The February issue of the National Geographic Magazine, one of the foremost publications of its kind in the United States, prints an article under the above heading from the pen of Mr. Ales Hrdlicka, Czech-American scientist and curator of the department for physical anthropology of the Federal National Museum in Washington. We make mention of this, not only because the writer is a scientist of high standing, and one of our best fellow-countrymen, but mainly because the article contains some of the best information on our homeland and the Czech people.

The article, which is divided into several chapters, is accompanied by splendid pictures, showing the city of Prague and its most magnificent edifices, pictures of groups of peasants in their colorful attire are 2many. The author also dwells on the answer which the Allies sent to President Wilson upon his inquiry about their peace terms, among these, the liberation of the Czechs from foreign rule formed a main item. This condition in the peace terms brought our small, yet great and glorious nation conspicuously and favorably before the eyes of the American public.

Mention is made in the article of the book The State, by Woodrow Wilson, published in 1911, in which Mr. Wilson, now President of the United States, devotes some space on page seven hundred forty to explanatory remarks about who the Czechs really are. Taking this as a cue, Mr. Hrdlicka continues by writing about the coming of the Czechs into Bohemia, which was, at times, allowed even by their best Czech kings to come under the domination of the Germans.

The article gives prominent space to King John, King Charles IV., and 3further to the great reformer, John Hus, and his tragic death. After the royal house of Premysl became extinct, the Habsburgs ruled the Czechs for many centuries, and it took all of the latter's sturdiness to keep from being broken up. The beginning of the eighteenth century brought about a renaissance of the Czech people. What the Czechs have undertaken and accomplished in the ensuing period is described therein. Mr. Hrdlicka writes in the books, History of Bohemia by Robert H. Vickers, and Bohemia and the Czechs by W. S. Monroe. When, in later chapters, Mr. Hrdlicka gives a characterization of the Czech people, he pauses at the personality of Jan Amos Komensky (Comenius), as of one of our greatest men, of which he mentions several others.

The article treats with great enthusiasm the high position the Czechs have gained in the realm of music. Bedrich Smetana, Anton Dvorak, Kubelik and Kocian, Emmy Destin, and Slezak, all these names have helped to spread the esteem for the Czech name. Jaroslav Vrchlicky and Svatopluk Cech were the 4greatest in Czech literature. Further mention is made of a number of great men of Czech life, especially of Thomas G. Masaryk, the leader of the Czechs, who is so well-known in the United States.

The last chapter of the article treats about the Czechs in the United States. It speaks of the early Czech settlers and of the immigrants of today, who have achieved prosperity and won the respect of their fellow-citizens by their assiduousness and pertinacity. Scientists of Czech descent have gained great distinction. There also are many students of Czech blood enrolled in our universities; chairs for the Czech and other Slavonic languages have been established in some of the most prominent American schools of high learning. There are many educational clubs, some of them named Komensky Clubs, in which is gathered the Czech-American intelligensia with a large percentage of students.

The article does not omit to define the attitude of the Czech-Americans 5toward the government of Austria-Hungary, which country they have ever regarded as one of their worst enemies. For this reason, they work with combined forces for the liberation of the Czech people, from which they came, and of which they are still proud. At the same time, they never forget their new homeland. They always show their colors, as loyal sons of America should do.