The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-04-22
TmE SPELL.
The "Speiler" Assaulted from Bramhan
TO Mnnjoy-Thc Book Too Much for the
Crowd.

The spring spell must be at its highest, Tor
nearly every one who has leisure IS stuuy'ns
the dictionary, and the school boys ana giris' VI
rather girls and boys, are deYotlng an 'heir
spare time to that hitherto dreary work known
as the spelling book. Indeed, 1t has greater
fascination than the last dime novel. ms
thing can't 90 on much longer for those who
spell are making lists of words, and there must
be thousand or more already Last evening
all the rooms where matches were held were
crowded, and a wonderful interest was mani
tested.
FIRST BAPTIST vEsTRY.
The match at the First Baptist vestry was
an earnest one. The adult class contained
large number of very excellent spoilers, and it
required long time and very hard words to
clear the seats Mr. A. e. Chase pronounced
the words, and Mr. Patten of the High School,
was the umpire.
The younger class spelled with most credita-
BILE accuracy. Willie Means was the cham
pion.
Mr.. Edgar Deering, after protracted strug-
gle, was the victor in the adult class The
vestry was we'll filled, the order excellent,
which isn't always to be said of the audiences
on these occasions.
ALLEN MISSION.
The mission had good number and the
spelling was quite spirited. Mr.. S. r. Leavitt
was school-master.
PINE STREET CHURCH.
Pine street society held their first spelling
match at the vestry of the. church last evening.
A large audience was present and the spelling
caused considerable merriment. The first class
was composed mostly of young people,althougn
some of the older ones stood up just to see how
it seemed. Rev. Mr.. Johnston was word
giver and Mr.. B. M. Eastman acted as umpire.
Mr. f. A. Smith was the first one to go down.
He thought "untl'' should have two rs. Con
nection' took down pretty miss, who spelled
the word with two rs. Fusion" was too much
for an elderly lady, AT last there were but
two remaining, boy named Eastman and
Mrs. Sculley. The boy put an "p' in presorip-
ion, where he should have put an sc" and
at down. This entitled Mrs Sculley to the
prize, which was 81. 1t was then proposed to
have the old folks spell, but the result was
the class was mostly made up OF young people,
although grey head was seen at the head OF
each row. Mr. Eastman gave out the words
and Rev. Mr.. Johnston acted as umpire. The
words given to this class were difficult and the
ranks were soon thinned out; the words were
growing harder every moment. After quite
struggle the contest remained between Mr.. f.
H. Cloyes and Miss Martha Stowell. Mr..
Cloyes soon missed word and Miss Stowell
was left to bear off the Donors of the class
ST. LAWRENCE STREET vEsTRY.
The vestry of the st. Lawrence street church
was crowded. Mr.. G. G. Burgess gave out the
words and Mr.. Holland was umpire. The first
class was composed of boys and girls belonging
20 the grammar and lower schools, and the
manner in which they vanquished the words
showed conclusively that they were on good
terms with that work. The last boy went
down on "gentian''-a word he had never
seen. The word martial took the last miss
but one, leaving the prize to Kate Davis,
daughter of c. o. Davis, Esq. The older class
did not spell so WE'LL 'Ducat" took the first
young man from the list of spoilers and another
full grown American citizen "impaired" his
reputation as spellist by making new ortho-
graphy for that word. A full whiskered gen.
tleman refused to try "hersute," saying he had
never heard Of the word. The victor was Capt.
VIM. S. Preble, who was awarded the prize-a
volume entitled "The Poets of the 18th Cen
tury.'' The proceeds amounted to $685.
FUTURE MATCHES.
The prizes have been arranged in the match
between the girls of the High School and the
Bowdoin boys, which is to take place Friday.
May It'll, as follows: First prize fine edition
of Dickens Works; second, an unabridged
dictionary, either Webster's or Worcester's as
the winner chooses; to the first lady vanquished,
bouquet; to the first collegian down, a
primer.
Spelling matches occur tonight at the Free
Street Baptist and Plymouth churches.