The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-10-13
TALES OF THE TRUE | BULGARIAN SOLDIER Intelligence of Expression in the Drab Companies IS A TRUE PEASANT Bulgaria Can Throw 100000 Trained Men Into the Field on Short
 Notice-Equipment of
 the Army
IS A TRUE PEASANT

c. Ward Price in the London Daily Mail.
 The Bulgarian soldier Is one of the first
 things that strikes you in Sofia. It is not
 the uniform that makes the impression.
 for his whity brown line smock. rough
 brown trousers. and unpublished, heavy
 Wellington boots are as ugly as they are
 workmanlikc. Nor is it his bigness. nor
 his sun tanned face. But there is an in-
 telllgence of expression and an alertness
 of bearing in the drab companies that
 make you look at them twice as they
 tramp by.
 This combination of the sturdiness of
 body and weather beaten face that are
 the marks of the countryside. with the
 brightness and interest of expression that
 are usually the stamp of the town, give
 you the whole secret of the Bulgarians
 excellence as war material.
 He is true peasant-of breed which
 we scarcely know in England. He is a
 peasant proprietor. He has his own land his own cart, his own oxen to pull it; he is satisfied with his circumstances and interested in his work. If he has any native intelligence he has every incen- tive to use and develop 1t, since the full pIollL OI IL COilltS tO iiiiHStils
 And so he possesses the strength of the country dweller without being a chaw-
 bacon. and the intelligence of the towns man without being weed.
 Divisional maneuvers are going on 10 miles from Sofia, and the real thing is near enough to make 1t an easy possibili- ty that this may be the last training the Bulgarian army will receive before it goes out to the supreme test in the attempt to frnn hn n applied at the war ministry for permis- sion to spend 8 day with the troops. 1t was that glorious golden weather that autumn sometimes brings. Here they call it the Summer of the Poor" for it puts off for a while the coming of the deep winter snows, when the Bulgarian peas | ants, in their little steadings far up the roadless hillside, can only sit round the | fire in sheepskins, working at the en- broidery which makes their summer dress | so handsome and longing for the spring. The road climbed a defiie through the mountains at a height of nearly 5000 feet. White oxen yolSed to numbering carts shied clumsily as the car hummed by. Strapping Bulgarian peasant girls in dresses elaborate with embroidery of 1 red and white and gold, and with long | hair hanging in dozen plaits linked by a heavy brooch behind, smiled prettily at 1 us. And there, at last, crossing the stub | be in the plain, are troops-a column of | two battalions and battery of artillery. | A mile ahead of them are battery of I mountain guns, Maxim gun detachment the guns carried by pack horses-two squadrons of cavalry, and two more batta- lions of 400 men each. They are march, ] ing to oppose force of exactly similar strength that is coming down from the north through two defies in the hills. A Country Without Hedges | As in so many continental countries, hedge and fence are unknown In the Bulgarian countryside. A "baulk"-an
 unploughed strip of turf-serves to
 mark off field from field. For man oeuvring this Is excellent. The whole country is one gigantic Salisbury Plain, instead of being broken up into count less little compartments by impossible hedges. And though the green of the haw thorn -chequered English cham paign Is wanting, there Is fine spa | ciousness in the far-stretching sweep of the open landscape, and natures line and perspective are unkroken. General Toscheff and his staff of white-coated officers are on the hill-
 side watching the movements of the dots in the plain below through their field glasses-sunburnt men, with all the marks of their calling about them, for the army is taken very seriously in Bulgaria.
 l It is, indeed the backbone Of the state, the guarantor of her prosperity. | Without an efficient army the Bulga-. rians could not hope to hold their own | In the armed scramble for Macedonia that all the Balkan states expect some day. To the building up of the army a great part of Bulgaria's f24, 100000 of national debt has gone. and the result that she can show is that of popula- ton of 5,000,O00 she could put s4o0.000 trained men into the field
 The invading troops from the north debouching from two defies on either side of us, were engaging the advanced par ties of the defending force in the plain. But after a little skirmishing the latter fell back on their main body, now estah- lished in strong position a mile or two back in the plain.
 The commander of the southern force
 had chosen his position well-a huge nat ural earthwork only approachable on the
 front and on the right flank across more
 than a mile of absolutely open stubble and turf.
 Just back of the crest of the hill was
 battery of artlery-French quick firing guns from Cruesot of the latest pattern. E'ifty~yards away the commander of the battery had his observation post, con
 nected with the guns by a little field tele- phone. Below on the reverse slope of the hill lay the main body of infantry. Widely extended lines of brown dots were advancing over the open plain that we had just crossed-doubling forward a little way. then dropping down into mo- tionless specks on the yellow of the har-
 vested field.
 But the country was too open for seri-
 ous attack to tbe made on the front. IL
 was on the left flank. where rolling ground provided some cover. that the real assault would be made.
 Here the defendants had a battery of four Maxim mitrailleuses at work The
 pattern of machine gun that the Bulga- rian army uses is much handler than the
 scwt. of Maxim and gun-carrlage that 1
 remember helping to pull out of ditch
 in a certain officers training corps. On
 the march it is carried by pack horses.
 and 1t is brought up to It's position by