Evening star., 1928-05-23
GIRL PUPIL, 13, SPELLS WAY
TO $1,000 PRIZE AND TITLE
Betty Robinson, South Bend,
Captures Contest When Rival
StumbIes on ''Knack."
Pauline Gray, West Salem,
Ohio, Receives $500 Second
Award in Newspaper Tilt.

Miss Betty Robinson, 13-year -old ele-
mentary school pupil of South Bend,
Ind. is the champion speller OF the
United States. because she spelled cor
rectly the word "knack" when Miss
Pauline Gray of West Salem. Ohio, left
of the initial TX" after more than four
hours of intensive spelling in the fourth
annual National Spelling Bee. held yes
terday in the New National Museum
Auditorium.
Miss Robinson received 81 900 In gold
as first prize, Miss Gray was presented
$500 in gold, second award.
Third honors and 5000 in gold were
captured by Miss Bessie Doig. ll-year-
old contestant from Detroit. who fell
from the spelling ranks when she used
two "c's" in bacillus"
Launched at 235 o'clock yesterday
afternoon. when Prof. c. P. Hill OF
George Washington University pro-
nounced accepted" as the initial word
of the bee. the contest continued until
6:47 pm. Twenty-three spoilers, all
eighth grade pupils from various eec-
tions of the United States in which the
spelling bee had been sponsored BY the
newspapers, competed In the finals here
yesterday.
Defeated by Magic"
The first speller to be eliminated was
Miss Anna Murphy, representing the
New Britain Daily Herald who mis-
spelled the very first word pronounced
for her. She used j" in place of the
g. in magic" The first boy to be
defeated went down on mildly" which
was defined for him as "a kind OF
blouse worn by girl" and which he
spelled middle" He was Aram BE-
ianger. representing the New Bedford
standard, and the word he missed was
the eleventh assigned TO him.
Proi. Hill pronounced the words from
me ofnciai list for the first half hour
OF the meet. at the end OF which E
nve-minute recess was allowed. Then
Gideon A. Lyon. associate editor of THE
Evening Star. took up the pronouncinp
task for the next 80 minutes. The two
pronouncers alternated throughout the
contest at the direction OF Dean George
b. Woods Of American University, CHAIR
man OF the contest.
The young spoilers sailed along easily
In the early stages and the spoilers were
eliminated slowly. At AIS O'Clock is
spoilers still remained. Then the really
difiicult words we're reached on the
list. There we're ""charivari, 'aberra-
ton. "baccaiaureate," eclectic" and
many others which sent the newspaper
correspondents TO the dictionary.
AT 8:06 o'clock, the field OF % had
been reduced 10 two. and Dean Woods
announced that they would spell out"
the championship, Under the rules. he
declared, If one OF the two girls mis-
spelled a word the other would be
obliged TO spell IL correctly to win. and
II both missed the same word, new
word would be supplied until one
actually outspelled the other.
Nearly Decided.
Miss Robinson and Miss GRAY spelled
evenly until the word 'campanile" was
pronounced for the first of the two
girls. Miss Robinson spelled IL "c-a-nn-
p-a~n-e-l-e." and for some unexplain-
able reason. her opponent spelled IL the
same way. Again the championship
was nearly decided when Miss Robin
son misspelled casualties" Prof. Hin
turned To the Official judges to ask II
they would make ruling The word
was wrong, the three judges agreed,
and Alvin w. Miller, principal OF Cen
trail High School, murmured TO the pro-
nouncer the error which the girl had
/ made.
Mr.. Miller's statement was made lou9d
enough for Miss Gray 10 hear, and