世界日報
- Correspondence school: half fees for new students
- Beijing Telephone Bureau notice
- Bound editions of the World Daily supplement
The Commercial Press school advertises half fees for August–September enrolment. Beijing’s southern telephone bureau offers withdrawn lines to applicants willing to cover arrears, while the paper promotes monthly bound supplements with about 120 pages and more than 150 pieces.
Selected, image-checked first-page passages; partial reading, not complete articles or the whole page.
Translation
Correspondence school: half fees for new students
Our correspondence school has now been established for twelve years. We have enrolled more than 20,000 students, and more than 4,000 have graduated. Our record has long been distinguished. The scholars engaged to prepare lessons and mark assignments are all eminent in their fields. To celebrate the Commercial Press's 30th anniversary, we offer the following special terms:
1. The offer runs from August 1 to the end of September, by the solar calendar, at all branches.
2. Students enrolling during this period pay half fees, whatever their subject.
The Commercial Press, Shanghai, and its provincial branches.
Beijing Telephone Bureau notice
Telephone numbers in our southern exchange are in extremely short supply, yet applications for installation continue to pour in. To clear longstanding arrears and meet the needs of new subscribers, we have been withdrawing service from southern-exchange users who have failed to pay their monthly rentals despite repeated demands. More than 200 accounts are involved, each owing approximately three months' rent. Anyone within the southern exchange area who needs a telephone and is willing to pay these arrears on behalf of the former subscriber should promptly contact the engineering section at our office in Liulichang. Please do not delay.
Bound editions of the World Daily supplement
Our bound edition gathers a month's supplements into one volume. Both printing and binding are exceptionally fine, quite unlike the crude appearance of ordinary volumes made by binding old newspapers. Each volume contains approximately 120 pages and more than 150 works, offering rich content with equal attention to learning and enjoyment. Every young person should have a copy for reading outside class.
Net price per volume: 0.16 yuan.
Context
How a publisher could also run a school
The correspondence school joins printed lessons to marked assignments. A reader could therefore buy more than a textbook: the service included an organized course and feedback from teachers. Provincial branches extended the enrollment network beyond Shanghai, while the anniversary reduction lowered the advertised cost of joining. The offer ties education to the distribution machinery of a publishing business.
Why a new telephone came with an old debt
The southern exchange offers access to a scarce service on an unusual condition: a new applicant must settle the former subscriber’s unpaid bill. Reassigning existing numbers lets the bureau admit new customers while recovering arrears. For the applicant, the real entry cost is therefore more than the ongoing rental; it includes the price of releasing capacity already tied up in delinquent accounts.
Turning daily reading into a lasting book
The supplement is marketed twice: first as newspaper content and then as a carefully produced monthly volume. The advertisement distinguishes the new product from a bundle of used papers through printing, binding and the quantity of work collected. Its appeal to students places literary leisure beside education, giving a family a reason to keep and purchase material that might otherwise be thrown away with the daily paper.
Original
函授學社優待學員對折收費
本社創辦以來已歷十二載學員二萬餘人畢業四千數百人成績久已卓著所聘編輯講義改課卷諸君均一時名宿現因商務印書館三十年紀念特定優待學員辦法如次
一、優待期自陽曆八月一日起至九月底止各分館同定
二、在優待期內入學者無論何科費用一律對折收
上海商務印書館及各省分館
北京電話局廣告
敝南局電話號異常缺乏而掛號請裝者仍紛至沓來兹爲清理積久供給新用戶需要起見將南局用戶拖欠月租屢催不繳者陸續撤回計有二百餘戶每號積欠月租費約三個月左右凡在南局界內需要電話情願承代繳欠費者請從速到琉璃廠敝局內工程課洽辦理幸勿遲延此告
世界日報副刊合訂本
合訂本乃彙集一月所載裝爲一册印刷裝潢均極精美與尋常以舊報裝訂形式粗劣者完全不同每册約一百二十頁作品在一百五十種以上內容豐富講學與趣味并重青年課餘所當人手一編也
每本實價一角六分