New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1868-06-05
oUR pOLYGLOT PEOPLE.

in the Methodist General Conference, holding
a session in Chicago 1t appears that the Oon-
ference publishes newspaper III the oWeulsl
language, and it was further proposed 10 SET
lid a theological school for training clergymen
in the Scandinavian tongues. To this the Rev.
DIR. Osborn of this city made the objection that
it was against public policy to do anything
tending to the perpetuatiOn of any other than
the English language in this country. His ar
gument, as stated by the telegraph, was that
"when foreigners touched our shores they
fought to drop all their foreign habits and
% their language into the sea, and become alto
"gether American citizens" Dropping habits
land language into the sea" is rather violent
metaphor; but the literal submersiOn proposed
by the excellent Doctor Gf he meant to be
| literaD would be quite as practicable as the
metamorphosis of Germans, Swedes, Poles, ana
| Cinnamon into so many Hosea BlgeloWs'
speaking without a moment OF delay
the dialects of which that celebrated
man is so perfect master. 1t Is evident that
until the tide of European immigration snail
cease to flow there will always be a large
class of our population whose age upon tller
arrival will preclude any available acqllsltiOn'
at least of written English, and who will re-
ceiye religious instruction to the greatest adj
vantage in their own vernaculaT. The theory
of religious conversion is that, considering the
uncertainty of human life, the work must not
for a moment be delayed Now being the
accepted time,' it is pretty hard to require
an emigrant Swede to postpone his change OF
heart until he has made himself familiar with
orr etymoloey and our syntax, and has, with
protracted and laborious difficulty, acquired an
entirely new vocabulary. The children OF
these new corners will, in time, speak English,
but that is no reason why they should remain
completely ignorant of the language OF their
| ancestors, without knowledge OF when they
can hold no correspondence with their kindred
upon the other side of the sea, and can afford
no effective service to emigrants who may con-
tinue to arrive. Moreover, while we have
quite "a much respect for our native tongue as
any man who uses it, we are not lnsensDle
70 the advantages which every American Is
likely TO derive in the pursuits either of lltera-
ture or of commerce, or in the recreation oil
foreign travel from sufficient knowledge oil
French, of German, or of other widely spoken
European tongues. 1t was only the other day
that distinguished American traveller was la
mentng in print his inability to speal German,
although he had been all his life readibs it with
facility. Yet by habits of daily intercourse III
this city with educated Germans he might have
gone TO Europe with the ability to talk easily
with the most erudite and smoky of German
philosophers. We knew a gentleman OF this
city who had occasion TO acquire the Spanish
language without unnecessary delay. Being a
wise and sensible person, he at once took lodg-
ings in Spanish boarding house, i'll which not
one word of English was spoken from morn
TO night. Having SO arranged matters that he
must either speak Spanish or starve to death,
he learned moro of what he wished to know
in fortnight than if for q whole year he had
wasted precious ink and valuable paper in
copying from OllendOrff such thrilling inter-
rogatores rs "Tiene V. el sombreroP ST.
"Senor vo tengo el sombreron-a method of
study well calculated, if persisted in for thirty
DAYS, to reduce the most intelligent of its
votaries TO "a condition of complete and incur
able idiocy.
While we are so far in favor of "Hail
Columbia" rs to deem it the duty of
fOreign-born citizens to acquire as much
English as they can, and to see that their
children are thoroughly instructed in the
national tongue, we cannot perceive the pro-
priety or the humanity of leaving large bodies
of men and of women in state of religious
restitution simply because they are disnclined
to grapple with the mysteries of MuTays
Grammar. We have ourselves frequently,
upon the eve of important elections pub
lished cheap political pamphlets in German,
without a thought that We were resortng to
an expedient of dubious propriety or patriot
ism. On the contrary, we supposed that we
were doing a large class of voters a good
service by thus helping them, in the only
possible way, to make up their minds intelli-
gently; and this is an opinion which, up to
this time, we have seen no reason to change.