Page:The Bohemian Review, vol1, 1917.djvu/172

 of all these high treason prosecutions. For that right all our great men fought up to this day. Death had no terrors for them. The Bohemian people fight in this war for the right to dispose of themselves and for the liberty of Slavs. For that ideal we have fought and suffered, and for it we shall go on fighting until the end.”

How proud are the descendants of Bohemia in these United States of the noble courage of their kinsmen in the old country. The same love of liberty that actuated the heroes of the American Revolution is at the bottom of the boldness and the sacrifices of the Czechs. They are the leaders in revolt of the other oppressed Slavs of Austria. The sympathy of every liberty-loving American should be extended to the rebels of Bohemia.

The nation whose exploits have aroused so much admiration in the last two years, the nation of mountain-climbing soldiers, the nation of great engineers, the cradle of western culture, is passing through her hour of trial. Austria alone she was able to defeat, but a combined Austro-German attack overwhelmed her for the moment. The whole world, outside of the German alliance, watches with bated breath the greated struggle now going on in the plains of Venetia and prays that once more the descendants of the Romans, aided by their western allies, may stop the descent of the northern barbarians, the modern Huns. But no people watches the struggle more anxiously and with such intense sympathy as the Czechs, whether those living in their native land or those scattered throughout Europe and America.

There are many ties that bind the people of Bohemia to the sons of Italy, but none so strong. at this time as the consciousness that they both have the same deadly enemy—the empire of the Hapsburgs. For three centuries the Czechs have suffered under the yoke of the foreigner; for nearly two centuries the same haughty, cruel foreigner held down Italy, a mere geographical expression, as he called it, and laughed at her aspirations to lead her own, free, national life. The great epic of modern Italy is its successful fight to throw off the domination of the hated Tedescos; the heroes Italy worships are the men who were leaders in the long drawn out fight against Austria. And still the obstable to Italy’s complete unification is the same dynastic, monstrous survival from the Middle Ages, the Austro-Hungarian empire. The present situation in Venetia is a demonstration of the constant danger which Austria constitutes to the very existence of a strong Italy. Others, France. England, United States, look upon Germany as their dangerous antagonist; Italy knows that her inveterate enemy is Austria.

One would expect that a rapprochement would have occurred long ago between the great people of Italy and the smaller Czech nation. But before the war, and even for a time after Italy joined the Allies, there was little contact between the two peoples. Of course, Bohemia owes much to the genius of Italy. Bohemian art, her learning, her literature, received its inspiration from beyond the Alps. And even in politics the influence of the greater nation made itself felt in the affairs of the far-off Slavs. In 1848 young Rieger, who was destined to be the leader of the Czechs for many decades, rushed to Vienna from Rome inspired by the ideals of Young Italy to direct the struggles of his newly awakened nation on the same lines. Garibaldi has been a name to swear by in Bohemia, and the Sokols, the great national institution of the Czech nation adopted the red shirts of the Garibaldians for their uniforms. But as international relations came to shape themselves after 1878, Bohemia necessarily ceased to look to Italy as a possible ally; the French and Russians became the hope of the Slavs in their never-ending fight against German violence.

This unfortunate state of affairs made its influence felt even after the war had shaken up all Europe and created an entirely new situation. The wonderful campaign conducted abroad by escaped Czech leaders, supported by emigrants in Europe and America, for the purpose of breaking for good the Austrian fetters was directed principally at the gaining of the good will of France, England, and Russia. Italy did not at first receive the attention due to her, and not being sufficiently informed of the