The Opelousas courier., 1890-01-18
SCENES IN CASTLE GARDEN.
doW DIFFERENT RACES THERE
= ARE DISTINGUISHED.
a Hungarian Scholar Who Speaks
Fifteen Tongues-Not a Good Place
to Study Languages.

Fifteen Tongues-Not a Good Place
to Study Languages.
"What is that mana"
ga R~oumanian.n
Register Douglas, one of the five ex-
pert linguists of Castle Garden, was
pointing out to a New York Daily Neos
reporter a stolid immigrant, roughly clad
In such clothes as are sold to woodchop-
pers in the Michigan lumber district, who
stood a little apart from his comrades in
n of the receiving pens in the big emf
| grant depot.
"How did you guess it," asked the re-
porter.
Didn't guess it. know it."
"You knew the man them"
"Never laid eyes on him before.
What do you think a man is made of if
he can't learn to tell types of men in this
| place in a year or so of time2 1t is the
easiest thing in the world if you know
how, and you learn to know how with
out knowing it. You can't tell the ma
%tionality of a man by his clothes or his
complexion, but there is something about
his face, his expression and the way he
carries himself that will tell to a nicely
what race he belongs to. Now, This man
here is a Polish Hebrew"
A smooth-faced man of twenty years or
Whereabouts 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.
'tWe seldom make mistakes, said Mr..
Douglas; sit wouldn't pay us to. Sup
pose we had to try half a dozen languages
every time before We struck the right
one. Why, we would have to work all
night to keep ever with the business"
1sHalf a dozen languages?"
"Why not? We all Of us speak three
foreign languages huently and have
a smattering Of half a dozen more. Major
! Semsey there" added Mr.. Douglas,
pointing to a digniied, elderly gentle
man who was catechising a lot of Irish
immigrants in the broadcast Milesian ac-
cent, s.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 Ian
guages?"
mot from dictionaries and grammars,
I assure you. 1t comes from daily prac-
tiee. The questions, you see are, are al
ways the same. We ask the immigrants
name, g and place of birth; whether
T. e, 49, ~~,o ~ atp~la hAu mapu chill
| dren 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. It doesn't take
| long for a man who is quick at languages,
and has a solid foundation of four
languages to begin on, to pick up a few
other tongues"
aDo you ever have any immigrants
who cannot be understood at ala"
stNever. If the five registers can't
understand 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
! run across is Finnish. We have to
send out for a clearinghouse keeper
near here when we run across a man of
that race"
In spite of the varied linguistic abili-
ties of the five registers there were two
arrivals on the DeSonia recently who
would have put them sorely to the test
had not kind friends on the other sid
furnished them with explicit instructions
written in the Queens English. They
were two homesick members of Buffalo
Bills Aborigines on the way to their
hide teepees IN the bounding West.
They could not speak a word of English
save those necessary to produce a drink
| of fire water or a cigar, and they i'm
passively grunted out their responses to
the reporters inquiries in a way that
would have been simply maddening un-
| der some circumstances. Fortunately
their passports carried them safely
| through.
stDo you ever have any students of
languages apply for places here to per-
| feet themselves in their work." asked
the reporter of one of the veteran m
pIoyes of the Garden.
aCastIe Garden may be Q good place
to fit q man to travel around the world
aud get a smattering OF every European
language and several spoken out in Asia,
but it is q bad place to study languages,
said a Union Square professor of Ian
guages. 81 spent a few months in the
Garden as a register about ten months
ago, but ] find that the experience I got
there really did me more harm than
good. The greater number of emmi-
grants 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 good deal, it is true, but I had
to unlearn the most of it. When / first
went there to work / studied up on the
various languages from dictionaries and
grarnmers, but / might as well have stud
led from q school geography. I remem
Der once, after | had spent a month on
Polish grammer, I prepared a list of
questions that I was proud Of. The
idiom was perfect, and I fattered myself
that my pronunciation left nothing to be
desired. The first time / tried my ques-
tons on an immigrant he shook his head
| d~espairingiy and told the register ! was
forced to call to my assistance that he
could not speak English.
Born a Missionary.
.....- aFa,- 10. n,o,,rra5 Of