The morning call., 1894-04-29


do not commence until the latter part of
the paper. We often have to issue supple
ments to get in all our advertising, but our
Chinese customers object if we do not put
news and reading matter in the supple
ment as well. You note the lines run up
and down the page instead of across it.
and the beginning is at the right of the
page instead of the left. as with you. Our
lines are about fifteen inches long and we
count by the word. not by the liue. Each
Chinese character represents word, and
our rates are 5 cents for each ten charac-
tiers for the first insertion. 3 cents when
the advertisement runs for week, and "a
cents day per each ten words for all time
after that"
Are there many papers in China. and
do you find them In the INTERIOR" | asked.
No" replied the Chinese editor. 1--WE
circulate all over China, but you do not
find papers published in The native cities.
the editors might say things they would
not Ike and many of Them would not want
their doings criticized or reported. The
Chinese are very economical Money is
worth great deal here. We charge, for
instance. 10 cash for this paper, and we
have In reality circulation of at least
$4,000, though we print only L, 600 papers,"
How is that?" said l.
1.-The paper is resold and rented by the
subscribers aud others, so that at least
that many heads of families get hold of it,
We pay our newsboys cash a COPY for
selling, or rather we sell them the papers,
so that we get cash out of the 10. They
receive in your money just about one tenth
of q cent for selling and delivering the pa
per. Well. they cheat the regular customers
often by renting the paper for six or seven
cash to outsiders until IL or II o'clnck,
when they come around and get it and de-
liver it. We can't prevent this here. The
different shops subscribe for the Shun
Pao and their customers come in regularly
every morning and read it. Families pass
it from one TO the other, subscribing to-
gether for it, and there are men who make
a business of going about day after day
and buying up old and clean newspapers
of the subscribers to carry them out in the
country districts to SELL So you see every
newspaper reaches at least half dozen
persons or families before 1t is burned"
All of the unsold copies of the Shun Pao
are burned by the office. The Chinese rev.
erence literature SO that they think it a
SIN to use as wrapDing-paper or in any
common way anything written or printed
in Chinese, and along the streets OF the
Chinese cities, fastened to the walls of the
houses, you will ind little boxes filled
with written scraps which the passers-by
pick up whenever they chance to fall upon
the street to prevent the characters from
being defiled. In Chinese houses instead
tanning a sen tence of classic Chinese beau
tifully written, and the literati often write
to each other In poetry.
/ saw such scrolls in the little room Of
the dramatic critic of the Shun PaO, as
walked through the offices with the mana
ger and was introduced to the editors. The
city editor was fat Chinese gentleman in
tortoise-shell spectacles. the glasses of
which we're as big as trade dollar, who
wore q blue silk gown and a black cap with
a red button on il. He was surrounded by
his long-gowned reporters, 10 whom he
was giving the assignments OF the day,
and he told me that he would be on duty
till O'Clock in the morning, when the pa
per would 60 to press. l next visited the
composing-rooms and took look at the
printers. There were, perhaps, dozen
at work. and l was told that their wages
were from 81 30 to So week In silver,
equal TO Is cents and ST. 30 in our currency.
The editors get from $50 to $40 a
month, and reporters from So to $40
month in silver, according TO their eff
cheney. The printers do night and day
work for seven days In the week and 365
DAYS in the year at these wages. and it
takes no slight learning to be Chinese
printer. There are in the Chinese lam
gnage I3, 600 different characters, and each
of the cases saw in this composing-room.
the editor told me, contained about 10000
different characters. Think of that We
printers of America. and thank God you
were born in a land where the alphabet
contains only twenty-six letters and where
there is not different sign for every word
in the language In Chinese printing
Office the cases are ten times as big as ours
and each printer stands surrounded by
three walls of type. running from his feet
to the top of his head and slOping out from
him Cd all sides
After look at the business Office of the
newspaper, / was shown the only Illus
trated paper in China. which is also issued
from this establishment. 1t is published
every ten days. II is about as big as an
old-fashioned almanac, and it always ap-
pears in red or green covers. 1t publishes
many descriptions Of life in America. and
its pictures of foreigners and their ways
are laughable in the extreme. There is
no perspective shown in the drawings, and
the Chinese stories are full of blood and
thunder, of sentiment aud humor. Here
the Chinese Romeo woos his Acknowledged
Juliet. and there the tragedies OF love.
abduction, OF crime and superstition are
depicted by the Gillams and Remingtons
of this celestial land.
FRANK G. CARPENTER.
Copyright. 1894