Country is practically provided by the State schools

In the towns there are a few teachers who give private instruction in foreign languages; but there may fairly be said to be no private schools. It follows that the whole education of the country is practically provided by the State schools. Americans are proud, and very justly proud, of their common school system; but as the United States have grown in wealth, and as the social distinctions which accompany wealth have developed in the Republic of the West, the children of well-to-do Americans are brought up more and more in private schools. Probably the same change will occur in Bulgaria when the same causes begin to operate. For the present, however, and for many years to come, the whole population of Bulgaria must be educated in the State schools. The children of professional men, tradesmen, and peasants receive exactly the same education, in the same schools, and pass their j’ears of learning sitting on the same benches, studying the same lessons, and playing the same games. This system must tend to perpetuate the absolute equality between all classes which now prevails in Bulgaria to a far greater extent than in the United States, or indeed in any civilized community I have ever heard of, either in the Old World or the New.

The public schools of Philippopolis

Some years ago, when I was travelling in America, I was always invited, by any acquaintances I might have in the towns I visited, to visit their cemetery and their common school. Happily the sort of ghoulish taste for graveyards, which is so universal amidst the Transatlantic branch of the Anglo-Saxon race, does not prevail in Bulgaria; and I fancy that the popular Bulgarian sentiment on the subject of burial-grounds very closely resembles that of the Moslem, namely, that a cemetery is a resort for the dead and not for the living. Anyhow in Bulgaria I never found myself expected to visit the cemeteries, but I was everywhere solicited to visit the educational establishments. The public schools of Philippopolis, of which I saw most, are reckoned some of the best in Bulgaria; and if, as I was assured by competent judges, they are fair specimens of the general run of the high schools throughout the country, the Bulgarians are certainly to be congratulated on the success of their scholastic experiment. The boys school is located in a very spacious, handsome building, which was built for the purpose at a cost of some  20,000, and which, in respect of class-rooms, galleries, and lecture-halls, is admirably adapted for the objects of an educational institution. The whole building was scrupulously clean; the rooms were well ventilated, cheerful, and commodious. There are six classes in the school, and each pupil is expected to rise from a lower to an upper class during each year of his sexennial curriculum. If he fails to qualify himself for the class next above his own during two successive years he is dismissed from the school as incapable of learning. The hours of study are from eight in the morning to midday, and from two to four in the afternoon. If, however, the parents can show valid cause for requiring the services of their children at home, the pupils are excused from afternoon attendance. The summer holidays are so arranged as to cover the period of the harvest, and thus to enable the boys to assist in the chief farming operations of the year.

 

Bulgarian character by statements

I may confirm to some extent these testimonies to the Bulgarian character by statements which were made to me in the course of casual conversation by foreign residents, who have had long personal experience of the country and its people. The managing director of one of the leading railways assured me that Bulgaria was the only place he had ever known where you could leave money about your offices or rooms with perfect safety, even if the doors were open—a statement which, on a small scale, I could corroborate from my own observation. The manager of a foreign bank in Bulgaria remarked to me that in all his experience as a banker in many parts of the world, he had never known bank customers who repaid loans made to them so honestly as the Bulgarian peasant farmers. An English gentleman, who has resided in Bulgaria and owned land there for the greater part of a long life, gave me as the result of his experience that, if you wanted work done in Bulgaria, you got it done more quickly and more cheaply if you engaged Bulgarian workmen by the day, than if you contracted for the job by piecework. It would be absurd to say that these various statements are conclusive proofs of the general honesty of the Bulgarians. But they go some way to show that, to say the least, they are not less honest than their neighbors.

