SURPRISING ACTIVITY OF ESPERANTISTS IN AMERICA THE international, congress of Esperantlsts in Cambridge^ Eng- .' land. Just ended, leads one to In- / quire, "What progress has the^' movement toward the establishment' as a practical, useful thing of this inter national auxiliary language (a very different thing, please note, from a •universal language') made In Amer ica?" And truly, the result of the In quiry is surprising. The Inventor of It Is Dr. I* Zamen hof, though once his Identity was hid- - Cen behtnd the ' norn de plume. "Dr. Esperanto." Esperanto, by the way, signifies "hope."^ Dr. Zamenhof Is honorary president of all International Esperanto congresses and leader of more than 500.000 loyal Esperantlsts. a large and growing body of whom are found In New York, Boston, and Indeed, ell over the United States. Perhaps the greatest Impetus which Esperanto has r&celved took place at the congress In \u2666 Cambridge, England. Fourteen hundred delegates, represent ing 25 different countries, ' were pres ent To attempt to describe in detail the events at this congress would take columns of space. It may be mentioned here, however, that every big country was represented by a man of promi-. nence, and that at this congress Esper anto received Its first official recogni tion by a European power, the delegate from Belgium having been ofHdalfy as signed by the minister of military af fairs to represent the Belgian, ministry at the congress. The American delegates who at tended the congress, are enthusiastic over the practical use to which they pnt their knowledge of Esperanto while in Cambridge. Professor Viles of, the Ohio state university had only a reading knowledge of the language when be arrived at Cambridge, but he declares that he found, within a few boura. that he could use the language In conversation. Professor Vlles also brings back word that Lord Roberts, the famous "Bobs." has Just accepted the honorary presidency of the British Ssperanto association. Although the leading centers of the Esperanto movement are in , France, England and Germany, the people of the United States^are rapidly becom ing Interested in it- Three years ago It was virtually unheard of in Amer ica. Now there Is a national associa tion and more than 42 local societies and clubs affiliated with It, the total membership list running well into the thousands. The first Esperanto society of the United States was formed on February 16, 1905, at the home of C. M. Match'ett, 12 Garden street, Boston. Four days later a second society was formed by Edward K. Harvey at the''Perkins'ln stitution for the blind in South Boston. Forming the Organization The national society, or the American./ Esperanto association, as it Is now known, was formed on March 16 of the samo year at the home of Mr. Matchett, \u25a0 who organized the first society. The members of the two societies already In existence and other Esperantists re-, siding In Everett, Medford. Brighton and neighboring towns succeeded by united effort- In placing the national association upon a permanent basis. They were soon Joined by Esperantists" and Esperanto clubs In other states. The magazines of the country then took up the subject, the Atlantic. Monthly In January. I*o6, being the first" to do so. The Ladles* Home Jour nal, the Independent and the North American Review soon followed suit. Meanwhile an American ' Esperanto periodical had begun publication under' socialist auspices In October. 1908. At the same tin. * the American ; Esperanto Journal, the official organ = of .' the " na-: tional association, "was brought into existence. Both of, the publications are: •aid to be financially Yon" their feet." Dr. William Gray- Nowell. assistant secretary of the American? Esperanto association r end president the first year of Its existence.