Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1906-06-01
Friday, June I, 1906
a COLLEGE Contest in the South.


point of view of the Northern college
how IL is not a championship baseball
game. or a field day, or even football
game to which reference is made. but
an intercollegiate oratorical contest at
Kosciusko, Miss. They indulge in
athletics more or les In the Southern
colleges to be sure. but not to such an
extent as here in the North. Perhaps
the Southern temperament and the
Southern climate are opposed to
strenuous life. but certain it is that In
the collegiate circles of the South they
keep DIP with great enthusiasm the Ola
time traditions of oratory. and from
the Picayune's account, the excitement
and rivalry of great intercollegiate
football game here in New England
never excelled the scenes at kosciusko,
when the pick of the orators of Mis-
sissippi's four leading colleges met in
a battle for supremacy.
Kosciusko was selected as being
neutral ground to fight upon. The
students of each college journeyed in
special train. There were over 1000
college students there, and the town
closed UP all business to enjoy a holt
day in their honor. The whole day
was devoted to a picnic in a grove near
the city, and the college boys and girls
were given a sumptuous dinner by the
citizens. 1t is worth noting, too, that
reception committees met each OF the
four special trains when they arrived
in town, and speeches of welcome were
made and responded to. AS one of
the features of the picnic there was
ball game between the mines of two OF
the colleges, but the Picayune devotes
only brief paragraph to it, not even
giving the names of the players or the
detailed score, but two columns are de-
voted to the grand oratorical contest
which was held in the city audi
forum in the evening before an audi
ence which packed the big structure to
its capacity, while hundreds were I'M
able to gain admission.
There was the band playing, singing.
and cheering which we are accustomed
to associate with athletic contests up
this way. After each speaker had left
the platform, we are told the students
of the college which he represented,
kept up FOR five or ten minutes d per-
feet bedlam of music and cheering in
his honor. There were but four
speakers. one representing each col
lege, carefully selected at prelimi-
nary contest several weeks earlier An
interesting feature of the contest is
that each one of the four speakers had
a sponsor. beautiful young lady, ap-
propriately draped in the college cOlors,
all four sitting on the platform during
the exercises. The OratiOns were all
original When the judges, who. by
the way. were from out.'of the state in
order that they might be strictly I'M
prejudiced and impartial, awarded the
decision to the representative of the
University of Mississippi. who spoke
upon ''The Twentieth Century
Reformation" we are told that there
was a demonstration which put COM
pletely in the shadow anything that
had gone before. The assembled thou
sands cheered themselves hOarse. the
ccntingents from the other colleges
winner. bands playing. banners waving
and everybody shouting for joy. All
this over a contest in oratory. for
which the prize was 4 modest gold
medal!
We have prize speaking and oratori-
cal contests at our Northern colleges
and also intercollegiate debates
in which there is keen inter-
est. and pride ourselves that this
side of the higher education is by
no means neglected. but evidently
they go into this thing down in old
Mississippi with spirit that was
never dreamed of in the North. The
Southerner is eloquent by tempera :
mept. and plainly nothing is neglected
which will help to develope the gift
bestowed by nature. AS we read of
this Mississippi oratorical contest
however, and of the great interes,
shown by the college beysef that state
and by thespeople in general in the arr
OF eioquence. we cannot help feeling q
little pardonable pride in the reflection
that the most eloquent orator whom
mississippi claims in it's long and dis
tineuished iine-the man whose statu,
has the place Of honor in its state CAPT
tolls son of Maine. Searrent s
Prentiss was born in Portland in 1sos
and graduated from Bowdotn in 1921
For twenty years he was ,ead;n
lawyer in Mississippi and WAS recor
nized as the greatest orator Of hi