Tien-Tsin Rug, size 14 ft. 11 in. x 12 ft. This Rug is a reproduction of an old EASTERN RUGS FOR COUNTRY HOMES WITH special relation to the requirements of the Country Home, we have assembled a large variety of Eastern Rugs, particularly appropriate for Halls, Dining Rooms and large Living Rooms. These Rugs, of the most dependable qualities, are the product of our own looms in the East. They include many faithful reproductions of old Chinese and Persian masterpieces. While quality and artistic merit must always be a vital consideration with us, we desire, in this instance, to emphasize the reasonableness of our prices, which cannot fail to interest all who contemplate the purchase of Oriental Rugs. If you will advise us of your requirements, we shall be pleased to describe in detail what we have answering your desires. W. & J. SLOANE Direct Importers of Eastern Rugs FIFTH AVENUE AND FORTY-SEVENTH STREET, NEW YORK SAN FRANCISCO WASHINGTON, D. C. FINAL DATE FOR SUBSCRIPTIONS The two old sayings which preach promptness, "Strike while the iron is hot" and "Make hay while the sun shines," take it for granted that every one knows how soon iron cools and how soon rain comes. But some people are surprised when the spirit of these adages is expressed in the suggestion that it would be judicious to purchase the new Encyclopaedia Britannica today. Plain rules of business, as inexorable as the laws of nature, make it inevitable that the terms upon which the new Encyclopaedia Britannica will be sold after the next few weeks shall be such as to yield a profit commensurate with the very large investment ($1,500,000) which the production of this new summary of all human knowledge necessitated. It could not have been so good a book as it is if it had been made with so small a capital investment as to warrant its being permanently sold on the present terms. Those who purchase the book later, instead of availing themselves of the present opportunity, will pay from $29 to $50 more than the present low prices, and will pay that higher price in cash. When the haymaker neglects the chance the brief sunshine gives him, he is at any rate indulging himself by postponing hard work. But the reader who defers the acquisition of the new Encyclopaedia Britannica is, for some time, denying himself the use of the most delightful and the most serviceable of books-foregoing a pleasure that may be his today. On the last page of this notice stands the order form. A name inscribed in the space provided for it there is a name added to those who are, at the present moment, striking while the iron is hot and making hay while the sun shines. CENTURY MAGAZINE THE MEANING of the CHANGE-Why the Price of the M ANY readers, when they see this announcement for the first time, will wonder why the sale, direct to the public, of the new Encyclopaedia Britannica is to be discontinued, why the instalment system is to be abandoned, and why the price is at the same time to be increased. These three queries are virtually the same, and may be condensed into one: "Why should it suddenly be made much more difficult for the average man to obtain the book?" The question is quite justified. The reader is not asking a grocer how he buys and sells sugar, but asking those who have assumed the grave responsibility of controlling an educational work of undeniable usefulness to all Englishspeaking people, and who are virtually in the position of trustees or custodians, why they find it necessary to increase its price and impose new conditions of sale. In the first place, these custodians are in the unusual position of having created the property they are administering. Only a little while ago, the words in the book were unwritten, the thoughts not formulated; the paper was flax in the fields, the leather on the backs of flocks. MAKING THE BOOK The Encyclopaedia Britannica has been, for nearly a century and a half, of great service in the dissemination of useful knowledge, and by all intelligent Americans has been regarded with genuine pride. But it is not a perennial. Each edition must in the course of years be replaced by a better one. The advance of knowledge effected by a new generation, the new events, and the new view of old events must be adequately represented. And the taxpayer does not assume the task of providing the money to make and distribute a new edition of this indispensable book. The task involves two risks-one moral and one financial: If an unscholarly or inaccurate edition were made, its undertakers would be justly execrated by the public. And if they do their work well and in accordance with the high standard of preceding editions, they are entitled to such recognition as the press, the general public, and also the foremost educational authorities accorded to the editorial staff upon the appearance of the new 11th edition. SELLING THE BOOK An Enormous Investment The financial risk is very great-nowadays much greater than when the book was smaller; when the volumes were issued one by one and sold for cash, at the rate of one or two a year. The contents of the 11th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (40,000 articles, 44,000,000 words) were prepared, at an expense of $1,500,000, as an undivided whole, so that all the volumes are of uniform date. While this radical departure from previous methods enabled the editors to make a much better Encyclopaedia Britannica than ever before, it was the most expensive method, but the public was bound to reap the benefit of it. In fact, it is not too much to say that the whole world of scholarship in the first instance, and the reading public in general, are under a lasting obligation, in that a vast sum was paid out to make the Encyclopaedia Britannica a more practical work of reference than ever before and one more convenient to use—and it was then sent to any subscriber who paid only $5.00 with his order. ers. This trifling initial payment is a mere fraction of the manufacturing cost-quite apart from the literary cost and the cost of selling— in respect of each set that goes out to subscribIt would not be beside the mark to