The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1894-03-31
A QUEER CONTROVERSY.
Two Waahin9ton Cities Dispute
Over q Mountain'e Name.
Tacoma Says It 10 Taeoms asd Seattle
Says 1t 10 Ralnier. and Zach City
0tabhofnly Adheres to lts
OWn Opinion.

In the controversy over the name Of
this mountain all the rivalry between
Tacoma and Seattle finds expression,
says a writer in Harper's Weekly. l
know of one Tacoma man who refused
to be introduced to . person whom he
had been most anxious to meet because
he happened to overhear the latter re-
fer to Mount Rainier. In Seattle many
subscribers were once obtained to an
eastern magazine In which an article
on their city was to appear. 1t was
published and was as laudatOry OF
them as the most captious Seattleite
could desire, but not copy was sold in
the city, nor would subscriber allow
a copy to enter his house, because by
an objectionable oversight the writer
had called the disputed mountain
.'Tacoma." In the Seattle stationery
shops they keep slips of paper with
mount Rainier" neatly printed on
them for pasting over the ''Mount
Tacoma" that sometimes appears on
maps they are obliged to sell. They
also carefully erase the words ''Mount
Tacoma" from all souvenir photo
graphs bearing it that come into their
possession, and substitute Mount
Rainier" before selling them. No doubt
these same things are done in Tacoma,
only in reversed order. The Tacoma
man will explain with convincing earn
estness that Ta-ko-mah was the sbor-
iginal name of the mountain for CEN
turies befc &c the white settlement OF
the country; that it is not only euphon-
ious but beautifully poetical in its
meaning '>the breast that nourishes." "
Surely" lie will say, 81 most appro-
pirate name for mountain whose
glacial streams perpetually nourish
the plains at its feet. And who was
this Rainier, anyhow? An Englishman
who not only never saw this country,
but was inimical to it and its institu-
tions."
When you repeat this to your friend
in Seattle he will assume q fine ex-
preston of mingled scorn and pity for
your credulfty and exclaim: That's
all bosh! Tacoma doesn't mean any,
thing of the kind. The word simply
means mountain and nothing more.
AS for the name Rainier, it was given
by Vancouver, the, first white man who
ever saw the mountain and who GER
tainly earned the right to name what
he discovered. 1t appears on his charts
of this region, and as, all his nomen-
clature has been adopted by the
United States coast survey, there is no
reason why an exception should be
made in this case. This silly row
about nothing is all poppycock. any
how. l, for one, am tired OF it and
wish those fellows over there would
drop it. Rainier it is, and Rainier it
will be for all time, even If we have to
go up and chisel the name on the
mountain side in letters q thousand
feet long" So for him who would
maintain friendly. relations with both
CAMPS it is we'll to remember that
Tacoma" is the countersign in Ia
coma and "Rainier" in Seattle, while
on neutral ground the subject of con-
tention should be spoken of as ''the
mountain" "the beautiful mountain,
"the disputed mountain" or "the Fuzi.
hama of America" 1t has been sug-
gested that the question might be set
tied by compromise and popular vote,
bv submitting the combinations "Ta'
confer and "Raicoma" to the people
of the two cities and calling, for an ex'
preston of preference from every man,
woman and schoolchild in them. Out
aiders are apparently quite willing
for the sake of peace, to call the noun
tain by any name approved by the
cities By this means controversy to
which no other end seems possible
might happily be concluded.