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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/3538-8.txt b/3538-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f93c5bd --- /dev/null +++ b/3538-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13232 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Americanization of Edward Bok, by Edward William Bok + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Americanization of Edward Bok + The Autobiography of a Dutch Boy Fifty Years After + +Author: Edward William Bok + +Release Date: November, 2002 [Etext #3538] +Posting Date: March 8, 2010 [EBook #3538] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AMERICANIZATION OF EDWARD BOK *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + + + + + +THE AMERICANIZATION OF EDWARD BOK + +THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A DUTCH BOY FIFTY YEARS AFTER + +by Edward William Bok (1863-1930) + + + + +To the American woman I owe much, but to two women I owe more, + My mother and my wife. +And to them I dedicate this account of the boy to whom one gave +birth and brought to manhood and the other blessed with all a +home and family may mean. + + + + +An Explanation + + +This book was to have been written in 1914, when I foresaw some leisure +to write it, for I then intended to retire from active editorship. But +the war came, an entirely new set of duties commanded, and the project +was laid aside. + +Its title and the form, however, were then chosen. By the form I refer +particularly to the use of the third person. I had always felt the most +effective method of writing an autobiography, for the sake of a better +perspective, was mentally to separate the writer from his subject by +this device. + +Moreover, this method came to me very naturally in dealing with the +Edward Bok, editor and publicist, whom I have tried to describe in this +book, because, in many respects, he has had and has been a personality +apart from my private self. I have again and again found myself watching +with intense amusement and interest the Edward Bok of this book at work. +I have, in turn, applauded him and criticised him, as I do in this book. +Not that I ever considered myself bigger or broader than this Edward +Bok: simply that he was different. His tastes, his outlook, his manner +of looking at things were totally at variance with my own. In fact, my +chief difficulty during Edward Bok's directorship of The Ladies' Home +Journal was to abstain from breaking through the editor and revealing my +real self. Several times I did so, and each time I saw how different was +the effect from that when the editorial Edward Bok had been allowed +sway. Little by little I learned to subordinate myself and to let him +have full rein. + +But no relief of my life was so great to me personally as his decision +to retire from his editorship. My family and friends were surprised and +amused by my intense and obvious relief when he did so. Only to those +closest to me could I explain the reason for the sense of absolute +freedom and gratitude that I felt. + +Since that time my feelings have been an interesting study to myself. +There are no longer two personalities. The Edward Bok of whom I have +written has passed out of my being as completely as if he had never been +there, save for the records and files on my library shelves. It is easy, +therefore, for me to write of him as a personality apart: in fact, I +could not depict him from any other point of view. To write of him in +the first person, as if he were myself, is impossible, for he is not. + +The title suggests my principal reason for writing the book. Every life +has some interest and significance; mine, perhaps, a special one. Here +was a little Dutch boy unceremoniously set down in America unable to +make himself understood or even to know what persons were saying; his +education was extremely limited, practically negligible; and yet, by +some curious decree of fate, he was destined to write, for a period of +years, to the largest body of readers ever addressed by an American +editor--the circulation of the magazine he edited running into figures +previously unheard of in periodical literature. He made no pretense to +style or even to composition: his grammar was faulty, as it was natural +it should be, in a language not his own. His roots never went deep, for +the intellectual soil had not been favorable to their growth;--yet, it +must be confessed, he achieved. + +But how all this came about, how such a boy, with every disadvantage to +overcome, was able, apparently, to "make good"--this possesses an +interest and for some, perhaps, a value which, after all, is the only +reason for any book. + +EDWARD W. BOK +MERION, PENNSYLVANIA, 1920 + + + + +CONTENTS + + +An Explanation +An Introduction of Two Persons +I. The First Days in America +II. The First Job: Fifty Cents a Week +III. The Hunger for Self-Education +IV. A Presidential Friend and a Boston Pilgrimage +V. Going to the Theatre with Longfellow +VI. Phillips Brooks's Books and Emerson's Mental Mist +VII. A Plunge into Wall Street +VIII. Starting a Newspaper Syndicate +IX. Association with Henry Ward Beecher +X. The First "Woman's Page," "Literary Leaves," and Entering Scribner's +XI. The Chances for Success +XII. Baptism Under Fire +XIII. Publishing Incidents and Anecdotes +XIV. Last Years in New York +XV. Successful Editorship +XVI. First Years as a Woman's Editor +XVII. Eugene Field's Practical Jokes +XVIII. Building Up a Magazine +XIX. Personality Letters +XX. Meeting a Reverse or Two +XXI. A Signal Piece of Constructive Work +XXII. An Adventure in Civic and Private Art +XXIII. Theodore Roosevelt's Influence +XXIV. Theodore Roosevelt's Anonymous Editorial Work +XXV. The President and the Boy +XXVI. The Literary Back-Stairs +XXVII. Women's Clubs and Woman Suffrage +XXVIII. Going Home with Kipling, and as a Lecturer +XXIX. An Excursion into the Feminine Nature +XXX. Cleaning Up the Patent-Medicine and Other Evils +XXXI. Adventures in Civics +XXXII. A Bewildered Bok +XXXIII. How Millions of People Are Reached +XXXIV. A War Magazine and War Activities +XXXV. At the Battle-Fronts in the Great War +XXXVI. The End of Thirty Years' Editorship +XXXVII. The Third Period +XXXVIII. Where America Fell Short with Me +XXXIX. What I Owe to America +Edward William Bok: Biographical Data +The Expression of a Personal Pleasure + + + + +An Introduction of Two Persons + +IN WHOSE LIVES ARE FOUND THE SOURCE AND MAINSPRING OF SOME OF THE +EFFORTS OF THE AUTHOR OF THIS BOOK IN HIS LATER YEARS + + +Along an island in the North Sea, five miles from the Dutch Coast, +stretches a dangerous ledge of rocks that has proved the graveyard of +many a vessel sailing that turbulent sea. On this island once lived a +group of men who, as each vessel was wrecked, looted the vessel and +murdered those of the crew who reached shore. The government of the +Netherlands decided to exterminate the island pirates, and for the job +King William selected a young lawyer at The Hague. + +"I want you to clean up that island," was the royal order. It was a +formidable job for a young man of twenty-odd years. By royal +proclamation he was made mayor of the island, and within a year, a court +of law being established, the young attorney was appointed judge; and in +that dual capacity he "cleaned up" the island. + +The young man now decided to settle on the island, and began to look +around for a home. It was a grim place, barren of tree or living green +of any kind; it was as if a man had been exiled to Siberia. Still, +argued the young mayor, an ugly place is ugly only because it is not +beautiful. And beautiful he determined this island should be. + +One day the young mayor-judge called together his council. "We must have +trees," he said; "we can make this island a spot of beauty if we will!" +But the practical seafaring men demurred; the little money they had was +needed for matters far more urgent than trees. + +"Very well," was the mayor's decision--and little they guessed what the +words were destined to mean--"I will do it myself." And that year he +planted one hundred trees, the first the island had ever seen. + +"Too cold," said the islanders; "the severe north winds and storms will +kill them all." + +"Then I will plant more," said the unperturbed mayor. And for the fifty +years that he lived on the island he did so. He planted trees each year; +and, moreover, he had deeded to the island government land which he +turned into public squares and parks, and where each spring he set out +shrubs and plants. + +Moistened by the salt mist the trees did not wither, but grew +prodigiously. In all that expanse of turbulent sea--and only those who +have seen the North Sea in a storm know how turbulent it can be--there +was not a foot of ground on which the birds, storm-driven across the +water-waste, could rest in their flight. Hundreds of dead birds often +covered the surface of the sea. Then one day the trees had grown tall +enough to look over the sea, and, spent and driven, the first birds came +and rested in their leafy shelter. And others came and found protection, +and gave their gratitude vent in song. Within a few years so many birds +had discovered the trees in this new island home that they attracted the +attention not only of the native islanders but also of the people on the +shore five miles distant, and the island became famous as the home of +the rarest and most beautiful birds. So grateful were the birds for +their resting-place that they chose one end of the island as a special +spot for the laying of their eggs and the raising of their young, and +they fairly peopled it. It was not long before ornithologists from +various parts of the world came to "Eggland," as the farthermost point +of the island came to be known, to see the marvellous sight, not of +thousands but of hundreds of thousands of bird-eggs. + +A pair of storm-driven nightingales had now found the island and mated +there; their wonderful notes thrilled even the souls of the natives; and +as dusk fell upon the seabound strip of land the women and children +would come to "the square" and listen to the evening notes of the birds +of golden song. The two nightingales soon grew into a colony, and within +a few years so rich was the island in its nightingales that over to the +Dutch coast and throughout the land and into other countries spread the +fame of "The Island of Nightingales." + +Meantime, the young mayor-judge, grown to manhood, had kept on planting +trees each year, setting out his shrubbery and plants, until their +verdure now beautifully shaded the quaint, narrow lanes, and transformed +into cool wooded roads what once had been only barren sun-baked wastes. +Artists began to hear of the place and brought their canvases, and on +the walls of hundreds of homes throughout the world hang to-day bits of +the beautiful lanes and wooded spots of "The Island of Nightingales." +The American artist William M. Chase took his pupils there almost +annually. "In all the world to-day," he declared to his students, as +they exclaimed at the natural cool restfulness of the island, "there is +no more beautiful place." + +The trees are now majestic in their height of forty or more feet, for it +is nearly a hundred years since the young attorney went to the island +and planted the first tree; to-day the churchyard where he lies is a +bower of cool green, with the trees that he planted dropping their +moisture on the lichen-covered stone on his grave. + +This much did one man do. But he did more. + +After he had been on the barren island two years he went to the mainland +one day, and brought back with him a bride. It was a bleak place for a +bridal home, but the young wife had the qualities of the husband. "While +you raise your trees," she said, "I will raise our children." And within +a score of years the young bride sent thirteen happy-faced, +well-brought-up children over that island, and there was reared a home +such as is given to few. Said a man who subsequently married a daughter +of that home: "It was such a home that once you had been in it you felt +you must be of it, and that if you couldn't marry one of the daughters +you would have been glad to have married the cook." + +One day when the children had grown to man's and woman's estate the +mother called them all together and said to them, "I want to tell you +the story of your father and of this island," and she told them the +simple story that is written here. + +"And now," she said, "as you go out into the world I want each of you to +take with you the spirit of your father's work, and each in your own way +and place, to do as he has done: make you the world a bit more beautiful +and better because you have been in it. That is your mother's message to +you." + +The first son to leave the island home went with a band of hardy men to +South Africa, where they settled and became known as "the Boers." +Tirelessly they worked at the colony until towns and cities sprang up +and a new nation came into being: The Transvaal Republic. The son became +secretary of state of the new country, and to-day the United States of +South Africa bears tribute, in part, to the mother's message to "make +the world a bit more beautiful and better." + +The second son left home for the Dutch mainland, where he took charge of +a small parish; and when he had finished his work he was mourned by king +and peasant as one of the leading clergymen of his time and people. + +A third son, scorning his own safety, plunged into the boiling surf on +one of those nights of terror so common to that coast, rescued a +half-dead sailor, carried him to his father's house, and brought him +back to a life of usefulness that gave the world a record of +imperishable value. For the half-drowned sailor was Heinrich Schliemann, +the famous explorer of the dead cities of Troy. + +The first daughter now left the island nest; to her inspiration her +husband owed, at his life's close, a shelf of works in philosophy which +to-day are among the standard books of their class. + +The second daughter worked beside her husband until she brought him to +be regarded as one of the ablest preachers of his land, speaking for +more than forty years the message of man's betterment. + +To another son it was given to sit wisely in the councils of his land; +another followed the footsteps of his father. Another daughter, refusing +marriage for duty, ministered unto and made a home for one whose eyes +could see not. + +So they went out into the world, the girls and boys of that island home, +each carrying the story of their father's simple but beautiful work and +the remembrance of their mother's message. Not one from that home but +did well his or her work in the world; some greater, some smaller, but +each left behind the traces of a life well spent. + +And, as all good work is immortal, so to-day all over the world goes on +the influence of this one man and one woman, whose life on that little +Dutch island changed its barren rocks to a bower of verdure, a home for +the birds and the song of the nightingale. The grandchildren have gone +to the four corners of the globe, and are now the generation of +workers--some in the far East Indies; others in Africa; still others in +our own land of America. But each has tried, according to the talents +given, to carry out the message of that day, to tell the story of the +grandfather's work; just as it is told here by the author of this book, +who, in the efforts of his later years, has tried to carry out, so far +as opportunity has come to him, the message of his grandmother: + +"Make you the world a bit more beautiful and better because you have +been in it." + + + + +The Americanization of Edward Bok + + + + +I. The First Days in America + + +The Leviathan of the Atlantic Ocean, in 1870, was The Queen, and when +she was warped into her dock on September 20 of that year, she +discharged, among her passengers, a family of four from the Netherlands +who were to make an experiment of Americanization. + +The father, a man bearing one of the most respected names in the +Netherlands, had acquired wealth and position for himself; unwise +investments, however, had swept away his fortune, and in preference to a +new start in his own land, he had decided to make the new beginning in +the United States, where a favorite brother-in-law had gone several +years before. But that, never a simple matter for a man who has reached +forty-two, is particularly difficult for a foreigner in a strange land. +This fact he and his wife were to find out. The wife, also carefully +reared, had been accustomed to a scale of living which she had now to +abandon. Her Americanization experiment was to compel her, for the first +time in her life, to become a housekeeper without domestic help. There +were two boys: the elder, William, was eight and a half years of age; +the younger, in nineteen days from his landing-date, was to celebrate +his seventh birthday. + +This younger boy was Edward William Bok. He had, according to the Dutch +custom, two other names, but he had decided to leave those in the +Netherlands. And the American public was, in later years, to omit for +him the "William." + +Edward's first six days in the United States were spent in New York, and +then he was taken to Brooklyn, where he was destined to live for nearly +twenty years. + +Thanks to the linguistic sense inherent in the Dutch, and to an +educational system that compels the study of languages, English was +already familiar to the father and mother. But to the two sons, who had +barely learned the beginnings of their native tongue, the English +language was as a closed book. It seemed a cruel decision of the father +to put his two boys into a public school in Brooklyn, but he argued that +if they were to become Americans, the sooner they became part of the +life of the country and learned its language for themselves, the better. +And so, without the ability to make known the slightest want or to +understand a single word, the morning after their removal to Brooklyn, +the two boys were taken by their father to a public school. + +The American public-school teacher was perhaps even less well equipped +in those days than she is to-day to meet the needs of two Dutch boys who +could not understand a word she said, and who could only wonder what it +was all about. The brothers did not even have the comfort of each +other's company, for, graded by age, they were placed in separate +classes. + +Nor was the American boy of 1870 a whit less cruel than is the American +boy of 1920; and he was none the less loath to show that cruelty. This +trait was evident at the first recess of the first day at school. At the +dismissal, the brothers naturally sought each other, only to find +themselves surrounded by a group of tormentors who were delighted to +have such promising objects for their fun. And of this opportunity they +made the most. There was no form of petty cruelty boys' minds could +devise that was not inflicted upon the two helpless strangers. Edward +seemed to look particularly inviting, and nicknaming him "Dutchy" they +devoted themselves at each noon recess and after school to inflicting +their cruelties upon him. + +Louis XIV may have been right when he said that "every new language +requires a new soul," but Edward Bok knew that while spoken languages +might differ, there is one language understood by boys the world over. +And with this language Edward decided to do some experimenting. After a +few days at school, he cast his eyes over the group of his tormentors, +picked out one who seemed to him the ringleader, and before the boy was +aware of what had happened, Edward Bok was in the full swing of his +first real experiment with Americanization. Of course the American boy +retaliated. But the boy from the Netherlands had not been born and +brought up in the muscle-building air of the Dutch dikes for nothing, +and after a few moments he found himself looking down on his tormentor +and into the eyes of a crowd of very respectful boys and giggling girls +who readily made a passageway for his brother and himself when they +indicated a desire to leave the schoolyard and go home. + +Edward now felt that his Americanization had begun; but, always +believing that a thing begun must be carried to a finish, he took, or +gave--it depends upon the point of view--two or three more lessons in +this particular phase of Americanization before he convinced these +American schoolboys that it might be best for them to call a halt upon +further excursions in torment. + +At the best, they were difficult days at school for a boy of six without +the language. But the national linguistic gift inherent in the Dutch +race came to the boy's rescue, and as the roots of the Anglo-Saxon lie +in the Frisian tongue, and thus in the language of his native country, +Edward soon found that with a change of vowel here and there the English +language was not so difficult of conquest. At all events, he set out to +master it. + +But his fatal gift of editing, although its possession was unknown to +him, began to assert itself when, just as he seemed to be getting along +fairly well, he balked at following the Spencerian style of writing in +his copybooks. Instinctively he rebelled at the flourishes which +embellished that form of handwriting. He seemed to divine somehow that +such penmanship could not be useful or practicable for after life, and +so, with that Dutch stolidity that, once fixed, knows no altering, he +refused to copy his writing lessons. Of course trouble immediately +ensued between Edward and his teacher. Finding herself against a literal +blank wall--for Edward simply refused, but had not the gift of English +with which to explain his refusal--the teacher decided to take the +matter to the male principal of the school. She explained that she had +kept Edward after school for as long as two hours to compel him to copy +his Spencerian lesson, but that the boy simply sat quiet. He was +perfectly well-behaved, she explained, but as to his lesson, he would +attempt absolutely nothing. + +It was the prevailing custom in the public schools of 1870 to punish +boys by making them hold out the palms of their hands, upon which the +principal would inflict blows with a rattan. The first time Edward was +punished in this way, his hand became so swollen he wondered at a system +of punishment which rendered him incapable of writing, particularly as +the discerning principal had chosen the boy's right hand upon which to +rain the blows. Edward was told to sit down at the principal's own desk +and copy the lesson. He sat, but he did not write. He would not for one +thing, and he could not if he would. After half an hour of purposeless +sitting, the principal ordered Edward again to stand up and hold out his +hand; and once more the rattan fell in repeated blows. Of course it did +no good, and as it was then five o'clock, and the principal had +inflicted all the punishment that the law allowed, and as he probably +wanted to go home as much as Edward did, he dismissed the sore-handed +but more-than-ever-determined Dutch boy. + +Edward went home to his father, exhibited his swollen hand, explained +the reason, and showed the penmanship lesson which he had refused to +copy. It is a singular fact that even at that age he already understood +Americanization enough to realize that to cope successfully with any +American institution, one must be constructive as well as destructive. +He went to his room, brought out a specimen of Italian handwriting which +he had seen in a newspaper, and explained to his father that this +simpler penmanship seemed to him better for practical purposes than the +curlicue fancifully embroidered Spencerian style; that if he had to +learn penmanship, why not learn the system that was of more possible use +in after life? + +Now, your Dutchman is nothing if not practical. He is very simple and +direct in his nature, and is very likely to be equally so in his mental +view. Edward's father was distinctly interested--very much amused, as he +confessed to the boy in later years--in his son's discernment of the +futility of the Spencerian style of penmanship. He agreed with the boy, +and, next morning, accompanied him to school and to the principal. The +two men were closeted together, and when they came out Edward was sent +to his classroom. For some weeks he was given no penmanship lessons, and +then a new copy-book was given him with a much simpler style. He pounced +upon it, and within a short time stood at the head of his class in +writing. + +The same instinct that was so often to lead Edward aright in his future +life, at its very beginning served him in a singularly valuable way in +directing his attention to the study of penmanship; for it was through +his legible handwriting that later, in the absence of the typewriter, he +was able to secure and satisfactorily fill three positions which were to +lead to his final success. + +Years afterward Edward had the satisfaction of seeing public-school +pupils given a choice of penmanship lessons: one along the flourish +lines and the other of a less ornate order. Of course, the boy never +associated the incident of his refusal with the change until later when +his mother explained to him that the principal of the school, of whom +the father had made a warm friend, was so impressed by the boy's simple +but correct view, that he took up the matter with the board of +education, and a choice of systems was considered and later decided +upon. + +From this it will be seen that, unconsciously, Edward Bok had started +upon his career of editing! + + + + +II. The First Job: Fifty Cents a Week + + +The Elder Bok did not find his "lines cast in pleasant places" in the +United States. He found himself, professionally, unable to adjust the +methods of his own land and of a lifetime to those of a new country. As +a result the fortunes of the transplanted family did not flourish, and +Edward soon saw his mother physically failing under burdens to which her +nature was not accustomed nor her hands trained. Then he and his brother +decided to relieve their mother in the housework by rising early in the +morning, building the fire, preparing breakfast, and washing the dishes +before they went to school. After school they gave up their play hours, +and swept and scrubbed, and helped their mother