The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1901-05-28

IHE 0RA1OR|CAL CONTEST
Buena Vista College Gets First Place for the Fourth Time
Denison Gets in for Second Place. A Full Account Of
the Contest.

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beautiful voice to the .bss Eaitage.
Mrs. Finley has quitea ssaSs ss9ation as a
vocalist. Then came Denison's first
man, Oscar A Bergen. with his Grafton,
"Ruskin Land" This Grafton showed
very careful preparation The thought
was good, ranking second, but Mr..
Bergren lost on delivery. Had he not
dispensed with Miss Webster's train
ing since the preliminary contest he
could easily have secured first: but on
account of his lack of it we had to re-
turn with another second. 1t seems to
be our fate. The oration, The French
REVOLUTION" by Earl James of Sac
City was perhaps the weakest of the
slN, at least the judges thought so.
Mr.. James showed great lack of train
ing and he ranked low on thought be-
cause he borrowed somuch. The vocal
solo following Mr.. James oration, by
Mrs. Stella Wiener. was heartily re-
celved. Sac City surely did herself
proud by furnishing so much excellent
music
Then came the oration which carried
away the honors, MIR. Henry K. Leon
ard on True Success Mr.. Leonard's
theme was one which is very popular
at the present time aud while it tinged
greatly with the style of the author of
the omagazine, Success" it showed
Mr.. Leonard to be careful reader and
profound thinker. The judges gave
him first on thought and composition
and third on delivery The final ora
tion was given by Denison's second
representative, Leslie E. Poitevin, on
William Lwart Gladstone. Inmany
ways we do not think the judges gave
Mr. Poitevin What he deserved He
certainly did not deserve sixth on
thought and composition. His clia
makes were grand; in fact, his oration
was the only one of the six possessing
final climax which attracted the at
tention of the audience from the other
part OF the grafton. Mr.. Poitevin suf-
fered greatly from lack of training on
delivery, as did all of the six. We
| think that on such occasions the con-
testants should exercise every energy
to become as good as possible. For
some reason this was evidently not
done this year by any of the schools,
as none of the orations were up to the
standard set in previous years Wees
peclally censure ourrepresentatives be-
cause we learned their.training was
stopped at the time of the preliminary
contest. Had this been continued un-
der Denison's excellent instructor we
would undoubtedly have secured both
first and second places.
| While the judges on delivery, Pro
fessors Hutton of Odebolt, Ford of
| Newell and Bond OF Rockwell City,
were counting up the markings, the
audience was entertained with couple
OF humorous selections by the Denison
Male Quartet. These perhaps brought
forth more applause than any other Sc
lection of the evening. In the few
minutes that ensued the audience anx-
iously awaited the decision. When
Prof. Van Ness came out to announce
1T one could have heard pin drop
where a few moments before he could
not hear himself yell. This suspense
was made greater by our having to wait
until Prof. Reed of Ruena Vista made
an announcement And then we
thought we knew we had first place,
but when it was announced that the
Grafton "Ruskin Land" ranked second
we had to drop our red and help Storm
Lake cheer the victor again. Almost
instantly the boys had him on their
shoulders, they tossed him around like
a plaything; still we know of others
who would like to have been caressed
in the same way. The Denison delega-
tion, soon on it's way to the train,
escorted in Sac City style by the gang
of "hoodlums" and a giant policeman
who kept telling them they mustn't do
that" oh, how mighty is the arm of
the law in some places!
Taken all in ALL the trip was a very
enjoyable one. considering the circum-
stances. We certainly hope that the
disgraceful features will hereafter be
eliminated. Denison people can cer-
tainly pride themselves on the fact that
they are unsurpassed anywhere as en-
tertainerS BE the crowd ever SO small
or ever so large, no one has ever had
cause for complaint in regard to treat
ment received here.
i We hope that next year Denison col
lege may win first place again and now
is the time to begin preparations.
J