The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1909-04-01

and cOnfldent delivery, Coupled WlVh
we'll thought out Grafton, gained
the moss coveted first prize in oratory
and established record of being the
hrst girl to win first in oratory, in the
recent series of covry oratorical
contests. When Miss Mabelle Mil
Ter. daughter OF Rev. and Mrs. T.
Miller of this city, arose as fourth IN
order, at the contest at Bremen, Fri
day evening, to deliver her piece,
sudden but effective hush fell over the
entire audience of four hundred
scholars and spectators, gathered IN
the High School room OF the Bremen
school. Not even whispers we're
exchanged Why? Because the Ply
mouth speaker had arisen. Plymouth
the county seat town which had won
both the two former contests. Ply
mouth, whom it was claimed could
not come close if the contest were
held someplace else than Plymouth
Here was the Plymouth speaker. And
she was such a small girl too. What
show could a young Freshman ex-
pect to have with the big Senior
boys, who had been there before.
Surely Plymouth wouldn't get place
on the list of prizes this year. But,
the young lady had begun to speak
She has a pleasant but strong voice.
Her accent seems to be perfection It
self. She was young and would prob
ably need prompting, later along in
the piece She continues into the
theme off her Grafton. With a grad
ual infection of the voice. the young
lady gathers her subject into eli
max. The central climax is reached.
The skill displayed in its delivery was
far beyond the young iady's years.
When the final point was reached in
her central climax, Miss Miller lead
the attention OF the, audience to the
brink, and broke I forth. Superin-
tendent Randall sat close to the
stage Good, Good, he said to him
self, but half aloud. And thus il took
the judges. The remainder of the
piece was delivered unerringly, with
out single mistake in pronunciation
or single halt
Crowd Gathers Early.
Delegations from the six High
Schools represented in the oratorical
and piano contest held at Bremen
Friday night, began to arnve at the
German township town, Friday morn
ing. Every train from the west on
the B. & o. carried a crowd OF Cul
yer, Argos, Lapaz and Plymouth
students. By far the greater number
drove to the town however on ac
count ef the difficulty of train con-
uections. AT 6 o'clock Friday evening
every livery and hitch barn was
crowded to ITS capacity, with visiting
horses, and the streets were lined
with buggies. 1t is estimated that
over two hundred and fifty persons
drove to Bremen Friday OF
course as soon as a group of boys
and girls from the same town became
organized, the Rah-Rahs began.
"Kille Ka- Nick, Zip Boom Bah,
Straw Berry Shortcake," and other
shouted dekcacies filled the Dutch
atmosphere about the town, and in
the High School building, until after
"the last dog was hung" The hang
ing Of the last dog, must have been
the Ball given by the Spartan club,
at their headquarters, to which about
forty couple attended, and continued
m the terpsichorean pastime, until
about three a. m when the last OF
the visitors by buggy, sought out
their native shores The yelling in
the High School, prec eded and sue
ceeded the orations. The yesis were
OF course many and various. The
Argos crowd was thoughtful enough
to have their local printer get their
conglomeration into concise form,
from which it was yelled with great
effect. Alter he program had been
delivered, the various schools, COM
plimented each other with yells for
each other This seemed TO be more
like the right kind of spirit. The
High School room in which the con-
test was held, was of course crowded
to its capacity, and held crowd of
from $50 to 500. Plymouth had a
delegation of about SIS or 20 present
Bourbon had about the same number.
Outside of Bremen the other schools
had smaller delegations than that Of
Bourbon or Plymouth
Program as Executed
The program was opened at Sis
o'clock by an invocation by Rev ].
w. Lake. Thc ntesting orators
and pianists were seated on a plat
form in the front Of the room. The
first number on the program was a
piano solo by the Argos contestant
Miss Gladys Taber, whose selection
was the Potpourri OF Chamnade. The
remainder of the program was car
-ied out as follows:
Grafton, ''The Japanese Question"
Frank Spahrs Culver
Piano Solo, Chopm's Valse, Opus "a,
No 1
Margaret Holzbauer, Plymouth
Grafton, Education and Patriotism"
u l1,.1r rh1-ls,