The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-04-14
HUNGARY'S
 INDEPENDENCE DAY

This is Hungarian Independence Day, commmorating that memoriable 14th of April. in 1s4s, when Hungary threw off the yoke of the Hapsburgs and declared itself a tree and inde- pendent nation, with Louis Kossuth as supreme governor This act of the diet at Debreczin was received with t1mu1tous applause by practically the whole of the people The patchwork empire of the Hapsbdrgs was being rocked to it's foundations by the gen era1 European revolution which began in 1848, and which had for it's object the overthrow of despotism and the regeneration of society. The fmbecile Emperor Ferdinand of Austria had abdicated and the boyish Francis Jo- seph assumed the crown. The time was ripe for the realization of Hun gary's old dream of liberty, and Kos- suth's ardent eloquence aroused the people to- arms. By the 14th of April, 1S49, when the independent govern ment was set up with 3Kossuth as dic- tator, Hungary seemed well advanced on the high road to liberty. The pro- visionaI government had the almost unanimous support of the Hungar- ians More than a hundred thousand
 patriotic citizens locked to the new l standard.
 Francis Joseph. having restored or der in Vienna, immediately set about the task of subjecting the republican revo1utionaries of Hungary. A great army of Austrians was sent into Hun gary to overturn by force the new or der of things. In the first clashes the Hungarians won several brilliant vic- tories. The Hapsburg army was 1 driven back. Tn this crisis Austria ap- pealed for aid to the Russian Czar. An army of 80, o,O0O Russians entered
 
 large forces swept in from the south and east. With a dauntless heroism the Hungarians faced this new foe Inspired by the spirit of freedom, they waged a valiant struggle against hope i less odds. The cause of Hungarian liberty was doomed from the moment the Czar entered the field, however, and within the space of a few months Kossuth resigned the dictatorship in favor of Gorgey. Within two days the latter surrendered his whole army ito the Russia1ns. From that day to tthis the name of Gorgey has been a. missing and a by-word in Hungary. After Gorgey's surrender the Hun garians at the fortress of fComorn on | the Danube held out for 3. time, but
 the stronghold was besieged and taken l by Haynau. the conndander of the Austrian army, whose barbarous and 1 tnhurnan treatment of the vanquished foe and nassacres of non-connba ta nts entities him to rank among the worst of modern military monsters
 Realizing that they had been saved l from defeat only by the assistance of Russia, the Austrians began a series l of terrible prosecutions in bleeding 1 and nutilated Hungary. The young 1 Elm peror Francis Joseph reasserted the sway of the House of Hapsburg over Hungary by the most terrible atrocities The work Of revenge was carried out ruthlessly. Fourteen of 1 the Hungarian generals were executed 1 in one day. A few days later the leading statesmen of the patriot gov ernment were sent to the gallows. l The dungeons of the empire were filled with Hungarians of every de- gree and rank. Kossuth, BeEn and 1 other leaders, with about 5000 other
 Hungarians, escaped to Turkey, and 1 it is to the eternal glory of the Sultan Abdul Medjid that he refused to give up the refugees to Austria, although
 threatened with war. Kossuth made
 his way to England, where he was re- ceived as the lion of the hour, and in his subsequent tour of America he
 was everywhere greeted with the 1 widest applause.