The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-09-04

Cnurcn SCHOOLS. Inc cnurcn and the gov
eminent, in fact, control the press in Rus
STA and the censor is bigger nan than the
editor.
! l wish / could show you one of these
papers which have been stamped by the
censor. They look as though an ink roller
had been run over them, and it is impos-
sible TO read word OF that which has been
stamped out. They use an indelible stamp,
and they have changed the quality OF their
ink lately. lady whom l INST in east
Russia told me she used to be- able to get
the ink of 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 nothing with IL. The uncertainty OF
matter passing the censor makes all printed
matter unsafe in the Russian mails. The
censors are said to often keep the papers
and lend them to their friends before send
ing them to the people TO whom they are
addressed. I was told at Moscow that
| journal with any Illustrations in it was
almost sure to be lost IN the mails.
The Christmas numbers of the Lon
don Graphic, the Illustrated London Nei0s.
and papers of that kind which have
chromos or Autographs with their let1er
press seldom reach the hands of their suo-
scriDers without these being stolen by the
postoffice employees, and am told 1t is IN
safe to send photographs through the mail
without registering them. l am sending
all my photographs TO America in United
States consular envelopes and am register
| ing everything and so far L think that
| every thing mas gone through. The con-
| sular stamp is good thing to have on
| your letters when you send them out from
here. They then appear to come from the
| legation, aud even a RussiSn mail CLERK
will think twice before he opens the. let
tiers sent out by an American diplomat. l
don't think that the papers that como to
our consul general here are ever opened,
and he gets all sorts OF newspapers, in
GLIDING many that are not permitted to
come into Russia. There are in fact only
few newspapers which are permitted to
come into Russia, aud the only American
daily which is sure of going through the
mails every time is the New York Herald.
This newspaper censorship as to the
American newspapers is becoming less
rigorous since the kindness of the Ameri-
cans as to the famine, and / have received
quite number of American newspapers.
When came into Russia some weeks ago l
had quite number of newspaper 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 car and others were about
nihilism and the Siberian prisons. Owing
to letter which / had from one of the
Russian diplomats of Europe, got these
through without examination and my trunk
was not even opened.
Speaking of the backing out of articles
by the cenSorS, funny instance oc-
Cured when the young grand duke
made his recent tour in India. The Lon
don 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 oDliter-
alton might mean cut this page out of the
Graphic aud set it back to the office, asking
them to tear the page from another copy
and send it to her through the mails. 1t
was sent, and the obliterated picture was
merely q photograph 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 re- published the sketch and also the fac
similis OF the blotted paper. This came to
the eyes Of the czar and be 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
car.
With such restrictions it is impossible
to make good newspapers, and none of
the newspapers here make very much
money. The dailies are published
without illustrations and the pages of
them look as though the Greek alphabet
had gone on drunk and SPRAYED
around over 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
publishes continued story, which runs
along the bottom of the paper, and few of
them have many advertisements. A cur
ious feature of Moscow and ST. Peters
burg are the police journals. These belong
to the police organization. and they give
full reports of the doings of the police and
of al acts relating to the city. The people
are bulldozed into taking them, or rather
they fear that it may not be comfortable
for them If they do not take them, and the
result Is that they have good subscription
lists and paying subscribers. The Rus
slams are naturally reading people, and If
the country had a free press some Of the
largest daily calculations of the world
might exist here.
FRANK G. CARPENTER.