Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-09-04


the Hebrew question is to published. An
other prohibits anothing concerning the as
sassination of Russian general whose
death was full of romance, and third pro-
hibits the saying of anything abou. the
church schools. The Church and the Gov
ernment in fact, control the press in Russia
and the censor is a bigger man than the
editor.
wish I could show you one of these
papers which have been signed by the CEN
sor. They look as though an ink rolle. had
been run over them, and it is impossible to
read word of that which has been stamped
out They use an indelibIe ink, and they
haue changed the quality of their ink
lately. A lady whom met in East Russia
told me she used to be able to get the ink
off by washing it with turpentine, and that
the print would then be readable, but that
within the past year she found the ink of
different character, and she could do moth
ing with it. The uncertainty of matter
passing the censors makes all printed mat
ter unsafe in the Russian mails
The Censors Seem to Like Pictur.a
The censors are said to often keep the pa
pers and lend them to their friends before
sending them to the people to whom they
are addressed, and I was told at Moscow
that journal with anv illustrations in it
Christmas numbers of the London Graphic
the Illustrated London Neus and papers of
that kind which have chromos or litho-
graphs with their letter press, seldom reach
the hands of their subscribers without these
being stolen by the postofice employees, and
am told it is unsafe to send photographs
through the mail without registering them.
I am sending all my photographs to America
in United States consular envelopes and am
registering everything, and so far L think
that everything has gone through.
The consular stamp is good thing to
have on your letters when you send them
out from here. They then appear to come
from the legation, and even q Russian mail
clerk will think twice before he opens the
letters sent out by an American diplomat.
l don't think that the papers that come to
our consul general here are ever opened,
and he gets all sorts of newspapers, includ-
ing many which are not permitted to come
to ordinary people in Russia. There are in
fact only few newspapers which are per-
mtted to come into Russia, and the only
American daily which is sure of going
through the mails every time is the New
York Herald
softened by the Famine Contributions.
The newspaper censorship as to the Amer
lean newspapers is becoming less rigorous
since the Kindness of the Americans as
to the famine, and have received quite a
number of American newspapers. When
came into Russia some weeks ago / had
quite number of newspapers clippings from
American newspapers about Russia, and
feared that these would be taken from me
at the frontier. A number of them related
to the Gar and others were about nihilism
and the Siberian prisons Owing to letter
which had from one of the Russian diplo-
mats of Europe, got these through with
out examination and my trunk was not even
opened.
Speaking of the blacking out of articles
by the censors, funny instance occurred
when the young Grand Duke made his re-
cent tour in India. The London Graphic
came to ST. Petersburg with black mark
upon it as big as sheet of note paper, and
one of its subscribers who wondered what
this important obliteration might mean cut
this page out of the Graphic and sent it
back to the Office, asking them to tear the
page from another copy and send 1t to her
through the mails. It was sent, and the
obliterated picture was merely photo
graph of tiger hunt in which the Grand
Duke was standing with other hunters
about the body of dead tiger The Graphic
thought the blotting of this so ridiculous
that in its next issue it republished the
sketch an also the fac-simile of the blotted
paper This came to the eyes of the Gar
and he laughed at it and ordered that this |
copy of the Graphic should be admitted, and |
it was admitted and all ST. Petersburg
laughed with the Gar.
With such restrictions it is impossible to
make good newspapers, and none of the |
newspapers here make very much money. |
The daiies are published without illustra-
tions and the pages of them look as though |
the Greek alphabet had gone on drunk and |
sprawled over around them. There are in the |
whole empire less than five daily journals, |
and the telegraph bills of the whole of |
them are not as great as those of big New |
York newspaper. Nearly every paper pub |
fishes a continued story, which runs along |
the bottom of the paper, and few of them |
have many advertisements.
A curious feature of Moscow and st. |
Petersburg are the police journals. These
belong to the police organization and they |
give full reports of the doings of the police |
and of all acts relating to the city. The |
people are bulldozed into taking them, or |
rather they fear that it may not be comfort |
able for them if they do not take them, and |
the result is that they have good subscrip. |
tion lists and paying subscribers
FRANK G. CARfMT1A