to prepare the evening +meal and wash the dishes afterward. It was a curious coincidence that it +should fall upon Edward thus to get a first-hand knowledge of woman's +housework which was to stand him in such practical stead in later years. + +It was not easy for the parents to see their boys thus forced to do work +which only a short while before had been done by a retinue of servants. +And the capstone of humiliation seemed to be when Edward and his +brother, after having for several mornings found no kindling wood or +coal to build the fire, decided to go out of evenings with a basket and +pick up what wood they could find in neighboring lots, and the bits of +coal spilled from the coal-bin of the grocery-store, or left on the +curbs before houses where coal had been delivered. The mother +remonstrated with the boys, although in her heart she knew that the +necessity was upon them. But Edward had been started upon his +Americanization career, and answered: "This is America, where one can do +anything if it is honest. So long as we don't steal the wood or coal, +why shouldn't we get it?" And, turning away, the saddened mother said +nothing. + +But while the doing of these homely chores was very effective in +relieving the untrained and tired mother, it added little to the family +income. Edward looked about and decided that the time had come for him, +young as he was, to begin some sort of wage-earning. But how and where? +The answer he found one afternoon when standing before the shop-window +of a baker in the neighborhood. The owner of the bakery, who had just +placed in the window a series of trays filled with buns, tarts, and +pies, came outside to look at the display. He found the hungry boy +wistfully regarding the tempting-looking wares. + +"Look pretty good, don't they?" asked the baker. + +"They would," answered the Dutch boy with his national passion for +cleanliness, "if your window were clean." + +"That's so, too," mused the baker. "Perhaps you'll clean it." + +"I will," was the laconic reply. And Edward Bok, there and then, got his +first job. He went in, found a step-ladder, and put so much Dutch energy +into the cleaning of the large show-window that the baker immediately +arranged with him to clean it every Tuesday and Friday afternoon after +school. The salary was to be fifty cents per week! + +But one day, after he had finished cleaning the window, and the baker +was busy in the rear of the store, a customer came in, and Edward +ventured to wait on her. Dexterously he wrapped up for another the +fragrant currant-buns for which his young soul--and stomach--so +hungered! The baker watched him, saw how quickly and smilingly he served +the customer, and offered Edward an extra dollar per week if he would +come in afternoons and sell behind the counter. He immediately entered +into the bargain with the understanding that, in addition to his salary +of a dollar and a half per week, he should each afternoon carry home +from the good things unsold a moderate something as a present to his +mother. The baker agreed, and Edward promised to come each afternoon +except Saturday. + +"Want to play ball, hey?" said the baker. + +"Yes, I want to play ball," replied the boy, but he was not reserving +his Saturday afternoons for games, although, boy-like, that might be his +preference. + +Edward now took on for each Saturday morning--when, of course, there was +no school--the delivery route of a weekly paper called the South +Brooklyn Advocate. He had offered to deliver the entire neighborhood +edition of the paper for one dollar, thus increasing his earning +capacity to two dollars and a half per week. + +Transportation, in those days in Brooklyn, was by horse-cars, and the +car-line on Smith Street nearest Edward's home ran to Coney Island. Just +around the corner where Edward lived the cars stopped to water the +horses on their long haul. The boy noticed that the men jumped from the +open cars in summer, ran into the cigar-store before which the +watering-trough was placed, and got a drink of water from the ice-cooler +placed near the door. But that was not so easily possible for the women, +and they, especially the children, were forced to take the long ride +without a drink. It was this that he had in mind when he reserved his +Saturday afternoon to "play ball." + +Here was an opening, and Edward decided to fill it. He bought a shining +new pail, screwed three hooks on the edge from which he hung three clean +shimmering glasses, and one Saturday afternoon when a car stopped the +boy leaped on, tactfully asked the conductor if he did not want a drink, +and then proceeded to sell his water, cooled with ice, at a cent a glass +to the passengers. A little experience showed that he exhausted a pail +with every two cars, and each pail netted him thirty cents. Of course +Sunday was a most profitable day; and after going to Sunday-school in +the morning, he did a further Sabbath service for the rest of the day by +refreshing tired mothers and thirsty children on the Coney Island +cars--at a penny a glass! + +But the profit of six dollars which Edward was now reaping in his newly +found "bonanza" on Saturday and Sunday afternoons became apparent to +other boys, and one Saturday the young ice-water boy found that he had a +competitor; then two and soon three. Edward immediately met the +challenge; he squeezed half a dozen lemons into each pail of water, +added some sugar, tripled his charge, and continued his monopoly by +selling "Lemonade, three cents a glass." Soon more passengers were +asking for lemonade than for plain drinking-water! + +One evening Edward went to a party of young people, and his latent +journalistic sense whispered to him that his young hostess might like to +see her social affair in print. He went home, wrote up the party, being +careful to include the name of every boy and girl present, and next +morning took the account to the city editor of the Brooklyn Eagle, with +the sage observation that every name mentioned in that paragraph +represented a buyer of the paper, who would like to see his or her name +in print, and that if the editor had enough of these reports he might +very advantageously strengthen the circulation of The Eagle. The editor +was not slow to see the point, and offered Edward three dollars a column +for such reports. On his way home, Edward calculated how many parties he +would have to attend a week to furnish a column, and decided that he +would organize a corps of private reporters himself. Forthwith, he saw +every girl and boy he knew, got each to promise to write for him an +account of each party he or she attended or gave, and laid great stress +on a full recital of names. Within a few weeks, Edward was turning in to +The Eagle from two to three columns a week; his pay was raised to four +dollars a column; the editor was pleased in having started a department +that no other paper carried, and the "among those present" at the +parties all bought the paper and were immensely gratified to see their +names. + +So everybody was happy, and Edward Bok, as a full-fledged reporter, had +begun his journalistic career. + +It is curious how deeply embedded in his nature, even in his earliest +years, was the inclination toward the publishing business. The word +"curious" is used here because Edward is the first journalist in the Bok +family in all the centuries through which it extends in Dutch history. +On his father's side, there was a succession of jurists. On the mother's +side, not a journalist is visible. + +Edward attended the Sunday-school of the Carroll Park Methodist +Episcopal Church, in Brooklyn, of which a Mr. Elkins was superintendent. +One day he learned that Mr. Elkins was associated with the publishing +house of Harper and Brothers. Edward had heard his father speak of +Harper's Weekly and of the great part it had played in the Civil War; +his father also brought home an occasional copy of Harper's Weekly and +of Harper's Magazine. He had seen Harper's Young People; the name of +Harper and Brothers was on some of his school-books; and he pictured in +his mind how wonderful it must be for a man to be associated with +publishers of periodicals that other people read, and books that other +folks studied. The Sunday-school superintendent henceforth became a +figure of importance in Edward's eyes; many a morning the boy hastened +from home long before the hour for school, and seated himself on the +steps of the Elkins house under the pretext of waiting for Mr. Elkins's +son to go to school, but really for the secret purpose of seeing Mr. +Elkins set forth to engage in the momentous business of making books and +periodicals. Edward would look after the superintendent's form until it +was lost to view; then, with a sigh, he would go to school, forgetting +all about the Elkins boy whom he had told the father he had come to call +for! + +One day Edward was introduced to a girl whose father, he learned, was +editor of the New York Weekly. Edward could not quite place this +periodical; he had never seen it, he had never heard of it. So he bought +a copy, and while its contents seemed strange, and its air unfamiliar in +comparison with the magazines he found in his home, still an editor was +an editor. He was certainly well worth knowing. So he sought his newly +made young lady friend, asked permission to call upon her, and to +Edward's joy was introduced to her father. It was enough for Edward to +look furtively at the editor upon his first call, and being encouraged +to come again, he promptly did so the next evening. The daughter has +long since passed away, and so it cannot hurt her feelings now to +acknowledge that for years Edward paid court to her only that he might +know her father, and have those talks with him about editorial methods +that filled him with ever-increasing ambition to tread the path that +leads to editorial tribulations. + +But what with helping his mother, tending the baker's shop in +after-school hours, serving his paper route, plying his street-car +trade, and acting as social reporter, it soon became evident to Edward +that he had not much time to prepare his school lessons. By a supreme +effort, he managed to hold his own in his class, but no more. +Instinctively, he felt that he was not getting all that he might from +his educational opportunities, yet the need for him to add to the family +income was, if anything, becoming greater. The idea of leaving school +was broached to his mother, but she rebelled. She told the boy that he +was earning something now and helping much. Perhaps the tide with the +father would turn and he would find the place to which his unquestioned +talents entitled him. Finally the father did. He associated himself with +the Western Union Telegraph Company as translator, a position for which +his easy command of languages admirably fitted him. Thus, for a time, +the strain upon the family exchequer was lessened. + +But the American spirit of initiative had entered deep into the soul of +Edward Bok. The brother had left school a year before, and found a place +as messenger in a lawyer's office; and when one evening Edward heard his +father say that the office boy in his department had left, he asked that +he be allowed to leave school, apply for the open position, and get the +rest of his education in the great world itself. It was not easy for the +parents to see the younger son leave school at so early an age, but the +earnestness of the boy prevailed. + +And so, at the age of thirteen, Edward Bok left school, and on Monday, +August 7, 1876, he became office boy in the electricians' department of +the Western Union Telegraph Company at six dollars and twenty-five cents +per week. + +And, as such things will fall out in this curiously strange world, it +happened that as Edward drew up his chair for the first time to his desk +to begin his work on that Monday morning, there had been born in Boston, +exactly twelve hours before, a girl-baby who was destined to become his +wife. Thus at the earliest possible moment after her birth, Edward Bok +started to work for her! + + + + +III. The Hunger for Self-Education + + +With school-days ended, the question of self-education became an +absorbing thought with Edward Bok. He had mastered a schoolboy's +English, but seven years of public-school education was hardly a basis +on which to build the work of a lifetime. He saw each day in his duties +as office boy some of the foremost men of the time. It was the period of +William H. Vanderbilt's ascendancy in Western Union control; and the +railroad millionnaire and his companions, Hamilton McK. Twombly, James +H. Banker, Samuel F. Barger, Alonzo B. Cornell, Augustus Schell, William +Orton, were objects of great interest to the young office boy. Alexander +Graham Bell and Thomas A. Edison were also constant visitors to the +department. He knew that some of these men, too, had been deprived of +the advantage of collegiate training, and yet they had risen to the top. +But how? The boy decided to read about these men and others, and find +out. He could not, however, afford the separate biographies, so he went +to the libraries to find a compendium that would authoritatively tell +him of all successful men. He found it in Appleton's Encyclopedia, and, +determining to have only the best, he saved his luncheon money, walked +instead of riding the five miles to his Brooklyn home, and, after a +period of saving, had his reward in the first purchase from his own +earnings: a set of the Encyclopedia. He now read about all the +successful men, and was encouraged to find that in many cases their +beginnings had been as modest as his own, and their opportunities of +education as limited. + +One day it occurred to him to test the accuracy of the biographies he +was reading. James A. Garfield was then spoken of for the presidency; +Edward wondered whether it was true that the man who was likely to be +President of the United States had once been a boy on the tow-path, and +with a simple directness characteristic of his Dutch training, wrote to +General Garfield, asking whether the boyhood episode was true, and +explaining why he asked. Of course any public man, no matter how large +his correspondence, is pleased to receive an earnest letter from an +information-seeking boy. General Garfield answered warmly and fully. +Edward showed the letter to his father, who told the boy that it was +valuable and he should keep it. This was a new idea. He followed it +further: if one such letter was valuable, how much more valuable would +be a hundred! If General Garfield answered him, would not other famous +men? Why not begin a collection of autograph letters? Everybody +collected something. + +Edward had collected postage-stamps, and the hobby had, incidentally, +helped him wonderfully in his study of geography. Why should not +autograph letters from famous persons be of equal service in his +struggle for self-education? Not simple autographs--they were +meaningless; but actual letters which might tell him something useful. +It never occurred to the boy that these men might not answer him. + +So he took his Encyclopedia--its trustworthiness now established in his +mind by General Garfield's letter--and began to study the lives of +successful men and women. Then, with boyish frankness, he wrote on some +mooted question in one famous person's life; he asked about the date of +some important event in another's, not given in the Encyclopedia; or he +asked one man why he did this or why some other man did that. + +Most interesting were, of course, the replies. Thus General Grant +sketched on an improvised map the exact spot where General Lee +surrendered to him; Longfellow told him how he came to write +"Excelsior"; Whittier told the story of "The Barefoot Boy"; Tennyson +wrote out a stanza or two of "The Brook," upon condition that Edward +would not again use the word "awful," which the poet said "is slang for +'very,'" and "I hate slang." + +One day the boy received a letter from the Confederate general Jubal A. +Early, giving the real reason why he burned Chambersburg. A friend +visiting Edward's father, happening to see the letter, recognized in it +a hitherto-missing bit of history, and suggested that it be published in +the New York Tribune. The letter attracted wide attention and provoked +national discussion. + +This suggested to the editor of The Tribune that Edward might have other +equally interesting letters; so he despatched a reporter to the boy's +home. This reporter was Ripley Hitchcock, who afterward became literary +adviser for the Appletons and Harpers. Of course Hitchcock at once saw a +"story" in the boy's letters, and within a few days The Tribune appeared +with a long article on its principal news page giving an account of the +Brooklyn boy's remarkable letters and how he had secured them. The +Brooklyn Eagle quickly followed with a request for an interview; the +Boston Globe followed suit; the Philadelphia Public Ledger sent its New +York correspondent; and before Edward was aware of it, newspapers in +different parts of the country were writing about "the well-known +Brooklyn autograph collector." + +Edward Bok was quick to see the value of the publicity which had so +suddenly come to him. He received letters from other autograph +collectors all over the country who sought to "exchange" with him. +References began to creep into letters from famous persons to whom he +had written, saying they had read about his wonderful collection and +were proud to be included in it. George W. Childs, of Philadelphia, +himself the possessor of probably one of the finest collections of +autograph letters in the country, asked Edward to come to Philadelphia +and bring his collection with him--which he did, on the following +Sunday, and brought it back greatly enriched. + +Several of the writers felt an interest in a boy who frankly told them +that he wanted to educate himself, and asked Edward to come and see +them. Accordingly, when they lived in New York or Brooklyn, or came to +these cities on a visit, he was quick to avail himself of their +invitations. He began to note each day in the newspapers the +"distinguished arrivals" at the New York hotels; and when any one with +whom he had corresponded arrived, Edward would, after business hours, go +up-town, pay his respects, and thank him in person for his letters. No +person was too high for Edward's boyish approach; President Garfield, +General Grant, General Sherman, President Hayes--all were called upon, +and all received the boy graciously and were interested in the problem +of his self-education. It was a veritable case of making friends on +every hand; friends who were to be of the greatest help and value to the +boy in his after-years, although he had no conception of it at the time. + +The Fifth Avenue Hotel, in those days the stopping-place of the majority +of the famous men and women visiting New York, represented to the young +boy who came to see these celebrities the very pinnacle of opulence. +Often while waiting to be received by some dignitary, he wondered how +one could acquire enough means to live at a place of such luxury. The +main dining-room, to the boy's mind, was an object of special interest. +He would purposely sneak up-stairs and sit on one of the soft sofas in +the foyer simply to see the well-dressed diners go in and come out. +Edward would speculate on whether the time would ever come when he could +dine in that wonderful room just once! + +One evening he called, after the close of business, upon General and +Mrs. Grant, whom he had met before, and who had expressed a desire to +see his collection. It can readily be imagined what a red-letter day it +made in the boy's life to have General Grant say: "It might be better +for us all to go down to dinner first and see the collection afterward." +Edward had purposely killed time between five and seven o'clock, +thinking that the general's dinner-hour, like his own, was at six. He +had allowed an hour for the general to eat his dinner, only to find that +he was still to begin it. The boy could hardly believe his ears, and +unable to find his voice, he failed to apologize for his modest suit or +his general after-business appearance. + +As in a dream he went down in the elevator with his host and hostess, +and when the party of three faced toward the dining-room entrance, so +familiar to the boy, he felt as if his legs must give way under him. +There have since been other red-letter days in Edward Bok's life, but +the moment that still stands out preeminent is that when two colored +head waiters at the dining-room entrance, whom he had so often watched, +bowed low and escorted the party to their table. At last, he was in that +sumptuous dining-hall. The entire room took on the picture of one great +eye, and that eye centred on the party of three--as, in fact, it +naturally would. But Edward felt that the eye was on him, wondering why +he should be there. + +What he ate and what he said he does not recall. General Grant, not a +voluble talker himself, gently drew the boy out, and Mrs. Grant seconded +him, until toward the close of the dinner he heard himself talking. He +remembers that he heard his voice, but what that voice said is all dim +to him. One act stamped itself on his mind. The dinner ended with a +wonderful dish of nuts and raisins, and just before the party rose from +the table Mrs. Grant asked the waiter to bring her a paper bag. Into +this she emptied the entire dish, and at the close of the evening she +gave it to Edward "to eat on the way home." It was a wonderful evening, +afterward up-stairs, General Grant smoking the inevitable cigar, and +telling stories as he read the letters of different celebrities. Over +those of Confederate generals he grew reminiscent; and when he came to a +letter from General Sherman, Edward remembers that he chuckled audibly, +reread it, and then turning to Mrs. Grant, said: "Julia, listen to this +from Sherman. Not bad." The letter he read was this: + +"Dear Mr. Bok:-- + +"I prefer not to make scraps of sentimental writing. When I write +anything I want it to be real and connected in form, as, for +instance, in your quotation from Lord Lytton's play of +'Richelieu,' 'The pen is mightier than the sword.' Lord Lytton +would never have put his signature to so naked a sentiment. +Surely I will not. + +"In the text there was a prefix or qualification: + + "Beneath the rule of men entirely great + The pen is mightier than the sword. + +"Now, this world does not often present the condition of facts +herein described. Men entirely great are very rare indeed, +and even Washington, who approached greatness as near as any +mortal, found good use for the sword and the pen, each in its +proper sphere. + +"You and I have seen the day when a great and good man ruled this +country (Lincoln) who wielded a powerful and prolific pen, and +yet had to call to his assistance a million of flaming swords. + +"No, I cannot subscribe to your sentiment, 'The pen is mightier +than the sword,' which you ask me to write, because it is not true. + +"Rather, in the providence of God, there is a time for all things; +a time when the sword may cut the Gordian knot, and set free the +principles of right and justice, bound up in the meshes of hatred, +revenge, and tyranny, that the pens of mighty men like Clay, +Webster, Crittenden, and Lincoln were unable to disentangle. + +"Wishing you all success, I am, with respect, your friend, + +"W. T. Sherman." + +Mrs. Grant had asked Edward to send her a photograph of himself, and +after one had been taken, the boy took it to the Fifth Avenue Hotel, +intending to ask the clerk to send it to her room. Instead, he met +General and Mrs. Grant just coming from the elevator, going out to +dinner. The boy told them his errand, and said he would have the +photograph sent up-stairs. + +"I am so sorry we are just going out to dinner," said Mrs. Grant, "for +the general had some excellent photographs just taken of himself, and he +signed one for you, and put it aside, intending to send it to you when +yours came." Then, turning to the general, she said: "Ulysses, send up +for it. We have a few moments." + +"I'll go and get it. I know just where it is," returned the general. +"Let me have yours," he said, turning to Edward. "I am glad to exchange +photographs with you, boy." + +To Edward's surprise, when the general returned he brought with him, not +a duplicate of the small _carte-de-visite_ size which he had given the +general--all that he could afford--but a large, full cabinet size. + +"They make 'em too big," said the general, as he handed it to Edward. + +But the boy didn't think so! + +That evening was one that the boy was long to remember. It suddenly came +to him that he had read a few days before of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln's +arrival in New York at Doctor Holbrook's sanitarium. Thither Edward +went; and within half an hour from the time he had been talking with +General Grant he was sitting at the bedside of Mrs. Lincoln, showing her +the wonderful photograph just presented to him. Edward saw that the +widow of the great Lincoln did not mentally respond to his pleasure in +his possession. It was apparent even to the boy that mental and physical +illness had done their work with the frail frame. But he had the memory, +at least, of having got that close to the great President. + + Mrs. Abraham Lincoln, October 13th 1881 + +The eventful evening, however, was not yet over. Edward had boarded a +Broadway stage to take him to his Brooklyn home when, glancing at the +newspaper of a man sitting next to him, he saw the headline: "Jefferson +Davis arrives in New York." He read enough to see that the Confederate +President was stopping at the Metropolitan Hotel, in lower Broadway, and +as he looked out of the stage-window the sign "Metropolitan Hotel" +stared him in the face. In a moment he was out of the stage; he wrote a +little note, asked the clerk to send it to Mr. Davis, and within five +minutes was talking to the Confederate President and telling of his +remarkable evening. + +Mr. Davis was keenly interested in the coincidence and in the boy before +him. He asked about the famous collection, and promised to secure for +Edward a letter written by each member of the Confederate Cabinet. This +he subsequently did. Edward remained with Mr. Davis until ten