Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-11-28
THE RUSSIAN CENSOR.
He Is a Ridiculous and an Exasperat-
ing Functionary.

From the Pail Mall Gazette.
However much an Englishman resident in
Russia may be enamored Of that fascinat-
ing country, 1t is not likely that he will
wish to cut himself off from western civil
izatfon, and If he is located in a good sized
town he will soon begin to look around
to see what facilities he has for obtaining
foreign newspapers Some he may find in
a cafe others in a hotel but II he wants
| them for his private reading he may not
improbably discover kiosk where French,
German and even English papers are on
sale. little experience. however, will
teach him that he cannot rely upon this
source for the supply Will be irregular
and worse STILL the papers will have pass
ed through the hands of that justly dread
ed individual the Russian censor.
AS the news about Russia In the journals
Of other countries is often inconsiderable In
quantity, the censor Will not always use
his scissors but will content himself with
blotting out the offending passages with
printers ink and as sand Is used to dry
this, a reader can generally guess TO what
extent the censor has been at work by the
amount Of sand that comes tumbling out
from between the leaves as soon as he
opens the paper. And uniuckily there Is no
way of removing the obnoxious patch or
black, which may some times cover as
less, the ingenious Slav has succeeded In
outwitting even the censor. and 1t is not
an uncommon thing in st. Petersburg So
ciety to be shown an album filled with
"pars" that have been erased. The meth
cd of obtaining them Is as follows: The
Russian who buys the paper at home
writes to friend in London under cover:
Passages erased in column 2, page Z. OF
such and such paper, for such and such
a date Please send" The friend accord
ingly buys the paper, cuts out the page
indicated. and posts 1t under cover to st.
Petersburg, where the par at once be-
comes immortal, and obtains ten times
as many readers as 1t would have had II 1t
had been left untouched by the censor's
ink
Many of the things are blotted out for
ridiculous reasons Thus, for instance,
some time ago some Of the English resi-
dents in Riga had their curiosity excited by
observing that week after week an adver-
tisement was obliterated In the same place
In certain London newspaper. One OF
them at last wrote for the slip. when 1t
turned out that 1t was an advertisement
Of some ones pills. made up Of a picture
OF the car and statement underneath to
the effect that he took good care never
to be without them 1t was this that the
zeal. Sometimes too, that official simply
obliterates a thing to show that he is
awake and on the watch. well-known
French writer. having published an article
went about the date of issue. to call ON
certain high functionaries at st. Peters
burg, who overwhelmed him with congratu-
iations for his temperate criticism What
then was his establishment at discovering
lat every copy Of the review that was
suppied to the public In the ordinary
way was minus his article. which had been
clean excised The censor. when asked
to explain. said that the article contained
nothing Objectionable. but that he could not
pass 1t all, and so thought it best to cut
out the whole of 1t.
Foreign books are also subjected to an
other censor, and as the various censors
do not work together. it may happen that
what Is forbidden in the original Is al
lowed in translation. Thus, for instance,
Zola's famous novel Mana" was prohibited
by the official whose business 1t was TO
look after books that were being import
e.. into Russia. whereas another censor al
lowed 1t to appear In a translation in
newspaper, under the form Of feuilleton.