Official Organ Of The Slavonic Benevolent Order Of The State Of Texas, Founded 1897 BENEVOLENCE
HUMANITY
BROTHERHOOD
Postmaster: Please Send Form 3579 to: SUPREME LODGE, SPJST, P.O. Box 100, Temple, Texas 76501 VOLUME 62, NUMBER 47 NOVEMBER 27, 1974
FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK Lodge No. 177, Academy, was chartered on Sunday, December 16, 1973, just one year (minus a day) prior to the date set for their dedication ceremonies this year — Sunday, December 15, 1974 — which is not very far away. The membership of Lodge 177 is looking forward to the official opening of their new home and, those of us who can, should make plans to be present. The officers and membership are to be complimented. Certainly they have accomplished much in just one year! In this issue of the Vestnik we are publishing an article signed by about 15 students taking Czech at the University of Houston who also enclosed some photos of their classes. The letter quotes excerpts from their letters in their editorial to the Academic Year 1974-1975. It is gratifying that they find enthusiasm in their study of the Czech language, culture andhistory. We are also printing a letter from Mr. Louis F. Koudelik, coordinator of Continuing Education at the University of Houston, announcing the instituting of night Czech classes beginning January 20th, 1975. This will give those who wish to study the language at night a chance to do so. Read it for your information, especially if you might be interested in studying the Czech language. We are al-
SELF - PRAISE If you wish in this world to
advance Your merits you're bound to enhance; You must stir it and stump it, And blow your own trumpet, Or, trust me, you haven't a chance. W. S. Gilbert ways very glad to see people — especially our young people interested in learning additional languages, regardless of which language it may be. I have been impressed with the reports from our citizens, who have traveled to Czechoslovakia and other European countries, who tell of the 3, 4, and 5, or in some cases, more, languages most children and especially adults in those countries speak, and, nearly everywhere you go on the continent, English is being taught! It certainly serves for better understanding among the peoples of the world. Certainly much of our population saw the applause President Ford received in Japan when he spoke a few words in Japanese to the audience!
Sometimes when you are feeling important, sometimes when your ego's in bloom, sometime when you take it for granted you're the best qualified in the room; sometime when you feel that your going' would leave an unfilled hole, just follow this simple instruction and see how it humbles your soul. Take a bucket and fill it with water, put your hand in it, up to the wrist. Pull it out — and the hole that's remaining is a measure of how you will be missed. You may splash all you please when you enter, you can stir up the water galore, but stop, and you will find in a moment that it looks quite the same as before. The moral in this quaint example is: do the very best you can and be proud of yourself, but remember, there is no indispensable man. * • Some of the world's greatest thinking has been done by those who cared little for riches — Pasteur, Edison, Jane Addams — and who shall say that theirs was not the richer life? Today the world knows the poetry of Shakespeare, the music of Wagner, the art of Rembrant; but who knows even the names of the money barons of their day — or who cares to know? If you want your name to live after you, you will not give all your time and thought to money.