Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1890-11-05
JOURNALISM IN GERMANY.
some of the Things Which Make 1t Isu-
morous for Outsiders.

An amusing side of journalism in Ger
many comes to light when a newspaper
is confscated by the Government for pe-
htical reasons, says the New York sun.
That is, it is amusing to people who
have seen the way the thing is done
the owners or publishers of the confis-
Gated paper don't look at the funny
side of it. The first copy of every news
paper must be sent to the "Staats An
walt" or public prosecutor, who is the
censor of the press. Herr Stats Anwalt,
with tho press laws before him, careful
ly reads the paper while he sips his
mug of beer. His eye suddenly lights
on passage which criticises adversely
an action or remark of the Emperor. He
reads it through, and rereads it, and be-
gins to get mad,
"Donnerwetter noch Gin NAL" he says.
THAT must be stopped" "
He hurriedly draws a blue-pencil line
around the paragraph and steps up to
his telephone. He asks central to con-
meet him with the chief of police. When
this functionary is at the other end of
the phone, Mr.. Stats Anwalt orders
him to send a squad of police to
the printer of the paper, forbid
its further publication, and seize all
the copies thereof he can lay his hands
on. The chief answers "Jawohl," and
repeats the order to his assistant. The
assistant turns to his sub and trans
mits it to him, who in turn tells his
''sub" what is wanted, and finally, after
long delay, several policemen start for
the officer of the paper in hired fiacre.
In Germany, when the police are en-
gagged in any special work, they do not
ride in ordinary street-cars, nor do they
walk, but they must hire flacre or
coach. This adds secrecy and dignity to
the affair. When the policemen enter
the publication Office they intimidate
the frightened foreman into handing
over all the copies no has in the place.
These are taken downstairs and thrown
into the fiacre. II there are very many
Of them, another fiacre is called. The
printers must take the Objectionable
matter from the forms, and the police
make "pi" OF it..
Usually these officers bear q warrant
for the arrest Of the editor. The Ger
man editor has been there before, how
ever, and on the editorial page of most
papers, right under the terms to sub
scribers, he keeps a name, say johann
Schmidt, responsible editor" And when
there Is any arresting to be done the po-
lice must wreak their vengeance on
Herr Schmidt, who in most cases is. some
petty writer on the paper. When he is
in jail for writing something which he
didn't write the paper pays him a good
salary and looks after his family. The
liberal newspapers and socialistic pub
locations always keep couple of respon-
sible editors on tap, and when number
one is in the lookup the name of number
two takes his place in the paper until,
through some trouble with the police,
number three begins his inning. This
functionary is called sitz redakteur, or
seat editor. The seat refers to his So
journ in dungeon. The penalty of tho
law increases with each otfense, and
after the unfortunate editor has sat sew
eral times new one is appointed, who
starts in with the mildest punishment
for the first offense.
The real editor usually gets wind of
the intended visit of the police and se-
cretes several copies of the publication.
When they arrive, and he has read their
letter of authority, he hands over the
rest OF the papers, which join their COM
panions in the facre The officers read
to him the warrant for his arrest. When
they finish the editor says:
swell, meine Herren, / am only a
salaried writer here. There stands the
responsible editor"
The police scowl at the speaker and
march off the responsible editor. II
frequently happens that the newspaper
has already been sent out and distrib-
uted throughout the city, in which case
the police must travel around and get
hold of all the copies they can. They
visit every reading room and cafe in the
city, and cut the obnoxious paragraph
out from the paper on the files. In
| Vienna there are seven hundred cafes,
| and one can imagine what a job it is
to visit each one and look for the un-
fortunate newspaper.
| In Russia publications are confscated
with greater regularity than they arc
! issued. At the frontier towns the for
eign newspaper mail is regularly opened
and read. When the officials come
across something which they think
would lower Russia in the estimation of
the reader, TO say nothing of political
utterances, they have a very effective
method of doing away with it. roller,