| Show AT chautauqua the second annual convention of the north american association which has just juet completed its work here has made evident several important facts it has demonstrated that the lau language guage is no mere experiment if a large and varied literature in every civilized country a half hundred newspapers pu published in halt half as many countries with an uninterrupted issue in some cases case of ten years and a vocabulary so rich that it cau call express comprehensibly poetry science history aud and romance are evidences of life and diffusion even more the opening exercises of the first of four public sessions were in the language itself col charles E sprague a well keown new york scholar and banker as head bead of the american association addressed his constituents in and routine business in parliamentary proceedings and participated in by many persons were all in this artificial lau language guage a language sweet enough to be attractive even when not intelligible gi ble and yet suil sui generi generis 18 enough to impress its distinctiveness upon one familiar with language sounds A speaker with something to say followed col sprague and prudently chose english to suit the understanding of his attentive audience this was mr alfred A post of boston who represents as its chief the move movement meat in massachusetts his story was of the adoption of by the boston school committee as an elective study in evening high school and of the numerous clu clubs boand and classes formed in various towns throughout the states for the study and use of the array of statistics on this line was a revelation mr E D french of now new york who was wag an earnest speaker with a sympathetic voice gave an instance of the language proving a valuable international medium for the discussion correspond lly of an art question this was followed by an exhibit of a wilderness of literature newspapers textbooks text books volumes of history poetry translations of books of the bible the roman catholic prayer book almanacs calendars menus menu dance lots lists theatre grammes programmed pro books of plays in fact of every sort of printing which the natural languages display here were single specimens of an entire years series of forty seven journals a hundred or more grammars and dictionaries for a quarter as many different speak ing people the conspiracy of cataline the eclogues Eclo gues of virgil the gospel of st john the proverbs of solomon the fairy tales of grimm and ven even an original drama were in this ibis large collection while charts of language pure and simple and chart comparing it with other languages were abundant it was both amazing and instructive this exhibit amazing because the life of is yet an infant one instructive because how widespread wide spread and varied is the use of the language A highly effective feature of the associations association proceedings was a lecture lesson on given at the second days morning session in three quarters quarte roof of an hour col sprague the lecturer and a enodel instructor had demonstrated the simplicity of the language by the argument am ad homi nem for he had bad n t only shown the nouns inflection and the verbs conjugation but had bad actually so familiarized his hie audience with them and with the ada echi ves adverbs and repositions prepositions that the responses came fast and many to his question how would tills this be ex in the rhe auditors had in be bearing FriDg about the language actually learned it by insensible absorption ghis was mr posted powis opportunity for his listeners could then readily erent hie statement that a certain language professor gave him attention as he explained the language in twenty seven minutes by a stop watch and wis then able to fairly well traD translate into voja a paragraph from a newspaper mr post followed this incident by stories of almost as amazing an acquirement qui rement of by other persons of both sexes he summed up by esti estimating matt dg the average time needed to acquire a working knowledge of the language as ten three quarter hour lessons without home study think of this weary students of even french 41 italian or spanish in six month courses with a result oreali of realized zed insufficiency to order a meal at a restaurant in a loud tone or of holcel in a n few hours any other language a serious study of months or years mr charles currier beale then corn com lauded the quiet attention of the audience while he told them how the patient priest of a little german village had studied the daft difficulties unties and the possibilities of human speech for some thirty years and then out of the chaos of much information and from the labyrinth of much disorder had bad been led by a divine illumination to so formulate his thoughts and knowledge as to present all at once a language system te m which in construction pronunciation nuncia tion and word formation could be practicable to all mankind he traced the history of from its presentation and rejection reject nn with ridicule down to its acceptance by a few learned men under whose aegis it found favor in every civilized portion of the globe until now as its literature shows it is an accepted factor on the langhage lang vage side in the bringing of all mankind into brotherly relations it will not answer to shower ridicule upon As ae its friends earnestly affirm it ft is not and never was intended to but only to supplement other languages and with such a purpose it has its provi province dee and the proceedings ce edings of the convention now terminated go to show that it will con dinue its ito work to a sublime fruition chautauqua new york august jtb 1891 |
