Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1900-07-13
CHAMPION POLYGLOT.
VermOnter Who Speaks SlXty-twO Lam
guages.

jeremiah Curtin OF Bristol, who Trans
lated QUO VadIs, Is One Of the Most
wondtr fuI LInguIsts Ever Known.-Is
Now In ~. Petersburg.
The greatest linguist of the present day
is Vermonter Jeremiah Curtin of Bristol,
who translated Quo Vadis. Mr.. Curtin
spends much time abroad.
Cardinal Mezzofanti, whom Byron called
monster of languages, a Briareus of
parts Of speech, and a walking polyglot,
was acquainted with ia languages when
he died at the age of 20. But Merchant
simply dipped into a language. OF the lit
erature of most of the languages which he
spoke he knew little or nothing. He was a
polyglot only in grammatical sense He
could hear the confession of any stranger
entering Rome; but he couldn't talk history
or literature with half of the strangers
Perhaps it would have been supernatural il
he could.
Mr.. Curtin deserves to be classed with
the pro1igious ltalisn He is 90 years old
and he is in some degree Of intimacy with
languages numbering the years of his life
AS matter of fact, he was the practical
master of 60 languages in his middle age.
Excepting Merchant, no other approaches
this height. The third person who might
be mentioned in the same breath with these
two monumental linguists is Sir William
Jones who was familiar with p languages
less than a quarter of the number learn
ed by the Cardinal, and less than half the
number learned by the Nermonter.
Mr.. Curtin was born in Milwaukee, and
after studying in Carroll college in his own
state and Phillips Exeter academy, enter
ed the sophomore class at Harvard in 81
Two years later he graduated in company
with John Fiske and many other men who
have made their names shine. He had
left Carroll college with a fair knowledge
of Latin and Greek. He left Harvard
with good knowledge of Latin, Greek,
French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Rou-
manian, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic,
Gothic, German, Finnish, Hebrew and
Gaelic. He could read works in any of
those languages. He was kl own for in
stance, to have read in German all of
Schiller's works and Humbolt's Cosmos, ~
"Don Quixote" in Spanish, Plato in Greek,
and the New Testament in Irish Gaelic.
During his junior year he took the prize
for an essay on The Germanic Element in
Civilization" and in his senior year he
read the Bible in Finnish He would un
doubtedly have acquired the Russian Ian
guage but for the scarcity Of material at
hand.
But he took up Russian a. soon as he left
Harvard, and in few mouths had read
several thousand pages 1t happened that
about that time Russian squadron was at
anchor in New York, and Mr.. Curtin be
came the acquaintance of one of the
officers, Lieut.. Kishkin, and before long
they were converting in Russian. The
next year, 1854, Mr. Curtin was appointed
secretary of the legation at st. Petersburg
On New Years day, lS65 he went to the
winter palace, and when presented TO
Alexander II addressed that monarch in
Russian. Alexander took a fancy to him
Immediately aud went out of his imperial
way to inform the American minister that
the young American secretary spoke Rus
sian remarkably well. The fact is, there
wasn't another foreigner in st. Petersburg
at the time who could say in Russian more
than Good morning or How dye dor
They say there isn't an Indian in the
West, from the Blackfoot Reservation in
Montana to the Choctaw Reservation in
the Indian territory, with whom Mr.. Curtin
can't swap Jokes and fairy tales.
Mr.. Curtin is rambler. His present
address is st. Petersburg.