Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1878-06-29
THE PUBLIC SCHOOL.
Exercises at the Close Of the Term.

noon. The closing examinations in
the primary department, Miss Annie
L. Plummer teacher, were held We'd
nesday forenoon. The third reader
class was called first and the little
children acquitted themselves we'll,
| when it is taken into consideration
that some of them are SO young that
they can with difficulty pronounce
some of the words correctly. This
was followed by the class in geo.
graphy, and all the simpler questions
in the first part of the geography
were answered with readiness that
would have done credit to schol-
ars of ripper age. Before going to
their seats Superintendent Young
propounded few questions in men
tai arithmetic, which the youngsters
tackled with an aptitude scarcely to
be expected. During intermission
several of the more advanced schol-
ars were sent to the blackboard,
where they gave proof. of their
skill in writing the capital letters.
In this Oracle Rourke excelled all
the others, some of her letters being
nearly perfect. Marie Benefits were
also very good. After intermission
the feature Of the morning was in
troduced in the shape of spelling
match. The contestants were finally
reduced to Lulu Waugh McAfee,
Mary Foote and Bertha Young.
After brave struggle Miss Bertha
was compelled to retire, and the con-
test between Lulu and Mary was
quite spirited. All of the hardest
words in the third reader were spelled
with the greatest ease, and Superin-
tendent Young was called upon to
give them something heavy. After
few rounds they both went down
on Separate" As this left them
even it was decided to give them
another trial, and after acquitting
herself nobly, Mary was vanquished
by "stoAred," leaving Lulu, the
smallest child in the class, victorious.
The children are making excellent
progress and are credit to them
selves and their teacher. On Thurs
day Miss Plummer awarded three
prizes for the best average spelling
during the term. Lulu McAfce and
George Foot having an equal number
of headmarks received prizes of
equal value, Mary Foote getting the
third. The prizes were three large
and splendid steel engravings.
The first exercise Wednesday after
noon was contest in spelling and
geography between the pupils of
Mrs. Hornick's and Mr.. Dovey's de-
partments. Two of Mr.. Dovey's
scholars we're chosen as leaders, Will
liam Henry taking the intermediate
and Jerry Hart the grammar depart
ment. The one standing at the head
of the side having the first word was
obliged to think of some geographic
cal name commencing with A, spell
it, point it out on the map and give
general description of it. The one
on the other head had to think of
some name beginning with the last
letter of the previous word, and so
on around, each one choosing word
beginning with the last letter of the
previous word. Mrs. Hornick's pu-
pills gradually took their seats until
only Matte Sherman was left to COM
pete with four of Mr.. Dovey's pupils
Matte did splendidly, but was unable
to think of any name beginning with
G which had not been used before,
and was forced to give up. The
closing struggle between Josie Quinn
and Frank Armstrong was interest
ing, but was brought to an end by
Franks failure to find Ogden on
the map. While waiting for Mr..
Dovey to get ready for the spelling
match Mrs. Hornick exercised her
scholars in mental arithmetic aud
geography, and they gave a signal
proof that those important branches
had not been neglected. The SPELL
ing match between the two depart
ments was very good. Eugenia
Geyer and Fannie Powers oulspelled
all their companions in the interme-
diate department and were lett to
contest for the honors against more
than a dozen in the grammar depart