The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1904-07-19
The PRESS IN JAPAN.
First Newspaper Of ANY Note
Started by an Englishman.
EDITORS FORMERLY SENT TO JAIL

Law stepped In-JaDanese Papers
Partly Printed In Two Languages.
strange Methods Utilized In Coma
posing Rooms.
Ii was certain Mr. Black. IN 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 modest sheet, con-
tanning a leading article and number
Of crisp paragraphs commenting IN q
chatty way on the news Of the day. |
Now there Is regular issue OF over |
1880 dailies, weeklies and monthly |
magazines, about thirty dailies being |
published IN Tokyo alone.
Before Mr.. Blacks time, writes q
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, lie was soon followed by an
enterprising japanese, a AIr. KIDD, VINO
started the Shimbun Zasshi, or News
Budget, in Tokyo, an enterprise IN
which be was financially assisted by
the empress. Other and smaller papers
soon after made their appearance But
for years japanese Journalism was
most risky business and one full OF
| yicissitudes.
The ranks of the press writers were
mostly filled from the families OF the
ancient feudal NOTES.-The samura
/ class-and these carried the holiness
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 lam
Il gushing In JAIL But the journalists
rose TO the occasion, and rather than
abandon their criticism of the govern
ment the newspaper men included on
their staffs persons who became known
. as prison editors. These became the
scapegoats for all transgressions Of the
stringent press laws, and for con-
sideration they would readily serve
| their time in Jail, thus giving the ac-
/ tual writers a free field to indulge IN
their attacks on the authorities. Now
+ adays all this Is changed, and the
Japanese press at present enjoys con
I siderable freedom, much more 50, In
/ deed, than Is the case in certain Euro
I pean countries.
: To the western mind Japanese
!, paper, both in style and preparation,
4 must appear a veritable curiosity OF
Z literature. To begin with. what would
d be the last page in an English journal
Is the first in q Japanese one, and the
s headlines and titles of articles, instead
]. of appearing at the top Of column
1 are run alongside of 1T. Now let us
!. take a glance at the composing room
+ Of a japanese newspaper. An English
j or American typesetter should thank
+ his stars that his lines have fallen IN
: pleasant places, for see what bis
3 brothers in craft in the Land Of the
S Rising sun have to put up with.
4 The Japanese. like the Chinese, EN-
ploy a written language, kind Of lie
erary dialect, that is considerably re
9 moved from the colloquial. They d
not. as we do, write as they speak
) This necessitates the papers beins
printed to an extent in two languages
4 the kama and the square characters
81 one acting as a key to the other III
70 square characters are modelled on tn
10 Chinese ideographs, terrible jumbl
le OF geometricaI figures, crosses and ZIG
IL gags, the whole effect presenting tn
al appearance Of the trail of innumerabl
inky footprints of drunken flies Q
ok these ideographs at least 1000 to 500
are In everyday use, so that the con
positor must needs be q scholarly ma
- to recognize these characters at sigh
the strain on the eyes being terrible
LET Iii order to facilitate the typesetter
task as much as possible the composin
- room Is arranged in the following mai
ner. The compositor is seated at q llttl
3, table on which is spread forty-seye
ssKana" characters. On receiving h
- COPY he cuts it into small strips an
hands each strip to q boy. The latte
= marches along the room with this str
g until finally be has been able to cole
s. from number Of cases the dltterel
ideographs. Half a dozen boys a.
~ thus running hither and thither scare
- ing for ideographs, all the time keepif
~ up dirgelike chant in which ths
~ sing the name of the characters The
- want. as In order to recognize it he h
to hear its sound first, no Japanese
the lower classes being even able
- read paper or book unless he reads
IS aloud
The writer Of this article recalls
~ mind his first nights engagement on
,,aa newspaper in Tokyo. Hearing 60
tinual babel Of voices aud sounds
melancholy attempts TO volatilizati
rising upward from the room belc
sad his, he, at loss to account for {
queer noises, asked the japanese ma
49, ager whether he conducted singi
class for his eompositors. He was
once informed that such was the
Is a dispensable accompaniment to q JaI
ma nese compositor's work
the when the boys have collected