| Show CT THE TURKISH BORDER standards specie correspondent ilay 0 a fascination about any frontierro witry but busl at aliis moment tm interesting of borders b that bethen turkey and bulgaria f the turkish soldier along the lino ii typical of the sultan and the nation aa 13 also the nul of hia ari and 0 o people baic each other more than thesa two but you would think from tic of tho wily turk that ww no one lie loved booro alian the awn facing him while you see at a that other is having a desper ato battle with bitu self to keep the peace tiro turk is old in the knowledge and practice of hypocrisy and deception while the bulgarian is a child without a or an art a fault that haa proved fa the nation iu its diplomacy wilh its doubtful friend russia thero is one tiling in tho line of in winch they arc not behind is in errilla warfare ai mhd cull it brigand ii ninne tho turks have biven all inea who take up anna them and it is deiy often a falso label it carrica ft eight caiti cd ma to ami to the teeth when I 1 ventured among them but I 1 soon learned that my weapons arc needless at least on the Bulga run side not one of a revolutionary land voula implicate the country he loves and hopes macedonia will soon be n part of by curtins one hair of an eng head miss itono stono was captured by bulgarian revolutionists they the fact but alve was neither taken nor held at any time on other oil than macedonian it was supposed linen irich hand bratro insertion and turn over scollar also hand brawn the silk muslin stock ia hand dotted with thai unit would like any other great country exact of turkey the paid the went to procure arms and it was that the sultan would have to fool the bill for the weapons to be u cd against him NO MORE kidnapping the potential revolutionists found arias itono stono and mrs more trouble than they were worth and kidnapping ha been dropped from their program the assassination ol 01 citizens of other countries however ia a plan chev have adopted in order to prove that the sultan cannot rule and they say they will continue to the country until europe takes charge of it I 1 am calling the christian macedon ians who speak tiro same language bulgarians Bulga rians for that ia what they call themselves turks ant ATu aniana born in alie province are macedonians Macedon ians there is no difference between the bulgarians Bulga rians on cither side of the border except that one is as free as the english villager and as happy other than ia his suffering for his brother whereas the other ia cowed and in abject despair or desperate to the extreme it is no wonder that bulgaria opened her gates to the christian mace lonians and and abetted them every brigand have met has bogged to bo excused for the tactics they have had to adopt ane rest of the world will do nothing for them because cadi country is jealous lest some other will get the prize they want to provoke a massacre or many of them They say their extermination or the eradication of the turks ia the only alternative are right about reforma in turkey it takes but a step acroca tho frontier to convince you there can never be any the turk is hop clesa LIBERTY OR DEATH liberty or death is the legend worked in their capi under which the bulgarians Bulga rians on the turkish side of the border are fighting the justification for lucli of methods for which aliey have been said to be but poor christians ia the thought that the end will justify the means it is growing more and more unpalatable to the bulgarians Bulga rians especially the troops and gendarmes gen darmes along the border to have to hamper their brothers in their struggle for liberty and at the dictates of a country which once kidnapped their ruler and whose methods arc feared to be not for the welfare of bulgaria but for her future suppression several consignments consign ments of ammunition la belled ox dokea hardware etc have been confiscated and two members of bands have been shot but the bulgarian troops on the frontier watch for bands and ammunition as the irishwoman said her husband hunted for work praying lie would not find it the bulgarian line alig the border ii but three or four men to a mile except on tha high roads where dutiable products cross the line the turkish troop i arc within shouting distance of one another except on the snow clad mountain topa where their scanty raiment and half fed condition will not allow them to kerp the cordon instead of keeping a patrol like the bulgarians Bulga rians they take up a post and sit on their legs beside a coffeepot coffee pot and a of tobacco and never until relieved it 14 impossible tor hands or single members to get ahem by day but at night all these outposts go info their blockhouses and the cavalry patrols afe themselves to the nearest barracks A BRIGAND BOAST tire brigand banda boast that I 1 while alio turks rule by day not one of them dare show hia face out of the large town av V do the border at w in the darkness can they neither one way nor lc pass if the tco tham hut the obstacles in the way Bulgaria iw put no of their coming in the great object of keeping alie plo plo from crossing the border from turkish side ia twofold the talea the cea tell will do no rood now that an attempt is being made at reforms and the reports of tattles brought in wounded contrary to turkish by men are desires of but despite the fact that they endanger their lives or at least their freedom they are coming in daily the hospitals in all the towns along the borders are so full of refugees that wounded men are being sent on up to sofia the wounded mae incer way from village to village as far as tho fron tier and then cross it by night just AH alio kotlier revolutionists ab it is not permitted turkey for a person to go from one village to another without securing a in order to get which he has to etnie his religion business and purpose pay a few pias tres and civo two or three more in I 1 saw many ot rhems wounded in kus Dub nitza bilo and other frontier towns two came into Dub nitza in a country wagon drawn by buffaloes the day I 1 wa there one was the leader of a band and the other a private in the bands there ia of course no military discipline commander and private are alike except that in cases of dispute the commanders word goes the wounded leader in una case had got a bullet through faie face just behind Us nose the private had been ahot in the thigh it had taken them continued on page 3 the waist is of pink lawn tricked and fagotti fagot td and with chuny the hat is of yellow straw under faced with white cliffon rob edged with black lace the middle crown being also of the ruffles camero rose green foliage in full wreath all round continued from page 12 eve days to make the border climb the mountains aej act in to a place where wounds would be cared for hen the leader was shot ho turned over bis to one of his lieutenants and started off alone wih tho other man for ns long ride in crossing the balkans the mountains while one of the men was off his horse the animal got away from them one could not walk and the other waa loo feeble from loss of blood to follow P fhe creature hungry am mal had to carry reboth men until it i fell exhausted they shot it and then C crawled down through tho snow on all i fours into bulgaria safe there the first buffalo wagon an its road to town took them in to Dub nitza I 1 was very much interested of course in all these fellow stories the most picturesque mountain man I 1 met on that trip was juat outside flip monastery of rilo which is known as the revolutionists capital of macedonia the priests are heartily in sympathy with the cause and there is no doubt aid the people in every possible way the brigand I 1 to join me at dinner thinking lie have some news y and we sat down to the table as strange a collection of humanity as you could possibly get in the small number of five living human beings STRANGE COMPANY there was this brigand a powerful mountain fellow who has never disarmed in thirty years who has been fighting for his count rys freedom since he was fifteen when his parents and all his relations went down in a turkish massacre there was a monk ais sombre robes liis long white beard and headgear like a stovepipe stove pipe hat reversed there was a typical border of aicer a picked man who had been sent with me against my protest to see that no larm bedeil me there was my interpreter ter preter a russian baron who had pone broke and had fallen from hh laigh estate and there was a type for the first time seen at eilo a journalist the brigand had had innumerable adventures to chich we listened till late in the night he had drunk freely of the monks good wine As he told his stories he wielded hia sword and aimed his ter in true cavaliero cava fiero style all but snapping the trigger when the stories were translated to me they became I 1 know considerably diluted I 1 would biear had chopped off the heads of turks in a single blow and I 1 learned that all told he aad dead men to his credit he was not a full blood bulgarian lie had a strong cross of albanian in hiim which accounted for the record he kept of his killings once he and vis band were forced by a line of turks up a mountain the ciack of which was a precipice half of the number from behind rocks held the turks nt bay while alie others took off he long red sashes they wear around their waists tied them together and all but four slid down to the bed of the stream below safely i |
