Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-11-21
BULGARIA..
A Trip Through a Strange Coun-
try-Dress Of the Peasantry.

From SllvnltZa to Soma Is thirty kllO-
meters, with good roads all the way,
writes q correspondent of the London
Times. The Cathedral and Parliament
House, with the white villas of the new
European quarter, which stands on high
ground, are visible an hour before the
Capital is reached. There is scarcely
any traffic on the road. Once in ten
miles we may meet droschky drawn
by four horsos, harnessed abreast, and
with jingling bells, and twice as often o
rickety carriage that looks like palan.
,quin on wheels, and contains four pas.
sengers, who have to sit with their heads
bent, because their hats would other
wise touch the ceiling. No dwelling
above the rank of cottage is to be seen
in any direction, for the land laws make
it impossible that squirearchy should
grow up, and the country has not yet
any rich merchants who can build rustic
summer residences with parks and gar
dens. Yet in this land, SO unlike Eng
land, except in its green beauty, incon-
gruous "reminiscences of Henley regatta
and Lords ground are brought up every
moment by the holiday dress of the
peasantry, which at short distance
looks like that of our cricketers and oars
men. The men wear trousers of white
chalak or woolen homespun, red sashes,
Oxford blue jackets aud scarlet skull,
caps. A group of them on grass plot
makes one look around for the familiar
tent, the pickets and the rival eleven
out. The women have graceful head
drapery of Turkish lawn, and their dress.
es are profusely embroidered with that
beautiful cre~el work of silk or wool
which the Turkish women used to make,
but which is made no longer since they
left the land. These embroideries are
still to be bought fairly cheap, but in a
few years the railways will have carried
them all off to the west. Already Bul.
garian women are beginning to under
stand their value and are putting them
away for sale, along with the Turkey
carpets, mats, and rich bed counterpanes
which make the interior of so many Bull.
garian cottages contrast marvelously
with the outside. 1t is quite common
thing to find in these novels,
grimy with smoke and infested
with vermin, hangings and dresses
which could be sold for guinea the
square foot in Regent street, and the
color of this stuff is SO fine, the material
so pure, and the work 90 good and firm
that little cleaning will make fifty
year old embroidery look like new.
Alas, some apostles of civilization in the
form of German bagmen have latterly
taught the Bulgarian women that they
can mix little cotton with their wool
and use cheaper materials for their dyes,
SO that even the comfortable blue and
white and blue chalaks, which were
warm in winter. and light in summer,
which kept out rain and rheumatism,
which conld be darned and redarned and
be worn down to the thread are now
yielding to textures which, for trade
purposes, bear the same name, but of
which the properties have nothing in
common with the original. 1t is the
German bagman. too, who has brought
to Sofia the suits of shoddy which shrink
at the touch of water, the printed cotton
stuffs of which the colors are warranted
fast-that is, fast to disappear; the
watches, guaranteed for twelve-month,
and which go for just that length of
time-no more, and the gimcrack furni-
ture which limps, turns scaly, will not
lock, and misbehaves itself ia q dozen
diffarent ways in the new houses of the
European quarter.
Dashing through the Turkish streets
of the city as hard as the coachman can
drive-for no isvotchik ever yet entered
an Oriental town without acting as if he
meant to run over the inhabitants-one
finds the modern part of Sofia looking
like Q new watering place that is just
becoming fashionable. The Princes
palace might pass for the customary ca
sino. In front of it is a large public gar
den where military bands plays; hard by
is the principal hotel, with seaside prices,
couple of cafes, with French and Ger
man newspapers, billiards and beer; o
row of good shops, o cab stand aud a
hundred yards of pavement, which is
the favorite lounge of well.dressed off.
GERS, and in stirring times. of politicians,
and newspaper correspondents. In the
adjoining streets there are many gaps Of
waste land; but the whole assemblage of
Government and consular buildings and
private buildings of one or two stories
is clean and pretty. The British agency
occupies o substantial block; the Rus.
sian Consulate is palace of somewhat
pretentious style; the residence of the
Austro. Hungarian agent, with its turret
and long glass veranda, suggests some
such name as Bellevue and Belvidere
mansion. Then there is the well-situa-
ted and capitally-managed Union Club,
which is a great boon to the diplomatic
body and to strangers. Altogether Sofia
has o much more promising appearance
than Belgrade, and the whole atmosphere
of the town is that of place where the
inhabitants are accustomed to act for
themselves, and are not afraid to speak
out their minds.