El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-01-15

I L. Ql14C1CIO CcAOA -
and III another making cards of many
! eolors, depicting plants and ANIMALS for
| teaching the Chinese babies. Much OF
! the printing was done from stones, but
there were also large etching and half
/ tone plants with complete Photographic
! Appliances. In one we'll lighted depart
! ment l found a dozen Japanese artists
| working away, and in another was
shown machines for reducing drawings
| to any scale. Some of the engravers
were cutting out copper plates for new
national currency, and others We're etch-
| ing out plates for schOolbOok illustra-
| tlons. l spent some time watching
them printing bank notes The hthO-
graphic stones were placed on the
presses and the various colors applied
IN succession, giving sufficient time be-
| tween the different impressions for the
INK to dry. Where many cOlOrs were
! required the sheets were passed on from
| press to press, a separate stone being
| used for each color. This was to avoid
wasting time in changing ink, one set
OF presses being equipped with red, an
other with green, and others with blue,
| yellow or black
China's New Alphabet.
Our alphabet has only 26 letters, and
the characters used by our printers are
comparatively few. The classic Chinese
has many thousand characters; and, in
the simplest of the school books, sew
eral thousand are used. In the Chinese
now in use every character expresses
a word; the language is Geographic;
that is, it is written in words, rather
than letters and syllables. A Chinese
alphabet is now being formed and a
new system of writing inaugurated
At present all penmanship is with
q md TVIi 5,,l- %A0 hn-
ing held almost perpendicular. About
1000 years ago the people had a pen
manship based upon curved lines, but
this was difficult to produce by the
brush, and it 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 BUSH
ness, and great industry will go to
the wall
The new alphabet is TO have so letters.
With it a different system of printing
and writing will come into being. and
the probability is that the typewriter
win be 50 adapted 10 the new system
that il Will come into use.
IN the Casting Room.
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 10 do good work
In the composing room / visited, six
different sizes of type were employed.
and of these more than 5000 characters
of each style are kept on hand. This
necessitateS the making of $4,000 diff
ferent characters. each of which must
have its own matriX. or die, in the shape
of brass type from q quarter to a half
inch square and an inch long This die
is fitted into a casting box, and by turn
ing a crank the types are turned out
at the rate of 90 or 80 a minute. A
score or so of such machines were busy
at the time l went through the stereo-
tipping department, and their clicking
made as much noise as so many corn
shelters. In an adjoining room l was
shown the matrices of the books already
published. They filled the shelves
which walled the sides of large room
from floor 10 ceiling. Another room
was devoted 10 storing electrotype
plates, everything being catalogued and
as Systematically rrnged as in one of
our modern printing offices at home.
In the composing room each printer
stood in a little alcove walled with
cases. and he usually had a boy to run
and fetch the types from other parts
of the room.
With the Bindery Girls
l next went into the binding depart
ing the 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 touching I he floor. They
worked so busny that I remarked upon
it; whereupon. the manager, who acted
as our guide. said,
I'VE pay them by piecework, and they
have no time TO waste"
1 asked as to their wages. The man
replied:
oh. they are r'aking much money.
Tor them. Some of the best earn 81
Mexican per week. or about SO in gold
Inc average workman is paid about
$3.50"
These girls were stitching and sew
ing, folding and FASTING. and also feed
ing the presses Their hours were about
Il per day. The department contained
much modern machinery. and the work
OF binding was economically done.
The Celestial Book Pirates
CHINA has no copyright law. l found
thing that its managers think of value
Tor the new Chinese schools No mat
ter what the copyrights are, foreign
aulhors must be content with the hope
that their books may do good, even
though they DO not add to their finan-
clal receipts. As 1 looked over the |
volumes printed by this company for
the new education L found many well
known American text books which have
peeh translated into Chinese l saw
also stacks of my own Geographical
READERS, published on cheap paper.
with abominable illustrations. / was
tolo the whole series had been prepared
LOT the press, and that my books on
North America and Europe were already
IN use The matter has been translated |
Dy the English-Chinese scholars. and, |
as Iar as possible, verbatim. but how |
correctly only those who can read the |
Chlhese teachest characters can know |
AS looked at my books the mana !
ger OF the company said they, sold well |
and that he expected to get a good |
revenue from Carpenters ASIA" which J
was then in the press He explained !
apologetically that they had been forced !
TO change some of the literary matter |
In the chapters on China. as their peo- |
pie did not like to be told that they |
had buttonhole eyes, pigtailed heads and |
deformed feet He made no bones about |
linking hOOIyS Tr-ifh nd