Norwich bulletin., 1917-05-15
THE WAR PRIMER By National Geographic Society.

1 The Czechs-The liberation of the
 Czecho- -S1ovaks from Austria Hungary being one of the declared purposes of the Entente Allies, a communication to the National Geographic Society on
 the Czechs, by Ales Hrdlicka. the not ed anthropologist, is of timely interest A portion of Professor Hrdlici1a's com
 munication is issued by the Society as
 the following war geography bulletin: The determination Of the Entent | Allies to lioerate the S5zechs from Aus | tria Hungary has intorduced on the l international forum a most interesting new factor, of which relatively little i has been heard during the war and which in consequence has largely es- | caIoed, in this country at least, the at tention which it deserves.
 "A 1,500-year long life and death struggle with the race which sur rounds them from the north west, and south. with near-burial within the Austrian Empire for the last three centuries, has failed to destroy or break the spirit of the little nation of
 Czechs or Bohenians.
 The Czechs are now more numer-
 ous, more accomplished, more patriotic
 than ever before, and the day Is in
 evitably approaching when the shack
 les vii fall and the nation take it's
 place again at the council of free na-
 tions.
 
 branch of the Slavs, their name be-
 ing derived according to tradition,
 from that of a noted ancestral chief
 The term Bohenla was applied to the country probably during the Roman
 times and was derived like that of
 Bavaria. from the Boil, who for some time before the Christian era occu- pied or claimed parts of these re- gions.
 Nature has favored Bohemia per- haps more than any other part of Eu- rope. Its soil is so fertile and climate so favorable that more than half of the country is cultivated and produces richly. In it's mountains almost every useful metal and mineral, except salt, is to be found. It is the geogra phical center of the European continent, eq- ually distant from the Baltic, Adri- atic, and North Seas, and though in closed by mountains, is so easily ac- cessible, because of the valleys of the Danube and the Elbe rivers, that it served. 8 the avenue of many armies.
 Besides Bohemia the Czechs occupy Moravia and adjacent territory in Sil- esia- The Slovaks, who show merely dtalectic differences from the Czechs, extend from Moravia eastward over most of northern Hungary.
 ''The Czesch is kind and with a stock of native humor. He is musi- cal, loves songs, poetry, art. nature, fellowship, the other sex. He Is an intent thinker and restless seeker of truth. of learning, but no apt schemer. l He is ambitious and covetous of free l dom in the broadest sense but tenden- | cies to dornineering, oppression, power 1! by force over others. are foreign to | his nature. He ardently searches for | God and Is inclined to be deeply re- 1 Egfous, but is impatient of dogma, as 1 of all other undue restraint. He may be opinionated, stubborn, but is happy | to accept facts and recognize true i superiority. He is easily hurt and l and does not forget the injury: will | fight, but Is not lastingly revengeful l or vicious. He Is not cold. calculat ting {! thin dipped. nor again as imf1ammable l as the Pole or the southern Slav, but l is sympathetic and full of trust and 1 through this often open to imposi- tion.
 His endurance and bravery in war for cause which he approved were l proverbial as was also his hospitality 1 in peace.
 He is often highly capable in lan- guages, science, literary and techni- cal education, and is inventive as well as industrial. but not commercial I'm than frigidly practical. Inclined at times to melancholy. breeding, pessim- ism, he is yet deep at heart forever buoyant, optimistic, hopeful-hopeful human happiness, and of the freedom and future golden age of not merely his own, but all people.
 The Czechs and Slovaks in Austria lluI1SdTy uBHt Only unuer cOInpulSlOn; l their unwilling regiments were deci- mated; their political and national leaders fill the Austrian and Hungar- an prisons. Thousands of Bohemian l and Slovak volunteers are fighting en- under the banners of France and Great Britain, and there l. are whole regiments of them attached to the Russian army.
 Here in the United States the very l word of Austria sounds strange and unnatural to the Bohemian. They have | 'ound here their permanent home and while hoping and even working for the eventual freedom of Bohemia, and