The herald., 1922-09-07
Village Laos Carrying Water.

prepared by the National Geographic
Society. Washington. u. c.
Bulgaria, where democracy has adj
vanced TO such an extent that the
peasant premier is reported TO have
publicly discussed the ACCESSIBILITY Of
declaring a 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-
ceeding prowess in the first Balkan
war. From this growing pinnacle a
hideous mistake brought her TO a 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 a 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, entalling
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"
Modern Buloars Are SIavs.
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
thousand years, spreading out from
the parent center in brood which at
length has covered much of the terri
tory from the Euxlne to the Adriatic.
He early embraced Christianity, and
from the first Boris down TO the last,
religion has highly colored the politics
Of Bulgaria.
GibbOn. in a famous passage, has
remarked that "the glory of the Bull
gariaHs was confined to a narrow scope
both ftime and place; and true
II is, whether one speaks Of that
remoter era when the Emperor Simeon
gave TO the Bulgars their golden
age or to the present day-when less
than 40 years sufiiced to mark the
passage of the country from a state
of awful servitude to a place of power
and prosperity. And now. ten years
after the triumphal conclusion of the
first Balkan war, IL is again a shorn
and shattered nation.
BY reason OF their closer proximity
TO the on-marching forces OF the proph-
ct, the Bulgarians fell earlier cap
tive to the Turk than the other Chris
tian peoples OF the Balkans: and the
Turkish supremacy in Bulgaria. which
began in the Fifteenth century and
lasted well into the Nineteenth, is the
gloomiest epoch in the national an
mails.
There as ever where the Turkish
foot had trod in triumph. freedom van
ished, learning languished and the
of past glOries all but dis