state that at one time more than $4,000,000 was locked up in the new Encyclopaedia Britannica. To recover these various costs would be a matter of years, inasmuch as every set delivered to subscribers on the deferred payment system would automatically call for an ever-increasing capital outlay, and would entail enormous financial responsibilities. THE PLAN OF SALE In Two Periods Such being the conditions of the problem, it was solved by the adoption of a plan of sale, which would assure a swift recognition and appreciation of the book while it was new. It was determined that there should be two distinct periods of distribution: First, a rapid sale on monthly payments and at a low price,-direct to the public. Second, a slow but steady sale through agents and booksellers, for cash payment, at a higher price. It was foreseen that the first sale would not yield a fair percentage of profit. So far, it would not be, commercially speaking, "good business." It would involve the heavy interest charges and the large organization which attend selling for instalments. To continue indefinitely that system would make the investment in paper, printing, and binding so great that the operation would become unwieldy. But the instalment sale would create a demand for the book which could not be satisfied at the time; and that demand would afterward be satisfied by a prolonged sale under ordinary book-selling conditions, at the higher price and at a substantial profit. That was the method originally arranged for the sale of the new edition. The first of the two periods of sale, now nearly at an end, has already justified the expectation that it would quickly establish the reputation of the 11th edition in all parts of the world. And, after this final subscription sale, anyone who wants the Encyclopaedia Britannica must buy it and pay for it as he buys and pays for any other book-but it will cost him from $29.00 to $50.00 more, according to the binding. New ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA Must Be Raised ORDER NOW-AND AVOID DELAY IN DELIVERY Immediate delivery of complete sets can be guaranteed in the case of orders that shall be received promptly. The stock now on hand will, it is believed, be sufficient to meet temporary requirements. But it is obviously impossible to anticipate the actual demand for the Encyclopaedia Britannica consequent upon the impending change in the method of sale and the increase in price. The demand for wheat, for steel rails, for boots and shoes, or any other staple product, is known within reasonable approximation from year to year. But no one can foretell the probable sale of an indispensable book. The wide publicity given to the announcement of the withdrawal of the monthly payment privilege and the advance in the price has been followed by an increase of 125 per cent in the daily sales. Should this continue, another printing of the work will prove to be necessary. The printing of a comparatively small edition of 5,000 sets (145,000 volumes) requires the uninterrupted running of 16 cylinder presses for a period of six months. India paper, furthermore, is only supplied by one mill, while the production of the skins for binding will involve a contract for leather far beyond the ordinary demands upon the leather manufacturers. Will it be necessary for the publishers to print the Encyclopaedia Britannica again before the present sale ends? How many more sets will be required before May 28th, when the sale will be closed? These are questions which cannot be answered now-and they can only be answered within the next few weeks by subscribers themselves. Those who make use of the order form accompanying this notice will be sure of prompt delivery. But prompt delivery cannot be guaranteed beyond a certain number of orders, and subscribers who delay sending their orders until May, may be informed that they will have to wait until October or November before the books will reach them. A CLEARING HOUSE OF MODERN THOUGHT, KNOWLEDGE AND ACHIEVEMENT Through which the layman can pass his doubts and difficulties with the certain assurance that no reasonable demand for information will be dishonored. It is an absolutely necessary book, in view of the stress of life and the vast expansion of the world's activities, to any man who wishes to be of his age and not merely in it The work has all the comprehensiveness of an ideal library, the quick accessibility as to contents of an ordinary dictionary, and (in the convenient India paper, flexible leather-bound format) the unprecedented quality in a work of reference of being as easily handled as a magazine. Its necessity as a resource is measured by the helplessness of even the most learned man alive in the face of the vast complex of things knowable, and its value in use by the thoroughness with which everything that can possibly interest a civilized people has been traversed and indexed by the experts who wrote it. If every other book in the world were destroyed, it is not too much to say that, so far as essentials are concerned, it would be possible to reconstruct the human story from its pages, in which 1,500 representative experts give an exhaustive account of all human achievement. Vast as is the sum of human knowledge, it is finite, and it has been found possible to exhaust its essential contents within the compass of 28,150 quarto pages of 1,500 words each, and at the same time to preserve an encyclopaedic arrangement by which, with the further aid of an index volume containing 500,000 references, any isolated item of information is instantly accessible. THE MOST USEFUL BOOK-and the Cheapest Beyond all question, the new Encyclopaedia Britannica is the most useful book in the world, and at the same time, considering its enormous variety of contents, the cheapest. The purchaser pays at the rate of $4.75 for a volume containing 1,500,000 words and 250 instructive illustrations. It will still be-after this sale-a cheap book at $5.75 a volume. But by that time the facil- Those who wish to Suede-bound set on horizontal shelves. Sold only with bookcase (included in price). |