PROBLEMS IN THE HISTORY OF CZECH IMMIGRATION TO AMERICA IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE NINETEENIH CENTURY By]osefOpatrny

A review of the historical literature and relatives they left behind. In American support evoked by Masaryk's on Czech emigration, or more precisely Prague, Tabor, Jihlava, Broumov, and campaign for Czechoslovak indepen­ emigration from the Czech (or Bohe­ dozens of other towns in Bohemia and dence during the First World War. At mian) crownlands of Bohemia, Moravia, Czechs quickly became aware the same time, a series of publications Moravia, and Austrian Silesia, shows of a community of compatriots in about the history of Czechs in America clearly that, despite obstacles erected faraway America (fig. 15). But highly began to appear, with heavy emphasis by the late Czechoslovak Communist distorted was their impression that on the emigrants' having maintained regime, Czech and Slovak historians of these compatriots had preserved all close links with their homeland through emigration devoted most of their atten­ tion to immigrants in the United States. I That they did so doubtless reflects that nineteenth century Czechs and Slovaks, like other Europeans and perhaps the rest of the world, believed the United States offered the especially attractive combination of an exotic destination and many opportunities to try to realize dreams of a better life, especially one of political freedom and economic prosperity. From the middle of the nineteenth century, such a view was shared not only by politicians, journalists, and various experts on the possibilities of emigration, but also by the public. Interest in America grew especially from the 1860s, when the Homestead Act and the immigration treaty between the United States and Austria-Hungary opened the door to mass emigration, in spite of the Fig.IS. Telc, the beautiful baroque town in the Jihlava District of western Moravia, Habsburgs ' subsequent attempts to im­ from which came many American immigrants. (D . Murphy, NSHS) pose limitations on this process (fig. 92). Tens of thousands of people of features of traditional Czech society­ two generations while perpetuating an central European origin in New York, a view propagated in Czech-language old Czech heritage in a brand new land} St. Louis, Chicago, Texas, and Ne­ American publications by the most Despite many differences between braska kept in touch with the friends nationally conscious Czech immigrants Czech communities in the New World and then duly cited in the Bohemian and Czech society in the Bohemian Dr. ]osefOpatrny is head of the Center for and Moravian press. This impression lands, and however clear these differ­ Ibero-American Studies at the Charles continued to predominate after 1918, ences were to many of the emigrants Uni versity in Prague, Czech Republic. thanks in part to the active Czech- and returnees in the nineteenth century,

120 Opatrny • Problems in Czech Immigration History the authors of the above works chose to emphasize the efforts of their country­ men in America to preserve the life and customs of the Old Country (fig. 17).3 Many of the same authors expressed regret over the Americanization of Czech emigrants, especially those authors who were Catholics and be­ lieved this process to be one conse­ quence of religious indifference.4 All of these tendencies continued to de­ velop after the Second World War and especially after the Communist coup of 1948. During the forty-one years of Com­ munist Czechoslovakia, historians and other scholars interested in emigration Fig.I6. Ethnic persistence. Outdoor practice on the parallel bars at the old Sokol studies came to focus on social ques­ Omaha Hall , 1912. (Courtesy Bostwick-Frohardt Collection, owned by KMTV and tions after some vacillation and as a on permanent loan to the Western Heritage Museum, Omaha) consequence of the oppressive political climate. Most scholarly publications of case during the greatest wave of emi­ of course free of such tendentiousness,6 this period emphasized the economic gration around the end of the century. as were a few of the studies published motivation of emigrants.s Marxist­ In the view of historians writing from a in Czechoslovakia.7 American or Leninist historians and ethnographers Leninist perspective, the crest of this Czech-American authors continued to routinely maintained that Czechs who wave coincided with the advent of concentrate on what we might call emigrated, especially to America, imperialism, according to Lenin the "ethnic persistence," the ongoing pres­ gained no relief from poverty, but only most mature stage of capitalism, ervation of Old World characteristics of a loss of national identity imposed by wherein the economic, political, and the immigrant community (fig. 16). the harsh material and cultural realities nationalist influence of bourgeois These authors studied community life, prevailing in the United States. This ruling classes reached its height. the ethnic press, churches, and secular was especially thought to have been the American work on immigration was organizations, and achieved some

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Fig.I7. Czech cultural life and traditional customs were preserved in many forms. Rare manuscript music of Mate) Kre)Cik, used by the family band at Pishelville in Knox County, Nebraska . (Courtesy Marvin and Winona Kreycik, Verdigre, Nebraska ; NSHS C998.1-597)

121 Nebraska History . FaUlWinter 1993

