Durango semi-weekly herald., 1901-11-25
BEAUTY OF BULGARIA.
William E. Curtis Compares the Eu-
ropean Principaiity With Penn
syIvana.

SOFIA, Nov. 2.-(William Il. Cur
tbs in the Chicago Record Herald y
Bulgaria is about as big as Pennsyl-
vania has a similar shape and re-
minds one very much of that state. be-
cause of the resemblance in topo-
graphy and other physical features.
The forests and the rivers watering
rich valleys, the mountains ranges.
the rocky lodges. and the landscape
generally is very much like the
Quaker State. The population is
about 80 per cent less.
| The Danube river forms the north
, ern boundary of Bulgaria. and much
| of the produce of the state goes out
and much of its imported merchan-
disc come in upon enormous barges
towed in strings from Budapest and
from Vienna. Austria monopolizes
The trade in manufactured merchant
| disc.
During the summer season the pas
sengers steamers on the Danube offer
very pleasant voyage through Hun
gary. Servia Bulgaria and Roumania
to the Black sea, but at this season of
the year the water is low, fogs are
frequent and the air is too cool to sit
on the deck, hence trip by train is
more agreeable. You can come from
Vienna by rail in twenty-four hours in
comfortable sleeping cars and good
dining cars, in which table de hote
meals are served at city prices. but
the fares are very high.
The Orient Express. which is the
great railway train of Europe. and
runs from Calais and Ostend through
Germany and France to CONSTANT
nople three times a week. is a preten-
tious humbug when judged by Ameri-
can standards. The distance between
Vienna and Sofia is about the same as
between Philadelphia and Pittsburg,
but it takes twice as long to make
the journey, and the fare is about
four times as much. The extra fare.
or supplement. as they call it. demand
ed, for the privilege of riding upon
this famous train is A francs between
those two cities, or SS.4O, which is
about full fare between Philadelphia
and Pittsburg, and instead of getting
wide berth in Pullman sleeper for
81 you have to pay $3.50 for a nights
lodging in a stuffy little closet. The
beds are comfortable but the space
is SO narrow that it is scarcely safe
to roll over, and the only way to ven
tilate the compartment is to open a
window directly over your head
The ordinary trains are only two
hours slower than the Orient Ex-
. ali
run every day and the charge is only
about one-half as much.
Bulgaria has several railroads, run
ming to Black sea. to Bucharest and to
SalonlKa on the Mediterranean. in ad-
dition to the trunk line to CONSTANT
nople. They belong to the govern
ment, and seem to be well managed,
although they make slow time. The
Orient Express sometimes works up
a gait of twenty miles an hour, but
averages about eighteen, and that is
considered a wonder. The entire rail
way system aggregates 900 miles.
with 130 miles of new track under con-
struction. Telephone and telegraph
wires, belonging to the government,
are stretched all over the country. the
telephone service being a great i'm
provement upon that of Germany,
which. however, is the worst | have
ever found-so bad that foreigners
will not use telphone if they can pos
sibly avoid it. | have often thought
that perhaps some of the German
parts of speech are too big to send
over an ordinary wire; that perhaps
~ 50 \, ..1~
struments is too great for them to en-
dure, but an eminent professor in the
University of Berlin, to whom | sug
gested this the other day, thought ]
was in earnest and punished my i'm
pudence by holding me upin corner
for half an hour while he demon
strated the absurdity of the PROPOSE
ton.
Moral-Never try to joke with Ger
man professors.
The eastern boundary of Bulgaria is
the Black sea, on the west is the
Kingdom of Servia. and on the south
the Rodope chain of mountains divides
it from the Turkish provinces of Rou-
melia and Macedonia. The Balkan
Mountains. like the Alleghenys in
Pennsylvania, bisect the country east
and west and divide it into two prov
inces. In some parts we find beauti-
full undulating landscapes and at in
tervals long eXpanses of elevated
plateau varying from 1,200 to 1000
feet above the sea. which lie between
the mountain ranges. These plains
are irrigated and drained by several
important streams. the most interest
ing being the Jantra. which winds
among the mountains through high
limestone gorges. and furnishes
picturesque feature to the topo-
graphy. There are no large cities in
Bulgaria, but several important towns,
each of which has its marked pecu-
liarities.
| There are several other towns of
less than 10000 and more than 10000
population. but three-fourths of the in
habitants are engaged in agricultural
and pastoral pursuits. most of them