The Mena weekly star., 1917-04-12
SCHOOL CONTESTS
 GRAND SUCCESSES
LarYe Auditorium of Baptist Church Wholly Inadequate to Hold Audi sstce Friday Night--Great Spell
 ing Contest Saturday.

The first annual Polk county school contests held in Mena Fri- day night and Saturday resulted in one of the finest forward movements in education that could have taken place in Polk county. The contests on Friday night were. in music, de- clamation and reading and those held Saturday were in spelling and athletics.
 The tremendous interest that is being taken in this movement was manifested Friday night, when the Baptist church was filled to overilowing with pupils, teachers and patrons. Indeed, the church was wholly inadequate to hold the crowd that had assembled, and after almost every available inch of standing room was occupied, the windows were filled, and many even then were not able to get into the building.
 The program Friday night opened with the contest in music, in which there were five entrants represents ing the schools as follows: Mena High School, Nandervoort, Potter, Mena Central and Hatfield. The honors were awarded to Miss Willi- mina pipkin, first and Miss Peggy George, second, the first represent ing the Mena Central School and the second the Hatfield schools. Miss Pipkins selection was Brahms Hungarian Dance,n and Miss George played Plantation Melodies Each was awarded a gold medal, the one being donated by John Thompson and the other by Nails Bookstore.
 The contest in Reclamation was the second feature on the program and in this five boys took part, re- presenting the schools of Potter Central in Mena, Vandervoort, Crys- tai Hill, Board Camp and Mena High In this contest first honors went tC Hubert Patton, representing the Mena High school, who used Champ Glark's masterful oration on Aaron Burr Second place went to Joe Emerson, Jr., representing the Mena Central school, with his reading oi "BiJah." The medals i'll this contest were donated by the Farmers X Merchants Bank and the Reynolds Davis Grocery Company, respective E.
 In the reading contest there were eight entrants, representing the schools of Grannis, Vandervoort Potter Central in Mena, Rich Noun tain. Cove, Ozark and Mena High Littla Miss Madeline Wooten, in her selection, Dead Dolly won first place. and second place went to Miss lone G0if with her reading ef How the La Rue Stakes We're Lost Tn, medals in this contest were giver by the Jackson Drug X Furnitur, Company and the Golf Wholesale Grocery Sompany
 Music for the program on Friday was furnished by the Girls Choru. from the Mena High School, and bs Ward Brown of Mena, in a violiI solo, and during the time that the grading of the judges was being averaged, Joe Emerson, IT,, was twice recalled to give selections from his repertoire.
 The medals in the contests were presented by Dr. H. c. Rushing, who is primarily responsible for the in- eeption of the idea of having the contest, having proposed the matter at the meeting of the Teachers As sociation held last December, anc having been selected by the teach CTS as one of the committee who had the arrangements for the con- tests in hand
 In the contest in spelling which was held Saturday in the church while it was not nearly so we'll at tended as were the contests of the night before, the beneficial influ- ence is doubtless much more far reaching, in that as many schools were represented in this contest as were represented in the other three contests, and then, too, it was in this contest that the country and small town schools showed most strength Originally there were 20 entrants 1T the spelling contests, 8 girls and boys, but before the contest started