notable results. But they often over­ patriotism" or feeling of belonging to looked a crucial chapter in the history the Kingdom of Bohemia persisted of their forebears: their integration into among Czechs as well as Germans American life and the evolution of their throughout the nineteenth century and political and religious views, moral beyond, though with an increasing values, and lifestyles.s This occurred emphasis on nationality defined in a not simply because many of these linguistic and cultural sense. Nor can scholars, like their predecessors, de­ national identity be determined merely plored Americanization: in general, by names or the form in which they ethnic studies in the United States in appear in the documents of the receiv­ recent decades have tended to stress the ing country. A Czech name might be uniqueness of various ethnic groups written phonetically in German, or an rather than their absorption into the individual might modify it for easier American mainstream.9 use in a new land. Moreover a Czech From this we may draw our first or German name in itself can never be conclusion: despite the considerable taken as proof of nationality. Answer­ work of scholars on both sides of the ing this question requires other kinds of Atlantic and voluminous files of news­ documentation, such as extensive papers, pamphlets, photographs, and personal correspondence or the mem­ other archival materials, present-day bership lists of ethnic organizations. scholars are confronted with a series of Similar problems are also evident, of neglected questions, which may be course, in documentation from the Old Fig.I8. Austro-Hungarian passport of studied with the help of ample sources Country, a good part of which ema­ Franz Bauer, Smichov, Bohemia, issued that have not yet been tapped. nated from the Habsburg Monarchy'S July 21 ,1877. Bauer was afarmer and At the same time, scholars will have central offices in Vienna. However, for estate foreman before becoming a Saline to grapple with a continuing problem: the second half of the nineteenth cen­ County, Nebraska, settler. (NSHS Mu­ until 1918 the Czech lands, like Slo­ tury, a large quantity of material is seum 7446-10, C998.1-563) vakia, formed part of Austria-Hungary maintained by archives in the Czech There are also materials relating to and included various linguistic Republic and Slovakia. Examples are emigratiqn in the archives of the Bohe­ groupS.IO A related difficulty is that documents in the State Central Archive mian regions, now stored at regional governmental authorities in the new in Prague, including records of the centers in Prague, Tfeboii, Opava, countries to which emigrants came, Bohemian civil administration or Gu­ Litomerice, Zamrsk, and Pilsen, as well whether the United States or the Latin bernium, where much information is to as in the district branch archives of American republics, invariably identi­ be found, especially in the series Pub­ each region, although shifts in district fied Czech newcomers as "Austrian" or lica. During the first half of the nine­ boundaries since the nineteenth century "Austro-Hungarian," without regard for teenth century, emigration came within sometimes make it difficult to locate their true national identity. Like most the purview of the government of the materials. Additional documents may western Europeans, they considered Bohemian lands, the Gubernium Pre­ be found in museums of the above­ "state" and "nation" to be identical. sidium, whose documents are in the mentioned towns. For example, a large Even when the immigrants identified series called the Privy Register of the quantity of such material is deposited themselves as having come from the Presidium, which includes a section on in the Emigration Archive of the Czech--or Bohemian-lands, there emigration. Naprstek Museum in Prague which remains the problem of determining Beginning in the 1850s, Habsburg dates back to the 1850s, when a group whether they were Czechs or Germans, officials deposited many documents of Czechs bent on maintaining close both of whom in the second half of the with the central police administration. touch with their countrymen in century were concentrated in regions of The corresponding documents for America began to gather a variety of Bohemia and Moravia out of which Moravia and Silesia are to be found in documents-newspapers, magazines, came heavy emigration (fig. 18). the Moravian Land Archive in Brno, in occasional publications of Czech­ Such voluntary identification of the collections of the Moravian Guber­ American organizations, pamphlets and origin according to home territory was nium, and the Viceregal Archive, as advertisements of agents of transporta­ not infrequent, for a certain "land well as in the Central Police Archive. tion companies, memoirs, and corre­

