BULGARIA.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1318, 19 January 1887, Page 5

BULGARIA.

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From SuvniU* to 8 <fi* it thirty Wlomliii, with good roads all the way. writes • oorrwpomtat of the London "Times. 1 * The Oitktdral and Parliament House, with the wfciU villas of the new European quarter, which stands on high ground, are visible an hoar before the eapitat is reached. There is scarcely any traffic on the road. Once in ton miles we may meet * droscbky drawn by four horses, harnessed abreast, and with jingling bells, and twice as of ton a rickety carriage that looks like a palanquin on wheels, and contains four passengers, wh> have to sit with their heads bent, because their hats would otherwise touch the ceiling. No dwelling above the rank of cottage is to be seen in any direction, for the land laws make it impossible for a squirearchy to grow up, and the country has not yet any . rich merchants whoeau build nuticsnmmer residences with parks and gardens. Yet in this land, so unlike England, except in its green beauty,iueongruous reminiscences of Henley regatta and Lord's grouud are brought up every moment by the holiday dress of the peasantry, which at a short distance looks like that of our cricketers and oarsmen. The men wear trousers of white chalak or woollen homespun, red sashes, Oxford blue jackets, and scarlet scull-cap*. A group of them on a grass plat nukes one look around for the familiar tent, the pickets and the rival eleven fielding out The women hare a graceful head drapery of Turkish lawn, and their dresses are profusely broiderad with that beautiful crewel work or silk or wool which the Turkish women used to make but which b made no longer since they left the land. These, embroideries are still to be bought fairly cheap, but in a fe» years the railways wilJ have carried them all off to the west. Already Bulgarian women are beginning to understand their value, and are putting them away for sale, along with the Turkey carpets, and rich bed counterpanes which make the interior of so many Bulgarian cottages contort marvellously with the outside. It is quite a common thing to find in these hovwls, grimy with smoke, and infested with i . mm, hangings and dresses which could : ,**- Id for a guinea the square foot in Rejen .street, and the colour of this stuff is so fine, the material so pure, and the work so good and firm that a little cleaning will make a 5© year old embroidery look like new. Alas, some apostlo of oiviluut'on in the form of German- bagmen have latterly taught the Bulgarian women that they can mix a little cotton with their wool sad use cheaper materials for their dyes, so that even the comfortable white and blue ohalaks, which were warm in winter aud light in summ> r, which kept out rain and rheumatism, which could be darned aud reclamed and worn down to the thread, are now yielding to texture i which, for trade purposes, bear the same name, but of which the properties have nothing in common with the original. It is the German bagman, too, who has brought to Sofia the suite of shoddy that shrink at the touch of water, the printed cotton stuffs of which the colours are warranted fist—that is, fast to disappear ; the watches, guaranteed for a twelve month, and which go for just that length of time — no more, and the gimcrack furniture which limps, turns^ scaly, will not lock, and misbehaves itself in a dozen other ways in the new houses of the European quarter. Dashing through the Turkish streets of the city as hard as the coachman candnve — for no isvotschik ever yet entered an Oriental-town without acling as if he meant to run over the inhabitants— one finds the modern part of Sofia looking like a new watering place that is just becoming fashionable. The Prince's palace might well pass for the customary- casino. In front.of it is a large public garden where military bands play; hard by is the principal hotel, with seaside prices, two large cafe's, with English and German newspapers, billiards and beer ; a row of good shops, a cab stand and a hundred yards of pavement, which ?s the favourite lounge of well-dressed officers and in stirring times of politicians and newspaper correspondents. In the adjoining streets there are many gap? of waste land ; but the whole assemblage of new Government and consular buildings and private villas of one or two stories is clean and pretty. The British agency occupies a substantial block ; the Russian consulate is a place of somewhat pretentious style ; the residence of the Austro-Hungarian agent, with its turret- and long glass verandah, suggests some such name as Bellevue or Belvidere mansion. Then there is the well-situate i and capitally managed Union Club, which is a great boon to the' diplomatic body and to strangers. Altogether Sofia has a much more promising appearance than Belgrade, and the whole atmosphere of the town is that of a place where the inhabitants are accustomed to set for themselves, and are not afraid to speak out tbeir minds.