The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-11-15
SAYS ESPERANTO
COMING LANGUAGE
John c. Pellet Tells of
Trip to Helsingfors
Congress
ABLE TO SPEAK IN
FIFTEEN TONGUES

NOftn America 10 NOFIu LSptFaHto
Conference - Says Language Can BE
Mastered Easily.
John C. Pellet of Brattleboro, 'the
man who speaks 10 languages" who re-
Gently arrived home from Helsingfors,
Finland, where he attended the World
Esperanto congress as delegate from
North America, has given a representa-
tive of The Reformer in an interview an
interesting account of his 10,000-mile
trip at the age of - years.
THE European countries are strong
on Esperanto because they realize that
it is the coming world language" said
Mr.. PELLET There is no question but
Esperanto will be the universal language
some day. Why shouldn't it be? 1t is
derived from the best of all living Ian
guages Systematized down and simplified.
1t is not hard to learn either, for it is
half English. Furthermore, it is a def
mite means to world peace.
Il can travel through France, Ger
many, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Switzer-
land, Holland and England and feel per
fectly at home Mr.. Pellet said, be
cause l can talk with any of the natives
in those countries right in their own Ian
guage. OF course, | can read and write
Latin, Greek, Swedish, Norwegian. Sar-
dinian and Hebrew, but l won't profess
to carry on an extended conversation in
these last six languages that I've men
toned because | haven't studied them
long enough and haven't had all the prac-
tice in them that | want
Mr. Pellet doesn't think that it re-
quires a long time to learn Esperanto.
In his opinion, six months of fairly
close study and little practice will give
anyone the rudiments of the language.
He admits that the language viii be
long in being adopted in the United
States for this country is satisfied with
| language conditions just as they now
The thing to do" Mr.. Pellet de-
! clared. SIS to get the heads of our schools
| and colleges interested in this universal
! language Once we get it in the schools,
! the rest will be easy and III a few years
| it will be all over the world. y child
| can easily learn il in half a year And
! we want the children TO learn ii. We
/ don't care so much about the older folks.
| because il is the growing generation on
which will depend the progress and
/ growth of Esperanto. Why, at this last
! Esperanto convention at HelsingfOrS,
many of the delegates were teachers from
! European schools and colleges. so you
| see the interest that is being shown by
people across the water in education"
| The Reformer man asked him to tell
/
] I'm his 16.000-miies trip.
There We're two things that / shall
| never forget" he said. First, there
| was The midnight sun. You see. | left
New York June % last for Copenhagen
Denmark, and from there | went up tn,
coast by boat to Christiania, then K
Bergen and way up around the Nortl
Cape to NerdOe 1t was ND at the Nortl
Cape that l saw the midnight sun.
had TO wait three weeks before weather
conditions would perma me to see thi
! wonderful spectacle And then one day
the clouds cleared long enough TO let IN;
see the sun sweep over the sky and down
| toward the sea. 1t looked as though i
were going to drop out of sight, but jus
as il touched the horizon il rose again
in all its majestic splendor and continued
on in its journey across the heavens.
And when ] arrived at Nerdoe i wa
| going to make my way down across Fin
hand TO Helsingfors, but / found Their
| were no rail lines in that part of tn,
world and | was afraid 10 make tn
Journey by any other way, because
didn't think / would find anyone in tina
region who could talk Esperanto. YOl
| see Finnish Is language that | haven
mastered yet and frankly | don't know
enough of it to rely on for an extepsv
tour in that country. So l went bacI
down the coast for a way, and thel
crossed by railroad over the head of tn
| b8iIlC GNRsi, 6EEiNlifE III I1tISliiSlOIS Jus
In time for the convention on Aug. Z
"The second thing that interested m
greatly" continued Mr. Pellett wa
that l was one of 30 TO be received b.
the president of the republic of Fir
land He gave a reception at the Fin
nish White House in Helsingfors an
both his wife and himself entertained u
royalty. We had a banquet with all tn
fixings and l tell You they did things II
4 brown"
Mr.. Pellet went to the world Espel
] anto congress as the only delegate frOI
L the United States and Canada He wa
elected delegate by the North America
Esperanto association and he also rel
resented the New York City Esperant
i association and the Harmonic society {
the same city. which espouses the caus
I Of the universal language. The congres
3 lasted eight days and all work discus
4 SiOns and arguments We're accomplishe
in the European language. Thirty-tw
nations were represented at the congress
the delegates representing 100000
EsperantistS.
Mr.. Pellet has attended FIVE Espei
antO congresses He went to Washin;
ton, ID. G., in 1910; to Antwerp BE
GUM, in 1911; to Paris, France in 1914
\ 10 The Hague. Netherlands, in 1920, an
this year to Finland.
H. He made an earlier trip TO Europe
1899. and at that time he spent tw