Šárka B. Hrbková

“ It can truly be said that the writers among the Czechs and Slovaks have been the teachers and saviours of their nation.
In no land has literature as such played a greater part in educating and developing national instinct and ideals. In countries untrammelled by the rigors of a stiff Austrian censorship of every spoken word, it is possible to train patriots in schools, auditoriums, churches. The confiscation of Czech newspapers for even a remote criticism of the Hapsburg government was a regular thing long before the exigencies of war made such a proceeding somewhat excusable. ”

“ It would be a misappellation to designate the few efforts during the period of the nation’s lethargy as literature. A nation which, at the beginning of the Thirty Years’ War—that long agony which had its inception in Bohemia—lost by exile thirty-six thousand of its most progressive and best educated citizens and its liberty at the same time could hardly be expected to recover at once. ”

“ Růžena Svobodová exposes in her masterful and well-nigh scientific manner the frailties and gnawing sores of each social stratum and turns the light on the pitiable condition of so many women who, ignorant of their own purpose in life, live in hopeless dreams until, spiritually famished, they perish in their own illusions, amid the joyless drab of life. Martin Kukučin, the leading Slovák realist, in addition to portraying his own people as he knew them has presented intimate views of the Croatian and Serbian peasantry. ”

“ The Liberal Thinkers are more recently organized, there being but five societies in Nebraska.
The Bohemian people in the United States are unusually strong on organization. Judging alone by Nebraska’s Bohemian lodge membership one might easily believe that they were inveterate “joiners”. It is a well-known fact that as members of labor unions they are “stickers” and believe thoroughly in the adhesive value of organization to gain a point. It is, however, as organizers of social and fraternal protective societies that the Bohemians excel. ”

“ The Slovak language has been wonderfully developed since the time of Anton Bernolák but every means, every fiendish device has been used by the Magyars to utterly exterminate the race speaking it and to crush out completely all memory of the tongue hated so desperately by the Hungarians. ”

“ In the land of the westernmost Slavs—Bohemia—the long suppressed Čechs arose to assert themselves not alone as Čechs—sturdy Slavs and troublesome obstacles in the path of the All-Deutsch policy of their northern neighbors but as men, as citizens of the world demanding their human rights and insisting on the equality of privileges and freedom of thought and expression. ”

“ In that finest army in the world—the public school teachers—the Bohemians of the state are doing their share to train American youth to the democratic and progressive ideals which only thorough education can bring about. There are 290 teachers of Bohemian birth or parentage in the public schools of some forty of Nebraska’s northern and eastern counties. ”

“ It was no wonder, therefore, that the Czechs and Slovaks, enduring for ages the persecutions of German and Magyar, and in past periods knowing too well that they were but tools for Hapsburg ambition which forgot the promised reward of independence when its own selfish objects were attained, lined themselves to a man on the side of justice and democracy when the clarion call went round the world. ”

“ The Czechs had chafed under Austrian misrule since the fateful day when, in a period of Bohemia’s weakness, the Hapsburgs gained control of the little country which, geographically, forms the very heart of Europe and in many another way has been the organ which sent the blood pulsating freely and vigorously through the body of the Old World. The Slovaks have suffered even greater persecutions with no chance of redress from the Magyar (Hungarian) population which forms the southeastern portion of what was once the Dual Empire. ”

“ Each field of literary endeavor has been tilled and well tilled by these awakened dreamers of the Slavic race who have been cradled in the heart of Europe since the fifth century.
František Palacky whose monumental history of Bohemia has been ranked by W. S. Monroe in “Bohemian Language and Literature” as on a par with the works of Freeman in England and Motley in America ”

“ Every one of the counties of Nebraska have Bohemian inhabitants, the heaviest percentages of Bohemians being in Douglas, Colfax, Saline, Saunders and Butler counties. Cities and towns which have a generous percentage of Bohemian population are Omaha, especially the south side, Wilber, Crete, Clarkson, Milligan, Schuyler and Prague. In the main, however, Bohemians are settled on farms rather than in towns, and in the eastern portion of Nebraska, rather than in the western. ”

“ It is Svoboda, the short-story writer, who effectively gives a cross-section of life as he knows it in various fields. The realism evident in his initial collection of “Povídky” (Stories) , published almost as early as his first book of poems, holds his readers as strongly as his sketch “Probuzení” (The Awakening) , which probes the soul of a student to its depths. The author is not always concerned with the social, national or philosophical significance of a deed, but is often the teller of a story for the story’s own sake. ”

“ The high ideals which characterized the organization of the original Sokol or “Falcon” societies in the old country actuated all the early enthusiasts who plunged into the rough pioneer conditions after life in Bohemia where they had had all the accessories of the highest civilization. The first Sokol society in Nebraska was organized in Wilber in 1875. Another very popular and typical Bohemian amusement reached a high state of development in the Nebraska settlements, namely, the amateur performance of theatrical plays. ”

“ When a man has been occupied in one or more divisions of literary endeavor it is always a little difficult to properly classify him. So, in the case of Jaroslav Kvapil who has been an indefatigable literary worker, who has produced several volumes of lyric poetry, a number of dramatic works and also several librettos and translations, it appears a dubitable question to some whether Kvapil should be counted as a poet, as a dramatist or as both.
Jaroslav Kvapil was born in September, 1868 in Chudenice in Bohemia. ”

