The San Francisco call., 1905-05-07
Adventures of a Book.

Adventures of a Book.
One OF the most interesting innova-
tons IN connection with book publishing
has been the distribution by The Outlook
company Of specimen volumes Of the new
1nagnum opUs Of world-history, The
Historians History Of the World" Read.
ers OF advertising during the past year
Rave noted The Outlooks offer to send to
any applicant a specimen bound volume
OF this work This new worId-history
consists OF % volumes. Each volume
weighs four pounds. The publishers dis
covered that the express companies have
a rate for carrying books which is in di-
rect competition with the postal rates for
the same sort Of merchandise IL was
on account OF this relatively lory rate
mat The Outlook Company were enz foIed
~ make good their offer to send by ex-
press, a specimen volume. Applications
were received from 60. 600 persons. and
the man who lives in Los Angeles or
Foruand, oregon, was in exactly as good
position TO examine the work as the
man who lives around the corner f-o-o
! ne Outlook office in New York The
success OF the enterprise shows The fre-
lne1cous power OF publicity In concen-
idea seH
The distribution of these 60. 600 spec;-
men men toluneS broadcast throughout the
lenSth ana breadth Of the United States
Sdfe rise 70 many curious and amusing
incidents. The adventures of The snenis
men volume would iii a very entertain
ing book.
The plan was such a novelty. even IN
tnls country Of novelties, that many neo
- &C not immediately grasp its exact
meaning For instance. some did not
mink that IL was sufficient to receive
WlOncUt charge for delivery and return a
na1oSome ana expensive book for era1o
lnatlon; they thought that the specimen
NY4ulne was an absolute gift to them If
tnis had really been the plan II would
nave enJalled present 10 the public of
Ss0O, ,0Oe. work OF philanthropy on
Mnicn Ihe Outlook had not decided TO
One Of those who shared this delusion
was minister of the gospel in Missouri
he hao, in applying for the specimen
form, which concluded: ct promise 20
return t within seven days whether i
decide 70 subscribe or not" When The
UNLOCK sent him polite reminder that
ne had not returned the volume he re-
piled as follows:
Of course 1 supposed that the book
was q giIt 10 me. considered ii a very
Graceful act on your part. but nv pleas
ure IS completely marred by your con-
Duct IN asking for il back. In anv case
! cannot comply with your request for I
nave given the volume to a poor young
man. who cannot afford TO buy books for
himself de has moved away from here
and / do not know where he is at pres
enL am sure II viii greatly improve
his mind Even If 1 could find tho hook
, DO not think II would be much good 10
You, for ] have written his name in it
with my best wishes for his future well
1are- and have marked passages which
j think he should read most carefully. %
II was discovered that there is A class
Of apparently decent and respectable per
sons VINO considered the book a thing to
be punished They treated it worse than
door mat They used it as Iamn
stand as 2 plaything in the nursery. as
p foot-rest and for various other dornes-
tic purposes From one applicant there
was received back parchnent-bol,nd Il
volume so greatly disfgured that an ex-
perlenceo publisher would hardly have
recognized II as a book. 1t had some
what the shape Of a sponge The
parchment binding had practically dis
appeared and the leaves were all chewed
IN this case the blow was somewhat soft
ened by the pleasant letter which the
correspondent sent:
i regret TO say that your handsome
volume fell into the paws Of nv bull ter
rler, who has very inquiring mind and
P powerful interest in literature / hone
YOU wil pe glad to hear that he liked il
very much. he tells me that he never
had book which gave him so much
pressure. lie was particularly delighted
with the genuine parchment cover. as
you VIII see from its app sarance That
IS his way when he likes ANYTHING very
much NO book has ever given him so
many enjoyable hslf-hours as tLis.
WiSn could purchase the entire twenty
I'VE volumes for him but regret that 7
am not in q position to do so al prese-r >
specimen volumes were sent to the
Philippines. Porto Rico. India and Other
distant and tropical parts. Some of them
came back the worse for their voyaee
one that had been to the Philippines xrsS
reduced to a mere fra 2gment The man
who had received IL sent a note exnIoi,-.
Ing that the book had fallen a vicfio1 n
Philippine cockroaches. The Outlook -
thought, would be interested to know
that they were the most voracious cock
reaches now known TO science IT had
only taken a small party of them one
hour TO reduce the book 70 its nrasent
condition. The matter. he thoughf
should be brought TO the attention of en-
From India a specimen volume for-
merly bound IN three-quarter morocco
came back without the cover The cor
respondent explained that in that lana
the ants have passionate liking for
green materials, and the boards Of this
volume were covered with a rich erea-
cloth that exactly suited their TASTE
One parchment volume came back with
the cover half gone. A letter with ~ e~
planned that friend OF the writer's had
torn a portion of the cover off "a s~oas-
ment. He thought The Outlook woiIId n.
pleased TO know that his friend was en-
tirely satisfied as 70 the genuineness Of
the material "
On the whole. the specimen volu,,.
campaign was a highly fnteresfSne. rs,-a
ture and Of the various ways of reeard-
ing books. The most satisfactory rer,,I+
or II was that ninety-eight per cent Of fl1s
inquirers returned their volumes in me-
themselves heartily pleased with this
unique plan OF getting acquainted with
new work.
-~-pH-e---------