Yesterday two imposing celebrations commemorating the sad martyred death of John Huss were held in Chicago. These attracted multitudes of visitors to two of Chicago's largest halls, the Auditorium and the Coliseum. The celebration in the Auditorium was arranged by a joint committee of the Bohemian benevolent associations of Chicago, while the affair in the Coliseum was under the auspices of the combined Protestant churches of Chicago. As may be expected, the largest part of the audience in the first celebration was composed of our countrymen, and the non-Bohemian public assembled in the Coliseum, although even there were very many Bohemians present.

The commemoration services in the Auditorium were very well attended, although it cannot be denied that many prospective visitors were kept at home by the inclement weather. Nevertheless, when the program came into full swing, the large hall was almost completely filled. All boxes were sold out; the main 2floor was well filled, and the galleries held a large number of visitors.

The first number on the program was the splendid overture to the opera "Libuse" by Antonin Dvorak, played by a large orchestra composed of our best musicians under the leadership of the well-known conductor, Mr. J. H. Capek. When the last chords of the exquisite composition had died away, the chairman of the committee which arranged the celebration appeared on the stage and presented the speaker of the evening, Professor J. J. Kral, of Washington, D.C. Mr. Kral, in a fine and well-constructed speech, outlined the characteristics of John Huss' era, his efforts for reform and his teachings which finally led to a serious controversy between him and the church, and finally brought about his martyred death. The audience listened with intense attention to the able address and rewarded the speaker with a real storm of applause.

The most outstanding number on the program was a presentation by the Ceska Pevecka Spolecnost Bedrich Smetana (Bedrich Smetana Bohemian Singing Society). The Society presented Dr. Loewe's oratorio, "Jan Hus". Conducted by Mr. Stepan 3Ert, it achieved just as huge a success as when it was first presented in Orchestra Hall on May 12. Because of the length of the program, it was necessary to cut out the less important parts of the composition, but the omissions were made so skillfully that the general impression of the presentation did not suffer in the least. Naturally, the many rehearsals of the composition assured an absolutely flawless presentation.....

The Bohemian speaker of the evening was Dr. Frantisek Iska, and it must be admitted that his selection of a topic was most fortunate. Dr. Iska is favored with a sonorous, almost metallic voice, amply strong to fill even as large a hall as the Auditorium. His speech befitted the occasion, and therefore we reproduce below its most important parts.

"Many of us had hoped that it will be possible for us to commemorate the quincentenary of John Huss at the site where a Bohemian man proved by his death at the stake that he knows how to stick to what he recognizes as truth even if he 4is put on a pile of burning wood where he will have to answer for his tenacity and indomitable conviction. We had been looking forward to a trip to the old country after the commemoration. We expected to find the homeland in festive excitement, noticeable even in the most remote villages where, perhaps, we or our fathers might have been born. We had hoped to find Prague in festive garb, welcoming the admirers of John Huss assembling there from all corners of the world.

"The war has spoiled all that for us, and made impossible perhaps all that our old country was preparing for the observance of the anniversary of the death of her greatest son. The war has changed the old country into a house of sorrow in which thousands are bewailing the loss of lives of those who were dear to them, where people walk with heavy hearts thinking of those who are being forced by an alien command to stand with deadly arms in their hands against those whom they would press against their hearts in brotherly embrace. It is for alien interests that the sons of John Huss' nation and descendants of the Taborites have to take their young lives in their hands, men who recognize as justified 5and permissible only a war waged for the highest ideals of humanity. The descendants of those Bohemian brothers who had dreamed about a kingdom of eternal peace and friendship between nations, are being forced to shed human blood. The descendants of Komensky (Johann Amos Comenius), who had longed to see the management of her own affairs return to the Bohemian nation, have to fight in the interest of those who robbed their nation of her independence.

"Sad indeed is this commemoration of our Bohemian past, our glorious independence which our forebears in the Hussites' days succeeded in protecting and maintaining against the whole of Europe united against our nation.

"But it avails nothing to lament things that cannot be changed. Life's wisdom is to keep the brightest hopes even in the darkest of times, to fish for pearls even in mud and dirt, not to despair even in days when the sky is covered with the blackest of clouds, when lightning pierces the air and thunder shakes the earth: To know that the time will soon be here when the sun will disperse the night, the lightning will die down, the thunder will cease, and the sun's rays 6will gladden and warm the tired hearts.

