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398 characters cannot possibly fit into one small case within reach of a single man's hand and eye. They are ranged round a large room on trays, in the order of their "radicals;" and youths, supplied each with a page of the "copy" to be set up, walk about from tray to tray, picking out the characters required, which they put in a box and then take to the compositor. As these youths, more japonico, keep droning out all the while in a sort of chant the text on which they are busy, the effect to the ear is as peculiar as is to the eye the sight of the perpetual motion of this troop of youths coming and going from case to case.

We have used the word "radicals" in the above description. For the sake of those who are unfamiliar with Chinese writing, it must be explained that the Chinese characters are put together, not alphabetically, but by the combination of certain simpler forms, of which the principal are termed "radicals." Thus 木 is the radical for "tree" or "wood," under which are grouped 梅 "plum-tree," 楊 "willow," 板 "a board," etc., etc. The radical for "water" is 水, abbreviated in compounds to 氵; and under it accordingly come 池 "a pond," 油 "oil," 酒 "wine," 游 "to swim," and hundreds of other words having, in one way or another, to do with fluidity. Of course Japanese printing-offices also have to make provision for the native syllabic characters, the so-called Kana. But as there are only between two and three hundred forms of these, and as they are generally used only for terminations and particles, they are comparatively unimportant.

The 6,100 Chinese characters in common use are cast in metal, according to one of the European processes. When a rare character occurs in an author's manuscript, it is cut in wood for the occasion. To keep types on hand for all the seventy or eighty thousand characters of the Chinese language, would entail an expense too heavy for even the largest printing-office to bear,