The Balkan Trail

The Balkan Trail

Men of position are proud and prejudiced. In humble Sofia, where there is little pretence, the judge of a supreme court, whose salary was 72l. a year, declined an offer of double that wage to serve me as interpreter. An officer in the army, and other Government officials to whom I made approaches, displayed similar pride and lack of enterprise. I was bound for the border, and the only individuals willing to accompany me were two fallen stars of feeble age, in circumstances of despair; and at last I was obliged to choose between these luckless linguists. One was an anarchist, light of head and heavy of heart, the other a bankrupt viscount with a bad eye. I selected the nobleman, but a word for the anarchist; he is dead. He was a very dirty anarchist, with long, shaggy, unkempt mane, and a hungry, haunted look. He wore a silk-lined frock coat of ample capacity, a pair of trousers of doubtful suspension, shoes in which his[2] feet flapped, a silk hat of bygone glory, no collar, no cuffs. He was of small stature, but his outfit had been created for no little man. A wonderful gift of gab had he; in a few moments I knew his whole history. He had acquired his knowledge of English in the States, where in the sixties he had served (probably soup) with the Stars and Stripes when the Stars and Bars were in the field. Butand the veteran is unique in this regardhe could not procure a pension from the United States Government. Nevertheless he loved my country. He had never gone hungry there, while he had often felt the pangs in Bulgaria. What had Bulgaria done for him? Even the clothes he was wearing had been given him by an Englishman. For his countrys neglect of her travelled son, he had acquired the Irish complaint, he was agin the government. He was for sending Prince Ferdinand to the hereafter, and favoured the fashionable dynamite bomb. He was a simple soul; before he could execute his plot he was sent to eternity himselfthough not quite hoist by his own petard. He was shot, one bright summer evening, in the public park in front of the palace. Old Barnacle had not known David Harums precept, Do unto the other feller what he would do unto youbut do it furst. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 62947
Author: Moore, Frederick Ferdinand
Release Date: Aug 16, 2020
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Illustrator: Holiday, Gilbert, 1879-1937