Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 77, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 March 1911 — BEST SPELLER CHOSEN AFTER LONG CONTEST. [ARTICLE]

BEST SPELLER CHOSEN AFTER LONG CONTEST.

Ardella Rose Sail), 14 Years Old, Successful 1b Contest Held in Indianapolis Thursday. One of the most, interesting and which should also be one of the most beneficial contests ever introduced into the schools of Indiana, was concluded in Indianapolis Thursday when 37 contestants selected at the various district spelling matches met there in an old fashioned spelling bee. .It was a great misfortune that Jasper cotrnty did not take part hi the preliminary contest which might have resulted in some boy or girl from this county getting into the state contest. Jasper and Warren were the only counties in this district that did not follow the suggestion providing for the contest. . The match in Indianapolis was held in the bouse chamber in the capitol, where the contestants were lined Up for the long contest which took place in the presence of a large audience. The contest started at 2:20 o’clock, and lasted until 5:30. The winner was Ardella Rose Salb, of JaapeY, Ind., 14. years of age; Naomi Frank, of Greenfield, was second, and Levin Litzenberger, of Middletown, was third.

The contest was conducted by Miss Georgia Alexander, of the Indianapolis public schools, who was assisted by J. Walter Dunn, state manager of the Indiana Reading Circle, and two or three others. It was twenty minutes before the first speller went down, and the pronouncers found it necessary to use' the hardest words. Such little-used words as “succulent,” “eligible,” “imposter,” “analogous,” “beseech,” “chrysalids,” “mademoiselle,” “jaunty,” “blotches,” “perchance,” “peered,” “bouyant,” “courtier,” “equilaterals,” “assiduously,” "aliquot,” “gelid,” “trapezoid,” “feigning” and “crypt” were those on which the school children made their errors. Children from the same, county were not allowed to sit together in the line. In the long list of words was a written test of fifty words, in which but one child failed to spell all correctly. Eulila Martin made a. grade of 98 per cent in this contest, misspelling “mademoiselle.” The remainder of the children, probably twenty-five of them, spelled each of the fifty words correctly and received grades of 100 per cent. Miss Martin spelled the word on which she was sent to her seat, “madamoiselle.” All words which were given to the children to spell will be recorded and a bulletin containing them issued to teachers of the seventh and eighth grades next year for use in the schools of the state.