Arizona republican., 1900-08-20
THE PEKIN GAZETTE
Stephen Bonsaps Description of a
 Chinese Newspaper.

The following interesting description of Chinese administration organ is rom the pen of St phen Bonea! who d fr" yoafs ago travelled through China with an ever ready notebook at hand. It will hc rad with greater interest hy i'.,o rit people from the fact that MT. P"0Sa is scn-in-law of MT. Charles l.. Hayden of Columbus. O., who has spent three winters in PhoenIx. The story is an excerpt from his "Pekin Diary"
 Since my arrival I have regarded q call upon the editor of the Pekin Ca- zette, by far the oldest and perhaps inc most widely circulated papar In t1,a world as duty and as a pleasure. But your great editor is not in evidence In Fekfn as he is in London or Paris ar New York. and nobody I have asked seems to have the remctest idea who the editor is. until at last I have come tn the conclusion that there isn't any. The copy comes from the palace. We were told by the foreman in the nrfnf- Ing room. It is marked Ordered prlnt- cd by the privy council or chuuchi chu, and the proofs are sent to the sac- retary to be O Kd, so T suppose he
 
 never comes out of the red for,.idIen city or breathes in the atmosphere of printers ink.
 The Gazette is certainty a thousand years old. and many claim an even gr' ater antiquity for it. It is at least, beyond dispute. the oldest journal in the world and probably the most uu- enterprising. still it does move. and
 
 about the size f dice, though until quite recently each page of the paper was carefully hewn out of wood. It contains, of course, little or no real news. In it are printed memorials to the throne from high officials. and such reports from governors as may be se- Iected for the purpose, but-and herein lies the great misfortune for China-it contains no foreign page and no hint. except perhaps comment of the most fantastic kind. of what is going on in the outside world.
 still. while in this respect the Pekfn Gazotte is beneath contempt, in others 1T is more than respectable. There is not an administration organ in the world that at times exposes the short cominSs of it's government with such ''- U N'&I IT eil h!l''SS. VI course i 0O not mean to say that attempts are not made as in other countries to hush up the stories of the corruption of off cials. but it must be admitted that when the Chunchi Gnu decide upon making an example they do it thor ouGhly, and the Pekin Gazette. edited by the council. ventiIates the matter in all it's aspects without reserve of any kind. Even he emperor himself is not spared. Tn a period of disaster-for in hard-headsd China the theory that the king can do no wrong has never made any headway-the penance done by the emperor in the hope of appeasing the powers, generally of air and water. is Gravely St forth. Princes of the blood and the most powerful viceroys are treated without the slightest consider atiCn, even when the offense charged is merely the neglect of trivial cere mOny.
 Recently the Gag ttc abused one of the princes like a pickpocket because a child was born to him during his period of mourning for his mother, when. of course, by custom and all the dictates