Markus Zamenhof was removed from his post as censor and risked losing his teaching position as well, for his enemy's godfather was Minister of Education. The officials would have to be bribed, or Markus would face total ruin. Ludwik gave him the rest of Klara's dowry.
Markus kept his teaching post, but Ludwik was financially ruined. In the hope of establishing his medical practice in another city - where he would not be suspected of being a crank for his preoccupation with Esperanto - he traveled to several cities in Poland and as far away as Cherson in the Crimea. But there was not always enough work for an eye specialist. He returned to Warsaw in 1898, despairing and destitute, and reluctantly agreed to accept financial help from Klara's well-to-do father.
Ludwik decided to establish his practice among the poor Jews of Warsaw, and the family — a daughter named Zofia had been born in 1889 — moved into a flat in the poorest part of the Jewish quarter, at 9
Dzika Street, where Ludwik also had his consulting room. While other oculists in Warsaw charged high fees, Dr Zamenhof asked only a very modest amount, and when the patients could not afford that, he treated them without charge. Many poor people, who might otherwise have let their diseases go untreated, came under Dr Zamenhof s care. His practice grew, but in order to make a living he had to see many more patients than other doctors did. With assistance from Klara's father, the family was able to have some measure of financial security. On 29 January 1904 Ludwik and Klara's third child, a girl, was bom. They named her Lidia.
By now Esperanto was spreading rapidly. The language had shown itself to be an easily learned, flexible vehicle for communication between speakers of difFerent languages. Early on, Zamenhof had demonstrated its range of expression by translating Shakespeare and books of the Old Testament into Esperanto. By the time of Lidia's birth, there were Esperanto groups and magazines in many countries, and well-known literary and scientific figures had joined the ranks of the Esperantists. Count Leo Tolstoy had received a copy of the first Esperanto book and had learned to read the language, he said, 'after not more than two hours' study'. 'The learning of Esperanto and spreading it', he remarked, 'is undoubtedly a Christian work that helps in the creation of the Kingdom of God, which is the chief and sole purpose of human life.'
Plans were being made by French Esperantists to hold the first full- scale international congress of Esperantists in Boulogne-sur-Mer in 1905. Zamenhof, who was a shy and modest man, hesitated about going. Although as a student he had spoken to small, secret Zionist groups in Moscow and Warsaw, he had never given a speech before such a large, diverse audience. And he was already suffering from heart disease. Thejourney would be difficult for him, and costly. Zamenhof did not wish the Esperantists to treat him with any special honors at the gathering. He wished them to see in him 'not the author of Esperanto, but only a simple Esperantist'.
For a time it seemed Ludwik would not be able to attend the congress even if he wanted to. Russia was at war with Japan, and in January 1905 orders arrived commanding Zamenhof to serve as a doctor in the Russian army in Manchuria.
Klara was distraught at the news and even more upset at her husband's response to it. Although ill, Ludwik refused to ask to be excused from his duty. At last, family and friends persuaded him that his health could not bear the hard journey across Russia and China and the rigors of army medical service. The military doctors agreed. Instead of sending Dr Zamenhof to the front, they sent him into a hospital for a week.
The situation in Eastern Europe was unsettled as well. In the Russian Empire, there was uprising and revolution; terrible pogroms were carried out, one ofthe worst of which was in Bialystok.
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 souclass="underline" 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.'