"From that point of view shall we consider the distressing times through which our country has to go at present. We want to hope that the coincidence which made the Huss' anniversary fall into these critical days will help in bringing about a better future to our nation.

"Today, the whole of Europe is undergoing reconstruction. There is no doubt whatever that new states, new countries, new nations will be formed. For this reason it is of the most significant and of extreme importance for our nation that the quincentenary of the Bohemian pioneer of freedom and liberty is calling public attention to our Bohemian nation that has given this great man to the world, and, therefore, is of necessity a strong, healthy nation, a nation whose independence, whose unhampered development and progress, will be beneficial not only to the inhabitants of Bohemian lands, but also to the advancement of all humanity. A nation with so great a past deserves to be given an opportunity to show what it is able to do when permitted to develop freely its inherent powers 7and talents."

After this lengthy introduction Dr. Iska turned to the discussion of conditions and circumstances that led John Huss to the stake.....

"Hence, the only crime of Huss' followers was that they took their religion seriously; they wanted the gospel of love to rule not only in the church but also in practical, real life.....The chalice was for them a symbol of equality. The communion in both substances, bread and wine, should not be a privilege of the high-born and anointed. 'No privileges!' 'Equal rights to all!' These slogans, inherent in Huss' chalice, have succeeded in keeping their strength until these present times of social struggles."

After Dr. Iska's speech, the orchestra played Dvorak's "Ma Otcina" (My Home Country), and the celebration was concluded by a tableau depicting the death at the 8stake of John Huss.....It was long after eleven o'clock when the audience was leaving the Auditorium.

The John Huss celebration in the Coliseum was worthy of the second largest Bohemian city in the world. Fully twelve thousand people came to pay honor to the memory of the greatest hero of the Bohemian nation. It was evident that most of those present were Americans, but the frenetic applause that rewarded the most important parts of the speech of the Bohemian orator indicated that there were a few thousands of Bohemians.

It was a most impressive sight when the audience rose to listen to the first song of the enormous chorus that filled the platform--the sea of faces, men and women, who came to pay tribute to the Martyr of Constance. Only a few of the back rows in the Coliseum were unoccupied. All over the hall flags of the world's nations were waving, the largest after the starry American standard being ours, the white and red. The platform was decorated with the black Hussite flag, black with the red chalice. A chorus of eighteen hundred singers conducted 9by Professor Augustine Smith sang an aria from Handel's "Messiah" as the first number on the program. It was an entrancing experience, to listen to so many voices whose vibrations filled the huge building to its most distant corners. Then, Dr. Vaclav Vanek read in the Bohemian language the Thirty-first Psalm, the one John Huss repeated on his way to the pile.

After the prayer offered by the president of the worldwide Association of Christian Endeavor, a Bohemian chorus of two hundred voices sang the hymn composed by John Huss, "Jezu Kriste, Stedry Kneze"(Oh, Jesus Christ, Thou Generous Lord), and the hymn of the Hussite warriors, "Kdoz Jste Bozi Bojovnici" (Ye Who Art God's Soldiers). Their presentation was received with still greater applause than was that which rewarded the American chorus' effort.

The temporary chairman of the celebration, Dr. Stone, having been delayed, Dr. Stritter Matthews took the platform as chairman and delivered a short speech in which he pointed to the fact that John Huss was also a university professor, and that the changes for the better which the world has experienced during the 10past five hundred years are largely due to that noble Bohemian's leadership. He was a man who will be remembered by our children's children after another five hundred years. Turning toward the Bohemian children standing on the platform he urged them to remain true to Huss' heritage.

During the speech, Dr. Stone finally arrived, and Dr. Matthews jokingly remarked that he is now going to be introduced by Dr. Stone as the chairman of the celebration. Dr. Stone passed on to the chairman the historical gavel he had received from the Bohemian Reformed Church and spoke with profound feeling about the many sufferings of the Bohemian nation which are in this gavel.

Then the chairman introduced the Bohemian speaker of the day, Reverend Josef Krenek, of Silver Lake, Minnesota. The Reverend spoke as follows:

"My dear Bohemian countrymen, I am to express what Bohemian hearts feel at this moment, and I believe that there is no more fitting word to express that feeling than 'elation'. We are truly elated by the quiet magnificence of this 11festive hour. Bohemians! Do we understand the source of this elation? Do we understand its significance? It speaks, nay, it calls: If the mere memory of a man who perished in flames five hundred years ago has such power to fill with enthusiasm the greatest assembly of Bohemians in America, to make them ready to put forth their strongest efforts to make sure that his memory be properly observed--how great must have been the man himself, how important his purpose!

