Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-01-16

to press q separate stone being used for
each color. This was TO avoid wasting
time in changing ink. one set Of presses
being equipped with red. another with
green. and others with blue yellow or
black
Our alphabet has only twenty-six let-
tiers. and the characters used by our
printers are compa ratively few. The
classic Chinese has many thousand char
acters; and in the simplest of the school
books. several thousand used. In
the Chinese now i'll use every character
expresses word: the language is lido
rather than letters and syllableS. A
Chinese alphabet is now being formed
and new system of writing inaugurated.
At present all penmanship is with a
brush and India ink. the brush being
held almost perpendicular. About 1000
years ago the people had a penmanship
based upon curved lines, but this was
difficult to produce by the brush, and 1t
was practically abolished. Metal pens
and fluid inks will now be brought in and
. the old curves will come into use. This
will practically kill the brush-pen and
India ink business and Il great industry
Will 20 to the wall.
The new alphabet is to have fifty let
ters With II different system Of print
ing and writing will come into being, and
the probability Is that the typewriter will
ne so adapted to the new system that
it will come into use.
AT present every character employed
in the printing house has to have its
own matrix and be cast separately, and
the characters are so delicate that they
must be new in order to do good work
In the composing room / visited, six diff
ferent sizes of type We're employed, and
Of these more than 5000 characters of
each style are kept on hand. This neces-
states the making of 10000 different
characters, each of which must have It's
own matriX. or die, in the shape of a
brass type from quarter to half inch
square and an inch long. This die is
fitted into a casting box, and by turning
Il crank the types are turned out at the
rate Of twenty or thirty minute. :.
score 50 of such machines We're busy
at the time ! went through the stereo-
tipping department. and their clicking
made as much noise as 50 many corn
shelters In an adjoining room was
shown the matrices of the books already
published. They filed the shelves winch
walled the sides of a large room from
floor 10 ceiling. Another room was de-
voted to storing electrotype plates, every
thing being catalog1cd and as systematic
caIlv arranged as in one of our modern
printing offices at home.
In the composing room each printer
stood in q little alcove walled with cases
and he usually had hoy to run and
the ROOM
next went into the binding DEPART
mcnt and spent some time there watch
Ing tho girls. There were hundreds Of
them, dressed in long blue coats and wide
trousers. with bands of black silk over
their oily black hair. They sat at tables
with their little deformed feet just touch
ing tho floor. They worked busily
that | remarked upon it; Whereupon the
manager. who acted as orr guide. said:
We pay them by pieceWork, and they
have no time to waste
! asked as 10 their wages. The man re-
piled
oh they are making much money. for
them. Some Of the best earn 81 Mexican
per week, or about So in gold. The aver
age workman is paid about 81
These girls were stitching and sewing,
folding and pastng. and also feeding the
presses. Their hours were about twelve
per day. The department contained much
modern machinery, and the work of bind
ing was economically done.
China has no copyright law. ! found
the Commercial Press stealing everything
that its managers think of value for the
new Chinese schools. No matter what the
copyrights are, foreign authors must be
content with the hope that their books
may do good, even though they do not
add 10 their financial receipts. AS |
looked over the volumes printed by this
company for the new education l found
many well known American text books
which have been translated into Chinese.
l saw also stacks of my own "Geograph-
zeal Readers" published on cheap paper.
with abominable illustrations l was told
the whole series had been prepared for
the press and that my books on North
America and Europe were already in use.
The matter has been translated by the
-. md fa
possible verbatim, but how correctly
only those who can read the Chinese tea
chest characters can know.
As | looked at my books the manager
of the company said they sold we'll and
that lie expected to get good revenue
from Carpenter's "Asia,' which was then