A NATION IN TRAINING.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 290, 4 December 1920, Page 17

A NATION IN TRAINING.

THE CZECH FESTIVAL OF FREEDOM.

YOUNG REPUBLIC CELEBRATES

ITS INDEPENDENCE.

What the Olympic games were to the ancient Greeks the Sokol festival is to the modern Czect_, says Arthur S. Draper, writing from Prague, Bohemia : to the Xew York "Tribune."

In the early '60s of the last century there dawned "the hope of free constitutional institutions after the overthrow of the severest system of autocratic government under which especially the non-German nations of ancient Austria had to suffer," in the words of Dr. Josef Schemer, president of the Bohemian Union of Sokols.

Dr. 51iroslav Tyrs was largely responsible for the organisation of the first Sokol among the gymnasts of tho Prague in 1862. It grew rapidly. Dr. Tyrs aimed to harden tile physical powers of the young men. to strive alter the highest agility and dexterity and to develop their physical beauty, considering man as the art product of nature. A WONDERFUL GROWTH. The history of the Sokol is a report of the amazing growth of the movement throughout Bohemia and Moravia, with an occasional setback, as in 1866, at the time of the Prussian war. Women and children were soon included, and to-day practically the whole nation is in training. No one who attended the Sokol Festival of 1920 will ever forget the wonderful sight of 12,000 girls drilling together in the mammoth stadium to the music of a band, while 105,000 spectators looked down from the immense circular stands. No one will forget the marvellous spectacle as the girls in blue skirts, white waists and red turbaned heads stood shoulder to shoulder. Imagine, if you can. a strawberry shortcake, 600 feet long by 400 feet wide, 12,000 red berries resting in 240,000 square feet of whipped cream. That was the impression I had as I looked down from a seat near President Masaryk's box. These 12,000 gills —every one a graceful athlete, every one the picture of health strength and agility —marched, manoeuvered and drilled with the precision of West Point cadets, under the guidance of women and without a single spoken word of instriu'tion Women manage;! the whole show.

DRILLED IX INTENSE HEAT. The Allied (lags flying from a thousand pine poles on the top of the high stand, built largely by volunteer labour, swayed gently. The sun, 6hining on the thousands who had come from all parts of the world at great expense and the cost of much physical and mental annoyance at frontiers, was mercilessly hot. The red-coated members of the Sokol looked like poppies in a huge field of golden grain. The pine trees topping the president's stand furnished the only touch of refreshing green. It was on a May like this that the 12,000 girls exercised for twenty minutes in the stadium, and when they marched out at the end of the strenuous though graceful drill not a single one had dropped from tlio ranks.

The Czech Sokol Community has 300,000 member.-. B.ning tlie war the Sokols formed the kernel of .the Czechoslovak legions who fought for the Allies. The Sokol movement in a big country might lead to militarism, but here it has no such objective. Twelve thousand men drilled one afternoon as no division in any army could drill. These men had been trained from boyhood: their bare chests and -backs were brown as hazel nuts, muscles rippled under the skin like snakes in a bag. They seemed untiring,, perfect in health, strong as wrestlers,' graceful as dancers, agile as professional acrobats. What wonderful fighters! We suggested this to a Czech officer. "Yes," he said, "but then, they are more interested in drilling than in fighting. They love teamwork; they hate fighting."

Individual competition does not appeal to the <—echs. They are poor runners and jumpers; they are rather clumsy when handling the shot or the hammer; they know little about hurdling, and any average walker would defeat their best in a mile race. On the flying rings, the sidehorse, the parallel and horizontal bars they are in their element. A dozen picked at random from the thousands of competitors would make an American college gymnastic team look like a bunch of novices. The boys of twelve to fourteen and even the girls of the same age are clever performers on the apparatus.

Here are a few* figures. During the festival 13,000 Iboys and an equal number of girls under thirteen years of age drilled in the stadium. A total of 24,000 boys and girls between ■ thirteen and seventeen years appeared. Thirty thousand men and women performed. Four thousand soldiers went through a bayonet and setting-up drill. Thus a total of more than 80,000 persons took part in the exercises, not to mention the thousands who had parts in the pageants. In March work was started on the stadium and it was not completed until just before the opening of the festival. Though all the timber was of native production and much of the work -qi construction was done by volunteers, the cost was so large that a deficit remained. The cheapest seat was 25 kronen and the highest 100" kronen. At every session every seat was occupied, and the management stated that nearly 500,000 had to be turned away on the big day of the week.

NO POLICEMEN THERE. Xot excepting the crowds at the Derby in England or Oxford-Cambridge boat race on the Thames, I have never seen such a throng as was, at the stadium on the day the girls grilled. Xext to the size of the crowd the most amazing thing was that there was not a policeman within the grounds. Perfect order was maintained because every one looked out for himself. Another astonishing fact •was that there was not a single accident: not one call for medical assistance from the doctors and nurses. Not a single person was intoxicated. Can any country beat or equal that record? Perhaps nothing caught the popular fancy more than did the fireworks display on the river. From Hvodcany, tlie towering citadel overlooking the Vltava, now the home of President Masnryk. we saw the thousands of human figures about like so many gnomes and fairies. It seemed unreal. Then came the rattle of machine guns, the loud roar of mortars, the flash of searchlights, the bursting of rockets and Very lights. In a few moments all was quiet again. Then, floating up to the palace, came the inspiring air of tlie Czeciio-S!ovakian anthem. The young republic had done with play; it had finished its celebrations of independence. |