Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1900-09-27
SETTING UP A CHINESE PAPER


Chinese daily newspaper outside Of the
Imperial Empire. 1t is new and
prospecting page journal, called |
Chung Sal lat Pc, which means Mid
die and West Daily News, or Chinese |
and American Daily News. The print.
ing of such paper is an interesting
novelty. Instead of the simple 20 |
letters used in the English alphabet
the Chinese tyPesetter must wander
among more than 100 cases containing
the l1,000 different characters With
which the sons of old Confucius express
their ideas in words. These characters |
are arranged in PA correlative groups,
each of which contains the words of
Similar root or radical. For example,
all diseases are in group, and all trees
in another. In this way the work of
the typesetter is simplified. Instead Of
remembering the particular little CON-
partment for each of the 11,000 words
he learns the location of each of the
Gil groups. Even then his task is IL
to job, compared with learning the
puzzling divisions OF the rack contain
ing the English alphabet
The Chinese type cases are inclined
upon A-shaped racks, and are grouped
according to the relative commences
of the words. Ideas most frequently
used are in the first alleyway of cases,
and the rarest words are to be found
in the last avenue. In setting up an
article In type the Chinese frequently
has to walk more than a mile, turning
up and down the little alleyways OF
cases, picking out a type here, select
ing another there, crossing from side
to side, winding in and out among the
o,lr a,,l dln ulxyh tri ldtnu his aonfnnnQ
from the metallic blocks of strange
looking symbols. [4
So extensive is the space occupied by
| the forms holding the LOCO characters
that The Chinese typesetter has to be
| an able bodied pedestrian to get 5000
words set up in 10 hours. a column Of
straight reading matter on the Chronicle
contains about 400 words. The same
matter, translated into Chinese, would
require one Chinese five hours to set
up in type. With the English char
acters 1t may be handset by one man in
less than three hours. 1t may be run
off on the typesetting machine in 40
minutes The Chinese would have to
walk about two miles while gathering
| up the types for |, 400 words, and would
have to select symbols from surface
containing perhaps $50 square feet of
cases, all the while remembering the
| location of those II 600 characters. The
man setting English type by hand
| would have simply to sit on stool in
front of about ~ square feet of cases
and reach for such of the 26 letters of
the alphabet as he required for the
various words. The man using the
linotype would sit before a keyboard
less than foot square and touch the
indicated letters after the manner OF
operating typewriter. BY both Eng
lish methods the setter would have to
insert the proper punctuation and
spaces and capitals. There is no
punctuation in Chinese, and there Is
no spacing between the words. II
there were punctuation marks. capitals,
slugs, quads and other unlettered type,
the Chinese typesetter would need that
much more time to do his work. For,
tunately, Chinese is SO constructed
that tho reader knows by the peculiar
arrangement of the words just where 9
sentence ends, just where there should
be rhetorical pause in reading 1T.
Though printing was invented IL
China centuries ago, daily newspaper.
are very rare in the ancient empire
Movable types are a new thing IL
Chinese printing offices. Today there
are not more than 30 Chinese dali,
newspapers in all China. Canton ha.
four, Hongkong three, Pekin two anc
some other large cities have one each
But in the great capital is published
the Pesin Gazette, the Oldest dali,
newspaper in the world. 1t Ia |
government organ, amounting to littl
more than an official bulletin of edict
: and decrees. 1t is printed on films,
yellowish paper of the consistency o
Chinese paper napkins, is fastened lik
. a small notebook, and contains some 8
5 or 60 pages about IL inches long and
: inches wide There are no illustra
, tions, no headlines. On the outsid
T front page, which is the back, is
T crude cut of mandarin of the frs
? class, bearded and much begarEe
9 individual, printed in pink ink, Will
the body of the paper is printed i
. black. 1t costs Sc a year. @
China is the oldest and most popu
lcus empire in all the world, vas
y territory with more than 40, 0000. 900 G
Q people. human beings fairly teemin
upnn the earth, and 70 rsr cent of th
, grown men able to read and write, an
still, in all that dominion thsre al
8 but 80 daily newspapers, or one dali
!, for every 5000, 600 of population. Cor
u trast with this Oriental condition /
the Oldest civilization known the cor
> ditions right here in new Californis
: which is practically hut SO years {
!, age, as against China's 5000, fo
. Chinese literature goes back to 8, 0C
9 years before the Christian era. In til
y State of California alone there are.s
i daily newspapers for a population
@ N, ohahly h(lO O0O In the city of Ga
J. Francisco there are regularly publishe
German, two italian, one French, or
Chinese, two commercial, one buiidin
" and one sportsman Sand the loci
n population is estimated at about 35O,O(
+ people OF all races. In the Unite
i. States there are probably about &, OF
d daily papers published, or one dali
ia paper for every 1900 people. Chin,
j. with her 80, has one daily paper (,
ID every 13, 600, 900 people. In other word
a, the United States, though but ont
Or fifth rs populous as China, has q
is daily newspapers wherever China b,
q, one. These are mere numbers and col
yey no idea Of the really vast ditferen,
in journals of the two nation. Tn
Sunday Chronicle is bigger perhap
than all ,China's dailies combined.
connection with this condition in So
Francisco, bear in mind that there
a total of 1916 periodicals-16'of the
|e, dailies and the balance weeklies ar
monthlies-regularly published In So
Francisco. Multiply these figuies 81
by 300 or 400, and you have u parti
,s idea of the number Of periodicals pu
- lished IN the United States, as oppost
:. to the little list known in China.