Bulgaria are generally people connected in some way or other with the diplomatic service

It should be borne in mind that the persons from whom an ordinary traveler derives most of his information in Bulgaria are generally people connected in some way or other with the diplomatic service. All this class of informants, no matter what their nationality, are unconsciously biased by their partiality for the Turks. I do not wonder at this partiality. I suspect that in their place I should enter-tain much the same sentiment. Whatever the defects of the “unspeakable Turk” may be as a master, it is difficult to overrate his merits as an acquaintance. He is an infinitely more satisfactory personage to deal with than the average Levantine, or Sclav, or Greek. He has a value for truth which renders him unwilling, to say the least, to tell a lie without a motive; he has a sense of self-respect which makes him dislike being detected in double dealings, even if it is not strong enough to ensure his uprightness; he is polished in manner, dignified, and courteous. In fact, to put the matter briefly, the Turk is the gentleman of Eastern Europe; and therefore all diplomatists who have to do with the East are prejudiced in his favor, and are disposed to side with him as against the native races which have revolted, or are endeavoring to revolt, against his rule.

 

Bulgarian peasants contrived to earn a living

I do not gather that even in the worst of times the peasantry were cruelly over-taxed. Bulgaria is not a country like Egypt, where, given a good Nile, the crops are so rich as to make the poorest fellah worth robbing. By hard work and extreme thrift the Bulgarian peasants contrived to earn a living. They had no motive to do more. What little they saved after they had fed and housed themselves was hoarded. Large estates were almost unknown. The peasant had his two or three acres to till; and on their produce he lived in comparative comfort, secured from oppression by his own real or apparent lack of means. When the Russian troops entered Bulgaria as liberators, the common soldiers were astonished to find that the peasants they had come to deliver from Ottoman tyranny were apparently far better off than the ordinary Muscovite Moujik. Thus the mis- govemment to which Bulgaria was subjected at the hands of Turkey did not produce quite as evil effects as might have been expected to result from a vicious system of administration. As an instance of how the system worked, I may repeat a story told me by one of the most eminent of Bulgarian statesmen as coming within his own experience. Some thirty years ago there was a small tradesman at Gabrovo who carried on the business of a tanner, and had laid by a little money. After the fashion of his countrymen, he sent his son to Paris to learn how business was carried on in more civilized countries. After a few years the lad returned home, having acquired knowledge of various new processes in the art of tanning, and persuaded his father to purchase modern machinery and start a tannery after the French model. The scheme was carried out; the factory went on swimmingly, and threatened to drive local competition out of the field. Within a few weeks, however, of the new works being opened the premises were burnt down by Mussulmen in the tannery trade. The tanner was ruined, but had no possibility of obtaining redress. He knew perfectly well who had committed the offence; but the offenders were Mussulmen, and it was idle for him, being himself a Christian, to sue them before a Mussulman tribunal. In consequence he gave up the business and abandoned all idea of introducing improvements into his own trade.

Mahommodan ascendency

Notwithstanding the baleful influence of Mahommodan ascendency, the antipathies between the followers of the Crescent and the Cross seem to me to have been far less keen and embittered in Bulgaria than in most other parts of the Ottoman Empire. At all periods in their history the Bulgarians took their religion less fanatically than other Sclavonic nations. They held rigidly to their own creed and their own ritual, but in the main they lived on good terms with their fellow-citizens who had accepted the religion of the Prophet. I am assured, though this estimate must necessarily be of a very problematical character, that the Mussulman population in Bulgaria never at any time exceeded one-tenth of the whole, and that at the present moment the proportion of Christians to Mahommedans is as fifty to one. Ever since Bulgaria became independent the Mahommedan exodus has been going on steadily. The Tomaks, as the Bulgarians who became converts to Islam after the Turkish conquest are called, have not been oppressed in any way, except during the brief era which followed the War of Independence. In the great majority of instances the Tomaks have nothing to complain of in respect to their treatment by their Christian neighbours. In common with all other Bulgarians, they have prospered with the general development of the national prosperity. Now that the Cross has supplanted the Crescent, the old ascendency of the Tomaks as a dominant caste has disappeared, and they find it difficult to brook being equals where formerly they were superiors. But the main cause of the Tomak exodus is of a religious kind. There is no creed which takes so firm a hold upon the minds of converts as that of the Prophet, and the Tomaks are devout beyond the measure of ordinary Mussulmen. The Mollahs from the Turkish provinces who visit the Mussulman villages, especially during Ramadan, never lose an opportunity of exhorting their co-religionists to quit a country where the Giaour is supreme, where the true faith is not held in respect, and where, in consequence, Allah will not listen to the prayers of those who, of free choice, live and die amidst unbelievers. Appeals of this kind always come home to true sons of Islam ; and every year Tomak after Tomak sells his farms, often at a ruinous sacrifice, and leaves the country of his birth in order to reside once more amongst the people of his own faith.

 

Varna Necropolis

Hello all. Today let’s see some of the details about the Necropolis (Cemetery) of Varna.

Necropolis Research

In comparison with the necropolis researched and dated at the same time as this one, the burial appurtenances in the Varna necropolis are in a quantity and variety so far unknown. The gold finds stand out among them. They are more than 3000 in number and they weigh more than six kilog-rams. This excels all the gold finds of that epoch discovered so far throughout the world. Jewelry and other objects related to rituals, such as sceptres, diadems, zoomor- phic lamellae, and pectorals among other things, predominante. Altogether there are about 38 different types and varieties: beads, rings, appliques, amulets, platings, bracelets, zoomorphic figures, etc. – all generalized and in the emphatically geometrical forms which were characteristic of the style of art at that time.

Copper finds likewise hold an important place. Tools prevail – massive axes, hammers chisels and wedges, while ornamental things, such as bracelets and rings are very few. The number of flint finds is considerable. They are of sizes unknown in other settlements and necropolises: some of the lamellae are 44 cm long. This makes them unusable in practice, something which has also been confirmed in research work. Of interest among the finds of stone and minerals are the quartz beads for the polishing of which the craftsmen had to have great de- xtrity and professional skill. Shells of the Dentalium, a Mediterranean molusc, are abundant – more than 20,000. Several hundred finds of things made for ornamentation are from another Mediterranean mollusc – Spondylius.

Beautiful bracelets and a large variety of beads and appliques are made of it. Earthenware vessels are of particular interest. They are found in almost every grave, one or two most frequently, but occasionally even eight. What is more important is that the vessels are very poorly baked and sometimes even dried, although there are some which are well baked. Besides the conventional and well- known forms, there have been found vessels of diminished sizes for liquid or food. Among the finds there are two unique earthenware vessels – a small bowl and a large tray. They are decorated with geometrical designs, full of gold. They are the only intact vessels of that epoch which have been found so far.

The discovery of the Varna Necropolis

The discovery of the Varna Necropolis raises the question of a re-survey of the issue of the place and time of the first European civilization. According to the results of the researches so far into the Neolithic and Copper-Stone (Chalcolithic) Ages in Bulgaria in the sixth and fifth millennia BC, it is obvious that in the present-day Bulgarian lands a local agrarian and animal husbandry culture emerged and developed at that time. The symbols of authority, listed above, have also changed the ideas about the pre-historic society, which has so far been considered to have been classless. The relations of this culture with other religions were sporadic at the beginning, but were abruptly intensified with the mastering of copper and gold metallurgies.

A place of their own is taken by the find of the research team, headed by the Russian archaeologist Chernikh. In the second half of the Chal- colithic era (the time of the Varna Necropolis) about 30,000 tons of ore were excavated in the region of the town of Stara Zag- ora (South Bulgaria). Some 500-1000 tons of copper would have been obtained from that quantity – a proof of the lively metal-lurgical activities on the Balkan Peninsula.

The spectral analysis of the copper indicates that finds of copper, like those obtained in the Bulgarian lands, were also found in the central reaches of the Dniester River (the Ukraine) and as far as the town of Saratov on the Volga (Russia). This shows the extremely vast scope of the occurrence of copper and the wide-reaching contacts of those who exploited it. Probably this was the result of brisk commercial activities in nearby and distant lands.