Page:Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened.djvu/150

144 "fortress," "soldiers," "victory," "home-land," "trumpet," "kingdom," "enemy," "war," etc., are all stricken out, and all the songs expressing Christian warfare or citizenship or union are canceled. The printing of religious books has been objected to once, on the ground that after having been allowed to have the Bible the Christian subjects have no need of other books. Copies of "Pilgrim's Progress" were confiscated with the idea that they show to the Christian subjects some way to escape from Turkey to a Christian land, from the City of Destruction to Heaven—not an incorrect comparisons however. "The Letters to Families" was stopped with the thought that it might contain something against the government, as it bears the name "letters." A booklet called "The Epistle to the Galatians" was supposed to be a special secret letter to the Christians in Galata (a quarter in Constantinople and a center for Armenians), and the book was stopped. The policemen were sent to the Christian church at Galata to arrest St. Paul, who speaks so deliberately about "the deliverance of this present evil world," and advises his men to "stand fast in the liberty, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." It took much effort and trouble to convince and send these men back, who were more foolish than the ancient Galatians.

The abject ignorance and malice of the censor is best illustrated by the following fact: When he saw in an English book "H$2$ O," the formula of water (two hydrogen, one oxygen), he supposed it to be a