Habersham-Glynn County GaArchives News.....Oratorical Contest to Occur Here on April 25 March 24 1902
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Denise Murphy denisemurphy13@msn.com November 23, 2004, 2:23 pm

The Constitution, Atlanta, GA
Oratorical Contest to Occur Here on April 25
By Lauren Foreman
Georgia colleges will be in Atlanta en masse on Friday, April 25, the day 
preceding Memorial Day.

That night the fifth contest of the Georgia State Oratorical Association will 
take place at the Grand and the most successful contest in the history of the 
association is expected.

The boys are all going to be here.  Mercer, Emory, and University of Georgia 
and Dahlonega will send full delegations, while the Tech boys will make their 
presence felt even more strenuously than they did at the last contest.  The 
girls will also b on hand, and just now the different colleges are having a 
lively contest in the matter of securing sponsors.  The girls from Agnes 
Scott, Wesleyan, Washington seminary and Cox college will in all probability 
come solid, while large numbers from other colleges are expected.

At every college in the state the day following the contest will be a holiday, 
and for this reason there are very few college boys who will care to remain 
away from the contest.

This year each college thinks that it has the best representative that it has 
ever had.  This applies to all except the Tech, and the only reason for their 
not thinking so is that they will have the same speaker that they had last 
year.

As to the comparative merits of the speakers, it will not be safe to say much 
until after the contest, but it can be stated as a fact that each one of them 
has for the past twelve months been devoting his utmost efforts toward 
preparing for this event and that each one has the enthusiastic support of the 
college which he will represent.

The five representatives who will contest for the Graves medal this year are: 
Sidney Hatcher, of Macon, for Mercer; Alfred C. Broom, of Newnan, for Emory; 
Charles E. Kicklighter, of Atlanta, for the Tech; Noel W. Grant, of 
Clarkesville, for the North Georgia Agricultural, and Sam Johnson, of Atlanta, 
for the university.

Each of these men enjoys the fullest confidence of the institution which he 
will represent, and each will do his best to prove that this confidence has 
been well reposed.

Each of the five colleges which compose the association has a particular 
reason for desiring success in the contest of this year.

Mercer is prouder of her record of unbroken victory in the oratorical contest 
than she is of anything else.  Every man who for the last five years has shown 
any ability as a speaker or writer at Mercer has been told to remember his 
duty to his alma mater in this respect, and well have they remembered it.  The 
highest honor that a man can win at Mercer is the place of representative in 
this contest, and the man who gains the place is made to understand that no 
excuse for failure to win will be accepted.  To go down in defeat this year 
means to the Mercer boys the loss of what they have come to consider a 
birthright, and unless they are very optimistic in their opinions the man who 
takes it from them has a very hard proposition before him.

Twice Emory has won second place in the contest, and how the boys down there 
say that they must have first.  When Woodward won second place in 1899 it was 
considered somewhat of a victory in comparison with the rather unenviable 
record made in the two preceding contests, but last year when Sasnett won 
second the Emory boys decided that they had not won their rights, and this 
year they have informed their representative, Mr. Broom, that he must go to 
the top of the ladder no matter what the cost.

The Tech is quite proud of the fact that their speaker came out third last 
year, since, as Captain Hall stated the night of the contest, “Oratory is with 
them a pastime and time a profession.”  However, Kicklighter will again speak 
for them this year, and they think that he should profit by his past 
experience and put them higher in the scale than they have ever been before.

North Georgia Agricultural college won third place for three consecutive 
years, and last year dropped to fourth place.  The boys from the mountain 
college hope to more than retain their former place, while the university has 
high hopes of wiping out the record of the past two years and making a record 
in the contest altogether in keeping with the general rehabilitation of the 
school which has been so evident during the administration of Chancellor Hill.

Glenn Legwin, of the university, president of the association, has completed 
all arrangements for the contest.  Thomas C. Trueblood, professor of oratory 
at the University of Michigan, will act as master of ceremonies.  He will be 
introduced to the audience by President Legwin.

The judges on delivery will, in all probability, be Professor W. P. Trent, of 
Columbia; Dr. Alderman, of Tulane, and Walter H. Page, the editor of The 
World’s Work.  The judges on composition are, of course, known only to the 
officers of the association and will not be announced until the evening of the 
contest.

Every year the “oratorical contest” is becoming more and more the chief event 
of the year with the college men of Georgia.  The men of the different 
colleges meet each other on athletic fields, but only in this contest is it 
possible for the five leading institutions of the state to have representation 
at the same time or for their students to be present in large numbers.

While all the colleges of the state recognize the importance of athletics, the 
students of the different institutions also recognize the fact that the people 
of the state think more of one victory in this contest than they do of a 
thousand victories on the gridiron or the diamond.  The time has passed when 
the students of any Georgia college can excuse failure in this contest on the 
ground that “we do not take much interest in things of that sort.”

Already the yelling corps of the different colleges are getting in line and 
the citizens of Atlanta may be prepared for some of the most grating yells 
that have ever been sprung upon the public.  The boys are coming to have a 
good time as well as to profit by the contest, and judging by the former 
contests of the association, they will do both.

Additional Comments:
I'm researching the Holland's of Anderson County, SC.  Noel Willis Grant was 
the son of William Daniel Grant and Samantha Jane Holland (b. Anderson Co. 
SC).  The Grant family lived in Habersham County, GA.

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