122 Opatrny . Problems in Czech Immigration History spondence. These documents are Socialist Workers' movement. 12 ments of urban and rural society, driven indispensable for anyone wishing to Economic emigration was caused across the sea by poverty and hunger. make a serious study of emigration primarily by changes in the central But this view does not correspond to from the Bohemian lands. II In reality European economy and social shifts in the facts. The poorest among the in­ our present knowledge of emigration to the towns and countryside (fig. 19). habitants of the Bohemian lands could, America is based in large part on mate­ During the first phase, roughly to the of course, leave their native towns or rials in the Naprstek Museum (fig. 28). end of the 1870s, most emigrants were villages, but they were prevented by Pioneer scholars of emigration peasants who despaired of acquiring their very poverty from making the distinguished between the political and land along with the social position it voyage to the New World. Even the the economic motivation of emigrants. conferred, and who generally aspired to expense of transportation to the west Such a distinction may often corre­ earn a living by farming in their new European ports of embarkation-first spond to reality, although it also homeland. Later emigrants were in­ Amsterdam, Antwerp, or Liverpool, brought with it a great deal of over­ creasingly urban craftsmen and work­ later chiefly Bremen and Hamburg­ generalization and distortion. By this ers hoping for better remuneration in was beyond their means. definition, "political" emigres fled the dynamic and technologically sophis­ Today it is clear that Europeans who persecution in Europe during times of ticated economy of the United States. emigrated commanded a certain level social upheaval or radicalization of Although these later emigrants have of financial resources and they were certain social groups. These were been the principal object of interest motivated not so much by a wish to periods when ruling elites typically among Czechoslovak historians and escape poverty as by a desire to end the reacted to critics of the status quo by ethnographers during the past forty uncertainty of their prospects for eco­ repressing them. The largest waves of years, 13 their fate as individuals re­ nomic and social advancement (fig. emigration provoked in this way oc­ mains little known and they have be­ 90). These emigrants typically came curred after the Revolution of 1848 and come the subject of an improbable from the middle levels of village soci­ again at the end of the 1870s, when the mythology. The more recent as well as ety. They were often younger sons of principal target of the Habsburg au­ the older historical literature has por­ small landholders who could not them­ thorities' wrath was members of the trayed emigrants as the poorest ele­ selves look forward to inheriting land,

Fig.19. Holasovice, alarming village near Ceske Budejovice, Bohemia. (D. Murphy, NSHS)

123 Nebraska History - FalllWinter 1993 which everywhere in Europe conferred gained from the press and from hear­ Indians, or of the appearance of working­ social status. Unless they were suc­ say, spent time acquainting themselves class slums in east coast cities, undis­ cessful in acquiring property through with life in the United States. I? Their criminating enthusiasts sometimes marriage, they faced the alternatives of motives varied: some sought a way out became intractable critics of America. social degradation or departure for the of personal difficulties or social dissat­ Such criticism appeared especially city. For them, emigration offered a isfaction, or they were attracted by the during the 1880s and 1890s among welcome solution, especially after the quest for knowledge; but they were socialist emigrants, who in their writ­ Homestead Act offered free land and connected to the political emigrants in ings usually drew a sharp distinction the possibility of maintaining social at least two ways. between "the Americans" and them­ position in the United States. selves. 18 This brings us to the problem Candidates for emigration possessed of the immigrants' incorporation into some capital in the form of their share American society. Some of them did of an inheritance. This share was often not succeed at all in making this transi­ sufficient to cover the costs of overland tion, and they sought ways of returning transportation in Europe and America home. as well as the ocean voyage-all ar­ Scholars have largely neglected the ranged on favorable terms by a network question of "re-emigration" because, in of agents operating in central Europe­ spite of the substantial attractive possi­ with enough left over for setting up in bilities offered by the subject, the the new land. A similar situation methodological problems are enor­ prevailed among the earlier urban mous. Most mentions of returnees that emigrants, who generally came from turn up in immigration literature con­ famiHes of artisans, professionals, civil cern people who never intended to servants, and skilled workers. Only make more than a temporary sojourn in toward the end of the century did a the United States. But there are also system begin to operate, which had scattered indications of returning immi­ prevailed elsewhere in Europe, grants whose original intention was to whereby successful emigrants paid for Fig.20. Vojta Naprstek. (Courtesy remain permanently in Arnerica. 19 By the passage of their poorer relatives or Naprstek muzeum, Prague) studying these examples of returnees friends, who otherwise would have had we might discover just who rejected the little chance of emigrating. 