Lidia

Among the strikes and nationalist uprisings that occurred that year was a strike by students of a Polish grammar school in Warsaw. Ludwik and Klara were shocked when they leamed that their son Adam had joined it. Ludwik took him out of school and sent him to stay with Klara's family in Kaunas, where he finished his preparatory studies.

In spite of all that had happened, as the year went on and the time of the Esperanto Congress approached, Zamenhof decided he would attend the meeting in France.

But more trouble awaited him in Boulogne-sur-Mer. The green flags with the five-pointed star, symbolic of hope and the emblem of Esperanto, were flying in the seaside town of Boulogne, but the leaders of the Esperanto movement in France were fighting among themselves. Several of the French leaders objected to the draft of the speech Zamenhof had sent to them, especially the poem 'Prayer under the Green Banner', which he intended to read at the end. They found particularly objectionable its last stanza, which contained the statement: 'Christians, Jews or Muslims, we are all children of God.' They did not think the audience would agree. Moreover, anti- Semitism was strong in France, which was still divided over the Dreyfus Affair, and the leaders did not want the audience to know Zamenhof was a Jew.

The creator of Esperanto was heartbroken to find that most of the French Esperantist leaders did not share his ideals. Although they warned him that the audience might even hiss at him if he read his 'Prayer', Zamenhof was determined to go through with it. He did agree to give up the last stanza of the poem, feeling that perhaps they knew more of the local climate of opinion, and he did not want to offend anyone, although the ideal was a lofty one. Otherwise, he determined to read the speech as he had written it.

The evening arrived. The small City Theater auditorium was filled with Esperantists. The room buzzed with the chatter of 688 people belonging to some twenty different nationalities. But instead of their own native languages, they were all speaking the Intemational Language, Esperanto. A young Swiss, Edmond Privat, described the scene; 'Fervour was spreading under the lamps. A thrill of excitement surged through the waiting crowd. Suddenly there burst forth the music of the Esperanto hymn, La Espero ['Hope']:

En la mondon venis nova sento Tra la mondo iras forta voko . . .

(Into the world has come a new feeling,

Through the world there goes a mighty summons . . .)

'With one accord, we aU stood up. There was our beloved leader coming onto the stage with the chief officials of the congress. Short of stature, shy, touched to the heart, there he stood, with his broad forehead, round spectacles, and little grayish beard. Hands, hats, handkerchiefs waved in the air in half an hour's continuous applause. When he stood up after the Mayor's greeting, the enthusiasm thundered out again. But now he began to speak. The shouting ceased: we all sat down again.'

'I greet you, dear colleagues,' Zamenhofbegan, 'brothers and sisters from the great world family, who have come together from near and distant lands, from the most diverse states of the world, to clasp hands in the name of the great idea, which unites us all. . .

'This present day is sacred. Our meeting is humble; the outside world knows little about it and the words spoken here will not be telegraphed to all the towns and villages of the world;. . . this hall is not resplendent with luxurious clothes and impressive decorations; no cannon are firing salutes outside the modest building in which we are assembled; but through the air of our hall mysterious sounds are travelling, very low sounds, not perceptible by the ear, but audible to every sensitive soul: the sound of something great that is now being born. Mysterious phantoms are floating in the air; the eye does not see them, but the soul sees them; they are the images of a time to come, of a new era. The phantoms will fly into the world, will be made flesh, will assume power, and our sons and grandchildren will see them, will feel them and will have joy in them.'

Zamenhof spoke of how the human family had long been separated into warring, hostile groups who for many thousands of years had not understood one another.

'. . . Prophets and poets dreamed of some era, very misty and remote, when human beings would once again begin to understand one another and would again be united in one family; but this was only a dream. This was spoken of as some sweet fantasy, but not taken seriously; no-one believed in it.