Eureka Reporter | 1903-04-10 | Page 4 | A Mixture of Languages

A mixture of languages switzerland would be hard to beat in respect to the mixture of races and tongues in the rank and file of the army this gives considerable trouble to the military authorities an amusing instance occurred recent ly at ballenstadt Fallen stadt recruiting station in the case of a guard consisting of five men the lieutenant in command spoke german only the second a sergeant spoke italian only the third a corporal apol e french and spanish the fourth a private could speak french and german while the fifth a private child speak french german and italiana italian a babel of lar grages truly and enough to puzzle even a professor when the lieuten ant had to give an order to the ser geant the last named man had to in it for him when he wished to communicate commini comm cate with the corporal he had to requisition the linguistic ser vices of the fot foerth rth men and so on