14 The first was their intention to emi­ American style of life, why they re­ The traditional distinction between grate temporarily and their ability to turned: and perhaps even gain some political and economic emigrants publicize their thoughts about America, indication of what proportion of immi­ breaks down when we consider the both in the United States and also at grants eventually came to such a deci­ relatively small number whose motives home. Thus this segment of the emi­ sion. Such information would increase were mixed. One of the earliest was gration contributed markedly to the our understanding of emigration gener­ Vojta Naprstek, who must certainly be understanding of emigration acquired ally, but the difficulties of obtaining it counted in the first category, since he generally by Bohemian and Moravian are far greater than those associated was a refugee from the Revolution of Czechs. These pioneering Czech emi­ with trying to answer traditional 1848 (fig. 20).15 In Naprstek's view, grants were also the most active ele­ questions. America offered Czechs the opportu­ ments in the formation of Czech­ It is, perhaps, indicative that the nity to acquaint themselves with de­ American society through their found­ critics among the immigrants them­ mocracy, to experience life in a ing of organizations and their journalis­ selves assumed some of the characteris­ differentl y run society, and after their tic and literary activity. They were tics of the society whose failings they return home, .to use their experience to chiefly intellectuals, professionals, and so assiduously pointed out. The most promote the democratization of life in skilled workers or craftsmen. They obvious is their use of the Czech­ the Habsburg Monarchy. 16 arrived in the United States with certain language press to disseminate their This vision, or various versions of it, preconceptions, some of which con­ views. Archival materials show that in was shared by at least some Czech flicted with perceived realities. After the second half of the nineteenth cen­ intellectuals and political activists, who making first-hand observations of tury dozens of Czech newspapers and from the 1860s, on the basis of ideas slavery, of the treatment of American periodicals appeared with varying

124 Opatrny - Problems in Czech Immigration History frequency and circulation.2o After Czech-American press. One of these touch directly with the Cuban junta in 1860, when Frantisek Koi'fzek began to appeared before 1898, when some New York, whose representative, publish his Slowan ameriktmskj Czech newspapers began to consider Tomas Estrada Palma, responded to (American Slav), Czech-language offering help to the Cubans in their Haberman's offer of help for the Cu­ newspapers appeared in various towns struggle, and not only as a means of bans "with rifle and pen" by providing and cities to acquaint Czech immi­ implementing ideals propagated by the detailed directions for landing on the grants with the wider American soci­ United States. Declarations and argu­ island. Although Palma specifically ety.21 Reading some of these ments by Czech-American journalists warned Haberman against attempting a newspapers reveals the gradual identifi­ also contained references to the summer voyage, especially in view of cation of their editors and readers with Czechs' historical experience with the danger of tropical disease in Carib­ the prevailing outlook and value system Spanish Catholicism. Thus one of the bean latitudes, Haberman left for the in their new homeland. traditions of the Old Country reinforced South with one of his countrymen. This change was especially striking the process of identification with the Before they were able,to depart from at the end of the 1890s, when the new homeland. That loyalty to Ameri­ American soil, both had contracted Czech-American press adopted a clear can democratic ideals and representa­ malaria. and united stand on the principal for­ tive government coincided with At the beginning of 1897 they were eign policy problem which occupied sympathy with the Czech national back in Chicago, where Haberman gave the attention of the entire country: the movement in the Bohemian lands is an interview to the Chicago Times Spanish-American War. The process evident in suggestions by the Czech­ about his journey and about his plans to by which this occurred may be deter­ American press that the Cubans' rebel­ join the Cuban army. The newspaper mined partly from editorials and news lion against Spain constituted both a quoted Haberman as having extended reports and partly through letters to the struggle for liberty and a resistance to an open invitation to all citizens to join editors. national persecution. Such critics of a volunteer unit to be raised in Chi­ The Spanish-American War and the Madrid's high-handed rule in Cuba cago; in the following days hundreds of events leading up to it have tradition­ drew parallels between the situation of men-Czechs, Poles, and Scandina­ all y been called the "War of the Corre­ the Cubans and that of the Czechs in vians-reported to "Colonel spondents."22 American public opinion Austria-Hungary. Sometime in 1897 a Haberman," ready to go to war against is alleged to have been heavily influ­ play entitled Cechove na pomoc Spain. Among them were spokesmen enced by the views of journalists, Kubancum" ("Czechs to the Aid of the for groups whose motives varied as however little these views may have Cubans") appeared in Chicago. In the widely as those of American society. been based on facts . Astonishingly, no play Cuban national hero Antonio One of {hem declared that he and his one has yet noticed the role of this war Maceo, well covered in both the En­ comrades had been "without work for a in forming public opinion among immi­ glish and Czech- language newspapers, long time, and in the continuing indus­ grant communities, whose spokesmen invited Czech volunteers offering their trial crisis there is little hope of finding were obliged to adopt a clear and un­ services for the cause of Cuban inde­ anything soon."24 He inquired whether equivocal viewpoint on the issue in