BOHEMIA AND ITS PEOPLE 



gious contest has run its course, and Protestants 

 and Romanists have found that they can exist 

 happily side by side ; but the two latter are still the 

 questions of the hour. 



The Bohemians possess all the Slav attributes of 

 melancholy and fatalism to their fullest extent. If 

 a schoolboy has failed to pass an examination, he, as 

 likely as not, goes to the nearest pond and drowns 

 himself! In one small village there have been 

 three suicides of this kind in the last year. To 

 these characteristics add an intense love of music, 

 and an inability to distinguish between " mine " and 

 " thine," and you have a Bohemian. There is a 

 saying to the effect that, when a baby is born, a 

 violin is placed on one side of the cradle, and a silver 

 spoon on the other. If the child reaches for the 

 violin, he will be a musician ; if he takes the spoon, 

 he will be a thief. One of the two he must be ; 

 often he is both ! 



Nothing could be more incorrect than the popular 

 idea of a Bohemian that notion of a happy-go- 

 lucky, careless, good-natured, merry individual, who 

 takes things as they come, and is, at least, not 

 discontented with them. 



There are but three classes in Bohemia, and, 

 indeed, in Austria. Firstly, the great aristocracy ; 

 secondly, the bourgeoisie, comprising the lawyers, 

 doctors, merchants, and all the multitudinous offi- 



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