-; got out the national: Journal thla summer from his log cabin In the mountains of • New Hampshire. He saytt ' "From the log cabin, with the gener ous assistance of Prof. Percy, M. . Daw son of Johns Hopkins university i and of the young artist who stays with me in camp and paints portraits and land scapes In .oil when not busy with Esperanto work, - the August issue of the American Esperanto Journal was mailed, and September will be, but. the publication office of the Journal is 24 Green street. Brookline, Mass., and the mail address of the Journal and of the American Esperanto association is Boulevard station, Boston, Mass. . "These Journals are- supported by readers and not' by advertisers...: \u25a0 , "Since the? North American -; Review has taken up the European custom of printing. lessons in Esperanto, and since the other American Journals mentioned have been giving more space to the language, tt has enjoyed what is col loquially known as a 'boom' on this side of the Atlantic. .: • "Two years ago the New York society was organized by Dr. Max Talmey of 62 West One Hundred and Twenty sixth street and Stephen; M.' Travis of 349 Etna street, Brookline, now of Tenafly, N. J. * • -. 'They worked for months trying to bring together; a sufilcie'nt number: of people who were willing to take tip the new language. At first; many joined for the purpose of saying they were Esperantists. . Asj the charter members of 1 the . society ?; did ; not desire '" faddists and, curiosity seefkers in i the : clubj" they added the following amendments to the constitution: i ."'Every applicant for. membership shall' oe requlrcU to pass an examina tion showing, th ict he has a good'knowl edge of. Esperanto grammar. Such ex amination shall rbo passed not later, than *lx weeks afterf his admission to the so ciety;; meetings^ INot '.\u25a0- later . than '^four weeks after tie" first examination he shall i be^ required jto pass a: second -ex amination ,- ahojwing - that he -Is \ able '; to read Mntelligeatly Esperanto texts;- and to translate ', Cato h, Esperanto!' sentences from his native language.' .r. r \u25a0'- ".'":.• " 'The adopfclon of these amendments has : resulted / In . only earnest workers becoming woj.-kers of .the New ' York so ciety. ' - x -i. "\u25a0:'\u25a0!";\u25a0 \u25a0 ''-.':/.:'. r ; Vv.fr lr J To Aspirants '/Persons y;i Huntlngtbn) of Harvard^ : Prof aisor/A;'- E."; CurdyTof . Yale, Dr."; D. O. S., Lowell (of ~i Roxbury; Latin school;? Roxbury/- Mass. ; ; ; Mrs; , : BLVM.V H. Merrill of • thai Cantab rldla"club T of Cam "bridge, *; Mrs." Winlfrad;<'SackvilleKfSto nar«/ of / the 3 'United id States i-l marine hospital rat ';iEvansvllla,v; 3 lnd.', -I, Dr. Ivy ; Kellerman.x; Greek i,- professor v> at lowa - state college, ", Grinnell, " Iowa: , Professor. H. ;, , F. ;, Roberts,, Kansas state :» agricultural college, Manhattan, Kan. ; \u0084 Wriin .'\u25a0 J. : Grins tead, Kentucky state i. normal .1 school, \u25a0\JUchmorid,^Ky.j Prof essor f Jamas ? Main' Dlxon, Unlver slty ? _of / Southern \California, i Los /An gelas, Cal. i%i Henry, --^ James^;Forman/ editor; ot !Blalna,''; Toledo, : : O.; Charles W. vika wart 1 and ? several \ others of thaj navy f department-Washington, 1 D. SF.VAtklnson,' \ Cornell 3 un ! versl ty, J> lth a ea, v £ N.*> V. : ='• d r. : D.'f A?_j Morton? and 1 Dr.*iWi Ills \ R.% Perry : natl, ; : Ohio; ?\u25a0 ?r'of MsorJSA^lMr^ Grljlbn? , Lewis B4Lueders^and V ßev-^Gebrge^ S. -Gassner. all of v Herbert : Harris/ •= Portland,^ Me. ; j Prof essorr Her- Vert K. Cummtngs. "Polytechnle instl \u25a0 tute,? Worcester; Maa«^ and ?\u25a0 Prof essor '. Percy"; M.t Dawson, \ Johns ' Hopkins \ unl- '\u25a0:\u25a0 veretty, Baltimore,- Md.*? ':\ '.'\u25a0"-: ! , ;^.V businessmen; of 1 New York > have • made practical \ use as ; yet' of ; Esperanto.