Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1886-02-06
THE PRINTING PRESS.
1t Can BE Found from Greonland's Ic!
Mountains TO Ipdin's Coral strand,

1t Can BE Found from Greonland's Icy
Mountains to midas Coral strand.
The printing press is making its way
among the less progressive nations OF
the world more rapidly than any Of
the other great instruments of Western
civilization. 1t is found from Danish
Greenland to South Africa, in the hands
Of native artisans, who are producing
some very interesting specimens OF
book-making and newspaper work,
One of the most striking indications OF
growing liberalism in China is the con
stantly increasing influence of the ma
tive newspapers published in Hong
Kong and Shanghai. 1t is only four.
teen wears ago that the first of these
newspapers was printed. They are
now read not only in the seaport cities,
but have a steadily growing circulation
in the interior. They are eagerly pc
rused by the official class in Pekin. are
carried up the rivers to many inland
towns, and have become a necessity in
all parts Of the world wherever the
Chinese have eXiled themselves. 1t
was largely their influence that during
the recent troubles with France famed
the war spirit to fever heat, They con-
tain much false news, their comments
on foreign affairs are ludicrously mac
curate, but they publish also much in
formation OF value, and they are grad
ually opening new field which China's
thousands Of accomplished and impe-
cunious scholars may enter, and find in
! journalism brilliant opportunities for
the enjoyment Of their intellectual
! energy.
Ii was this sort OF men in Japan, the
/ restless, povertv-stricken ~literati. who,
after the revolution of 1868, started the
native press. Although fettered by
official censorship and forbidden to
criticise the acts OF the Government,
the journalism of Japan has become a
great power and one of the necessities
OF life. All the chief cities now have
their daily newspapers, and every con-
siderable village has an editor welding
the pen IN his Sanctum. In the Won
derful little empire where seventeen
wears ago the Government Gazette, read
Ouly by the official class, was the near
est approach Japan has made to the
modern newspaper, there are now sew
eral hundreds Of daily and weekly
journals, besides many other period
icals, which. like the proceedings Of
the Toxic Geographical Society,"" re-
iiect great credit upon the scholarly
and scientific attainments Of native
writers.
The missionaries introduced the
printing press into British Burmah,
where the development of its usefulness
has been much more rapid than in most
uncivilized lands. Wherever mission.
aTy influence has reached in that coun.
try, it is scattering every year hundreds
Of thousands Of pages Of school books
and Bible translations. Even more in.
'eresting, perhaps, is the work that
native printers are doing in Lovedale,
Kaifraria, where South African Kaiirs,
reclaimed from the savagery around
them, are issuing excellent specimens
Of printing and book-binding. Boy:
and girls as far away as Lake Nyasss
are taught TO read from books made in
this noted missionary town, which
sends forth not only the printed imple
ments Of instruction, but also native
teachers to use them.
The growth of the native press O
India has more than kept pace with tn,
development Of its railroad system
The newspaper press is flourishing ant
ind initial, and several hundreds o
RpoA4 ~ native authors are annually
printed in the various languages of tn,
peninsula. But it is, perhaps, il
Greenland that the most unique pro
auctions of the printing press ar,
found. For more than twenty year
little books have occasionally beel
printed in the Esquimau language a
Godhaab, chiefly devoted to the pre-
servation Of Esquimau fables and ira
ditions, and an illustrated journal, tn
Atndgagltuh (the Reader), is issue,
there nearly every year, whose letter
press and mechanical features, includ
ing the rather remarkable e~ngravings
are entirely the product Of the natives
N Y. SIN.
Ceinr,da's tinnhnr araa 4. ..ua1..