Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1886-02-20
THE WHEATLEY FOLKS COME BACK

| EDITOR INrELLIGENCER - After
reading communication from May
view written by "Fair Play" we are
impressed with the opinion that youl
correspondent is possessed of a pervert.
ed mind, a prolific Imagination, or very
dubious information. Don't think we
ever saw so much misrepresentation in
piece three fOurths of column long
before.
When communications are sent to
papers, we think they should present
the truth, for fear of wrong impressions
being made on persons who are not
cognizant of the facts in the case.
AS has been stated, our teacher oc-
casionally appoints an evening for
spelling, which meetings have been a
source of pleasure to all, till the even
ing first alluded to in your columns,
when number of Mayview's gallants
ventured in "to have a little fun. "
Upon entering they found we were in
earnest, 80 took their places as chosen
on either side to spell with us. One
side having been spelled down, our
teacher received a challenge from sew
eral of Mayview's knights to spell our
district against their party. OF course
we accepted and entered upon the con :.
test with sixteen from our district, and
not the" whole crowd" against twenty,
including two teachers from Mayview
district, instead of the .pupils." The
result after two trials, was their defeat
fairly enough. The assertion that the
"ruling was in favor OF Wheatley side"
is simply bosh. The spelling was irreg
ular on both sides owing to the eX
citement occasioned by the challenge,
which lrregularity was not confined TO
Wheatley side as Fair Play would have
you believe. Neither did any of them
attempt to spell after having missed.
The insinuation that old tGrandpap"
came to the rescue after he missed, is,
to say the least, mistake. They said
they did not have room here, and chal-
lenged our district to come to May
view and shave it OYER" To carry out
the programme we repaired to May
view on Friday night, Feb. 5; found
the house filled with anxious parents
and pupils. After spelling a short time
by choosing on sides, one gentleman
proposed counting that draw, and be-
ginning the contest of districts at
once, which all agreed to and proceed
ed. There were on our side, twenty,
indicating one from each of two dis
tricts not belonging to Wheatley dis
trict. Therefore the representation of
"Fair play" that there were four if not
five districts represented, is not fact.
Arranged on the other side of the house
were seventy-tive or eighty, and repre-.
senting three districts also. So we
were even Oh districts. Mr.. Weaver's
address alluded to was simply to state
that we were there as per challenge,
and had no i'll feeling for our contesting
party, that the dogs of war had given
us the victory before, and we would do
the best we conld this time. Spelling
began, Mayview teacher pronouncing,
and notwithstanding the array fnota-
bles against us, we downed about two
thirds of them, and seven OF our side
were down, and we would have STAYED
till morning or. been the victors. But
there being such very bad behavior by
the MaYview pupils or from some other
oauses, IhoS \oui CoHlestants) tnOuSnt
"we'd better quit" and actually left the
floor, leaving us in our amazement to
deduoe our own conclusions as to the
cause of their withdrawal. We, too,
like spelling matches when properly
conducted, therefore beg to be ex-
cused in future from spelling against
those who boast of their "good SPELL
ing," and when beaten at a game OF
their own choosing, exhibit such a
captious spirit. We prefer spelling
with those who, if defeated, have the
courage and manliness to bear it brave
ly. We are very sorry your correspon-
dent could not have been present at
our spelling matches, he might have OBJ
tained q correct inventory, and thus
have saved rs the trouble of a reply.
Having now SEATED matters correctly,
you VIII hear from us no more. ELI.