The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-03-21
By DOLLY DALRyMPLE

Harmony" announced the teacher,
and a little dark eyed girl spelled it..
In quick succession followed such words
as impossible umbrella" "tempera-
ture' and Telephone" just as fast as
the teacher could give them out.
Innocent was the first word missed.
| A little blonde girl missed 1t and turned
as red as turkey gobler to the edge
OF his stiffly starched little collar while
all the kids nudged each other and gig
gled."
| The Second round" was really the Sc
rious part of the "bee.
Boys and girls rose nobly to the oc-
cason.
| They twisted their hands neryously un-
| til the word came to them, and then they
Strengthened up boldly, swallowed a big
lump in their throat and boldly spelled
such twisters as relieve" exercise"
| ''idiosyncracies" 'hieroglyphics" and
multiplication.
Transplant the teacher gave out
carelessly.
1t was a little girl with red bows on
her hair) just about the size of a minute
who got this word, and she instantly
spelled
"T-r-a-n-s-e-p-l-a-n-t."
Transplant" again pronounced the
| teacher plainly,
"T-r-a--" sobbed the little girl.
''T-r-a---"
|
s"T-r-a-n-s-e-p-l-a-n-t spelled the
next little girl proudly.
| Next" said the teacher" and before
| the word was properly spelled three lit
tie sobbing girls and one little boy had
been transplanted to their respective sea,s
| in the school room
| But there's where the difference in the
modern spelling bee'' and the old fash
| icned 'bee'' was perceptlbe
| In those other days-way baclS-when
! the pupil missed word, and had to sit
down, there was general c1apping of
hands. and laughing, and "guying' of the
defenseless victim while nowadays no
such punishment is imposed upon the tor
tured and defeated speler.
| I must say | like the modern way best
| I'm this respect,
| Three successive spoilers now insisted
upon spelling ''furrow' with an "ough.'
while the old "cateh' words, separate"
necessary and Scissors. were pro-
| pounded much to the discomfort of many
| of the boys and girls.
| "Rectangle' was presently given out by
| the teacher and such a wrestling as they
| had with II, you never heard of.
| "R-e-c-h-t-a-n-g-l-e'' was the first in
lterpretation from little snaggled toothed
| girl with black hair.
| 1t was passed on to the next. who also
spelled il incorrectly
| Several took their seats" because OF
the difficulty of this word, and finally in
despair the teacher noticed such a pro-
cllvity toward the phonetic" form of
! spelling that she asked one of the little
| boys if he was follower of Teddy Roose-
welt in such matters, to which he replied
with deep conviction:
| "Yessumi'
! Sins of omission were more frequent
than sins of commission. as for instance,
| In brilliant three small boys insisted
upon one a. and it took a little girl
under 10 years of age to spell it off like
a flash.
All the girls and boys were finally
spelled down except four.
| Two little girls, one with blue ribbons
on her hair. and the other with long
brown curs, remained, and a little red
headed boy and a big overgrown young
ster, who didn't look bit bright.
| Great rounds of applause greeted the
quartet, which showed its prowess to a
degree in the spelling line, and then the
excitement was all over, save one amusing
| incident.
| The teacher suggested that she'd try
them on some easy words, little one
syllabled words, and gave out the follow
| ing to the little red headed boy.
| Spell boys" ''bees" and bare and
give me sentence in which the three are
used correctly.
| The youngster hesitated moment and
then shot out like cannon with this;
"B-o-y-s," ''b-e-e-s,", ''bare!''
Good" said the teacher enc0uragingly.
Now give me the sentence.I
| The youngster mumbled something
about mot knowing how 10 form a sem
tenee with those words h IT., and then
the teacher insisted, and me said:
"Boys bees bare whfn they goes in
washingl"
| That finished 1t.
| The children shrielSed and the teacher
| tried to hide a smie,I and | went away
| delighted that such an exotic ceremony
as the old fashioned Y.sspeIing bee still
survived in this qufsr old worlk-a-day
world. 4