Ferdinand Schulz

“ Hloucek took another deep draught, and emptied the pitcher into Sykora's glass.
"Fana, the pitcher's empty," he said, fumbling in his pocket for some change. "Get us something more to eat; if you haven't any money of your own, have it charged; I guess they'll trust you," he added complacently.
"Much sooner than they would some richer folks!" proudly replied Fana.
"A laborer never cheats anybody," said Sykora, after her departure. "It's only those that belong to the upper classes that make debts which they never mean to pay. ”

“ The thought that prompted us to the publication of the Osvěta was that we might furnish the younger generation with reading that would awaken thoughts of the dignity and worth of human life, of the rights of mankind, and instruct them as to the daties to one's family, to the community and to the State. ”

“ When the pitcher is empty have it filled again, and—see here, what are you doing? Just leave that meat as it is, don't try to cheat us by cutting it into smaller pieces! I guess the meat market hasn't sold out yet: for all our slavery, we're not going to bed on empty stomachs. Day after to-morrow is pay day."
Placing two of the thickest pieces of the ham upon a slice of bread he laid it before Sykora saying:
"Eat, Vojta, I foot the bills to-day. You deserve a better supper after all you had to suffer from the adjutant. ”

“ Nature, so long defrauded, finally demanded her rights. The next day the people across the street told each other in great wonder that the adjutant had not gone to bed at all, but that the lamp had burned to the very dawn. He was found thus asleep by his wife, who blew out the lamp, and gently raising his head, pushed a pillow under it, and left him to sleep on. When he woke up he scarcely had time to eat his breakfast and rush to his office, not little vexed with his wife for allowing him to sleep so long.
That day he was to carry on the examination of Vojta Sykora. ”

“ But there are some men among us that are content to be slaves, who don't know anything about their rights as men and citizens, and who don't care either, as long as they have a crust of bread to chew, a den with a bundle of straw to sleep on, and a few rags to cover the nakedness of their wives and children. ”

“ As for me, I never wanted to be a laborer, but I've got to be one if I don't want to rob and murder. That makes a great difference."
"When he's hard up I suppose it makes him feel better to worry us, but if he only knew it, he'd be better off if he joined our side."
"Right, you are!" replied Hloucek, "we'd get what we're after if those from the so called upper classes that ought to be with us would only join us. Now-a-days a person can't pick up a newspaper, but he finds something about our 'educated lower classes.' Then we must be the 'ignorant lower classes' ”

“ In the house opposite, in the humble rooms on the first floor facing the street, the family of the court adjutant, Jeromir Sadovsky, was sitting down to the supper table, upon which stood a lighted lamp with a green shade. The family consisted of the parents, a sixteen year old girl, and a boy about twelve years of age.
The parents seemed much older than they really were. Disease, anxiety and want do not give youth, strength, nor beauty ”

“ Pushing the gate keeper aside, an d lustily cursing, he continued: "Get out of my way! I'm no longer your slave. Thistime I have to myself."
"Well, well, Hloucek," said the gate keeper soothingly, as he stepped aside from the wide open gate, "haven't I been waiting for you? no one is hindering you; you stayed behind of your own accord."
"Such a factory ought to be sunk to h—," and a new and more emphatic oath shook the broad chest of the laborer. ”

“ They knew that nothing whatever had been left from dinner, and that she had not tasted food since noon.
"It is almost impossible to work only during office hours," continued Sadovsky, as he quietly placed half his supper upon his wife's plate. "The work gets heavier every day. I have been assigned the task of investigating the socialistic disturbances in Prague. The responsibility is very great, the work must be thoroughly done, hence one cannot be a stickler in office hours." ”

“ The five florins a month that constituted the girl's wages Madam Sadovsky saved by denying herself the very necessities of life. And thus, at the age when most women are at their prime, she was broken in health and prematurely old. ”

“ Emilia Pardo Bazan (see page 257) is the most distinguished woman writer to-day in Spain. She has written essays, books of travel, novels, and short stories. Mrs. Gardiner says, in her preface to the translation of this author's, 'Russia: Its People and Literature':
"Her life has been spent in association with men of mark, both during frequent sojourn at Madrid and at home in Galicia, "the Switzerland of Spain," from which province her father was a deputy to Cortes. ”

“ Some of her novels have been rendered into English, but her short stories are entirely unknown to English readers. Her new novels are 'Un Drama,' which ran in 1895 in La España Moderna, and she has a serial in that well known magazine this year. She is also a contributor to El Imparcial, the leading Madrid daily.
Dr. Ulisse Ortensi (see page 253) is a writer of rare talent and varied gifts. Italy owes to him the first Italian version of Edgar Allan Poe's poems, published in 1892, when the translator was vicelibrarian of the Central National Library in Rome. ”