Generally speaking, Bulgaria has no manufactories, although mechanical industries of various sorts are being introduced upon a small scale. There is plenty of convenient water-power and raw material. The mineral wealth of the country is mythical. There are stories of deposits of coal and ores in the mountains, but they are unexplored. Ninety-five per cent of the population are engaged in agriculture, and the peasants are in a fairly prosperous condition. They are ingenious as well as industrious, but show little tendency to make use of modern improvements and foreign merchandise, or to depart from the habits of thrift so characteristic of their race. It pays them well to produce and export cattle, sheep, hides, wool, wheat, corn, tobacco, the oil of roses, fruits and vegetables, and to supply their own wants by the work of their own hands as far as possible. Most of their clothing is of wool, grown and sheared upon their own farms, spun and woven in their own cabins, cut and made by the members of their own household. Formerly large quantities of cotton goods were imported from England and Germany, but they have learned that cotton will grow in Bulgaria, and a little patch is now found beside nearly every cabin, which is ginned, spun and woven by the women, like the wool.
Their taste is artistic. The women do beautiful embroidery, and their cotton garments are often handsomely decorated. It is difficult to buy these embroideries, because the work is home-made and intended for home use. The peasants are well-to-do. Their wealth is not only apparent in the flocks and herds which they have accumulated since the emancipation from Turkish tyranny twenty-three years ago, but it is believed that they have large sums of money concealed about their premises. Their experience with avaricious Turkish officials taught them great caution, for in the old days no man could accumulate property without endangering his liberty and usually his life. Nor have they yet acquired faith in banks. Few investments are available for them, and for these reasons they bury their surplus money in the ground. One of the strongest evidences of this practice is the continual disappearance of Bulgarian coin from circulation. Nobody seems to know what becomes of it. It cannot be shipped to foreign countries, because the balance of trade is in favor of Bulgaria; and it is not used in the arts and industries. Yet it disappears almost as fast as it is coined, and the only explanation offered is the prosperity and the secretive habits of the peasants.
An Englishman who traveled through the country and saw much of peasant life says that when he asked a man one day why they hid their money in the ground he answered with surprise:
“Where do the English peasants hide theirs?”
The peasants have the characteristics of the other oriental races, and, in their eagerness to acquire wealth and anxiety to get the best of a bargain, they are not surpassed by the Armenian, Arab, Turk, Greek, or Jew. They are very sharp traders, economical and thrifty in their habits, shrewd in negotiation, and never miss an opportunity to make a penny. The impression there, as in other parts of Europe, is that all Americans are rich and reckless with their money. The hotels, the shopkeepers, hackmen, guides, curio-dealers and everyone else with whom strangers come in contact has a special price for Americans, from twenty to fifty per cent higher than is paid by other people. The waiters and porters expect bigger fees, and the whole community, in fact, considers an American traveler a pigeon to be plucked.
The peasants are industrious, ingenious and intelligent. Both men and women are of fine physique, capable of great endurance, and very few of them are idle or vicious. I noticed but three or four beggars during my visit to Bulgaria, and every one was a cripple. The women do their share of the work on the farms, and seem never to be idle a moment. Holding the distaff in their hands, they spin as they walk along the highway and as they sit behind piles of vegetables in the market waiting for customers. They are so accustomed to it that the work is done unconsciously. They also care for the flocks and herds. Most of the shepherds you see from the highways or the railway trains are children from eight years old and upward, who follow the cattle, sheep and goats over the ranges. The large herds in the mountains far from the towns are kept by men and well-grown boys, and often young women are found among them, who sleep in the open air with sheepskins wrapped around them during the entire winter season.
The hospitality of the peasants is always commented upon by travelers. Whenever you enter a cottage you are cordially welcomed. The oriental laws of hospitality prevail everywhere in Bulgaria and among all classes. No stranger is ever turned from the door if he comes in peace, and the poorest peasant will share his blanket and his bread without the asking, and at the poorest cottage a glass of water or milk, or a bunch of grapes is invariably offered the visitor. Nearly every peasant has a farm of from five to fifteen acres. The cottages of the owners are grouped together in a little village, and the cultivated lands, as in France, usually lie at some distance. There are no fences, and to a stranger the landmarks are obscure. Every family has at least one pair of oxen and forty or fifty sheep, besides cattle, goats, pigs, geese and chickens, all of which are allowed to graze upon the mera, or common pasture, which belongs to the government, but has been held by the community from time immemorial. A peasant of one community is not allowed to use the pasture belonging to another unless he owns a hut or garden spot there to give him a title, but there is no limit to the extent of pasture. He may have only ten sheep or cows, or he may have a thousand—they are all entitled to their share of the common range. If a man wishes to sell his place his next-door neighbor has the option. No stranger is permitted to acquire property that any member of the community desires to purchase, and public opinion will regulate the price.
Fruit is plentiful, and in the valleys there is a succession of vineyards which produce an excellent wine. All ordinary vegetables known to the temperate zone are cultivated, and tobacco and cotton grow well. Although the soil has been producing for more than twenty centuries, no fertilizers are used. The revenue from the manufacture of attar of roses amounts to more than $1,000,000 annually. You can buy it in little gilded glass flagons at shops where Turkish goods are sold. The town of Shipka, where was fought the decisive battle of the Russo-Turkish war on the 7th of July, 1877, is the center of the rose gardens. Upon the battlefield are many memorials of that great struggle in the form of monuments, crucifixes, pyramids of cannon balls, cannons and crosses, scattered over a large area, erected by the survivors of different regiments that were engaged in the battle, in memory of their officers and comrades, and many of them mark the burial places of officers and men who distinguished themselves in the fight. In the center of the field is an imposing obelisk erected by Alexander II. of Russia to commemorate the victory of General Gourko, who commanded his troops. It bears an appropriate inscription upon the pedestal, and upon the shaft is engraved a representation of the Russian coat of arms, with crossed rifles and flags beneath it. Upon the top of the shaft is a spear and a cross.
The climate and soil of that part of Bulgaria are unusually favorable for rose culture, and for miles around the fields are full of the most luxuriant roses, which are cultivated like the grapevines in the valleys and on the mountain slopes farther west. The rose fields cover altogether many thousand acres. The bushes are carefully pruned, so that all the strength of the sap may go into the flowers, and from the middle of June until the last of October women with bags hanging over their shoulders go through them daily plucking the flowers that have reached maturity. At night they take their harvests home, where the petals are carefully removed, placed in kettles similar to an ordinary still, and the oil extracted by steam. Thousands of tons of rose leaves are thus gathered annually, and the oil produced is worth at the distillery from $50 to $75 a pound. A single drop will perfume a two-ounce bottle of alcohol. Much of the product is sent to Paris and Vienna, the remainder to Constantinople.
Philippopolis, the second city in population and importance in Bulgaria, is a famous old town, founded by Philip of Macedon about the year 350 B.C., and its history has been both romantic and exciting. It is picturesquely situated upon three hills of granite and has several fine buildings and churches of every religious denomination. The Alexander Gymnasium, for boys, established by the late prince, is perhaps the most progressive educational institution in the whole country and has exerted a wide influence. There is a government school for the higher education of girls also, which has done much towards the advancement of women. In the market place at Philippopolis you see all sorts of costumes, for nearly every oriental race is represented in the population. The Bulgarian is distinguished by the kalpak, a headdress of lamb’s wool, and the Turk by his fez. The Turkish women wrap their faces in muslin veils or shawls, but the Bulgarian women follow the European custom and do not attempt to conceal their features.