BOHEMIA AND THE CZECHS 



183 



in Europe from the old Bohemian his- 

 torians. His historical works, as well as 

 his statesmanship and other important 

 activities, bring him the name of the 

 "father of the nation." He is regarded 

 as the foremost Bohemian of the nine- 

 teenth century ,* and his monument in 

 Prague is one of the most remarkable 

 works of art in Europe. 



In the line of invention this earlier 

 period gives Prokop Divis (1696- 1765), 

 the discoverer of the lightning rod 

 (1754), and Josef Ressl (1793-1857), the 

 inventor of the screw propeller. 



In science and medicine there stand 

 foremost Jan Evang. Purkinje (1787- 

 1869), founder of the first physiological 

 institute in Germany and father of ex- 

 perimental physiology ; Karel Rokytanski 

 (1804- 1 878), the most deserving pioneer 

 of pathological anatomy; Josef Skoda 

 (1805-1881), the founder of modern 

 methods of physical diagnosis of disease; 

 Edward Albert (1841-1912), the great 

 surgeon of the Vienna University; Ant. 

 Fric (1832-1913), the noted paleontolo- 

 gist. 



BOHEMIAN COMPOSERS AND MUSICIANS 



The Bohemian pantheon is particularly 

 rich in composers and musicians. Of the 

 former one of the best known to the 

 world is Bedrich Smetana (1824-1884), 

 the founder of the modern school of Bo- 

 hemian music and the composer, among 

 many other exquisite works, of the "Pro- 

 dana Nevesta" (The Bartered Bride), a 

 national opera which has appeared re- 

 peatedly within the last few years at the 

 Metropolitan Opera House, New York. 

 The great cycle, "My Country," with the 

 "Libuse" and "Dalibor," are a few other 

 of his compositions. 



Anton Dvorak (1841-1904) was ad- 

 mittedly the greatest composer of his 

 time. His "Slavonic Dances" and his 

 symphonies are known everywhere. In- 

 vited to this country, he was for several 

 years director of the National Conserva- 

 tory of Music in New York City, during 

 which time he made an effort to develop 

 purely American music based on native, 

 and especially Indian, motives. 



Among musicians the name of Jan 



Kubelik (1880-. . . . ) and Kocian are too 

 well known in this country to need any 

 introduction, and the same is true of the 

 operatic stars Slezak and Emmy Destin. 



Of poets the two greatest are Svatopluk 

 Cech (1846-1910) and Jaroslav Vrch- 

 licky (1853-1912). They are not as 

 well known in foreign lands as the 

 Bohemian composers and musicians only 

 because of the almost unsurmountable 

 difficulties which attend the translation 

 of their works. In novelists and other 

 writers, of both sexes, Bohemia is rich, 

 but as yet translations of their works 

 are few in number and they remain 

 comparatively unknown to the world at 

 large. 



The above brief notes, which do but 

 meager justice to the subject, would be 

 incomplete without a brief reference to 

 a few of the most noted Bohemian jour- 

 nalists and statesmen of more than local 

 renown. Of the former at least two need 

 to be mentioned — Karel Havlicek (1821- 

 1856), martyred by Austria, and Julius 

 Greger (1831-1896), the founder of the 

 Narodni Listy, the most influential of 

 Bohemian journals. 



The most prominent modern statesmen 

 of Bohemia are Karel Kramar (1860- 

 ....), since the beginning of the war in 

 Austrian prison, and Thos. G. Masaryk 

 (1850-....), since the war a fugitive 

 from Austrian persecution, now at Ox- 

 ford University, England. The sister of 

 the latter is well known in this country 

 and her recent liberation from a prison 

 in Vienna was in no small measure due 

 to the intervention of her American 

 friends.* 



BOHEMIANS IN THE UNITED STATES 



It seems a far cry from Bohemia to 

 this country, yet their relations are both 

 of some import and ancient. The man 

 who made the first maps of Maryland 

 and Virginia, introduced the cultivation of 

 tobacco into the latter State, and for these 

 and other services became the lord of the 

 "Bohemia Manor" in Maryland, was the 



*Those who may be more closely interested 

 in the more recent and still living men of note 

 of Bohemia should consult Narodni (National) 

 Album, Prague, 1899, which contains over 1,300 

 portraits, with biographies. 