o'clock, +and that evening brought about an interchange of letters between the +Brooklyn boy and Mr. Davis at Beauvoir, Mississippi, that lasted until +the latter passed away. + +Edward was fast absorbing a tremendous quantity of biographical +information about the most famous men and women of his time, and he was +compiling a collection of autograph letters that the newspapers had made +famous throughout the country. He was ruminating over his possessions +one day, and wondering to what practical use he could put his +collection; for while it was proving educative to a wonderful degree, it +was, after all, a hobby, and a hobby means expense. His autograph quest +cost him stationery, postage, car-fare--all outgo. But it had brought +him no income, save a rich mental revenue. And the boy and his family +needed money. He did not know, then, the value of a background. + +He was thinking along this line in a restaurant when a man sitting next +to him opened a box of cigarettes, and taking a picture out of it threw +it on the floor. Edward picked it up, thinking it might be a "prospect" +for his collection of autograph letters. It was the picture of a +well-known actress. He then recalled an advertisement announcing that +this particular brand of cigarettes contained, in each package, a +lithographed portrait of some famous actor or actress, and that if the +purchaser would collect these he would, in the end, have a valuable +album of the greatest actors and actresses of the day. Edward turned the +picture over, only to find a blank reverse side. "All very well," he +thought, "but what does a purchaser have, after all, in the end, but a +lot of pictures? Why don't they use the back of each picture, and tell +what each did: a little biography? Then it would be worth keeping." With +his passion for self-education, the idea appealed very strongly to him; +and believing firmly that there were others possessed of the same +thirst, he set out the next day, in his luncheon hour, to find out who +made the picture. + +At the office of the cigarette company he learned that the making of the +pictures was in the hands of the Knapp Lithographic Company. The +following luncheon hour, Edward sought the offices of the company, and +explained his idea to Mr. Joseph P. Knapp, now the president of the +American Lithograph Company. + +"I'll give you ten dollars apiece if you will write me a +one-hundred-word biography of one hundred famous Americans," was Mr. +Knapp's instant reply. "Send me a list, and group them, as, for +instance: presidents and vice-presidents, famous soldiers, actors, +authors, etc." + +"And thus," says Mr. Knapp, as he tells the tale to-day, "I gave Edward +Bok his first literary commission, and started him off on his literary +career." + +And it is true. + +But Edward soon found the Lithograph Company calling for "copy," and, +write as he might, he could not supply the biographies fast enough. He, +at last, completed the first hundred, and so instantaneous was their +success that Mr. Knapp called for a second hundred, and then for a +third. Finding that one hand was not equal to the task, Edward offered +his brother five dollars for each biography; he made the same offer to +one or two journalists whom he knew and whose accuracy he could trust; +and he was speedily convinced that merely to edit biographies written by +others, at one-half the price paid to him, was more profitable than to +write himself. + +So with five journalists working at top speed to supply the hungry +lithograph presses, Mr. Knapp was likewise responsible for Edward Bok's +first adventure as an editor. It was commercial, if you will, but it was +a commercial editing that had a distinct educational value to a large +public. + +The important point is that Edward Bok was being led more and more to +writing and to editorship. + + + + +IV. A Presidential Friend and a Boston Pilgrimage + + +Edward Bok had not been office boy long before he realized that if he +learned shorthand he would stand a better chance for advancement. So he +joined the Young Men's Christian Association in Brooklyn, and entered +the class in stenography. But as this class met only twice a week, +Edward, impatient to learn the art of "pothooks" as quickly as possible, +supplemented this instruction by a course given on two other evenings at +moderate cost by a Brooklyn business college. As the system taught in +both classes was the same, more rapid progress was possible, and the two +teachers were constantly surprised that he acquired the art so much more +quickly than the other students. + +Before many weeks Edward could "stenograph" fairly well, and as the +typewriter had not then come into its own, he was ready to put his +knowledge to practical use. + +An opportunity offered itself when the city editor of the Brooklyn Eagle +asked him to report two speeches at a New England Society dinner. The +speakers were to be the President of the United States, General Grant, +General Sherman, Mr. Evarts, and General Sheridan. Edward was to report +what General Grant and the President said, and was instructed to give +the President's speech verbatim. + +At the close of the dinner, the reporters came in and Edward was seated +directly in front of the President. In those days when a public dinner +included several kinds of wine, it was the custom to serve the reporters +with wine, and as the glasses were placed before Edward's plate he +realized that he had to make a decision then and there. He had, of +course, constantly seen wine on his father's table, as is the European +custom, but the boy had never tasted it. He decided he would not begin +then, when he needed a clear head. So, in order to get more room for his +note-book, he asked the waiter to remove the glasses. + +It was the first time he had ever attempted to report a public address. +General Grant's remarks were few, as usual, and as he spoke slowly, he +gave the young reporter no trouble. But alas for his stenographic +knowledge, when President Hayes began to speak! Edward worked hard, but +the President was too rapid for him; he did not get the speech, and he +noticed that the reporters for the other papers fared no better. Nothing +daunted, however, after the speechmaking, Edward resolutely sought the +President, and as the latter turned to him, he told him his plight, +explained it was his first important "assignment," and asked if he could +possibly be given a copy of the speech so that he could "beat" the other +papers. + +The President looked at him curiously for a moment, and then said: "Can +you wait a few minutes?" + +Edward assured him that he could. + +After fifteen minutes or so the President came up to where the boy was +waiting, and said abruptly: + +"Tell me, my boy, why did you have the wine-glasses removed from your +place?" + +Edward was completely taken aback at the question, but he explained his +resolution as well as he could. + +"Did you make that decision this evening?" the President asked. + +He had. + +"What is your name?" the President next inquired. + +He was told. + +"And you live, where?" + +Edward told him. + +"Suppose you write your name and address on this card for me," said the +President, reaching for one of the place-cards on the table. + +The boy did so. + +"Now, I am stopping with Mr. A. A. Low, on Columbia Heights. Is that in +the direction of your home?" + +It was. + +"Suppose you go with me, then, in my carriage," said the President, "and +I will give you my speech." + +Edward was not quite sure now whether he was on his head or his feet. + +As he drove along with the President and his host, the President asked +the boy about himself, what he was doing, etc. On arriving at Mr. Low's +house, the President went up-stairs, and in a few moments came down with +his speech in full, written in his own hand. Edward assured him he would +copy it, and return the manuscript in the morning. + +The President took out his watch. It was then after midnight. Musing a +moment, he said: "You say you are an office boy; what time must you be +at your office?" + +"Half past eight, sir." + +"Well, good night," he said, and then, as if it were a second thought: +"By the way, I can get another copy of the speech. Just turn that in as +it is, if they can read it." + +Afterward, Edward found out that, as a matter of fact, it was the +President's only copy. Though the boy did not then appreciate this act +of consideration, his instinct fortunately led him to copy the speech +and leave the original at the President's stopping-place in the morning. + +And for all his trouble, the young reporter was amply repaid by seeing +that The Eagle was the only paper which had a verbatim report of the +President's speech. + +But the day was not yet done! + +That evening, upon reaching home, what was the boy's astonishment to +find the following note: + +MY DEAR YOUNG FRIEND:-- + +I have been telling Mrs. Hayes this morning of what you told me at the +dinner last evening, and she was very much interested. She would like to +see you, and joins me in asking if you will call upon us this evening at +eight-thirty. + +Very faithfully yours, + +RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. + +Edward had not risen to the possession of a suit of evening clothes, and +distinctly felt its lack for this occasion. But, dressed in the best he +had, he set out, at eight o'clock, to call on the President of the +United States and his wife! + +He had no sooner handed his card to the butler than that dignitary, +looking at it, announced: "The President and Mrs. Hayes are waiting for +you!" The ring of those magic words still sounds in Edward's ears: "The +President and Mrs. Hayes are waiting for you!"--and he a boy of sixteen! + +Edward had not been in the room ten minutes before he was made to feel +as thoroughly at ease as if he were sitting in his own home before an +open fire with his father and mother. Skilfully the President drew from +him the story of his youthful hopes and ambitions, and before the boy +knew it he was telling the President and his wife all about his precious +Encyclopedia, his evening with General Grant, and his efforts to become +something more than an office boy. No boy had ever so gracious a +listener before; no mother could have been more tenderly motherly than +the woman who sat opposite him and seemed so honestly interested in all +that he told. Not for a moment during all those two hours was he allowed +to remember that his host and hostess were the President of the United +States and the first lady of the land! + +That evening was the first of many thus spent as the years rolled by; +unexpected little courtesies came from the White House, and later from +"Spiegel Grove"; a constant and unflagging interest followed each +undertaking on which the boy embarked. Opportunities were opened to him; +acquaintances were made possible; a letter came almost every month until +that last little note, late in 1892. + + My Dear Friend: + + I would write you more fully + if I could. You are always thoughtful + & kind. + + Thankfully your friend + Rutherford B. Hayes + + Thanks--Thanks for your steady friendship. + +The simple act of turning down his wine-glasses had won for Edward Bok +two gracious friends. + +The passion for autograph collecting was now leading Edward to read the +authors whom he read about. He had become attached to the works of the +New England group: Longfellow, Holmes, and, particularly, of Emerson. +The philosophy of the Concord sage made a peculiarly strong appeal to +the young mind, and a small copy of Emerson's essays was always in +Edward's pocket on his long stage or horse-car rides to his office and +back. + +He noticed that these New England authors rarely visited New York, or, +if they did, their presence was not heralded by the newspapers among the +"distinguished arrivals." He had a great desire personally to meet these +writers; and, having saved a little money, he decided to take his week's +summer vacation in the winter, when he knew he should be more likely to +find the people of his quest at home, and to spend his savings on a trip +to Boston. He had never been away from home, so this trip was a +momentous affair. + +He arrived in Boston on Sunday evening; and the first thing he did was +to despatch a note, by messenger, to Doctor Oliver Wendell Holmes, +announcing the important fact that he was there, and what his errand +was, and asking whether he might come up and see Doctor Holmes any time +the next day. Edward naively told him that he could come as early as +Doctor Holmes liked--by breakfast-time, he was assured, as Edward was +all alone! Doctor Holmes's amusement at this ingenuous note may be +imagined. + +Within the hour the boy brought back this answer: + + MY DEAR BOY: + + I shall certainly look for you to-morrow morning at eight + o'clock to have a piece of pie with me. That is real New + England, you know. + + Very cordially yours, + + OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES." + +Edward was there at eight o'clock. Strictly speaking, he was there at +seven-thirty, and found the author already at his desk in that room +overlooking the Charles River, which he learned in after years to know +better. + +"Well," was the cheery greeting, "you couldn't wait until eight for your +breakfast, could you? Neither could I when I was a boy. I used to have +my breakfast at seven," and then telling the boy all about his boyhood, +the cheery poet led him to the dining-room, and for the first time he +breakfasted away from home and ate pie--and that with "The Autocrat" at +his own breakfast-table! + +A cosier time no boy could have had. Just the two were there, and the +smiling face that looked out over the plates and cups gave the boy +courage to tell all that this trip was going to mean to him. + +"And you have come on just to see us, have you?" chuckled the poet. +"Now, tell me, what good do you think you will get out of it?" + +He was told what the idea was: that every successful man had something +to tell a boy, that would be likely to help him, and that Edward wanted +to see the men who had written the books that people enjoyed. Doctor +Holmes could not conceal his amusement at all this. + +When breakfast was finished, Doctor Holmes said: "Do you know that I am +a full-fledged carpenter? No? Well, I am. Come into my carpenter-shop." + +And he led the way into a front-basement room where was a complete +carpenter's outfit. + +"You know I am a doctor," he explained, "and this shop is my medicine. I +believe that every man must have a hobby that is as different from his +regular work as it is possible to be. It is not good for a man to work +all the time at one thing. So this is my hobby. This is my change. I +like to putter away at these things. Every day I try to come down here +for an hour or so. It rests me because it gives my mind a complete +change. For, whether you believe it or not," he added with his +inimitable chuckle, "to make a poem and to make a chair are two very +different things." + +"Now," he continued, "if you think you can learn something from me, +learn that and remember it when you are a man. Don't keep always at your +business, whatever it may be. It makes no difference how much you like +it. The more you like it, the more dangerous it is. When you grow up you +will understand what I mean by an 'outlet'--a hobby, that is--in your +life, and it must be so different from your regular work that it will +take your thoughts into an entirely different direction. We doctors call +it a safety-valve, and it is. I would much rather," concluded the poet, +"you would forget all that I have ever written than that you should +forget what I tell you about having a safety-valve." + +"And now do you know," smilingly said the poet, "about the Charles River +here?" as they returned to his study and stood before the large bay +window. "I love this river," he said. "Yes, I love it," he repeated; +"love it in summer or in winter." And then he was quiet for a minute or +so. + +Edward asked him which of his poems were his favorites. + +"Well," he said musingly, "I think 'The Chambered Nautilus' is my most +finished piece of work, and I suppose it is my favorite. But there are +also 'The Voiceless,' 'My Aviary,' written at this window, 'The Battle +of Bunker Hill,' and 'Dorothy Q,' written to the portrait of my +great-grandmother which you see on the wall there. All these I have a +liking for, and when I speak of the poems I like best there are two +others that ought to be included--'The Silent Melody' and 'The Last +Leaf.' I think these are among my best." + +"What is the history of 'The Chambered Nautilus'?" Edward asked. + +"It has none," came the reply, "it wrote itself. So, too, did 'The +One-Hoss Shay.' That was one of those random conceptions that gallop +through the brain, and that you catch by the bridle. I caught it and +reined it. That is all." + +Just then a maid brought in a parcel, and as Doctor Holmes opened it on +his desk he smiled over at the boy and said: + +"Well, I declare, if you haven't come just at the right time. See those +little books? Aren't they wee?" and he handed the boy a set of three +little books, six inches by four in size, beautifully bound in half +levant. They were his "Autocrat" in one volume, and his better-known +poems in two volumes. + +"This is a little fancy of mine," he said. "My publishers, to please me, +have gotten out this tiny wee set. And here," as he counted the little +sets, "they have sent me six sets. Are they not exquisite little +things?" and he fondled them with loving glee. "Lucky, too, for me that +they should happen to come now, for I have been wondering what I could +give you as a souvenir of your visit to me, and here it is, sure enough! +My publishers must have guessed you were here and my mind at the same +time. Now, if you would like it, you shall carry home one of these +little sets, and I'll just write a piece from one of my poems and your +name on the fly-leaf of each volume. You say you like that little verse: + +"'A few can touch the magic string.' + +Then I'll write those four lines in this volume." And he did. + +As each little volume went under the poet's pen Edward said, as his +heart swelled in gratitude: + +"Doctor Holmes, you are a man of the rarest sort to be so good to a +boy." + + A few can touch the magic string. + And noisy fame is proud to win them,-- + Alas for those who never sing. + But die with all their music in them! + Oliver Wendell Holmes + +The pen stopped, the poet looked out on the Charles a moment, and then, +turning to the boy with a little moisture in his eye, he said: + +"No, my boy, I am not; but it does an old man's heart good to hear you +say it. It means much to those on the down-hill side to be well thought +of by the young who are coming up." + +As he wiped his gold pen, with its swan-quill holder, and laid it down, +he said: + +"That's the pen with which I wrote 'Elsie Venner' and the 'Autocrat' +papers. I try to take care of it." + +"You say you are going from me over to see Longfellow?" he continued, as +he reached out once more for the pen. "Well, then, would you mind if I +gave you a letter for him? I have something to send him." + +Sly but kindly old gentleman! The "something" he had to send Longfellow +was Edward himself, although the boy did not see through the subterfuge +at that time. + +"And now, if you are going, I'll walk along with you if you don't mind, +for I'm going down to Park Street to thank my publishers for these +little books, and that lies along your way to the Cambridge car." + +As the two walked along Beacon Street, Doctor Holmes pointed out the +residences where lived people of interest, and when they reached the +Public Garden he said: + +"You must come over in the spring some time, and see the tulips and +croci and hyacinths here. They are so beautiful. + +"Now, here is your car," he said as he hailed a coming horse-car. +"Before you go back you must come and see me and tell me all the people +you have seen; will you? I should like to hear about them. I may not +have more books coming in, but I might have a very good-looking +photograph of a very old-looking little man," he said as his eyes +twinkled. "Give my love to Longfellow when you see him, and don't forget +to give him my letter, you know. It is about a very important matter." + +And when the boy had ridden a mile or so with his fare in his hand he +held it out to the conductor, who grinned and said: + +"That's all right. Doctor Holmes paid me your fare, and I'm going to +keep that nickel if I lose my job for it." + + + + +V. Going to the Theatre with Longfellow + + +When Edward Bok stood before the home of Longfellow, he realized that he +was to see the man around whose head the boy's youthful reading had cast +a sort of halo. And when he saw the head itself he had a feeling that he +could see the halo. No kindlier pair of eyes ever looked at a boy, as, +with a smile, "the white Mr. Longfellow," as Mr. Howells had called him, +held out his hand. + +"I am very glad to see you, my boy," were his first words, and with them +he won the boy. Edward smiled back at the poet, and immediately the two +were friends. + +"I have been taking a walk this beautiful morning," he said next, "and +am a little late getting at my mail. Suppose you come in and sit at my +desk with me, and we will see what the postman has brought. He brings me +so many good things, you know." + +"Now, here is a little girl," he said, as he sat down at the desk with +the boy beside him, "who wants my autograph and a 'sentiment.' What +sentiment, I wonder, shall I send her?" + +"Why not send her 'Let us, then, be up and doing'?" suggested the boy. +"That's what I should like if I were she." + +"Should you, indeed?" said Longfellow. "That is a good suggestion. Now, +suppose you recite it off to me, so that I shall not have to look it up +in my books, and I will write as you recite. But slowly; you know I am +an old man, and write slowly." + +Edward thought it strange that Longfellow himself should not know his +own great words without looking them up. But he recited the four lines, +so familiar to every schoolboy, and when the poet had finished writing +them, he said: + +"Good! I see you have a memory. Now, suppose I copy these lines once +more for the little girl, and give you this copy? Then you can say, you +know, that you dictated my own poetry to me." + +Of course Edward was delighted, and Longfellow gave him the sheet as it +is here: + + Let us, then, be up and doing, + with a heart for any fate, + Still achieving, still pursuing, + Learn to labor and to wait. + Henry W. Longfellow + +Then, as the fine head bent down to copy the lines once more, Edward +ventured to say to him: + +"I should think it would keep you busy if you did this for every one who +asked you." + +"Well," said the poet, "you see, I am not so busy a man as I was some +years ago, and I shouldn't like to disappoint a little girl; should +you?" + +As he took up his letters again, he discovered five more requests for +his autograph. At each one he reached into a drawer in his desk, took a +card, and wrote his name on it. + +"There are a good many of these every day," said Longfellow, "but I +always like to do this little favor. It is so little to do, to write +your name on a card; and if I didn't do it some boy or girl might be +looking, day by day, for the postman and be disappointed. I only wish I +could write my name better for them. You see how I break my letters? +That's because I never took pains with my writing when I was a boy. I +don't think I should get a high mark for penmanship if I were at school, +do you?" + +"I see you get letters from Europe," said the boy, as Longfellow opened +an envelope with a foreign stamp on it. + +"Yes, from all over the world," said the poet. Then, looking at the boy +quickly, he said: "Do you collect postage-stamps?" + +Edward said he did. + +"Well, I have some right here, then," and going to a drawer in a desk he +took out a bundle of letters, and cut out the postage-stamps and gave +them to the boy. + +"There's one from the Netherlands. There's where I was born," Edward +ventured to say. + +"In the Netherlands? Then you are a real Dutchman. Well! Well!" he said, +laying down his pen. "Can you read Dutch?" + +The boy said he could. + +"Then," said the poet, "you are just the boy I am looking for." And +going to a bookcase behind him he brought out a book, and handing it to +the boy, he said, his eyes laughing: "Can you read that?" + +It was an edition of Longfellow's poems in Dutch. + +"Yes, indeed," said Edward. "These are your poems in Dutch." + +"That's right," he said. "Now, this is delightful. I am so glad you +came. I received this book last week, and although I have been in the +Netherlands, I cannot speak or read Dutch. I wonder whether you would +read a poem to me and let me hear how it sounds." + +So Edward took "The Old Clock on the Stairs," and read it to him. + +The poet's face beamed with delight. "That's beautiful," he said, and +then quickly added: "I mean the language, not the poem." + +"Now," he went on, "I'll tell you what we'll do: we'll strike a bargain. +We Yankees are great for bargains, you know. If you will read me 'The +Village Blacksmith' you can sit in that chair there made out of the wood +of the old spreading chestnut-tree, and I'll take you out and show you +where the old shop stood. Is that a bargain?" + +Edward assured him it was. He sat in the chair of wood and leather, and +read to the poet several of his own poems in a language in which, when +he wrote them, he never dreamed they would ever be printed. He was very +quiet. Finally he said: "It seems so odd, so very odd, to hear something +you know so well sound so strange." + +"It's a great compliment, though, isn't it, sir?" asked the boy. + +"Ye-es," said the poet slowly. "Yes, yes," he added quickly. "It is, my +boy, a very great compliment." + +"Ah," he said, rousing himself, as a maid appeared, "that means +luncheon, or rather," he added, "it means dinner, for we have dinner in +the old New England fashion, in the middle of the day. I am all alone +to-day, and you must keep me company; will you? Then afterward we'll go +and take a walk, and I'll show you Cambridge. It is such a beautiful old +town, even more beautiful, I sometimes think, when the leaves are off +the trees. + +"Come," he said, "I'll take you up-stairs, and