Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1877-05-19
BIGLER VS.. " TAHOE. ;"

I d
highly instructive and richly illustrated paper
on contemporary art in Germany The Illus
trations are unusually excellent. They indi-
cate, very cleverly, the drift and tone of mod
ern painting among the Germans The An
droscoggin Lakes of Maine are quite well
done both by the text and the accompanying
cuts The article which claims the attention
of Neyadans is that which describes the do
ings and travels of the Wheeler Surveying
Party in this State The illustrations are
fair, merely, Carson being CURLY disposed of
by the grace of wood cut which let's us know
what it is intended to represent by conspic-
uous display Of Sam Bakers Bear Sign-not
the - sign noted by hunters and trappers,
but the canvas affair which proclaims Sans
character of a pioneer The usual adjuncts
and accessories of far-westeln town, as pic
tmed to the satisfaction of the Eastern eye
are there of course Ross Brownies notorious
sketches simply followed and helped perpetu-
ate a most absurd and untruthful habit and
propensity. But it is the fate Of fame to be
belieI and if we persist in keeping Carson
the Capital of this famous State we must ex-
pect the pamphleteers to have their own sweet
dull way with us Perhaps in the far future
they who write of the chain of mountains
which lie upon our western border will learn
the incolrectness Of speaking of the same
the < Sierras or the - Sierra Nevadas.
Correctness contents itself with the full name.
of Sierra Nevada or the Authorization Of ''The
Sierra The too frequent plurality Is an
overfamilar vugarism, tolerated by no posi-
bic phase of the decorous and punctihous
Castilian. That part of the paper under no
tee which refers to Lake Biger or Tahoe IS
up to the general average Of such descriptions
which are bad enough to be popular and
good enough to crafty the venial pride of
their producers The illustration which midi
Gates q caricature Of Cave Rock is very fair.
The wood-cut illustrating the cascade at EN-
erald Bay would do for Tivoh or any other
mountain waterfall, and is not Extensively I'M
truthful. The real ,ohense Of the article con
sists III the following impertinence
1t was from one of the surrounding noun
tans that the lake was. discovered; and ac-
cording 10 popular legend, the Washoe In
dams, who were the discoveries, exclaimed
on seeing it Tahoe - which is their word
for ocean or ''big water. For some time it
was called Lake Bigler, after California pol
itcian, and when he had degraded himself
the name was changed to the sWeeter Indian
word by which it is now known.
Here is the old sop to the lingering appe-
tite for the romantic, and the old iippaucy
with public mans name and history, So com
placently taken on and practiced by too mum
erous class who gain access to paper, ink and |
types. Not anybody living or dead knows
what - Tahoe means, whence it came or how |
it got itself invented 1t is not an Indian |
word unless it be an importation from the
lingo of an extinct tribe IN Massachusetts or
some other Eastern State Certainly the
Washoes never employed it; and they have
no more knowledge Of its meaning than the
person who introduced it to the readers of
Harpers. Governor John Bigler was a Dem
ocrat both before and during the war; but
he never diseraced himself either during the
four years of his ncumbency of tie guberna-
-orial chair of California; his term as United
States Minister to Chill, nor in the declining
years of the quiet and melancholy decadence
which preceded his death. We believe the t
APPEAL has had something Of this sort 10 say
before. 1t is well to repeat it, periodically,
" way Of refuting a very contemplate and ,
SANDER. Bigler is not a pretty t
lame, but il is ever SO much better one /
I,,,, ,,,- ,,,, J,,lio, ,i harris ,,oc,n+oI I,,