"Brothers, countrymen! This elation of ours is certainly also caused by our gratitude to God and to this great new country of ours. This solemn moment calls to us from the pile of ashes in Constance: We are a very small nation, one of the smallest ones, but even so, we have not occupied one of the smallest, most insignificant places in the history of ages!

"This memorable day awakens in us the rightful awareness of the fact that as a nation we are entitled to a place in the sun. Not only a physical place, because that belongs to us by the fact that we are here, that we exist, but 12also a moral right. We have been among those who carried the heaviest blocks for the foundation of modern culture, modern ways of thinking, modern life.

"We have given to the world a man who brought ideals that only after the lapse of centuries, here and there, but most perfectly and effectively in this new American homeland of ours, have been finding the beginnings of realization. And thus we have a well deserved place also in this new country of ours, in this land of freedom and liberty.

"The foundation to this Bohemian existence has been laid by John Huss. He has brought out all the elements necessary for individual, national, and human life. It was he who maintained until his very death that the foundation of human life must be a religious and spiritual one. He stressed, so strongly that it shook the whole nation, the fact that all personal and public morality is based on culture and religion. He also proved on himself and on his own nation that nothing else than these two powers, culture and religion, vitally 13united, can be the foundation of the ideal human society. For this truth, and for the strengthening of these principles he finally gave his life.

"But today we are elated not only by that what has been, but also by what we see now, what we witness.

"The greatest assembly of medieval Europe, such as was the Council of Constance, had for John Huss nothing but insult, curse, and fire! Who, then, would not be happy in knowing that after five hundred years the members of the Bohemian nation hear nothing but praise and extolment of our great John by the most prominent of American orators? The fact that finally in this new American home of ours we have found justice, we have found hearts big enough to understand and encompass in appreciation even the heart of the greatest of our men, serves to warm our souls. Our great John is finding here his vindication and recognition by all our Protestant brothers of all nationalities.

"After five hundred years we are being led, like he himself, to a pile, the 14pile of the World War. All the horrors of that war are nothing more than wind blowing from ashes. Just in the fires of a war it had to happen that all the spiritual forces be reawakened for which John Huss undertook the martyrdom of fire! Just now the Bohemian nation has united its strength for the last, most powerful effort toward liberation!

"For these reasons, let us make this great Huss anniversary celebration in these all-important times an occasion to light a torch of hope that our nation will be resurrected! Let's raise the torch to the greatest height we can, and let's raise it as effectively as we can! Let's support as much as we can all efforts toward the liberation of our nation which, at the time of John Huss' anniversary is being tortured at the stake! Let us remember the country of John Huss which is passing through the greatest and most critical of times just now! In the name of John Huss, our John Huss, and in this country, our country, that so well understands our John Huss, let us make friends for our effort toward spiritual and national liberation! Thus John Huss will come into his own. After five hundred years he will rise from 15his ashes--in a liberated nation! That should be the culmination of the observance of this great anniversary!"

Having ended his Bohemian speech, Reverend Krenek addressed in burning English oratory an appeal to the American people to demand liberty for the liberty-loving Bohemian people when the time of Europe's reconstruction comes. A storm of applause filled the Coliseum as evidence that America sympathizes with the justified demands of the Bohemian nation.

Girls in Bohemian national costumes sang a hymn of Huss' composed on the basis of well-known national airs. Those assembled gave stormy evidence of sympathy on every occasion the Bohemian nation was mentioned or a Bohemian selection presented on the program.

The following speaker, Dr. Ozore S. Davis, tied his speech to the Bell of Liberty just now brought to Chicago. He recognized a close relation between the work of John Huss and the liberality of the American institutions.

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Replying to the appeal of the Bohemian speaker he assured the Bohemian people that the time is near when it will receive its place in the sun.

Dr. Edgar P. Hill based his remarks on the contention that the true spirit of a nation can be seen in the character of its national heroes. The last speaker, Bishop McDowell stressed the clean life John Huss had lived, a life without a single blemish, a single evidence of weakness.

Our national anthem "Kde Domov Muj" (Where Is My Home?) was most enthusiastically received. It was sung in Pivoda's arrangement by the Bohemian chorus. The festivities came to an end when the American national anthem was sung by the twelve thousand people in the audience.

Chicago celebrated John Huss glorious memory most fittingly, and the American people were given a better idea of the noble character of the greatest son of the Bohemian nation.