The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1875-05-22
The Spelling-Match.

Honolulu, IN lInitatlOQ OF =" the rest OF ma0klnG
has had its sp~elIng-match, and is-not satisfied,
That is. it wants more, and will probably have more.
The large diniug-room of the Hotel was well filed on
Thursday evening last with ladies, gentlemen and
youth. who appeared to enjoy the novel amusement
of seeing grown folks as well as Juveniles stand up to
spell in public. The meeting was called to order by
the Rev. S. G. Damon, who briefly announced the
programme, and called on the Hon. \. S. Hartwell 10
act as Umpire and L. McCully, Esq. as Propounder.
Mr.. Hartweil called as assistant Umpires DR.. Scott,
Q. S. Consul, and Mr.. Justice Judd of the Supreme
Court. These three, each armed with a dictionary
Webster's, Worcester's and Walker's-sat in full
bench as a court of appeal Then the sides were
formed for the match, being pretty evenly made up
of persons of both sexes and various ages. A good
many in the audience, whose names were called, de-
clined to submit themselves to the risk of being
laughed at, but eventually a brave band of thirty
self-sacrifcing ones. fifteen on a side, were fairly
pitted against each other.
And then the fun commenced. The first word
missed was colander, which was spelled culeRdar.
The same word, it may be remarked, is given by
different authorities in three different ways. The
next was ~cinnabar, spelled cina6ar, and close upon
it came proyender, as proUiHder-which brought
down the house. Diocese, (written also diocess)
hoored five individuals in succession, which might
indicate a sad lack of information in regard to the
church. Nucleus brought down two individuals, but
the third got to the kernel of the matter. Syllabus
was disguised as cyldbus, and feudal was phonetic
ally spelled fudaL. Somebody then electrified the
entire audience by leaving the { out of shameful, and
of course sat down very precipitately. Then in
quick succession came such incorrect spelling as pre-
Jered, ~Gnaiyne, (the latter an excusable mistake)
discerAa6ie, combatible, persistence, and surceise.
A confident and up to that time good speller came to
grief on subpoena, which was very Illegally rendered
~su6ponea. Following asimatdte came desiccate, with
which two unhappy ones wrestled in vain. Cynicism
also was an unfortunate word for two more. who
until now had bravely withstood every attack. for
they gave it cinociSm and cyHeciSm. This did the
business for one class Of fifteen who had successfully
been laid low by the photographic missiles, and there
were five left of the other class. The contest between
thes battle SCARED veterans now became intensely
interesting. But soon, osseous spelled with q c re-
moved one to that bourne from which no speller
could return; an extra l in palette did the business
for another, and the third hauled down his colors on
discrepancy with an e in place of an a. And now
there were but two left out of the spartan band that
less than an hour before had stood so bravely and
hopefully in the presence of that dread array of
dictionaries and critics. The question now was,
hHiCu VI tHtcc uOulO tuhC buC AiSe PIlLSs al IL
landish word settled it. The seldom-heard of creature
called a camelopard, vanquished lyons. This finished
the tournament, Mrs. E. P. Church being awarded
the first prize, a fine copy of the latest edition of
Webster's Unabridged, and Mr.. c.. J. Lyons the
second prize, a copy of g Christ in Art now in
course Of publication in New York. These were
gracefully presented to the winners by Consul Scott.
For those who were defeated in this contest, it is but
fair to say that most of them battled long and bravely,
especially the younger ones. For promptness and
clearness of utterance, we venture to name four who
will win a prize some day-Miss Julia Judd, Miss
Lucy White, Miss Addie Campbell and Master Henry
Castle. ~
= After the spelling-match was over, a beautiful steel
engraving Of " Ciinging to the Cross which had
been donated to the Bethel Organ Fund, was put up
at auction by Mr.. E. P. Adams, and brought some
S12. 500 Then followed the Ice Cream Festival
which had been in allegiance for several months.
The tables, attended by the fair dealers in cake and
cream, were spread on the broad veran la of the
Hotel, and we judge that they drove a pretty brisk
trade for the remainder of the evening.
The whole affair was one of the most enjoyable of
social gatherings, and will undoubtedly be followed
by others of a similar nature.