A PAUPER LINGUIST.

Evening Star, Issue 11893, 22 May 1903, Page 1

A PAUPER LINGUIST.

A " call-over," or special inquiry the circumstances of each inmate, li'is ) been completed at the Bow Infirmary by the General Purposes Committee of t!>V City Board of Guardi.ms. One ol tin- • dest cases of misfortune revealed (say. 'Chronicle') is that of a young Polish , twenty-six years of age, of remarkable .ij guistic attainments, who has been cl>. ■;

to enter the workhouse owing to long-tV.: tinned illness and consequent poverty. Sli ■ speaks no fewer than thirteen language and dialects (and produced diplomas i,i proof of her statement to the Committee)— viz., English, French, German, Portuguese modern Greek, Hebrew, Yiddish, Afghan (Roroean dialect), and four dialects of-Hin-dustani She came to London some years ago to take up a situation at one of t-hi-foreign Embassies, but after a few months her health gave way, and she had to enter one ot the hospitals, where she remained for several weeks. As she was not completely cured when discharged, she supported herself for a couple of years by m v ing lessons, all the while attending the hospital as an out-patient. Her pupils dwindled away eventually, and, beinc un aftle to pay the rent for her rooms* she was forced to enter the casual ward of th" union, from which she was later on sent tn the infirmary at Bow.