Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 03.djvu/286

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CZECHS
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CZOLGOSZ

again emphasized the socialistic ideals of the government and the desire to accomplish this peacefully, not only within the Republic, but through peaceful relations with all other nations.

CZECHS (chegs), the extreme W. branch of the great Slavonic family of races. The Czechs have their headquarters in Bohemia, where they arrived in the 5th century. The origin of the name is unknown. They speak a Slavonic dialect of great antiquity and of high scientific cultivation. The Czech language is distinguished as highly inflectional, with great facility for forming derivatives, frequentatives, inceptives, and diminutives of all kinds. Like the Greek it has a dual number, and its manifold declensions, tenses, and participial formations, with their subtle shades of distinction, give the language a complex grammatical structure. The alphabet consists of 42 letters, expressing a great variety of sounds. In musical value the Czech comes next to Italian. See Czecho-Slovakia.

CZENSTOCHAU, or CZENSTOCHOWA (chens′to-gou), a town of Poland, 148 miles S. W. of Warsaw by rail. A Catholic monastery, founded here about 1382, is visited yearly by 50,000 to 60,000 pilgrims, as possessing the famous “Black Virgin,” a murky painting of Byzantine origin, but ascribed by legend to St. Luke himself. In 1655 Czenstochau was the only place in Poland which offered resistance to Charles Gustavus of Sweden, when 70 monks and 150 soldiers for 38 days held out against 10,000 men. The inhabitants, about 18,000, carry on a considerable trade in sacred pictures and rosaries.

CZENMAK, JOHN NEPUMUK, a German physiologist and physician; bom in Prague, June 17, 1828; Professor of Physiology at Jena. He was the inventor and introducer of the laryngoscope and rhinoscope, and of a new method for the therapeutical and surgical treatment of diseases of the epiglottis and throat. His work on the laryngoscope has been translated and published in several languages. He died Sept. 16, 1873.

CZERNIN VON CHUDENITZ, COUNT OTTOKAR, Austrian statesman, was Austro-Hungarian ambassador to Rumania in 1914, when the World War broke out, and for some time after. The entry of Italy into the war on the side of the Allies having discredited Burian, the Foreign Minister, who had carried on the negotiations with Italy, he was forced to resign, Dec. 23, 1916, whereupon Count Czernin was appointed to his place. Czernin represented Austria-Hungary in the negotiations with Bolshevist Russia, preceding the Brest-Litovsk Treaty. He resigned on April 15, 1918, being involved in the scandal resulting from a letter written by the Emperor himself to his brother-in-law, Prince Sixtus of Bourbon, through whom it was proposed to effect a peace with the Allies at Germany's cost.

CZERNOWITZ, the capital of the former Austrian province of Bukowina; stands 720 feet above sea-level, near the right bank of the Pruth, 165 miles S. E. of Lemberg. Among its buildings are the palace of a Greek archbishop (1875); his cathedral (1864), on the model of St. Isaac's at St. Petersburg; the Armenian church (1875); the synagogue (1877); and the “Austria Monument” (1875). The university here was founded in 1875. The manufactures and trade previous to the World War, during which the town and its vicinity saw much severe fighting, were steadily developing. Pop. about 90,000.

CZERNY (cher′nē), GEORGE, Hospodar of Servia; born in the neighborhood of Belgrade about 1770. His true name was George Petrovitch, but he was called Czerny or Kara George, i. e., Black George. In 1801 he organized an insurrection of his countrymen against the Turks, took Belgrade, and forced the Porte to recognize him as Hospodar of Servia. In 1813, however, he had to retire before a superior force, and took refuge in Austria. Returning to his country in 1817, he was taken and put to death in July.

CZOLGOSZ, LEON, an American assassin; born about 1874, of Polish-German ancestry; worked at various trades in the United States and became affiliated with anarchists through the teachings of Emma Goldman (q. v.). On Sept. 6, 1901, while President McKinley was holding a public reception at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, N. Y., Czolgosz treacherously shot him twice. On Sept. 14, the President died; on Sept. 23 Czolgosz was brought to trial; on the 26th was sentenced to death, and was electrocuted in the prison of Auburn, N. Y., Oct. 29, 1901.