The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1909-06-04
SPEAK FOR M'MANUS PRIZES
SCHOOL, 81 WELCOMES IRIS
SCHOL4RS or LONG AGO.
Old building FILLED with west siders who
Hear Again the REGULATIONS They
once Learned-Ethei Remy Wins
the Girls Prt7e-Three Boys Tie.

the Girls ~Irize-Three Boys Tie.
Public School 81. where the speak
inc competition for the The McMans
nri7es was held last night. Is not a modern
educational palace Of wide ~staircases,
lofty corridors and a theatre for the open
ing exercises.
h Its in West Forty-fourth street over
nv the North River, and when you have
climbed four fights OF high, narrow steps
II the top floor you find that the assembly
room is nothing but two or three class
rooms made into one by opening the
cid fashioned folding doors in between.
The residents who went to hear tho
orators sat in the same low seats be-
hind the same oak desks which had
served them years ago.
The Senators. Assemblymen, district
sipe~rintendents. members of school
boards and other dignitaries sat in state
. on TN. platform behind the same high
wooden railing which had shielded their
ancestors from the too familiar glances
Of the %schoolboy Of thirty or forty years
$40
The oratory. too, smacked not OF the
~frivclity Of the present generation. The
newest thing interpreted by any speaker
was -Gungha Din
When golden haired blue eyed Mary
rurdy Of Public School II moaned "Oh,
the long and dreary winter, oh. the
famine and the fever" at least a dozen
yairs Of lips began to move in unison
with hers and kept right on to the very
end Of hat selection.
It was the same way with "The Angels
Of Buena VISTA" which Catherine Small
rcci,ed. and How He Saved st. Michaels."
which was rendered in a most dramatic
manner by Gertrude Bambrich.
The Ballad OF Sweet p wasn't, OF
course. written yesterday, but every INT
present agreed that nc one had yer
given it as did Ethel Remy. She had been
permitted to pile her mass Of chestnut
brown curls way up on top Of her head for
the great occasion and to wear a short
wasted green chiffon frock at least two
inches longer than any she had ever worn
before.
Ethel had also a real rose for property
when she came to the place in the poem
where Sweet p. blows the petals for the
Hessian officers to pick up. Ethel got
the first girls prize, which was $40 in gold,
by a unanimous decision Of all the judges,
both official and unofficial.
The judges had a pretty h ard time
In agreeing upon the winner OF the second
rrize, but finally decided that Catherine
small OF Public School 81, which has
also the honor Of educating Ethel Remy.
was entitled to the five dollar gold piece.
When il came to the boys, the judges
we're in a dilemma from which half a
dozen self-constituted assistants tried
in vain to extricate them.
Edward r. Mcclure said that he had
heard The Polish Boy" recited ninety
eight times and that he had never heard
a rendering which approached that Of
John Donnelly OF Public School 81.
But then there was Joseph Kellman. also
If Public School 81. who made a speech
about the signing Of the Declaration of
Independence in a n that made
every one simply crazy TO &c out and buy
all the firecrackers in town. Neither
could any one who had heard it forget
William 1srael's Gunohd Din.
There.were other achievements which
would have been sufficiently meritorious
hut these three so far surpassed all COM
petitors in technique and were of such
uniform excellence that the Judges
finally decided TO divide the fifteen dollars
in gold provided for the boys into three
prizes OF IS each.
AS for The McManus. he said that if
he had his spurs to win now he knew
that neither in oratory nor in political
acumen could he hope to compete at all
with those whom he had heard upon
that occasion.