Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-11-07
A PATRIOTIC PEOPLE.
Fondness of the ArmenIans for Their Ns tional Literature.

Fondness of the ArmenIans for Their Ma. tional Literature.
 The fondness of Armenians for their national literature must appear, to those foreigners who have any knowledge of 1t, like the intense love a mother mani fests for her deformed child at whom strangers glance and shudder. Ancient Armenian literature is collection of dry, dusty annals enshrining deeds of daring, glorious achievements that would have made Dryasdust himself a second Homer had he undertaken to describe them; and yet in Armenia they are mere matter-of-fact annals, the poetry of which it needed all the asceticism of Oriental Christianity to suppress. The literature of modern times is more di- versltied, but less original. It is still In the translation period, the classic works of other literatures being rem dered accessible to Armenian readers who live outside the pale of civilization in Aberbeid jan and at the foot of Mount Ararat.
 Noble efforts, however, are being made by all classes to contribute to it's devel- opment. Russian Armenians, for in- stance, support two daily newspapers, one weekly, and three monthly reviews, and translations from French and En- glish works are being continually pub llshed. The censure, however that blight of literature and clog of all intel lectual progress-is also at work, and to considerable purpose. The difficulties with which the Armenian press has to contend in Russia are enormous; whole pages are cut out of the reviews, long paragraphs suppressed in the daily news papers, all of which have to be examined and approved in writing by these liter ary policemen before they can be pub lished.
 Armenian publications printed else where are carefully revised and expur- gated before being put in the hands of their readers in Russia. The Shah of Persia, whose partiality for hls Armen- ian subjects is as we'll known as their exemplary loyalty to their sovereign, lately paid a visit to the Catholicos of the Armenians at Etchmiadzin, but the Russian authorities strictly forbade the Armenian papers to give a detailed ac- count of the visit or to allude to it other wise than in the measured words used by the. official journal in its few casual remarks on this event.
 Another instance-and the last that I shall bring forward-of the earnest de- termination of the Russian authorities to cut down every growth of national life is as incredible in appearance as it is imprudent in fact. In the hope of enlarging the intellectual horizon of the common people, and arousing in them an enlightened interest in questions of history, literature, science, a series of cheap little primers were issued in Ar menian, containing each the story of the life of some hero, or the account of some memorable event in the worlds history, in simple words, perfectly free from all objectionable tendencies-so free, in deed, that the censure, so chary of it's imprimatur to Armenian publications. approved the little pamphlets, which were printed.
 Very soon, however, the government declared that, although each little book was in itself quite harmless, yet the of such persons as Joan of Arc, William Tell, etc, related in way that charmed the minds of the people, coupled with the circumstance that these primers were bought up in very short time, was a sufficiently clear indication of a state of feeling which the Government could not tolerate. And the further is- sue of these little books, some of which were literal translations of sketches written and published by Russian peda- gogues for Russian children, was forth with enthusiastically Review