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HAVE THE BOHEMIANS A PLACE IN THE SUN?
BOHEMIA (German Böhmen, Bohemian Čechy[1] has an area of 20,223 square miles, and is bounded on the north by Saxony and Prussian Silesia; on the east by Prussia and Moravia; on the south by Lower Austria; on the west by Bavaria. According to the census of 1910, 4,241,918 inhabitants declared for Bohemian and 2,467,724 for the German language.
Historians recognize two epochal events in the life of the nation. The first begins with the outbreak of the Hussite wars, following the death of King Václav IV, in 1419; the second, with the battle of White Mountain in 1620. The period
- ↑ The word Czech, which is being freely used in the Anglo-American press, is a corrupt form of Čech. The German form is Czech, Tscheche, the French Tchèque. But, inasmuch as Čech is sounded more nearly like Checkh and not Czech, the form Czech fails utterly of its purpose and its use should be discontinued. The people themselves prefer to be called Bohemians, not Czechs, which latter appellation is not generally known or understood. Some years ago a noted scholar was severely censured because he named his magazine, edited in the German language, but Bohemiophile in tendency, “Čechische Revue,” instead of “Böhmische Revue.” The truth of the matter is that the appellation Czech is an invention of Vienna journalists, wbo, by persistent use of the term, wish to give a warning to the world that Bohemia is not all Čech, but part German and part Čech.
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