Litchfield enquirer., 1878-04-04
A VISIT TO A JAPANESE PRINT
 ING OFFICE.

The first room visited, one ad joining the pri- vate office, was appropriated to the editorial staff, who were all industriously engaged as we entered. Two lines of three desks each filled the body of the apartment, seventh desk at the head of the room serving the edi- tor-in-chief. On one wall hung nearly hun dred exchanges" on file, and behind the chair of Mir. Fukuchi was stored library of refer ence, which as he said in a professional aside. makes us newspaper men sometimes very wise" One of the group who was evidently an expert with the scissors, was dissecting . 1okohoma English exchange, while the others were occupied with theirgrOwing manuscripts And 1t was interesting to observe the beauty of it's chirOgraphy-a necessary excellence in a language where the character is SO difficult that penmanship is distinct fine art.
 Next to the editorial roomis located the space set aside for the composing force. First we come to the proOf-readers, two intelligent per- sons who have high reputation, for scholar ship. The necessity for such attachments he- comes apparent when we learn that full font of type comprises fifty thousand characters, while no less than three thousand are in con stant use and two thousand are in frequent employment. And not only must the proof reader be careful to ameud all grammatical slips and typographical errors, but he should have quick eye for inelegancies in the manu- script and for mperfeCtions themselves.
 Separated from the proof readers by low latticed railing is the office of the foreman, the magistrate of the cases, and beyond him again we reach the printers. The type is disposed about the room on long racks like those of the public reading rOoms and the aisles furnish promenade wherein the Compositor can labor in his vocation and take exercise simultanc- Ously. The matter when set is placed on gal leys, and proof taken. Then the foreman manipulates it into the shape in which the public it. Four formsa are used. each eleven by sixteen inches. The first-that is the last page is occupied by display head, the informa- ton concerning the number of issue. place and date of publication, price and days of appear ance, which commonly follow the title. and government notifications. After these come editorial leading articles and paragraphs. The last-that is, the tirst-page is devoted to mar ket reports, scientific information and adver- tisements, and with the official editorial mat ter makes up the outside forms which are sent down to the press at midnight. On the inside we find the. days discoveries of the reporters andsuch editorial articles, communications. etc., as found no corner in the outside forms. Such is the routine make up" but it is elas- tic enough, of course, to suit the journalistic requirements of the day. During the war when Fukuchi was for time at the front as a special correspondent, much space and atten- ton was given to telegraphc news, butthe lack of an associated press makes such matter rath- CT costly, and only limited amount appears. Each correspondent, however, is furnished with private telegraphic code, and is em- powered to send the journal by this means in- formation that seems to .justfy the outlay. W Y. ECenin9 Post,