1930-10-01 — Page 10

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IDEALS OF ANCIENT GREECE.

Czecho-Slovakia and the Modern Type.

THE SOKOLS.

All over Czecho-Slovakin young men and young women, girls and boys, are, training for the champion ship of the Sokol Federation, which in the takes place at Prague autumn. The Sokòl ideal is some- thing which is very real in Czecho- Slovakia-it is an attitude which has no parallel in either the ancient or the modern work. The great Sokol Festivals, which occur every six yours, are frequently compared, with the Olympic Games of Hellas, but the only real resemblance is their national importance, writes Peter Carvel in the Morning Post.

i

Individual record-breaking or skill, which such a means nothing to Sokols; their spring. object is to bring numbers of people together to exercise at the same the time. At the last Sokol Festival, at and Prague, in 1926, there were between

12,000 and 14,000 men and women carrying out elaborate and beautiful physical exercises in the huge stadium at one and the same time, and during the whole Festival 80,000 Sokals took part..

Nation's Discipline. These gymnastic exercises of the Sokols represent the co-operation and discipline of the whole nation.

It would be difficult to imagine such an ideal or such an organisa- tion flourishing on English soll Perhaps the reason is that we have forgotten what-it-means-to-be-op pressed; the Czechs have not, for gotten, and the movement, which was started as the Sokol Union in Henry Funger and that 1862 hy greater patriot Dr. Miroslav Tyrs, has captured the imagination of a whole people.

for The

The

the

he sought

movement

recreate to

could of

THE CHINA

•

MAIL.

crowns.

Was its

of

for the benefit of his people. "Cultivate," he said, "the national ideal by increasing the national strength and health. In this way the national you will improve. efficiency and the nation's capacity to work and to defend Itself.... The smaller our numbers, the more is required from each of us Czechs." Vires-Civitatis Vis In fact his belief was-Civium

20 million Czech Three million.crowns was spent

the house In acquiring Dr. Tyrs believed firmly in

The building Greck ideals of beauty Count Michnu.

and restored Carefully and perfection, physical

arehitectural them

beauty pre- To this were added a large served. gymnasium, a swimming bath and sleeping accommodation. both as the head offices of the Sokols and as a museum and a publishing and book-selling centre.

It serves

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1930.

AIR MAIL ENVELOPES

SOUGHT.

use of special libraries; courses COLLECTING CRAZES and conferences are arranged at! regular intervals on literature, art, i and national questions, and from time to time visits to museums, theatres, and factories are carried out. Everything, in fact, is done and women of every class to keep their to encourage the young men faculties alert, their minds open, and their bodies fit.

Besides the Sokols, or "Falcons," membership In Czecho- whose

over 700,000. thera Slovakia-is

whose bodies two other, Pro

and ideals are similar, Workmen's Socialist As-

and

Orli or the

the

Here is kept a complete list of members, and it is from here that the accident funds le administered, cidents during exercises, excursions, which insures all Sokole against ac-ainis

The True Democracy,

public performances, and so on. From the start the Sokols have It forms, too, a permanent school.

the

true

democracy for instructors and instructresses, The courses are held either for two practised They have sought to promote spirit of brotherhood and mutual weeks continuously, or over a long- assistance, regardless of barriers of er period of six weeks. Those who politics, 'religion and social dlatine-attend the courses receive free The growth of the movement board and lodging during the whole as well as free in- In 1862 there of the courses tion. has been very rapid.

This part of the Sokol were only nine contres, to-day there struction.

half a million crowns are 3,300 gymnasia for the use of activities costs the central organisa- the members. These gymnaslation over form remarkable proofs of the spirit annually." of the organisation and of the devotion and self-sacrifice of the Sokola.

or

sociation "Eagles," the organisation of tho Catholic Political Party, whose com bined membership is over 350,000.

It may be asked, what practical tional system preferable to ordinary use all this is. How is such a na. team games such as are played by all classes in Britain, individual games like golf and tennis?

