Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1876-1904, 1900-04-14
SHE WAS FIRST
AT LAST.
suE ~AR ALWAYS BE
HIND BEFORE-R. H.
.. WINS

The State Oratorical Contest With
s'Blick' on the Rostrum Telling
Them About Charles Sumner-The
Intense Quiet That Did Not Prevail
Immediately-'Most Everybody Made
the Statement "Whoop" Right AWAY,
and Then Said it Again--A Gloriors
Night for the K. H. S. and Its
Friends-A Grand Contest and
Good Time for Everybody.
Walter F. Eggemeyer OF TINS city
won first place in the State Hlgn
School oratorical contest last night
at the Gennett theatre Indianapolis
bv some chance captured the second
place, which belonged rightfully to
the Portland girl, according to the
audience, ard the young lady from
Portland took third The contest
was interesting to Richmond people
by reason of the presence OF the Fort
land contestant and Mr.. Eggemeyer-
1t was not considered that more
than two real for sure oratlons
were given last night, the two men
toned so far outclassed the rest
THE CROWD.
There were girls pretty enough to
eat raw without sugar or cream;
there were girls homely enough to
induce yellow jacket away from
sweet apple. There were girls with
frowzly hair, gunny-sack jackets,
new Easter dresses with the bastlng
threads still in, and with Easter hats
in which they looked so extremely
uncomfortable as to make sympa-
thetic observer feel as if he had gone
swimming in ice-water. There were
fat girls and slim girls, girls out Tor
the first time and anxious to try the
sweets of harmless Irritation; girls
who had tried the same before ana
liked it; girls that chewed gum and
those that would have done so II
they had only had the gum. But
they were all just too sweet tor any
thing-except girls. There were
boys, too, and they We're distinctly
audible, visible and feelable. There
were red faced boys, pale faced boys,
big boys, little boys who smoked
sinking black pipes and those who
smoked blacker pipes that skunk
still worse; there were boys who
smoked cigarettes, and an occasional
lonesome lad who didn't smoke any
thing 1t was fine looking crowd,
however, from everywhere. and 1T
was Just as fine as it looked. A
handsomer bunch was never seen IN
the city-nor a jollier, wholesomer,
breezier. 1t is like a breath Of fresh
air to any city to have this hyper
dermic injection of youth once in two
or three years. Everybody in the
city was young yesterday afternoon
and last night, and will be until the
influence of that beautiful, wiggling,
screaming, yelling, laughing, en-
thusiastic crowd fades away. They
arrived yesterday afternoon, the
majority of them did, and they were
about the hotel in happy, chattering
lunches, sounding like the black
birds in Westcott s woods,
only more so. They made three
noises to the blackb birds one, and
bigger noises The process of regis
tering was awful. Most of the young
sters, bless their dear lives, had
never been away from home before,
and critical examination of the
summit of Upper Townsend S era
nium-just above his mustache =
this morning, shows that two more
of his hirsute trimmings have disap-
peared by reason of the worriment
occasioned in accomplishing the feat
of ''rooming" all that wriggling
push. The house was full-fuller
than that 1t was crowded to its
utmost capacity and beyond. There
were some hundreds of extra beds
put in the spaces partitioned off in the
parlor for slumbering purposes Yet
the whole conglomeration was foun-
tain of perpetual youth to any per
son who watched those hundreds of
storage batteries of enthusiasm and
talk, and enjoyed the sight.
Quite a mob of them attended the
polo game in the afternoon between
Richmond and Muncie, and enjoyed
it,
At rather an early hour the throngs
began gathering at the Gennett and
then there were noises, On the streets
and everywhere. A blare o, horns
resounded everywhere, the rehears-
ing of school yells, and all sorts OF
pandemonium were rife. Throughout
it all the pupils from the various
schools were orderly in the extreme,
The delegations were exceedingly
well cha oeroned with a goodly sup
ply of teachers from their home
schools This was good feature as
well as a notable one. There were
fine looking ladies and gentlemen
with the various bands, to look after
their decorum IN an unobtrusive way,
or rather their presence was intended
to prevent any necessity for looking
after the conduct of anybody, and it
did.
AT TIRE THEATER-
Away after 8 o'clock, after the
the schools had assem- bled and yelled
themselves hoarse, the contest began
The Richmond delegation was located
in the balcony and the gallery, the
Portland, Huntington, Madison and
Columbus crowds in the balcony, and
the Indianapolis crowd as much Of the
parquet as is needed. viii Stokes of
indianapolis was enough of a yell
leader torecall wildly and respectfully
the palmy days of Bernie Cohen who
had the red face and straw-colored
hair Stokes was a good-natured
leader, but he didn' have the knack
of making himself look SO intensely
funny all the time as the flannel
faced predecessor. The l. H S. del
egation placed a huge AK. two feet
long. witho n handle TO it, on the
foot-ights for the edification of the
Richmond crowd who gave them
AK so vociferously before The Co
lumbus delegation lost banner that
they started to festoon on the edge
of the balcony. Some l. H S. parties
t,.alnrr ora fk.ad Ii and Il ms Sn.,r, -,