Page:A Contribution toward a Bibliography of Marcus Whitman.pdf/2

4 In the form of entry used, a departure has been made from bibliographic custom. Instead of the usual "see" or "in" analytic entry, in which the name of the book or magazine containing the article and the pages referred to are mentioned last, it has been thought desirable to bring these facts to the front. The list exhibits first of all the places where material bearing upon the subject may be found, after that, facts showing what such material may be. This arrangement makes it possible for a student to select with promptness such articles as he may wish to ca for in a library or for the librarian to readily check such items as the library may contain. Notes have been given as to the contents of many of the articles, not at all for the purpose of taking sides in a discussion, but merely to give the student, if possible, some clue to the contents or trend of the article so that he may judge as to whether he wishes to see it or not.

Many of the items have been examined only in the form of clippings and the complier has been compelled to depend upon a marginally pencilled statement for the name and date of the periodical from which the clipping was made. It thus becomes impossible to vouch for the accuracy of all references here given, hut it is hoped that the number of errors may not be large. Many clippings have been discarded from the list because not fully labelled. It is unfortunate that persons who have shown most commendable eal in clipping and preserving scraps of historic worth, have often failed to properly label their clippings, thus greatly impairing their value for reference, and making them bibliographically worthless.

Few, if any, in the list of American heroes, have been more variously estimated than Marcus Whitman. For twenty years before Professor Bourne called the attention of Eastern historians to the saved Oregon story, the question of Whitman's political influence was being debated in Oregon and Washington. The controversy was bitterly contested, and although it has mainly subsided since the death of the principal participants, the results are s in local evidence. No generally accepted conclusions have been reached, and the topic is by many delicately avoided.

In 1897 a Seattle man suggested the rechristening of Mt. Rainier in honor of the savior of Oregon. In 1905, however, a Seattle school board was unwilling even that the name of Whitman should be associated with a grade school building under its charge. Again, in 1908, in the same city, a movement was