Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1886-05-27
CHINESE NEWSPAPERS.
Four Of Them i'm San Francisco
How They are Issued.

and business men in this city, as well as
their clerks and bookkeepers, can read
and write the English language, and
quite number of them are subscribers
to the daily papers.
That those, however, who are not So
gifted may have an opportunity of know
ing what is transpiring in the busy world
there are at the present time four news.
papers printed in Chinese characters reg
ularly published in San Francisco. They
are all issued weekly and have an average
circulation of 800 copies.
The majority Of these papers are sent
into the interior Of this State. to wash
ington Territory, British Columbia, and
the Sandwich Islands. Only about one.
fifth Of the whole number is taken IN
this city. The subscription price Of each
is $3.50 per annum, delivered by carriers
IN the city, and IS year if sent through
the mails to the country or abroad.
The staff of Chinese newspaper
consists usually Of four persons, viz.
an editor, sub-editor, translator, and
a printer or pressman. The editor and
the sub-editor are generally the pro-
prietors, and each usually edits one-half
the paper
The translator is most important per
son. His duties are to pick up news
around the Chinese quarters and read
carefully the American daily papers.
From these he culls the market reports,
accounts Of outrages on Chinese, the
passage of any laws and ordinances par
ticularly affecting the Chinese, and any
other items which he thinks will interest
his countrymen. These he translates
into Chinese characters, and hands them
to the editors for insertion.
The editors copy the characters so
supplied them with the ordinary Chinese
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 filed with
characters his labor is done, and he hands
the paper over to the printer.
This functionary has photographic
stone already prepared, and to it he trans
fers the characters on the paper. After
setting" the ink on the stone with nitric
acid and gum he is ready for printing.
After passing q wet sponge over the
stone, he rolls it over an ink roller, the
ink from which only adheres to the writ
ten characters. He then lays the sheet
of paper to be printed on the stone, plac-
ing on the top of it a metal cover. An
iron bar is now passed across this cover
and tightened down by lever worked
by the foot Of the operator. The frame
on which the stone is set is then, by
means Of a strap and pully 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 characters 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 off and smoothed down, and the
characters for the other side of the paper
are transferred to it, and the printing Of
the other side of the printed sheets com
mences. One side only of paper can
be printed at a time. A smart printer
can print one side Of 400 sheets in an
ordinary working day. Five working
days are required to get out an edition
Of 1000.
The papers are printed with black ink
on single sheets of thin white paper, ex-
cept at the Chinese New Year, when
either red paper is used or the characters
are printed in red ink on the ordinary
paper, red being considered the lucky
color among the Chinese.
The charge for advertisements is regu-
lated by the numbers Of characters en-
ployed. 1hs price would average about
five cents word in English, or 50 for
one inch square for one insertion, with
reduction for ads running for over six
months. The advertisements generally
consist of notices of sailing days of
steamers, notices issuel " the Chinese
Six Companies, and the prices of sewing
machines, lamps, firearms, and other
which find ready sale
among the Chinese. These are inserted
by white merchants. .-Sdn Francisco
Chronicle.