The Torn Signum

Petr Fastr was a native of Domažlice, a straightforward and unbending Chod character. As a pupil at the Benedictine grammar school in Klatovy he caused astonishment by rebelling against the notorious signum — the shaming little book that had to be carried by anyone who spoke Czech at school. Young Petříček was so indignant at being forbidden to speak as came naturally to him that he tore the signum up. He was then apprenticed as a miller, married in 1814, settled in Prague in 1840 and took over and fitted out the coffee house in the Royal Baths; from there he moved to the Golden Goose on Wenceslas Square.