Beatrice M. Mekota and Francis Haffkine Snow

“ For the tragedy of Bohemia, which has given a minor strain to the song and the lay of its gifted children alike, has been the national tragedy laid bare in The Four Bare Walls,—the rebellion and hopeless struggle of a small Slavic nation, distinctly different in its sentiments, its language and national characteristics from the Austro-Germans who have governed and for three centuries oppressed it, fighting a fight unto death against the iron heel which has tried to denationalize a people through repeated attempts to wrest from them their native language. ”

“ Subert reveals in his drama an intimate acquaintance with the people, but the dominant theme of his dramas is one of patriotic devotion to the oppressed and bleeding little nation which he loved with an almost absorbing love. ”