The Days of a Man 1914 



Petritch were buoyed up by the hope, wholly un- 

 founded, that the British would reverse the Treaty 

 of Bucharest and return them to their homes, some 

 newspaper having made a statement to that effect. 

 Though full of sympathy, I felt forced to disabuse 

 them by explaining that the Concert of Europe had all 

 it could do to hold together and would fall apart if it 

 or any member of it undertook justice in remote 

 oppressed regions. A recognition of this fact explains 

 Powerless- the reputed utterance of Tsar Ferdinand, " Les 

 ness of Grande s Puissances sont grandes dans leur Impuis- 

 sance" (The Great Powers are great only in their 



lack of power). Another epigram current in Sofia, 

 " L 'Europe nexiste plus" (Europe no longer exists), 

 had its basis in the same conviction. 



Among the many sitting on the narrow sidewalks 

 or on a bench under a great tree in the public square 

 lost was an American citizen from West Virginia. His 

 father, he said, had been a well-to-do farmer near 

 Salonica; having come from America to settle up the 

 estate when the war broke out between Greece and 

 Bulgaria, he was driven forth with just what he 

 could carry on his back. He was now keeping a little 

 shop where he daily sold a few francs' worth of pork, 

 tobacco, coffee, and salt to other refugees, each of 

 whom received the equivalent of four cents a day from 

 the government through the local postal savings 

 bank. He invited me to have some coffee, but showed 

 his relief when I paid for what I drank. 



The general lot of the Macedonian refugees, devoid 

 of home, property, and everything else including 

 hope, was dreary beyond description. But the attitude 

 of some of the peasants on whom they were unwill- 

 ingly billeted was expressed to me as follows: 



C 590 3 



