Page:The Bohemian Review, vol1, 1917.djvu/203

 faith in this country. The Rieger Club Octet, under the direction of Joseph Pribyl, enjoys great popularity in a community used to good singing.

As might be expected from an organization bear ing the name of Rieger, the Rieger Club has lent all its weight to the movement for Bohemian independence. Its members are largely men obrnborn [sic] or educated in America and to the enthusiasm of the Bohemian they add American energy and push. An example of their hustling was furnished by the National Fete held in Chicago on Labor Day; out of a total of some fourteen thousand dollars taken in the share of this one club was over three thousands. Both the “father” of the club, John Straka, and the first president of it, Frank G. Hajicek, give freely of their time and money in the cause of Bohemian freedom.

The spirit of Rieger still inspires men of his blood to battle for the liberation of the land of their fathers.

Reviews published in England cannot generally be noticed here. But the September “Nineteenth Century” gives the place of honor to such a powerful arraignment of Austria by Canon William Barry that some, at least, of the epigrammatic hits in the article “Break Austria” should be quoted. Here are a few of them: “On the disappearance of the Austrian Empire as it now exists the peaceful future of mankind depends.” “Austria forms the solid keystone of the mighty Pan-German arch, striding across Europe and planted firmly in Asia.”  “We in the west, in England, France, Italy, and of course in the United States, have agreed that government should exist by consent of the governed. Apply this to Austria-Hungary, and it would burst in pieces like a bombshell.”

“Austria has entered into a partnership with Prussia which will endure to the end. It is her last marriage, and nothing but death will dissolve it.”

“Too long have we consented in thought and policy to the delusion that Europe outside the west was the natural inheritance of three autocratic royal houses, the Habsburgs, the Hohenzollerns, the Romanoffs. One of these lies prostrate, flung down by the people’s mere breath. It will be a happy day when the older dynasties of Austria and Brandenburg fall beside it.”