Esperanto on Mars

A Martian.
Does he speak
Esperanto?

That’s the implication of a short item in the Washington Herald on April 15, 1908. It’s a little comic item, meant more to poke fun at (then) contemporary fashion foibles than to seriously make reference to Esperanto. In this case, Merry Widow hats are the subject at which fun is being poked. For those who don’t follow women’s fashion, the Merry Widow hat was a broad-brimmed women’s hat, often decorated, which was popular in the early twentieth century.

In the science fiction of the era, Mars was often depicted as a vastly older planet with the remnants of a once-glorious civilization, now in its dying days, but whose inhabitants (if they still existed) were intelligent and wise beyond the measure of man. (On the other hand, Edgar Rice Burroughs created a Mars of both futuristic science and a variety of fairly savage, feudal societies.) In the comic item in the Herald, we seem to have the wise survivor of the dying society, speaking a logical language, since in the quip, the Martian speaks Esperanto.

---

You can follow my blog on Twitter (@impofthediverse) or on Facebook. If you like this post, share it with your friends. If you have a comment just for me, e-mail me at impofthediverse@gmail.com.

---

This blog runs solely on ego! Follow this blog! Comment on this post! Let me know that you want to read more of it!