The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-10-24

paper come unsolicited, the rest is
gathered on commission. Advertising
rates are low and this paper charges
only seven cents per line. twenty-five
words make line in these Japanese
papers and this would be decidedly
cheap for the New York World, which is
to our metropolis what the Nichi Nichi
Shinabun is TO Toxic. Mr.. Seki tells me
that the Japanese Lave not been fully
educated in the use of advertising, but
that the newspaper advertising increases
from year to year. The newspapers
advertise their own circulation and each
boasts that it has the biggest. They
put up bulletin boards. but they do not
cry the papers on the streets.
The newsboys of japan are hi, ed by
the month and $40 a month is good
wages. They are nothing like the
newsboys of America. The sign Of their
calling is a short of sheep bell which
tinkles as they trot along with bundle
of newspapers sticking out of the
breasts of their gowns. They wear
bowllike hats which cover nearly the
whole of their faces and the calves of
their legs are bare. You hear every
where their bells tinkling and wherever
there is a bell there is always q news
paper. There are now news stands on
the streets and the papers are not sold
in the hottl Is. There are few street sales
of papers and the most of the copies 60
to subscribers. The presses used in the
Nichi Nichi Shinlbun office are old
fashioned ones of American make. The
stere Otyping is done after the Ameri-
can plan. but the plates are trimmed
down with hand saw which looks like
q butcher knife filed into teeth. After
this they are planed with a common
carpenters plane, and when l visited
the stereotyping department and
looked at the light attire of the workers
who were clad in nothing but breech
clothes, the editor said
excuse these men. It is so warm.
They are naked"
1t takes about one hundred and fifty
men to run the Nichi Nicht Shimbun
Office, and the editorial rooms contain
many low tables. The edltor-in- chief,
in Japanese dress, introduced me to
score and more of brown-skinned gen.
tlemen in Japanese gowns, who stopped
writing up and down sheets of rice
paper with cancels hair brushes as l
entered. Tea was brought in in little
cups holding as much as you could put
in the smallest egg cup. A cigarette
was offered me and box of charcoal
put beside me to light it We chatte d
for some time through the editor, who
spoke English. on the changes in news
paper work going on over the world. l
found my remarks published in the
newspaper the next morning, and l
wish l could give your readers here a
quotation from them. It all looks the
same to me, however, and / would be
as liable to clip section of q love
story as of my interview, had
not my guide to help me. AS
we talked the reporters worked busiIy
away in the next room and saw the
exchange editor in a blue dressing
gown clipping and marking with his red
ink and brush the articles intended for
the chief editors eye. On the same
floor and adjacent to the editorial
room l heard the tramp of many feet,
and was told the noise came from the
composing room and that it was made
by the dozen boys who were gathering
type for the compositors, looked in.
The type was arranged in long cases
standing on the floor propped against
each other at an angle of AZ degrees in
the shape of tent. These cases were
six feet high and from fifty to sixty
feet long. and they were packed with
type in compartments like those of an
American press room. The printers
do not select the type as with us. The
works Of an article are gath. red before
they begin, to put it together
for the paper. The type or words,
for each type represents a word,
are brought in little boxes like
cigar boxes, arranged in the order in
which it is to go to the paper and the
compositor sets itup in his composing
stick. 1t thus takes much leg work to
get up Japanese newspaper. and these
boys have to run from one end of the
room to the other many times to get
the different ones of the 5 600 characters
which 60 to make up the Japanese vo-
cabulary of letters.
Compositors are paid from $40 to $50
q month, and it will be interesting here
to give the salaries Of the men en-
pioyed on japanese newspaper. The
editor-in-c chief receives $3.50 q month,
and the other men connected with the
room range from that down to
$50 month. Reporters receive from
Sl5 to 500 month and foreign cores
pondents get about $50 month.
The leading papers Of Japan use illus
trations only when the occasion de-
mands it. They publish pictures OF
noted men as they become prominent,
and when the late nominating conven-
tons were held the American Legation
here was besieged with reporters who
wanted photographs of Thurman and
Cleveland and of Harrison and Morton.
L hey found out that Mr.. Dunn, one of
the secretaries of the legation, was q
cousin of Senator Thurman, and they
wanted as full report about him as
would be required from a gossippy
American correspondent. The red
bandanna handkerchief puzzled them
and their versions of Senator Thur
mans snuff-taking were as varied as
their characters. doubt not that ut
characters were invented to express
their ideas, for their is no snuff in Japan |
and the handkerchiefs the natives use
are of paper. I have been interviewed
by a number of reporters, and my talks
have furnished several columns of
printed hieroglyphics, and section of
q Japanese paper would make very
interesting American newspaper illus