The Portland daily press., 1895-07-20
THE MURDERED STAMBULOFF.
Interesting Personality of the Great
Bulgarian StateSman.

1du OtatCSAaAs
He Was Devoid of Fear and Had Done
Many Brave Deeds for His Country-A
Great Foe of Russia.
Stambuloff, the assasinated Bulgarian
statesman, was man of strong 1ndIyld-
uality. He has been the great foe of Rus
STA, and lone of his most dramatic pas
sages of arms with Russia occurred dur
ing the war with Seryia, when the Gar
showed his hand in decidedly offensive
manner, wrote a correspondent of the N.
Y. Tribune in 1892. NJ. Stambulof
told many times, and never seemed to
weary of telling, the story of Slivnitza
In that battle the destinies of Bulgaria
and Servia were to be decided. Prince
Alexander had gone out to lead the Bull
garian army in person, leaving NJ. STAN
buloff in charge at home.
1t was a brilliant day, with cloudless
sky, and scarcely breath of wind stir
ring. The roar of the cannon was plainly
heard in the city, owing perhaps to some
peculiar condition of the air, or perha ps
to the echo from the mountains. At any
rate, it sounded much nearer than it
really was and NJ. Stambulof and his col
leagues thought that the Seryians were
winning the day and were driving Prince
Alexander and his army in upon the cap
ital In their anxiety they applied to the
Russian diplomatic agent for advice.
That gentleman shrugged his. shoulders
and said that it was no affair of his.
"But," urged the Bulgarian Minister,
tthe Servians are almost at our gates
You could stop them at single word if
you would
eyes but that word will not be spoken
not though they were actually entering
the city, with your Prince prisoner, as
indeed they soon will do. On one condi-
ton only will 1 stop them, and that is
that your beggar of Prince shall abdi-
cate at once. Sal &tl
"And that thundered NJ Stambuloff,
che will not do; no, not for twenty Rus
sias p
With that NJ Stambuloff sprang into
the saddle and dashed away to the bat
tlefield, while the Russian agent sent for
his friends to come to his house and help
him celebrate the defeat of the Bulgarian
army.
A few hours passed., and then the Bull
garian Foreign Minister got telegram
from M. Stambuloff, dated on the field
of battle, telling of Prince Alexa nder's
magnificent victory and of the utter rout
of the Servians He hurried with it to
the house of the Russian agent, arriving
there In the midst Of the festivities and
when he told the news the representative
of the Gar ground his teeth in rage.
THE PANITZA INCIDENT.
How daring and vigorous the Minister
was in his great work was again and
again show in striking incidents.
There was, for example, the arrest of Ma
jor Panitza, who was at the head of the
most dangerous and powerful plot ever
organized against the Prince. How wide
spread the conspiracy was, no one could
tell. Who was to be trusted no man
dared say. Panitza himself was formid-
able Desperate, always armed to the teeth
and ready to shoot on the slightest provo
how? Send police? Soldiers? Officers?
They might be in the plot with him. or
they might be baffled by his desperate
resistance ~
NJ Stambuloff finally settled the mat
ter by making the arrest himself, alone.
At midnight, alone, unarmed and undis-
guised, he knocked at Panitzas door.
The Majors wife, with a loaded pistol in
her hand, admitted him. Recognizing
him and divining his errand. she raised
the weapon to fire. He looked at her, and
her arm fell and she turned away Then
NJ. Stambuloff went up to Panitza' S room
He found him in bed, loaded revolver
at his side.
'Major Panitza,'' said the Minister
calmly, 'sget up, dress yourself. and come
with me-.
The desperate grasped his revolver. The
Minister folded his arms and looekd at
him. as Marius looked at the slave who
came to slay him. Panitza laid doMn
the weapon, rose, dressed himself and
followed his captor to prison.
DEVOID OF PERSONAL FEAR.
Z NJ. Stambuloff really did not seem to
know what fear was; personal fear, at
any rate. Although he.was by no means
a quarrelsome man, he never troubled
himself OF keep out of quarrel and in
deed, sometimes deliberately sought one
for political reasons Years ago, when he
was an exile at Bucharest, paper there
published gross attack upon him and
his fellow patriots, saying that .'they had
left their country for their country's
good" He did not care rap for 1T per-
sonally, but for political reasons he had to
take notice of it. To let it pass would
ipjure the Bulgarian cause So he called
upon the editor, whom he found alone.
and demanded retraction. The editor.
replied that he would make one, add
ing: "Meet me this evening at the cafe
and will show you draft of it for..your
approval. NJ. Stambuloff went to the
Gale in the evening and found the editor
surrounded by a dozen Of his friends, .
Russian bravoes. Thus, feeling sure he
insolently laughed in NJ Stambuloff''s
face and babe him go to the devil. M.
Stambuloff quietly said: 81 shall not
challenge you to fight me, for you are a
coward and would decline. But I will
force you to challenge me, or show your-
self greater coward than suppose even
a Russian can be. F."