The answers to both these ques" tions are to be found in the history of the dark days of October, 1913, which followed the collapse of the Empire. There was Australian

when the little confusion, and Sokols, soldiers, and workmen began to keep order in the streets they

It is not, perhaps, too much to say that was voluntarily disciplined. Czecho that the psaltion which Slovakia has created for herself in to do with the vision that Dr. post-War Europe has not a little Tyrs dreamed seventy years ago.

|

carried the covers would be more

valuable than if 200 were carried. Covers in great variety are for sale; the first air mail from London to Windsor in 1911, and mails from the United States, South America, Japan, Scandinavia, and outlying parts of the British Empire show- A new form of collecting is taking ing first lights are all being sought. The big demand for these things Interested in flying. It is the col-sprang up during the past five or the imagination of those who are lecting of what are called "flown six months, when stamp. collectors covers." The phrase comes from becathe 'air-conscious Flown covers America and describes the envelopes are being bought for the most part (with original stamps showing first by adults, and the small boy who flights) which have been carried, in cannot afford them is contenting himself with unused air-mail air mail.

stamps, which are issued by most countries with the exception of Great Britain.

The most valuable are those which have been in a mail where famous pilot has made a first flight, and has carried a small mail and signed the covers.

They are being bought both as an men and men alike are buying them investment and as a hobby, and wo at prices ranging, according to rarity, from 18. 6d. to £10. Miss her Johnson carried no mall on flight to Austalla, or that would have been, among the prized covers.

Mr. Bert. Hinkler did, and his hail and those of Sir Alan Cobham, Colonel, Lindbergh, and Sir Ross Smith, and the mall carried in the firaf Zeppelin on her flight to America and the Mediterranean are among the covers being bought. Some celebrities carried no mail in their flights, and others carried a good deal.

Australia, Newfoundland, South Africa, Canada, India and Malto all have their air-mail stamps, but, so

blue cachet to be used in conjunc- far, Great Britain has only the little- tion with her ordinary stamps.

How great is the Interest In flown covers can be seen from the At sums being spent on them. Selfridge's, where a fime collection

view recently in con has been on nection with their educational ex- woman, bought $40 worth. They are certainly a good investment, as many of them are al- ready very rare and are going up in value.

time

ripe Was

Improving Intellectual Culture. national renaissance.

Beeldes the definitely physical In the Olympic Games, individuals

hibition, one They have been built by activities of the Sokols, the object competed in athletic exercises and Inny subjection of the Czecho- feats of strength-Nurmi, Dempsey. Slovak peoples after the Battle

in the common effort of the members, of the ideal of Dr. Tyrs was to White Mountain Mile. Lenglen, and Mrs. Helen Wills- of Moody are modern prototypes. Their 1620, the year of calculated Ger- why devoted all their spare time to cultivate and improve the national

Clerical duties and in-standard of intellectual culture. I found they had to deal with a people Hapsburg the work. the reaction to spart is pre-eminently manisation by individual. Sports aim at physical Dynasty, the period of the Hussite struction are carried out voluntarily He was an enthusiastic admirer of and though he placed aristocracy, while gymnastics-es Ware, the Church of the Czech by members at local as well as cen- Hellenism, a philosopher and his-

the and

long en-iral branches of the organisation. pecially those of the Sokóla-repre- Brethren,

of

The kind of thing that has been physical culture. first, he believed subject nation a vent a physical democracy. The two deavour

regain its liberty and achieved is well illustrated by Tyrs that fitness of the mind was equally -points of view are diametrically, to

played their House-the central headquarters in important to the State.

This was built at a cost opposed-one aims at individualism, independence all

from Prague. part in providing the soil the other tellectivism.

torian,

To-day the young Sokols have the

The amount carried, as well as the importance of the fight, sets the value of the cover. If 50 letters were

Air-Marshal H. C.*T. Dowding has been appointed a member of the Air Counell in the place of Sir John Higgins, who has gone on the retired list at file own request.

P

H

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