THE I NT E R P R E T E R S ’ S E R I E S C Z E C H ééL O VA K S T O R I E S TRA NS LAT E D FR OM TH E OR I G I NA L AN D E DI TE D W I TH A N I NTR ODU C TI ON B Y S A R K A B . B R E K OVA P r ofessor of S lcw c Lan es at thc Umverszity of Nebraska (1908-1919) 2 b Co pyrigh t . 19 0. y DUFFIELD AND COMPANY P1 wte d m th e United S tates o f Americ a To T HE LI TT LE M OT HE R ’ Who n Americ a , lovi g her children s , kept ever b lo o min in m g, her new ho e, a. garden of the fl e C and S k sweet ow rs of zech lova literature . CONTE NTS PAGE Introduction Svatopluk Cech ’ Fo ltjrn s Drum Jan Neruda The Vampire Benes At the Sign o f the Three Lilies He Was a Rascal Frantisek Xavier Svoboda Every Fifth Man Joseph Svatopluk Machar Theories o f Heroism Bo i ena Viko v a- K unétic ka Spiritless B o i ena Némc o v a “ Bewitched Bara Alois Jirase k The Philosophers Ignat Herrman What Is Omitted from the Coo k book o f Madame Magdalena Do b ro mila R ettigo v a Jan Klec anda For the Land of His Fathers iv CONTENTS PA G E Car oline Svetla Barbara Appendix A Appendix B Appendix C CZE CHOSLOVAK STORIES INTRODUCTION THE CZECHOSLOVAKS AND THEIR LI TER ATUR E THE literature of the nation o f Czechoslovaks is as h s a ancient as its istory . For a period of over a thou nd i en years , the l terature of no nation is more closely twined with its history than is that o f the people com i i pos ng the new Czechoslovak Republ c . When the first despatches began to appear in English and American newspapers relative to the exploits o f the in Czechoslovak troops Russia and Siberia, the average “ reader asked : Who are these new people ? What new nation is this that has sprung into prominence as ” a friend to the Allies ? It was nec essary to enlighten many even o f more than usual intelligence and to inform the general public was that it no new , strange rac e of whose brave dee ds they were reading but only the old and oft - tested nation o f the Czech inhabitants o f Bohemia in northwestern o f o f Austria and the Slovaks northern Hungary , the name “ Czechoslovak ” being formed by combining the 1 2 CZECHOSLOVAK STORIES two words Czech and Slovak by means o f the “ ” o . c conjunctive The Cze hoslovaks are , therefore , s o f Co the direct descendant John Huss , Komensky ( i s l Palac k an d n men n ) , Ko lar , y, Havlicek a thousa d he other staunch upholders of t truth and right , torch o bearers f Europe . The C z echs had chafed under Austrian misrule since ’ in o f the fateful day when , a period Bohemia s weak o f l u ness , the Hapsburgs gained control the ittle co ntry i i o f u wh ch , geograph cally , forms the very heart E rope and in many another way has been the organ which sent the blood pulsating freely and vigorously thr ough the body o f the Old World . The Slovaks have suffered even greate r persecutions with no chance of redress from the Magyar (Hungarian) population which forms the southeas tern portion o f what was once the Dual Empire . was s It no wonder, therefore , that the Czech and a o f Slovaks , enduring for ges the persecutions German hi a ar r k i and gy , and in past pe iods now ng too well that they were but tools fo r Hapsburg ambi tion which for go t the promised reward o f independence when its o wn i selfish objects were attained , l ned themselves to a man o n the side of justice and democracy when the clarion a n was s c ll went rou d the world . There no written um s mon , not even an uttered determination but when the r - l man power of Aust ia Hungary was mobi i z ed , the z h i C ec s and Slovaks , forced into the Hapsburg arm es , looked significantly at each other . That look meant D INTRODUCTION C We shall meet in Serbia, Russia , Italy , France according to the front against which they were sent . o f f The story the Czechs and Slovaks , subjects o Francis Joseph , fighting on the side of Serbia and Italy to whose armies they had made their way in some inexplicable manner , drifted through now and then to the American public . But , most marvelous was f o f the feat o those thousands Slav soldiers , who, at — r i their fi st opportun ty , deserted to Russia there to reorganize themselves into strong fighting units o n the hi side where lay their sympat es . Then came the downfall o f the Russian Revolution o f and the collapse the whole national morale . The Treaty o f Brest - Litovsk freed hundreds of thousands of - German and Magyar war prisoners in Russia . The Red o n Army was formed , thr eatening the vast supplies the - Trans Siberian railway . o f i Separated , by thousands m les , from their homes , o f the Czechoslovaks , a mere handful in the midst the millions of German and Magyar freed war- prisoners o f o f k Siberia who led the vast armies the Bolshevi i , pre di sent a picture of unexampled daun tlessness , of splen d courage with only the hope o f the attainment o f their ’ country s freedom to spur them o n amidst their bleak ’ n and bloody five years isolation . It is , i deed , a theme for an epic . It remains to be seen whether that epic shall be wr itten in the Anglo- Saxon tongue o r in the language of those whose noble efforts achieved the i recogn tion and the independence o f Czechoslovakia . 4 CZECHOSLOVAK STORI ES A nation producing the quality o f men who never forgot what they were striving for even though the struggle was centuries o ld arouses the interest o f the o f thinking public . Whence came the strength purpose of these representatives o f so small a country ? The Czec hoslovak Republic comprises , with the combined n o f areas of the former ki gdom Bohemia , margraviate o f l o f Moravia , duchy Si esia and province of Slovakia but square miles of territory and some is its ? no t of people . Where then power Surely in the extent o f its realm o r the number of its inh ab i n ta ts . “ i No t by m ght , but by the spirit shall ye conquer is the motto that has been sung by every Czechoslovak i poet and writer . Its ph losophers have added Only of free and enlightened individuals , can we make a free ” and enlightened nation . It can truly be said that the writers among the Czechs and Slovaks have been the teachers and saviours i of the r nation . In no land has literature as such played a greater part in educating and developing national instinct and u m ideals . In co ntries untra melled by the rigors of a f sti f Austrian censorship of every spoken word , it is possible to train patriots in schools , auditoriums , r o f chu ches . The confiscation Czech newspapers for even a remote criticism of the Hapsburg government was a regular thing long before the exigencies o f war ad m e such a proceeding somewhat excusable . INTRODUCTION 5 It was then thr ough be lles - lettres that the training for freedom had to come . And the writers of the nation were ready for they had been prepared for the task by the spiritual inheritance from their ins pired pre dec es e sors . And so it came about that in th ir effort to express the soul o f the nation they told in every form of lit erature o f the struggles to maintain lofty aspirations and spiritual ideals . The literature of the Czechs and Slovaks groups itself naturally into three main periods— just as does the history of their land . of 1 . The Early period beginning with the inception writing in the Czech language to the time of John l Huss (14 15) with its c imax in the fourteenth century . 2 i . The M ddle period reaching its height in the six te enth century and closing with the downfall o f the mid nation after the Battle of White Mountain , in the dle of the seventeenth century . (Only a few desultory ff e orts mark the early part of the eighteenth century . ) 3 . The Modern period opening with the renaissance o f the Czech literary language at the end o f the eigh tee nth century and including the marvelous develop o f ment the present century . Only a few names of each period c an be included i in th s brief survey . EARLY PERI OD The oldest writings in the old Slavonic which was i brought to Bohemia by the m ssionaries , Cyril and 6 CZECHOSLOVAK STORIES e i Methodius , dat back to the n nth century , when the Czechs and Moravians accepted Christianity .