THE CZECHS OF CLEVELAND
their own by right of inheritance. The dramatic entertainments given by the children are designed to familiarize them with the use of correct Bohemian. They use text books compiled by Vojta Benes, a brother of the present minister of foreign affairs in Czecho-Slovakia, and the five local schools secure a co-ordination of effort through the “Association of Bohemian Freethinking Schools,” consisting of the eighteen teachers and an equal number of representatives from the supporting societies.
The Catholic children have hitherto had instruction in the Czech language in connection with the religious instruction in the parochial schools, but in recent years the number of teachers qualified for this instruction has become so small that this is now by no means universal.
It is unfortunately true that in spite of all effort on the part of parents and teachers, comparatively few young people are growing up to read the Czech language. Many speak it because of the presence in the home of grandparents who have never learned English, but they throw away their opportunity to know its fine literature and associations.
The Sokols.
Gymnastic work stands with music and the drama as among the things without which the Czech cannot live. Gymnasiums have been mentioned as part of the equipment of churches and national halls. A large proportion of the athletic groups using these gymnasiums are branches of the great Sokol organization, which, founded in Prague in 1862, has spread throughout the Slav world.
“Sokol” means falcon. This bird is native to Bohemia, and is conspicuous there for its strength, freedom, and swiftness. The costume of the Sokol societies is characterized by a falcon’s feather in the cap.
The founders of the organization were Dr. Miroslav Tyrs and Jindrich Fuegner, two young men of vision, who saw in physical education a means of developing in the Czech nation firmness, self-consciousness, and racial pride. The Austrian government, which looked with suspicion on every kind of public gathering, did not at the beginning scent danger in this union of men for the sole ostensible purpose of gymnastic training and systematic physical development, and the organization spread like wildfire. Subsequent persecution only gave tenacity to the adherents of the movement whose aim is summarized as the effort to produce “brave, courageous young men, strong and orderly men in line.”
A sound mind in a sound body, inspired by patriotism and the spirit of brotherhood, is the aim of the Sokol. Physical and moral perfection, patriotism, democracy and progress are the definite aims. A system of gymnastics worked out by the founder, Tyrs, is the basis of all the physical training.
Classes for girls and women, and for children grouped according to age, extend the benefits of this training. In 1912 a great tournament took place in Prague, in which 13,000 persons were on the field at one time in perfect alignment. It is probable that no meet of equal size and perfection of work was ever held in the world before. The next great festival will take place, not in an Austrian Bohemia, but in the free Czechoslovak Republic, in whose establishment the Sokols justly claim a large share. About thirty Cleveland Czechs attended the 1912 festival, going on a special ship which flew the Czech flag. On the voyage, Mr. Frank J. Svoboda, of the daily American,
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