Page:President of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, Thomas G. Masaryk.pdf/12

 he sometimes acted as ministrant in church, and was the starpupil in school; when the dean had conferred his approbation upon the boy several times it did not require much urging to get his parents to send him to the lower "Real Schule" in Hustopeč (German, of course, because at that time there was no Czech high-school in Moravia).

He absolved the first and second years there, which were necessary to enable the student to enter normal school. Thomas was to be a teacher. But when he had completed those two grades of "Real Schule", Thomas was only thirteen years old, and the normal school accepted no pupils under sixteen. For this reason he became helper to the teacher in the school of Hodonín; among other things he taught music. But his parents grew tired of this long waiting, and found Thomas a trade. His mother took him to Vienna to a family in which she had once been employed and which supported itself with a „Kunstschlosserei“,—which in reality was an ordinary locksmith's trade. Thomas did not endure it long there, because it wearied him to do nothing but stand all the time by a machine, and besides the other apprentices kept taking away his books, particularly his atlas, which were his only joy. He became homesick and returned to his parents to Čejč. There he took up another trade. He was sent to be taught by the blacksmith on the estate and wished to follow this occupation. But upon the expostulations of his former teacher in Hustopeč, his parents decided to have Thomas prepare himself to be a teacher after all. For the second time, therefore, he began to help out in school, this time in Čejkovice. There was not much teaching to be done, because only those attended school who wished to do so; the young assistant went to funerals, sang, attended to the village bell-turret, and inasmuch as after all he was desirous of knowledge, learned French. At the close of the school-year of 1865, upon the urgency of the local chaplain, Thomas passed the entrance examination to the second grade of "gymnasium" and began to study in Brno.

At the "gymnasium" of Brno (German, of course), Thomas Masaryk distinguished himself in all directions. In spite of the fact that he supported himself, like all poor students, by giving lessons, he acquitted himself of his studies with honours and besides privately learned Polish so well that he used to write his Czech compositions also in Polish. He remained in Brno, however, only till he had completed the sixth form. He was given to understand by the professors' staff that he should leave. He was a restless spirit and often had conflicts, both of a philological 4