Kościuszko. Monica M. Gardner
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Monica M. Gardner
Kościuszko
A Biography
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4057664597250
Table of Contents
NOTE ON THE PRONUNCIATION OF POLISH NAMES
THE FIGHT FOR AMERICAN FREEDOM
PREFACE
The appearance of an English biography of the Polish patriot, Tadeusz Kościuszko, requires no justification. Kościuszko's name is prominent in the long roll-call of Polish men and women who have shed their blood, sacrificed their happiness, and dedicated their lives to gain the liberation of Poland. We are now beholding what it was not given to them to see, the fruit of the seed they sowed—the restoration of their country to her place in the commonwealth of the world. It is therefore only fitting that at this moment we should recall the struggle of one of the noblest of Polish national heroes, whose newly risen country is the ally of England and America, and whose young compatriots fought with great gallantry by the side of British and American soldiers in the war that has effected the deliverance of Kościuszko's nation.
M. M. G.
NOTE ON THE PRONUNCIATION OF POLISH NAMES
C==ts.
Ć, ci,==a soft English ch.
Ch==strongly aspirated h, resembling ch in Scotch loch.
Cz==ch, as in charm.
Dz==j.
J==y.
Ł==a peculiarly Polish letter, roughly speaking to be pronounced
between u and w.
Ó==oo, as in mood.
Rz==the French j, as in Jean.
Ś, si,==a slightly hissed and softened sound of sh.
W==v.
Ż, zi==French j.
The stress in Polish falls almost invariably on the penultimate syllable.
KOŚCIUSZKO
CHAPTER I
THE YOUTH OF KOŚCIUSZKO
The great national uprisings of history have for the most part gone down to time identified with the figure of a people's hero: with some personality which may be said in a certain manner to epitomize and symbolize the character of a race. "I and my nation are one": thus Poland's greatest poet, Adam Mickiewicz, sums up the devotion that will not shrink before the highest tests of sacrifice for a native country. "My name is Million, because I love millions and for millions suffer torment." If to this patriotism oblivious of self may be added an unstained moral integrity, the magnetism of an extraordinary personal charm, the glamour of a romantic setting, we have the pure type of a national champion. Representative, therefore, in every sense is the man with whose name is immortally associated the struggle of the Polish nation for her life—Tadeusz Kościuszko.
Kościuszko was born