Omaha daily bee., 1889-07-15
THE LANGUAGE OF THE WORLD.

ing. It is feared much damage has been
done to the crops.
THE LANGUAGE OF THE WORLD.
English the Most Complete Medium
for the Expression of Thought.
One of the dreams of philosophers
| for ages has been the discovery or in
vention OF q language which shall undo
| the work of the Tower OF Babel;
tongue which all lindreds and peoples
and nations can speak; medium OF
| communication which shall be sOnearly
.perfect that all the people of the world
| shall have the power of communicating
with each other, and that the man of
| Europe and the, man of Asia and the
man OF America may put their several
thoughts and ideas into common form
| and u common mode of expression.
In the palmv days of Rome this dream
| was realized in part, for the mailed
hand of the conouerer bore as we'll a
| Latin grammar as a Latin sword, and
| the vassals of Rome were forced to
learn the speech of the nation which
| had subdued them; and so to-day in
every country where the Roman eagles
| flew can be traced the remains of the
Latin language and the influence of the
Latin literature. But In time the semi
| universal language was replaced by the
| vernacular, and Latin, as q spoken Ian
| guage, died and was buried, since
| which time there has been nothing
which could aspire to the dignity of u
universal language.
A few years ago priest named
| Schleyer invented alanguage which he
called volapuk, and which he hoped
would become universal, or at least so
nearly so as tn furnish a means OF inter-
nj pafi liHnrnnt
tions; but there is little indication that
Volapuk is making much headway, ex
| cept among certain class who are fond
| of novelty alft-w who have natural taste
| for philology!t People in general do
not take kindly to Volapuk, and this
fact alone is fatal to its universally.
AT one time French had some preten-
tiOns to becoming the language of Eu-
rope. Like the Romans, the French,
under the first aNapoleon, spread their
language oyeffthe whole continent and
and aiplomas& perhapsSbecau it was
better fitted TO eopcean thought than
any other spoken tongue. 1t has held
its own wellgin what are called polite
circles, but ithascome far short of being
a universal language. -.
But of late there: has arisen new as
pirant for popular favor in the English
language, says the San Francisco
Chronicle. No modern tongue has
begun to make the strides that English
is making, and it has come or is coming
| to be recognized as the most complete
and exact medium for the expression of
thought now extant. William Walter
| Phelps has recently told us
that the proceedings of the Sam
oan conference at Berlin were
conducted in English, and that
| the draft of the treaty was maze out in
| English, because it was found that the
| terms were made more clear and ex-
| plicit than they could have been if
written in French. Mr.. Phelps says
| that now that the precedent has been
| conference of the kind will be carried
on in English, and that it is the Ian
| guage of the world.
| . 1t is not strange that clearness and
exactitude should be possessed to a
marked degree by the English Ian
| guage. Unlike most other languages,
| it is eclectic as well as evoutional. 1t
| takes its own elements and builds them
| up and improves upon them, at the same
time seizing upon and apprOpriating a
| root or stem or whole word from
some other language when it deems it
| proper or necessary. 1t levies tribute
upon every tongue of the world, civil
| lied and uncivilized, and ut once domes-
| ticates and naturalizes it acquisitions,
| blending them with itself and defying
anyone to question its authority so to do.
| The Anglo-Saxon race is the race of
conquest, but It's victories of the present
are, for the most part, bloodless ones.
Its arms are the steam engine, the cleo
trio telegraph, and the printing press;
| not the short sword of the Roman legions
| la nf No
| 1t, too, imposec its language Upon it's
subjects, but it does SO by moral suasion
instead OF by force. 1t gives solid and
substantial reasons for SO doing, and
few of the nations of the earth ara pre-
pared to gainsay them. 1t is hardly too
much to say that by the end of the
twentieth century the civilized world
| may be an EIgnsh-speaking world, and
| that the dream bf universal language
will find its rsanzation in the speech of
Chaucer and Sbakspeare and Longfel-
low and Hawthorne.
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A Negf0nBoy Preacher.
There is In aBf1nswick little negro
boy whose years probably do not exceed
eight, who has ribver attended school,
but whose nacnral genius is remarkable
says the Brun)Tkk, Ga, Times. His
name is AlexhndJr Washington. He is
known as t'ffeacher," from the fact
denominations, sp,. he makes his
living by preaching to the
negroes, charging sometimes cents,
| sometimes 81 for q sermon, according to