Of headlines such as we know them today there were none. Probably just a short line in capitals, more for the purpose of showing that there was appended beneath a fresh item of news rather than for any idea of being able to arouse curiosity.
There was also no system such as is known now for the make-up of the newspaper, and the editor started from his leader page and followed on and on, column after column, with the news at his disposal until fortunately the paper was filled up—or if unfortunately it was not, some items culled from the latest mails were rapidly set into type to fill the hiatus.
That state of affairs must have gone on practically up to the beginning of the present century, and it is about that time that signs of a journalistic restlessness are to be perceived in the columns of the "North-China Daily News." More telegraphic information was coming to hand, there appeared to be a closer and better-informed attention being paid to Chinese politics. The editors seem to have become somewhat more trenchant in their writing than had usually been the case before—though there were cases when: previous editors express sed their opinion with no small degree of forcefulness. The paper was beginning to follow the upward trend of the population in Shanghai, and it may safely be said, looking back after all these years, that the growth of the "North-China Daily News" has very closely followed the growth of the population of this port.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.