Once Protestant, Bohemia at present is overwhelmingly Catholic. In 1890 the Catholics numbered 96.17 per cent, the Protestants 2.22 per cent and the Jews 1.56 per cent. It must be borne in mind, however, that prior to 1781, in which year the “Patent of Toleration” was issued, no other church was tolerated outside the Catholic.
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Bohemia may be said to be a country of farmers, judging from the number of persons engaged in agricultural pursuits. Out of every one thousand people 408.7 per cent are engaged in the cultivation of soil and forestry; 352.6 per cent find employment in manufacturing and mining, 59.5 per cent in commerce, railroading, etc., and 87.8 per cent earn their living as laborers.
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Illiteracy in Bohemia is rapidly disappearing. According to the general census of 1890 the ratio of adults unable to read and write is 19.69 per cent, which compares favorably with that of the most advanced of European nations. Figures compiled in 1881 show the ratio of illiteracy to be in England, 16 per cent; Scotland, 12; Ireland, 33; France, 22; Germany, 6; Russia, 89; Austria 51 (education is especially backward in Hungary and Transylvania); Italy, 59; Spain and Portugal, 66; Switzerland, 12, Belgium and Holland, 14; Scandinavia, 13.
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Curiously enough, the natives do not call their country “Bohemia,” but Cechy, nor themselves “Bohemians,” but “Cechs,” pron. “Chekhs” or “Czechs.” Tradition has it that the leader’s name who conducted the first Slav tribe to Bohemia was Cech, hence the race name. The Latin chroniclers of the Middle Ages were altogether ignorant of this, and persisted in calling the people who bore it Bohemians, and thus the Slavs of Bohemia inherited the name of the Boii (Germanic race) whom they had displaced.
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Superintendent of the Census Bureau, Mr. Porter, would hardly sanction the method adopted by the Austrian government in determining the nationality of a people. In Bohemia the language spoken is the test. Americans or Irishmen would, therefore, in Austria, be classed as “English,” because they speak that language. This ingenious method is highly “useful,” especially in the present conflict of races, for it helps to bolster up the minority in the land, deceiving many as to the actual strength of the Chekhs, thousands of whom use the German language in business and social relations. Accepting the language as a test, 62.79 per cent were found in 1890 in Bohemia to “use” the Bohemian and 37.19 per cent the German tongue.
Austria is a perfect mosaic of races. This diversity is best exemplified in the complexion of the schools, where all the dominant languages of the monarchy clamor for recognition. There are universities at Vienna, Prague, Gratz, Innsbruck, Cernovice, Cracow, Lwow, Buda-Pesth, Kolosvar and Zagreb. The universities in Vienna, Gratz, Innsbruck and Cernovice teach in German; the Prague in Chekh; that of Lwow in Polish and Ruthenian; that of Cracow in Polish; those of Buda-Pesth and Kolosvar in Magyar; that of Zagreb in Croatian.