“THE TIMES” AND “THE CENTURY”

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 821, 20 February 1903, Page 2

“THE TIMES” AND “THE CENTURY”

The fact that The Century Dictionary & Cyclopedia k Atlas can be obtained at so low a price appeals quite as forcibly to the possessors of large libraries as it does to men of limited means. Every collector who shows you his books will point with especial pride to the volumes that he bought for less than their market value, for it is a part of the game to buy advantageously, just as it is the sportsman’s pride to kill bis tiger without using a superfluous cartridge. In order to pick up a rare book or a fine binding at a bargain, the collector often has to watch and wait for years ; but in the case of “ The Century ” the prize is to the swift rather than to the pertinacious. The first comers will obtain the work on better terms than can be obtained by those who follow them. The purchase of “ The Century ” is a good investment for two reasons ; in the first place because it is for the moment procurable for less than its accustomed market price, and in the second place because it yields unfailing dividends in the form of increased knowledge and of clearer comprehension of every book one reads. To a professional man the return for the investment takes an even more palpable form. “ The Century ” is, under the present conditions of sale by “ The Times,” the cheapest complete reference book in the world. The bargain offered by “ The Times ” is one that could only have been made possible by the intervention of an influential journal. No bookseller could possibly undertake the distribution of an entire edition of such a work; and it is only by doing this that 11 The Time 3 ” has been enabled to effect a reduction of over 40 per cent, from the publishers’ price. To pay twenty shillings once a month, which is the instalment for even the most expensive binding, is a very simple matter to the class to whom such a work appeals. The outlay is equivalent to a disbursement of eightpence a day—the cost of any one of a dozen inutilities that almost anyone buys without a thought,