The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-27
IN THE CITY OF PRAGUE
THE TOWN SHOWS DESTRUCTIVE
RESULTS OF THE RECENT RIOTS.
Everyone Seems Suspicious of Every
body Else and the Public Places
Are Full of Soldiers
Correspondence London Telegraph.

| Correspondence London Telegraph.
Prague, with its magnificent thorough
| fares, stately palaces, crooked medieval
| lanes, statues of saints and Sinners artis-
| tically decorated shops and picturesquely
| attired maidens was always an interesting
| cit, to native and foreign "Bohemians."
| To-day it is doubly so. owing to the historic
| struggle which is now being waged there.
| The strangers first impression when he
| leaves the railway station ard drives to his
| hotel along the spacious, silent streets is
| that he is traversing the scene of some ter
| rible calamity of recent date-an earth
| quake, bombardment, or a colossal free
| fight INDUCED in by modern Titans Here
you pass a magnificent palace, all the win
dow sashes of which are filled in with
| brown paper; there a hotel half hidden
| with boards; a little further down big
| grammar school, in which windows, doors,
| desks, forms, maps, and all the other tradi-
| tional attributes of such establishments
| have been ground into one nondescript
| mass: further on the four bare walls of
| what was once a f1ourishing cafe; and a
minute later the half-charred remains of
/ millinerS shop and sausage factory. Ii
you call on friend in hurry the chances
are that, on opening the door of the house,
| you may run up against the fixed bayonets
of a score or so of resolute soldiers, who
stand there from morn to eve and all
| through the weary hours of the night, wait
! ing, like Micawber, for something to turn
| up. If you drive up to the theater the door
| of your hanson is opened by military man
| in feathers, who seizes your right arm as
| gently as he knows how, and ushers you
into what seems an elegant and we'll
I'LL
| 1t is occupied by soldiers, however with
| fixed bayonets and Mannlicher guns, ready
/ to deal death and destruction at mo-
| ment'S notice. On the staircase, in the cor
ridorS, foyer, etc.-eVeryWhere, in a word
| you pick your way slowly and reverently
J through groups of soldiers who look as if
/ they felt ashamed at their inactivity, and
| longed to be up and doing. In the theater
! itself, attention to the villain OF the play is
| divided by nervous fear lest some of the
| real villains should throw q bomb at your
! feet, set fire to the building, or other
| wise devote themselves to practical politics.
| Nor is the apprehension gToundleSS. A
| bomb was found in the German theater a
| few days ago, and if the burning fuse had
| not been extinguished in the nick of time
| by a wideawake policeman a human life or
| two might have been snuffed out to further
| the cause of Bohemia and make things
| hum
BABEL OF TONGUES.
In the streets everybody you meet seems
to be afraid suspicious of everybody
else Conversation, when INDUCED in, is
carried on in whispers. If you stop a
passer-by and ask him the way to some
/ street the chances are that he will shrug
his shoulders and hasten his pace, if
| you had reminded him of something he had
forgotten and must hurry up to get. And
you never know what language TO use.
| idioms, Bohemian or German, the rivalry
| between which has given rise to the recent
| outbreaks of fanatic brutality. Bohemian
| also called Czech pronounce Check)-is
| a Slavonic tongue, sort of degenerate Rus
sian. with , few weird and woeful sounds
| Formerly German was the one language of
educated persons here and of all who wished
| to appear with the varnish of civilization
| laid on thick. the Bohemian being left to
| the tykes and Doors from the country dis
| tricts. Then the Czechs arose in their thou
| sands, and clamored for schools and culture
| and poetry, and all the other attributes of
| a race with a mission. And, having got all
| they asked for, they now cry for more
| They want to suppress German and the
| Germans in the capital city and revive the
| old kingdom of Bohemia, which is to be
| to make history on their own account. But
| there are difficulties in the path and, by
| ground generally, they lately demolished
| German houses, annihilated German
schools, plundered German shops. attacked
| wholesale manner. The military were then
| dispatched in order to establish a truce
| and Il they We're withdrawn tomorrow the
| ''ructionS' would recOmmence anew. The
! grammatical and pathological result is curl
| Gus. month ago almost everybody in
| Prague could converse indifferently in both
| tongues. To-day each person who is not a
| state official is acquainted with one Ian
guage only. and as he does not carry a
| label with it's name hung from his neck
| you never can tell which idiom you ought to
| use. stopped one man in the street and
asked him whether he could direct me to
| such place | was morally convinced that
| he was a German by race and | am of
that conviction still, but he soon made it
l nj hot Il 49,
| education for he rolled his eyes in a frenzy
| which was anything but fine, and, address,
to me like that, you A B c. ETC., drawing
| freely upon those forcible epithets which
regret to say, are generally picked up
! with shocking rapidity by the stranger dur
| ing his first practical lessons In Bohemian.
| 1t was nighttime. and knowing that in Bo-
| hernia one must suffer for ones political
| the street was absolutely empty. SO that
the brawny broth of a. bhoy' there could
| punish me for my audacity, but the sight of
some military hats with feathers reas-
SGred me.
LIKE THE IRISH.
| The Czechs, or Slavonic element of the
| population of Bohemia, possess many char
acterstics in common with the Irish peo-
pie. They are highly musical, intelligent.
polite, and as pliable and backboneless as
| india rubber. They are as changeable as an
English April day. and are said to make
equally free with persons property, and
| facts In bygone times the other races of
| the Habsburg monarchy were W ont to or dit
| them with highly developed Unborn gifts for
music and thieving. During the dark days
| of Hungary's history, some forty years ago.
! q Bohemian judge in Hungary was invited
| to dinner and soon as the gentleman had
| joined the ladies in the drawing room the
| hoStesS-not knowing whether the judge
was musical or the reverSe-asked him to
| sing or play. He smiled, bowed and did
| both for over an hour, to the intense enjoy
ment of the guests. The hostess highly
| delighted but unduly imDulsive, thanked
| him warmly, and said: when / asked you
| to sing | had no idea that you could do so
! but now | know that the proverb is true
| every Bohemian is a born musician or
| thief" These Bohemians are Il majority il
| the country; roughly speaking they amount
| to about tWo-thirds of the population, the
| Germans to one-third. The latter however
are the moneyed class, who possess capital
own factories and mines, monOpoize science
and reside mainly in the cities. The former.
element are poor. struggling, shifty UNI
burdened by worldly goods or ethical prin-
ciples. eager to reach the goal of their am
billions. and careless about the nature Of
the paths they traverse. When the Bo-
hemanS first resolved upon a national res
direction" they felt the need of an ancient
literature. to serve as a pendant to the old
German literature about which people Were.
writing and raving. So they sat down AMI
made one. Now II is a difficult thing. to
compose epic poem in an ancient tongue
and to show such intimate knowledge of
longforgotten persons, things and condi-
lions as to take in scholarly experts-for a
degree of ingenuity which is not found
every day in every country; and there are