EDITOR'S PREFACE 



IN the year 1900, the editor of this volume presented to the public a more or 

 less comprehensive book of general information THE CENTURY BOOK 

 OF FACTS which has since found a place in upward of half a million 

 American homes. This immense circulation would seem to be conclusive that a 

 work of this type meets with the intelligent approval of a large contingent of the 

 book-buying public. There is additional evidence, however, that the demand for 

 comprehensive, concise, reliable, up-to-date, books of reference and instruction, in 

 almost every department of knowledge, is becoming more insistent. And it is in 

 consequence of this demand, as well as the desire of the editor to enlarge and im- 

 prove and standardize his original plan, that the present work has been prepared. 



The present work is in no sense a revision of the old one which, practically, 

 has never been revised. It has been built entirely anew, guided by the defects 

 and limitations of the old one, to be sure, but chiefly in the light of the advances 

 of the past eight years. It is divided into Ten Books, covering the entire range 

 of general knowledge, so classified as to bring to the reader or consulter the 

 essentials of many diverse subjects in the most direct and expeditious manner. 

 Numerous tabulations have been introduced which in themselves will be found 

 valuable substitutes for volumes, even, along the same lines. 



The aim has been to adapt the work to the needs of all classes of readers to 

 the home, to the school, to the office, to the library. Live, practical, every-day 

 information, touching the manifold interests of the day, has been given a place 

 alongside the previously recorded facts of history, literature, science, industry, 

 biography, and achievement. The past has been linked with the present in 

 such fashion as to make the survey of the world's progress at once complete and 

 concise. 



Many hundreds of volumes have been laid under tribute to complete the 

 present work, and much valuable assistance has been rendered by many persons 

 throughout the entire country, both by suggestion and contribution. To Miss 

 Susan F. Chase, M. A., Pd. D., and Miss Helen L. Dunston, of the Buffalo State 

 Normal School, in particular, the credit is dm- for the best features in the depart- 

 ments of Literature and Language, respectively. 



It is to be hoped that the hundreds of thousands of patrons of THE CEN- 

 Tl'KY HOOK OF FACTS will give the same appreciative welcome to THE 

 STANDARD DICTIONARY OF FACTS that they accorded the editor's first 

 effort. Indeed, the large amount of additional matter in the latter, the improved 

 arrangement of the various departments, and the im|x>rtanee of recording 

 many recent occurrences in a swiftly-moving age, not only constitute it the logical 

 successor of the former, but make it a practical necessity. Its readiest patrons 

 should be the present possessors of THE CENTURY BOOK OF FACTS. 