^ Dr/«TaltneyHof"th«j local society; ls confident that those who' s are | affiliated r^ with * firms ; that', handle *i»j great deal of foreign business will soon : ; be- forced : to I take tup the I International \ language. '; In > an : Interview. I recently \ 'with the .writer he said: 3" - ' "The 'American^consul ; An Breslaa, •Gefmariy.^hasfjustiwrlttsn' th« »OT«rn ment fto advise I our m«rohant« either to \u25a0 : learn ~ Esperanto* or! i«our« \ r«pr«t*ata \ tlves with J suoh • knowledge . If th«y «• {sire *; to s hold i theiri! (orttffn \ tr«4«^iThlf j message wm % published ?In ttoa\ Ftnan- { i cier.^ and •» II undeittand I tt ; dm v sparred . ? some £of i our me roh*nt» \to j lcqulre J fabout^Bsperanto.?'^- 1 -';-^ \u25a0\'- ; ;" ; *v---^? n-Vv.v'^ '« "I agree s wlthHhe Breilan ' oon««!,1 f©rj < I believe * that ' the day; !\u25a0; not far distant ; Kwhen *. foreign * merchants 2 will \ transact { much, of • thelr"^ international < business I th rough] Hsperaiito."J:«!?'-" : rL-/;--"!:--;i;*'Vi»'".';;., ' .The practicabllltyiOf'Bsperanto as an International '? language reoeived =, muoh c substantiation % at b the * Cambridge I con-; [ gress.Tnot } onlyi by the ehth uslastto ? re- , sports of/returnlngidelega«ea,lbut:bylthe ?c6mment| which' the; English: newspapers; *,madel upon| th eTcongresß. : ?| In {descrlbfng ; * the Iscene J at? the?opening i meeting I the' 5 Cambridge ? Dftlly*: News ? of J ; August Jl3J 13 cays: , _ r ' ' \u25a0 n.H'rrhe ? appearance of j Esperantlsts i or-1 Idl nari ly separated jby many, miles . of sea' j"arid ' land, 11 * having no means of communlf , cation save ; tnrough , Esperanto, was In- \u25a0 teniely lntereßtingvv :;;"-\u25a0;. -;",, - \:-'C 'V -'" "SHgbt: differences of . accent might be marked ,' here and there by ; the ; expert; but not sufficient to obscure the Intelli gence. Difference of -habit and gestures, of ; course, i was pronounced.' '-'\u25a0':-', s i/0~~-'; i: V«- \u25a0; li'At the /Esperanto congresses marked, feature* are speeches in the tongue by men I from, various - nations : and plays ; In which all the actors speak fit. for many? of Shakespeare's g plays - and ;r. standard . works '.**.- of : all kinds , have , been S trans-/ lated Into Esperanto. S^", ~ :-' t-l^-i'r- ' '"?£\u25a0'\u25a0\u25a0 • • ;; . .«1 Bt.V. Clement's P Danes I church %in .h the i Strand. London,^ familiar} to : - : American t i, toortiU \ v ; the i plwelof i worship ~i f re \u25a0 e,n«nUd by Dr. Johnson, was filled .with • • ::' cosmopolitan i oongresatlon August Wit ; i wh«n? the ftntlrt . \u25a0»rvlc« ? was con i4ttetß4f«lnTjiEsperant».-v;>:Amonffl;the I hymns Uranflr « ln > the new 1 langruage were" '; fLord >ct Our Life" and f'Onward, Chris \u25ba tlft'n'tBoldlera,"ij i-;' \u25a0-.••- '^>' :\u25a0.„.; ij ''i';j : . y'-\liT.> -5 ; " The S man ; who < received « the ; greatest \ ovation s at -;the | conJKress,i however,; ex-! Iceptlhg.l of course,7l>r.\ Zamenhof," s was theerenerous Marquis de Beaufront, the i Frenchman \ who ; pushed i the ; movement t In ii Prmnoe |when J It |.waa J In ~6f ? total s extinction; the \u25a0'-; man who, -j after ; working ; fifteen \ years ; upon \af universal i langUßge - of -; his I own,^ recognized * that t Dr;?» Zamen hof *s % system \j better. .Abandoning his own, and' casting. away • quls $ s;ot -behind t». Dr.^j Zamenhof "s >. lan j guage » and I worked |whole | heartedly 5 for • Wi'r, For Jthls 3 splendid i sacrifice ?M. • de i Beauf ront "•' will \u25a0 , always £ bold C. * D hon ored * place In : the Esperanto world. The San Trancisctt Sunday Call. . v Dr. " Zamenhof .' regards .December 5,. 