Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1875-04-28
10 G All N e. W s.

rsp The price of the SPIRIT OF THE AGE is
one Dollar and Fifty Cents a gear TO Mail
Subscribers, and $1,75 TO Village Subscribers
serued by the Carrier. Ifnot paid in aduance
so GEMS extra wil be charged in each case
Office Subscribers same as Mail Subscribers.
Woodstock.
The Episcopal Church Fair at the
Town Hall Friday evening was
success, and 1927 was cleared for
the Society. The display of fancy
articles was very fine the ice cream
was splendid, but there was not
enough to 60 round the cake was
the best that could be manufactured
all got guild pro quo for their "scrip"
and were we'll pleased with the enter
tainment. "The Old Fashioned Sing"
was a big thing. The singers were
all dressed in costume. Brother
Greene swung the baton on the oc'
aston and was dressed like captain
Of hood-wood company ; Loring
Richmond drew bow artistically
on the bowels of gentleman COW
fiddle F. r. Jewett resembled the
Father of his Country David Simp-
son reminded us of the hero of New
Orleans Chas. r. Montague had the
air of a French Colonel DR.. Hazen
was in common dress, and sang well,
as usual. Among the lady singers
(also in costume,) we noticed Mrs.
Tewksbury, Organist at the Congre-
gational Church, Mrs. DR.. Cotton,
Miss Mary Haskell, Miss Anna Marble,
Miss Mary Pinks, and other good
singers whose names would make
this article too long. J. r. Murdock's
Band furnished excellent music !;
where Chas. M. Cobb and Owen IT,
Marsh are, you can count on it
The SpELL.-About nine o'clock the
"Spell' was announced, and volunteers
were called for, about twenty arranged
themselves in two squads down the
center of the Hall in front of the Plat
form, wherein Hon. Chas. P. Marsh
appeared as the enunciator, with a
book. containing the awful vocabulary
Of the occasion. To the left of him
sat the "stern Judges" Hon. o. p.
Chandler, Rev. Mr.. Hicks, Rev. Mr..
Hewett. The contestants ranged from
grave to gay, the Miss Of tender years
standing beside the veteran Of gray
hairs. There were lawyers, editors,
clerks, teachers and many others who
thought they had mastered the mani
fold crookedness of the forty thous-
and words OF our incomprehensible
language. The contest was very
amusing, as one after another of the
verbal skirmshers went down. 1t
reminded us Of the nursery rhyme
'',Ten little Indians, standing in line,
One fell down, and then there were nine"
A prim er was the prize offered to the
person first spelled down, and boquet
of flowers to the person who stood up
the longest. No word was to be
given out the second time-ifa person
missed, he or she retired, and new
word was given to the next in line Ed.
Bailey stumbled on the word mortise,
and received the primer, but it was
decided after awhile that he was right,
and he was restored to the ranks
Miss Carrie Chapman secured the
primer. Miss Lucy Chapmans boat
was wrecked on the word trochee,
spelling it with double ee, this was not
fair shake. C. NJ. Marsh, son of the
enunciator, held out the longest but
was floored at last on the word stig-
Matte. Miss Mary Piuks, really
fine speller, and among the last to
retire on word that we did not
catch, which was decided to be pro-
nounced wrong, was restored to her
rank, and awarded the boquet.-
Words of two syllables went gaily
round, but the Judges found that
would not do-they must turn to hard
er words. Words with silent
and double letters were found,
that raked EN- like Calling gun. 1t
was not much OF "spell, as the noise
in the hall was on the increase from
the start, and after five minutes it was
impossible for those at the lower end
OF the classes to hear the words. -
Mrs. Aikens, alady Of over seventy
years, capital speller, and among the
last to fall, spelled schorlite without
the h it is not word in common
use, and very likely was pronounced
wrong. Brother Greene wronged the
Sibyl, by transposing the letters, and
yielded to her incantations. The
silent letter in the word caisson,
caused our humble self to step out of