Lidia

Esperanto had been successfully launched into the world; Ludwik and Klara were further delighted when in 1888 their first child, Adam, was born. But soon troubles began to cloud their lives. Ludwik had difficulty establishing his medical practice in Warsaw. His fears had been justified - people saw him as an eccentric and were reluctant to go to him for medical treatment. Half of Klara's dowry had gone to publish the Esperanto books; the couple had only about five thousand rubles left. Then catastrophe struck.

Ludwik's father, Markus, had been accused by a personal enemy of letting an article critical of Tsar Alexander III pass censorship. The article was about wine; the offensive passage was: 'continual drinking of wine gradually destroys the intellectual and civilized abilities of a man's brain and sometimes it causes insanity and a loss of all reason.' The passage was interpreted as a comment on the tsar's drinking habits and a direct insult to his person.

Markus Zamenhof was removed from his post as censor and risked losing his teaching position as well, for his enemy's godfather was Minister of Education. The officials would have to be bribed, or Markus would face total ruin. Ludwik gave him the rest of Klara's dowry.

Markus kept his teaching post, but Ludwik was financially ruined. In the hope of establishing his medical practice in another city - where he would not be suspected of being a crank for his preoccupation with Esperanto - he traveled to several cities in Poland and as far away as Cherson in the Crimea. But there was not always enough work for an eye specialist. He returned to Warsaw in 1898, despairing and destitute, and reluctantly agreed to accept financial help from Klara's well-to-do father.

Ludwik decided to establish his practice among the poor Jews of Warsaw, and the family — a daughter named Zofia had been born in 1889 — moved into a flat in the poorest part of the Jewish quarter, at 9

Dzika Street, where Ludwik also had his consulting room. While other oculists in Warsaw charged high fees, Dr Zamenhof asked only a very modest amount, and when the patients could not afford that, he treated them without charge. Many poor people, who might otherwise have let their diseases go untreated, came under Dr Zamenhof s care. His practice grew, but in order to make a living he had to see many more patients than other doctors did. With assistance from Klara's father, the family was able to have some measure of financial security. On 29 January 1904 Ludwik and Klara's third child, a girl, was bom. They named her Lidia.

By now Esperanto was spreading rapidly. The language had shown itself to be an easily learned, flexible vehicle for communication between speakers of difFerent languages. Early on, Zamenhof had demonstrated its range of expression by translating Shakespeare and books of the Old Testament into Esperanto. By the time of Lidia's birth, there were Esperanto groups and magazines in many countries, and well-known literary and scientific figures had joined the ranks of the Esperantists. Count Leo Tolstoy had received a copy of the first Esperanto book and had learned to read the language, he said, 'after not more than two hours' study'. 'The learning of Esperanto and spreading it', he remarked, 'is undoubtedly a Christian work that helps in the creation of the Kingdom of God, which is the chief and sole purpose of human life.'

Plans were being made by French Esperantists to hold the first full- scale international congress of Esperantists in Boulogne-sur-Mer in 1905. Zamenhof, who was a shy and modest man, hesitated about going. Although as a student he had spoken to small, secret Zionist groups in Moscow and Warsaw, he had never given a speech before such a large, diverse audience. And he was already suffering from heart disease. Thejourney would be difficult for him, and costly. Zamenhof did not wish the Esperantists to treat him with any special honors at the gathering. He wished them to see in him 'not the author of Esperanto, but only a simple Esperantist'.

For a time it seemed Ludwik would not be able to attend the congress even if he wanted to. Russia was at war with Japan, and in January 1905 orders arrived commanding Zamenhof to serve as a doctor in the Russian army in Manchuria.

Klara was distraught at the news and even more upset at her husband's response to it. Although ill, Ludwik refused to ask to be excused from his duty. At last, family and friends persuaded him that his health could not bear the hard journey across Russia and China and the rigors of army medical service. The military doctors agreed. Instead of sending Dr Zamenhof to the front, they sent him into a hospital for a week.

The situation in Eastern Europe was unsettled as well. In the Russian Empire, there was uprising and revolution; terrible pogroms were carried out, one ofthe worst of which was in Bialystok.