The Portland daily press., 1892-01-07
PROSPECTUS /:

The business OF the UNITED STATES
BOOK COMPANY is the manufacture, pub
lishing and sale of books. 1t has acquired by
purchase the entire business, stock i'll trade,
goodwill, trade marks, copyrights, manuscripts,
&c., of the John w. Lowell Company, including
in that purchase an enormous publishing plant
consisting of stereotype and electrotype plates
to the number of more than 1850, 900. Its stock
Of books consists of more than 100000
volumes, of the value at cost of manufacture Of
more than 81 100000.
The Company thus controls great number of
important publications heretofore produced by
the following well-lznown publishing houses
from whom and others these plates were ac-
quired
w. L. Allison, N Y. ~. b. Lyon, Albany, NY.
Alden Book Co, N. Y. Bedford, Clarke 4 Co.,
q. w. Dillingham;, N.Y. Chicago
Dodd Mead 81 Co., NY. iDonohoe & Hennebeny,
Empire Pub. Co., N. " Chicago.
Frank Il. Lowell s. Co., Hubbard Bros, Phila.
New York. keystone Pub. Co.,
J. s. Ogilyie, N. Y. Philadelphia.
Norman l.. Munro, N.Y,lJ. b. Iippincott Co.,
Frank A. Munsey & Cos Philadelphia.
New York. Aldine Pub. Co, Boston.
National Pub Co., N. Y. Estes & Lauriat, Boston.
p.ollard & Moss, n. Y. DE Wolfe, Fiske & Co.,
W0rthington Co., n " Boston.
From the plates owned by this company are
printed more than three thousand different
volumes, embracing, among others, such stand
ard works as those of Dickens, Thackeray,
Walter Scott Carlyle, Cooper, Irving, George
Eliot, &C., &c. More than twelve million copies
of the books printed from the plates now CON
trolled by this Company were sold during 1889,
the year prec eding the present organization.
The UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY
virtually controls within the United States
the publication of most of the popular
standard works, business in which the
ordinary profits are very large. This profit
viii be greatly increased by the freedom
from competition and the economies of
management which are secured by the con-
centration of the various interests into one
company.
In addition to the very large and profit
able business above referred to, this Com
pany has contracted with over seventy of
the leading English authors, whereby it
acquires the exclusive right of publication
and sale of the works of these foreign
authors IN this country during the term of
their copyright, which is for twenty-eight
years, with renewal in certain cases for
fourteen years. Under the new copyright
law of the United States all foreign works
must be printed here to obtain copyright.
Included in the assets of the Company are
stereotype and electr0type plates, as above
noted, which have been appraised as OF a mar
ket value OF &3 900 900 by competent experts,
who state that they give this valuation based
upon the condition and character of the plates
ana our knowledge OF the magnitude of the bust
BOOK COMPANY.hg
The Company's charter givesit authority to
issue bonds and to execute mortgages to secure
Sucn bonds. Under this powder the Company
has issued 81 200, 900 tWenty-yearS per cent
bonds The plates whose appraised value as
shown above, Is three times the total bonded
debt, are included in the property covered by
the mortgage. A copy of the mortgage, with a
list of the plates, may be inspected at the office
of Messrs. JOHN III. DAVIS & co.
rs further security to the bondholders,
the mortgage provides for an annual sink
ing fund payment, beginning january,
1895, to be applied to the retirement of the
bonds through their purchase in the mar
ket at not exceeding ~, I5O per bond.
The Company's principal establishment en-
braces Nos. LAP, 144, LAG, 149, and l5G Worth
ST., New York City, with auxiliary establish
ments in Vandewater st. and WaYerley Place.
The interest charge upon the entire
bonded debt of the Company is $4,000 per
year.
The net profits of the Company for the
five months of 1890 after Organization
We're @151 ,056.44, or two and one-haIf
times the interest for the entire wear For
the period of fifteen months ending Octo-
Der 81, 1891, the net profits were @299, $685.
OIL, as shown by income account and bal
ance sheet prepared by Messrs. WALDEN,
BROOKS x DONNELLY, Public Account
ants, copy of which may be seen at the Of
flee of JOHN III. DAMS & co. This shows
surplus of $@24, 633 over and above fun
vi 100000 bonds, and surplus of nearly
ss5, 900 after payment of the per cent.
dividend upon the preferred stock.
subscriptions for these bonds will be re-
ceived by the undersigned at par fat. A
bonus OF 10 per cent. upon the par value
OF the bonds subscribed for will be given to
each subscriber in the per cent. preferred
stock OF the Company, thus returning TO the
purchaser an income of $40 per cent
upon the cost.
subscriptions will be payable as follows:
90 per cent. ON application.
90 per cent. on January ~.
subscribers paying in full upon applica-
ton will be untitled 30 interest upon antici-
pated payments at the rate of per cent
per annum.
THE SUBSCRIPTION LISTS WILL
CLOSE NOT LATER THAN FRIDAY,
Jan. 10, AT O'CLOCK II. Nj. THE
RIGHT is RESERVED TO CLOSE THE
BOOKS AT AN EARLIER DATE, TO
REJECT APPLICATIONS, OR TO ALLOT
SMALLER AMOUNT THAN THAT APP
Piled FOR.
WE RECOMMEND THE BONDS.