you can wash your hands +in the room where George Washington slept. And comb your hair, too, if +you want to," he added; "only it isn't the same comb that he used." + +To the boyish mind it was an historic breaking of bread, that midday +meal with Longfellow. + +"Can you say grace in Dutch?" he asked, as they sat down; and the boy +did. + +"Well," the poet declared, "I never expected to hear that at my table. I +like the sound of it." + +Then while the boy told all that he knew about the Netherlands, the poet +told the boy all about his poems. Edward said he liked "Hiawatha." + +"So do I," he said. "But I think I like 'Evangeline' better. Still," he +added, "neither one is as good as it should be. But those are the things +you see afterward so much better than you do at the time." + +It was a great event for Edward when, with the poet nodding and smiling +to every boy and man he met, and lifting his hat to every woman and +little girl, he walked through the fine old streets of Cambridge with +Longfellow. At one point of the walk they came to a theatrical +bill-board announcing an attraction that evening at the Boston Theatre. +Skilfully the old poet drew out from Edward that sometimes he went to +the theatre with his parents. As they returned to the gate of "Craigie +House" Edward said he thought he would go back to Boston. + +"And what have you on hand for this evening?" asked Longfellow. + +Edward told him he was going to his hotel to think over the day's +events. + +The poet laughed and said: + +"Now, listen to my plan. Boston is strange to you. Now we're going to +the theatre this evening, and my plan is that you come in now, have a +little supper with us, and then go with us to see the play. It is a +funny play, and a good laugh will do you more good than to sit in a +hotel all by yourself. Now, what do you think?" + +Of course the boy thought as Longfellow did, and it was a very happy boy +that evening who, in full view of the large audience in the immense +theatre, sat in that box. It was, as Longfellow had said, a play of +laughter, and just who laughed louder, the poet or the boy, neither ever +knew. + +Between the acts there came into the box a man of courtly presence, +dignified and yet gently courteous. + +"Ah! Phillips," said the poet, "how are you? You must know my young +friend here. This is Wendell Phillips, my boy. Here is a young man who +told me to-day that he was going to call on you and on Phillips Brooks +to-morrow. Now you know him before he comes to you." + +"I shall be glad to see you, my boy," said Mr. Phillips. "And so you are +going to see Phillips Brooks? Let me tell you something about Brooks. He +has a great many books in his library which are full of his marks and +comments. Now, when you go to see him you ask him to let you see some of +those books, and then, when he isn't looking, you put a couple of them +in your pocket. They would make splendid souvenirs, and he has so many +he would never miss them. You do it, and then when you come to see me +tell me all about it." + +And he and Longfellow smiled broadly. + +An hour later, when Longfellow dropped Edward at his hotel, he had not +only a wonderful day to think over but another wonderful day to look +forward to as well! + +He had breakfasted with Oliver Wendell Holmes; dined, supped, and been +to the theatre with Longfellow; and to-morrow he was to spend with +Phillips Brooks. + +Boston was a great place, Edward Bok thought, as he fell asleep. + + + + +VI. Phillips Brooks's Books and Emerson's Mental Mist + + +No one who called at Phillips Brooks's house was ever told that the +master of the house was out when he was in. That was a rule laid down by +Doctor Brooks: a maid was not to perjure herself for her master's +comfort or convenience. Therefore, when Edward was told that Doctor +Brooks was out, he knew he was out. The boy waited, and as he waited he +had a chance to look around the library and into the books. The rector's +faithful housekeeper said he might when he repeated what Wendell +Phillips had told him of the interest that was to be found in her +master's books. Edward did not tell her of Mr. Phillips's advice to +"borrow" a couple of books. He reserved that bit of information for the +rector of Trinity when he came in, an hour later. + +"Oh! did he?" laughingly said Doctor Brooks. "That is nice advice for a +man to give a boy. I am surprised at Wendell Phillips. He needs a little +talk: a ministerial visit. And have you followed his shameless advice?" +smilingly asked the huge man as he towered above the boy. "No? And to +think of the opportunity you had, too. Well, I am glad you had such +respect for my dumb friends. For they are my friends, each one of them," +he continued, as he looked fondly at the filled shelves. "Yes, I know +them all, and love each for its own sake. Take this little volume," and +he picked up a little volume of Shakespeare. "Why, we are the best of +friends: we have travelled miles together--all over the world, as a +matter of fact. It knows me in all my moods, and responds to each, no +matter how irritable I am. Yes, it is pretty badly marked up now, for a +fact, isn't it? Black; I never thought of that before that it doesn't +make a book look any better to the eye. But it means more to me because +of all that pencilling. + +"Now, some folks dislike my use of my books in this way. They love their +books so much that they think it nothing short of sacrilege to mark up a +book. But to me that's like having a child so prettily dressed that you +can't romp and play with it. What is the good of a book, I say, if it is +too pretty for use? I like to have my books speak to me, and then I like +to talk back to them. + +"Take my Bible, here," he continued, as he took up an old and much-worn +copy of the book. "I have a number of copies of the Great Book: one copy +I preach from; another I minister from; but this is my own personal +copy, and into it I talk and talk. See how I talk," and he opened the +Book and showed interleaved pages full of comments in his handwriting. +"There's where St. Paul and I had an argument one day. Yes, it was a +long argument, and I don't know now who won," he added smilingly. "But +then, no one ever wins in an argument, anyway; do you think so? + +"You see," went on the preacher, "I put into these books what other men +put into articles and essays for magazines and papers. I never write for +publications. I always think of my church when something comes to me to +say. There is always danger of a man spreading himself out thin if he +attempts too much, you know." + +Doctor Brooks must have caught the boy's eye, which, as he said this, +naturally surveyed his great frame, for he regarded him in an amused +way, and putting his hands on his girth, he said laughingly: "You are +thinking I would have to do a great deal to spread myself out thin, +aren't you?" + +The boy confessed he was, and the preacher laughed one of those deep +laughs of his that were so infectious. + +"But here I am talking about myself. Tell me something about yourself?" + +And when the boy told his object in coming to Boston, the rector of +Trinity Church was immensely amused. + +"Just to see us fellows! Well, and how do you like us so far?" + +And in the most comfortable way this true gentleman went on until the +boy mentioned that he must be keeping him from his work. + +"Not at all; not at all," was the quick and hearty response. "Not a +thing to do. I cleaned up all my mail before I had my breakfast this +morning. + +"These letters, you mean?" he said, as the boy pointed to some letters +on his desk unopened. "Oh, yes! Well, they must have come in a later +mail. Well, if it will make you feel any better I'll go through them, +and you can go through my books if you like. I'll trust you," he added +laughingly, as Wendell Phillips's advice occurred to him. + +"You like books, you say?" he went on, as he opened his letters. "Well, +then, you must come into my library here at any time you are in Boston, +and spend a morning reading anything I have that you like. Young men do +that, you know, and I like to have them. What's the use of good friends +if you don't share them? There's where the pleasure comes in." + +He asked the boy then about his newspaper work: how much it paid him, +and whether he felt it helped him in an educational way. The boy told +him he thought it did; that it furnished good lessons in the study of +human nature. + +"Yes," he said, "I can believe that, so long as it is good journalism." + +Edward told him that he sometimes wrote for the Sunday paper, and asked +the preacher what he thought of that. + +"Well," he said, "that is not a crime." + +The boy asked him if he, then, favored the Sunday paper more than did +some other clergymen. + +"There is always good in everything, I think," replied Phillips Brooks. +"A thing must be pretty bad that hasn't some good in it." Then he +stopped, and after a moment went on: "My idea is that the fate of Sunday +newspapers rests very much with Sunday editors. There is a Sunday +newspaper conceivable in which we should all rejoice--all, that is, who +do not hold that a Sunday newspaper is always and per se wrong. But some +cause has, in many instances, brought it about that the Sunday paper is +below, and not above, the standard of its weekday brethren. I mean it is +apt to be more gossipy, more personal, more sensational, more frivolous; +less serious and thoughtful and suggestive. Taking for granted the fact +of special leisure on the part of its readers, it is apt to appeal to +the lower and not to the higher part of them, which the Sunday leisure +has set free. Let the Sunday newspaper be worthy of the day, and the day +will not reject it. So I say its fate is in the hands of its editor. He +can give it such a character as will make all good men its champions and +friends, or he can preserve for it the suspicion and dislike in which it +stands at present." + +Edward's journalistic instinct here got into full play; and although, as +he assured his host, he had had no such thought in coming, he asked +whether Doctor Brooks would object if he tried his reportorial wings by +experimenting as to whether he could report the talk. + +"I do not like the papers to talk about me," was the answer; "but if it +will help you, go ahead and practise on me. You haven't stolen my books +when you were told to do so, and I don't think you'll steal my name." + +The boy went back to his hotel, and wrote an article much as this +account is here written, which he sent to Doctor Brooks. "Let me keep it +by me," the doctor wrote, "and I will return it to you presently." + +And he did, with his comment on the Sunday newspaper, just as it is +given here, and with this note: + + If I must go into the + newspapers at all--which + I should always vastly + prefer to avoid--no words could + have been more kind than + those of your article. You + were very good to send it + to me. I am ever + Sincerely, Your friend, + Phillips Brooks + +As he let the boy out of his house, at the end of that first meeting, he +said to him: + +"And you're going from me now to see Emerson? I don't know," he added +reflectively, "whether you will see him at his best. Still, you may. And +even if you do not, to have seen him, even as you may see him, is +better, in a way, than not to have seen him at all." + +Edward did not know what Phillips Brooks meant. But he was, sadly, to +find out the next day. + +A boy of sixteen was pretty sure of a welcome from Louisa Alcott, and +his greeting from her was spontaneous and sincere. + +"Why, you good boy," she said, "to come all the way to Concord to see +us," quite for all the world as if she were the one favored. "Now take +your coat off, and come right in by the fire." + +"Do tell me all about your visit," she continued. + +Before that cozey fire they chatted. It was pleasant to the boy to sit +there with that sweet-faced woman with those kindly eyes! After a while +she said: "Now I shall put on my coat and hat, and we shall walk over to +Emerson's house. I am almost afraid to promise that you will see him. He +sees scarcely any one now. He is feeble, and--" She did not finish the +sentence. "But we'll walk over there, at any rate." + +She spoke mostly of her father as the two walked along, and it was easy +to see that his condition was now the one thought of her life. Presently +they reached Emerson's house, and Miss Emerson welcomed them at the +door. After a brief chat Miss Alcott told of the boy's hope. Miss +Emerson shook her head. + +"Father sees no one now," she said, "and I fear it might not be a +pleasure if you did see him." + +Then Edward told her what Phillips Brooks had said. + +"Well," she said, "I'll see." + +She had scarcely left the room when Miss Alcott rose and followed her, +saying to the boy: "You shall see Mr. Emerson if it is at all possible." + +In a few minutes Miss Alcott returned, her eyes moistened, and simply +said: "Come." + +The boy followed her through two rooms, and at the threshold of the +third Miss Emerson stood, also with moistened eyes. + +"Father," she said simply, and there, at his desk, sat Emerson--the man +whose words had already won Edward Bok's boyish interest, and who was +destined to impress himself upon his life more deeply than any other +writer. + +Slowly, at the daughter's spoken word, Emerson rose with a wonderful +quiet dignity, extended his hand, and as the boy's hand rested in his, +looked him full in the eyes. + +No light of welcome came from those sad yet tender eyes. The boy closed +upon the hand in his with a loving pressure, and for a single moment the +eyelids rose, a different look came into those eyes, and Edward felt a +slight, perceptible response of the hand. But that was all! + +Quietly he motioned the boy to a chair beside the desk. Edward sat down +and was about to say something, when, instead of seating himself, +Emerson walked away to the window and stood there softly whistling and +looking out as if there were no one in the room. Edward's eyes had +followed Emerson's every footstep, when the boy was aroused by hearing a +suppressed sob, and as he looked around he saw that it came from Miss +Emerson. Slowly she walked out of the room. The boy looked at Miss +Alcott, and she put her finger to her mouth, indicating silence. He was +nonplussed. + +Edward looked toward Emerson standing in that window, and wondered what +it all meant. Presently Emerson left the window and, crossing the room, +came to his desk, bowing to the boy as he passed, and seated himself, +not speaking a word and ignoring the presence of the two persons in the +room. + +Suddenly the boy heard Miss Alcott say: "Have you read this new book by +Ruskin yet?" + +Slowly the great master of thought lifted his eyes from his desk, turned +toward the speaker, rose with stately courtesy from his chair, and, +bowing to Miss Alcott, said with great deliberation: "Did you speak to +me, madam?" + +The boy was dumfounded! Louisa Alcott, his Louisa! And he did not know +her! Suddenly the whole sad truth flashed upon the boy. Tears sprang +into Miss Alcott's eyes, and she walked to the other side of the room. +The boy did not know what to say or do, so he sat silent. With a +deliberate movement Emerson resumed his seat, and slowly his eyes roamed +over the boy sitting at the side of the desk. He felt he should say +something. + +"I thought, perhaps, Mr. Emerson," he said, "that you might be able to +favor me with a letter from Carlyle." + +At the mention of the name Carlyle his eyes lifted, and he asked: +"Carlyle, did you say, sir, Carlyle?" + +"Yes," said the boy, "Thomas Carlyle." + +"Ye-es," Emerson answered slowly. "To be sure, Carlyle. Yes, he was here +this morning. He will be here again to-morrow morning," he added +gleefully, almost like a child. + +Then suddenly: "You were saying--" + +Edward repeated his request. + +"Oh, I think so, I think so," said Emerson, to the boy's astonishment. +"Let me see. Yes, here in this drawer I have many letters from Carlyle." + +At these words Miss Alcott came from the other part of the room, her wet +eyes dancing with pleasure and her face wreathed in smiles. + +"I think we can help this young man; do you not think so, Louisa?" said +Emerson, smiling toward Miss Alcott. The whole atmosphere of the room +had changed. How different the expression of his eyes as now Emerson +looked at the boy! "And you have come all the way from New York to ask +me that!" he said smilingly as the boy told him of his trip. "Now, let +us see," he said, as he delved in a drawer full of letters. + +For a moment he groped among letters and papers, and then, softly +closing the drawer, he began that ominous low whistle once more, looked +inquiringly at each, and dropped his eyes straightway to the papers +before him on his desk. It was to be only for a few moments, then Miss +Alcott turned away. + +The boy felt the interview could not last much longer. So, anxious to +have some personal souvenir of the meeting, he said: "Mr. Emerson, will +you be so good as to write your name in this book for me?" and he +brought out an album he had in his pocket. + +"Name?" he asked vaguely. + +"Yes, please," said the boy, "your name: Ralph Waldo Emerson." + +But the sound of the name brought no response from the eyes. + +"Please write out the name you want," he said finally, "and I will copy +it for you if I can." + +It was hard for the boy to believe his own senses. But picking up a pen +he wrote: "Ralph Waldo Emerson, Concord; November 22, 1881." + +Emerson looked at it, and said mournfully: "Thank you." Then he picked +up the pen, and writing the single letter "R" stopped, followed his +finger until it reached the "W" of Waldo, and studiously copied letter +by letter! At the word "Concord" he seemed to hesitate, as if the task +were too great, but finally copied again, letter by letter, until the +second "c" was reached. "Another 'o,'" he said, and interpolated an +extra letter in the name of the town which he had done so much to make +famous the world over. When he had finished he handed back the book, in +which there was written: + + R. Waldo Emerson + Concord + November 22, 1881 + +The boy put the book into his pocket; and as he did so Emerson's eye +caught the slip on his desk, in the boy's handwriting, and, with a smile +of absolute enlightenment, he turned and said: + +"You wish me to write my name? With pleasure. Have you a book with you?" + +Overcome with astonishment, Edward mechanically handed him the album +once more from his pocket. Quickly turning over the leaves, Emerson +picked up the pen, and pushing aside the slip, wrote without a moment's +hesitation: + + Ralph Waldo Emerson + Concord + +The boy was almost dazed at the instantaneous transformation in the man! + +Miss Alcott now grasped this moment to say: "Well, we must be going!" + +"So soon?" said Emerson, rising and smiling. Then turning to Miss Alcott +he said: "It was very kind of you, Louisa, to run over this morning and +bring your young friend." + +Then turning to the boy he said: "Thank you so much for coming to see +me. You must come over again while you are with the Alcotts. Good +morning! Isn't it a beautiful day out?" he said, and as he shook the +boy's hand there was a warm grasp in it, the fingers closed around those +of the boy, and as Edward looked into those deep eyes they twinkled and +smiled back. + +The going was all so different from the coming. The boy was grateful +that his last impression was of a moment when the eye kindled and the +hand pulsated. + +The two walked back to the Alcott home in an almost unbroken silence. +Once Edward ventured to remark: + +"You can have no idea, Miss Alcott, how grateful I am to you." + +"Well, my boy," she answered, "Phillips Brooks may be right: that it is +something to have seen him even so, than not to have seen him at all. +But to us it is so sad, so very sad. The twilight is gently closing in." + +And so it proved--just five months afterward. + +Eventful day after eventful day followed in Edward's Boston visit. The +following morning he spent with Wendell Phillips, who presented him with +letters from William Lloyd Garrison, Lucretia Mott, and other famous +persons; and then, writing a letter of introduction to Charles Francis +Adams, whom he enjoined to give the boy autograph letters from his two +presidential forbears, John Adams and John Quincy Adams, sent Edward on +his way rejoicing. Mr. Adams received the boy with equal graciousness +and liberality. Wonderful letters from the two Adamses were his when he +left. + +And then, taking the train for New York, Edward Bok went home, sitting +up all night in a day-coach for the double purpose of saving the cost of +a sleeping-berth and of having a chance to classify and clarify the +events of the most wonderful week in his life! + + + + +VII. A Plunge into Wall Street + + +The father of Edward Bok passed away when Edward was eighteen years of +age, and it was found that the amount of the small insurance left behind +would barely cover the funeral expenses. Hence the two boys faced the +problem of supporting the mother on their meagre income. They determined +to have but one goal: to put their mother back to that life of comfort +to which she had been brought up and was formerly accustomed. But that +was not possible on their income. It was evident that other employment +must be taken on during the evenings. + +The city editor of the Brooklyn Eagle had given Edward the assignment of +covering the news of the theatres; he was to ascertain "coming +attractions" and any other dramatic items of news interest. One Monday +evening, when a multiplicity of events crowded the reportorial corps, +Edward was delegated to "cover" the Grand Opera House, where Rose +Coghlan was to appear in a play that had already been seen in Brooklyn, +and called, therefore, for no special dramatic criticism. Yet The Eagle +wanted to cover it. It so happened that Edward had made another +appointment for that evening which he considered more important, and yet +not wishing to disappoint his editor he accepted the assignment. He had +seen Miss Coghlan in the play; so he kept his other engagement, and +without approaching the theatre he wrote a notice to the effect that +Miss Coghlan acted her part, if anything, with greater power than on her +previous Brooklyn visit, and so forth, and handed it in to his city +editor the next morning on his way to business. + +Unfortunately, however, Miss Coghlan had been taken ill just before the +raising of the curtain, and, there being no understudy, no performance +had been given and the audience dismissed. All this was duly commented +upon by the New York morning newspapers. Edward read this bit of news on +the ferry-boat, but his notice was in the hands of the city editor. + +On reaching home that evening he found a summons from The Eagle, and the +next morning he received a rebuke, and was informed that his chances +with the paper were over. The ready acknowledgment and evident regret of +the crestfallen boy, however, appealed to the editor, and before the end +of the week he called the boy to him and promised him another chance, +provided the lesson had sunk in. It had, and it left a lasting +impression. It was always a cause of profound gratitude with Edward Bok +that his first attempt at "faking" occurred so early in his journalistic +career that he could take the experience to heart and profit by it. + +One evening when Edward was attending a theatrical performance, he +noticed the restlessness of the women in the audience between the acts. +In those days it was, even more than at present, the custom for the men +to go out between the acts, leaving the women alone. Edward looked at +the programme in his hands. It was a large eleven-by-nine sheet, four +pages, badly printed, with nothing in it save the cast, a few +advertisements, and an announcement of some coming attraction. The boy +mechanically folded the programme, turned it long side up and wondered +whether a programme of this smaller size, easier to handle, with an +attractive cover and some reading-matter, would not be profitable. + +When he reached home he made up an eight-page "dummy," pasted an +attractive picture on the cover, indicated the material to go inside, +and the next morning showed it to the manager of the theatre. The +programme as issued was an item of considerable expense to the +management; Edward offered to supply his new programme without cost, +provided he was given the exclusive right, and the manager at once +accepted the offer. Edward then sought a friend, Frederic L. Colver, who +had a larger experience in publishing and advertising, with whom he +formed a partnership. Deciding that immediately upon the issuance of +their first programme the idea was likely to be taken up by the other +theatres, Edward proceeded to secure the exclusive rights to them all. +The two young publishers solicited their advertisements on the way to +and from business mornings and evenings, and shortly the first +smaller-sized theatre programme, now in use in all theatres, appeared. +The venture was successful from the start, returning a comfortable +profit each week. Such advertisements as they could not secure for cash +they accepted in trade; and this latter arrangement assisted materially +in maintaining the households of the two publishers. + +Edward's partner now introduced him into a debating society called The +Philomathean Society, made up of young men connected with Plymouth +Church, of which Henry Ward Beecher was pastor. The debates took the +form of a miniature congress, each member representing a State, and it +is a curious coincidence that Edward drew, by lot, the representation of +the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The members took these debates very +seriously; no subject was too large for them to discuss. Edward became +intensely interested in the society's doings, and it was not long before +he was elected president. + +The society derived its revenue from the dues of its members and from an +annual concert given under its auspices in Plymouth Church. When the +time for the concert under Edward's presidency came around, he decided +that the occasion should be unique so as to insure a crowded house. He +induced Mr. Beecher to preside; he got General Grant's promise to come +and speak; he secured the gratuitous services of Emma C. Thursby, Annie +Louise Cary, Clara Louise Kellogg, and Evelyn Lyon Hegeman, all of the +first rank of concert-singers of that day, with the result that the +church could not accommodate the crowd which naturally was attracted by +such a programme. + +It now entered into the minds of the two young theatre-programme +publishers to extend their publishing interests by issuing an "organ" +for their society, and the first issue of The Philomathean Review duly +appeared with Mr. Colver as its publisher and Edward Bok as editor. +Edward had now an opportunity to try his wings in an editorial capacity. +The periodical was, of course, essentially an organ of the society; but +gradually it took on a more general character, so that its circulation +might extend over a larger portion of Brooklyn. With this extension came +a further broadening of its contents, which now began to take on a +literary character, and it was not long before its two projectors +realized that the periodical had outgrown its name. It was decided--late +in 1884--to change the name to The Brooklyn Magazine. + +There was a periodical called The Plymouth Pulpit, which presented +verbatim reports of the sermons of Mr. Beecher, and Edward got the idea +of absorbing the Pulpit in the Magazine. But that required more capital +than he and his partner could command. They consulted Mr. Beecher, who, +attracted by the enterprise of the two boys, sent them with letters of +introduction to a few of his most influential parishioners, with the +result that the pair soon had a sufficient financial backing by some of +the leading men of Brooklyn, like A. A. Low, H. B. Claflin, Rufus T. +Bush, Henry W. Slocum, Seth Low, Rossiter W. Raymond, Horatio C. King, +and others. + +The young publishers could now go on. Understanding that Mr. Beecher's +sermons might give a partial and denominational tone to the magazine, +Edward arranged to publish also in its pages verbatim reports of the +sermons of the Reverend T. De Witt Talmage, whose reputation was then at +its zenith. The young editor now realized that he had a rather heavy +cargo of sermons to carry each month; accordingly, in order that his +magazine might not appear to be exclusively religious, he determined +that its literary contents should be of a high order and equal in +interest to the sermons. But this called for additional capital, and the +capital furnished was not for that purpose. + +It is here that Edward's autographic acquaintances stood him in good +stead. He went in turn to each noted person he had met, explained his +plight and stated his ambitions, with the result that very soon the +magazine and the public were surprised at the distinction of the +contributors to The Brooklyn Magazine. Each number contained a +noteworthy list of them, and when an article by the President of the +United States, then Rutherford B. Hayes, opened one of the numbers, the +public was astonished, since up to that time the unwritten rule that a +President's writings were confined to official pronouncements had +scarcely been broken. William Dean Howells, General Grant, General +Sherman, Phillips Brooks, General Sheridan, Canon Farrar, Cardinal +Gibbons, Marion Harland, Margaret Sangster--the most prominent men and +women of the day, some of whom had never written for magazines--began to +appear in the young editor's contents. Editors wondered how the +publishers could afford it, whereas, in fact, not a single name +represented an honorarium. Each contributor had come gratuitously to the +aid of the editor. + +At first, the circulation of the magazine permitted the boys to wrap the +copies themselves; and then they, with two other boys, would carry as +huge bundles as they could lift, put them late at night on the front +platform of the street-cars, and take them to the post-office. Thus the +boys absolutely knew the growth of their circulation by the weight of +their bundles and the number of their front-platform trips each month. +Soon a baker's hand-cart was leased for an evening, and that was added +to the capacity of the front platforms. Then one eventful month it was +seen that a horse-truck would have to be employed. Within three weeks, a +double horse-truck was necessary, and three trips had to be made. + +By this time Edward Bok had become so intensely interested in the +editorial problem, and his partner in the periodical publishing part, +that they decided to sell out their theatre-programme interests and +devote themselves to the magazine and its rapidly increasing +circulation. All of Edward's editorial work had naturally to be done +outside of his business hours, in other words, in the evenings and on +Sundays; and the young editor found himself fully occupied. He now +revived the old idea of selecting a subject and having ten or twenty +writers express their views on it. It was the old symposium idea, but it +had not been presented in American journalism for a number of years. He +conceived the topic "Should America Have a Westminster Abbey?" and +induced some twenty of the foremost men and women of the day to discuss +it. When the discussion was presented in the magazine, the form being +new and the theme novel, Edward was careful to send advance sheets to +the newspapers, which treated it at length in reviews and editorials, +with marked effect upon the circulation of the magazine. + +All this time, while Edward Bok was an editor in his evenings he was, +during the day, a stenographer and clerk of the Western Union Telegraph +Company. The two occupations were hardly compatible, but each meant a +source of revenue to the boy, and he felt he must hold on to both. + +After his father passed away, the position of the boy's desk--next to +the empty desk of his father--was a cause of constant depression to him. +This was understood by the attorney for the company, Mr. Clarence Cary, +who sought the head of Edward's department, with the result that Edward +was transferred to Mr. Cary's department as the attorney's private +stenographer. + +Edward had been much attracted to Mr. Cary, and the attorney believed in +the boy, and decided to show his interest by pushing him along. He had +heard of the dual role which Edward was playing; he bought a copy of the +magazine, and was interested. Edward now worked with new zest for his +employer and friend; while in every free moment he read law, feeling +that, as almost all his forbears had been lawyers, he might perhaps be +destined for the bar. This acquaintance with the fundamental basis of +law, cursory as it was, became like a gospel to Edward Bok. In later +years, he was taught its value by repeated experience in his contact +with corporate laws, contracts, property leases, and other matters; and +he determined that, whatever the direction of activity taken by his +sons, each should spend at least a year in the study of law. + +The control of the Western Union Telegraph Company had now passed into +the hands of Jay Gould and his companions, and in the many legal matters +arising therefrom, Edward saw much, in his office, of "the little wizard +of Wall Street." One day, the financier had to dictate a contract, and, +coming into Mr. Cary's office, decided to dictate it then and there. An +hour afterward Edward delivered the copy of the contract to Mr. Gould, +and the financier was so struck by its accuracy and by the legibility of +the handwriting that afterward he almost daily "happened in" to dictate +to Mr. Cary's stenographer. Mr. Gould's private stenographer was in his +own office in lower Broadway; but on his way down-town in the morning +Mr. Gould invariably stopped at the Western Union Building, at 195 +Broadway, and the habit resulted in the installation of a private office +there. He borrowed Edward to do his stenography. The boy found himself +taking not only letters from Mr. Gould's dictation, but, what interested +him particularly, the financier's orders to buy and sell stock. + +Edward watched the effects on the stock-market of these little notes +which he wrote out and then shot through a pneumatic tube to Mr. Gould's +brokers. Naturally, the results enthralled the boy, and he told Mr. Cary +about his discoveries. This, in turn, interested Mr. Cary; Mr. Gould's +dictations were frequently given in Mr. Cary's own office, where, as his +desk was not ten feet from that of his stenographer, the attorney heard +them, and began to buy and sell according to the magnate's decisions. + +Edward had now become tremendously interested in the stock game which he +saw constantly played by the great financier; and having a little money +saved up, he concluded that he would follow in the wake of Mr. Gould's +orders. One day, he naively mentioned his desire to Mr. Gould, when the +financier seemed in a particularly favorable frame of mind; but Edward +did not succeed in drawing out the advice he hoped for. "At least," +reasoned Edward, "he knew of my intention; and if he considered it a +violation of confidence he would have said as much." + +Construing the financier's silence to mean at least not a prohibition, +Edward went to his Sunday-school teacher, who was a member of a Wall +Street brokerage firm, laid the facts before him, and asked him if he +would buy for him some Western Union stock. Edward explained, however, +that somehow he did not like the gambling idea of buying "on margin," +and preferred to purchase the stock outright. He was shown that this +would mean smaller profits; but the boy had in mind the loss of his +father's fortune, brought about largely by "stock margins," and he did +not intend to follow that example. So, prudently, under the brokerage of +his Sunday-school teacher, and guided by the tips of no less a man than +the controlling factor of stock-market finance, Edward Bok took his +first plunge in Wall Street! + +Of course the boy's buying and selling tallied precisely with the rise +and fall of Western Union stock. It could scarcely have been otherwise. +Jay Gould had the cards all in his hands; and as he bought and sold, so +Edward bought and sold. The trouble was, the combination did not end +there, as Edward might have foreseen had he been older and thus wiser. +For as Edward bought and sold, so did his Sunday-school teacher, and all +his customers who had seen the wonderful acumen of their broker in +choosing exactly the right time to buy and sell Western Union. But +Edward did not know this. + +One day a rumor became current on the Street that an agreement had been +reached by the Western Union Company and its bitter rival, the American +Union Telegraph Company, whereby the former was to absorb the latter. +Naturally, the report affected Western Union stock. But Mr. Gould denied +it in toto; said the report was not true, no such consolidation was in +view or had even been considered. Down tumbled the stock, of course. + +But it so happened that Edward knew the rumor was true, because Mr. +Gould, some time before, had personally given him the contract of +consolidation to copy. The next day a rumor to the effect that the +American Union was to absorb the Western Union appeared on the first +page of every New York newspaper. Edward knew exactly whence this rumor +emanated. He had heard it talked over. Again, Western Union stock +dropped several points. Then he noticed that Mr. Gould became a heavy +buyer. So became Edward--as heavy as he could. Jay Gould pooh-poohed the +latest rumor. The boy awaited developments. + +On Sunday afternoon, Edward's Sunday-school teacher asked the boy to +walk home with him, and on reaching the house took him into the study +and asked him whether he felt justified in putting all his savings in +Western Union just at that time when the price was tumbling so fast and +the market was so unsteady. Edward assured his teacher that he was +right, although he explained that he could not disclose the basis of his +assurance. + +Edward thought his teacher looked worried, and after a little there came +the revelation that he, seeing that Edward was buying to his limit, had +likewise done so. But the broker had bought on margin, and had his +margin wiped out by the decline in the stock caused by the rumors. He +explained to Edward that he could recoup his losses, heavy though they +were--in fact, he explained that nearly everything he possessed was +involved--if Edward's basis was sure and the stock would recover. + +Edward keenly felt the responsibility placed upon him. He could never +clearly diagnose his feelings when he saw his teacher in this new light. +The broker's "customers" had been hinted at, and the boy of eighteen +wondered how far his responsibility went, and how many persons were +involved. But the deal came out all right, for when, three days +afterward, the contract was made public, Western Union, of course, +skyrocketed, Jay Gould sold out, Edward sold out, the teacher-broker +sold out, and all the customers sold out! + +How long a string it was Edward never discovered, but he determined +there and then to end his Wall Street experience; his original amount +had multiplied; he was content to let well enough alone, and from that +day to this Edward Bok has kept out of Wall Street. He had seen enough +of its manipulations; and, although on "the inside," he decided that the +combination of his teacher and his customers was a responsibility too +great for him to carry. + +Furthermore, Edward decided to leave the Western Union. The longer he +remained, the less he liked its atmosphere. And the closer his contact +with Jay Gould the more doubtful he became of the wisdom of such an +association and perhaps its unconscious influence upon his own life in +its formative period. + +In fact, it was an experience with Mr. Gould that definitely fixed +Edward's determination. The financier decided one Saturday to leave on a +railroad inspection tour on the following Monday. It was necessary that +a special meeting of one of his railroad interests should be held before +his departure, and he fixed the meeting for Sunday at eleven-thirty at +his residence on Fifth Avenue. He asked Edward to be there to take the +notes of the meeting. + +The meeting was protracted, and at one o'clock Mr. Gould suggested an +adjournment for luncheon, the meeting to reconvene at two. Turning to +Edward, the financier said: "You may go out to luncheon and return in an +hour." So, on Sunday afternoon, with the Windsor Hotel on the opposite +corner as the only visible place to get something to eat, but where he +could not afford to go, Edward, with just fifteen cents in his pocket, +was turned out to find a luncheon place. + +He bought three apples for five cents--all that he could afford to +spend, and even this meant that he must walk home from the ferry to his +house in Brooklyn--and these he ate as he walked up and down Fifth +Avenue until his hour was over. When the meeting ended at three o'clock, +Mr. Gould said that, as he was leaving for the West early next morning, +he would like Edward to write out his notes, and have them at his house +by eight o'clock. There were over forty note-book pages of minutes. The +remainder of Edward's Sunday afternoon and evening was spent in +transcribing the notes. By rising at half past five the next morning he +reached Mr. Gould's house at a quarter to eight, handed him the minutes, +and was dismissed without so much as a word of thanks or a nod of +approval from the financier. + +Edward felt that this exceeded the limit of fair treatment by employer +of employee. He spoke of it to Mr. Cary, and asked whether he would +object if he tried to get away from such influence and secure another +position. His employer asked the boy in which direction he would like to +go, and Edward unhesitatingly suggested the publishing business. He +talked it over from every angle with his employer, and Mr. Cary not only +agreed with him that his decision was wise, but promised to find him a +position such as he had in mind. + +It was not long before Mr. Cary made good his word, and told Edward that +his friend Henry Holt, the publisher, would like to give him a trial. + +The day before he was to leave the Western Union Telegraph Company the +fact of his resignation became known to Mr. Gould. The financier told +the boy there was no reason for his leaving, and that he would +personally see to it that a substantial increase was made in his salary. +Edward explained that the salary, while of importance to him, did not +influence him so much as securing a position in a business in which he +felt he would be happier. + +"And what business is that?" asked the financier. + +"The publishing of books," replied the boy. + +"You are making a great mistake," answered the little man, fixing his +keen gray eyes on the boy. "Books are a luxury. The public spends its +largest money on necessities: on what it can't do without. It must +telegraph; it need not read. It can read in libraries. A promising boy +such as you are, with his life before him, should choose the right sort +of business, not the wrong one." + +But, as facts proved, the "little wizard of Wall Street" was wrong in +his prediction; Edward Bok was not choosing the wrong business. + +Years afterward when Edward was cruising up the Hudson with a yachting +party one Saturday afternoon, the sight of Jay Gould's mansion, upon +approaching Irvington, awakened the desire of the women on board to see +his wonderful orchid collection. Edward explained his previous +association with the financier and offered to recall himself to him, if +the party wished to take the chance of recognition. A note was written +to Mr. Gould, and sent ashore, and the answer came back that they were +welcome to visit the orchid houses. Jay Gould, in person, received the +party, and, placing it under the personal conduct of his gardener, +turned to Edward and, indicating a bench, said: "Come and sit down here +with me." + +"Well," said the financier, who was in his domestic mood, quite +different from his Wall Street aspect, "I see in the papers that you +seem to be making your way in the publishing business." + +Edward expressed surprise that the Wall Street magnate had followed his +work. + +"I have because I always felt you had it in you to make a successful +man. But not in that business," he added quickly. "You were born for the +Street. You would have made a great success there, and that is what I +had in mind for you. In the publishing business you will go just so far; +in the Street you could have gone as far as you liked. There is room +there; there is none in the publishing business. It's not too late now, +for that matter," continued the "little wizard," fastening his steel +eyes on the lad beside him! + +And Edward Bok has often speculated whither Jay Gould might have led +him. To many a young man, a suggestion from such a source would have +seemed the one to heed and follow. But Edward Bok's instinct never +failed him. He felt that his path lay far apart from that of Jay +Gould--and the farther the better! + +In 1882 Edward, with a feeling of distinct relief, left the employ of +the Western Union Telegraph Company and associated himself with the +publishing business in which he had correctly divined that his future +lay. + +His chief regret on leaving his position was in severing the close +relations, almost as of father and son, between Mr. Cary and himself. +When Edward was left alone, with the passing away of his father, +Clarence Cary had put his sheltering arm around the lonely boy, and with +the tremendous encouragement of the phrase that the boy never forgot, "I +think you have it in you, Edward, to make a successful man," he took him +under his wing. It was a turning-point in Edward Bok's life, as he felt +at the time and as he saw more clearly afterward. + +He remained in touch with his friend, however, keeping him advised of +his progress in everything he did, not only at that time, but all +through his later years. And it was given to Edward to feel the deep +satisfaction of having Mr. Cary say, before he passed away, that the boy +had more than justified the confidence reposed in him. Mr. Cary lived to +see him well on his way, until, indeed, Edward had had the proud +happiness of introducing to his benefactor the son who bore his name, +Cary William Bok. + + + + +VIII. Starting a Newspaper Syndicate + + +Edward felt that his daytime hours, spent in a publishing atmosphere as +stenographer with Henry Holt and Company, were more in line with his +editorial duties during the evenings. The Brooklyn Magazine was now +earning a comfortable income for its two young proprietors, and their +backers were entirely satisfied with the way it was being conducted. In +fact, one of these backers, Mr. Rufus T. Bush, associated with the +Standard Oil Company, who became especially interested, thought he saw +in the success of the two boys a possible opening for one of his sons, +who was shortly to be graduated from college. He talked to the publisher +and editor about the idea, but the boys showed by their books that while +there was a reasonable income for them, not wholly dependent on the +magazine, there was no room for a third. + +Mr. Bush now suggested that he buy the magazine for his son, alter its +name, enlarge its scope, and make of it a national periodical. +Arrangements were concluded, those who had financially backed the +venture were fully paid, and the two boys received a satisfactory amount +for their work in building up the magazine. Mr. Bush asked Edward to +suggest a name for the new periodical, and in the following month of +May, 1887, The Brooklyn Magazine became The American Magazine, with its +publication office in New York. But, though a great deal of money was +spent on the new magazine, it did not succeed. Mr. Bush sold his +interest in the periodical, which, once more changing its name, became +The Cosmopolitan Magazine. Since then it has passed through the hands of +several owners, but the name has remained the same. Before Mr. Bush sold +The American Magazine he had urged Edward to come back to it as its +editor, with promise of financial support; but the young man felt +instinctively that his return would not be wise. The magazine had been +The Cosmopolitan only a short time when the new owners, Mr. Paul J. +Slicht and Mr. E. D. Walker, also solicited the previous editor to +accept reappointment. But Edward, feeling that his baby had been +rechristened too often for him to father it again, declined the +proposition. He had not heard the last of it, however, for, by a curious +coincidence, its subsequent owner, entirely ignorant of Edward's +previous association with the magazine, invited him to connect himself +with it. Thus three times could Edward Bok have returned to the magazine +for whose creation he was responsible. + +Edward was now without editorial cares; but he had already, even before +disposing of the magazine, embarked on another line of endeavor. In +sending to a number of newspapers the advance sheets of a particularly +striking "feature" in one of his numbers of The Brooklyn Magazine, it +occurred to him that he was furnishing a good deal of valuable material +to these papers without cost. It is true his magazine was receiving the +advertising value of editorial comment; but the boy wondered whether the +newspapers would not be willing to pay for the privilege of simultaneous +publication. An inquiry or two proved that they would. Thus Edward +stumbled upon the "syndicate" plan of furnishing the same article to a +group of newspapers, one in each city, for simultaneous publication. He +looked over the ground, and found that while his idea was not a new one, +since two "syndicate" agencies already existed, the field was by no +means fully covered, and that the success of a third agency would depend +entirely upon its ability to furnish the newspapers with material +equally good or better than they received from the others. After +following the material furnished by these agencies for two or three +weeks, Edward decided that there was plenty of room for his new ideas. + +He discussed the matter with his former magazine partner, Colver, and +suggested that if they could induce Mr. Beecher to write a weekly +comment on current events for the newspapers it would make an auspicious +beginning. They decided to talk it over with the famous preacher. For to +be a "Plymouth boy"--that is, to go to the Plymouth Church Sunday-school +and to attend church there--was to know personally and become devoted to +Henry Ward Beecher. And the two were synonymous. There was no distance +between Mr. Beecher and his "Plymouth boys." Each understood the other. +The tie was that of absolute comradeship. + +"I don't believe in it, boys," said Mr. Beecher when Edward and his +friend broached the syndicate letter to him. "No one yet ever made a +cent out of my supposed literary work." + +All the more reason, was the argument, why some one should. + +Mr. Beecher smiled! How well he knew the youthful enthusiasm that rushes +in, etc. + +"Well, all right, boys! I like your pluck," he finally said. "I'll help +you if I can." + +The boys agreed to pay Mr. Beecher a weekly sum of two hundred and fifty +dollars--which he knew was considerable for them. + +When the first article had been written they took him their first check. +He looked at it quizzically, and then at the boys. Then he said simply: +"Thank you." He took a pin and pinned the check to his desk. There it +remained, much to the curiosity of the two boys. + +The following week he had written the second article and the boys gave +him another check. He pinned that up over the other. "I like to look at +them," was his only explanation, as he saw Edward's inquiring glance one +morning. + +The third check was treated the same way. When the boys handed him the +fourth, one morning, as he was pinning it up over the others, he asked: +"When do you get your money from the newspapers?" + +He was told that the bills were going out that morning for the four +letters constituting a month's service. + +"I see," he remarked. + +A fortnight passed, then one day Mr. Beecher asked: "Well, how are the +checks coming in?" + +"Very well," he was assured. + +"Suppose you let me see how much you've got in," he suggested, and the +boys brought the accounts to him. + +After looking at them he said: "That's very interesting. How much have +you in the bank?" + +He was told the balance, less the checks given to him. "But I haven't +turned them in yet," he