The Casino, a stately building of sandstone, overlooked the green ribbon of the Aare River and commanded a splendid view of the Bemese Alps. On Monday Lidia was with the congress-goers who crowded into its Grand Hall. Attending the yearly Esperanto congresses would be an important part of her life as an adult, and this first experience made a strong impression on her, as she observed the Esperantists' great respect and adoration for her father. Lidia watched and listened as applause and cheers broke out when Dr Zamenhof stepped up to the podium, followed by the Esperanto dignitaries and congress delegates. In the midst of the cheering, the notes of the Esperanto anthem La Espero rang out in the deep tones of the organ, and a thousand voices sang the words of Ludwik Zamenhof:
Into the world has come a new feeling, Through the world goes a mighty call; On light wind-wings Now may it fly from place to place.
Not to the sword thirsting for blood Does it draw the human family:
To the world eternally at war It promises holy harmony.
Beneath the holy banner of hope Throng the soldiers of peace, And swiftly spreads the Cause Through the labor of the hopeful.
Strong stand the walls of a thousand years Between the sundered peoples; But the stubbom bars shall leap apart, Battered to pieces by holy love.
On the neutral foundation of common speech, Understanding one another, The peoples in concord shall make up One great family circle.
Our busy band of comrades
Shall never weary in the work of peace,
Till humanity's grand dream
Shall become the truth of eternal blessing.
After the welcoming speeches were given, a gold medal was presented to Dr Zamenhof in gratitude for his years of labor, and a girl in Swiss folk costume offered a bouquet of red roses and white edelweiss to Klara. Applause exploded like a hurricane, one observer noted, the audience 'sparing neither its palms nor its throats'.
Later, in the street outside, several hundred Esperantists assembled to parade through Bem, green banners and national flags flying above their heads. With a crowd of curious Bemese watching, the diverse collection of mostly foreigners marched to the square in front of the Federal Palace to sing the Swiss National Anthem - in Esperanto. Afterward they marched back to the Casino, where the Zamenhof family was sitting on the balcony. As they stood before Dr Zamenhof they cheered and sang La Espero.
The newspaper Der Bund reported that the official banquet held Wednesday at noon 'again filled the Grand Hall of the Casino . . . A well-made statue of the father of Esperanto, Dr Zamenhof, encircled with a laurel wreath, was placed on the podium which was decorated with the Esperanto star on a white field in a beautiful flower arrangement. The appearance ofDr Zamenhof- he came with his wife and a lovely blond little daughter - was greeted with a lively cry of celebration.' There were so many dinner speeches, the reporter commented wryly, that 'you really knew you were at a language conference!'
lidia
This was Zamenhofs first congress as an *ordinary Esperantist'. The year before, he had formally renounced his position of leadership in the Esperanto movement so that he could devote his time to Homaranismo. 'Esperanto is now so firmly established,' he told an interviewer in Bern, 'that I wish that Esperantists would no longer regard me as "chief" and "master". I have transmitted the language to the Esperantists themselves ... I have always thought that it is not fitting that the name of any one person should be identified with our movement. Someone may not like my political or religious ideas, or my personal character, and he might thus conceive objections to Esperanto. Everything which I do or say he would link with the new language; and it is better for the success of the movement that henceforth I stand not before the Esperantists but among them.'
Nevertheless, the Esperantists did not conceal their reverence - almost worship - for the creator of their 'beloved language'. As Maijorie Boulton writes, 'the sun itself encouraged the hero- worshippers, for during the official banquet a spectator from the gallery saw how a sunbeam through a high circular window was making a halo round ZamenhoPs head'.
During the week there were many meetings, as well as a garden party, theater evenings and a costume ball where one could buy gingerbread hearts with iloveyou spelledoutontheminEsperanto.
The Esperantists' cherished symbol, the green star, seemed to show up everywhere, to the amusement of the cynical reporter from the Berner Tagblatt. 'Of course the star had to be on the cake,' he remarked. 'Even shoestrings don't seem to be an improper place [for the star], and we cannot rule out the possibility that somewhere the green star decorates soft flesh in the form of a tattoo.'
Some time during the week a British correspondent for a progressive religious magazine, the Christian Commonu/ealth, inter- viewed Dr Zamenhof. Zamenhof told the interviewer that he felt there was an increasing understanding of the inner meaning of the movement. 'Its aim is to promote the real brotherhood of man,' he explained, 'and that internal idea is now very much better understood. We may not live to see its realisation, but I feel certain that our children or grandchildren will reap its benefits.'
Then the interviewer asked: 'Do you consider that the command which 'Abdu'1-Baha recently gave his followers to learn Esperanto will have much effect in spreading the language in the East?'
'Abdu'1-Baha, son of Baha'u'llah, the founder of the Baha'f Faith, had often encouraged the Baha'i's to learn Esperanto. The week of the congress, the Christian Commonu/ealth had published one of a series of articles about 'Abdu'1-Baha's experiences in the prison city of'Akka. His father, Baha'u'llah, had been exiled from His native Persia and finally incarcerated with His family and companions in 'Akka, where Baha'u'llah died in 1892. After revolution toppled the Ottoman sultan 'Abdu'1-Baha was set free. In 1911 he began a journey through Europe and North America speaking about the religion established by his father. 'Abdu'1-Baha and Ludwik Zamenhofnever met, although they came close to crossing paths: in 1913 'Abdu'1-Baha was in Europe en route to Haifa, but by June he had already left for the Middle East. In any case, Ludwik Zamenhof was evidently acquainted with some of the teachings of the Baha'i Faith, which included the principle of a universal auxiliary language.
As early as 1863, when Ludwik Zamenhof was still a child, Baha'u'llah, then in Constantinople, had expressed the principle of a universal language and mentioned the possibility of using a created language for that purpose. In His last book, written in 1891, Baha'u'llah described the Constantinople incident. Addressed to Shavkh Muhammad Taqf, son of a notorious Shiite clergyman of Isfahan, the volume is known in English as Epistle to the Son ofthe Wolf. In it Baha'u'llah recounts:
'One day, while in Constantinople, Kamal Pasha visited this Wronged One. Our conversation turned upon topics profitable unto man. He said that he had leamed several languages. In reply We observed: "You have wasted your life. It beseemeth you and the other oflficials of the Government to convene a gathering and choose one of the divers languages, and likewise one of the existing scripts, or else to create a new language and a new script to be taught children in schools throughout the world. They would, in this way, be acquiring only two languages, one their own native tongue, the other the language in which all the peoples of the world would converse ..." When in Our presence, he acquiesced, and even evinced great joy and complete satisfaction. We then told him to lay this matter before the officials and ministers of the Government, in order that it might be put into effect throughout the different countries. However, although he often returned to see Us after this, he never again referred to this subject. . .
'. . . At present', Baha'u'llah continued, addressing Shaykh Muhammad Taqf, 'a new language and a new script have been devised. If thou desirest, We will communicate them to thee . . .'