The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-10-23
THE UNHAPPY BULGARIANS.
Abused and Prosecuted for at Least a
Thousand Years by the Cruel Turks.
Their Substance Devoured and Their Homes
Robbed with Impunity--The Domestic Life
and Habits of These Wretched People.
New York Star.

New York Star.
The unhappy condition of Bulgaria and its
population has long been the object of sympa-
thy from all who knew anything of it, even be-
fore the late Mr. McGahan gave his stirring ac-
count of the atrocities ne committed; and it
seems almost incredible that any nation no
matter how small or helpless should have so
long borne such oppression. 1t is easy for those
whose interests tend another way to sit in Offices
and say the Turk should do this, the Russian
that; this country should annex or that one
swallow. But for those poor people who have
been oppressed. and tortured, and robbed ever
since their capture by the Turks in 1872 1t is
hard that they should be expected to go
on patiently bearing all the mseries
Of the past and God knows what in the future,
without one struggle at least. Their future can
be no darker than has been the past, and it may
be that they will accomplish something through
this movement; first, through letting the world
know that they are not SO degraded as to be
willing to go on foreve as they are. and sec
cpdly, through whatever interest from other
powers in their behalf they may be able to
arouse. But Eastern politics are so complex.
places. that, until events show for themselves
1t will be impossible to prophesy what may be
the outcome of this effort on the part of the
Bulgarians in conjunction with Roumelia for
their indep from their oppressor. the
Turk
My first actual knowledge Of Bulgaria
when l found myself before Rutschuk,
Danube steamer. I had taken passage from
Buda-Pesth in Hungary, expecting to go the
rest of the distance to Varna, en- route for Con-
stantinople, by rail; but there being cholera in
Vienna quarantine had been established at
Rutschuk. Every traveller must remain there
eleven days in tents, changing from tent number
one to two, and so on, men and women huddled
together and under the most miserable condi-
tons for comfort safety, or even decency mag
Unable. The officials were Turks, and it was an
easy matter to convince them of your continu
anee OF health If you were willing to pay for it.
and therefore. though from Vienna. | did not
make the quarantine; but that sojourn brought
me in contact with the unhappy people whose
mlserles and tortures have fired humanity
since.
4 more leisurely voyage than had intended
gave me time to look closely as possible into
the home life of these people and to study their
pecularities, which | found far less marked
among the middle and well-to-do class living in
cities than among the very poor and the peas
ants, though don't think there are any of them
overburdened with wealth If they were, the
Turkswoud soon relieve them of the surplus. /
there in 1873 and of course, the treaty of Ber
lin had notspread its sheltering wings abroad, and
there was no limit to the extortions practiced
except the ability to give The state was dvid
ed off into what they called pashaliks, and
pasha was stationed in each, with his retinue
OF soldiers. servants, horses and women
The inhabitants o Of each of these
provender for horses and food for the
retinue, pasha and all his family, and give every
thing else they had besides; and then, if there
were any young girls in family, or the peasant
had pretty wife, they were coolly appropriated.
and kept. and handed down fron pasha to, final
ly the soldiers; and if the father or husband com
planned, he received the bastinado or was
thrown into prison, and sometimes even killed.
Sometimes the women were allowed to return to
their homes, to bewail their misfortune forever.
The extortionate exactons of the pasta and
his tax-gatherers pass belief The most trif1ing
articles of household use are seized to satisfy
their greed. / saw one old peasant totJering
down the hill at Rutschuk with a bag of apples.
which he expected to sell to get moEey to pay
q tax when the soldiers fell upon him and
took them away. rolling him over on the dusty
road, and prodding him with their bayonets
when he begged for mercy. Tho only
thing that seemed strange to me was that,
with population of nearly ten Bulgarians to one
Turk, they did not rise en- masse and drive them
out; but it seems that over thousand years of
oppression had nearly stamped out the fire of
liberty and the Bugariaps allowed them to live
there and devour their substance and rob their
homes with impunity. The Bugarians
peaceful and timid, and SO Injured to suffering
that they seem to expect nothing else, and they
have been kept systematically without arms
til they scarcely seem to know anything in that
line except their long crooked sticks. Once
however, an army Of 30. 900 Bulgarians gathered
and marched, to Constantinope, expecting to
capture the city with no ether arms than their
crooks. or mangours, as they call them. Once
in while farmer will turn up white bone or
so, and the keepers of one of the Seven Towers
fortress near Constantinope will show you
room full of these mangours, and that is all that
remains of the poor Bulgarian army. Some of
these ancient as we'll as modern mangourS are
beautifully carved
From that time on to the time of which write,
a contingent of laborers has been drawn from
each village at harvest time and taken to Con-
stantinople, where they must work month
harvesting the grain the Sultan's farms
which raise food for his horses though many of
them are hired out to other parties when they
are in excess OF the demand They are chosen
by the mayor of each village, and are chained
together like malefactors while en- route, and
when they arrive they beaten and
treated worse than animals every
way. They take all this abuse with
the submissive patience of an OK. The
Turks despise them all the more because of
their submission, and use them harder 1t goes
without saying that this labor is enforced and
not paid for. At home their own farms must
suffer, or the women. if there are any, must take
their places in gathering their own scanty hoard
which, scanty as it is, must be divided up
thus: One-fifth for the crown one-fifth for the
pasha, one-ifth for the military and civil au-
thorities and the remaining two ifths he is sup
posed to own but then the clergy step in and
get about all of another fifth and then the petty
extortions of petty officers will rob him of the
balance If possible; so that the poor wretch who
has perhaps. made quite good crop. sees
starvation before him and his No wonder they
all have that settled expression of hopeless mis-
cry.
The Bulgarians are mostly cultivators, and it
is remarkable how much they will produce with
their crude plows and other instruments and
one ox--for rarely does one man have two oxen
and yet they remain just poor There is
yxhateyer before than rs long