the pendence to join in the wider struggle the volunteers might expect, after their heat of the moment. As early as 1895, for national liberation. victory had been won, to receive some when the events leading to the Spanish­ The identification of some Czech­ land in Cuba. Of course, many Ameri­ American War were well under way, Americans with the ideals of American cans also volunteered for the insurgent part of the Czech-American public society and American public opinion Cuban contingents out of similar mo­ supported the position taken by most of reached such an extent in the second tives; their obvious economic motiva­ the American press. This position half of the 1890s that hundreds of tion in no way distinguished the Czech favored Cuban independence by ap­ Czech immigrants, like thousands of immigrants from the mainstream. pealing to the Monroe Doctrine, with Americans, expressed interest in join­ In the spring of 1897, a more or less copious reference to the need to defend ing Cuban insurgent units and eventu­ organized group of these volunteers democratic and republican principles, ally joined the U.S. Army. In 1896 the composed of "workers, lawyers, doc­ whose advocates in Cuba were then Cuban cause was taken up by Gustav tors, editors and craftsmen" formed fighting against Spanish monarchism Haberman, an immigrant Czech social­ around Haberman and Lajos Farsky.25 and imperialism. ist leader, whose interest in the Cuban They met at a Chicago tavern belong­ This struggle between freedom and problem was evidently aroused by the ing to the Czech immigrant Semerak, tyranny took on other dimensions in the campaign in the press. 23 He got in and offered their services to one of the

125 Nebraska History - FallIWinter 1993 numerous Cuban juntas that had sprung ized as a war of liberation against also drew a sharp distinction between up in the United States. These Cuban "tyrannical oppression." The author their readers and "the Americans." organizations were then more in need also reminded his readers of the bloody They continued to criticize American of financial support for anns purchases legacy of Spanish Catholicism and policy even after the opening of hostili­ than manpower. But the spokesman for made a direct reference to Spain's ties in Cuba between U. S. and Spanish independent Cuba in Chicago solemnly support of the Austrian Habsburgs in forces and at a time when some politi­ presented Habennan's group with a their victory over the Czechs at the cians in Washington were advocating Cuban flag, thanked the American battle of White Mountain in 1620 (fig. American economic control over Cuba Czechs for their willingness to go to 2),27 The same issue carried a report on and when a few others were even Cuba, and announced that "in case of a gathering in Chicago of Czech volun­ urging its. annexation. need the Czechs shall surely be asked teers, who proposed to form an inde­ During this time the AmerikfIn, while for their help. "26 pendent unit in order to offer their regularly publishing letters from At this time part of the Czech press services to the U. S. Anny rather than Czech-Americans who had arrived with had not yet joined the openly pro-war directly to the Cuban Republic. During their units at the scene of the Caribbean agitation. The most important such the same months, the Czech Catholic conflict, also continued to voice pro­ publications were controlled by August paper, Narod (The Nation), also re­ war sentiments in line with the majority Geringer, who since the mid-1870s had versed itself and abandoned its openly of the American press. To a notable been a leading figure in the Chicago pro-Spanish editorial policy. Now, extent, articles expressing support for Czech community, which was steadily with hostilities imminent, it even called Cuban freedom fighters gave way to being assimilated into American soci­ for the fonnation of an independent considerations of Cuba's economic ety. Geringer's Svornost (Concord) Czech regiment: "Whoever is not importance for American trade. Here had become the most widely read bound by necessity to remain at home again, Czech-American newspaper newspaper among Czech immigrants. should take up anns and march to the editors appeared to align themselves Its great circulation, together with that struggle in aid of unhappy Cuba."28 with mainstream American opinion, of other newspapers, magazines, and The press representing the workers although they continued to preserve an almanacs published by his company, from the more recent wave of immigra­ awareness of their central European made him the leading influence on tion took a very different line. Here roots and the community of interest Czech-American public opinion. His too, there was no lack of condemnation between the "New American" and the publications, of course, reported on for the colonial policy of Spain, but the "Old Country. " It was perhaps natural events in Cuba and roundly condemned Defnicke fisty (Workers Journal) that spokesmen of the Czech-American Spanish colonial policy. But, like sharply opposed the recruitment of community should look for links be­ much of the American press represent­ Czech immigrants for American volun­ tween American interests and those of ing the interests of industrial and finan­ teer units. The author of an article the Bohemian lands or the Czech na­ cial circles, he took a dim view of the entitled "The New York Atmosphere tion. In this sense, the Czech-Ameri­ idea of American intervention. As late and the War Circus" wrote of Czechs