Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-08
HALF 4 DOZEN INTERPRETERS.
We Have Plenty Of Good Irish Blood. but
Diberno-Celtic Is Rare.
A LADY WHO HAS BECOME VERY USEFUL


quence the court reports were among the
most interesting and entertaining features
of a paper.
Another thing that will attract his at
tention is that commercial law has assumed
such proportions that a lawyer can no
longer have reputation in two or three
kinds of practice at the same time.
Once even the greatest lawyers
were forced to take every
thing that came to their nets, from whales
to sprats, but at present there are young
men who have made regulations in one de-
partment who are scarce known in others.
Some civil lawyers of repute would not be
known to the ordinary habitue of the Quar-
ter Sessions chambers. There are others
who find nearly all their work in the Or
phans' Court, and still others who have
good incomes and are scarce ever heard ad-
dress judge or jury in any court.
The Tongues of Allegheny County.
But nothing would attract his attention so
much as the extraordinary expansion of
languages necessary to interpret in order to
do business in the criminal court He would
be reminded of the diffusion of tongues that
we are told followed the attempt to build
the tower Of Babel, or of that notable day
of Pentecost, when the Galileans began to
discourse in a dozen different tongues.
In 1870, if an interpreter ,csnn Elm mann
tieaasch spreche1 konnte, he ordinarily filled
the bill. Occasionally, but rather seldom,
Frenchman gave some trouble. Now,
however, the movement Of nations toward
this city has made nearly dozen interpret
ers necessary. Mr.. Soffel manages German
and French, but he cannot be in all the
courts, and not long since Judge Ewing
attempted to get Frenchman's story out
of him. His Honor, however, made but
little headway, as he mad not mastered the
different dialects of France.
An interpreter in Slavonic, or Slavohet-
tic, has become necessity in the Quarter
Sessions, and it is notable that the late
European exodus furnishes much of the
work in the Criminal Court and brings
much grist to the mills of the lawyers. A
young woman takes care of the Slavs, the
Russians and neighboring nations getting
into much trouble. Her name is Annie
Leiner and she speaks several languages.
The Chinese have frequent occasion also to
attend court and Italy and Hungary are
we'll represented. For the Chinese and
italian dependence is placed on their getting
some reputable representative Of their
nationality as occasion may require.
Even Arabia Represented in Court.
Of late Syrisc has been in request at
times, and on Saturday Hofas A8ar probated
his account for services as an interpreter in
that language. Mr.. Azar's signature in
Arabic characters would be taken by most
peopl, as specimen of stenography.
Captain Dalgleish states that strange as it
may seem, It is often more difficult to find q
Hiberno-Celtic interpreter than any other,
though 20 years ago score or more could
be found within stones cast of the court
house. 1t seems that the native language
of the bush is dying out everywhere.
Lounsberry asserts that the Cymric, Cornish,
Gaelic, Manx, Armorican, in short, ali
Celtic tongues, are gradually dying out (the
Cornish has gone entirely, as linguistically
they are widely removed from our tongue
and have little influence on its vocabulary
and none at all on its grammar. 1t must be
so when short time since much trouble
was had before an interpreter could be
found to lead an Irishman out of the wilder
ness at the court house, he not being able to
speak word of English.
A noted traveller once said he had been in
places where he could find neither an En-
glishman, German or q Frenchman, but
finding an Irishman, and member of the
Lewis and Clark exploring expedition in 1
the first decade of this century related that
away up the Missouri, somewhere among
the Rockies. they came across solitary
Irishman who had ingratiated himself with
the Indians and had grown rich trading
with them. Court officials are ready to
credit these assertions since Michael Fla
herty presented himself few days since to
obiure his allegiance, not to Her
Majesty the Queen of Great Britain
and Ireland and Empress of
India, but to the Gar of Russia The
court officials could scarce believe Mr.
Flaherty, but he submitted irrefragable
proof that his father had done business in
Russia, and had not only became a subject
Of the Gear, but had married Slav woman.
One Language for All the World.
Considering that all the world is now
our next-door neighbor, and that it is diff
cult to deal with people of so many different
tongues and dialects, some people are be-
ginning to think that not only should Ger
man not be taught in our public schools,
but also that the welfare of humanity
would be greatly promoted by the
abolition of all languages but one.
In order to transact some kinds
of business successfully at present
it is necessary to know at least three mod
ern languages, and yet when one has mas
tered them he has but 40 years to live. The
time and labor necessary to acquire two ex-
ira languages could in most cases be more
proftably spent in the acquisition ofknowl-
edge in one. Nations might assemble
congress and determine by lot what should |
be the worlds language, and then
q body of learned men, and women, too, for |
that matter, translate everything worth |
knowing into that language. A few people |!
might be designated from age to age to |
keep alive, as written, not spoken, the |
languages that are worth preserving for |
research, such as Sanscrit, |
English, Old Middle and New
High Germanic and Italic. AS English is
more generally spoken at present than any
other language, it would seem to be the
fittest for an universal one, but as the peo-
pie who speak it are the most enterprising,
it may in time work its way to the front |
without organized effort or consent, and it
is certainly sufficiently copious to answer
all purposes of either literature or trade.
Talk of the Town.
Two LARGE show windows 1iterally p.ckad