomes, however, upon investigation more and more improbable, the preponderance of evidence in the end inclining the scale in favor of the view that the Mountains are so called from their white or whitish-gray aspect when seen from a distance, which appearance is due partly to the bare grayish rocks of the treeless summits, but chiefly to atmospheric conditions. The question is not one, it would seem, that can be definitively settled... Just when the White Mountains received their present designation is another subject of inquiry that cannot be positively determined. The earliest name that I have found is that of "the Christall hill," applied to the highest peak or to the main range. This occurs in a passage in Christopher Levett's A Voyage into New England, published in 1628. Now, as the region had not then been visited by white men, this name must, it is evident, allude to the appearance of the summits as affected by distance and the atmosphere. The fact of the earlier occurrence, also, of this appellation negatives the explanation of the origin of it given in Belknap's History of New Hampshire on the authority of Hubbard's manuscript History of New England. The passage in Belknap's work refers to the explorers of 1642, the first white visitors, and runs as follows: "They had great expectation of finding precious stones on these mts.; and something resembling crystal being picked up, was sufficient to give them the name of the crystal-hills." Whatever the origin of this name, which appears to have been the common one in the earlier part of the seventeenth century, it antedates, as its occurrence in Levett's narrative testifies, the connection of Darby Field with the Mountains, and so cannot have been given to them by him, as some writers say. Governor Winthrop, recording in his journal Field's ascent of the future Mount Washington, speaks of it as "the white hill," and when again mentioning the event uses the plural of the same name. The present designation first appears in print as a distinctive name, it is believed, in Josselyn's New England's Rarities Discovered, a work published in 1672... When we come to the perhaps more important, and doubtless more interesting, subject of Indian names of the Mountains, we are again on uncertain ground. Several of such designations of the principal range have come to us, vouched for by various authorities. Belknap speaks of the name "Agiocochook," which occurs in a reduced form as Agiochook," as having been applied to what is now known as the "Presidential Range." This name Mr. Drake found in print as early as 1736 in the narrative of John Gyles's captivity published in Boston in that year. It is also recorded by Schoolcraft, who says it is plural in form. As to its meaning, which the Reverend Edward Ballard thought to be "The Place of the Great Spirit of the Forest," Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull's opinion is that the word Captain Gyles imperfectly represented in English syllables is Algonquin for "at the mountains on that side” or “over yonder." As to the fanciful interpretations, such as that given above, or that of another writer, “The Place of the Storm Spirit," Dr. Trumbull affirms that there is no element of any Algonquin word meaning "great," "spirit," "forest," "storm," or "abode," or any combination of the meaning of any two of these words, in "Agiocochook." The shortened form of this name, which occurs in the early ballad on the death of Captain Lovewell, has been adopted by Whittier, Edna Dean Proctor, and other authors as a poetical name for Mount Washington. Another Indian name was communicated to the Corresponding Secretary of the Massachusetts Historical Society by the Reverend Timothy Alden, afterwards founder and president of Allegheny College, in a letter dated 1806, which was published in the Collections of the Society in 1814. "I have lately been informed,” he says, “that the White Hills were called by one of the eastern tribes, I cannot ascertain which, Waumbekketmethna. I have spelt it, as I think all aboriginal names ought to be, as pronounced. Waumbekket signifies white, and methna, mountains, as I am told." This name is the only Indian name for the White Hills that, according to Drake, bears internal evidence of genuineness. That writer says that it "easily resolves itself into the Kennebec-Abnaki waubeghiket-amadinar, 'white greatest mountain.'" "It is very probable, however," he says further, "that this synthesis is a mere translation, by an Indian, of the English 'White Mountains.' I have never, myself, succeeded in obtaining this name from the modern Abnakis." Schoolcraft, commenting on "Waumbek," says that it is "a word, which in some of the existing dialects of the Algonquin, is pronounced Waubik, that is, White Rock." In the form "Waumbek Methna," or sometimes still further shortened to "Waumbek," this name, which has been given the fanciful interpretation of "Mountains with Snowy Foreheads," or the like, has also been much used by the poets. Would that it might have been the geographical name also! Still another alleged Indian appellation of the Mountains, which is mentioned by a number of writers may be set down here for the sake of having the record complete. This is the harsh-sounding combination of words, "Kan Ran Vugarty," said to mean "The Continued Likeness of a Gull," and having, obviously, in common with the others, reference to the white appearance of the summits. The Solving of American Problems From Theodore Roosevelt's "What 'Americanism' Means." We Americans have many grave problems to solve, many threatening evils to fight, and many deeds to do, if, as we hope and believe, we have the wisdom, the strength, the courage, and the virtue to do them. But we must face facts as they are. We must neither surrender ourselves to a foolish optimism, nor succumb to a timid and ignoble pessimism. Our nation is that one among all the nations of the earth which holds in its hands the fate of the coming years. We enjoy exceptional advantages, and are menaced by exceptional dangers; and all signs indicate that we shall either fail greatly or succeed greatly. I firmly believe that we shall succeed; but we must not foolishly blink the danger by which we are threatened, for that is the way to fail. On the contrary, we must soberly set to work to find out all we can about the existence and extent of every evil, must acknowledge it to be such, and must then attack it with unyielding resolution. There are many such evils, and each must be fought after a separate fashion; yet there is one quality which we must bring to the solution of every problemthat is, an intense and fervid Americanism. We shall never be successful over the dangers that confront us; we shall never achieve true greatness, nor reach the lofty ideal which the founders and preservers of our mighty Federal Republic have set before us, unless we are Americans in heart and soul, in spirit and purpose, keenly alive to the responsibility implied in the very name of American, and proud beyond measure of the glorious privilege of bearing it. Johann Sebastian Bach From George T. Ferris's "Great German Composers." To Johann Sebastian Bach must be accorded the title of "father of modern music." All succeeding composers have bowed with reverence before his name, and acknowledged in him the creative mind which not only placed music on a deep scientific basis, but perfected the form from which have been developed the wonderfully rich and varied phases of orchestral composition. Handel, who was his contemporary, having been born the same year, spoke of him with sincere admiration, and called him the giant of music. Haydn wrote: "Whoever understands me knows that I owe much to Sebastian Bach, that I have |