Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1875-04-15
The Spelling-Sch00l.

Speaking of spelling-match recently
participated in by several of the leading
citizens of Chicago the Inter Ocean says:
1t was fun-there is no doubt of that
but it was not the old fashioned spelling
school after all. Most Of them had been
there and knew how these matches used
to be conducted. They didn't 60 to Far
well Hall in sleigh filed with boys and
girls and buffalo robes. But they used
to go to spelling-schools in that way.
They can almost see the spawned horse
on the off side who was very lame when
they started, but who hmbered up as he
travelled, until he ambled along as cheer
fully as four-year-old colt. The wind
whistled through his scanty tail like a
breeze through an Holian harp, but the
bells drowned the melancholy refrain,
and the laughter of that jolly crowd half
drowned the bells. The parties I" chose
up" when they reached the implanted
| school-house on the corners, whose an
cient clapboards had been worn into a
soft and plushy gray by the beatings of
the storm Were you, dear reader, ever
one of the persons called to that honora-
| BILE duty? Was Angelina Tarbox (why
not call her name right out while we are
about it,? another? Did you take your
| of the room, usually occupied by the
teacher, and proceed to call your re-
spective retainers? How was it at
such time? Did you selfshly choose
Miss Williams to sit next you, though
| aware that you were weakening your
side by doing SO, and did Angelina select
young Perkins for the same reason? Or
did you both pursue the sensible way,
and choose your assistants on account of
their ability, not beauty? If so, per-
haps it was Miss Plumb who took a seat
next you. All, Miss Plumbl There was
| speller for you! She would grab up
| erysipelas as Shanghai chicken would
| pick up worm, and shake it to pieces
before the teacher had fairly dropped
the last syllable from his lips. Chro-
nometer, hieroglyphics, exclamation, and
| all those four and five syllabled mon
strosities were mere playthings to her.
She laughed at them. She had natural
talent for hard words, and tossed incom-
prehensibility CONTEMPORARY over her
shoulder before she was seven. But it
was the small words that vanquished
her. She generally went down on tur-
| nip, which she would persist in finishing
with sup" 1t was sad to see this
bright young intellect successfully tackle
and conquer Kosciusko and kaleido-
scope, and then 60 down on ferule, or
licorice, OF some such contemplate lit
tie thing. But the world is full of pit
falls, and it is not by falling over high
precipices, SO much as sinking into treach-
erous quicksands, that we are lost.
However, spelling school is out. &
frowzy-haired boy, very long in the body
and very short in the legs, who stood
away at the end of the row, has spelled
down the school. He is slow OF speech
and ungainly Of carriage, and when the
affair is over he buttons his scanty coat
tight around him, and trudges off alone
to his home, which is somewhere up there
in the woods, no one knows exactly
where, but you shall hear of that boy
by-and-by. Then the tallow candles
which have burned away considerably
and melted away good deal are blown
out, the house is shut up, the spawned
horse is again brought into service, and
the spoilers are homeward bound.
And out into the snowy night
That jolly load did 90 forth,
And roar the songs of Lily Dale"
"Old Uncle Ned and so forth.
These were the boys and girls Of
twenty and thirty years ago. Are there
still such? We are not sure, but the
mania for spelling matches which is now
abroad brings up good many recollec-
tions, and has, no doubt, caused many q
father and mother to prick up their ears,
refresh their memories, and indulge in
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