The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-10-05
CHINESE LAUNDRY CHECKS.
Description of the Manner in Which All
Sin Runs His Business.
Cincinnati Commercial Gazette]

Cincinnati Commercial Gazette]
The Chinese laundryman is as a rule a
very uncommunicative individual and
does not make any great effort to enter
into more intimate relations with strang-
ers. However, the almond eyed celes-
tial with whom man came in contact
proved to be little more free spoken
than his countrymen generally are, pos
sibly because he had mastered the Ian
guage better than most Cinnamon. He
seemed ready to answer any interroga-
ton that might be put to him, and in re-
spouse to an inquiry willingly explained
the system OF laundry checks in universal
use among Cinnamon, To begin with, he
illustrated how the cheeks were written
with brush-like pen with India ink on
the red OF green slips of paper. Usually
red paper is used for bundles of collars
and cuffs alone, and the green checks for
bundles of laundry composed of differ
ent articles. The Chinese system of
counting is similar to our own-that is,
there are nine figures, but there is anoth-
er character for ten which resembles a
cross. The other nine figures are of
curious formation, easily recognizable
as being Chinese characters. The 1, 2
and are represented by horizontal lines,
the same as Roman numerals, except
that the latter are vertical. The rest are
of peculiar formation, impossible to de-
scribe.
Now comes the point of difference be-
tween the Arabic system of notation and
that of the disciples of Confucius Instead
of using the first nine figures combined
with the figure 10 to express numbers
fart ha,, 4ha hox
ent characters. which with the cross 10)
are equivalent to what we call our
''teens.'' Then the multiples of 10 are
formed by the use of the same charac-
tiers as for the teens, but the cross for
10 is placed to the right of the other
character There still remain all the
other numbers beyond 20 except the
multiples of 10, to be provided for.
These are formed by combining the char
acter used for the multiple of 10 and the
character denoting the figure, which, if
added to the multiple, will make the de-
sired number, except that, in combining
the two, the cross denoting the 10 is
omitted.
For example, in writing 40 character
resembling our x is placed at the left of
the cross (10), and to make 43 the x and
three lines, vertical in this case, are
uScu, OulluCIuS Ill6 CIOSS uocu III WllIluS
40. Thus it will be seen that they have
Is characters while we have but 10, and
our system not nearly SO cumber-
some To recapitulate, they have the
nine characters which are represented by
our nine digits, and the cross for 10,
which we form by combining the @ and
the /. There are eight more characters.
used in forming the rest of the numbers.
Tho 2 and when used in form
ing these numbers are written ver-
ically; the is an x, the 5
resembles an s, the is like an L, the Z
the same, with line under it, and the 9
a combination of two curved lines. The
Chinese can notscount beyond 100 or SO,
rather, and so when the laundryman has
exhausted all his numbers he is forced
to fall back ON words. Therefore he
writes word on the check, twice. The
number is often written in the centre
also, and the check torn in two pieces
right through these characters, and thus
an additional safeguard is provided.
The word written on the check is gen
orally the name of some familiar object
or motto. With each hundred checks
this, of course, has to be changed. When
the goods are put in the wash a strip of
cotton cloth is tied to each one, on which
is written the number, and, if necessary,
the additional word and number of arti-'
cles which have the same number. 1t
will be seen that the system is cumbrous
necessitating much work. The price of
the washing is marked on the part of the
check the laundryman keeps, so that he
can tell at glance how much to charge.