The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-12-02
THE BULGARIAN PEASANTS.
An American Visitors Report on Them.
 The peasants of Bulgaria are in in

An American Visitors Report on Them. The peasants of Bulgaria are in in- dustrious, ingenious and intelligent. Both men and women are of fine phy-
 sique, capable of great endurance, and
 very few of them are idle or vicious. l have seen but three or four beggars since I have been in Bulgaria, and all of them were crippes The women do
 their share of the work on the farms and seem never to be idle moment
 Holding the distaff in their hands, they
 spin as they walk along the highway
 and as they sit behind piles of vegeta
 bles in the market waiting for custo-
 mers. 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 six years old and upward,
 who follow the cattle, sheep and goats
 over the ranges The large herds in the
 muntains far from the towns are kept
 by men and well-grown boys, and often
 young women are found among them,
 who sleep in the pen air with sheep
 skins wrapped arund them, during the
 entire winter season.
 The hospitality of the peasants is all
 ways commented upon by travellers.
 Whenever you enter cottage you are
 crdially welcomed The oriental laws
 of hospitality prevail every where 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 milk or bunch of grapes is invariably off,
 fered the visitor.
 Nearly every peasant has a farm of
 from five to fifteen acres. The cot
 tages of the owners are grouped to-
 gether in little village, and the culti-
 vated lands, unfenoed, usually lie at some distance. There are no fences
 and to 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 nera. or common pas ture, 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 a pasture belonging to another unless he owns hut or garden spot to give him title, but there is no limit to the right of pasture. He may have only ten sheep or cows, or he may have thou sand; 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
 Fruit is plentiful, and in the valleys there is succession of vineyards which produce an excellent wine. All ordina- ry vegetables known to the temperate zone are cultivated and tobacco and cotton grow we'll Although the soil has been producing for more than twenty centuries, no fertilizers are used.
 One of the most profitable products of Bulgaria is the oil or altar of roses which amounts to more than million dollars annually You can buy it in little bilded glass fagons at shops where Turkish goods are sold The town of shipka where was fought the decisive battle of the Turko- Russian war on the 7th of July. 1877, is the cen- ter of the rose gardens. Upon the bat tlefield are many memorials of that great fight in the form of monuments, pyramids of cannon balls, cannons and crosses, scattered over a taI hyy tha cIyyvivnYc nf 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 l fight In the center of the field is an 1 imposing obelisk erected by Alexander | II. of Russia to commemorate the vic | tory of General Gourko, who command i ed his troops. It bears an appropriate | inscription upon the pedestial, and upon ' the shaft is engraved representation | If the Russian coat of arms. Upon i the top of the shaft is spear and l ,ross. i,
 The climate and soil of this part of ' Bulgaria are unusually favorable for 'ose culture, nd for miles around the ! lcIuS dlt Iull Ol lllc lfitrl iHnuiiooo 'oses, which are cultivated like the in the valleys and on the mountain slopes farther west. The rose fields cover altogether many thousand ,cres. The bushes are carefully | so that all the strength of the sap may go into the flowers, and from he middle of June until the last of October women with bags hanging ,ver their shoulders go through them laily plucking the flowers that have cached maturity. At night they take heir harvests home, where the petals Ire carefully removed, placed in kettles imlar to an ordinary still and the oil by steam. Thousands of tons if rose leaves are thus gathered annu- lily, and the oil produced is worth at he distilery from fifty to seventy five Lollars pound. A single drop will ,erfume a two-ounce bottle of alcohol. Iuch of the product is sent to Paris nd Vienna, the remainder to Constan- E. Curtis in the Chicago Record Herald