The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-07-18
TELEGRAPHY OF THE CHINESE.
Numerals FLASHED over Wire and
Translated by Code.
From The San Francisco Chronicle.

From the San Francisco Chronicle.
According TO the "Statesman's Year
Book" all the principal cities of China
are now connected with one another and
with Picking, the capital, by telegraph.
Recent visitors to China say. however.
that telegraphing there is a laborious and
an expensive process. and that the lines
are charge upon the state treasury In
stead of source of revenue.
The dispatches are. of course, sent In
Chinese, for not one in many thousands
OF the natives knows any language except
his own. But the Chinese have no al
phabet. Their literary characters, partly
ideographic, partly phonetic, number
many thousands. IL Is simply impossible
TO Invent telegraphic signals that would
cover the written language. Here was an
obstacle in the way Of using the telegraph
at all.
The difficulty was obviated by inventlng
Geographic signal for each of the cardi-
nal numbers, and so numbers or figures
might be telegraphed to any extent. Then
a code dictionary was prepared in which
each number from one TO several thous-
ands stood for particular Chinese letter
or telegraph. II Is, In fact, a cipher sys-
TEN. The sender OF the message need not
bother himself about its meaning. He
may telegraph all day without the slight
est idea OF the Information he Is sending,
for he transmits only numerals
II is very different with his friend the
receiver. He has the code dictionary at
his elbow, and after each message is re-
eeived he must translate II, writing each
literary character in place OF the mineral
that stands for 1t. Only about an eighth
of the words in the written language ap-
pear in the code, but there are enough OF
them for an practical purposes
But the Chinese system has Its great dis
advantages. Men of ordinary education
have not sufficient acquaintance with the
written language to be competent tcle-
graph receivers, and the literati are not
seeking employment in telegraph Offices
any more than our college professors are
SO the government recruits its EMPLOYEES
with much difficulty. Besides the patrons
OF the telegraph are comparatively few in
number. There are almost no Chinese who
nave business relations all over the coun-
try as is, the case with many thousands
OF our business men. The public Is not in
vted TO buy stock in the Chinese telegraph
lines, ana If It was, nobody at present
would buy with view to dividends The
receipts do not equal the expenses, and the
government makes up the deficit
There is another great disadvantages Of
the Chinese telegraph system All over
the world the movement of railroad trains
are regulated by telegraph The orders re-
ceiNed by the station agent are fled in
plain view of the employees. and II need be
he switchman may take temporary charge
ana carry out the instructions from the
central office. Railroads have been intro
dueed into China to a very small extent
and there is talk of greatly extending the
service. But how about running the trafns7
A writer in lie Movement Colonial of
Paris says that II railroads are introduce
ed TO any extent In China the personnel
must be exclusively European and Amer
lean, or recruited from the literary class
be says the Chinese government will not
take foreigners into its service and that
the educated men OF China. who alone
among the people have sufficient knowl-
edge OF the written language to be in
trusted with the actual running of trains
would refuse most emphatically to be eth
er train hands or station agents.
This is one of the many small stumbling
blocks in the way of China sprogress mn
1t is quite effective in its way