International Language | Page 7

forget the singing of the song "La Espero" at the solemn closing of the
week's proceedings. The organ rolled out the melody, and when the
gathered thousands that thronged the floor of the hall and packed the
galleries tier on tier to the ceiling took up the opening phrase--
En la mondon venis nova sento, Tra la mondo iras forta voko,[1]
they meant every word of it. It was a fitting summary of the
impressions left by the events of the week, and what the lips uttered
must have been in the hearts and minds of all.
[1]Into the world has come a new feeling, Through the world goes a
mighty call.
As an ounce of personal experience is worth a pound of second-hand
recital, a brief statement may here be given of the way in which the
present writer came to take up Esperanto, and of the experiences which
soon led him to the conviction of its absolute practicability and utility.
In October, 1905, having just returned from an absence of some years
in Canada and the Far East, he had his attention turned to Esperanto for
the first time by reading an account of the Congress of Boulogne. He
had no previous knowledge of, or leanings towards, a universal
language; and if he had thought about it at all, it was only to laugh at
the idea as a wild and visionary scheme. In short, his attitude was quite
normal.
But here was a definite statement, professing to be one of positive
accomplished fact. One of two things: either the newspaper account
was not true; or else, the facts being as represented, here was a new

possibility to be reckoned with. The only course was to send for the
books and test the thing on its merits. Being somewhat used to
languages, he did not take long to see that this one was good enough in
itself. A letter, written in Esperanto, after a few days' study of the
grammar at odd times, with a halfpenny Esperanto-English key
enclosed, was fully understood by the addressee, though he was
ignorant up till then of the very existence of Esperanto. This experience
has often been since repeated; indeed, the correspondent will often
write back after a few days in Esperanto. Such letters have always been
found intelligible, though in no case did the correspondent know
Esperanto previously. The experiment is instructive and amusing, and
can be tried by any one for an expenditure of twopence for keys and a
few hours for studying the sixteen rules and their application. To many
minds these are far simpler and more easy to grasp for practical use
than the rules for scoring at bridge.
After a month or two's playing with the language in spare time, the
writer further tested it, by sending out a flight of postcards to various
selected Esperantists' addresses in different parts of the Russian Empire.
The addressees ranged from St. Petersburg and Helsingfors through
Poland to the Caucasus and to far Siberia. In nearly every case answers
were received, and in some instances the initial interchange of
postcards led to an extremely interesting correspondence, throwing
much light on the disturbed state of things in the native town or
province of the correspondent. From a Tiflis doctor came a graphic
account of the state of affairs in the Caucasus; while a school inspector
from the depths of Eastern Siberia painted a vivid picture of the effect
of political unrest on the schools--lockouts and "malodorous chemical
obstructions" (Anglice--the schools were stunk out). Many writers
expressed themselves with great freedom, but feared their letters would
not pass the censor. Judging by the proportion of answers received, the
censorship was not at that time efficient. In no case was there any
difficulty in grasping the writer's meaning. All the answers were in
Esperanto.
This was fairly convincing, but still having doubts on the question of
pronunciation, the writer resolved to attend the Esperanto Congress to

be held at Geneva in August 1906. To this end he continued to read
Esperanto at odd minutes and took in an Esperanto gazette. About three
weeks before the congress he got a member of his family to read aloud
to him every day as far as possible a page or two of Esperanto, in order
to attune his ear. He never had an opportunity of speaking the language
before the congress, except once for a few minutes, when he travelled
some distance to attend a meeting of the nearest English group.
Thus equipped, he went through the Congress of Geneva, and found
himself able to follow most of the proceedings, and to converse freely,
though slowly, with people of the most diverse nationality. At an early
sitting of the congress he found himself next to a Russian from