Page 133 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

A Dynasty of Mayors and a Member of Parliament

pletely different light than it actually was. He was supposed to have told
the Parliament that the Karst was a fertile region and that the vines were
bearing exceptionally well, which led the decision-makers to tax the land
more heavily. The rumour does not correspond to reality, because in the
National Assembly Černe portrayed the Karst as a rocky and desert land,
where farmers had to invest a lot of energy in order to be able to work
the land at all, given the natural conditions (‘Državni zbor’ 1868, 86–7). Al-
though the gossip concerning Černe’s activities in Vienna was not true, it
proves that the villagers of Tomaj were suspicious towards their compatri-
ot. The animosity towards the Černes apparently outlived Anton and was
recorded by parish priest Albin Kjuder in the interwar era (Kjuder worked
in Tomaj from 1924 until his death in 1967).
Takingintoaccountthevillagers’disapprovalofAntonČerneshedsadif-
ferent light on the uprising of the Karst people in April 1872. In a sense, we
could argue that social protest was disclosed in national guise. As contem-
porariesobserved,thenationalmobilizationofthepopulationwasadvanc-
ing at this time. Yet the ‘popular lukewarmness’ which the ‘fanatics of na-
tionality,’ i.e. national leaders and activists, were trying to eliminate, must
be considered (Vošnjak 1982, 283). National passions were more easily in-
flamed by showing clear dividing lines between ‘ourselves’ and ‘others,’ and
the identification of national and social difference proved to be very con-
venient. While the rural world was considered the territory of Slovenians,
the bourgeois ‘big world’ was dominated by German- or Italian-speaking
‘foreigners.’
Following Anton Černe’s demise the family never regained its former
reputation. As he passed away, the estate was transferred to his daughter
Amalija who ran it with her husband Franc. Franc Černe (from the family-
branch Černjevi, which stemmed from the above-mentioned Ivan, mayor
in the mid-eighteenth century) was not only Anton’s son-in-law, therefore
a relative by marriage, but was also his blood relative (they had a common
grandfather). Amalija was designated as Anton’s heir in his will and Anton
entrusted to Franc the management of all political and judicial affairs be-
fore his death (pang, 939, b. 2). Franc enjoyed fame as a centurion of the
Austro-Hungarian army but was, as an army officer, frequently away from
home and thus estranged from the village fabric. Emil Artur, the son of
Amalija and Franc, was designated as heir but he was only sixteen in 1898
when he lost his father. At that time, he was studying agronomy and enol-
ogy close to Novo mesto, in southeast Carniola (Dolenjska), before moving
to Klosterneuburg near Vienna where he continued his education in wine

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