, 1889-10-22
KNOW THEM AT A GLANCE.
HOW DIFFERENT RACES ARE READ
AT CASTLE GARDEN.

Two Opinions Regarding the value of an
EmigrAnt Depot Linguistic Edueation-A
Hungarian Scholar In Fifteen Languages.
How They Guess.
Hes a Pole Wrong" ''Dane?'
Guess again" Norwegian Wrong
once more" what is he Them "a
R~oumanian.r
Register Douglas, one Of the five expert
linguists Of Castle Garden, was pointing
out to a reporter a stolid immigrant,
roughly clad in such clothes as are sold
to woodchoppers In the Michigan lum-
Der district, who stooda little apart from
his comrades in one Of the receiving
pens in the big emigrant depot.
EASIEST THING IN Il WORLD.
How did you guess it?' asked the re-
porter.
Didn't guess f. 1 knew it."
"You knew the man them"
"Never laid eyes on him before. What
do you think a man Is made of IL he
can't learn to tell types of men in this
place in a year or SO Of time? 1t is the
easiest thing in the world If you only
know how, and you learn to know how
without knowing 1t. You can't tell the
nationality OF a man by his clothes or his
complexion, but there is something about
his face, his expression and the way be
carries himself that will tell to a nicely
what race he belongs to. Now, this man
here is a Polish Jew"
A smooth faced man of 20 years or
thereabouts was nearing the registers
desk. he looked as little like a Hebrew
as a Tipperary man in his fighting
clothes, but before his name had been
pronounced his nationality was as plain
as the nose on his face.
1--WE seldom make mistakes" said Mr..
Douglas; sit wouldn't pay us to. Sup
pose we had to try half a dozen Ian
guages every time before we struck the
right one? Why, we would have to work
all night to keep even with the bust
ness"
Hall a dozen l~anguages?"
why not? We all of us speak three
foreign languages huently and have a
smattering of half a dozen more. Maj.
Semsey there" added Mr.. Douglas, point
ing to adignified, elderly gentleman who
was c~atechising a lot of Irish immigrants
in the broadcast Milesian accent, "speaks
eight languages and can ask questions in
seven more. He is a Hungarian, and is
the most expert linguist in the garden"
"How can a man learn so many lam
guages?"
mot from dictionaries and grammars,
1 assure you. 1t comes from daily prac-
tice. The questions, you see, are always
b same. We ask the immigrants name,
G and place Of birth; whether he is
married or single, how many children he
has, where he is going, whether he has
any money or ticket, whether he has ever
been in an almshouse or prison, and what
his trade is. 1t doesn't take long for a
man who is quick at languages, and
has q solid foundation of four languages
to begin on, to pick up a few other
tongues"
"Do you aver have any immigrants
who cannot be understood at alp"
"Never. If the five registers can't I'M
derstand them we call in some outside
expert, Missionary Goldstein speaks
Greek and Arabic, and we have men
about the building who talk Gaelic and
Celtic. The rarest language we u
across 10 Finnish We have to send out
for a boarding house keeper near here
when we u across a man of that race"
W REGULAR AMERICANS.
In spite of the varied linguistic abilities
of the five registers there were two arriv-
ais on the Devonia who would have put
them sorely to the test had not kind
friends on the other side furnished them
with explicit instructions written in the
queens English. They were two home
sick members of Buffalo Bills aborigines
on the way to their hide tepees in the
bounding west They could not speak a
word of English save those necessary to
procure q drink Of fire water or a cigar,
and they impassively grunted out their
responses to the reporters inquiries in a
way that would have been simply mad
dening under some circumstances. For
%tunately their passports carried them
safely through.
d you ever haveany students of Ian
guages apply for places here to perfect
themselves in their work." asked the re-
porter of one of the veteran employees of
the garden.
mot hat 1 know of. Though it is the
best school of languages in the world.
Ed Heron-Allen, the palmist, applied
for a place here. Why, I don't know,
but he never tookit After looking over
the garden he gave up the job in disgust.
1t was too rough work for him. / think
If a young man wanted to study Ian
guages here would be the best place for
him to get work"
Castle Garden may be a good place
to fit q man TO travel and to get a smat-
tering Of every European language
and several spoken out in Asia, but it is
a bad place to study languages" said a
Union square professor of languages. az
spent a few months In the Garden as a
register about ten years ago, but I find
that the experience I got there really did
me more harm thar good. The greater
number of immigrants are uneducated
and speak a dialect that is as far from
the proper language Of their race as
Bowery English differs from that spoken
in Columbia college. I learned a great
deal, it is true, but / had to unlearn
the most of it. When I first went there
to work 1 studied up on the various Ian
guages from dictionaries and grammars,