The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-02-23
ANXIOUS TO GET THE NEWS.
The New York Chinese Educated
Through the Boxer Troubles.

NEW YORK. Feb. 22.-Chinatown, ac-
eordins to men who know It well, was
never in so receptive mood as now for
the advent Of a weekly newspaper of its
| own, like the one whose first number
appeared ON the Chinese New Year day,
FEBRUARY 49, with s. Y. Pang as editor.
me Boxer uprising, the campaign Of the
| diiied Powers. the flight of the Empress
| DoWaRer, the demand for beheadiDgs and
| SO iorth, in China have awakened in the
| usually stolid Oriental an appetite for
| news which had apparently been dormant.
AS there are no local Chinese papers,
ana those forwarded from San Francisco
| ana from China arrive weeks behind the
| times, the residents of Mott, Pell, and
Doyers Streets have had to resort to
/ makeshifIs to keep up with the world.
| Ihsir chief reliance has been on read
ers. educated Chinanie.E Tho each even
| ing would translate for their countrymen
me Chinese news FROM the late evening
papers. In all the quarter. il is said. there
| are only about thirty Cinnamon who read
English with any hueDcy, though nearly
tii nave n smattering of the spoken Ian
suage The services of these select few
have been in great demand since early
summer. and crowd always gathers when
they begin reading in the shops or restau-
rants An important result OF this wider
| reading has been a new interest in the af-
lars of other countries than China. CIeen
Victoria Seath and the accession of the
new King of England. educated Chinese
say. greatly interested the quarter. and
fuil accounts OF all the court observances
ana ceremonials were read aloud at sew
erai places in Chinatown on the night
after the royal funeral.
One argument for the establishment of
a Chinese har IL In ba
IRENE reluctance and incredulity with
winch Cinnamon accept anything that APP
pears in an American newspaper. For in
stance, at the time of the siege and cap
ture OF Pekin agents OF the Boxers fairly
Hooded China with rough pictures and
leaflets describing the defeats of the al
lied armies and the triumph of the Boxers.
Some Of these drifted MS far as New York,
and the Impressions they gave were con-
hrmed by letters which Cinnamon received
from home. and based apparently on sim
liar publications in the "old country" In
the face of these sanguine reports the
residents Of Chinatown listened with
amused liberation to the Mclean" ac-
counts of the flight OF the Empress Dow
ager until the Enperor's own proclama-
lions convinced them that these accounts
were true. As one of the better educated
expressed II, "Chinaman on'y luH tluth
just now" Similar publications at the
time of the war with Japan. II is re-
called. convinced half of China that Jap
anese arms had been Overwhelmingly de-
feated.
There have been several attempts in the
past to start local Chinese newspapers,
but all have failed. None of the former
papers was printed from movable type
as the new one will be- but were written
out by hand with brush and the letters
then transferred to photographic stones
for printing. There are $4,000 or more
Chinese in and around New York and by
far the greater part of these are adult
mn L.