Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-03-20
CHINESE TELEGRAPHY.
Numerals Are Flashed Over the Wire
ana Then Trnnxlated by a Code. Il

Numerals Are Flashed Over the Wire
ana Then Trnn slated by a Code. z
According to the "Statesman's Year
Book" all the principal cities Of China are
now connected with one another and with
Pekin. the capital. by telegraph. Recent
visitors to China say, however, that tele-
graphing there Is a. laborious and an ex-
pensive process. and that me lines are a,
charge upon the state treasury instead Of a.
source of revenue.
The dispatches are. of course, sent in Chi
nese, for not one in many thousands of the
natives knows any language except his own.
But the Chinese have no alphabet. Their
literary characters. partly Geographic.
partly phonetic, number many thousands
1t Is simply impossible to invent telegraphic
signals that would cover the written LAM,
guage. Here was an obstacle in the way Of
using the telegraph at all. =
The difficulty was obviated by inventing a
Geographic signal for each of the cardinal
numbers, and so numbers or figures might
be telegraphed to any extent. Then a code
dictionary was prepared, in which each
number from | up to several thousands
stood for q Particular Chinese letter 'orl
telegraph. 1t is, In fact, cipher system.
The sender of the message need not bother
himself Tlabout its meaning He may tefe--
graph all day without the slightest idea of
the information he is sending for he trans.
mits only numerals.
1t Is very different with his friend, the re-
ceiver. He has the code dictionary at his
elbow. and after each message Is received
he must translate it, writing each literary
character in place of the mineral that
stands for it. Only about an eighth of the
words In the written language appear in the
code, but there are enough of them for all
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 telegraph
receivers, ana the lterati are not seeking
nT0TlnvnaQnf NH, a1ao
than our college professors are So the gov
eminent recruits it's employees with much
difficulty. Besides, the patrons of the tele--
graph are comparatively few in number
There are almost no Chinese who have busi-
ness relations all over the country, as is the.
case with many thousands of our business
men. The public is not invited to buy stock
in the Chinese telegraph lines. and If it was
nobody at present would buy with a 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 movements of railroad trains are
regulated by telegraph. The orders received
by the station agent are filed in plain view
of the employees and, If need be, the switch
man may take temporary charge and carry
out the instructions from the central office.
Railroads have been introduced into China
to very small extent and there is talk of
greatly extending the service But how
about running the trains?
A writer in LIE Movement Colonial of
Paris says that If railroads are introduced
to any extent in China the personnel must
be exclusively European and American. or
recruited from the literary class He saws
the chinese government will net take for
elgners into its service, and that the edu-
Gated men of China. who alone among the
people have sufficient knowledge of the
written language to be intrusted with the
actual running OF trains, would refuse most
station agents. "
This is one of the many smA stumbling
blocks In the way of China progress. but f
Is quite effective In its way ~ -