The Pacific commercial advertiser., 1900-12-21
SETTING UP
THE PAPER
A Japanese Journals
Difficulties.
EMBARRASSMENT OF TYPE
How a Compositor Handles 10000
Hieroglyphics Of the
Shinpo.
m r. SHIOZAWA, owner and pro-
" prietor of the Hawaii Shiapo,

announces IQdI DcSiuiuuS Will
the issue of next Monday, the pros
porous little japanese paper will alter
nate its columns Of news with English
translations This new feature will
broaden the interest Of the already in
teresting sheet, and Mr.. Shiozawa very
reasonably expects an increase in its
circulation.
The Shinpo is the only Japanese
daily paper published in the Islands.
and its original purpose was to keep
the government in Japan advised as
to the affairs of its people in Hawaii.
The Shinpo Is conservative in policy,
and as a medium of news became i'm
mediately popular.
A great deal of credit Is due to Mrs.
Takahashi, sister-in-law of Mr.. Shio-
zawa, and manager of the paper. Her
position is one only conferred upon
women of unusual talent and business
ability, even among races further ad
vanced in business opportunities for
women. AS type OF progressive
woman, Mrs. Takahashi stands alone
and remarkable among the people of
her own race.
The management, editorial depart
ment and the mechanical department
of the japanese daily are conducted
much in the manner of our own pa
peTs. the methods used being modern
and up-to- date, but in the composing
and press rooms there arises a diff
Guilty that would cause the American
or European newspaper to halt in dis
may.
The Japanese language contains
something like 10000 characters In
letters. words and phrase signs. How
to handle this immense vocabulary
and the characters that represent II,
is a problem that would entirely dis
courage anyone but the patient and
ingenious Japanese 1t was problem
even to Mr.. Shiozawa, but he has
solved it.
OF course the entire number of char
acters are not in daily use, and some
of them are, in fact, quite obsolete.
but they all require to be kept In
stock. and in one large room great
expanse Of tilted cases shows that they
are all there. After much study and
figuring the characters in frequent
use were separated from the others
and arranged accordingly. the charac-
ters and signs most used being placed
In the most convenient positions.
Typesetting, under this arrange
ment, Is necessarily done by three or
four men, instead Of one. Copy" Is
given out in duplicates, the compost
tor and his assistants each being sup
piled with a copy of the article to be
set up.
The assistants begin work before
the final compositor, to whom they
turn over the cases of characters
which they have gathered from all
parts of the room, of the kind required
to set up the matter. The compositor
then takes his copy and the cases of
selected characters and proceeds 20
set type for the press in the usual
manner of compositors. His assistants
are kept busy selecting the type for
him and returning type which has
been used to the cases In the respec-
tive places.
This arrangement has simplified the
handling of the immense number of
hieroglyphics considerably, but it still
remains a marvel. There are forty
thousand characters in frequent use,
and between six and seven thousand
used to express ordinary words and
phrases of common conversation in
the japanese language, and man
must be possessed of remarkable mem
ory indeed, to know and be able to
instantly recognize each of even the
latter number. This is what each of
the Japanese compositors and their as
sistants are required to do to be pro-
ficient.
The printing of the paper is done by
means OF large hand presses, but Mr..
Shiozawa contemplates introducing
electric power In short time. AT
present the circulation, as attested by
the subscription list, is about one
thousand copies each day, five hundred
of which are sent to the adjoining ISL
ands and to Japan, being on the mail
ing list.
With the japanese people, however,
this does not mean that the readers
OF the paper are restricted to that
number. 1t is the Japanese custom to
pass the paper about from one, family
to another, or to post 1t upon a wall
where II may be read by the japanese
public at any time.
Among the readers of the Shinpo are
a large percentage of Cinnamon. There
are great many Chinese characters
intermixed with the Japanese, and
some Of the news Is given entirely in
the Chinese hieroglyphics. Any jap
anese can read the Chinese language
as Japan has adopted the Chinese
characters to add to It's own, but Chi
namen cannot read Japanese material
for the reason that Japanese charac-
ters are literally sprinkled among the
Chinese, unless the article is written
especially for Chinese digestion.
Mr.. Shiozawa accounts for the great
number Of japanese characters by
saying that Japan Is noted copyist
and that with every immigration oi
french, Dutch. English and Spanish
people into Japan there was large
coinage Of new words, similar In
sound to those brought by foreigners
The Shinpo Is now recognized me-
dunn of advertisement, and the busi-
ness department of the paper is as
great a success as Is the news depart
ment. With the Institution of the ac-
companying English translation there
will undoubtedly be an increase both
In the subscription list and upon the
advertisement roll.
The name Is a guaranty of its purity
Jesse Moore Wh,ekey n always right,