PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
The first edition of this useful Dictionary having become exhausted, the Foochow Missionary Union appointed the Rev. C. C. Baldwin, D.D., and the Revs. R. W. Stewart and W. H. Lacy, a committee to revise and publish a second edition. Fortunately, in pursuance of this object, Dr. Baldwin, before his return to the United States, was able to revise the text, correcting various mistakes found in it. Mr. Lacy, in charge of the Methodist Mission Press, undertook to provide for the publishing of the work, in which it was not expected that there would be much financial benefit. Mr. Stewart aided in this undertaking by securing beforehand the sum of seven hundred dollars towards the expense, and some others subscribed in advance for copies of the Dictionary. By this arrangement the Mission Press was enabled to assume the work of publication.
As the new system of Romanizing the sounds of the Foochow Dialect, introduced by Mr. Stewart, had become generally used in the Foochow Romanized form of printing it was decided that the new edition of the Dictionary should conform to this mode of Romanization. This necessitated a change in the spelling of many Romanized words in the Dictionary, and a rearrangement in the order of them in various parts to correspond with the English alphabet. These changes have been made by the Chinese typesetter as he did his work, he having been trained previously in printing Romanized colloquial by Messrs, Stewart and Peet in connection with the Foochow Romanized Press. The proof reading has been a laborious work, shared at first by Mrs. W. Banister and Mr. and Mrs. Lacy, but performed for the most part by Rev. Ll. Lloyd and Mrs. G. B. Smyth. In view of the difficulties in reprinting the Dictionary, it is too much to claim that no errors can be found in its execution, but it is believed it will be found in a high degree well and accurately done. The printing of the Dictionary for over a year past has been in charge of the Rev. N. J. Plumb.
The Rev. Ll. Lloyd has revised the “Introduction” to make it conform to the new Method of Romanization, and the Rev. G. H. Hubbard has prepared the “Index of Characters” at the end of the volume, introducing some original features to increase facility in the use of the Dictionary.
We confidently expect that this second edition, like the first, will prove a great aid to missionaries and others learning the Foochow spoken language, and the Foochow mode of reading the Book Language of the Chinese Empire.
Foochow, China, 26th June, 1897.
