The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-04
PoLYGLoT CANVASS His.
PROF. PRINCE SEEKS VOTES IN
MANY TONGUES.

Faculty Running for the Assembly IN
New Jersey Again "A Mechanic a.
well ~ o scholar md n Politician.
The Republicans. OF Passsic county, N. j.,
EXPECT to reflect next Tuesday. among ether
members Of the New Jersey Assembly. John
Dyneley Prince Of Ringwood. Besides
being a politician. Mr.. Prince Is professor Of
Semitic languages in Columbia University
and one of the most hanysided men in the
Columbia faculty.
One of the features OF his campaign LAST
year when he was first elected to the Assem-
bly, was the manner in which he addressed
his constituents in the 1anguages of their,
native countries. His district includes
many foreigners, Italians. Germans and
Swedes particularly.
Italian. German and Swedish are three Of
the many languages Of which he has almost
perfect control. and there is no doubt that
the fact that he was able to get close to the
voters by addressing them in a language
that they knew better than English helped
to carry his party through in Passaic. lhaS
is what the party leaders say.
Besides these three tongues Prof. Prince
has a good speaking knowledge of French.
Turkish and Arabic are two other languages
that he can converse IN. : Be-
In his travels abroad he picked up con-
siderable Romany, the gypsy tongue. and he
is one OF the few men in the United States
not gypsies who know that speech. The ln-
verted Gaelic. or back slang OF the Irish
thinkers, is another odd language with which
he ia familiar.
II is said of him that he could start from
Spitzbergen and work south through to the
Mediterranean and never be at a loss to
make himself understood in any country
that he might be in.
The North American Indian languages
are particularly fascinating to Prof. Prince
He is the author of a text in the original
Hudson River Indian tongue.
Prof. Franz Boas, a fellow faculty member
at Columbia, told him that there were in q
town in Michigan four men who still spoke
chat tongue. With their aid he was able TO
make up a vocabulary and start a lexiconI
which has been OF great aid to scientific
men in other branches. He also edited a
text OF the Mohegan-Pequot tongue, after
finding at Norwich, Conn. one old woman
who spoke the language, with a limited
vocabulary of 400 words.
Prof. Princes greatest fondness is tor
obsolescent languages like these. Ne re-
Gently began to publish a lexicon Of the
Sumerian tongue, whose existence he dis
covered.
So deep was his interest in North Ameii-
can Indian Languages that he recently made
up a collection Of songs of the tribes al
over the country. His taste for music Is
strong, and he is known to many persons
alone from the fact that he set to music.
Kipling's -Mandalay," with the air that 10
a,,pn oxyaruN here
Ii is hard to find something that Prof.
Prince has not done. When he went TO
live at Ringwood some years ago he found
that the telegraph Office was 50 far distane
as to be inconvenlent.
He cot the ompany to run a wire to his
house and he end and receives his own
messages. The same il true OF his town
home in Lexington avenue.
DR.. Prince runs an automobile that he
uses to get over to college every day from
his home in New Jersey. He keeps the ma
chine up himself, because he has a strong
bent in the mechanical line. Carpentry IL
one Of the things hat he is particularly fond
Of and he is a master with tools.
His interest in automobiles has led to his
being named Commissioner OF Licenses for
the northern part Of New Jersey. He also
10 greatly interested in a comniss on Tor the
amelioration Of the condition Of foreigners
in New Jersey.
sHow did you happen to get into politics2'
one Of his students asked him recently.
swell. | was PRESIDENT of the Pompton
schools and head of the school boards OK
Passaic county, and there were some things
thatI wanted changed, sol thought the best
thing to do was to get into the ASSEMBLY.
What makes you a Republican, was an
other question.
Il believe that the Republicans ares rarty
while the Democrats are a collection OF
factions, all aiming toward the negative.
The Democratic party is composed of men
who for years nave been saying No Thai
is why among other things l am a RepuoS
lican.'
Prof. Prince is about 80. He is descended
from an old Enlish family, and is the son Of
John Dyneley Prince. His sister Ellen
married James Speyer, the banker.
He was graduated from Columbia when
he was 20 and studied Semitic languages
at the University OF Berlin. He was a.
fellow there for a year and returned TO study
in Johns Hopkins, where he took his doc
tors degree in 1892.
He accompanied the University of Penn-
~sylvania's expedition 10 Babylon in 1884
as a result Of which much o ersy arose
in the case OF Prof. Herman Hilprecht,
For seven years, up to 1902, he was deal Of
the graduate school at New York University.
Since then he has been connected with
Columbia University. He is a member OF
numberless scientific associations and Of