The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1876-02-15

THE ENGLISH "SPELLING BEEs."-The
American spelling furore OF last winter
reached England rather too late to enter
fully into the sports of the season, but,
this winter, the tidal wave has broken
with full force on Albion. They call
them spelling bees over there instead Of
spelling schools, being probably in entire
ignorance Of the idyllic nature Of rural
spelling schools in this country, when
the bright boys and girls OF rival "dee.
stricts" turn out 10 merry bout Of wit,
skill and Irritation. We have, however,
some reports in the London papers Of the
manner in which these bees are conduct
ed in tic neighborhood Of London. A
large audience even paid so cents admis-
sion to Holloway Hall to witness con-
test Of sixty competitors, thirty-fve men
and twenty-five women, for the works Of
Dickens, Webster's Dictionary and other
prizes. Such words as tincture, escutch-
con, baronial and gossiping brought down
the first victims, and even some Of those
who took prizes failed on daguerreotype
and strontian.
A writer in the London McuS, who had
just come from spelling match, finds
great fault with the laxity Of the popular
pronunciation. In that case the chair
man Of the meeting prefaced the spelling
with few remarks deprecating the gen
eral ignorance OF the art, seven in gentle
men who ave had a university eddica-
tiOn." The man who put out the words
was painfully ignorant OF pronunciation,
as the following instances will show:
He gave "cynosure" us "simosure,"
"desicaten with the accent on the first
syllable, "ephemeral" with a long at the
beginning, US if compounded Of the Latin
proposition c "hecalomb" US "heCatoom,"
probably under the impression that
"tomb' lis always "toom;" "aggrandize-
ment" witlra long !, and accent on the
third syllable; "esoteric" with long ini-
tai c, again as If compounded from the
Latin "a lady spelling this word as pro-
nounced aso, G. g. lin "Gsophagls," was
ruled OUT; "cylindraceous" with the &c
as al, although only CT or Ii would admit
OF such a pronunciation (again gentle
man was ruled out for giving "cious" as
the final syllables); "daguerreotype" pos
itiS ely as "dagweeryotype;;" "escharOtic'
with the Oh soft.
And whena man spelled cycle "psy-
chile" the interrogation made the funny
remark, "Ah, there is such word, but 1
mean cycle Of years" rl a
One inevitable result Of these contests
is to renew the dictionary war, and it Is
very easy for persons spelled down to
claim that Webster is only fit for Ameri-
cans. 1t was thought a hard case, for
instance, that Webster should compel a
young lady to miss a prize for having
spelled "yclqpod" with final I instead Of
q. But Bell & Sons, the English pub
fishers Of the Unabridged, had no diff
Guilty In showing that not only Webster
but every English photographer spelled
the word "yclcped," whatever variations
might have been introduced under poetic
license. The fame OF the Webster die
tionary is likely to be even more thor
oughly INDICATED by these spelling
matches, II both sides are heard. But
our English cousins pursue the matter
with dreadful seriousness which places
the American spectator under much en-.
barrassment. ..t.-H ..H