can press , in its position on American as February 1898 Geringer's Ameriktm, volunteering for the anny in that city policy toward Spain and Cuba, appears whose very name was indicative of its and declared that "aside from leaky to be an important source for tracing patriotism, was still urging caution and, shoes and the rags doing service as the Americanization of Czech in contrast to Hearst's pro-intervention­ clothing, one sees nothing but naked immigrants. ist papers, admitted the possibility that bodies with growling stomachs . . . One Another reflection of the process of the explosion on the battleship Maine look at these poor countrymen of ours assimilation during this period may be at Havana might have been caused by prompts the question, 'Should you not seen by comparing public opinion in an accident on board. sooner be defending yourselves against Bohemia and Moravia toward the However, in the course of a month the Americans before they deprive you Czecho-Slavonic Ethnographic Exhibi­ Geringer's papers made an about-face, of everything?"'29 The Czech-American tion in Prague with that of the Czech­ and by April they were advocating an workers' press thereby disassociated American community. The Czech interventionist policy toward Cuba. itself sharply from the position taken press in Bohemia regarded the exhibi­ This advocacy reached its peak on by newspapers appealing to an older tion as a manifestation of the strength April 28, with a full-page editorial in generation of immigrants. This was of the Czech national idea, while the Amerikdn in which war between the evident not only on the issue of Spanish­ Czech-American community saw it as a United States and Spain was character­ American conflict: the workers' papers chance to advertise in their mother

126 Opatrny . Problems in Czech Immigration History country the successes achieved in America and to demonstrate continuing support to the Czech national move­ ment in Austria-Hungary. Both groups, like the Habsburg authorities them­ selves, viewed the exhibition, with its independent section contributed by the American branch of the Czech nation, as an expression of resistance against Vienna. Differences soon surfaced between the views of Czech nationalists in Bohemia and the Czech-Americans who lived under entirely different political, social, and economic circum­ stances. While the Czech press in Bohemia anticipated with delight the arrival of the Czech-American contin­ gents, critical voices were raised from the start in the generally enthusiastic Czech-American press. The Habsburg authorities several times intervened directly against the Czech-Americans' declared intention of presenting their former countrymen with some expo­ sure to American society (they planned, for example, a Fourth of July celebra­ tion), and many of the visitors were disenchanted when confronted with conditions which they had forgotten about during their years in the United States (fig. 21). Geringer marveled at "how much is erased from one's memory during an absence, and how quickly yearnings and expectations are disappointed. How ecstatic one feels to arrive at the borders of one's native land, and how satiated one becomes after a week, so that visits to places that one has resolved to see once again are hurried through, in order that one might return to the golden freedom of America."30 Fig.21. Liberty vs Despotism. From time to time the Hospodar reminded Czech­ It is thus clear that in spite of Czech­ Americans of what they had left behind. The artwork is by August Petrtyl. Americans' having constantly reiter­ (NSHS Museum 638P-12, C998.1-604) ated their interest in events in Bohemia and Moravia, the majority of Czech­ too, was the notion that Czech emi­ contribute, while others simply lost Americans rejected the idea held by grants would provide extensive mate­ interest in what was happening in many political emigrants that the Czech rial support for the Czech national Europe. 3\ emigration was a temporary sojourn in movement in Bohemia and Moravia. The preservation in America of a the United States. Greatly discounted Many of them could not afford to consciously Czech community main­

127 Nebraska History· FalllWinter 1993 taining contact with conditions in the Beginning in the 1960s, there was a new Old Country was becoming increas­ wave of interest among Czechoslovak schol­ ars in the history of Czech immigrants in ingly dependent on the arrival of large America. See for example the annual Bulle­ numbers of new immigrants from the tin Komise pro dejiny krajanu, Cechu a Czech crownlands. This much was Slovaku v zahranici (Bulletin of the Commis­ clear at least to some contemporaries. sion for the History of Our Compatriots, V Czechs and Slovaks, Abroad), vols. 1-6 After his return from the United States Jak je Americe? (Prague: 1963-1969); Josef Poli~enky, ed., in the late 1870s, J. V. Sladek declared ~ Zaciatky ceskej a slovenskej emigracie do that a halt to immigration would spell Pro pouceni do Ameriky prijetych U.S.A (The Beginnings of Czech and Slovak krajanu :r.e ave zkuien06ti 45-1eti ho Emigration to the U.S.A.) (Bratislava: SAY, the end of the Czech community in pobytu .. Amedee a 30-Ieteho puao. 32 beni iumali.K:ickeho 1970); J. Hoffmanova, Vystehovalectvi z America. The European immigrants, Polne do Severni Ameriky ve druhe polovine with some exceptions, assimilated Jan Ro.lckY. XIX. stoleti (Emigration from Polna to North quickly in America, and even those ...... t.INlnid.'hoh-op..., ..Ho.podU". America