Good Little Tsar

When your village Bulgarian goes to bed he does not switch off but blows out the light. Proudly the Ministry of Education announced last week that in 567 such villages--totally unequipped with electricity or "modern improvements" of any kind--cinema shows have been given by the Government during the past twelve-month.

Summoned by their lustily bawling village crier, the peasants have gathered, suspiciously at first, then with growing excited interest at their schoolroom, outside which halted a truck sent by the Ministry of Education, equipped with an electric generator from which cables led to a whirring machine inside the schoolroom that flashed pictures which actually moved!

According to the Government's estimate, half a million peasants, most of whom had never in their lives seen a gas jet, much less an incandescent lamp, sat wrapt in curiosity while they saw what Little Tsar Boris thought it good for them to see. Well known is the fact that His Majesty takes an active, personal interest in this casting of light and knowledge into minds naive, amazed.

No commercial films of any kind are shown, no drama, slush or comedy. Instead the peasant whose plow is wood gapes at steel tractors and harvesting machines, sees for the first time whirring factory wheels and great steamers breasting seas beyond his ken. Peasant women are shown "model homes," see babies washed as babies should be washed, even in one film reserved for married women, watch babies come as babies should come.

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