explained. "Anyhow, you have enough in bank to +meet the checks you have given me, and a profit besides, haven't you?" + +He was assured they had. + +Then, taking his bank-book from a drawer, he unpinned the six checks on +his desk, indorsed each thus: wrote a deposit-slip, and, handing the +book to Edward, said: + + For deposit (??) in Bank + H. W. Beecher + +"Just hand that in at the bank as you go by, will you?" + +Edward was very young then, and Mr. Beecher's methods of financiering +seemed to him quite in line with current notions of the Plymouth +pastor's lack of business knowledge. But as the years rolled on the +incident appeared in a new light--a striking example of the great +preacher's wonderful considerateness. + +Edward had offered to help Mr. Beecher with his correspondence; at the +close of one afternoon, while he was with the Plymouth pastor at work, +an organ-grinder and a little girl came under the study window. A cold, +driving rain was pelting down. In a moment Mr. Beecher noticed the +girl's bare toes sticking out of her worn shoes. + +He got up, went into the hall, and called for one of his granddaughters. + +"Got any good, strong rain boots?" he asked when she appeared. + +"Why, yes, grandfather. Why?" was the answer. + +"More than one pair?" Mr. Beecher asked. + +"Yes, two or three, I think." + +"Bring me your strongest pair, will you, dear?" he asked. And as the +girl looked at him with surprise he said: "Just one of my notions." + +"Now, just bring that child into the house and put them on her feet for +me, will you?" he said when the shoes came. "I'll be able to work so +much better." + +One rainy day, as Edward was coming up from Fulton Ferry with Mr. +Beecher, they met an old woman soaked with the rain. "Here, you take +this, my good woman," said the clergyman, putting his umbrella over her +head and thrusting the handle into the astonished woman's hand. "Let's +get into this," he said to Edward simply, as he hailed a passing car. + +"There is a good deal of fraud about beggars," he remarked as he waved a +sot away from him one day; "but that doesn't apply to women and +children," he added; and he never passed such mendicants without +stopping. All the stories about their being tools in the hands of +accomplices failed to convince him. "They're women and children," he +would say, and that settled it for him. + +"What's the matter, son? Stuck?" he said once to a newsboy who was +crying with a heavy bundle of papers under his arm. + +"Come along with me, then," said Mr. Beecher, taking the boy's hand and +leading him into the newspaper office a few doors up the street. + +"This boy is stuck," he simply said to the man behind the counter. +"Guess The Eagle can stand it better than this boy; don't you think so?" + +To the grown man Mr. Beecher rarely gave charity. He believed in a +return for his alms. + +"Why don't you go to work?" he asked of a man who approached him one day +in the street. + +"Can't find any," said the man. + +"Looked hard for it?" was the next question. + +"I have," and the man looked Mr. Beecher in the eye. + +"Want some?" asked Mr. Beecher. + +"I do," said the man. + +"Come with me," said the preacher. And then to Edward, as they walked +along with the man following behind, he added: "That man is honest." + +"Let this man sweep out the church," he said to the sexton when they had +reached Plymouth Church. + +"But, Mr. Beecher," replied the sexton with wounded pride, "it doesn't +need it." + +"Don't tell him so, though," said Mr. Beecher with a merry twinkle of +the eye; and the sexton understood. + +Mr. Beecher was constantly thoughtful of a struggling young man's +welfare, even at the expense of his own material comfort. Anxious to +save him from the labor of writing out the newspaper articles, Edward, +himself employed during the daylight hours which Mr. Beecher preferred +for his original work, suggested a stenographer. The idea appealed to +Mr. Beecher, for he was very busy just then. He hesitated, but as Edward +persisted, he said: "All right; let him come to-morrow." + +The next day he said: "I asked that stenographer friend of yours not to +come again. No use of my trying to dictate. I am too old to learn new +tricks. Much easier for me to write myself." + +Shortly after that, however, Mr. Beecher dictated to Edward some +material for a book he was writing. Edward naturally wondered at this, +and asked the stenographer what had happened. + +"Nothing," he said. "Only Mr. Beecher asked me how much it would cost +you to have me come to him each week. I told him, and then he sent me +away." + +That was Henry Ward Beecher! + +Edward Bok was in the formative period between boyhood and young manhood +when impressions meant lessons, and associations meant ideals. Mr. +Beecher never disappointed. The closer one got to him, the greater he +became--in striking contrast to most public men, as Edward had already +learned. + +Then, his interests and sympathies were enormously wide. He took in so +much! One day Edward was walking past Fulton Market, in New York City, +with Mr. Beecher. + +"Never skirt a market," the latter said; "always go through it. It's the +next best thing, in the winter, to going South." + +Of course all the marketmen knew him, and they knew, too, his love for +green things. + +"What do you think of these apples, Mr. Beecher?" one marketman would +stop to ask. + +Mr. Beecher would answer heartily: "Fine! Don't see how you grow them. +All that my trees bear is a crop of scale. Still, the blossoms are +beautiful in the spring, and I like an apple-leaf. Ever examine one?" +The marketman never had. "Well, now, do, the next time you come across +an apple-tree in the spring." + +And thus he would spread abroad an interest in the beauties of nature +which were commonly passed over. + +"Wonderful man, Beecher is," said a market dealer in green goods once. +"I had handled thousands of bunches of celery in my life and never +noticed how beautiful its top leaves were until he picked up a bunch +once and told me all about it. Now I haven't the heart to cut the leaves +off when a customer asks me." + +His idea of his own vegetable-gardening at Boscobel, his Peekskill home, +was very amusing. One day Edward was having a hurried dinner, +preparatory to catching the New York train. Mr. Beecher sat beside the +boy, telling him of some things he wished done in Brooklyn. + +"No, I thank you," said Edward, as the maid offered him some potatoes. + +"Look here, young man," said Mr. Beecher, "don't pass those potatoes so +lightly. They're of my own raising--and I reckon they cost me about a +dollar a piece," he added with a twinkle in his eye. + +He was an education in so many ways! One instance taught Edward the +great danger of passionate speech that might unconsciously wound, and +the manliness of instant recognition of the error. Swayed by an +occasion, or by the responsiveness of an audience, Mr. Beecher would +sometimes say something which was not meant as it sounded. One evening, +at a great political meeting at Cooper Union, Mr. Beecher was at his +brightest and wittiest. In the course of his remarks he had occasion to +refer to ex-President Hayes; some one in the audience called out: "He +was a softy!" + +"No," was Mr. Beecher's quick response. "The country needed a poultice +at that time, and got it." + +"He's dead now, anyhow," responded the voice. + +"Not dead, my friend: he only sleepeth." + +It convulsed the audience, of course, and the reporters took it down in +their books. + +After the meeting Edward drove home with Mr. Beecher. After a while he +asked: "Well, how do you think it went?" + +Edward replied he thought it went very well, except that he did not like +the reference to ex-President Hayes. + +"What reference? What did I say?" + +Edward repeated it. + +"Did I say that?" he asked. Edward looked at him. Mr. Beecher's face was +tense. After a few moments he said: "That's generally the way with +extemporaneous remarks: they are always dangerous. The best impromptu +speeches and remarks are the carefully prepared kind," he added. + +Edward told him he regretted the reference because he knew that General +Hayes would read it in the New York papers, and he would be nonplussed +to understand it, considering the cordial relations which existed +between the two men. Mr. Beecher knew of Edward's relations with the +ex-President, and they had often talked of him together. + +Nothing more was said of the incident. When the Beecher home was reached +Mr. Beecher said: "Just come in a minute." He went straight to his desk, +and wrote and wrote. It seemed as if he would never stop. At last he +handed Edward an eight-page letter, closely written, addressed to +General Hayes. + +"Read that, and mail it, please, on your way home. Then it'll get there +just as quickly as the New York papers will." + +It was a superbly fine letter,--one of those letters which only Henry +Ward Beecher could write in his tenderest moods. And the reply which +came from Fremont, Ohio, was no less fine! + + + + +IX. Association with Henry Ward Beecher + + +As a letter-writer, Henry Ward Beecher was a constant wonder. He never +wrote a commonplace letter. There was always himself in it--in whatever +mood it found him. + +It was not customary for him to see all his mail. As a rule Mrs. Beecher +opened it, and attended to most of it. One evening Edward was helping +Mrs. Beecher handle an unusually large number of letters. He was reading +one when Mr. Beecher happened to come in and read what otherwise he +would not have seen: + +"Reverend Henry Ward Beecher. + +"Dear Sir: + +"I journeyed over from my New York hotel yesterday morning to hear you +preach, expecting, of course, to hear an exposition of the gospel of +Jesus Christ. Instead, I heard a political harangue, with no reason or +cohesion in it. You made an ass of yourself. + +"Very truly yours, __ __. + +"That's to the point," commented Mr. Beecher with a smile; and then +seating himself at his desk, he turned the sheet over and wrote: + +My Dear Sir:-- + +"I am sorry you should have taken so long a journey to hear Christ +preached, and then heard what you are polite enough to call a 'political +harangue.' I am sorry, too, that you think I made an ass of myself. In +this connection I have but one consolation: that you didn't make an ass +of yourself. The Lord did that." + +"Henry Ward Beecher. + +When the Reverend T. De Witt Talmage began to come into public notice in +Brooklyn, some of Mr. Beecher's overzealous followers unwisely gave the +impression that the Plymouth preacher resented sharing with another the +pulpit fame which he alone had so long unquestioningly held. Nothing, of +course, was further from Mr. Beecher's mind. As a matter of fact, the +two men were exceedingly good friends. Mr. Beecher once met Doctor +Talmage in a crowded business thoroughfare, where they got so deeply +interested in each other's talk that they sat down in some chairs +standing in front of a furniture store. A gathering throng of intensely +amused people soon brought the two men to the realization that they had +better move. Then Mr. Beecher happened to see that back of their heads +had been, respectively, two signs: one reading, "This style $3.45," the +other, "This style $4.25." + +"Well," said Mr. Beecher, as he and Doctor Talmage walked away laughing, +"I was ticketed higher than you, Talmage, anyhow." + +"You're worth more," rejoined Doctor Talmage. + +On another occasion, as the two men met they began to bandy each other. + +"Now, Talmage," said Mr. Beecher, his eyes twinkling, "let's have it +out. My people say that Plymouth holds more people than the Tabernacle, +and your folks stand up for the Tabernacle. Now which is it? What is +your estimate?" + +"Well, I should say that the Tabernacle holds about fifteen thousand +people," said Doctor Talmage with a smile. + +"Good," said Mr. Beecher, at once catching the spirit. "And I say that +Plymouth accommodates, comfortably, twenty thousand people. Now, let's +tell our respective trustees that it's settled, once for all." + +Mr. Beecher could never be induced to take note of what others said of +him. His friends, with more heart than head, often tried to persuade him +to answer some attack, but he invariably waved them off. He always saw +the ridiculous side of those attacks; never their serious import. + +At one time a fellow Brooklyn minister, a staunch Prohibitionist, +publicly reproved Mr. Beecher for being inconsistent in his temperance +views, to the extent that he preached temperance but drank beer at his +own dinner-table. This attack angered the friends of Mr. Beecher, who +tried to persuade him to answer the charge. But the Plymouth pastor +refused. "Friend -- is a good fellow," was the only comment they could +elicit. + +"But he ought to be broadened," persisted the friends. + +"Well now," said Mr. Beecher, "that isn't always possible. For +instance," he continued, as that inimitable merry twinkle came into his +eyes, "sometime ago Friend -- criticised me for something I had said. I +thought he ought not to have done so, and the next time we met I told +him so. He persisted, and I felt the only way to treat him was as I +would an unruly child. So I just took hold of him, laid him face down +over my knee, and proceeded to impress him as our fathers used to do of +old. And, do you know, I found that the Lord had not made a place on him +for me to lay my hand upon." + +And in the laughter which met this sally Mr. Beecher ended with "You +see, it isn't always possible to broaden a man." + +Mr. Beecher was rarely angry. Once, however, he came near it; yet he was +more displeased than angry. Some of his family and Edward had gone to a +notable public affair at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where a box had +been placed at Mr. Beecher's disposal. One member of the family was a +very beautiful girl who had brought a girl-friend. Both were attired in +full evening decollete costume. Mr. Beecher came in late from another +engagement. A chair had been kept vacant for him in the immediate front +of the box, since his presence had been widely advertised, and the +audience was expecting to see him. When he came in, he doffed his coat +and was about to go to the chair reserved for him, when he stopped, +stepped back, and sat down in a chair in the rear of the box. It was +evident from his face that something had displeased him. Mrs. Beecher +leaned over and asked him, but he offered no explanation. Nothing was +said. + +Edward went back to the house with Mr. Beecher; after talking awhile in +the study, the preacher, wishing to show him something, was going +up-stairs with his guest and had nearly reached the second landing when +there was the sound of a rush, the gas was quickly turned low, and two +white figures sped into one of the rooms. + +"My dears," called Mr. Beecher. + +"Yes, Mr. Beecher," came a voice from behind the door of the room in +question. + +"Come here one minute," said Mr. Beecher. + +"But we cannot," said the voice. "We are ready for bed. Wait until--" + +"No; come as you are," returned Mr. Beecher. + +"Let me go down-stairs," Edward interrupted. + +"No; you stay right here," said Mr. Beecher. + +"Why, Mr. Beecher! How can we? Isn't Edward with you?" + +"You are keeping me waiting for you," was the quiet and firm answer. + +There was a moment's hesitation. Then the door opened and the figures of +the two girls appeared. + +"Now, turn up the gas, please, as it was," said Mr. Beecher. + +"But, Mr. Beecher--" + +"You heard me?" + +Up went the light, and the two beautiful girls of the box stood in their +night-dresses. + +"Now, why did you run away?" asked Mr. Beecher. + +"Why, Mr. Beecher! How can you ask such a question?" pouted one of the +girls, looking at her dress and then at Edward. + +"Exactly," said Mr. Beecher. "Your modesty leads you to run away from +this young man because he might possibly see you under a single light in +dresses that cover your entire bodies, while that same modesty did not +prevent you all this evening from sitting beside him, under a myriad of +lights, in dresses that exposed nearly half of your bodies. That's what +I call a distinction with a difference--with the difference to the +credit neither of your intelligence nor of your modesty. There is some +modesty in the dresses you have on: there was precious little in what +you girls wore this evening. Good night." + +"You do not believe, Mr. Beecher," Edward asked later, "in decollete +dressing for girls?" + +"No, and even less for women. A girl has some excuse of youth on her +side; a woman none at all." + +A few moments later he added: + +"A proper dress for any girl or woman is one that reveals the lady, but +not her person." + +Edward asked Mrs. Beecher one day whether Mr. Beecher had ever expressed +an opinion of his sister's famous book, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and she told +this interesting story of how the famous preacher read the story: + +"When the story was first published in The National Era, in chapters, +all our family, excepting Mr. Beecher, looked impatiently for its +appearance each week. But, try as we might, we could not persuade Mr. +Beecher to read it, or let us tell him anything about it. + +"'It's folly for you to be kept in constant excitement week after week,' +he would say. 'I shall wait till the work is completed, and take it all +at one dose.' + +"After the serial ended, the book came to Mr. Beecher on the morning of +a day when he had a meeting on hand for the afternoon and a speech to +make in the evening. The book was quietly laid one side, for he always +scrupulously avoided everything that could interfere with work he was +expected to do. But the next day was a free day. Mr. Beecher rose even +earlier than usual, and as soon as he was dressed he began to read Uncle +Tom's Cabin. When breakfast was ready he took his book with him to the +table, where reading and eating went on together; but he spoke never a +word. After morning prayers, he threw himself on the sofa, forgot +everything but his book, and read uninterruptedly till dinner-time. +Though evidently intensely interested, for a long time he controlled any +marked indication of it. Before noon I knew the storm was gathering that +would conquer his self-control, as it had done with us all. He +frequently 'gave way to his pocket-handkerchief,' to use one of his old +humorous remarks, in a most vigorous manner. In return for his teasing +me for reading the work weekly, I could not refrain from saying +demurely, as I passed him once: 'You seem to have a severe cold, Henry. +How could you have taken it?' But what did I gain? Not even a +half-annoyed shake of the head, or the semblance of a smile. I might as +well have spoken to the Sphinx. + +"When reminded that the dinner-bell had rung, he rose and went to the +table, still with his book in his hand. He asked the blessing with a +tremor in his voice, which showed the intense excitement under which he +was laboring. We were alone at the table, and there was nothing to +distract his thoughts. He drank his coffee, ate but little, and returned +to his reading, with no thought of indulging in his usual nap. His +almost uncontrollable excitement revealed itself in frequent +half-suppressed sobs. + +"Mr. Beecher was a very slow reader. I was getting uneasy over the marks +of strong feeling and excitement, and longed to have him finish the +book. I could see that he entered into the whole story, every scene, as +if it were being acted right before him, and he himself were the +sufferer. He had always been a pronounced Abolitionist, and the story he +was reading roused intensely all he had felt on that subject. + +"The night came on. It was growing late, and I felt impelled to urge him +to retire. Without raising his eyes from the book, he replied: + +"'Soon; soon; you go; I'll come soon.' + +"Closing the house, I went to our room; but not to sleep. The clock +struck twelve, one, two, three; and then, to my great relief, I heard +Mr. Beecher coming up-stairs. As he entered, he threw Uncle Tom's Cabin +on the table, exclaiming: 'There; I've done it! But if Hattie Stowe ever +writes anything more like that I'll--well! She has nearly killed me.' + +"And he never picked up the book from that day." + +Any one who knew Henry Ward Beecher at all knew of his love of books. He +was, however, most prodigal in lending his books and he always forgot +the borrowers. Then when he wanted a certain volume from his library he +could not find it. He would, of course, have forgotten the borrower, but +he had a unique method of tracing the book. + +One evening the great preacher suddenly appeared at a friend's house +and, quietly entering the drawing-room without removing his overcoat, he +walked up to his friend and said: + +"Rossiter, why don't you bring back that Ruskin of mine that I lent +you?" + +The man colored to the roots of his hair. "Why, Mr. Beecher," he said, +"I'll go up-stairs and get it for you right away. I would not have kept +it so long, only you told me I might." + +At this Beecher burst into a fit of merry laughter. "Found! Found!" he +shouted, as he took off his overcoat and threw himself into a chair. + +When he could stop laughing, he said: "You know, Rossiter, that I am +always ready to lend my books to any one who will make good use of them +and bring them back, but I always forget to whom I lend them. It +happened, in this case, that I wanted that volume of Ruskin about a week +ago; but when I went to the shelf for it, it was gone. I knew I must +have lent it, but to whom I could not remember. During the past week, I +began to demand the book of every friend I met to whom I might have lent +it. Of course, every one of them protested innocence; but at last I've +struck the guilty man. I shall know, in future, how to find my missing +books. The plan works beautifully." + +One evening, after supper, Mr. Beecher said to his wife: + +"Mother, what material have we among our papers about our early Indiana +days?" + +Mr. Beecher had long been importuned to write his autobiography, and he +had decided to do it after he had finished his Life of Christ. + +Mrs. Beecher had two boxes brought into the room. + +"Suppose you look into that box, if you will," said Mr. Beecher to +Edward, "and I'll take this one, and we'll see what we can find about +that time. Mother, you supervise and see how we look on the floor." + +And Mr. Beecher sat down on the floor in front of one box, +shoemaker-fashion, while Edward, likewise on the floor, started on the +other box. + +It was a dusty job, and the little room began to be filled with +particles of dust which set Mrs. Beecher coughing. At last she said: +"I'll leave you two to finish. I have some things to do up-stairs, and +then I'll retire. Don't be too late, Henry," she said. + +It was one of those rare evenings for Mr. Beecher--absolutely free from +interruption; and, with his memory constantly taken back to his early +days, he continued in a reminiscent mood that was charmingly intimate to +the boy. + +"Found something?" he asked at one intermission when quiet had reigned +longer than usual, and he saw Edward studying a huge pile of papers. + +"No, sir," said the boy. "Only a lot of papers about a suit." + +"What suit?" asked Mr. Beecher mechanically, with his head buried in his +box. + +"I don't know, sir," Edward replied naively, little knowing what he was +reopening to the preacher. "'Tilton versus Beecher' they are marked." + +Mr. Beecher said nothing, and after the boy had fingered the papers he +chanced to look in the preacher's direction and found him watching him +intently with a curiously serious look in his face. + +"Must have been a big suit," commented the boy. "Here's another pile of +papers about it." + +Edward could not make out Mr. Beecher's steady look at him as he sat +there on the floor mechanically playing with a paper in his hand. + +"Yes," he finally said, "it was a big suit. What does it mean to you?" +he asked suddenly. + +"To me?" Edward asked. "Nothing, sir. Why?" + +Mr. Beecher said nothing for a few moments, and turned to his box to +examine some more papers. + +Then the boy asked: "Was the Beecher in this suit you, Mr. Beecher?" + +Again was turned on him that serious, questioning look. + +"Yes," he said after a bit. Then he thought again for a few moments and +said: "How old were you in 1875?" + +"Twelve," the boy replied. + +"Twelve," he repeated. "Twelve." + +He turned again to his box and Edward to his. + +"There doesn't seem to be anything more in this box," the boy said, "but +more papers in that suit," and he began to put the papers back. + +"What do you know about that 'suit,' as you call it?" asked Mr. Beecher, +stopping in his work. + +"Nothing," was the reply. "I never heard of it." + +"Never heard of it?" he repeated, and he fastened that curious look upon +Edward again. It was so compelling that it held the boy. For several +moments they looked at each other. Neither spoke. + +"That seems strange," he said, at last, as he renewed the search of his +box. "Never heard of it," he repeated almost to himself. + +Then for fully five minutes not a word was spoken. + +"But you will some day," said Mr. Beecher suddenly. + +"I will what, Mr. Beecher?" asked the boy. He had forgotten the previous +remark. + +Mr. Beecher looked at Edward and sighed. "Hear about it," he said. + +"I don't think I understand you," was the reply. + +"No, I don't think you do," he said. "I mean, you will some day hear +about that suit. And I don't know," then he hesitated, "but--but you +might as well get it straight. You say you were twelve then," he mused. +"What were you doing when you were twelve?" + +"Going to school," was the reply. + +"Yes, of course," said Mr. Beecher. "Well," he continued, turning on his +haunches so that his back rested against the box, "I am going to tell +you the story of that suit, and then you'll know it." + +Edward said nothing, and then began the recital of a story that he was +destined to remember. It was interesting then, as Mr. Beecher +progressed; but how thrice interesting that wonderful recital was to +prove as the years rolled by and the boy realized the wonderful telling +of that of all stories by Mr. Beecher himself! + +Slowly, and in that wonderfully low, mellow voice that so many knew and +loved, step by step, came the unfolding of that remarkable