Czechs

“ The romantic period of the renaissance affected not only Czech and Slovak literature, but it left its imprint on all the arts—on philosophy, religion, the sciences, and political, social and moral life. The protest of rich imagination, of unfettered freedom in feeling and expression against the cold reasoning and polished conventionality of the eighteenth century found its outlet among the Czechs and Slovaks in an enthusiastic exaltation of their nation and language—two concepts never separated in the mind of the true patriot of that land. ”

“ Then the Germans had succeeded in getting all the business into their hands; but now the Czechs have got it all back again. The banks, too, are almost all Czech. There is hardly a German sign to be seen anywhere. Every street has its own Czech name; but how the Czechs had to fight for this, and how sore the Germans are over it! The Czech believes in fighting for the right, he believes in educating [43] his children, he is willing to make any sacrifice that will make Bohemia his own again. We're a different people ”

“ The Czechs could look back with pride to a period in the past when they were one of the leading peoples of Europe, and they had prepared themselves for self-government by long struggles against the oppressions of German rulers. ”

“ What complicates these questions even more in the case of the culture of the Czech lands is the ethnically diverse traditions of that culture. For almost all of its history, Czech territory—especially Prague itself—has been an arena for competing cultures—Czechs, Slovaks, Germans, Austrians, Hungarians, Jews, Catholics, Protestants, and others. ”

“ The Czechs and the Slovaks, or, to give them their united name, the Czechoslovaks, are a branch of the great Slav family of which the Russians are the most numerous and the most important member and to which the Serbo-Croats with the Slovenes, the Poles, the Bulgarians and the Wends of Germany also belong. ”

“ The Czechs wrought a real miracle, when they established outside of the Bohemian territory a well-governed organization that brings together all Czechoslovaks, escaped, emigrated and captured in war. Here are two millions following of their own will their leaders. ”

“ Within the quadrangle the Czechs are interspersed with Germans, against whom they have maintained a continuous struggle. (See Czech Literature.) Literary Czech is most nearly related to the dialect of the Prague district, but taken as a whole the Czech language presents a great variety of well-defined dialects. ”

“ The revival of the Czech nationality and the inroads made by the Czech language upon the German, tended to a limitation of intellectual development which would have boded ill for the Czechs, had these evils not been arrested before they had time to spread. ”

“ The people of Bohemia are the Czechs, the most important branch of the Slav race, and they have a burning sense of their national dignity, which seems to be centred more in the preservation of their language than in anything else. ”

“ All of them will clear out—Roumanians, Serbians and the Czechs”, says an old gentleman. “I don’t care who comes, Czech or Serb or Frenchman, as long as I can make a decent living.” Everybody looks with disapproving eyes at a man who speaks unpatriotically. ”

“ In Russia, France and England, in the United States and Canada, in South America and South Africa Czechs and Slovaks organized themselves under various names, and under widely different conditions they have constructed widely differing organizations ”

“ Simultaneously with the French Revolution the historians record the national awakening and renaissance of the Czechs and Slovaks, Magyars, Jugoslavs, and in general of all nations in Austria, Russia, etc., and the same applies to the Germans and Italians. This process of national individualisation is so powerful that we find attempts to create a separate existence for the Slovak, Ukrainian and other dialects and languages that had not as yet literary cultivation. ”

“ For more than three and one-half centuries, Czechs and Czech Americans, through talent, industriousness, and energy, have been compiling a proud record of achievement in our country. All Americans are glad to join our fellow citizens of Czech descent in celebrating this precious and living heritage, as well as the extensive ties between our peoples here and in Europe. ”

“ Thus the Czech language from an early period absorbed many German words. It is probable that the development of the Czech language as an independent one, was very gradual. Existent documents, such as the hymn to St Wenceslas, which belongs to the second half of the 10th century, are written partly in old-Slavic, partly in Czech. When the Slavs first occupied Bohemia, they were probably divided into several tribes, of which the Czechs, who inhabited Prague and the country surrounding it, were the most powerful. ”

“ The Czechs maintain that the Slovaks are Czechs, and that Slovakia is Czechia. That is, translated into Western parlance: the Italians are Frenchmen, therefore Italy is France. One must cast one's mental functions to the winds! The deduction of the Czechs is somewhat as follows: Every eagle is a bird, and every sparrow is a bird, therefore every sparrow is an eagle. ”

“ The Czechs and Slovaks of the present day are imbued with the Hussite principle? and they go forth to battle with the same spirit as that which prompted the medieval warriors of Bohemia. They will not disappoint the world. ”

“ The reformer Jan Huss, who, by the religious movement which he inaugurated, contributed so powerfully toward the assertion of nationality by the Czechs, gave an immense impulse to the development of Czech literature, and 1410—the year of his open breach with Rome—is commonly considered the beginning of a new era. Though a master of the Latin tongue, Huss preferred Czech for works which were designed for the people as a whole, and the language received at his hands a perfection which it had never before attained. ”

“ At this time the Czechs were much weakened by quarrels among themselves. A new party had arisen, calling themselves Radicals, but generally known as the Young Czechs. They disliked the alliance with the aristocracy and the clergy; they wished for universal suffrage, and recalled the Czech dissensions.Hussite traditions. They desired to take their seats in the diet, and to join with the Germans in political reform. They violently attacked Rieger, the leader of the Old Czechs, who maintained the alliance with the Feudalists and the policy of passive opposition. ”

“ Under their kings the Czechs reach an important position among the European nations. They rule, in turn, over large parts of what are now Austrian provinces, and briefly even over Hungary, Poland, and Galicia. But their fortune varies. From the time of Charlemagne they struggle, often for their very existence, with their neighbors, irritated by their presence, their racial diversity, and their riches. ”

