The Turk and his lost provinces

by William Eleroy Curtis

Although Sofia is still primitive in many respects, modern ideas are rapidly growing in favor and there is nothing in the new part of the town to recall the recent Turkish occupation. The citizens very generally wear modern European clothing. The only place one can see the native costume is at the market in the early morning, where the country people bring vegetables and dairy products for sale. There are two hotels with comfortable rooms and excellent tables, a club that would be an ornament to any city in Europe, and other features of modern civilization quite as advanced as are to be found in Austria or Germany. The streets, public buildings, hotels and many private houses are lighted by electricity. Electric street-cars run in every direction, owned and managed by a Belgian company. The fare is three cents for first-class passengers and two cents for second-class. The cars are divided in the middle by a partition, and the only difference between the two classes is that one sits upon red-plush cushions and the other upon wooden benches. The conductors change the cushions from one part of the car to the other at each end of the trip.

The Bulgarian army is composed of thirty thousand men, well drilled, equipped in the German style, and organized by Russian officers upon the Russian system. Every man between the ages of twenty and twenty-four years is obliged to do military duty for four years, although Mohammedans may escape service by the payment of a special tax. Persons exempted on account of infirmities are also required to pay special taxes. On an average forty thousand young men become of military age annually, but, as the government does not need and cannot pay so many, about one-third of this number are drawn by lot for service, so that the actual time spent in the army is two years instead of five as required by law. The reserves, numbering about 200,000, can be called into service upon a few days’ notice, provided there is money in the treasury to meet the expense. There is a military academy at Sofia at which officers are educated, and to enter that institution and graduate with a commission in the army is the highest ambition of every Bulgarian youth. The officers about town are a handsome lot of fellows, with pleasant manners, fine physique, intelligent faces and soldierly carriage. The natives are all natural horsemen, and a squadron of Bulgarian cavalry is a worthy object of admiration. The uniforms are similar to those of Germany. None but an expert could distinguish the difference, and the garrison of Sofia must be very large, because uniformed men are so numerous in the streets. The army is kept up to a high degree of efficiency because trouble with Turkey is always anticipated, and may occur at any moment. The Bulgarians have dedicated themselves as a nation to the emancipation of their neighbors and relatives in Macedonia, and are only waiting a favorable opportunity to strike. Their great difficulty is money. Their treasury is empty and their national credit is exhausted, but they will seize every opportunity that is offered for a coup d’état. Politics seems to monopolize the attention of everybody, and the entire Bulgarian population is involved in a perpetual intrigue with the freedom of the Macedonians as its object.

MILITARY CLUB AT SOFIA

The native horses are small, but nervy and enduring. Domesticated buffaloes of the Asiatic species are used for draft animals. They are not so noble in appearance as the great American bison. Their necks are not shaggy, their heads are smaller and more like that of ordinary oxen. Their coats are smooth and sleek, and the only resemblance to the bison which formerly roamed over our prairies is the horns.

There are several excellent schools in Sofia. The technical school at the foot of the mountain in the suburbs of the city is a model institution, and one of the most interesting and complete of its kind I have ever visited. It gives a practical training in the trades and applied sciences to one hundred or more young men. The standard of education is not high, but that is not needed in Bulgaria. What the country requires is a practical training of its mechanics in the different trades, as the people are generally devoted to agriculture and most of the artisans are foreigners.

The working classes are comparatively well off. There is no lack of employment for all those who are willing to work, and there is a growing demand for skilled mechanics, who receive much higher wages than in Germany and Austria. Masons, carpenters, cabinet-makers, painters, stone-cutters and other skilled laborers earn from $1.25 to $2.50 a day, and ordinary laborers earn from forty to eighty cents a day, which is nearly double the average earnings of people of the same classes in other European countries.

Meat and vegetables are cheap, and the diet of the laboring people is much more nourishing than is usual throughout Europe. The family of a Bulgarian laborer is quite as well fed as are their brethren in the United States. Except in the large cities the peasantry live upon their own produce and dress in garments of sheepskin, cotton or wool, that are made by themselves. Taxes are moderate, compared with Germany and France; they are no greater than in Norway and Sweden, although the peasants complain bitterly of the extravagance of Prince Ferdinand and the amount of money spent for military purposes. The working classes are ardent politicians and are devoted to the cause of Macedonian freedom. They contribute their money as liberally and as patiently as the servant girls in the United States to the Irish cause, and their faith is not weakened by the knowledge that the funds are often squandered in dissipation by their leaders.

The administration of justice is mild, the police system is purely political, and, while the management of the courts is perhaps not as perfect as in more highly civilized countries, I am told that bribery is unknown. Political influence, and particularly the “pull” of the Macedonian Committee, is all-powerful, however. It is practically out of the question to convict of crime any man who has been active or conspicuous in this patriotic movement. It appears possible for any disreputable fellow to violate all the ten commandments with impunity so long as he goes about the cafés shouting the battle cry of freedom for Macedonia.

The Jewish population of the Bulgarian cities is quite large and practically monopolizes the banking and mercantile business. They are the descendants of the large colony of Jews who were expelled from Spain during the reigns of Ferdinand and Isabella and Philip II. and found their way by the Mediterranean to the Balkan Provinces. The Spanish language is still spoken in their intercourse among themselves. While the Jews are not persecuted in Bulgaria as in Roumania, they are ostracized and subjected to much injustice. It is not considered dishonest to swindle a Jew if such a thing is possible, and they are contemptuously and roughly treated; but, on the other hand, they are in a great measure to blame for the prejudice against them because of their sharp practices and extortionate methods in business affairs. They have no mercy upon a Christian if he once gets into their power, and the spirit of retaliation seems quite as strong with them as with their enemies.