Esperanto’s Femme Fatale

La danĝera virino

On January 24, 1910, the Washington Evening Star made reference to an attempt to push Edwin C. Reed from his position as the secretary of the Esperanto Association of North America. There had been no earlier articles in the Star, which brought the crisis in medias res, not telling what the issue at hand was. Two days later, we find out, but not from the Star.

Esperanto was a hot topic in the Washington papers of 1910, perhaps because the Universala Kongreso was coming to the city, or perhaps because that’s where the headquarters of the fledgling EANA were located at the time. Just to give an indication, the site Chronicling America has 236 hits for “Esperanto” in the D.C. newspapers for 1910 (that comprises the Evening Star, National Forum, National Tribune, Washington Herald, and Washington Times). I have to go elsewhere to see what they were saying in the Washington Post. If you were an Esperantist in 1910 Washington, your newspaper choices would be the Herald or the Times, both of which gave fairly extensive coverage of the EANA.

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Esperanto on the Job

How do I put this on my timecard?

It would probably make the news even today if the employees of the Organization of American States had a compulsory lecture on Esperanto. That’s what happened in Washington, D.C. on January 15, 1910 to the office staff of the Bureau of American Republics (the predecessor organization to the OAS). The staff probably knew it was coming, since John Barrett, the director of the BAR was also the president of the Esperanto Association of North America.

Of course, Barrett didn’t give the lecture himself. That would have been somewhat embarrassing, since it was noted that after his election as the head of EANA, he needed to step up his progress in Esperanto. I, personally, have no sympathy for him. It doesn’t take all that much effort to master Esperanto. It’s not that Barrett couldn’t find someone who was competent and willing to give lessons. His lecturer, Professor Arnold Christen, gave lessons at the princely cost of $4 for four lessons.

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The Famous Professor Christen

Prof. Arnold Christen
Esperantist.
Grower of lip hair

I find it amusing when I look at a newspaper or magazine from decades past and someone is described as “famous” and I have no idea who that person it. It’s an object lesson that fame (and even infamy) can be fleeting. One year your name is on everyone’s lips, and some time after that, everyone’s forgotten who you were. This is particularly true of entertainers.

The Washington Herald described Professor Christen as “famous” in its November 9, 1913 edition. Who? Given the number of times I’ve found that “professors” in early twentieth-century newspapers weren’t any sort of academic (such as the then 18-year-old Edmond Privat or the 14-year-old Val Stone), when a newspaper tells me that someone is a professor, I want to see an academic affiliation.

I went on the merry hunt for Professor Christen. I am happy to announce that this is one of those situations in which we are dealing with an actual academic. Not some teenager either, Arnold Christen was about 56 years old in 1913.

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Professor Claimed Esperanto Would Be Important to Radio (1922)

Radio days

While there is a Columbus State University, this June 10, 1922 article from the Washington Herald is probably referring to Columbia University, as Professor A. Christen gave both a summer course and a public lecture there based on his book From Babel to Esperanto. I have not been able to find anything further (like his name) about Professor Christen. It does seem that he was legitimately a professor, specializing in linguistics (and I feel obligated to point out that the discipline was much different in 1922).

They seem to have got the professor's contention backwards though, since they titled the article "Believes Radio Aid to Esperanto." But Christen's opinion seems to work in the other direction. It's not that Esperanto needs radio, but that if we're going to communicate by radio, we need Esperanto.

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