Evening star., 1941-07-26

ness of the people who speak II.
Not until you have looked the
Russian alphabet in the eye, or
come 10 close quarters with Rus
sian verb, can you possibly appre-
ciate the qualities Of men and wom-
en- who have not only mastered the
fundamentals of the language, but
who actually speak it like natives.
The Russians may bow mOmen-
| tarily to the Nazi assault, but when
the crucial moment comes they will
draw on the superhuman qualities
which enable them to speak Russian
Just as if it we're a language, and
hurl the enemy from their home
land.
Just why I started the study Of
Russian isn't quite clear in nv
mind. OF course, the country rs
much in the news now and every
ones tongue is tripping over the
names of towns mentioned in the
war dispatches. Too, with this
country's borders being extended
every time Knox thumbs an atlas,
/ 1 thought it would be right neigh
/ borly 10 learn 10 speak the language.
| Anyway. I am enrolled as a
/ freshman in the Linguaphone In
stitute, which has its campus on the
mezZdnine floor Of big building in
( Rockefeller Center. You do all your
work at home, though. You learn
chiefly through listening TO Llngua-
| phone records. A student gets few
! books. but the main instruction
comes from sitting near a Victrola
and listening to records.
With the eagerness of a freshman
opening his first college text book,
I hurried home with my records,
yanked off the Benny Goodman
numbers that were on the peg. and
put on disk No. l.
Disk No / is entitled; The Family.
Recited by B TImotheief.
The Family" almost cost me my
family.
At the sound OF the first Russian
words from B. Timotheief' throat
my 2-months-old puppy, who Wa
looking for his fayorite newspaper
in the living room, ran screeChlng
into the kitchen, where the cook
stepped on his tail on her way TO
find out what was happening.
In the meantime. my wife, who
was in a nearby room, had called
the superintendent of the building
and told him the revolution, had
come.
There's a BOlshevik running wild
in our house" she told him. "He
has Just killed our dog and is chas-
ing our cook. He is still tallbng,
and I can't hear a peep out of my
husband. Come quickly"
The superintendent did. Flanked
by two stout elevator boys. he
charged into the living room. where
he was joined by my wife, the cook
and the howling pup.
The din was terrific, but above il
all rose the voice of B. Timotheief,
saying, in Russian, This is the
father. this is the mother, this is
the chair and this is the table"
Of the record, so to speak, he
was the only calm one in the room.
No one in my household wants
me to continue with my Russian
lessons. even though I have pointed
out that among LinguaphOne's grad
yates in Russian are Sir Hubert
wilkins and Cornelia Otis Skinner.
But aim to continue It.
All my life I have been described
as a man who is kinda fat, who
shoots around 80 in golf, who can
always be beaten in tennis, who
holds his nose when he dives and
who is liable to think he IS being
funny when he puts on womans
hat when little stifferroo.
MY aim is to overcome all OF this
by being pointed out in any group
as the man who speaks Russian.
/ All other descriptions will be for
gotten when I casually and inten-
tionally lapse into bit Of Russian.
Wouldn't YOU be tempted to ask
me to your house if you could say
to your other guests, Here comes
Henry McLemore. He speaks Rus
sian, you know?