The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1910-02-24
NElCHBORHOOD NEWS SPELLING CONTEST
Was Big Success. Full List Of
the Prize Winners.

The county spelling contes which
has proved so popular among the
students and parents OF the county.
was held Friday afternoon in the
court room. The contest was a
success from every conceivable stand,
point. The attendance was one of
! the largest that has ever been seen at
n county school gathering. The court
room was filled to its seating capa-
city and many had to stand, while
others "perched" in the windows OF
the room.
! The contest was conducted by Prin.
o. p. Flower. of the Oskaloosa high
school, and Ed De Long acted as
referee. The first part of the con-
test was written and consisted OF the
spelling of list of 200 words. The
contestants were numbered by large
cards attached to their clothing and
were thus easily found. A card upon
which was printed the name, number,
township and school of each pupil
was given to every one of the aud
fence and with the aid of this and the
numbers placed on the clothing of the
contestants they were easily traced
through the various courses of the
contest After the written spelling
a committee of teachers. who did not
have pupils in the contest. adjourn
ed to the board of supervisors room
and corrected the papers. After a
recess of fifteen minutes the oral
spelling was taken up. The con-
tents were arranged according to
consecutive order of numbers and
were given oral words for spelling.
The oral spelling took until late
in the evening to decide. The contes-
tants refused to be spelled down and
this part Of the contest took between
four and five hours.
The written list of spelled words
was corrected and four of the 56 con-
testants had perfect papers. They
were: Pearl Mott, of Jefferson; Mar.
garet Kentfield, of East Des Moines;
Helen Hanna, of Adams, and Edna
Olinger, of Monroe township. The
papers were graded on a basis of 50
per cent, and considering the long
list of words II seems almost i'm
possible that four of the students
missed not single one of the two
hundred words.
The oral spelling was finished late
last evening and the grades were
given out this morning. The grades
of the first eight winners are: First:
Floyd Strong, of Pleasant Grove town
ship, grade 991s. Second-Ralph
Fisher. of Pleasant Grove township,
grade 80. Third-Pearl Kentfield, oil
East Des Moines township, grade
9B 1876. Fourth-Pearl Mott, OF
Jefferson township. grade 81 1879.
Fifth-Max Heitsman, of Prairie
township, grade SO IT'S. Sixth-Ma'
tilda Jackson, of East Des Moines,
grade 80 IT'S. Seventh - Vernice
Brown, of Monroe township. grade
81 63.7S. Eighth-Grace Natter. OF
Adams township, grade 81 1873.
Some of the peculiar features Of the
results is that in the written spelling
four girls and no boys had perfect
papers and in the final markings two
boys received the highest places in
the contest. The best spoilers seem
to come from East Des Moines town
shin. In the written contest Marga'
ret Kentfield, Of that township, had
4 perfect paper, in the final contest,
Pearl Kentfield, of the same town
ship, took third place, with a grade
; of 90 and 1876, and Matilda JACK
son, of the same school took sixth
place, with a grade of SO and 7-7S
The teacher of this school should
feel proud of such students and all
the teachers who had pupils In the
contest should feel proud, for none
of the grades were low and the con
testants show that they know no"
tn smell. The contest proved a great
; success and even if the contest did
not close until late last evening, the
court room remained full OF people
interested in the contest. Many o.
the parents and teachers remaiheJ
, in the room without any supper toi
, four or five hours. The patience Of
the conductor of the contest, Prin. U
p. Flower, of the high school. should
he complimented, as he pronounced
everv word OF the contest and many
of them several times. In all, the con
test was more of success than any
one expected.
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