Page:Czecho-Slovaks (1917).djvu/19

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS
19

masters, and measures were therefore taken to remedy this evil. For some time the teaching in the Czech schools had to be done without text-books, because it was found that all the text-books published before the war in Bohemia, though this had been done under the august auspices of the Austrian Ministry of Education, contained too much about the Czech nation, which to the mind of Austrian-German officials is a mere subdivision of the “Austrian” nationality. At last, in January, 1917, the Austrian authorities produced their new concoction, this time through the intermediary of the Deutsche Schulbücherverlag in Vienna. It is interesting to read its description in Czech papers. Of course, not a word could be said of criticism, but its “special features” were emphasised with a clearness which left no room for doubt. The first pages of the book are devoted to the Austrian national hymn and are adorned with the picture of the Imperial Palace at Schönbrunn. Then follow the events of the war, displayed, of course, in a proper light—Austria appears always enthusiastically united in feeling and invariably victorious in battle. The series culminates in an effusion on the duties of a Czech with regard to Austria, the Imperial House, and the other Austrian nationalities. Most interesting is the historical part. Nothing can be found in it about true Bohemian national history. It is not John Huss, or the famous fighter Žižka, not George of Podiebrad, or any other Bohemian leader whose life is told to the Czech children, but stories of Hapsburgs, who were not even rulers of Bohemia, and of Tyrolese fanatics who died faithful like dogs to the Hapsburgs, though betrayed and abandoned by