Page:In defense of Harriet Shelley, and other essays.djvu/217

 STIRRING TIMES IN AUSTRIA

teous and inoffensive language and of course the censor cannot say a word.

Sometimes the censor sucks all the blood out of a newspaper and leaves it colorless and inane; some times he leaves it undisturbed, and lets it talk out its opinions with a frankness and vigor hardly to be surpassed, I think, in the journals of any country. Apparently the censor sometimes revises his verdicts upon second thought, for several times lately he has suppressed journals after their issue and partial dis tribution. The distributed copies are then sent for by the censor and destroyed. I have two of these, but at the time they were sent for I could not re member what I had done with them.

If the censor did his work before the morning edition was printed, he would be less of an incon venience than he is; but of course the papers can not wait many minutes after five o clock to get his verdict; they might as well go out of business as do that; so they print, and take the chances. Then, if they get caught by a suppression, they must strike out the condemned matter and print the edition over again. That delays the issue several hours, and is expensive besides. The government gets the sup pressed edition for nothing. If it bought it, that would be joyful, and would give great satisfaction. Also, the edition would be larger. Some of the papers do not replace the condemned paragraphs with other matter; they merely snatch them out and leave blanks behind mourning blanks, marked &quot;Confiscated&quot;

The government discourages the dissemination of

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