Norwich bulletin., 1921-09-24
EASY WALKING
Goodyear Shoe Repairing Go
sokoIs Fostered Czech Spirit of 7sr

0okolS FoSIeTeo OzeCn SplFt or TO
 The coming of a delegation oi Sokol Gymnastic Societies from Cxecho- Slovakia to the United States has deeper interest than that attach ing to an international athletic event Europe's newborn republic is sending to the far older republic of the New World a representation from an or ganization which had much to dc with keeping alive a national spirit against the day when she seized her opportunity for independence'
 With this comment the National Geographic Society issues the follow ing bulletin explaining the historical significance of the Sokol societies The delegation of Sokols from Czechoslovakia to the Chicago conven- ton are repaying the visit made by many American Sokols who wnt to Prague last year, each of them hear | ing food drafts so that their presence in Prague would not be more of an embarrassment than a help. A group i of American Sokols met at the castle crowned hill where the March and the Danube unite and there draped Old Glory over a AIillennial Monument, which was erected by the Magyars to commemorate the establishment of the Hungarian state by Stephen the First in 997.
 "The founding of the So1ol organi- zation in Bohemia was the sounding of the reveille to a siumbering nation. Czech nationality in 1862 was somnol-
 ent. Even friends of the Hussite peo-
 pie despaired of its regaining its sense of freedom. The enemies of the race
 which produced Comenius openly
 sneered at the low estate to which the
 once proud nation had fallen.
 Then came Miroslav Tyrs and Jind-
 rich Fugner, who conceived as a means
 of awakening their rac9 the establish
 ment of an organization which would
 escape the antagonism of the flaps
 burg oppressors while cementing the people into a unit by training them in
 discipline and organization.
 The Sokols, or falcons, derive their name from a Slav legend in which that
 bird typifies a spirited and courageous
 youth. The organization is Slavic in conception and it has so far aided in 9 energiZing successive Slavic groups. v Tt was the Czech Sokol spirit which united the thousands of Bohemian war prisoners in Russia and, when the e permission from kernesky came, forged
 them into the army which formed the
 spear point of the 'herens6y offensive
 in the summer of 1917. It was the ' Sokol spirit which actuated thousands
 of men in western Russia, who could
 almost see their native hills, to set out on the most marvellous anabasis . that World War has known, an adven- ture which culminted in the capture of huge tracts of Siberia, and the re- = = turn of the veterans in American :. n transports from Vladivostok to Trieste
 The Sokolovna, or Sokol hall. is not
 only the gymnasium for the men and , women of Czechoslovakia but is also ', the social and cultural center of the :, city or village. It has been through "a more than half a century of awaken = ing nationalism the hearthstone tC
 which the Czech Lares and Penates
 have been gathered
 Last year the seventh Sokol Festi. M val was held in Prague. Coming at N time when the new nations of Europ' l. were still dazed with self government lg it did more than any other thing tt l. unite the people of one country an, h to reveal to them the spectacle of J. nations people cooperating in a tri L. bute to the very nationality whicl h. their cooperation was strengthening lg Sokols were brought from the mos to remote districts. Children who hai
 long heard of their capital but wh D. had never seen Golden Prague spent m week in visiting the places rich i
 historical and national interest Tn
 railways were given such a test a
 war itself would not impose upo
 them. Hundreds of thousands c ,d newly enfranchised citizens had tn R privilege of paying personal tribut ,d to their newly elected chief, Presideu in Masaryk.
 7D The orginzation which was in "a stituted under hostile government t
 foster and physical and spiritual force
 that make for manliness, simultane
 ously forged the national forces whic
 make for freedom. Freedom havin rk been secured, the same organizatio ct- operates in strengthening the bond CT that unite the new Czech state.'