Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1922-08-25
aulaarlan Village


Society. Washington. d. CD
Bulgaria, where democracy has adj
vanced to such an extent that the
peasant premier is reported to have
publicly discussed the ACCESSIBILITY of
declaring republic and electing the
young king president, has developed
SO rapidly since Turkish rulers were
ousted little more than a generation
ago that this suggested world record
in peaceably dethroning kings hardly
seems an impossibility.
Bulgaria might be termed "the most
Balkan of the Balkan countries" both
geographically and Enthusiastically.
The country bulks large in Balkan his
tory. In one generation Of freedom
she has made incredible progress and
crowned her achievements with ex-
ceedlng prowess IL the first Balkan
war. From this growing pinnacle
hideous mistake brought her to sad
repute In no wise due to the qualities
of her people, but rather to one head
strong and chauvinistic statesman
whose fateful counsel undid in single
month all that the founders of the
Balkan alliance had worked for two
years to accomplish, and whose mad
folly destroyed, for the majority OF
the world, an impression of Bulgarian
wisdom and capacity which had been
toilsomely built up from such meager
beginnings. A second error, entailing
even greater disaster, was made when
the Bulgar king cast the lot of his
people with the Teutonic allies in the
World war.
The history of Bulgaria differs lit
tie from that of her sister Balkan
states; the successive chapters are
written in blood. Herodotus, the ia
Their of history, was the first to notice
the wild Thracian and Illyrian tribes
who inhabited that portion of the
peninsula, and what he said of them
centuries ago has poignant emphasis
in these last sad days of Bulgarian ex-
| perience: IF they were only ruled by
one man, and could only agree among
themselves, they would be the great
est of all nations"
| MoQSfn Burglars ATc oiaNo.
These ancient Bulgars, however,
were doubtless of another strain than
those who now claim the name and
who are purely Slav-more character
istically so than the Russians even.
Just when the Slav first set his
mark in this region is difficult to say
but there he has been for more than
a thousand years, spreading out from
the parent center in brood which al
length has covered much Of the terri
tory from the Euxine to the Adriatic
He early embraced Christianity, ant
from the first Boris down to the last
religion has highly colored the politics
of Bulgaria.
Gibbon. in a famous passage, la:
remarked that '.the glory Of the Bull
garians was confined to narrow scope
both ftime and place" and tru'
II is, whether one speaks of tina
remoter era when the Emperor Simeon
gave to the Bulgars their goldel
age or to the present day-when les
than 40 years suficed to mark tn
passage of the country from stnt
of awful servitude to a place OF powe
and prosperity. And now, ten year
after the triumphal conclusion OF tn
first Balkan war, It IL again shor
and shattered nation.
BY reason OF their closer proximit
to the on-marching forces OF the propf
ct, the Bulgarians fell earlier car
tive to the Turk than the other Chri'
tian peoples Of the Balkans; and tn
Turkish supremacy In Bulgaria, whic
began in the Fifteenth century an
lasted well into the Nineteenth, Is Ia
gloomiest epoch in the national 81
mails.
There, a. ever where the Turks
foot had trod In triumph, freedom val
ished, learning languished and q
memories Of past gloriss all but q