in the Second Half of the Nineteenth who were interested in maintaining Century) (Havlfckuv Brod: 1%9); L. Satava, Migracni procesy a ceske vystehovalectvi 19. awareness of their Czech roots contrib­ stoleti do U.S.A . (Processes of Migration and uted by their activity to the American­ Czech Emigration to the U.S.A. in the Nine­ ization of the new arrivals. teenth Century) (Prague: Univerzita Karlova, The publishers of newspapers, pam­ 1989). Druhe vyd6ni. ~ Cen a 10 c e ntu. phlets, dictionaries, English textbooks, 2 Aside from Capek's books mentioned and other material in Czech taught the above, see Stanislav Klfma, CecllOve a Siovaci za hranicemi (Czechs and Slovaks new immigrants how to live in their Fig.22. Omaha publisher Jan Rosickj Abroad) (Prague: 1925). new environment, which differed so wrote Jakje v Americe? (How is it in America?) to assist immigrant adapta­ 3 See, for example, the pamphlet for greatly from what they were accus­ prospective emigrants, H.P. Hesky, P'fatelske tomed to (fig. 22). In 1865 Karel Jonas tion to life in America. (NSHS Library, C998.1-623 ) slovo pro americke vystehovalce (A Friendly published his Tlumac americkj (Ameri­ Word for the Emigrant to America) (Prague: can Phrasebook), an English textbook Czech immigrant society. Emphasis 1872). for speakers of Czech which, together should be placed on the process of this 4 This problem is dealt with especially in with a comparable work by Frantisek society's integration into the larger the e)(tensive work by Jan Habenicht, Dejiny CechUv am~rickjch (A Hi story of the Ameri­ Zdrubek, was among the most popular American society rather than on the can Czechs) (SI. Louis: Hlas, 1910). On the grammars both for Czech immigrants fate of those groups that refused such question of religion see also Bruce Garver, and for Czechs still in Bohemia and integration or of the individuals who "Czech-American Freethinkers on the Great Moravia who were considering emigra­ vacillated. Clearly such a study would Plains, 1&71-1914," in Ethnicity on the Great 33 Plains, ed. Frederick C. Luebke (Lincoln: tion to the United States. Jonas, be just another aspect of research into University of Nebraska Press, 1980), 147-69. whose devotion to his native land the process of the Americanization of 5 The tendency is dealt with Franti ~ek cannot be doubted, began his Tlumac people who traveled from the Czech Kutnar, Pocatky hromadneho vystehovalectvi americkj with the phrase "I have crownlands across the sea to America z Cech v obdobi Bachova absolutismu (The money."34 This was, perhaps, symbolic for the widest variety of reasons and Beginnings of Mass Emigration in the Age of of one way in which he understood his with the most varied conceptions of Bach's Absolutism) (Prague: 1964). At the same time it is clear that while economic and adopted country; it might therefore be what they would find. Most of them social factors were important stimuli for useful to examine Jonas's dictionary became Americans with varying de­ emigration, there were others, which have and grammar, along with the compa­ grees of interest in the country of their been treated by a number of authors. In hi s rable work of Zdrubek, from the point origin, but living with the daily prob­ preface to Frank Halas's memoir, Cesky pekar v Americe (A Czech Baker in of view of content rather than linguis­ lems and perspectives of typical citi­ America), vol. I (Brno: 1931), J. Kudela tics. What these two "Americans" zens of the American Union. wrote: "It has been said that our people went considered important for newly arrived abroad out of economic motives. This is true: immigrants is reflected in a vocabulary Notes poverty drove them from many regions of our country where they were unable to feed their that seems to have been purposefully I The pioneering work, which in some children. But this is not the whole truth, for selected with an eye to forming these respects has not been surpassed, was done by many of our people, especially the young newcomers ' ideas about the New Tomas Capek. See especially his The Ceclls ones, left home out of a yearning to see the World.35 (Bohemians) in America (Boston: Houghton world; and some left because they felt condi­ Mifflin Co., 1920), and Nase Amerika (Our tions in their homeland to be too confining." This kind of analysis constitutes a America) (Prague: Nar. rady csl., 1926). (p. 5). This question is explored in greater future task for the scholarly study of

128 Opatrny - Problems in Czech Immigration History detail by Frantisek Soukup in his Amerika: lectvf ceskeho proletariatu do Spojenych en los EE. UU. y la guerra contra el colonial­ 'fada obrazu americkeho zivota (Pictures from statu" (Statistics on the Emigration of the ismo espanol en Cuba, 1895-1898" (The American Life) Prague: 1912), 254ff. Aside Czech Proletariat to the United States), Czechs and Slovaks in the United States of from economic and political causes, he points Demografie 4 (1962): 204-11. America and the War Against Spanish Colo­ especially to the importance of the agents of nialism in Cuba), Ibero-Americana Pragensia 14 That some individuals arrived in transport companies, who, he contends, were 10 ( 1976): 211-18. America earlier in this way is evident from often influential in persuading people to recent studies by American scholars of 26 Haberman, Z meho zivota, 302. emigrate. Relatively little attention has been European immigrants in the United States. devoted to the question of emigrants' wishing 27 Editorial in Ameriktin, Apr. 28, 1898, I. See Luebke, "Czech-American Immigration" to avoid conscription or responding to other in this issue. 