The Czechs of Cleveland
CLEVELAND is one of the largest Czech cities in the world. The national capital, Prague, of course comes first in numbers as in importance, the Austrian capital Vienna is second, the American Chicago is third, and Cleveland is fourth. For some years the relative positions of Cleveland and New York were uncertain, but since 1910 Cleveland has had unquestionably the larger number. Its important position in this respect was humorously indicated by a squib in the “Camp Sherman Gazette” last year, which stated, “There is no truth in the rumor that the capital of the Czechoslovak Republic will be removed from Prague to the neighborhood of Broadway and E. 55th streets, Cleveland”.
The Czechs have always been known in this country by the English designation Bohemian, and it is only with the rise of their own state that the native name has become generally known in the English speaking world. Unfortunately this has to be transliterated, as the Bohemian language contains several characters not existing in English, among them the letter c. This is pronounced like the English ch and is now being generally written cz. which unfortunately offers no suggestion as to pronunciation to the English reader. The native name of Bohemia is Cechy, the people are Cechs, and the descriptive adjective is Cesky,—all pronounced as if beginning with ch.
The racial term Czech includes not only the inhabitants of Bohemia, but also those of the sister states Moravia and Silesia, which now form part of the Czechoslovak Republic. Cleveland Czechs have come from all three of these states.
There have been some Czechs in America from the very earliest times. The presidency of Harvard College was offered by Governor Winthrop to the great Czech educator, Jan Amos Komensky, better known by the Latinized name Comenius; but Cotton Mather tells us that “the solicitations of the Swedish ambassador diverting him another way, that incomparable Moravian became not an American.”
In the 14th and 15th centuries, Bohemia was in point of culture one of the most advanced nations in Europe. Her university of Prague was thronged by students from all over Europe, its professors were known to the world. But even then the struggle against Teutonic domination was an intense one, and by the end of the Thirty Years’ War, culture had succumbed to force, and the Bohemian people were crushed under the heel of the Hapsburg dynasty. The national leaders were all either executed or exiled, their rich and abundant literature was utterly destroyed, and the remnant of the people who were left for long years had not force enough to offer effective resistance to encroachment and suppression. The Bohemian soul, however, was never touched, and by the beginning of the 19th century sufficient force had accumulated to wring many concessions from the Austrian government, among them the acknowledgement of the Bohemian language and permission for the establishment of schools and the extension of educational opportunity. As a result of this fight for education, and of the opportunities thus wrested
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