Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-19
DENIES BEING MENTAL pr ODIGY
THOUGH HE KNOWS 80 TONGUES
Stevens, State Department Translator
Protests Erroneous Publicity;
Invents New Form of Speech.

could not resist discussing his favorite
subject, 1t was reasoned.
Thirty languages are about all there
are in the world, I suppose?" Mr..
Stevens was asked.
well, should say not" he replied
quickly. Lets see, / believe there are
about $500 languages in all. So you see
that 80 is not even drop in the bucket
Nothing to give any publicity about at
all. Why, there are several hundred
languages spoken In India. alonel"
What do you consider the most
difncult language to learn?"
Japanese, / guess, and Chinese il
rather hard, too"
What language do you like the
best?"
French Most Beautiful Tongue.
''For beauty, no language can COM
pare with French. It Is euphonious,
poetic, beautiful. Listen to this
phrase"
The translator burst forth in q
smooth flow Of French, with appropri-
ate intonations and gestures.
isn't that marvellous? have writ
ten a poem about the beauty Of the
French language"
"And that isn't ALL" vouchsafed Mr..
Stevens friend. HE has invented q
universal language of his own that Is as
euphonious as French and much
shorter than English"
81 don't want to tell about that" Mr..
Stevens explained. Maybe I'll hsve
time later to work on 1t. I have laid 1t
aside for the present, because I am too
busy with other things"
"Is 1t like Esperanto?" the reporter
inquired
mo, it's entirely different. Here, I'll
show you"
He took an envelope and traced some
hieroglyphicS across 1t for about an
inch and q half The writing looked
like a cross between shorthand, Eng
lish and ancient Egyptian.
you will note that this sentence Is
expressed IN Is characters. Now here
is what 1t means in English"
He wrote out sentence of q dozen
words in English. He counted the
letters and announced that half q
hundred letters were required to ex-
press the same idea in English.
Invents Universal Language.
about third as many characters
in the first sentence as In the second, "
he said. THE universal language win
shorten sentences to a third, fourth or
sixth of their length in English. That
will mean less pages in the books and
newspapers. What Is better, 1t Is easy
to learn"
The interview was interrupted briefly
by the appearance Of young lady from
the Public Library who wished aid in
translating note in Turkish.
While Stevens was thus engaged the
reporter, sought from the translator's
associate additional information about
the interesting subject of his inter-
view. He learned that Stevens has
never attended university and Is vir-
tually Self-educated. A native of Min
nesota, he learned his first language,
German, when only 10 years of age In
his home town were large number of
foreigners, whose jargon he readily
picked up. A natural curiosity led him
to begin the study of various tongues,
and he finally made the hobby his
chief vocation.
After serving for 40 years as State
Department translator he retired in
1924 to devote his time to further study
On the retirement few weeks ago of
John s. Martin, jr., Stevens was pre-
vailed upon to return to the department
as principal translator.
Translates Strange Documents.
Despite his recognized attachments
-A AlAS A.As 9A1oD.c aAu W 1AAc GONCEh-
ment in deciphering strange documents
received from every corner of the globe,
1t Is poor commentary on the Govern
ment'S generosity to point out that his
annual salary Is under $4,000.
Completing his translation Of the
Turkish note, Stevens turned back to
his interviewer, who had reached for his
hat, and said:
"All right, sir, you'll see that my letter
is published where folks who read the
other tommyrot will read it. won't your"
Even though you really can translate
80 languages?" the reported asked.
But don't know them" he insisted,
"and that's that"