CHAPTER VIII
NISCH AND SOPHIA
From Belgrade to Nisch—Nisch—Provincial Hotel Accommodations—The Monument of Skulls—Tzaribrod—Sophia—Value Received for $1.25 per Diem—Dragoleftsky.
For a long time the words “Brigands” and “Bulgarians” seemed to me synonomous, for it was not so very long ago, I thought, that to be kidnapped and behold the tragic story of your life subsequently illuminating the pages of every journal, you had only to go to Bulgaria; and these thoughts were not devoid of some prestige. But since the days of Pat Crowe and Raisuli the Bulgarian man-stealers seem to have forgotten their lines and faded ignominiously into the wings of the stage of publicity. In fact, I discovered later, that you might be just as safe in your room at the “Grand Royal Hotel” in Sophia as it would be possible to be in your apartments in any fashionable hotel in America—and safer, because at the “Grand Royal” in Sophia you are not in the predatorial power of a gang of domesticated yeggmen disguised as waiters, porters, bellboys and what not. So we decided to tempt our fate on a certain June morning by shaking the dust of Belgrade for that of the Servian frontier.
FRUIT VENDERS, NISCH.
But eight hours’ travel in the local train so anæsthetized our desires to continue the journey, on such a train, at least, that the little vine-clad station at Nisch appealed to us most invitingly. We also determined then and there to explore the town behind it.
A two-mile drive over even rougher cobbles than Belgrade can boast of, connects the station with the centre of the town, and I might add that it is the longest two miles I have ever driven.
As we rattled along, the diminutive one-story dwellings of Nisch seemed to be scattered over an unlimited area. A single small mosque constitutes the only remaining suggestion that the town was at one time in the possession of the Turks.