class="majusklete">Ripley. He is from Ohio, I believe.

Prof. Christen. I know. Since Esparanto

began to move forward there have been at least 30 to 40 different schemes elaborated, and that is easily done. You can do it overnight. But there is no scheme that has ever touched and no scheme that can ever touch Esperanto, because it has hit the mark from the first. (8)

Mr. Towner. What do you do with adverbs? Do they have a definite form?

Prof. Christen. Every derived adverb ends in "e."

Mr. Towner. So you could not distinguish from the form between a verb and an adverb, could you?

Prof. Christen. Perfectly. The adverb ends in "e" and the infinitive ends in "i."

Mr. Ripley. It is your contention that children will do better in English if they acquire a knowledge of Esperanto?

Prof. Christen. Undoubtedly; this is a statement I make in my lectures: If you gentlemen will give me a number of children aged 4 or 5 years I will give them a quarter of an hour's pleasant explanation about grammar, that is Esperanto grammar, and they will understand it after a quarter of an hour's explanation; then I will jumble together a number of blocks, with various words on these blocks, and I will say to these children "pick out every noun," and they will be able to do it—that is, pick the nouns from the adjectives—and so with every part of speech.

The Chairman. Because they will know to a certainty?

Prof. Christen. Yes; every word tells its own tale on account of its distinctive ending. Now, that is a thing you can not do in English; that nobody can do in English, because we can not tell the parts of speech simply by the appearance of the words; we can only know from the context and that is not always easy!

The Chairman. How does that apply to other languages?

Prof. Christen. The same thing applies more or less to all, because they are all irregular; they were not formed; they have "growd" like Topsy.

Mr. Towner. The Latin language is more regular?

Prof. Christen. Yes: but it does not begin to compare with Esperanto. Now, we have had these four words, and I want to proceed a little further, and I will take up something that will help me to answer your questions. If I had to teach you gentlemen French I would have to make you commit to memory 2,667 endings and contractions for the verb alone; it would take you months and months to learn that alone. The same absurdities and even worse occur in Italian, in Spanish, in German, in English, and in all so-called natural languages.

Mr. Towner. And we never could learn these irregularities and exceptions.

Prof. Christen. Well, if you did learn them you would never remember them at the right time because the whole scheme is so complicated. This is only one of the many reasons which make us so shy at speaking foreign languages. Now, the same thing is true of German, and of all other languages, but it is not true of Esperanto. I will teach you the whole Esperanto conjugation in five minutes and you will never forget it, because there is nothing to remember. You already know that a noun ends in "o" and that the infinitive ends in "i," and so on: there is absolutely no difficulty whatever. (9) Now, I am sorry I have to speak so rapidly, because I would like to give you more information.

The Chairman. We would be glad to have you add to your remarks.

Mr. Towner. You can extend your remarks.

Prof. Christen. Since my time is up and, indeed, far exceeded, I will be very glad to do so. But before I leave you, let me read one or two items, which will only take two minutes more. Here is a quotation from the British Esperantist, of November, 1913, showing the progress Esperanto is making:

The central Esperanto bureau, of Paris, gives the following statistics: In 1889, there had been published 29 books in Esperanto; in 1899, 128; in 1910, 1,554; in 1912 (to August 30), 1,837. Enough already to keep most readers going for full five years of Sundays, and the output, both of bookshop and of press, is increasing daily.

Mr. Towner. In a general way, what is the character of this literature?

Prof. Christen. Up to now chiefly textbooks for learning Esperanto, such as this little book [indicating], which can be purchased for 10 cents. You can learn the whole mechanism of the language from one of these little books. Then there are a great many other publications, translations, scientific articles, etc., and we have already several novels originally written in the new language.

Mrs. Crafts. May I say a word right here? I hold in my hand the New Testament, published by the British and Foreign Bible Society together with the Scotch Bible Society. It is a translation from Nestle's Greek Testament, and the Old Testament is now being translated by one of the most eminent Hebrew scholars in the world.

Prof. Christen. Here is the next item, which I would like to read to you:

Evening classes for the study of Esperanto under the auspices of the L. C. C. (London county council) are being held at the Halstow Road Nonvocational Institute, Greenwich, S. E., on Thursday, 7.30-9.30 p. m., and at Bloomfield Road Commercial Institute, Plumstead, S. E., on Fridays, 7.20-10.50 p. m. Instructor Mr. William H. Dennis, B. D. E. A., 108, Eglinton Road, Plumstead, S. E., from whom any information

may be obtained. These classes are designed especially to meet the requirements of the serious student, beginner or advanced. (10)

That is from London. Then I have another quotation which I want to read from Edinburgh:

The chief constable of Edinburgh has interested himself in Esperanto, especially in view of the 1915 congress. The chief constable has ordered a copy of "Esperanto For All," to be sent to the 650 members of the Edinburgh police force, with a recommendation that the police learn the language. A class for policemen is being arranged, for which 14 names have been received.

Esperanto classes for policemen have been conducted for several years in several towns in Germany, in France, in Spain, etc., and even during their hours of duty classes are going on in Esperanto so that policemen may learn Esperanto without the loss of their own personal time. I thank you, gentlemen, for bearing with me so long.

Mr. Bartholdt. I should like to have an opportunity, if possible, at some future time to have you give us about 10 or 15 minutes to hear Mrs. Crafts.

The Chairman. We shall be very glad indeed to give you that time.

(The additional matter submitted by Prof. Christen follows:)

(public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@16432@[email protected]#xxx1"