The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1877-02-10
PRoNoUNCING FOR PRIZES.
The Match under the Auspices Of the l
brew Young Mems Association,

The Match under the Auspices Of the He
brew Young Mems Association.
The rooms of the Young Mems Hebrew
association in New York city were crowd
ed Monday evening, on the occasion of a
"pronouncing contest" conducted under
the auspices of the literary society, which
is part of the Young Mems Hebrew as
sociation. 1t was well-dressed and mer-
ry assemblsge. II. M. Leipziger was the
enunciator, Messrs. j. l.. Honigmau and
ID. p. Hays were referees, Webster's and
Worcester's dictionaries supplied the rules,
and the audience acted as umpire from time
to time, With freedom from restraint and
ceremony.
The contestants were about thirty in
number, nearly equally divided between
the sexes. When time was called, the first
round was decided in favor of good-look-
ing girl, who pronounced 'ten" with an air
of perfect confidence. Her next neighbor
was equally successful in mastering the in
tricacies of the word chen" A red-headed
boy stepped down and out after an ineffec-
tual struggle with "genuine." After that
the contestants took warning, and for sew
eral minutes nobody tripped. But an eye
glass wesrer was thrown by "reconnoitre, "
and just after him young man with sprout-
ing side-whiskers fell a victim to the SIM
Pile monosyllable "whey." Then there was
another lull, broken by brief but disas-
trous encounter with the word "quay" by
a young man of modest demeanor, and a
futile endeavor at ''caprice" by young
woman who would make il sound like ''ca-
pers A sentimental seeming maiden
learned for the first time that she had al
ways been wrong on "dstich," and blush
ingly retired from the rauke. "Dracbm'
was too much for small boy, who called
it "drackem," and girl who thought
"gaol" was all the same as "goal" passed
down and out. "Kiln" and "viscouut'
sent two more of the pronouncers to the
back seats.
BY this time the audience was full of ex-
citement, aud inclined to take sides against
the epunciator and the dictionaries. When
q yoons -ean alfred With the enunciatnr
on "chivalrous," and the auInurifies were
found permitting hlm to so differ without
being wrong, the applause showed that the
sympathy of the audience was on the side
of those who were being SO merciessly
mown down by the steady fire Of short and
long vowels, silent consonants, and arbit-
rary emphasis. Another red-headed boy
came to grief on "anemone, which he
seemed surprised to learn was not pro-
nounced "arnymDan." The pretty girl
with the crinkled front hair mispronounced
"obeisance," and retired among the mourn
ers with toss of her head that said, plain
er than words, that she know-if-that-w wasn't
right-it-ought-to-be and She didn't care-a-
bit-anyhow-so- there now. A girl with
cheeks rounded like pomegranates and red
dened like Jscqueminot roses. won signal
yipt0rv pver tho anunniator Op tho upnrd
"decorous," and the conse quent applause
of the audience nettled him to declare that,
Notwithstanding the dictionaries, he kne v
he was right. A pretty girl who looked on
"slight" as some sort of compound word
built on the seasonable sleigh, was next
wiped off the slate on that slight error. In
ternal doubt and tendency to stutter, gave
to the struggles of small boy with the
word "caricature" protracted and painful
interest, but he conquered finally, and was
heartily applauded for his victory. SIN
weighed" weeded out another small boy,
and ''diaphaynous" was the two thin offer
made at "diaphanous" by comrade, who
retired with him.
There were now only four contestants
left. The enunciator went at them savage
ly, but they stood his attacks bravely. He
tried them with little words to throw them
off their guard. and long words to appsl
them, and crooked words to trip them, but
they met him squarely every time. The
interest of the audience became intense,
and every word spelled by the enunciator
was pronounced in whisper by fifty peo-
pie in fifty different ways, before it could
be written on the blackboard. AT length
"coDjure" reduced the little army to three.
Then recherche" proved the stumbling
block for one of the two remaining young
women. The audience said it wasn't fair
that it was French wore that it was tax.
ing a mean advantage to "ring in" that sort
of thing upon young woman at such a
critical moment. But the enunciator
finding himself backed by the dictionaries
was firm, and she had to retire. "Incog-
pito" brought the other young woman to
grief but not without long discussion be-
tween the enuncator and the audience,
some insisting that the word was French,
others that II was Latin or Greek, and not a
few taking the bread ground that if it was
an English word 1t ought not to be.
The gentleman who remained alone in
his glory was tripped finally by ''jaghlre,
but went down with protest against play
ing Hindostanee to beat him-N y. Sun.