y a bold and
well-timed stroke. Another occasion was sought to get rid of the tribute
to Turkey, and from a Prince, subject to a suzerain, the ruler of
Bulgaria became a Czar, responsible to none but his subjects. Finally,
when the war of 1912 against Turkey was entered upon to liberate further
Christian provinces from the rule of the Turk, the Bulgarian people, if
not the Bulgarian rulers, had clearly before their eyes the vision of
the Bulgaria of the San Stefano Treaty. At one time it seemed as if that
fond hope would be realised. But misfortunes and mistakes intervened,
and as a final result of that and succeeding wars Bulgaria has been left
with a comparatively small accession of territory, and is not much
better off than she was in 1912.

It is not my purpose to attempt any detailed history of Bulgaria. I have
designed, rather, an indication in broad outline of her national growth
as a basis for, and an introduction to, an intimate picture of the
country as it is to-day. All that is needed, then, to add to this
chapter regarding the Liberation of Bulgaria, is that after the Treaty
of Berlin had been ratified, the first task that faced the principality
of Bulgaria was to make it clear to Russia that, whilst she was grateful
for the aid which had enabled her to become independent, she aspired to
a real independence, and did not wish to exchange one master for
another. The task was difficult, and caused some early trouble for the
revived nation.

[Illustration: A YOUNG MARRIED SHOP WOMAN]

The first Prince chosen to be monarch of Bulgaria was Prince Alexander
of Battenberg, a brave soldier but an indifferent statesman. He offended
in turn both the Bulgarian patriots who wished him to lead their country
to a complete freedom, and the Russians who would have her kept under a
kind of tutelage to the "Little Father." Still Bulgaria, in his reign,
made notable advances towards her national ideals. In 1885, obedient to
the earnest wish of its inhabitants, Eastern Roumelia was incorporated
with Bulgaria as a united principality, and that much of the Treaty of
Berlin torn up. Turkey, whose rights were chiefly affected, decided not
to make war upon this issue. The Great Powers, other than Russia, which
had insisted, in the first instance, on the separation of Bulgaria into
Bulgaria Proper and Eastern Roumelia because they feared that
Bulgaria would be a mere appanage of Russia and would in actual effect
bring the Russian f