The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1896-03-27
"a HANDFUL E.D.RT MAY. BE a Hou ~
IFUL OF SHAME. CLEAN HOUSE WI15I
SAPOI O
CHINESE TELEGRAPHx.


Numerals Are FLASHED Over the W1I1
and Then Translated. ;is5s
According to the Statesman's Year He1
all the principal cities Of China are noy
connected with ono another and With ~
kin. the capital. by telegraph. Recent ~
itors to China say. however, that tets4
graphing thcro is laborious and ~ e1Erl
pensive process. and that tho lines are ~
charge upon tho State treasury tnstead "a
a source Of revenue. s "a
The dispatches are, Of course. sent M
Chinese for not one In many Thousands o.
tho natives known any language excaut
his own. But the Chinese have no alpha
bet. Thor literary characters. partly
topographic. partly phonetic. number many
thousands. IL Is simply Impossible 70 M
vent tclegraphc signals that would coyeel
the written language. Here WAS an o1sss
stacle IN tho way Of using the telegraph
at all. ~
The Difficulty was obviated by inyentlng
q ,eegraptic signal FOR eaen o. sne r,ir.,s
might be telegraphed to any extent. Ilen
n code dictionary was prepared, IN wmcn'
sands stood for u particular Chinese letter
or telegraph. 1t Is, IN fact, cipher sySs
TEN, zen, The sender q the message need ms .
may telegraph all day without the slight
est idea OF the information no 10 sending,
for he transmits only numerals.
1t is very difficult with his friend, the
receiver. He has tho code dictionary at
his elbow, and after each message Is rec
ceivcd he must translate It., writing each
literary character In place OF the nunieral
that stands. Tor e. Only aboH nm eighth
of tho words In the wr!ttea language APP
pear In the code. but there are enough pf
them for all practical PURPOSES.
But tho Chinese system has Its great
disadvnntnges. Men of ordinary education
have not. sufficient acquaintance with the
written language to be competent tole-
graph receivers. and the literau. are not
tplppratah
any more than our college professors nre.
SO the government recruits It's employees
OF tho telegraph sre comparatively few in
number, There are almost no Chinese
country. IA Is the case with many thou-
snnds Of our business men. The public il
not invited TO buy stock In the Chinese
present would buy with a Wow TO divi-
dcnds The receipts do not equal the ex-
lenses, and tho government making ZIP
rherc Is another great disadvantage OF
the Chinese telegraph system. All over
the world the movement of railroad trains
are regulated by telegraph. The orders re-
ceived by the station agent are filed i'm
plain view OF the employees. and IL need
be the switchman may take temporary
charge and carry out the Instructions from
the central office. Railroads have been In
trodncod into China 70 y very small cx-
tent, nhd there is talk Of greatly extend-
ing The service. But how about running
the trains?
writer in lie movement Colonial OF
Paris says that II rai<oads are introduced
to any extent In Chinn the personnel must
be exclusively European and American
or recruited from the literary class. He
snys that the Chinese government will not
take toreigners into It's service. and that
the educated mon OF China. who alone
among the people havn sufficient knowI-
edge o. the written language TO be In
trusted with the actual running of trains,
would refuse most emphaticaliy to DO
either train hands or station agents.
MT 10 mi at v,
blocks IN the way Of Chna's progress, but
II is quito effective In its way