The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1896-08-02


to achieve his or her object the individ-
ual in question has merely to send his
or her advertisement to the office of the
newspaper in which he or she wishes the
notice to appear? Not a bit of it! No
end of formalities and petty vexatious
regulations and restrictions must be
met, and, if possible, overcome, by the
advertising party before the innocent
announcement can be expected to APP
pear. A visit to the police, with all it's
tedious formalities in the shape of
stampings, punchings, labelings, cross
questionings and irrelevant notices and
inquiries of all sorts, is not the least of
the long list of vexations and indignities
to which the asprant to publicity in the
advertisement columns of an ordinary
Russian newspaper must be prepared
dutifully, patiently and tamely to sub
init.
And even then. after he has, in his own
innocent estimation, safely and salts
factorily negotiated all the obstacles
placed In the way by the police, the
would-b be advertiser may yet find that he
is destined to be disappointed, and on
grounds, as often as not, which cannot
put seem to him quite as frivolous and
vexatious as the arduous and lengthy
inquiry that he has, in pursuit of his
object been called on to undergo.
What the effect of so ridiculous and
tyrannical system of censorship must
be upon the Golfers of the newspa pers in
Russia 1t would be as easy to describeas
it assuredly is to imagine. The poverty
of the Russian journals, owned and fl
nanced though they are, for the most
part, by Jews, is notorious.
The social position of the Russian
journalist, broadly speaking, is equiva-
lent to that which great men are accus-
toned to bestow on harmless but some
times necessary dependents in some des-
Il, .k.,g1 \ l. ~ i
sidered as fit treatment for lackey any
where else. The Russian journalist is
treated with perfect civility so long as
he behaves himself; but he Is not toler-
ated in society. The most he can hope
for if he conducts himself with perfect
prudence and propriety is to have his
paper a little less severely edited by the
! all-powerfur> censors than those of his
| fellow journalists who do not pursue so
| prudent and polite course, and, occa-
sionally, to rub shoulders with some one
| He c, vtso SHOWS the
Russian Journalist under the thumb of
| the censor, remorselessly and ruthlessly
ruled and edited, and Stunned even by
those whose acquaintance, though not,
| perhaps, whose friendship, he has ma
| tural right to solicit, namely, his brother
| Journalists. The position of the Jour-
nalist in Russia, however, is. perhaps,
! best summarized and most clearly ex-
| emplfied in a remark which was made
| to me by gentleman-himself a Rus
| sian-soon after first came to Moscow.
We were lunching in one of the prin-
cipal hotels together when an individual
passed our table whose appearance
somewhat attracted me. I accordingly
asked my friend who he might be. ''Oh,
that,' said he, lis the editor of -"
naming a well-known Russian journal.
"A very good fellow in his way, assure
you, but he requires to be kept in ORDER"
thereby implying, as I learned subse-
quently, that it was not the gentleman's
private conduct and behavior that
sometimes stood in need of correction.
but the 'effusions of his pen, which ne
cessitated the delicate attentions of the
censor.
A circumstance which perhaps more
than any other contributes to the low
esteem in which journalism and journal
lists are held in Russia Is the true Mus
covite's little Partially for reading. AS
nation, Russia is the least "booky" of
great European countries. At st. Peters
burg, where the population is more or
less cosmopolitan, this tSrt is not no.
ticeable in the same degree in which it
is at Moscow.
AT the former city there are not want
ing signs and tokens pointing to the ex-
1stence of no small amount of literary
activity The journals of st. Peters,
burg. though vastly out of proportion
in respect to number, influence wealth
and intelligence to the population of so
great and important a city, yet do their
best, under the highly discouraging cir
cumstances in which they are situated,
to maintain> a European standard of
thought and expression. In Moscow
however, which is Russia proper very
different state of affairs prevails. There
literary activity can scarcely be said to
exist at all, or, if it be allowed to exist.
the degree and amount are so small as
cannot but nightly dismay and dis
courage those who good naturedly start
out with the intention of taking it into
serious account.
At st. Petersburg it is possible, with an
infinite deal of searching and maneuver-
ing, to purchase a journal in the streets.
If you search long and carefully enough,
you WILL no doubt, in course of time.
come upon man at one of the street
corners armed with a leather bag. in
which, If you look close enough, you will
no doubt discover a sheaf of odd Jour
mails. This scarce and undemonstrative |
corresponds to our newspaper |
boy. and of him, if you are literarily |
inclined, you may purchase your news.
But in Moscow. as l have said above, !
a very different state of affairs prevails |
There you might go searching and ma |
all day without discovering |
any traces of vendor of news. l be- |
lieve there is, or there was in DAYS |
gone by a person in Moscow who wished |
to play that important role. Indeed, to |
be accurate, l myself once caught a
of the strange creature standing
outside the door of one of the hotels
But his aspect was so wretched and the
appearance of his journals so mody
that involuntarily abstained from maxi
ing purchase. No doubt, as 1 said to
myself, the fellow has tramped all the
way from ST. Petersburg Ca distance of
400 miles) with stock of last years ere
urns." and hopes to get rid of them in
lliterate Moscow.
Russian journalists seem to have very
primitive notions on the subjecteof the
commercial conduct of their newspapers.
They appear to take very little pains
% get their journals properly distributed.
md a small local circulate ton seems to
'epresent the height of their CONNER
,ial ambitions. A few of the best class
ournals, such, for instance, as The Ne
"a, which is very tolerably printed and