“ One stands aghast at the mere linguistic knowledge necessary to comprehend the delicate intricacies of the poetic lore of the French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, English, German, Polish, Magyar, Scandinavian and even Chinese without even speaking of his rare ability in presenting in beautiful Czech equivalent the spirit and content of the authors translated. He showed most conclusively the rich possibilities of his native tongue as a vehicle for the noblest of thoughts and technically for the transference of the most difficult rhymes and meters in modern European literature. ”

“ But that the Czech could not long remain content without some intellectual pabulum in addition to the simple necessities is amply proven by the fact that barely had a handful of them settled in the state when they clamored for a newspaper published in their own language, that intelligence of the world and its progress might be purveyed among them. ”

“ Just as faithful is he in giving the Czech and Slovak atmosphere as for instance in “Raduz a Mahulena,” a fairy tale of the Slovak region, “Neklan” and “Vyšehrad” of the pagan Czech period, “Duhový Pták” (The Rainbow Bird) a novel of modern Bohemia.
Jaroslav Vrchlický (Emil Frida) the most prolific and versatile writer of the nation, deserves to be named likewise its greatest cosmopolite. Thoroughly travelled and with deep knowledge of all ancient and modern civilizations to which he gives expression in his works, he fully deserves the title. ”

“ In his “Czech Philosophy” Masaryk wrote in 1912 “Pure Humanity, signifying the only genuine brotherhood is the ideal of the Czech renaissance and represents, the national program as handed down from early generations of Czech leaders. The Czech ideal of humanity—the Czech ideal of Brotherhood must become the leading thought of all mankind.”—Thus, through great teachers a nation of earnest students has been trained to effectively carry out a great idea in the practical school of world politics and statesmanship.
Reading maketh a full man. ”

“ The Slovaks, most nearly allied in language and customs to the Czechs, occupy the fields and Carpathian mountains of northern Hungary. A splendid and ancient history is theirs though in latter centuries it has become one continuous record of bitter oppression suffered first at the hands of the Tatar invaders and then from the cruel Magyars of Hungary and of the always privileged Germans of the Hapsburg domain. Slovakia suffered the misfortune of being incorporated with Hungary in the tenth century and Magyarization has gone on relentlessly as a result. ”

“ The literature of the nation of Czechoslovaks is as ancient as its history. For a period of over a thousand years, the literature of no nation is more closely entwined with its history than is that of the people composing the new Czechoslovak Republic. ”

“ He uses the medium of verse to fling his challenge to wordy, but deedless, idealism among his compatriots, to proclaim rebellion against empty religion, the fruitless promises of politicians, the inanity of a so-called social system forever degrading the Magdalens and letting weeds spring up where roses should bloom. ”

“ A nation producing the quality of men who never forgot what they were striving for even though the struggle was centuries old arouses the interest of the thinking public. Whence came the strength of purpose of these representatives of so small a country? The Czechoslovak Republic comprises, with the combined areas of the former kingdom of Bohemia, margraviate of Moravia, duchy of Silesia and province of Slovakia but 50,000 square miles of territory and some 12,000,000 of people. ”

“ Almost immediately scientific and literary organizations and writers sprang up in Bohemia and among the Slovaks. The efforts of Joseph II. at centralization in the Hapsburg Empire by means of the exclusive use of the German without recognition of the language of the numerous linguistic groups composing the realm, led to political opposition. The voice of the newly awakened Czech nation refused to be hushed and the result was the re-establishment at the ancient Czech University of Prague of a chair of the Czech language and literature, by royal decree, on the 28th of October, 1791. ”

“ His “Kosmické Písně” (Cosmic Songs) are at times simple lyrics, again reverent national hymns with here and there the genuinely earnest longings of a great soul to humanize the mysteries of the universe and make its workings more intimate by an analogy between the fate of little nations and of great powers, as in the case of Bohemia and its military neighbors, and in comparing the tragedies and joys of our earthly life as individuals with the course of the planets.
Neruda’s “Ballady a Romance” (Ballads and Romances) is almost wholly devoted to his own nation and people. ”

“ The love of out-of-doors, due to his country birth and bringing up, breathes through each of Svoboda’s stories even when they concern themselves with the life of the effete and those whose interests are far from those of nature. Svoboda’s technical education in the substantial realities of every-day life prepared him for a position as official in the city bank in Prague, where he remained until 1911, but it did not crush out of him appreciation and love for all that nature gives so generously. ”

“ When the Magyars or Hungarians, a Mongolian tribe, invaded Hungary, they spelled disaster to Slavic unity for, linguistically and racially, they were so different from the Czechs and Slovaks that they have ever been a scourge and a menace to those two Slavic peoples. ”

“ Jan Neruda is usually classed with Vitězslav Hálek because they were the leaders of the enthusiastic literary men of the period—in the main, youths of twenty or thereabout who devoted every ounce of energy to their muse and their nation. They made the new literature reflect their own ideals of social equality, religious liberty, better advantages and fairer treatment of the laboring classes, emancipation of women, free self-expression. ”

“ It suffices that all maps of Europe will now bear the name of the free and independent government of Czechoslovakia—and that the united action of a thoroughly capable leader and a trained and intelligent nation achieved the consummation of the national aspirations of centuries. ”