PUBLISHERS’ NOTE
JOHANNA ROTTOV, better known by her pen name “Caroline Světlá,” was born at Prague in 1830. At that time the Bohemian people were groaning under Austrian tyranny, but their hopes were reviving. The national self-respect had been sorely wounded by a decree of the Emperor Joseph II., issued in 1774, ordaining that the German language should be employed by all teachers and lecturers in the upper schools; but within the first quarter of the present century valuable remains of old literature were discovered, and thereafter edicts favorable to the use of Bohemian were published. Since that time the language has advanced rapidly as a vehicle of literature and science.
Johanna’s father, whose ancestors had be-
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