The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1904-02-12
ABOUT
RUSSIAN CENSOR
He Is a Very Ridiculous and an
Extremely Exaspe1ating
Functionary.
IS A DREADED INDIVIDUAL
Nevertheless the Ingenious sIav Has
Succeeded in outwittins Him
Many Things Are Blotted Out
for Ridiculous Reasons.

Pail Mall Gazette: However much
an Englishman resident in Russia may
be cnamored of that fascinating coun-
try, it is not likely that he will wish to
u himself off from western civiliza-
ton, 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 If he wants them for his private
reading he may not improbably dis
cover a kiosh where French, German
and even English papers are on sale.
A 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
passed through the hands of that
Justly dreaded individual the Russian
censor.
AS the news about Russia in the
journals Of other countries Is often
tnconsiderable in quantity, the censor
Will not always use his scissors, but
will content himself with plotting out
the offending passages with printers
ink, and as sand is used to dry this, a
reader can generally guess to what ex-
tent the censor has been at work by
the mount of sand that ZONES tum-
bling out from between the leaves as
soon as he opens the paper. And luck
lily there is no way of removing the OBJ
noxious patch of black, which may
Some times cover as much as a column
and a half. None the lass, the ingen-
ious Slav has succeeded in outwitting
even the censor. and it is not an I'M
common thing in st. Petersburg society
to be shown an album filled with
"pars" that AVE been erased. The
method Of obtaining them is as fol-
lows: The Russian who buys the paper
at home writes to a friend In London
under cover: Passages erased in col
umn 2, page Z. Of a date. Please send"
The friend accordingly buys the paper,
cuts out the page indicated, and posts
1t under cover to st. Petersburg, wher
the par" at once becomes immortal,
and obtains ten times as many readers
as it would have had if it a been
left untouched by the censor's ink.
Many of the things are blotted out for
ridiculous reasons. Thus, for instance
some time g some Of the English
residents in Riga had their curiosity
excited by observing that week after
week an advertisement was obliterated
In the same place in a certain London
newspaper. One Of them at last wrote
for the slip, when it turned out that it
was an advertisement of some ones
pills. made up of a picture of the czar
and a statement underneath to the eff
feet that he ook good care never to be
without them. 1t was this that the CEN
sor blotted out each day with sAch zeal.
Sometimes, too, that official simply OBJ
literates a thing to show that he is
awake and on the watch. A we'll known
French writer, having published an ar
ticle on Russia, in a we'll known French
review, went about the date of issue, to
call on certain high functionaries at st.
Petersburg, who overwhelmed him
with congratulations for his temperate
criticism. What then was his aston
ishment at discovering hat every copy
of the review that was supplied to the
public in the ordinary way was minus
his article, which had been clean ex-
cised. The censor, when asked to ex-
plain, said that the article contained
nothing Objectionable, but that he could
not pass it all, and so thought it best
to cut out the whole of 1T.
Foreign books are also subjected to
another censor. and as the various CEN
sors do not work together, it may hap
pen that what is forbidden in the orig
tnal is allowed in a t%raslation. Thus,
for Instance, Zola's famous novel
Mana" was prohibited by the of1cial
whose business it was to look after
books that We're being imported into
Russia, whereas another censor allowed
1T to appear in a translation in a news
oaper, Under the form of a fuelleton.