The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-09-20
NEWS COMEDIES IN The EAST
EXPATRIATE EDITORS FACE
MANY HARD PROBLEMS.

hANI dAuD fNUbLEEhc'
<1epsscse TSpesettcrs Pi the News an
Native TrAhslators DistOrt lilo,
Mapila PAPER Had the Laugh on al
~ Englishmah-Jonah as q lave Figure
IS 0stting out a newspaper for foreigner
In Japan and the open ports Of China !
a. difficult q task and attended with a
much embarrassment as journalism |
said by Mark Twain to have been in tn
course Of his early experience. Were l
not for the saving grace OF humor tn
,~Engfiehmen. Americans and German
Who try to give their compatriots Il
ssils the news Of the world with appro
pirate editorial comment would die o
nostalgia between moons.
Throughout the treaty ports Of Japan
which means Yokohama. Kobe anc
Nagasaki. the Journals Of the foreigners
Engtish. American and German, arr
sntirely In the hands Of Japanese printers
In China Chinese printers get o thu
papors, and In Seoul, Corea. the single
sheet published by a foreigner is set uT
by Coreans.
In everys instance a native foreman
divides the copy from the editorial roomi
among native typesetters. and they
with no moro knowledge of English thar
enables them to pick out the type from
the cases which corresponds with the
letters In the script Of the copy before
thom, proceed to turn out what they
think In their untutored minds Is the newt
Of tho day. correctly portrayedin black
aud white.
Tho results Of this happy system. even
though checked by assiduous reading Of
proof by the hard worked white men ir
the editorial offices. are weird and pro-
ductive Of unending Joy to the readers
The widest misstatements and state
mehts lacking all sense stare sauoily from
the columns Of the mornings news.
often there will be headings Of news
articles that mean nothing or proper
ame that sound like the pet name Of
M AFTERNOON paper in Yokohama APP
pearod with the following cryptic head:
;RYZEsTvoENXKYT lMATSWERRT
,.ss Says He VIII Do So II Let Alone
A waggish contemporary, knowing not
tho day nor the hour whom his pages
would be similarly hashed, quoted this
head on the following day with the COM
msnt, "Ws don't blame him II he does
Mot In the typographical department
DO the most hdicrous mistakes occur,
rather IL ia through the translations made
from vernacular papers by native trans
lstors that the papers Of Japan and China
furnish their readers with unending
pleasure. Each paper employs one or
more such translators. whose duty 1t Is
70 10 through the native newspapers OF
tho day previous and comb out what they
-nns;lar 70 Ia worth raDrinfin0
Since the editors. knowing not a jot
Of Japanese or Chinese. have to depend
upon thsir sTanslators to determine what
is andrwhat Is not live news, often the
pages Of the foreign newspapers contain
news Of the most startling order. A few
yeafs ago when there vas a plague in
Kobe and the police authorities were pay
ing one-haH son apiece for the ~carcasses
Of rats, tho Japan Advertiser Of Yokohama
appeared with the following paragraph:
RAT rs POUND.
The police OF q certain district in Kobe
yesterday found a certain rat in a locality
which they keep secret. who was infested
with the plaques. The police killed the
offending animal.
Editors Note-The name of this par
deular rat Is also withheld by the police.l
"A paper published In Kobe, a staid
Euglfsh journal with a we'll founded
reputation for conservatism and preju-
dice against all things not English. in
Guiding what its editor termed American
yellow journalism. ono fell into q pitfall
Of Its NJ digging, and its modification
was painful. One day 1t printed a brief
teleRrnphic despatch from Seoul to the
elect that while Marquis Ito. the Resi-
dent-G eneral Of the land. was travelling
by train from Seoul to Chemulpo rebels
"rolled. a huge rock down the hillside on
the train and the carriage in which the
Marquis was riding was well nigh de-
The next day this grave English paper
had to devote q portion OF its editorial
apology to its readers. A new translator,
who had been discharged, the editor
fastened to say, had been careless in his
rendition Of the Seoul despatch. What
really happened was that some boy threw
O pebble through the window Of Marquis
lto's railway carriage, breaking the
s a,sss no s snoh S Sistortlo ao% OF the facts ts se aoeId
appear again.
Among the Englishmen who got out
papers IN japan and China the press of
Manila is a soothing and a byword. 1t
must be admitted that the papers in the
Philippine capital use block type and
mtngle their slender cable thread Of facts
with poppy ~fancies, but the word yellow
has boon branded upon them by tho
severely conservative En~glishmen and
when times are dull the English editors
turn aside to rail at the illusions Of the
Manila journals.
To be sure, II was a Manila paper that
printed the story three years & that the
czarowitz OF Russia had been boiled to
death in a bath by his nurse. Another
Manila paper interpreted a b-iet cable
to- read:
There was a big explosion in the State
Of Missouri yesterday. Five men were
killed, " when as a matter Of fact there was
an explosion In the turret Of the battle
ship Missouri. Nevertheless the Manila
papers often have the chance togloat over
the vagaries OF their English contem-
.porariee.
II 90 happened that when the Manila
papers reached Japan they contained a
bald press agent fake. The story was
about how q tiger In The train OF a circus
that was showing at Manila had escaped
from his cage during a performance and
how the intrepid trainer had led him back
to the Gage door by the scruff OF his neck
willie women and children tainted. No
wilder example Of the press agents art
OYER saw print, and IL was manifest by the
head the editor Of the Manila paper had
written for ths story that he was letting
II 40 because he had nothing else ia All
spfos.
This story was copied verbatim by
papers In Shanghai, TOXIC and Yok ohama
49, Ep~ltsh aIffNr q, Eol.a to1i, ooo..,x.