1878, as .the .birthday of ; hls new-lan guage. It was .not ;untll nine years later, however, that . he " issued his , first pamphlet.": It was called * "An Interna tional' Language; by Dr. Esperanto," and was published. at the. author's ex pense. Its ' success ; was small , at . first, but a copy. of It eventually reached M. dOißeaufront,; who took%up the. Idea wlthi ; the greatest- enthusiasm and started Esperanto toward ' the " goal of success. - ; "-\u25a0\u25a0\u25a0'.'.•'\u25a0 • , ; ?*\u25a0-< • The rapid strides which the language has made on the continent is shown by. the fact that Esperanto Is; now be ing 1 taught in many, commercial schools In; England," France, Sweden and Ham burg; \u25a0 Germany. . Esperanto examina tions are now also being conducted by the' London chamber of commerce. More than 100 persons passed at the first examination. . In this country it Is ' being pushed \u25a0 hard by : Its enthusi astic followers, and It ' Is now planned that after i next year's congress In Ger- , many the^ Esperantists .'will assemble in "America. Ana" J when one congress Is held here the American. Esperantlsts believe the. movement will take great Impetus./ ;J; J . V ', It iis 20 years since Dr. Zamenhof published his first pamphlet" intro- duclng ' Esperanto, to .- the world. Its progress' was slow * and 'limited. In fact, 10 : years . passed ' the ' possibility of 'Its: success ,T, T began \ to be -realized. Then ; It ' attracted : attention : In Russia. France, , En gland i ; and Germany, took :\u25a0' It up In j rapid : succession,"" and now *. the language ? that was .virtually 1 unknown : a-i dozen I years ago 1 has a .- following "of moreVthan, 500.000. v and fully.' half tof jthese can >. converse i in - Esperanto flu ently. It Is ": used already\ta aTconsld- : erable a extent , in*! international com merce,'" find ?' is \ being ;; promoted •\u25a0 by *20 Journals l -and more > than ?*OO organ ized \u25a0ocletles. r. : -.The .'ease 'with (which ' Esperanto may baracg.uired r U;resp6nsibleifor..lts : sud denjleap£into*: prominence. ; ,_ltsV*ntlra grammar ?;can / easily be 2 learned \ ln"-aa afternoon. When you \ coiiple^with : this the "\u25a0 fact i that I the^ complete i vocabulary ot .Esperanto : is , already known in larg* part itoYohe'. who _> knows J English, the i growth j of j the 'new language .•becomes less ; startling.* v It -seems' almost* that it should -\u25a0? have ::' more^.4 followers, and \u25a0» ln-" deed."^ It £wb«ld : : have 5^ If H the / promoters of i Esperanto ;: had. l not j had > two great difficulties ito^ overcome. -V In the f first; place; they ;had. no money to : launch^ the i idea; { and. \u25a0 in ;the£second they^had ,, ; to i overcome rl tha 4 prejudice created against the idea of an artlnclal language-iby.itha'failureiof.yolapuk.ia predecessor, : of \u25a0', Esperanto, In the field of I international lan qua ges. Bat Vola puk was dlfScult ; to learn. - There Is an excallent reason: for f&« superiority of Esperanto over predeces sors. Esperanto Is % "root" lanjuajs- Its Inventor selected from the Gr««k. Latin .and the great commercial 'Jfa guages of the world— Ooraan, Ruairsn, French and English — the baato word*. The shape and pronunciation of these roots never vary. To them Is added such prefixes or affixes as *r» neces sary to express the diffarsnt shades of meaning. . It Is by this ingenious bat easily comprehensible system of pre fixes and suffixes that Dr. Zamenhof 39 simplified Esperanto that an ordinarily well educated man can use tt tn spokan or written' form quits fluently is a few weeks and become % master of tt In three to six months. To Isara. say. French as well would taka two to four years. To state that the grammar .of Esps ranto may be learned In a coup!