Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1874-12-24


dale (Ga.) Register.
An Old-FashiOned Spelling.SchOOl In
Cleveland.
Shortly before eight o'clock the schools
ing sides" began, a young lady and gen.
tleman having volunteered to organize
and lead the opposing forces through the
many-wordy combat. All were urged to
participate, but with one consent began
to make excuse" and were as prolific in
excuses as those told of in the Bible who
were invited to the marriage supper. A
Herald reporter who had just dropped in
to "see the fun" was pressed into the
service, the managers declaring that no
excuse would be accepted from him. A
Ledger chap who was present was SINH
arly beset, but he firmly declared he
wouldn't, and that was "the end ont,
and they were compelled to raise the
siege and "let him Off" He consented,
however, to act as referee"
At length, when the audience had been
pumped dry''-as the boss declared-it
was found that forty-six, twenty-three
on each side, were in line, eager for the
fray Among them were leading min
ister-who enjoys the reputation of being
one of the crack" spoilers of the neigh
borhood-a county official, a bank cash
Ter, half dozen school-teachers, and
many well-known residents of both sexes.
A considerable number were pupils of
the public schools, and some of these
showed that they were "no slouches" at
spelling either. On account of the muta-
tions of school text books the spelling
books in use when those who are now
men and women went to school in pima
fores and pantalets having long since
gone out of date-and the differences of
authority in photography, it was agreed
that, although words might not be spelled
as in the book from which they were pro-
nounced, if they were spelled as author
lied in the dictionary it should not
count as "miss." Here was where the
referee got in his work. He was furnished
with a copy of Webster's Unabridged, and
onhim and his big book all questions of
this nature were referred for settlement.
All the preliminaries being arranged,
"time" was called, and Mr.. II. M. James,
one of the city supervising principals,
began to give out words from Dewolf's
Speller," the book used in our public
schools. He went couple of times
along the lines with "easy" words of two
syllables, as he said. to give the spoilers
chance to recover from their embar-
rassment and "get their hands in" Dur
ing the first fifteen minutes but two or
three words were missed. Then Mr.
James got down to business, and scan
ming page after page with his practiced
eye he selected the more difficult words,
and the slaughter became general.
Whenever the fatal word Nextp was
pronounced, the person who had missed
quietly slid out and took seat among
the spectators. Now and then a word
would sweep down half dozen in a
row, leaving great gaps in the ranks.
The survivors closed up the gaps, the
second fifteen minutes witnessing the
downfall of at least half of the combat
ants.
Those remaining had generally pretty
well explored the mysteries of English
photography, and during the third quar-
ter the casualties became less frequent.
The master of ceremonies turned over
leaf after leaf, keeping an eye for hard
words" and one by one the spoilers went
down. The cashier stood fire nobly, but
in an unguarded moment the wore" vim
egar" soured on him and he went under
At length but ten remained, the " sides"
being just equal-five on each, and both
the leaders still bravely holding their
positions. Then the county official
struck snag and surrendered; two lads
who had fought valiantly were swept
away, and Mr. James betook himself in
earnest to the work of searching out
puzzlers. In Atty minutes from the
opening of the engagement but five re-
mained-the lady captain" with the
clergy as her support, and the gentleman,
fianked by the press representative and
young lady who had thus far withstood
every assault.
The feminine leader was the next VIC
tim, reducing the quintet to quartet, on
one side the minister being left blooming
alone" Warming up to his work Mr..
James became almost frantic in his zeal
to hunt up hard words, but for several
minutes the four were invulnerable. At
this juncture he threw aside the book he
had been using, and with q sardonic
smile upon his face went down into his
coat pocket and brought out the "blue
book" For some time vague hints had
been thrown out about that dernier re.
sort, and its appearance was the signal
for enthusiastic applause, while the quar-.
tet exchanged significant glances, the in
depreciation Of which was: Now we're
going to catch it." That " blue book isn't
very large, but there's good deal in It
to be spelled. 1t contains host of such
words as "chalybeate," "phylactery,"
erysipelas," "logarithmic," "phar-
maceutical," etc, ad infnitum, to say
nothing of photographed monstrosities
of all kinds, the whole compiled for lust
sucn occasions
With fiendish delight Mr.. James
hurled those polysyllabic thunderbolts
at the little class standing before him.
At length the young lady and the ex.
FOUNDER of the Gospel both got mex.
tricably entangled in the folds Of aa afro
ciuus six-syllabled word and only two
were left. After successfully resisting
the bombardment for few minutes the
"other fellow"-not tie pencil-driyer
who was bound to maintain the honor
of the press--slipped up on