Bulgaria

Bulgaria, by Frank Fox

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Title: Bulgaria
Author: Frank Fox
Illustrator: Jan V. Mrkvitchka Noel Pocock
Release Date: August 6, 2007 [EBook #22257]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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BULGARIA

Uniform with this Volume
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY ENGLAND FRANCE ITALY SWITZERLAND
A. AND C. BLACK, LTD., 4 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.

[Illustration: A YOUNG SH?P MAN OF THE DISTRICT OF SOFIA Frontispiece]

BULGARIA
BY
FRANK FOX AUTHOR OF "ENGLAND," "ITALY," AND "SWITZERLAND"
WITH 32 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
LONDON A. AND C. BLACK, LIMITED 1915

CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
Page
BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER II
BULGARIA AND THE DEATH OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 15
CHAPTER III
THE SCRAP-HEAP OF RACES 36
CHAPTER IV
BULGARIA--A POWER AND A TURKISH PROVINCE 52
CHAPTER V
THE LIBERATION OF BULGARIA 65
CHAPTER VI
THE WAR OF 1912-1913 77
CHAPTER VII
A WAR CORRESPONDENT'S TRIALS IN BULGARIA 99
CHAPTER VIII
INCIDENTS OF BULGARIAN CHARACTER 120
CHAPTER IX
THE TRAGEDY OF 1914 134
CHAPTER X
SOME FACTS FOR THE TOURIST AND THE ECONOMIST 150
CHAPTER XI
HOW BULGARIA IS GOVERNED 167
CHAPTER XII
THE FUTURE OF BULGARIA 174
CHAPTER XIII
THE RESPONSIBILITY OF EUROPE 187
INDEX 207

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
By JAN V. MRKVITCHKA and NOEL POCOCK*
1. A Young Sh?p Man of the District of Sofia Frontispiece
FACING PAGE
2. A Contented Turk 8
3. A Peasant at Work--District of Tsaribrod 17
4. Women of Pordim, in the Plevna District 19
5. In the Harvest Fields near Sofia 22
6. A Sh?p Woman of the District of Sofia 24
7. A Woman of Thrace, of the Sh?p Tribe, and of Macedonia 33
8. *Sistov, on the Danube 40
9. Ancient Costume of Balkan Peasant Women near Gabrovo 49
10. A Wedding in the Rhodopes 56
11. *Roustchouk, on the Danube 65
12. "Mystery"--a Study in the Roustchouk District 67
13. A Blind Beggar Woman 70
14. A Young Married Sh?p Woman 72
15. *A Bulgarian Market Town 75
16. Blessing the Lamb on St. George's Day 78
17. *The Cathedral, Sofia 81
18. *An Adrianople Street 88
19. *The Shipka Pass 97
20. A Young Widow at her Husband's Grave 104
21. Gipsies 113
22. A Peasant of the Tsaribrod District 120
23. The Ratchenitza, the National Dance of Bulgaria 129
24. A Bagpiper 136
25. A Young Girl of Irn 145
26. Guarding the Flocks and Herds 152
27. An Old Street in Philippopolis 161
28. A Grave Question 168
29. A Young Man of the Choumla District 177
30. *A Bulgarian Farm 184
31. A Young Woman of the Roustchouk District 193
32. At the Well 200
Sketch Map at end of Volume.

BULGARIA
CHAPTER I
BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION
Instructed in the autumn of 1912 to join the Bulgarian army, then mobilising for war against Turkey, as war correspondent for the London Morning Post, I made my preparations with the thought uppermost that I was going to a cut-throat country where massacre was the national sport and human life was regarded with no sentimental degree of respect. The Bulgarians, a generation ago, had been paraded before the eyes of the British people by the fiery eloquence of Mr. Gladstone as a deeply suffering people, wretched victims of Turkish atrocities. After the wide sympathy that followed his Bulgarian Atrocities campaign there came a strong reaction. It was maintained that the Bulgarians were by no means the blameless victims of the Turks; and could themselves initiate massacres as well as suffer from them. Some even charged that there was a good deal of party spirit to account for the heat of Mr. Gladstone's championship. I think that the average British opinion in 1912 was that, regarding the quarrels between Bulgar and Turk, there was a great deal to be said against both sides; and that no Balkan people was worth a moment's sentimental worry. "Let dogs delight to bark and bite, for 'tis their nature to," expressed the common view when one heard that there had been murders and village-burnings again in the Balkans.
Certainly there were enthusiasts who held to the old Gladstonian faith that there was some peculiar merit in the Bulgarian people which justified all that they did, and which would justify Great Britain in going into the most dangerous of wars on their behalf. These enthusiasts, as if to make more startlingly clear their love for Bulgaria, commonly took a profoundly pacific view of all other questions of international politics, and would become passionately indignant at the suggestion that the British Power should ever move navy or army in defence of any selfish British interest. They were--they still are, it may be said--the leading lights of what is called the Peace-at-any-price party, detesting war and "jingoism," and viewing patriotism, when found growing on British soil, with dry suspicion. Patriotism in Bulgaria is, however, to their view a growth of a different order, worthy to be