pronunciation, the writer resolved to attend the Esperanto Congress
to be held at Geneva in August 1906. To this end he continued to read
Esperanto at odd minutes and took in an Esperanto gazette. About three
weeks before the congress he got a member of his family to read aloud to
him every day as far as possible a page or two of Esperanto, in order
to attune his ear. He never had an opportunity of speaking the language
before the congress, except once for a few minutes, when he travelled
some distance to attend a meeting of the nearest English group.

Thus equipped, he went through the Congress of Geneva, and found himself
able to follow most of the proceedings, and to converse freely, though
slowly, with people of the most diverse nationality. At an early sitting
of the congress he found himself next to a Russian from Kischineff,
who had been through the first great _pogrom_, and a most interesting
conversation ensued. Another day the neighbours were an Indian nawab
and an abbé from Madrid. Another time it was a Bulgarian. At the first
official banquet he sat next to a Finn, who rejoiced in the name of
Attila, and, but for the civilizing influence of a universal language,
might have been in the sunny south, like his namesake of the ancient
world, on a very different errand from his present peaceful one. Yet
here he was, rubbing elbows with Italians, as if there had never been
such things as Huns or a sack of Rome by northern barbarians.

During the meal a Frenchman, finding himself near us English and some
Germans, proposed a toast to the "entente cordiale taking in Germany,"
which was honoured with great enthusiasm. This is merely an instance of
the small ways in which such gatherings make for peace and good will.

With all these people it was perfectly easy to converse in the common
tongue, pronunciation and national idiom being no bar in practice.