The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-12-30
A CHINESE NEWSPAPER.
First Daily Outside Of China-Wonders

of a Chinese Printing ONCE.
John Chinaman is pressing to the
front. He may wear a queue and smoke
opium and gamble to tho end Of time
4 but he will make his mark outside the
Celestial empire since he can never
hope to make it within He is making
the greatest strides in America, where
contagious enterprise stimulates the
most stolid brain to activity, and the
longest step forward will be realized
here In q few days, when a Chinese dali
ly newspaper will be launched.
To the reader who recalls the rise and
fall of Dennis Kearney, and the remark
able and bloody history of the sand
lots" an Market street, San Francisco,
20 years ago, the fact that daily news
paper printed in the Chinese characters,
the only one on earth outside Of China,
is to be published here must occasion
some surprise, And well 1t may, for the
first turn OF the press that throws off
the first edition will mark an epoch in
the history Of the Pacific coast and the
troublous question of Chinese immigra-
ton, as great, and fraught with as much
meaning to the body polite, as were
the shots fired at historic Lexington, or
the midnight tea party in Boston
harbor. The latter sounded the requiem
of a tYrannous despotism, condemned
by just men everywhere; the former
marks the point where reaction sets in
that relegates ruffian rule and mob vio-
lence to merited oblivion and ushers In
the fairer doctrine of the survival Of the
f1ttest. The noisy apotheosis Of the
Kearney regime found it's fitting setting
recently, when funds for the reception
Of the California volunteers were being
sought and Chinese merchants sub
scribed literally, and were invited to
and did take a prominent and honor
able position in the great public parade
while Dennis Kearney unnnoticed
watched the Chinese ride by him in
carriages, and he, so poor in the esteem
OF mankind that none was found to do
him reverence"
The intervening years since the man
Kearney waved a hangman's moose be-
fore a savagely delighted army Of mall
contents and preached the doctrine of
Chinese extirmination, and the present
day, may be called the period of recon-
struction of the outraged law, and great
has been the transformation. In defer
ence to popular will, lawfully express
ed national legislation has shut off
Chinese immigration in a large measure;
and time has shown the wisdom of the
act. But the 100000 Chinese then and
now within the state Of California,
have by the laws of absorption and
amalgamation, as they apply to COM
merce and trade, gradually merged
their interests with those of leading
American houses, and their worldwide
reputation for business honesty and sa-
gacity has won for them fast business
friendships which all the demagogs on
earth could not break or make.
Steamship lines and brokerage and
banking are largely in Chinese bands
and the stated clearing house of San
Francisco passes upon such volume Of
Chinese commercial paper as to sur
prise those who do not keep pace with
the wonderful progress of this people.
Having such great interests in financial
circles the Chinese merchants needs a
daily adviser and counselor, just as his
Caucasian neighbor does, and SO the
great innovation of the 10th century
folows-a Chinese daily newspaper in |
San Francisco.
Vast are the differences in other ma
tional characters between the Chinese /
and Americans In no one are they /
greater than In the art OF printing. This /
is owing mainly TO the vast difference /
in the constructive forms Of the res
pective languages. The English langu
age has as many roots as it has deriva-
tives, and no attainable classification |
could bring them into a form where |
composition would be possible. The
Chinese language, on the contrary, hav- (
ing neither the photographed or ety.
mological departments-each word be-
ing fixed and unchanReable--is derived
from pa root words which expand into
IA 900 characters or words, in ordinary
uses, and can be expanded far beyond
this. Where, then, the ordinary letters
and marks Of the English language can
be placed in a small case, in less than
100 squares or boxes, it requires $4,000
boxes or spaces to hold a font Of Chi
nese type.
The great cases are arragned about
the room, resting on he floor, and, with
his stick, the Chinese composltor dances
from one section to another backward
and forward, until the spectator, not
knowing what the printer was doing, h
WDulQ Dt dQt 10 betiSNP MN dliilEled |
with the st, Vitus dance. Each type IS
q word complete in itself, and Is in a
box with other type for other words
but all come from the same root and
any OF them can do duty for several !
words in the English language. ]
The Chinese character which means
"storm," will also mean rain" wind" |
thunder" lightning" electricity"
telegram" telephone" and so on for
all words that have their roots in
storm" The stor mis- known to pro-
duce electricity, In the form Of lightning,
and all the other words follow. A Chi I
nese printer win dance all around his !
great case and average 1000 characters {
a. day, or what is equivalent to 5000
Ems Of type His method of dstribut. 7
ng tyne is also unique and possible on I
y to such an language. The great case t
t wifi be noted, is in 10 sections, each Il
section being the repository Of certain z
cots and derivatives. The printer takes q
a handful Of type and first distribute s
hem in 10 small boxes, each holding the +
GOT word of one Of the large squares. T
He then stands with the small box be- !,
ore the section it represents and places n
-,