My Republican heart

He did not like the military also because

there was “something in their trade utterly abhorrent to my Republican heart.”

Harrison liked the scenery from Varna to Ruse: “The railroad leads through the

hills at Varna up a very pretty valley interesting scenery, nothing grand, but

a succession of broad valleys, well covered with fields, and overlooked by

tall, rugged hills clothed now in small bushes, and then lifting in rocky

precipices often rendered very striking by their embattled looking walls, being

deeply pierced by caves in great numbers, looking as if cut by hand. Herds of

cattle and large numbers of horses were constantly seen, and several pretty

villages now all decked in bunting and garlands. This up country is of very

rich land, and highly productive.

The wheat, rye, and oats on it were all

well set and finely green, and the vineyards healthy looking. Trees are not

wanting, and the stretches of rolling country often seen for ten to fifteen

miles were exceedingly pretty.” Harrison recommended that Americans should make

the trip “far more often than they do for the scenery” and not do as the

majority of tourists do, rush through it on the Orient Express but at a slower

pace because it “is a printed page from which much can be learned if carefully

studied.”

P.L. Groome, who passed through Bulgaria by

train, was very critical of the customs and railroad officials. He complained

that his passport was stamped twice and his luggage examined at two different

locations and the stations were dark at night and cold.  The Baptist minister Walter A. Whittle noted

in his travel account that “some parts” of the Danube in the Balkans was “finer

than anything on the Rhine.” He did not like almost anything else he saw in

Southeastern Europe.

Productions of Servia

He wrote that the “principal productions

of Servia, Slavonia, Rumelia, and Bulgaria, seem to me to be

ignorance, turnips, soldiers, poodle dogs, and an annual crop of semi-royal,

throne-seeking dudes.” He stated that he “would rather own a thousand acres of

black land in Texas, or be a well-to-do farmer in Blue Grass, Kentucky, than to

have ten such thrones as all these petty kingdoms combined could offer.” Such

declarations showed his sense of American nationalism and republicanism and not

an understanding of Southeastern Europe.

Samuel Mutchmore, an eminent Presbyterian

clergyman, took a trip around the world in 1887. One of his main concerns was

the state of religion, religious institutions, and the activities of the

American missionaries in the countries he visited. In his book A Visit of Japheth

to Shem and Ham he allotted about thirty pages to his visit of Bulgaria.

Mutchmore stated that the countries of the Lower Danube were “little known” to

Americans and it was only due to the events of the last few decades that

Americans became interested in the area.