Letters

Skiing in Dixie

To THE EDITOR: Henry Aldrich in a broadcast the other night complained that Dartmouth men seemed to be interested in nothing but snow and ice and Dartmouth.

If this is true, readers of the DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE may be interested in the following information about a ski club in the Great Smoky Mountains, which some of us have helped to start.

There is further information about the club and snow conditions here in an article in the National Ski Bulletin.

Knoxville, Tenn.

[The description of skiing in the GreatSmokies follows.—ED.]

DARTMOUTH MEN HAVE BROUGHT SKIING to Dixie. There is nothing novel in Dartmouth men starting a new ski club, because many of them throughout the country have been started by graduates or others who have had some contact with the College. But there are a number of respects in which this new club, now entering its third season, is unique. First, it is furtherest south of any club east of the Mississippi. Second, most of the skiing is done at altitudes of five or six thousand feet, accessible by a new highway kept open with snow-plows operated by the National Park Service. Third, the Great Smokies National Park, after which the Great Smokies Ski Club is named, is classified as a sub-tropical park although arctic climatic and vegetation prevail on the slopes of three mountains higher than Mt. Washington.

Some of the first ski tracks in the Smokies were made by mountain boys from Bulls Gap, Tennessee. They had gotten hold of a book on skiing by Walter Prager, former Dartmouth ski coach. From Prager's book they got enough information to make skis of their own, but the book evidently did not indicate how wide a ski should be, for these first ski tracks were five inches in width. But these boys have learned to do turns from the book's instructions.

Opening a modern road to altitudes a mile high first made skiing practical in these mountains, but general interest first developed in the winter of 1940 when snow covered much of the South and winter sports were practiced in cities near the Smokies. A ski club was organized in Knoxville, Tennessee, and now has some 75 members in the region. Howard Emerson '23 was the first president of the club. Sam Weed of the same class was an active charter member, as was also Prof. Milton Smith, who taught Political Science at Dartmouth in the thirties. Joe Lane '21 came up on a scouting trip from Chattanooga to look the situation over and went back with the intention of acquiring skis and keeping them at the resort hotel where the club makes its headquarters.

This year the Great Smokies Ski Club has acquired a ski lodge, the equivalent of a D.O.C. cabin, located at an altitude of 5100 feet near the ski practice slope. Walter Kelley '40 is chairman of the cabin committee. A carnival of sorts is planned for this winter. A thousand visitors already drive up on weekends to see the skiing and take back chunks of snow on their bumpers as souvenirs for the folks back home.

Values in Nature

To THE EDITOR: I am asking your help in locating an elo- quent tribute paid by President Hopkins to the educational value of Nature in its many moods as enjoyed by Dartmouth men. It ap- peared, perhaps as a reprint, in a fairly re- cent issue of a College publication.

I have tried, without success, to locate it. If you can send me the information without much trouble, I shall be greatly indebted to you. I am glad to take this opportunity to express my warm appreciation of the high quality of our ALUMNI MAGAZINE.

Mount Hermon, Mass.

ED. NOTE: To Mr. Gibson has gone the following paragraph written by President Hopkins and published in the booklet "A Description of Dartmouth College": "I would insist that the man who spends four years in our north country here and does not learn to hear the melody of rustling leaves or does not learn to love the wash of the racing brooks over their rocky beds in spring, who never experiences the repose to be found on lakes and river, who has not stood enthralled upon the top of Moosilauke on a moonlight night or has not become a worshipper of color as he has seen the sun set from one of Hanover's hills, who has not thrilled at the whiteness of the snow clad countryside in winter or at the flaming forest colors of the fall I would insist that this man has not reached out for some of the most worthwhile educational values accessible to him at Dartmouth."

That's the Spirit

To THE EDITOR: My house was visited by a very bad fire Saturday, and among other things, the January issue of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE which had just arrived, and I hadn't read, went up. Will you please send me another copy?

Lawrence, Mass.

Hell's Bells

To THE EDITOR: For supersensitive readers of last month's Gradus Ad Parnassum with its inspiring re- view of the Christmas Carol Service in the old Chapel, the abrupt step from the President's noble word, "The spirit of Jesus is essentially the spirit of Democracy" to the word of a lesser authority, "I am proud as hell of de- mocracy," was a trifle disconcerting. It brought us down from Parnassus with a bump.

To clarify the dialect of up-to-date literati who must season their English with this reversible superlative, and at the same time to toughen the too delicate ears of unsophisticated readers, do you not want to reprint the following classic which appeared years ago over the pen-name "Falcon"?

It will serve as a glossary for reconciling the styles of elegant English employed by your two classes of correspondents, and at the same time afford precedents for those who lack originality in coining emphasis.

The author is unknown, so cannot be quoted as authority, but he displays a gift for exhaustive research, although he was not in this instance successful in solving his self propounded question.

Fitchburg, Mass.

[The anonymous composition followsand rings the bell on the overworked subject of hell. ED.]

Just what is meant by this word "Hell"? They say sometimes "It's cold as Hell", Sometimes they say "It's hot as hell", When it rains hard, "It's hell", they cry, It's also "hell" when it is dry. They "hate like hell" to see it snow,

"It's a hell of a wind", when it starts to blow. Now "how in hell" can anyone tell "What in hell" they mean by this word "Hell"?

"It's hell" when the doctor sends his bills For "a hell of a lot" of trips and pills. "Hell, yes", "Hell, no" and "Oh, hell", too; "The hell you don't", "The hell you do" And "What in the hell" and "The hell it is" "To hell with that", "to hell with this". "Now who in the hell"? and "Oh, hell where"? And "What in the hell do you think I care"? But "the hell of it is" "It's sure as hell" We don't know what in the hell is Hell.