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being read by the Chinese centuries before America was discovered.
Until recently the Peking "Gazette" was set up from movable type made of wood, and printed on double pages of about the size and shape of the old-fashioned patent drug store almanacs.
It recorded the times when the Emperor went out to sacrifice at the Temple of Heaven, and when his Imperial Majesty prayed for snow or rain, or started the Spring plowing. It gave the official reports from the provinces, and the sentences of slicing to death and other punishments, which were so common until the new regime came in.
The Peking "Gazette" of today is largely devoted to the modern movements now going on over China. It contains memorials relating to the schools and the establishments of constitutional government. It is full of edicts regarding the opium evil, and the importation of morphine, and it has much to say about railways and foreign loans.
The only woman's daily newspaper published in Asia, if not in the world, is issued in Peking. Its editor is a Chinese girl belonging to a well-to-do family. Her paper is known as the Peking "Woman's Journal." It is published in an attractive form and is written in classic Chinese.
It is largly devoted to educational matters, and especially to the advancement of woman. It advocates the anti-footbinding movement, supports the anti-opium crusade, and, in general, is for woman's rights from a Chinese standpoint.
What a wonderful change in a few years! Ten years ago the Chinese had no press worth mentioning; the few papers published then were entirely under the influence of the official classes, or if published in the treaty ports, under the influence of the foreign monied interests.
In the interior of China the people knew nothing of what was going on on the Coast. The officials and writers took good care to keep them in the dark regarding the weakness of the Empire and the hollowness of the pretension which caused the Chinese to regard themselves superior to every other people.
Just what the average Chinese opinion was of the foreigners, up to a half dozen years ago, is told in an interview given by a Chinaman who lives near Shanghai.
This interview was printed in the Literary Digest, January 29, 1888:
