ism can, in a measure, be gathered. An English translation by Dr. Vincent Pisek is as follows:
Ho, Slavonians! Our beloved language still surviveth,
While the faithful heart within us for our nation striveth;
Yea, the Slavic spirit liveth; it will live forever.
Hell and thunder, ’gainst us raging, vain is your endeavor;
Hell and thunder, ’gainst us raging, vain is your eadeavor.
God to us our tongue entrusted, God who sways the thunder;
Who on earth then shall presume this gift from us to sunder?
Tho’ the earth were filled with demons, our rights assailing,
We defy them! God is with us, His strong arm prevailing;
We defy them! God is with us, His strong arm prevailing.
Though about us storms are raging, bringing devastation,
Rocks disrupting, oaks uprooting, shaking earth’s foundations,
Yet we stand like castle walls, our vested rights asserting;
May the earth ongult the traitor from our ranks deserting;
May the earth engulf the traitor from our ranks deserting.
In contrast to the harshness of Sej Slované, with its clanging battle challenge, another popular Bohemian national song, “My Homeland,” breaths a peacefulness and love of race, of home, and of land that is truly beautiful. This song shows us the other side of the Bohemian character. An English translation, also by Dr. Pisek, is as follows:
O, homeland mine, O, homeland mine!
Streams are rushing through thy meadows;
’Mid thy rocks sigh fragrant pine groves.
Orchards decked in spring’s array,
Scenes of Paradise portray,
And this land of wondrous beauty,
Is the Czech land, homeland mine,
Is the Czech land, homeland mine.
O, homeland mine, O, homeland mine!
In thy realms dwell, dear to God’s heart,
Gentle souls in bodies stalwart.
Clear of mind, they win success;
Courage show when foes oppress.
Such the Czech in whom I glory,
Where the Czech live is my home,
Where the Czech live is my home.
THE SOUTH’S DUTY.
As we study these people, their political, social, and literary history, and begin more fully to appreciate their character and their dominating ambitions—really begin to know them—we cease to marvel at the rapidity of the progress they are capable of when given a real chance. More than this, we suddenly begin to realize that they too possess some of the higher traits of civilized humanity. It becomes harder to carelessly class them as “undesirable immigrants,” for even the most prejudiced of us in the South are forced to recognize in them some merit, as they have proved that they can do on southern farms what we ourselves are apparently unable to do.
A deeper feeling of sympathy also awakens in us as we realize in our more sober moments that with the coming of the Slavs to the South we are recruiting in part the army upon which we must depend to build the greater nation through the building of a greater South. With the awakening of that greater sympathy, even though
