Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 June 1879 — The Bulgarians. [ARTICLE]

The Bulgarians.

Lady Stangford, writing to the Edinburgh Scotsman, on the condition of the Bulgarians, says: “The most salient characteristic of the Bulgarian everywhere, of the educated and uneducated alike, is what is vulgarly called ‘cheek the most offensive self-confidence, the most superb self-estimation. Their nature is at present at a very low level; the bulk of the nation is profoundly ignorant, brutal, and untruthful; nor are they particularly affectionate or amiable. Yet, notwithstanding this unlovable character, there is a mass of solid good stuff which can be carved into virtues byand by—that is, with time, patience, and discipline. These they must have; these they must be taught. Unlike the Turk, the Bulgarian is not at all lawloving. He can be beaten into submission, however, by his new masters, who have already silently sent two large batches of Bulgarians, w’hose patriotic aspirations were a little too lofty, to the mines of Siberia. When occasion requires, the whips of the Cossacks are freely plied upon the backs of the newly liberated, and the common phrase of the Russian officers in speaking of their new proteges is, “We have got these pigs, and we mean to drive them.”