The sun., 1918-10-06
Checkered Career OF
Ruler Who Used
Subjects as Mer,
Paw MS and Bank
rupted Nation a..
BY r. CUNLIFFE.oWEN.

4'i A1iIOb ALEAANDEh LII. or
~ Russia was accounted a rather dull
man. But he showed preseience when in
1887, at the time of Ferdinand of Co.
burg's election TO the throne at Sofia, he
prophesied that in the end the new ruler
would bring ruin and desolation upon
the Bulgarian nation.
Bulgaria was then in the first decade
OF its freedom and independence. won
for 1t from the Turks by the Russians
Its national debt was merely nominal and
taxes weighed but lightly on the almost
entirely agricultural population. At the
outset Of the present war the national
debt had risen TO over $200, 900. To-
day 1T IS estimated to exceed a billion
dollars, quite intolerable burden for a
peasant population Of little over four
million. Small wonder, under the cir.
cnmstanees, that Bulgaria, finding herself
unable to obtain any further loans abroad.
was obliged few weeks ago to default
on the payment Of the coupons Of her
treasury bonds.
Sorry Change Made in 80 Years.
Iiopelessly bankrupt, dcspoiled and
tyrannized by her late German and Aus
trian friends, forced to abject and I'm.
conditional surrender by the Entente in.
vaders OF her territory, compelled TO re-
hnqulsh all the fruits of her victories in
the earlier Balkan wars, branded as the
most faithless of allies: that is the sorry
condition in which Bulgaria, the so prom.
IslnS peasant state of thirty years ago, is
left by Ferdinand
The Bulgarian people participated in
his shameful betrayal of their allies of
the Balkan League at the close of the
first Balkan war, and the atrocities which
their troops have perpetrated in Greece,
and especially in Serbia, during the last
two years, atrocities surprising in horror
even those Of which the Germans rendered
themselves guilty in Belgium, France and
Rumania, show that the Bulgars have
learned little Of the ways and preeepts
OF western civilization under the rule of
Ferdinand.
Although Ferdinand leaves Bulgaria
completely ruined he is known to have
made plenty of personal provision for the
rainy days by which he has now been
Overtaken. True, he was obliged to spend
a considerable amount Of money in Sc
curing his election TO the Bulgarian throne.
spots de vim" were freely distributed by
him in obtaining the support of the lead
ing statesmen and politicians of Sofia,
Ministers being rated at $4,000 forms
apiece and members of the Sobranie at
a beggarly $1,000 head.
Kissed Turks Hand Publicly.
Then there were Sultan Abdul Hamid
and all sorts of great dignitaries at Con-
stantinqple TO be bribed. For until 1908
Ferdinand was subject to the suzerainty
Of the Sublime Porte, aud is the only
Christian prince in modern times to have
abased himself sufficiently before the
Moslem Padishah at STEAMBOAT as publicly
TO kiss his hand. But for all that Fer
dinand spent in buying his election TO
the Bulgarian throne and in winning the
recognition of Abdul the Damned at Con.
he recouped himself after
ward many hundredfold.
Prematurely aged, looking more like a
than merely 81, obese and
infirm, he presents but little resemblance
to the slender, perfumed and tightly cor
setted youth with painted cheeks and
ropged lips who made his first entry into
Sofia in August, 1887, on horseback.
Edward VII, no mean Judge Of char ,
aeter, entertained positive loathing for
Ferdinand, prevented the late Queen Vic l
toria from carrying out her intention of I
bestowing upon him the Order of the
Garter in 1899, and was wont to declare
that Ferdinand poisoned his annual visits ;
to Marienbad by arranging to be there at ,
the same time harossiuo, him With HE nm ,