* of hours sounds extravagant, yet so sim ple ,Is. its grammar that there ara raw educated persons who cannot mastsr.lt In that time. ... . *. • The parts of speech are always recog nized by the final vowel. For Instance, all nouns end in "o." Father Is pacro. "O" is the substantive ending. "A." as in patra. makes the adjective paternal. AJI adjectives end In "a." T" (patre) .makes the adverb paternally. Tha la finltlvei'of the verb is formed by "I" f (patri) to : father. - ' .In brief,, the vowels a. a, 1, o added to the common root make adjective, ad verb, verb and noun respectively. By" making. the same regular changes upon the vowels the verb is conjugated. Ami (to . love) becomes Ml amas (I love): Mi amis (I loved); Ml amas (I will love); Ml amus (I would love); amu (imperative, love). And so it is with ; the participles, amanta. air W-.3, "amunta, standing for. loving. ha7!xg loved, about to love; and amata, amita, amota for present, past and future par ticiples passive. There Is only one con jugation with active and passive forms, and all. verb 3 are conjugated alike. .There are no exceptions to any Es peranto rules. Among other Interesting points about Esperanto are the following: It has an alphabet of: 2S letters, and each let ter has its own sound and no other. Every , word la pronounced as tt is written. There are no silent letters. All words are accented on the next to the last syllable.. There are no irregu-, lar verbs. There Is no Indefinite ar ticle. The definite article "la" is in variable. The pronunciation is uni form and follows, the general conti nental pronunciation .of tha vowels. The language i sounds as musical as Italian. .The man of average education, know ing only, English, has usually a vo^ cabulary of about 5,000. English words.' Shakespeare used about 15,000 — mord than any other writer. Of his vocabu lary this "average man" will find fully a half used as root words -in Esper anto. If he knows a little Latin or - French or German ha will find that already he knows possibly 3.000 Es peranto roots and needs 'to learn 'only Its grammar, which Is an afternoon's diversion. The v averaga illiterate workman has a vocabulary of. say* 530 words, yet * he " gets on somehow. > • Esperantl3t3 point out many practi cal ; reasons for ' tha spread of- thai? tongue. Tsl:e It, for Instance, ta ths field of.: science.: Suppose a German or a French scientist to have made tm-\ portant discoveries about which ha hay* written "a very Important book. To spread this to the world means a book in English. Swedish. Japanese, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, French and so on, and so expensive is, such book work that it wouldn't pay for even ona translation. Its circulation, though small, is important.. Translate It Into Esperanto ° and ' it Is available to tha scientists of the world. And the scien tist 'or philosopher or economist or medical man or mathematician who knows Esperanto has ,the scientists' work of .all nations at bis command. Yet .It \ would taka years of exclusive ! study, to \u25a0be able to ' read ' a German . or a French scientific work. But why, you' say, should - not all learn English ; or; French. or GermaaT First, because they won't. Possibly because they can't — it's too difficult. It takas years. Esperanto takes only weeks. Again, iungtlsn, Is not easy. It has. indeed.' a simple grammar. \u25a0Jthooat. It has 200 common irregular varb». • :JThe 'study. of Esperanto and the cir culation 'of the EsDeraat> Journal have spread all over the United States. Mex ico -and/; Canada. , Not only do large Esperanto organizations exist In Bos ton. ; New r York, , Brooklyn. Columbus. Washington..- Chicago."- Evansville. In dianapolis,' Toledo.: Seattle and Los An geles,'but. individuals and small groups in-] many towns In'every state are act ively;' Interested in this international. auxiliary \ language. '^SSßom&Bß)B&*%.V ' Text^ books. on Esperanto may be »• cured from tha United Society of Chris . Man : Endeavor. ) No. 600 Tremont temple, Boston, Mass., and the Fl ami a* H. R« vell company of New York and Chloacs.