The Bottineau courant., 1904-07-29
THE PRESS IN JAPAN.
First Newspaper of Any Note
Started by an Englishman.

Started by an Englishman.
EDITORS FORMERLY SENT TO JAIL
Men Hired to Go to Prison When the
Law Stepped In-Japanese Papers
Strange Methods Utilized In Com
posing Rooms.
1t was a certain Mr. Black, an En-
glish resident in Yokohama, who in the
late sixties published the Nisshin Shin
gisha, the first newspaper issued in
Japan that was at all worthy Of the
name. 1t was a modest sheet, con-
tanning leading article and number
of crisp paragraphs commenting in a
chatty way on the news Of the day.
Now there is regular issue Of over
1,5OO dailies, weeklies and monthly
magazines, about thirty dailies being
published in Tokyo alone.
Before Mr.. Blacks time, writes
correspondent of the London Globe,
small sheets had been issued from time
to time as the occasion arose. Mr..
Blacks venture having met with fair
success, he was soon followed by an
enterpriSing Japanese, a Mr.. KIDD, who
started the Shimbun Zasshi, or News
Budget, in Tokyo, an enterprise in
which he was financially assisted by
the empress Other and smaller papers
soon after made their appearance. But
for years Japanese journalism was a
most risky business and one full of
vicissitudes.
The ranks of the press writer's were
mostly filled from the families Of the
ancient feudal NOTES.-The samurai
class-and these carried the boldness
and dash that had characterized their
actions in the days when, armed with
two huge swords, they staggered
about among the people, into their new
career. The time was not yet ripe for
their audacious outspokenness, and the
result was that more than 80 per cent
| Of the journalists were constantly Ian
gushing in Jail. But the journalists
| rose to the occasion, and rather than
| abandon their criticism Of the govern
ment the newspaper men included or
! their staffs persons who became known
as prison editors. These became the
scapegoats for all transgressions of the
stringent press laws, and for a con
sideration they would readily serve
their time in Jail, thus giving the &C
tual writer's q free field to indulge IL
their attacks on the authorities. Now
adays all this is changed, and th'
Japanese press at present enjoys a con
siderable freedom, much more so, in
deed, than is the case in certain Euro
pean countries.
To the western mind a Japanes
paper, both in style and preparation
must appear a veritable curiosity O.
literature. TO begin with, what would
be the last page in an English journa
is the first in a japanese one, and th'
headlines and titles of articles, inSteat
Of appearing at the top Of a column:
are run alongside Of it. Now let d
take a glance at the composing room
Of Japanese newspaper. An Englisl
or American typesetter should thanl
his stars that his lines have fallen il
pleasant places, for see what hi
brothers in craft in the Land of th
Rising Sun have to put up with.
The Japanese, like the Chinese, EN-
ploy written language, kind of lii
erary dialect, that is considerably re
moved from the colloquial. They d
not, as we do, write as they speak
This necessitates the papers bein
printed to an extent in two languages
the Kama" and the square characters
one acting as key to the other. Th
square characters are modelled on til
Chinese ideographs, terrible jumbl
Of geOmetrical figures, crosses and ZIG
zags. the whole effect presenting tn
appearance of the trail of innumerabl
inky footprints of drunken flies. O
these ideographs at least 1000 to 800
are in everyday use, SO that the CON
y positor must needs be a scholarly ma
to recognize these characters at sigh
the strain on the eyes being terrible
In order to facilitate the typesetter'
: task as much as possible the composin
room is arranged in the following maj
ner: The compositor is seated at littl
table, on which is spread forty-seve
, Kama" characters. On receiving hi
copy he cuts it into small strips an
hands each strip to boy. The latte
marches along the room with this stri
) until finally he has been able to collet
from a number Of cases the differe1
ideographs. Half dozen boys al
thus running hither and thither searcl
; ing for ideographs, all the time keepin
up a dirgelike chant, in which the
sing the name Of the characters the
want, as in order to recognize it he ha
; to hear its sound first, no japanese {
the lower classes being even able
read paper or book unless he reads
aloud. ~ Pa. .> ..+...
The writer of this article recalls
mind his first nights engagement on
newspaper in Tokyo. Hearing a col
tinual babel of voices and sounds {
melancholy attempts to, volatilizatio
rising upward from the room belo'
| Ii L2 % n 1oco <o f1