Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 April 1875 — The Spelling-School. [ARTICLE]

The Spelling-School.

Speaking qf a spelling-match recently participated in by several of the leading citizens of Chicago the Inter-Ocean. says: It was fun—there is no doubt of that—but it was not the old-fashioned spellingschoOl after all. MpALpf tbqflS'h'kd been there and knew hnw these matches used to be conducted. " They didn’t go to Farwell Hall in a sleigh filled with boys and girls and buffalo robes. But they used to go to spelling-schools in that way. They can almost see the spavined horse on the off side who was very lame when they started, but who limbered up as be traveled, until he ambled along as cheerfully as a four-year-old colt. The wind whistled through his scanty tail like a breeze through an Alolian harp, but the bells drowned the melancholy refrain, and the laughter of that jolly crowd half drowned the bellS. The parties “ chose up” when they reached the unpainted school-house on the corners, whose ancient clapboards had been worn into a soft and plushy gray by the beatings of the storm. Were you, dear reader, ever, one of the persons called to that honorable duty? Was Angeline Tarbox (why not caliber name right out while we are about it?) another? Did you take your place behind, the short desk, at the head of, the room, usually occupied by the teacher, and proceed’ to call your respective retainers? How was it at such a Timer' Did you selfishly choose Miss Williams to sit next you, though aware that you were weaKening your side by doing so, and did Angeline select young Perkins for the shine reasonT~or Uid you both pursue the sensible way and choose vour assistants on account of ' their ability, not beauty? If so, perj haps it was Miss Plumb who took a seat ! next you. Ah, Miss Plumb! There was ' a speller for you! She would grab uperysipelas as a Shanghai chicken would pick up a worm, and shake it to pieces before the teacher had fairly dropped Hie last syllable from his lips. Chronometer. hieroglyphics, cachinnation, and all those four and five syllabled monstrosities were mere playthings to her. Siie laughed at them. She had a natural talent for hard words, and tossed incom-' prehensibility contemptuously over her shoulder before site was Seven. But it was the small words that vanquished her. She generally went down on turnip> which she would persist in finishing with “up.” It was sad to see this bright young intellect successfully tackle and conquer Kosciusko and kaleidoscope, and then go down on ferule, or licorice, or some such contemptible little thing. But the world is full of pitfalls, and it is not by falling over high precipices, sir much as sinking into treacherous quicksands, that we are lost. , However, spelling-school is out. A frowzy-haired boy, very long in the body and very short in the legs, who stood away at the end of the row, has spelled down the school. He is slow of speech and ungainly of carriage, and when the affair is over he buttons his scanty coat tight around him, and trudges off alone to his home, which is somewhere up there in the woods, no one knows exactly where, but you shall hear of that boy by-and-by. Then the tallow candles which have burned away considerably and melted away a good deal are blown out, the house is shut up, the spavined horse is again brought into service, and the spellers are homeward bound. And out into the snowy night That jolly load did go forth. And roar the songs of “ Lily Dale,” “ Old Uncle Ned," and so forth. These were the boys and girls of tweifty and thirty years ago. Are there still such? We are not sure, but the mania for spelling matches which is now abroad brings up a good many recollections, and has, no doubt, caused many a father and mother to prick up their ears, refresh their memories, and indulge in old-time reminiscences.