“ Czardas, zär′das (Hung. pron. chär′dosh) , n. a Hungarian national dance, consisting of two sections—a slow movement called a lassu or lassan, and a quick step, the friss or friska.
Czech, tshek, n. a member of the most westerly branch of the Slavic family of races, the term including the Bohemians, or Czechs proper, the Moravians, and the Slovaks: the language of the Czechs, Bohemian, closely allied to Polish.—adj., also Czech′ic. ”

“ These writers through travel and wide reading in the literatures of other lands have imbibed the spirit of those countries which they present in literary masterpieces. The Czechs and Slováks no longer are content to be provincial, the local traditions do not suffice. The themes which other nations admire they examine and discuss through the means afforded by their own gifted literary interpreters. ”

“ Already men who under the Austrian regime would never think of calling themselves Czechs now vie with one another in promising loyalty to the new state and using the Czech language in place of German. In cities like Hodonín, Masaryk’s birthplace, where the Germans artificially maintained their rule, German schools are empty, because most of the children attending them have been placed by their parents in Czech schools. The Jewish element of the population claims to be Czech now and speaks Czech in public. ”

“ The reason for this is that Czechs and Slovaks, though close neighbors, have lived a separate life for nearly a thousand years. The Czechs had for centuries their own kingdom of Bohemia, until in the 17th century they were merged with the Austrian possessions of the House of Hapsburg, while the Slovaks were a part of the kingdom of Hungary and lived under the sway of Magyar landholders. ”

“ The degree of relationship between the Czechs and Slovaks is one not easy to define. According to the one view, which is popular especially among the Czechs, the two peoples represent an original ethnic and linguistic unit—a single race, which through historic accidents came to be separated for centuries and to be considerably differentiated in speech, customs, and character, although always preserving such close linguistic and moral ties that they deserve to be considered as one nation. ”

“ Even if they be counted as the same or similar, possessing common historical traditions, using kindred languages, sharing common aspirations, and being willing to throw their lot in with the Czechs, there is a difference in culture—a striking difference. The Slovaks and the peoples of other regions ceded by Hungary to Czechoslovakia contain a large percentage of illiterates. ”

“ I refer to those evidences of the national genius which took the shape of paintings, of pieces of sculpture, of musical and literary compositions and which belonging to the realm of the spirit were as indestructable as the laws of God and of nature.
The ancient land of the Czechs, betrayed by those who should have been its friends and protectors, today lies at the mercy of an enemy who for sheer brutality and lust for cruelty has never been quite surpassed within the written annals of history. ”

“ The immigration of the Czechs into this country dates very largely from near the middle of the last century, when, following the revolutionary movements of 1848, from which Bohemia was not spared, persecution drove many into foreign lands. During our Civil War many Czechs fought bravely in the armies of the North.
The total number of Czechs now living, exclusive of Slovaks, is estimated at 9,000,000, of whom 7,000,000 are under Austria-Hungary ”

“ In spite of the constant struggle against the perjured dynasty, the Czech nation is to-day, culturally and economically, one of the most progressive nations. It has thus proved its virility, its energy and ability to hold its own against the pressure of imperialistic Germany and Austria; this high degree of culture, as we have emphasised before, being attained by the Czechs through their own strength, without assistance from the dynasty and from Austria. ”

“ In the United States there are five hundred thousand Czechs, and you never hear of them giving trouble to the Government nor any one else. Everywhere they are known as a quiet, industrious race, doing their business and offending no one. In Europe they have a great many obstacles to overcome. One of them is that the Germans are trying to crush them wherever they can. Every nation loves its tongue and wishes it to live, so do the Czechs. ”

“ How do they dare to maintain that the Czechs “do not want to be liberated”? The war is for the Hapsburg Monarchy not merely external, it is also a war on its submerged nationalities. The Czechs do not complain. War it is between them and the Germans and Magyars. ”

“ A Czech nationalist at a time when the present expansion of Czecho-Slovak power and the sudden collapse of German dominion in Bohemia could not possibly be foreseen, his idea was that the Czechs must be under no illusions as to their strength. ”

“ Because they oppose, are they to be called wild, obstinate, and ill-governed? The Czechs' language is not so difficult. I know Americans speaking the Czechs' language as well as Czechs themselves. I do not wish to discuss their rights, but I do feel that where a sad mistake has been made it ought to be rectified. Young readers must be informed correctly ”

“ Not a portion of the Czechs but all of them have had political education and have been familiar with suffrage and parliamentary life. The Czechs had their quota262 of functionaries in the Hapsburg Empire, which gives them trained men for government service. Without intending offense, one might say that the Czechs are the most promising of the newly emancipated people because they are German-trained in public life, administration, and education, as well as in business. ”

“ In spite of the fact that Czechs and Slovaks are no longer neighbours of the Jugoslavs, their political, literary, and cultural reciprocity, and more recently also their economic reciprocity, is very close. ”

“ As far as Germans of Bohemia and Moravia are concerned, all evidence shows that with the exception of professional agitators they are quite satisfied to stay out of Germany, and most of those who can talk the Bohemian language already call themselves Czechs. ”

“ The Czechs, then, have preserved their love for folk tales, adapting them to the higher morality and to the national sentiment, and discarding many of their supernatural features, or where the supernatural was allowed to remain for a moment, reverting very soon to the strict limits of probability. ”

“ Czech is difficult, unpronounceable, and spoken by some 5,000,000 in all. It must be remembered, too, that the two nations do not really live together in Bohemia, but that the Germans live in a broad belt all round the country, while the Czechs inhabit the central plain. There is no more reason for a German Bohemian to acquire Czech than there is for a citizen of Edinburgh to make himself master of Gaelic. On the other hand, every educated Czech naturally learns German, even in a purely Czech-speaking district. ”