The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-11-17
LAND OF BRIGANDS
HIGHWAY ROBBERY Is THE Ma
TIONAL PASTIME OF Bull
CARA
ABDUCTED THEIR OWN RULER
Weighted Down by the Burden of
Mussulman Rule-The stone Case
but One of Hundreds-Life
of the Peasantry.

Bulgarian atrocities an expression
used by Mr.. Gladstone, has passed into
byword of the modern world, just as
the Romans Characterization of the per-
fidy of the. Carthaginians by the phrase
"Punic faith did in the ancient world
writes l.. f. Gray in the Boston Post
IL has since taken on a new meaning,
and is directed this time to the BuIgar-
sians themselves by reason of their law
less actions of brigandage in the case of
Miss Stone, the Chelsea missionary, and
their connivance at the abduction at one
time of their own reigning sovereign,
Prince Alexander.
'Bulgaria's birthright is brigandage,"
is a saying attributed to Skobeleff, the
famous white general of the Russians,
whose mysterious, untimely death was
suspiciously connected with his tremen-
dous popularity and rising ambitions
and he was speaking of a race supposed
by everybody to be of his own.
The idea gained from these expressions
is that the Bulgarians are Iawless saw
ages and historians leave the investigat-
or perplexed by their Endorsement of it
it upon the other.
The conditions that make it almost in
stinetive to couple the names Bulgarian
and sbriGands are largely due to the fact
that they have but recently begun to
breathe the atmosphere of freedom that
Mussulmar rule weighed upon the coun-
try for centuries like a nightmare, and
that when the Russians rendered them
their liberty with one hand they dealt out
with the ether humiliation and corrup-
ton.
Alexander of Battenberg the first
prince of Bulgaria, has been the hero of
a hundred biogfaphers and Journalists
He is cousin to the present czar of
Russia. and assumed the throne of Bull
garia after a constitution was framed,
perhaps the most democratic in existence
1t was called a "Pandora's box" contain
ing elements which would make an in
dependent rule impossible. Several at
tempts were made to kidnap him, and
one was successful, but excited interest
only in its political bearing upon the
vexed Eastern question:" and was of
little moment to Americans, except as
curious instance of audacity.
He was finally released, but it is be-
lieved that his abdication of the throne
was the price paid for his ransom.
BrigandGge appears to be the national
vice, and it is not confined to kidnapping,
which has called the attention of the
civilized world to the Bulgarian, nor can
political intrigue on the part of the
Russians or Turks be alleged the reason
Travellers advise the tourist to go in a
private carriage, for the reason that the
post coaches are Systematically held
up and the passengers, as we'll as the
mails, are robbed. Even the apologists
admit that the petty brigandage of high
way robbery is general throughout the
country
A sitting of the evidence adduced by
the best authorities seems to lead to the
Judgment that they ire an intermixture
of Monaghan and Finnish stocks with old
Turkish blood.
The force of this conclusion is aug
mented by the innate enmity of the
BulgarianS to the Russians notWith
standing that each is usually regarded
as branch of the Pan-Slavic race and
that their names seem to point to a
Slavic source.
The fact is that sort of coalescence
has finally resulted like that of the Nor
mans and SaXons in England, which
formed ultimately one people.
The Bulgarians, in fact, claim upward
OF i,0f years of distinct nationality, and
Il this claim is not sufficient to consti-
fute nation, few of the people of Eu-
rope have any ground to consider them
selves historic nationality.
The Bulgarians have always been a
highs spirited, impressive and warlike
race, and the famous battle of Nicoools
In the fourteenth century, which desiuel
not only the fate of Bulgaria, but Of all
the Christian states of Southeastern Eu-
rope, was decided favorably to Islam by