American Journalist

Joseph Moore, an American journalist who

accompanied Ulysses S. Grant, the American general and president of the United

States, on a trip around the

World, noted another aspect of the

suffering of the Bulgarians. While in Beirut, he wrote, “not a little

excitement” was produced by the arrival in the city of more than two thousand

“villainous types” of Circassia’s from Bulgaria. The author noted that one

sixteen year old Circassia “boasted in the street that he alone had decapitated

five Bulgarian children. Another of these inhuman people offered for sale a

Bulgarian Christian girl. . . Many of them offered for sale chalices and other

articles of church service, the booty of their work of destruction.”

The author also wrote that when the

Austrian Lloyd steamer arrived “brought a number of captive Bulgarians who were

chained together in gangs. One died in the voyage and it was necessary to file

his irons apart from the living. These captives were bound for the prison at

Sidon and while they were in transit fourteen more died from hardship and

exposure.”

Many Americans visiting the Ottoman capital

passed through Varna and Ruse. George Moerlein was no exception. Although his

knowledge of the Bulgarians was limited he wrote that the Bulgarians were “a

race of sturdy mountaineers” and under an illustration of a portrait of a

“Bulgarian” in his book, he wrote that the Bulgarian “is a fine specimen of

manhood, bold and fearless, and an excellent soldier in battle.”

 

Mrs. Amos R. Little, who passed through the same area, noted that it was

a “very pretty rolling country” nearly all under cultivation. She was impressed

by the fact that Bulgarian farms were not fenced, dividing one from the other.

This, she said, made the scenery more beautiful.

Carter Harrison came in contact with

Bulgarians on the streets of Istanbul and the surrounding areas. He described

them as shepherds, “Heavy and stupid, who’s every breath is a hurricane of

garlic.”  From Istanbul he travelled to

Bulgaria by ship. As the ship approached Varna, the city looked “pretty,” but

he was told that it was “dirty and unattractive within.”

Bad weather prevented the visitor to visit

the review parade in which the prince of Bulgaria, Ferdinand, participated. He

wished to see, how the people looked upon “their exotic ruler.” He was opposed

to the whole system of “transplanting” of foreign princes to rule over others.

He did not like any of the princes drawn from the royal houses of Denmark or

Germany. He thought that kings “tricked” the masses with shows and parades and

people were fools for being deceived.