28 According to Ameriktin, May 5, 1898, 2. political pressures. In this connection, some of the source materials may be misleading: in 15 On Naprstek, see Renata Tyrsova, ed., 29 Delnicke listy, May 5, 1898, 202. particular the passport applications which ask Pamtitce Vojty Ntiprstka (A Commemoration 30 "Z vyletu do Cech" (A Journey to of Vojta Naprstek) (Prague: 1926). the reasons for leaving. In many cases they Bohemia), Svornost 20 (August 1895): 2. appear to have been completed with the help 16 Tyrsova, Pamtitce: "Vojta Naprstek: of the transport agents with a view to supply­ 31 Many Czech immigrants lived on the pi'ednaska Julia Zeyra k sedmdesatym jeho ing those answers which would assure speedy edge of poverty and thus were unable to narozeninam" (Julius Zeyer's Lecture on the approval by Habsburg authorities. contribute. The Czech-American press also 70th Birthday of Vojta Naprstek), 1Off. had difficulty raising money. See T. Capek, 6 Of works published in the United States, 17 The significance of such American Nase Amerika. see for example Vera Laska, The Czechs in experience for some of the Czech intellectu­ 32 J. V. Sladek, "Ztracene duse" (A Lost America, 1633-1977: A Chronology and Fact als is evident in the case of the famous poet J. Soul), Americke obrazy (American pictures) Book (Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.: Oceana Publica­ V. Sladek. See J. Polak, Americkti cesta 1. V. tions, 1978); Clinton Machann and James W. (Prague: 1941), a later edition of a work first Sltidka (The American Journey of J. V. Mendl, Krtisnti Amerika: A Study ofthe Texas published in the late nineteenth century: "The Sladek) (Prague: 1966). Czechs, 1851-1939 (Austin, Tex.: Eakin Czech element in America is also dying out. Press, 1983); and Stepanka Andrews-Koryta, 18 Articles appeared in workers' news­ With a little more freedom at home and a "Dr. Olga Sfastny, her Service to Nebraska papers of the 1880s and I 890s, for example little more prosperity, there won't be any and the World," Nebraska History 68 (Spring in Delnicke listy published in New York. more emigrants. Once this happens, no traces 1987): 20-27. This approach also appeared later in sociali st of Czech-Americans will remain within a few circles as indicated by F. Soukup, Amerika, years." 7 See for example, L. Satava, Migracni cited above. procesy. 33 On Jonas, see Lumfr Nesvadbfk and 19 There is no doubt that much of the Josef Polisensky, "Prvnf Cech v Americe: 8 There are of course exceptions, particU­ source material has remained unused or been Karel Jonas 1840-1896" (The First Czech in larly among the more recently published used for different purposes. I am thinking America), Sbornik Ntirodniho muzea v Praze, monographs by American scholars on Euro­ chiefly of the wealth of materials in the ser. C, Literary History 32 (1987). Jonas's pean immigrants in the United States. Many Literary Archive of the National Museum of Tlumac americkj appeared in a number of of these monographs are cited by Frederick Literature in Prague, where one can find the editions into the twentieth century. Frantisek C. Luebke in this issue of Nebraska History papers of prominent Czech literary figures, J. Zdrubek, Cesko-anglickj tlumal pro Cechy in his article on "Czech-American Immigra­ many of whom either went to the United Americke (Czech-English Phrasebook for tion: Some Historiographical Observations." States or maintained contacts there. An American Czechs) (Chicago: n.d., ca. 1890s). 9 An example is Michael Novak, The Rise example is Jakub Arbes, who at one time 34 Karel Jonas, Novy tlumac americky of the Unmeltable Ethnics (New York: 1971). considered emigrating. See Jaroslava (New American Phrasebook), 12th ed. Janackova, lakub Arbes, Novinti'f (Journalist) 10 On this question see Josef Polisensky, (Racine, Wis.: 1908), 9. (Prague: 1987), 46ff. Arbes's papers contain "Prameny a problemy dejin ceskeho a many letters from America. 35 See Jonas, Novy tlumal americky, the slovenskeho vystehovalectvf do Latinske sections on citizenship papers, 121; and Ameriky" (Sources and Problems in the 20 See F. Stedronsky, Zahranilni krajanske property and housekeeping, 139ff, where noviny. History of Czech and Slovak Immigrants into Czech immigrants are taught something of Latin America), Cesky lid 68 (198 1): 3-8. 21 On journalism as a characteristic of the practicalities of everyday American life II For the Czech-language press, see the American society see, for example, J. C. as well as the English language. useful index by F. Stedronsky, Zahranicni Furnas, The Americans. A Social History of krajanske noviny, casopisy a kalendti'fe do the United States 1587-1914 (New York: roku 1938 (Czech-Language Newspapers, 1969), 556ff. Journals and Almanacs to 1938) (Prague: 22 See Charles H. Brown, The Correspon­ Narodnf knihovna, 1958). dents' War (New York: 1967). 12 Czech socialist emigration of the 1870s 23 See Gustav Haberman, Z meho zivota and 1880s is discussed at greater length in (From my Life), 2d ed. (Prague: 1924). this issue of Nebraska History by Zdenek Solie in his article on "Czech Political Refu­ 24 Ibid., 296. gees in the United States during the Nine­ 25 Ibid., 299. Farsky arrived in Cuba in teenth Century." 1898 as a volunteer in the American army. 13 See V. Mastny, "Statistika vystehova­ See Josef Opatrny, "Los checos yesclovacos

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