Verhovayak Lapja, 1941. január-június (24. évfolyam, 1-26. szám)
1941-03-13 / 11. szám
SECTION TWO ENGLISH EDITION HUNGARIAN PERSONAGES by Joseph Szentkirályi LAJOS KOSSUTH - 1802-1894 “The Hero of a Nation” is perhaps the most fitting epithet which can ever be added to the name of Lajos Kossuth, Hungarian oolitician, statesman, orator and publicist. He was, and always will be, one of those great Hungarian patriots who, no matter what happens in the theater of world history, every histoiian or any other evaluator of human worth must take into consideration. There were and always shall be some who do not agree with his political conceptions, and perhaps future historians will show which side was right. He was as human as any one of us, made mistakes as every human being does, but he had all the! qualities which make true greatness: integrity, patriotism and the love of liberty. Ever since the French revolution of 1779, the winds of liberty, fraternity and equality have swept over all Continental Europe. These new teachings found their way into Hungary in spite of To Our * Contributors Contributions intended for the March 27th issue should be in before or on--March 22nd. No assurance of publication in particular issue, can be given for material received after that date. the isolating efforts of the Hapsburgs. Poets wrote poetry, politicians made speeches, dramatists stirred their audience, and musicians composed music in order to make these new ideals known among the privileged nobles and the rightless serfs. The response exceeded all expectations, and what made the greatest impression was the fact that in the front line of "those fighting for liberty, fraternity and equality were to be found many a nobleman even mem bers of the high aristocracy. Count Stephen Széchenyi, Count Louis Batthány, Baron Joseph Eötvös were but a few of those who possessed all the wordly things one can desire, and yet fought for the rights of others. Does it not read like a fairy tale that when a great number of the members of nobility appeared willing to take active part in the fight for social and political reforms, a poor, untitled county lawyer was made the absolute leader of an entire nation in its struggle against the oppressors? Kossuth practiced law, edited newspapers, published a multigraphed broadside, and spent some time in prison, sent there by the Austrians. It is apparent that those who followed him did not do so for wordly reasons or for material gains. Their fight was for the liberty of the whole nation and not for individual rights. They could gain or lose everything, but did not hesitate to follow the man they admired and respected above all. March 15, 1848 marked the beginning of Hungary’s struggle against absolutism. The glorious March days were followed by a short interval during which many who did not know the Austrians well enough entertained the vain hope of peaceful settlement. But Austria took off the mask. First the agents of the Hapsburgs stirred up White Lotus Queen Lotus gleaming white Egyptian maiden; Love-boat laden Exotic delight. Templed isles invite To love e nd wine While arms entwine And lips delight. Egyptian holiday— The drifting floivers; Delicious bowers A queen at play! —Amelia Nyers Branch 132 South Bend, Indiana (American First Serial Rights) the different nationalities against the Hungarians and then attacked the country with military force. In July, 1848, the war broke loose. The unprepared and unequipped Hungarian armies won many a battle against the Austrians, but finally, the latter substantially helped by Russia, suppressed the short-lived Hungarian War of Independence. Hundreds of Hungarian patriots paid with their lives, and thousands had to leave their homeland for foreign exile. Kossuth first went to Turkey, later to England, then to The United States. He was given a royal reception by the mass everywhere, but could not get the official support of any foreign country. Disappointed in his hopes, forsaken by many of his friends, Kossuth refused to return to the land he loved so much. Hungary and the Hungarians never forgot him; he has remained always and shall remain the hero of his nation. Lajos Kossuth set his foot on the shores of The United States of America on December 5, 1852. His name and fame were well-known long before that, and every American of Hungarian origin may justly take pride in the fact that there perhaps never was another foreigner who was received so enthusiastically as Kossuth was. Hundreds of newspaper articles, stories and poems were written about him, and the greatest orators of the time lavishly praised his One Night of Spring The miracles of old are gone they say, Yet one of them happened last night, In the middle of Winter I scented May And all of the Spring’s sweet delight. Tree boughs were laden with blossoms, not snow, \nd faintly I heard crickets call, rhe perfume-filled, breeze came from flowers, T knoui, lirds resting in trees proud and tall. listening with cere I heard nightingales sing, Ind all through a beautiful mist, 1 tore from, the Winter one night of Spring, Star-sprinkled and heavenly-kissed. Right out of the pages of Time I tore Just one night of beauty divine, To press in a book kept at memory’s door, Oh, one night of Spring, you are mine! —BETTY CAROL BALEGA greatness. Algernon Charles] Swinburne’s sonnet, “To Louis Kossuth,” is known far and wide: Light of our fathers’ eyes, and in our own Star of the unsetting sunset! for thy name, That on the front of noon ivas a flame In the great year nigh twenty years egone When all the heavens of Europe shook and shone With stormy wind and lightning, keeps its fame And bears its ivitness all say through the same; Not for past days and great past clone, Kossuth, we praise thee as our Landor praised, But that now too we Jcnoiv thy voice upraised, Thy voice, the trumpet of the truth of God, Thine hand, the thunderbearer’s, raised to smite 4s with heaven’s lightning for a sword and rod Men’s heads abased before the Muscovite. Swinburne wrote this of Kossuth twenty odd years after. But hundreds of poets, small and great, sung about him at the time of his visit to England and The United States. America’s own John Greenleaf Whittier wrote these lines: Who shall receive him? Who, unblushing, speak Welcome to him, who, while he strove to break The Austrian yoke from Magyar necks, smote off At the same blow the fetters of the serf, Rearing the altar of his Father-land On the firm base of peedom, end thereby Lifting to Heaven a patriots stainless hand, Mocked not the God of Justice with a lie! O for the tongue of him who lies at rest In Quincey’s shade of patrimonial trees, Last of the Puritan tribunes and the best, To lend a voice to Freedom's sympathies, And hail the coming of the noblest guest The Old World’s wrong has given the New World of the West!--------------o-------------WHAT THE PEOPLE THINK What do the American people think of life insurance? Here, in figures, is the answer. According to Holgar J. Johnson, president of the Institute of Life Insurance, there are now 6% times as many policyholders as there were in 1900—and almost every family has at least one life insurance policy. The American people seem to think life insurance is one of the best and safest forms of economic protection. The amazing record of life insurance has proven them right.
