Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-04-15

ing at Beirut, and is the eSpeclai pIiue
of the American colony. 1t is the larg-
est and the most complete up-to-date
plant in Turkey, and four steam and
six hand presses, a lithOgraphlng ana
electrotyping outfit, a type foundry,
book bindery and other features of
first-class printing office, are kept busy
turning out copies of the Bible, re-
ligious, scientific and standard litera-
ture and school textbooks of all kinds
in the Arabic language. over seven
hundred different works in Arabic have
been published, and are now offered to
the public. Last year Q9OD 2S,105, 100
pages were printed, 100000 more than
in 1900. of which 100000 pages were
scriptures and 100000 miscellaneous
books: 4l,50O volumes of the scriptures
and 45,400 volumes of miscellaneous
literature were printed. besides two
newspapers issued regularly each
week.
Last year 81. 600 copies of the Arabic
Bible were sold in Mohammedan lands.
| 7,42l in Syria. 1t is estimated that
| $50 900. 900 pages have been published by
| the American printing office in Beirut
since it was established.
| The managers are much embarraSS ed
by the censorship of the government,
which is very strict, and all manu-
scripts and proof sheets must be sub
| mitted to the inspection of officials
who are not always intelligent enough
| to understand the subjects they are re-
| quired to decide upon. When in doubt
they almost invariably reject Very
often manuscripts and books forward :
| ed to Constantinople to be examined
by the chief cenSors have been re-
turned mutilated and dlsapproVed.
Sometimes the criticisms are absurd
and insignificant, and matter which
| one might expect to be Objectionable
is passed without hesitation. Most of
the books issued by the American
press. however, have been officially
sanctioned because the editors have
been scrupulous in obeying the edict
which requires them to confine their
publications to scientific, moral and
| religious questions without adverse
criticism upon the religious beliefs of
any of the sects in the empire.
The same government inspection is
exercised over English books imported
| through the custom-house. They are
often confiscated and burned without
reason, but only with some preteXt,
probably because the inspectors either
did not have the time or the disposition
to read them and did not dare let them
go through without. Children's books,
the most innocent primers and nursery
| rhymes. are often oonfiscated because
the inspectors do not comprehend their
meaning. Only the other day an
American gentleman residing in Beirut
| lost a catalogue of a publishing house
in New York city which had been sent
| to him because the censor could not
make any meaning out of it and con-
cluded that it must be some seditious
work in cipher.
That remarkable little volume,
BLACK Beauty" which has been cir
culated all over the world in many
languages, teaching it's lesson of kind
ness to beasts, had to be published
under the title of Black Horse" be
cause the Turkish word for beauty hap
pens to be the name of high official.
The word Armenia is not allowed to be
printed since the massacres four years
ago. and pages of the publications
issued by the American printing office
printed to satisfy the inspectors. More
costly corrections have been required
on the maps, for the name Armenia is
not allowed to appear. Another curious
and even more absurd rule of the CEN
sor is that Brazil shall continue to be
mentioned as monarchy on the maps
as well as in the Biographies and other
publications, because the sultan does
not care to have his people know that
thrones are ever overturned and en-
perors are ever deprived of power All
of the Balkan states, including Servia,
Bulgaria, Roumania, Crete, Cyprus
and other former provinces of Turkey,
and about third of the continent of
Africa, from Egypt to Algiers, must
appear as a part of the sultan's do
mains or the map is not allowed to be
published.
1t is impossible to measure the value
of the results accomplished by the
missionaries and the printing office.
Statistics give only meager idea of
the length and the breadth and the
depth of the influence they have exert
ed upon society and civilization gen
orally. The American College at
|
ated an ambition for education among
the people which the government and
other religious denominations have
been compelled to satisfy, but it should
be said that the Protestant schools
were in operation more than a quarter
of a century before any others were
started in Palestine for general educa-
ton. Before that date every educa-
tlonal institution was purely &C.
clesiastic and devoted to the training
of priests. In 1894 a memorial column
was unveiled at Beirut on the spot
\where ffty-nine years before was es-
tablished the first school in Syria for
the instruction of girls. One of the
speakers was Miss Alice Bistany,
daughter of DR.. Smiths assistant in
translating the Bible. Her mother was
the first native girl taught to read in
Syria. The schools of Beirut alone il
lustrate how effective has been the
force of example. Nearly every re-
ligious denomination now maintains
them.
The training schools established by
the American mission for the higher
education of teachers and for those