334 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



lines of print are vertical and read from 

 top to bottom and from right to left. 

 Each article is in a small square sur- 

 rounded by a border. 



TWO KINDS OF TYPE: FOR EVERY STORY 



Typesetting in Japanese is a tedious 

 and laborious piece of business from an 

 Occidental viewpoint, though the many 

 hands employed make it rapid enough in 

 an Oriental sense. Japanese is printed 

 in two sets of characters — the borrowed 

 Chinese, which are ideographic, each 

 representing a word or a group of words ; 

 and side by side with these characters, in 

 their vertical line, runs the translation or 

 explanation in the indigenous grass char- 

 acters, a sort of phonetic or stenographic 

 script easily read and understood by the 

 common and uneducated people. 



When an article or editorial is ready 

 in manuscript, it is sent first to the ideo- 

 graphic composing-room, where it is di- 

 vided into "takes'' and given to Chinese 

 compositors. The room is filled with 

 closely set racks, containing the thou- 

 sands of varieties of ideographic type. 



Each compositor goes from rack to 

 rack looking for the character required. 

 That he may not forget what he is look- 

 ing for. he sings it over and over audibly, 

 in a cracked, nasal sort of sing-song. A 

 composing-room is anything but a quiet 

 place, resembling the chorus of a Chinese 

 theater. 



When the article is finished, it is placed 

 in a sort of galley, tied together and sent 

 to the real compositors, who untie it and 

 proceed with a pair of tweezers to place 

 the small grass type beside the ideo- 

 graph characters. This work demands 

 scholarship of a high order, for it re- 

 quires not only an accurate and exact 

 knowledge of orthography and language, 

 but general information in regard to the 

 subjects discussed, that the multi-meaning 

 characters may be interpreted. 



The type thus completed is proved, the 

 proof carefully read and corrected and 

 taken then to the imposing stones, where 

 it goes into the make-up of the paper. 



All typesetting is of necessity hand 

 work, as the peculiar character^ of the 

 language precludes the use of a linotype. 



Stereotyping and press-work are along 

 the ordinary lines required for the Hoe 



perfecting machine, from which the paper 

 comes, folded and counted as in one of 

 our own establishments. 



The day's work is similar to our own. 

 The editorial department begins activities 

 about eleven in the morning and its work 

 is completed by five in the afternoon. The 

 typesetters are at work by eight. The 

 business offices are open from ten to ten. 



The first edition is on the press by 

 eight, in order that it may catch the night 

 trains for provincial circulation. The 

 city edition goes to press at i a. m. 



Advertising rates are comparatively 

 cheap — on the ordinary pages fifty sen ; 

 on the title and editorial pages up to 

 eighty sen a line, a sen being practically 

 half a cent. The subscription rates are 

 only fifty sen per month. 



CORRESPONDENTS IN WORLD'S GREAT CITIES 



Before the World War, the Jiji paid 

 its editor-in-chief three hundred yen a 

 month ($150) — but. compared with the 

 cost of living in the two countries, that 

 was the equivalent to more than double 

 the amount in America. The assistant 

 editors receive two hundred ; a good re- 

 porter one hundred ; an ordinary one 

 from fifty to seventy-five. 



Chinese compositors were paid five 

 dollars a week ; the phonetic compositors 

 from ten to fifteen. Stereotypers and 

 pressmen were paid from five to eight 

 dollars a week. Since the war all wages 

 have advanced about 50 per cent. 



The paper has a staff of correspondents 

 in most of the capitals of the world — 

 Washington, London, Paris, Berlin, 

 Vienna, and in each of the great cities 

 of the Orient. 



It uses cables and telegraphs quite as 

 regardless of cost as does the average 

 western paper, and any great event, 

 wherever occurring, will, within a few 

 hours of its happenings, throw an army 

 of shrill-voiced newsboys on the streets, 

 crying "Gogwai! Gogwai !" "Extra! Ex- 

 tra!" 



The photographs of the offices of Jij'i- 

 Shimpo, made for me. through the 

 courtesy of the editor-in-chief, by the 

 staff photographer, are of unique and 

 vivid interest, and tell in a graphic way 

 the story of the making of a Japanese 

 newspaper. 