story. Once +or twice only did the voice halt, as when, after he had explained the +basis of the famous suit, he said: + +"Those were the charges. That is what it was all about." + +Then he looked at Edward and asked: "Do you know just what such charges +mean?" + +"I think I do," Edward replied, and the question was asked with such +feeling, and the answer was said so mechanically, that Mr. Beecher +replied simply: "Perhaps." + +"Well," he continued, "the suit was a 'long one,' as you said. For days +and weeks, yes, for months, it went on, from January to July, and those +were very full days: full of so many things that you would hardly +understand." + +And then he told the boy as much of the days in court as he thought he +would understand, and how the lawyers worked and worked, in court all +day, and up half the night, preparing for the next day. "Mostly around +that little table there," he said, pointing to a white, marble-topped +table against which the boy was leaning, and which now stands in Edward +Bok's study. + +"Finally the end came," he said, "after--well, months. To some it seemed +years," said Mr. Beecher, and his eyes looked tired. + +"Well," he continued, "the case went to the jury: the men, you know, who +had to decide. There were twelve of them." + +"Was it necessary that all twelve should think alike?" asked the boy. + +"That was what was hoped, my boy," said Mr. Beecher--"that was what was +hoped," he repeated. + +"Well, they did, didn't they?" Edward asked, as Mr. Beecher stopped. + +"Nine did," he replied. "Yes; nine did. But three didn't. Three +thought--" Mr. Beecher stopped and did not finish the sentence. "But +nine did," he repeated. "Nine to three it stood. That was the decision, +and then the judge discharged the jury," he said. + +There was naturally one question in the boyish mind to ask the man +before him--one question! Yet, instinctively, something within him made +him hesitate to ask that question. But at last his curiosity got the +better of the still, small voice of judgment. + +"And, Mr. Beecher--" the boy began. + +But Mr. Beecher knew! He knew what was at the end of the tongue, looked +clear into the boy's mind; and Edward can still see him lift that fine +head and look into his eyes, as he said, slowly and clearly: + +"And the decision of the nine was in exact accord with the facts." + +He had divined the question! + +As the two rose from the floor that night Edward looked at the clock. It +was past midnight; Mr. Beecher had talked for two hours; the boy had +spoken hardly at all. + +As the boy was going out, he turned to Mr. Beecher sitting thoughtfully +in his chair. + +"Good night, Mr. Beecher," he said. + +The Plymouth pastor pulled himself together, and with that wit that +never forsook him he looked at the clock, smiled, and answered: "Good +morning, I should say. God bless you, my boy." Then rising, he put his +arm around the boy's shoulders and walked with him to the door. + + + + +X. The First "Woman's Page," "Literary Leaves," and Entering Scribner's + + +Mr. Beecher's weekly newspaper "syndicate" letter was not only +successful in itself, it made liberal money for the writer and for its +two young publishers, but it served to introduce Edward Bok's proposed +agency to the newspapers under the most favorable conditions. With one +stroke, the attention of newspaper editors had been attracted, and +Edward concluded to take quick advantage of it. He organized the Bok +Syndicate Press, with offices in New York, and his brother, William J. +Bok, as partner and active manager. Edward's days were occupied, of +course, with his duties in the Holt publishing house, where he was +acquiring a first-hand knowledge of the business. + +Edward's attention was now turned, for the first time, to women and +their reading habits. He became interested in the fact that the American +woman was not a newspaper reader. He tried to find out the psychology of +this, and finally reached the conclusion, on looking over the +newspapers, that the absence of any distinctive material for women was a +factor. He talked the matter over with several prominent New York +editors, who frankly acknowledged that they would like nothing better +than to interest women, and make them readers of their papers. But they +were equally frank in confessing that they were ignorant both of what +women wanted, and, even if they knew, of where such material was to be +had. Edward at once saw that here was an open field. It was a productive +field, since, as woman was the purchasing power, it would benefit the +newspaper enormously in its advertising if it could offer a feminine +clientele. + +There was a bright letter of New York gossip published in the New York +Star, called "Bab's Babble." Edward had read it, and saw the possibility +of syndicating this item as a woman's letter from New York. He +instinctively realized that women all over the country would read it. He +sought out the author, made arrangements with her and with former +Governor Dorscheimer, owner of the paper, and the letter was sent out to +a group of papers. It was an instantaneous success, and a syndicate of +ninety newspapers was quickly organized. + +Edward followed this up by engaging Ella Wheeler Wilcox, then at the +height of her career, to write a weekly letter on women's topics. This +he syndicated in conjunction with the other letter, and the editors +invariably grouped the two letters. This, in turn, naturally led to the +idea of supplying an entire page of matter of interest to women. The +plan was proposed to a number of editors, who at once saw the +possibilities in it and promised support. The young syndicator now laid +under contribution all the famous women writers of the day; he chose the +best of the men writers to write on women's topics; and it was not long +before the syndicate was supplying a page of women's material. The +newspapers played up the innovation, and thus was introduced into the +newspaper press of the United States the "Woman's Page." + +The material supplied by the Bok Syndicate Press was of the best; the +standard was kept high; the writers were selected from among the most +popular authors of the day; and readability was the cardinal note. The +women bought the newspapers containing the new page, the advertiser +began to feel the presence of the new reader, and every newspaper that +could not get the rights for the "Bok Page," as it came to be known, +started a "Woman's Page" of it own. Naturally, the material so obtained +was of an inferior character. No single newspaper could afford what the +syndicate, with the expense divided among a hundred newspapers, could +pay. Nor had the editors of these woman's pages either a standard or a +policy. In desperation they engaged any person they could to "get a lot +of woman's stuff." It was stuff, and of the trashiest kind. So that +almost coincident with the birth of the idea began its abuse and +disintegration; the result we see in the meaningless presentations which +pass for "woman's pages" in the newspaper of to-day. + +This is true even of the woman's material in the leading newspapers, and +the reason is not difficult to find. The average editor has, as a rule, +no time to study the changing conditions of women's interests; his time +is and must be engrossed by the news and editorial pages. He usually +delegates the Sunday "specials" to some editor who, again, has little +time to study the ever-changing women's problems, particularly in these +days, and he relies upon unintelligent advice, or he places his "woman's +page" in the hands of some woman with the comfortable assurance that, +being a woman, she ought to know what interests her sex. + +But having given the subject little thought, he attaches minor +importance to the woman's "stuff," regarding it rather in the light of +something that he "must carry to catch the women"; and forthwith he +either forgets it or refuses to give the editor of his woman's page even +a reasonable allowance to spend on her material. The result is, of +course, inevitable: pages of worthless material. There is, in fact, no +part of the Sunday newspaper of to-day upon which so much good and now +expensive white paper is wasted as upon the pages marked for the home, +for women, and for children. + +Edward Bok now became convinced, from his book-publishing association, +that if the American women were not reading the newspapers, the American +public, as a whole, was not reading the number of books that it should, +considering the intelligence and wealth of the people, and the cheap +prices at which books were sold. He concluded to see whether he could +not induce the newspapers to give larger and more prominent space to the +news of the book world. + +Owing to his constant contact with authors, he was in a peculiarly +fortunate position to know their plans in advance of execution, and he +was beginning to learn the ins and outs of the book-publishing world. He +canvassed the newspapers subscribing to his syndicate features, but +found a disinclination to give space to literary news. To the average +editor, purely literary features held less of an appeal than did the +features for women. Fewer persons were interested in books, they +declared; besides, the publishing houses were not so liberal advertisers +as the department stores. The whole question rested on a commercial +basis. + +Edward believed he could convince editors of the public interest in a +newsy, readable New York literary letter, and he prevailed upon the +editor of the New York Star to allow him to supplement the book reviews +of George Parsons Lathrop in that paper by a column of literary chat +called "Literary Leaves." For a number of weeks he continued to write +this department, and confine it to the New York paper, feeling that he +needed the experience for the acquirement of a readable style, and he +wanted to be sure that he had opened a sufficient number of productive +news channels to ensure a continuous flow of readable literary +information. + +Occasionally he sent to an editor here and there what he thought was a +particularly newsy letter just "for his information, not for sale." The +editor of the Philadelphia Times was the first to discover that his +paper wanted the letter, and the Boston Journal followed suit. Then the +editor of the Cincinnati Times-Star discovered the letter in the New +York Star, and asked that it be supplied weekly with the letter. These +newspapers renamed the letter "Bok's Literary Leaves," and the feature +started on its successful career. + +Edward had been in the employ of Henry Holt and Company as clerk and +stenographer for two years when Mr. Cary sent for him and told him that +there was an opening in the publishing house of Charles Scribner's Sons, +if he wanted to make a change. Edward saw at once the larger +opportunities possible in a house of the importance of the Scribners, +and he immediately placed himself in communication with Mr. Charles +Scribner, with the result that in January, 1884, he entered the employ +of these publishers as stenographer to the two members of the firm and +to Mr. Edward L. Burlingame, literary adviser to the house. He was to +receive a salary of eighteen dollars and thirty-three cents per week, +which was then considered a fair wage for stenographic work. The +typewriter had at that time not come into use, and all letters were +written in long-hand. Once more his legible handwriting had secured for +him a position. + +Edward Bok was now twenty-one years of age. He had already done a +prodigious amount of work for a boy of his years. He was always busy. +Every spare moment of his evenings was devoted either to writing his +literary letter, to the arrangement or editing of articles for his +newspaper syndicate, to the steady acquirement of autograph letters in +which he still persisted, or to helping Mr. Beecher in his literary +work. The Plymouth pastor was particularly pleased with Edward's +successful exploitation of his pen work; and he afterward wrote: "Bok is +the only man who ever seemed to make my literary work go and get money +out of it." + +Enterprise and energy the boy unquestionably possessed, but one need +only think back even thus far in his life to see the continuous good +fortune which had followed him in the friendships he had made, and in +the men with whom his life, at its most formative period, had come into +close contact. If we are inclined to credit young Bok with an +ever-willingness to work and a certain quality of initiative, the +influences which played upon him must also be taken into account. + +Take, for example, the peculiarly fortuitous circumstances under which +he entered the Scribner publishing house. As stenographer to the two +members of the firm, Bok was immediately brought into touch with the +leading authors of the day, their works as they were discussed in the +correspondence dictated to him, and the authors' terms upon which books +were published. In fact, he was given as close an insight as it was +possible for a young man to get into the inner workings of one of the +large publishing houses in the United States, with a list peculiarly +noted for the distinction of its authors and the broad scope of its +books. + +The Scribners had the foremost theological list of all the publishing +houses; its educational list was exceptionally strong; its musical list +excelled; its fiction represented the leading writers of the day; its +general list was particularly noteworthy; and its foreign department, +importing the leading books brought out in Great Britain and Europe, was +an outstanding feature of the business. The correspondence dictated to +Bok covered, naturally, all these fields, and a more remarkable +opportunity for self-education was never offered a stenographer. + +Mr. Burlingame was known in the publishing world for his singularly keen +literary appreciation, and was accepted as one of the best judges of +good fiction. Bok entered the Scribner employ as Mr. Burlingame was +selecting the best short stories published within a decade for a set of +books to be called "Short Stories by American Authors." The +correspondence for this series was dictated to Bok, and he decided to +read after Mr. Burlingame and thus get an idea of the best fiction of +the day. So whenever his chief wrote to an author asking for permission +to include his story in the proposed series, Bok immediately hunted up +the story and read it. + +Later, when the house decided to start Scribner's Magazine, and Mr. +Burlingame was selected to be its editor, all the preliminary +correspondence was dictated to Bok through his employers, and he +received a first-hand education in the setting up of the machinery +necessary for the publication of a magazine. All this he eagerly +absorbed. + +He was again fortunate in that his desk was placed in the advertising +department of the house; and here he found, as manager, an old-time +Brooklyn boy friend with whom he had gone to school: Frank N. Doubleday, +to-day the senior partner of Doubleday, Page and Company. Bok had been +attracted to advertising through his theatre programme and Brooklyn +Magazine experience, and here was presented a chance to learn the art at +first hand and according to the best traditions. So, whenever his +stenographic work permitted, he assisted Mr. Doubleday in preparing and +placing the advertisements of the books of the house. + +Mr. Doubleday was just reviving the publication of a house-organ called +The Book Buyer, and, given a chance to help in this, Bok felt he was +getting back into the periodical field, especially since, under Mr. +Doubleday's guidance, the little monthly soon developed into a literary +magazine of very respectable size and generally bookish contents. + +The house also issued another periodical, The Presbyterian Review, a +quarterly under the editorship of a board of professors connected with +the Princeton and Union Theological Seminaries. This ponderous-looking +magazine was not composed of what one might call "light reading," and as +the price of a single copy was eighty cents, and the advertisements it +could reasonably expect were necessarily limited in number, the +periodical was rather difficult to move. Thus the whole situation at the +Scribners' was adapted to give Edward an all-round training in the +publishing business. It was an exceptional opportunity. + +He worked early and late. An increase in his salary soon told him that +he was satisfying his employers, and then, when the new Scribner's +Magazine appeared, and a little later Mr. Doubleday was delegated to +take charge of the business end of it, Bok himself was placed in charge +of the advertising department, with the publishing details of the two +periodicals on his hands. + +He suddenly found himself directing a stenographer instead of being a +stenographer himself. Evidently his apprentice days were over. He had, +in addition, the charge of sending all the editorial copies of the new +books to the press for review, and of keeping a record of those reviews. +This naturally brought to his desk the authors of the house who wished +to see how the press received their works. + +The study of the writers who were interested in following the press +notices of their books, and those who were indifferent to them became a +fascinating game to young Bok. He soon discovered that the greater the +author the less he seemed to care about his books once they were +published. Bok noticed this, particularly, in the case of Robert Louis +Stevenson, whose work had attracted him, but, although he used the most +subtle means to inveigle the author into the office to read the press +notices, he never succeeded. Stevenson never seemed to have the +slightest interest in what the press said of his books. + +One day Mr. Burlingame asked Bok to take some proofs to Stevenson at his +home; thinking it might be a propitious moment to interest the author in +the popular acclaim that followed the publication of Doctor Jekyll and +Mr. Hyde, Bok put a bunch of press notices in his pocket. He found the +author in bed, smoking his inevitable cigarette. + +As the proofs were to be brought back, Bok waited, and thus had an +opportunity for nearly two hours to see the author at work. No man ever +went over his proofs more carefully than did Stevenson; his corrections +were numerous; and sometimes for ten minutes at a time he would sit +smoking and thinking over a single sentence, which, when he had +satisfactorily shaped it in his mind, he would recast on the proof. + +Stevenson was not a prepossessing figure at these times. With his sallow +skin and his black dishevelled hair, with finger-nails which had been +allowed to grow very long, with fingers discolored by tobacco--in short, +with a general untidiness that was all his own, Stevenson, so Bok felt, +was an author whom it was better to read than to see. And yet his +kindliness and gentleness more than offset the unattractiveness of his +physical appearance. + +After one or two visits from Bok, having grown accustomed to him, +Stevenson would discuss some sentence in an article, or read some +amended paragraph out loud and ask whether Bok thought it sounded +better. To pass upon Stevenson as a stylist was, of course, hardly +within Bok's mental reach, so he kept discreetly silent when Stevenson +asked his opinion. + +In fact, Bok reasoned it out that the novelist did not really expect an +answer or an opinion, but was at such times thinking aloud. The mental +process, however, was immensely interesting, particularly when Stevenson +would ask Bok to hand him a book on words lying on an adjacent table. +"So hard to find just the right word," Stevenson would say, and Bok got +his first realization of the truth of the maxim: "Easy writing, hard +reading; hard writing, easy reading." + +On this particular occasion when Stevenson finished, Bok pulled out his +clippings, told the author how his book was being received, and was +selling, what the house was doing to advertise it, explained the +forthcoming play by Richard Mansfield, and then offered the press +notices. + +Stevenson took the bundle and held it in his hand. + +"That's very nice to tell me all you have," he said, "and I have been +greatly interested. But you have really told me all about it, haven't +you, so why should I read these notices? Hadn't I better get busy on +another paper for Mr. Burlingame for the next magazine, else he'll be +after me? You know how impatient these editors are." And he handed back +the notices. + +Bok saw it was of no use: Stevenson was interested in his work, but, +beyond a certain point, not in the world's reception of it. Bok's +estimate of the author rose immeasurably. His attitude was in such sharp +contrast to that of others who came almost daily into the office to see +what the papers said, often causing discomfiture to the young +advertising director by insisting upon taking the notices with them. But +Bok always countered this desire by reminding the author that, of +course, in that case he could not quote from these desirable notices in +his advertisements of the book. And, invariably, the notices were left +behind! + +It now fell to the lot of the young advertiser to arouse the interest of +the public in what were to be some of the most widely read and +best-known books of the day: Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. +Hyde; Frances Hodgson Burnett's Little Lord Fauntleroy; Andrew +Carnegie's Triumphant Democracy; Frank R. Stockton's The Lady, or the +Tiger? and his Rudder Grange, and a succession of other books. + +The advertising of these books keenly sharpened the publicity sense of +the developing advertising director. One book could best be advertised +by the conventional means of the display advertisement; another, like +Triumphant Democracy, was best served by sending out to the newspapers a +"broadside" of pungent extracts; public curiosity in a novel like The +Lady, or the Tiger? was, of course, whetted by the publication of +literary notes as to the real denouement the author had in mind in +writing the story. Whenever Mr. Stockton came into the office Bok pumped +him dry as to his experiences with the story, such as when, at a dinner +party, his hostess served an ice-cream lady and a tiger to the author, +and the whole company watched which he chose. + +"And which did you choose?" asked the advertising director. + +"_Et tu, Brute?_" Stockton smilingly replied. "Well, I'll tell you. I +asked the butler to bring me another spoon, and then, with a spoon in +each hand, I attacked both the lady and the tiger at the same time." + +Once, when Stockton was going to Boston by the night boat, every room +was taken. The ticket agent recognized the author, and promised to get +him a desirable room if the author would tell which he had had in mind, +the lady or the tiger. + +"Produce the room," answered Stockton. + +The man did. Stockton paid for it, and then said: "To tell you the +truth, my friend, I don't know." + +And that was the truth, as Mr. Stockton confessed to his friends. The +idea of the story had fascinated him; when he began it he purposed to +give it a definite ending. But when he reached the end he didn't know +himself which to produce out of the open door, the lady or the tiger, +"and so," he used to explain, "I made up my mind to leave it hanging in +the air." + +To the present generation of readers, all this reference to Stockton's +story may sound strange, but for months it was the most talked-of story +of the time, and sold into large numbers. + +One day while Mr. Stockton was in Bok's office, A. B. Frost, the +illustrator, came in. Frost had become a full-fledged farmer with one +hundred and twenty acres of Jersey land, and Stockton had a large farm +in the South which was a financial burden to him. + +"Well, Stockton," said Frost, "I have found a way at last to make a farm +stop eating up money. Perhaps it will help you." + +Stockton was busy writing, but at this bit of hopeful news he looked up, +his eyes kindled, he dropped his pen, and eagerly said: + +"Tell me." + +And looking behind him to see that the way was clear, Frost answered: + +"Pave it solid, old man." + +When the stories of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Little Lord Fauntleroy +were made into plays, Bok was given an opportunity for an entirely +different kind of publicity. Both plays were highly successful; they ran +for weeks in succession, and each evening Bok had circulars of the books +in every seat of the theatre; he had a table filled with the books in +the foyer of each theatre; and he bombarded the newspapers with stories +of Mr. Mansfield's method of making the quick change from one character +to the other in the dual role of the Stevenson play, and with anecdotes +about the boy Tommy Russell in Mrs. Burnett's play. The sale of the +books went merrily on, and kept pace with the success of the plays. And +it all sharpened the initiative of the young advertiser and developed +his sense for publicity. + +One day while waiting in the anteroom of a publishing house to see a +member of the firm, he picked up a book and began to read it. Since he +had to wait for nearly an hour, he had read a large part of the volume +when he was at last admitted to the private office. When his business +was finished, Bok asked the publisher why this book was not selling. + +"I don't know," replied the publisher. "We had great hopes for it, but +somehow or other the public has not responded to it." + +"Are you sure you are telling the public about it in the right way?" +ventured Bok. + +The Scribner advertising had by this time attracted the attention of the +publishing world, and this publisher was entirely ready to listen to a +suggestion from his youthful caller. + +"I wish we published it," said Bok. "I think I could make it a go. It's +all in the book." + +"How would you advertise it?" asked the publisher. + +Bok promised the publisher he would let him know. He carried with him a +copy of the book, wrote some advertisements for it, prepared an +attractive "broadside" of extracts, to which the book easily lent +itself, wrote some literary notes about it, and sent the whole +collection to the publisher. Every particle of "copy" which Bok had +prepared was used, the book began to sell, and within three months it +was the most discussed book of the day. + +The book was Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward". + + + + +XI. The