The Mena weekly star., 1909-01-28
AN INTERESTING EXHIBIT.
Newspapers From Distant Lands
 Oddities of the Foreign Press.


 Newspapers From Distant Lands -
 Oddities of the Foreign Press
 A cordial invitation is extend- ed to the public to examine collection of newspapers from the most remote parts of the world now on exhibit at The Star office, These papers were sent by the Chamberlain Medicine Company Des Moines Iowa, manufacturers of Chamberlain's Cough Reme- dy, and one of the heaviest advertisers not only m thisI country but in foreign lands. A copy of each issue of every news paper containing their advertise ment is sent to the office ol the Chamberlain Medicine Company as a proof of the insertion of the advertisement. The package sent 10 us is selected from thsse voucher copies. Some of these papers bear names of places which require us to recall forgot ten geography or refer to the atlas to locate. Some of them are particularly curious as they are published in the native Ian guage which might be likened to the careful written notes ot the shorth and writer.
 We find the we'll known charac- ters arranged in vertical lines reading from top to bottom, the lines arranged fram right to lett. "Sin Wan Pao" published daily at Shanghai is printed on strip of tissue paper fifty inches long aud two feet wide. The paper IS extremely thin and is printed on one side only.
 The Burmese language, as printed, is composed principally of a com bination of circles. Someone wittily suggested that for this reason ciculars would be properly printed in this language. Cingalese, the language of Ceylon, is also curvillnear. Javauese and Siamese are com- posed largely of vertical lines connected by loops at either top or bottom but rarely at both. These languages bear some resem blance to the vertical writ ing now practiced in our public schools.
 The four hundred million people of Iudia have ne arly fifty different dialects or vernaculars. The Chamberlain Medicine Com pany advertlses in ten of the principal ones.
 The "Oudh Akhbar," six teen page daily published at Lucknow iu this language, claims d circulation of about 5000. It is said that in order to handle this circulation 1t requires an office force of about 200. Fortu- nately for the managers the wages paid to the natives are only a few cents day. The "Chahya Pulau" is an Arabic Ipapcr published weekly at | Georgetown on the island of Penang, Strants settlement. The Arabic is also "backward'' language.
 We are informed that the Chamberlain Medicine Company advertises iu newspapers printed iu thirty-two languages.
 It is difficult to conceive how readers of some of the papers manage to handle them. Imag- inc a man on crowded street car trying 10 read a paper whose pages are thirtY-eight inches long and twenty-nine inches wide. This is the size of the "Hitabadi" a Bengali weekly published in Calcutta, India.
 l With few exceptions the adver- Using pages would give our lad writers the nightmare. They seem to have little conception of the value of space or ot attract- live methods of either presenting the text or the illustrations. A l pleasing relief to this mouotcny is afforded by the ads of Ameri- can advertisers which are rather numerous on their pages. We see many old friends among these advertisers, aud prominent \ a,nnno thaSa ie tLa Char,hpr1a,,,