Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1886-05-28
I CHINESE NEWSPAPERS.
Not Journals Of tho Celestial Empir
u ~ but OF California. AS n Es5.

| ssjsSE$ @Hs{ G3S DuI OF IC0111Orn1@.
The majority Of the Chinese mer-
chants and business men in this city, as
well as their clerks ]. and book keepers,
can read and write the English Ian
guage, and quite number of them are
subscribers to the daily papers. b..
That those, however, who arc not so
gifted may have an opportunity Of
knowing what is transporting in the busy
world, there are at the present time
four newspapers printed in Chinese
characters regularly published in
Francisco. They are all issued weekly
and have an average circulation of $500
copies. The majority of these papers
are sent into the interior of this state,
to Washington territory, British Column
bia, and the Sandwich islands. Only
about one-tifth of the whole number is
taken in this city. The subscription
price of each is $3.50 per annum, deliv-
cred by carriers in the city, and S. q
year if sent through the mails 10 the
country or abroad. 81 -.
The oldest paper of the quartet is The
Recorder, published by Mum Kee & Co.
1t has been in existence eighteen years,
and has subscription list of $50. of
which eighty are delivered in the city
and the remainder mailed to the inte-
rior. Mum Kee, its first editor and pro-
prietor, mace a fortune out of The Re-
corder. Selling out three years ago.
he returned to China to spend his de-
clining years. The Oriental is pub
lished by Wah Kee & Co. It has been
in existence five years, and has circu-
lation of about 400. The Weekly Occi-
dental is now in it's fourth year, and
Horn Hong & Co., its proprietors,
claim that it is the dive paper and.
| has the largest circulation. It has 200
city subscribers and 800 in the country
Cum Shoe, its translator and reporter,
is we'll educated in English and Chi,
nese, and nothing of interest occurs in
the Chinese quarter that he does not
| report for the paper which he repre-
| sents.
The staff of Chinese newspaper
consists usually of four persons-viz.:
in editor, sub-editor, translator,
and a printer or pressman. The ed
itor and sub-editor are generally the
proprietors, and each usually edits one
half the paper. The translator is a
most important person. His duties are
to pick up news around the Chinese
quarters, and read carefully the Ameri-
can daily papers. From these he culIs
the market reports, accounts of out
RACES on Chinese. the passage of any
laws or ordinances particularly affect
ing the Chinese, and any other item
which he thinks will interest his coun-
trymen. These he translates into Chi
nesc characters, and hands them to the
editor for insertion.
The editors copy the characters so
supplied them with the ordinary Chi
nese pen and specially prepared ink on
what is called transfer paper. The
sheet of transfer paper is the same size
as the paper to be printed. When the
editor has his sheet of transfer paper
filled with characters his labor is done,
and he hands the paper over to the
printer.
This functionary has photographic
stone already prepared. and to 1t he
! transfers the characters on the paper.
After setting the ink on the stone
with nitric acid and gum he is ready for
printing. After passing wet sponge
over the stone he rolls over it an ink
roller, the ink from which only adhercs
to the written characters. He then lays
the sheet of paper to be printed on the
stone, placing ON top OF it a metal
cover. An iron bar is now placed
across this cover and frightened down by
a lever worked by the foot of the oper-
ator. The frame on which the stone is
set is then, BY means of a strap and pul
ley worked by the printer, made to
slide under the bar Its whole length.
The pressure Of the bar on the cover
causes the impression of the linked char
acters to be transferred from the stone
to the paper. The process is repeated
until the required number of copies is
printed. Then the stone is cleaned Of
and smoothed down, and the characters
for the other side of the paper are trans
ferred to it, and the printing of the
other side of the printed sheets COM
mences. One side only of paper can
be printed at time. A smart printer
can print one side of four hundred
sheets in an ordinary working day.
Five working days are required to get
out an edition of one thousand.
The 'AnaertcGn and Chinese CONNER
cial News, the latest aspirant for jour-
nalistic honors among the Chinese, was
started by Suey Kee & Co.. a little over
three years ago. Its proprictors in
tended to revolutionize the Chinese
newspaper business in this city, and en-
gagged large staff of reporters, etc.
Their purse, however, was not as large
as their, ideas, and a year ago they
gracefully retired bankrupt. The
present proprietor, now have the paper
on a paying bass, and, have circula~
ton Of 700. The title Of the paper is
printed in old Roman text, and above it
is representation of flaming dragon.
The papers are printed with black
ink on single sheets of thin white pa
per- except at Chinese new year, when
either red paper is used or the char
acters arc printed in red ink on the Or