Chances for Success + + +Edward Bok does not now remember whether the mental picture had been +given him, or whether he had conjured it up for himself; but he +certainly was possessed of the idea, as are so many young men entering +business, that the path which led to success was very difficult: that it +was overfilled with a jostling, bustling, panting crowd, each eager to +reach the goal; and all ready to dispute every step that a young man +should take; and that favoritism only could bring one to the top. + +After Bok had been in the world of affairs, he wondered where were these +choked avenues, these struggling masses, these competitors for every +inch of vantage. Then he gradually discovered that they did not exist. + +In the first place, he found every avenue leading to success wide open +and certainly not over-peopled. He was surprised how few there were who +really stood in a young man's way. He found that favoritism was not the +factor that he had been led to suppose. He realized it existed in a few +isolated cases, but to these every one had pointed and about these every +one had talked until, in the public mind, they had multiplied in number +and assumed a proportion that the facts did not bear out. + +Here and there a relative "played a favorite," but even with the push +and influence behind him "the lucky one," as he was termed, did not seem +to make progress, unless he had merit. It was not long before Bok +discovered that the possession of sheer merit was the only real factor +that actually counted in any of the places where he had been employed or +in others which he had watched; that business was so constructed and +conducted that nothing else, in the face of competition, could act as +current coin. And the amazing part of it all to Bok was how little merit +there was. Nothing astonished him more than the low average ability of +those with whom he worked or came into contact. + +He looked at the top, and instead of finding it overcrowded, he was +surprised at the few who had reached there; the top fairly begged for +more to climb its heights. + +For every young man, earnest, eager to serve, willing to do more than he +was paid for, he found ten trying to solve the problem of how little +they could actually do for the pay received. + +It interested Bok to listen to the talk of his fellow-workers during +luncheon hours and at all other times outside of office hours. When the +talk did turn on the business with which they were concerned, it +consisted almost entirely of wages, and he soon found that, with +scarcely an exception, every young man was terribly underpaid, and that +his employer absolutely failed to appreciate his work. It was +interesting, later, when Bok happened to get the angle of the employer, +to discover that, invariably, these same lamenting young men were those +who, from the employer's point of view, were either greatly overpaid or +so entirely worthless as to be marked for early decapitation. + +Bok felt that this constant thought of the wages earned or deserved was +putting the cart before the horse; he had schooled himself into the +belief that if he did his work well, and accomplished more than was +expected of him, the question of wages would take care of itself. But, +according to the talk on every side, it was he who had the cart before +the horse. Bok had not only tried always to fill the particular job set +for him but had made it a rule at the same time to study the position +just ahead, to see what it was like, what it demanded, and then, as the +opportunity presented itself, do a part of that job in addition to his +own. As a stenographer, he tried always to clear off the day's work +before he closed his desk. This was not always possible, but he kept it +before him as a rule to be followed rather than violated. + +One morning Bok's employer happened to come to the office earlier than +usual, to find the letters he had dictated late in the afternoon before +lying on his desk ready to be signed. + +"These are the letters I gave you late yesterday afternoon, are they +not?" asked the employer. + +"Yes, sir." + +"Must have started early this morning, didn't you?" + +"No, sir," answered Bok. "I wrote them out last evening before I left." + +"Like to get your notes written out before they get stale?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Good idea," said the employer. + +"Yes, sir," answered Bok, "and I think it is even a better idea to get a +day's work off before I take my apron off." + +"Well said," answered the employer, and the following payday Bok found +an increase in his weekly envelope. + +It is only fair, however, to add here, parenthetically, that it is +neither just nor considerate to a conscientious stenographer for an +employer to delay his dictation until the end of the day's work, when, +merely by judicious management of his affairs and time, he can give his +dictation directly after opening his morning mail. There are two sides +to every question; but sometimes the side of the stenographer is not +kept in mind by the employer. + +Bok found it a uniform rule among his fellow-workers to do exactly the +opposite to his own idea; there was an astonishing unanimity in working +by the clock; where the hour of closing was five o'clock the +preparations began five minutes before, with the hat and overcoat over +the back of the chair ready for the stroke of the hour. This concert of +action was curiously universal, no "overtime" was ever to be thought of, +and, as occasionally happened when the work did go over the hour, it was +not, to use the mildest term, done with care, neatness, or accuracy; it +was, to use a current phrase, "slammed off." Every moment beyond five +o'clock in which the worker was asked to do anything was by just so much +an imposition on the part of the employer, and so far as it could be +safely shown, this impression was gotten over to him. + +There was an entire unwillingness to let business interfere with any +anticipated pleasure or personal engagement. The office was all right +between nine and five; one had to be there to earn a living; but after +five, it was not to be thought of for one moment. The elevators which +ran on the stroke of five were never large enough to hold the throng +which besieged them. + +The talk during lunch hour rarely, if ever, turned toward business, +except as said before, when it dealt with underpaid services. In the +spring and summer it was invariably of baseball, and scores of young men +knew the batting averages of the different players and the standing of +the clubs with far greater accuracy than they knew the standing or the +discounts of the customers of their employers. In the winter the talk +was all of dancing, boxing, or plays. + +It soon became evident to Bok why scarcely five out of every hundred of +the young men whom he knew made any business progress. They were not +interested; it was a case of a day's work and a day's pay; it was not a +question of how much one could do but how little one could get away +with. The thought of how well one might do a given thing never seemed to +occur to the average mind. + +"Oh, what do you care?" was the favorite expression. "The boss won't +notice it if you break your back over his work; you won't get any more +pay." + +And there the subject was dismissed, and thoroughly dismissed, too. + +Eventually, then, Bok learned that the path that led to success was wide +open: the competition was negligible. There was no jostling. In fact, +travel on it was just a trifle lonely. One's fellow-travellers were +excellent company, but they were few! It was one of Edward Bok's +greatest surprises, but it was also one of his greatest stimulants. To +go where others could not go, or were loath to go, where at least they +were not, had a tang that savored of the freshest kind of adventure. And +the way was so simple, so much simpler, in fact, than its avoidance, +which called for so much argument, explanation, and discussion. One had +merely to do all that one could do, a little more than one was asked or +expected to do, and immediately one's head rose above the crowd and one +was in an employer's eye--where it is always so satisfying for an +employee to be! And as so few heads lifted themselves above the many, +there was never any danger that they would not be seen. + +Of course, Edward Bok had to prove to himself that his conception of +conditions was right. He felt instinctively that it was, however, and +with this stimulus he bucked the line hard. When others played, he +worked, fully convinced that his play-time would come later. Where +others shirked, he assumed. Where others lagged, he accelerated his +pace. Where others were indifferent to things around them, he observed +and put away the results for possible use later. He did not make of +himself a pack-horse; what he undertook he did from interest in it, and +that made it a pleasure to him when to others it was a burden. He +instinctively reasoned it out that an unpleasant task is never +accomplished by stepping aside from it, but that, unerringly, it will +return later to be met and done. + +Obstacles, to Edward Bok, soon became merely difficulties to be +overcome, and he trusted to his instinct to show him the best way to +overcome them. He soon learned that the hardest kind of work was back of +every success; that nothing in the world of business just happened, but +that everything was brought about, and only in one way--by a willingness +of spirit and a determination to carry through. He soon exploded for +himself the misleading and comfortable theory of luck: the only lucky +people, he found, were those who worked hard. To them, luck came in the +shape of what they had earned. There were exceptions here and there, as +there are to every rule; but the majority of these, he soon found, were +more in the seeming than in the reality. Generally speaking--and of +course to this rule there are likewise exceptions, or as the Frenchman +said, "All generalizations are false, including this one"--a man got in +this world about what he worked for. + +And that became, for himself, the rule of Edward Bok's life. + + + + +XII. Baptism Under Fire + + +The personnel of the Scribner house was very youthful from the members +of the firm clear down the line. It was veritably a house of young men. + +The story is told of a Boston publisher, sedate and fairly elderly, who +came to the Scribner house to transact business with several of its +departments. One of his errands concerning itself with advertising, he +was introduced to Bok, who was then twenty-four. Looking the youth over, +he transacted his business as well as he felt it could be transacted +with a manager of such tender years, and then sought the head of the +educational department: this brought him to another young man of +twenty-four. + +With his yearnings for some one more advanced in years full upon him, +the visitor now inquired for the business manager of the new magazine, +only to find a man of twenty-six. His next introduction was to the head +of the out-of-town business department, who was twenty-seven. + +At this point the Boston man asked to see Mr. Scribner. This disclosed +to him Mr. Arthur H. Scribner, the junior partner, who owned to +twenty-eight summers. Mustering courage to ask faintly for Mr. Charles +Scribner himself, he finally brought up in that gentleman's office only +to meet a man just turning thirty-three! + +"This is a young-looking crowd," said Mr. Scribner one day, looking over +his young men. And his eye rested on Bok. "Particularly you, Bok. +Doubleday looks his years better than you do, for at least he has a +moustache." Then, contemplatively: "You raise a moustache, Bok, and I'll +raise your salary." + +This appealed to Bok very strongly, and within a month he pointed out +the result to his employer. "Stand in the light here," said Mr. +Scribner. "Well, yes," he concluded dubiously, "it's there--something at +least. All right; I'll keep my part of the bargain." + +He did. But the next day he was nonplussed to see that the moustache had +disappeared from the lip of his youthful advertising manager. "Couldn't +quite stand it, Mr. Scribner," was the explanation. "Besides, you didn't +say I should keep it: you merely said to raise it." + +But the increase did not follow the moustache. To Bok's great relief, it +stuck! + +This youthful personnel, while it made for esprit de corps, had also its +disadvantages. One day as Bok was going out to lunch, he found a +small-statured man, rather plainly dressed, wandering around the retail +department, hoping for a salesman to wait on him. The young salesman on +duty, full of inexperience, had a ready smile and quick service ever +ready for "carriage trade," as he called it; but this particular +customer had come afoot, and this, together with his plainness of dress, +did not impress the young salesman. His attention was called to the +wandering customer, and it was suggested that he find out what was +wanted. When Bok returned from lunch, the young salesman, who, with a +beaming smile, had just most ceremoniously bowed the plainly dressed +little customer out of the street-door, said: "You certainly struck it +rich that time when you suggested my waiting on that little man! Such an +order! Been here ever since. Did you know who it was?" + +"No," returned Bok. "Who was it?" + +"Andrew Carnegie," beamed the salesman. + +Another youthful clerk in the Scribner retail bookstore, unconscious of +the customer's identity, waited one day on the wife of Mark Twain. + +Mrs. Clemens asked the young salesman for a copy of Taine's Ancient +Regime. + +"Beg pardon," said the clerk, "what book did you say?" + +Mrs. Clemens repeated the author and title of the book. + +Going to the rear of the store, the clerk soon returned, only to +inquire: "May I ask you to repeat the name of the author?" + +"Taine, T-a-i-n-e," replied Mrs. Clemens. + +Then did the youthfulness of the salesman assert itself. Assuming an air +of superior knowledge, and looking at the customer with an air of +sympathy, he corrected Mrs. Clemens: + +"Pardon me, madam, but you have the name a trifle wrong. You mean +Twain-not Taine." + +With so many young men of the same age, there was a natural sense of +team-work and a spirit of comradeship that made for successful +co-operation. This spirit extended outside of business hours. At +luncheon there was a Scribner table in a neighboring restaurant, and +evenings saw the Scribner department heads mingling as friends. It was a +group of young men who understood and liked each other, with the natural +result that business went easier and better because of it. + +But Bok did not have much time for evening enjoyment, since his outside +interests had grown and prospered and they kept him busy. His syndicate +was regularly supplying over a hundred newspapers: his literary letter +had become an established feature in thirty different newspapers. + +Of course, his opportunities for making this letter interesting were +unusual. Owing to his Scribner connection, however, he had taken his +name from the letter and signed that of his brother. He had, also, +constantly to discriminate between the information that he could publish +without violation of confidence and that which he felt he was not at +liberty to print. This gave him excellent experience; for the most vital +of all essentials in the journalist is the ability unerringly to decide +what to print and what to regard as confidential. + +Of course, the best things that came to him he could not print. Whenever +there was a question, he gave the benefit of the doubt to the +confidential relation in which his position placed him with authors; and +his Dutch caution, although it deprived him of many a toothsome morsel +for his letter, soon became known to his confreres, and was a large +asset when, as an editor, he had to follow the golden rule of editorship +that teaches one to keep the ears open but the mouth shut. + +This Alpha and Omega of all the commandments in the editorial creed some +editors learn by sorrowful experience. Bok was, again, fortunate in +learning it under the most friendly auspices. He continued to work +without sparing himself, but his star remained in the ascendency. Just +how far a man's own efforts and standards keep a friendly star centred +over his head is a question. But Edward Bok has always felt that he was +materially helped by fortuitous conditions not of his own creation or +choice. + +He was now to receive his first public baptism of fire. He had published +a symposium, through his newspaper syndicate, discussing the question, +"Should Clergymen Smoke?" He had induced all the prominent clergymen in +the country to contribute their views, and so distinguished was the list +that the article created wide-spread attention. + +One of the contributors was the Reverend Richard S. Storrs, D.D., one of +the most distinguished of Brooklyn's coterie of clergy of that day. A +few days after the publication of the article, Bok was astounded to read +in the Brooklyn Eagle a sensational article, with large headlines, in +which Doctor Storrs repudiated his contribution to the symposium, +declared that he had never written or signed such a statement, and +accused Edward Bok of forgery. + +Coming from a man of Doctor Storrs's prominence, the accusation was, of +course, a serious one. Bok realized this at once. He foresaw the damage +it might work to the reputation of a young man trying to climb the +ladder of success, and wondered why Doctor Storrs had seen fit to accuse +him in this public manner instead of calling upon him for a personal +explanation. He thought perhaps he might find such a letter from Doctor +Storrs when he reached home, but instead he met a small corps of +reporters from the Brooklyn and New York newspapers. He told them +frankly that no one was more surprised at the accusation than he, but +that the original contributions were in the New York office of the +syndicate, and he could not corroborate his word until he had looked +into the papers and found Doctor Storrs's contribution. + +That evening Bok got at the papers in the case, and found out that, +technically, Doctor Storrs was right: he had not written or signed such +a statement. The compiler of the symposium, the editor of one of New +York's leading evening papers whom Bok had employed, had found Doctor +Storrs's declaration in favor of a clergyman's use of tobacco in an +address made some time before, had extracted it and incorporated it into +the symposium. It was, therefore, Doctor Storrs's opinion on the +subject, but not written for the occasion for which it was used. Bok +felt that his editor had led him into an indiscretion. Yet the +sentiments were those of the writer whose name was attached to them, so +that the act was not one of forgery. The editor explained that he had +sent the extract to Doctor Storrs, who had not returned it, and he had +taken silence to mean consent to the use of the material. + +Bok decided to say nothing until he heard from Doctor Storrs personally, +and so told the newspapers. But the clergyman did not stop his attack. +Of course, the newspapers egged him on and extracted from him the +further accusation that Bok's silence proved his guilt. Bok now took the +case to Mr. Beecher, and asked his advice. + +"Well, Edward, you are right and you are wrong," said Mr. Beecher. "And +so is Storrs, of course. It is beneath him to do what he has done. +Storrs and I are not good friends, as you know, and so I cannot go to +him and ask him the reason of his disclaimer. Otherwise I would. Of +course, he may have forgotten his remarks: that is always possible in a +busy man's life. He may not have received the letter enclosing them. +That is likewise possible. But I have a feeling that Storrs has some +reason for wishing to repudiate his views on this subject just at this +time. What it is I do not, of course, know, but his vehemence makes me +think so. I think I should let him have his rein. Keep you quiet. It may +damage you a little here and there, but in the end it won't harm you. In +the main point, you are right. You are not a forger. The sentiments are +his and he uttered them, and he should stand by them. He threatens to +bring you into court, I see from to-day's paper. Wait until he does so." + +Bok, chancing to meet Doctor Talmage, told him Mr. Beecher's advice, and +he endorsed it. "Remember, boy," said Doctor Talmage, "silence is never +so golden as when you are under fire. I know, for I have been there, as +you know, more than once. Keep quiet; and always believe this: that +there is a great deal of common sense abroad in the world, and a man is +always safe in trusting it to do him justice." + +They were not pleasant and easy days for Bok, for Doctor Storrs kept up +the din for several days. Bok waited for the word to appear in court. +But this never came, and the matter soon died down and out. And, +although Bok met the clergyman several times afterward in the years that +followed, no reference was ever made by him to the incident. + +But Edward Bok had learned a valuable lesson of silence under fire--an +experience that was to stand him in good stead when he was again +publicly attacked not long afterward. + +This occurred in connection with a notable anniversary celebration in +honor of Henry Ward Beecher, in which the entire city of Brooklyn was to +participate. It was to mark a mile-stone in Mr. Beecher's ministry and +in his pastorate of Plymouth Church. Bok planned a worldwide tribute to +the famed clergyman: he would get the most distinguished men and women +of this and other countries to express their esteem for the Plymouth +pastor in written congratulations, and he would bind these into a volume +for presentation to Mr. Beecher on the occasion. He consulted members of +the Beecher family, and, with their acquiescence, began to assemble the +material. He was in the midst of the work when Henry Ward Beecher passed +away. Bok felt that the tributes already received were too wonderful to +be lost to the world, and, after again consulting Mrs. Beecher and her +children, he determined to finish the collection and publish it as a +memorial for private distribution. After a prodigious correspondence, +the work was at last completed; and in June, 1887, the volume was +published, in a limited edition of five hundred copies. Bok distributed +copies of the volume to the members of Mr. Beecher's family, he had +orders from Mr. Beecher's friends, one hundred copies were offered to +the American public and one hundred copies were issued in an English +edition. + +With such a figure to whom to do honor, the contributors, of course, +included the foremost men and women of the time. Grover Cleveland was +then President of the United States, and his tribute was a notable one. +Mr. Gladstone, the Duke of Argyll, Pasteur, Canon Farrar, Bartholdi, +Salvini, and a score of others represented English and European opinion. +Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Greenleaf Whittier, T. De Witt Talmage, +Robert G. Ingersoll, Charles Dudley Warner, General Sherman, Julia Ward +Howe, Andrew Carnegie, Edwin Booth, Rutherford B. Hayes--there was +scarcely a leader of thought and of action of that day unrepresented. +The edition was, of course, quickly exhausted; and when to-day a copy +occasionally appears at an auction sale, it is sold at a high price. + +The newspapers gave very large space to the distinguished memorial, and +this fact angered a journalist, Joseph Howard, Junior, a man at one time +close to Mr. Beecher, who had befriended him. Howard had planned to be +the first in the field with a hastily prepared biography of the great +preacher, and he felt that Bok had forestalled him. Forthwith, he +launched a vicious attack on the compiler of the memorial, accusing him +of "making money out of Henry Ward Beecher's dead body" and of +"seriously offending the family of Mr. Beecher, who had had no say in +the memorial, which was therefore without authority, and hence extremely +distasteful to all." + +Howard had convinced a number of editors of the justice of his position, +and so he secured a wide publication for his attack. For the second +time, Edward Bok was under fire, and remembering his action on the +previous occasion, he again remained silent, and again the argument was +put forth that his silence implied guilt. But Mrs. Beecher and members +of the Beecher family did not observe silence, and quickly proved that +not only had Bok compiled the memorial as a labor of love and had lost +money on it, but that he had the full consent of the family in its +preparation. + +When, shortly afterward, Howard's hastily compiled "biography" of Mr. +Beecher appeared, a reporter asked Mrs. Beecher whether she and her +family had found it accurate. + +"Accurate, my child," said Mrs. Beecher. "Why, it is so accurate in its +absolute falsity that neither I nor the boys can find one fact or date +given correctly, although we have studied it for two days. Even the year +of Mr. Beecher's birth is wrong, and that is the smallest error!" + +Edward Bok little dreamed that these two experiences with public +criticism were to serve him as a foretaste of future attacks when he +would get the benefit of hundreds of pencils especially sharpened for +him. + + + + +XIII. Publishing Incidents and Anecdotes + + +One evening some literary men were dining together previous to going to +a private house where a number of authors were to give readings from +their books. At the table the talk turned on the carelessness with which +the public reads books. Richard Harding Davis, one of the party, +contended that the public read more carefully than the others believed. +It was just at the time when Du Maurier's Trilby was in every one's +hands. + +"Don't you believe it," said one of the diners. "I'll warrant you could +take a portion of some well-known story to-night and palm it off on most +of your listeners as new stuff." + +"Done," said Davis. "Come along, and I'll prove you wrong." + +The reading was to be at the house of John Kendrick Bangs at Yonkers. +When Davis's "turn" in the programme came, he announced that he would +read a portion from an unpublished story written by himself. Immediately +there was a flutter in the audience, particularly among the younger +element. + +Pulling a roll of manuscript out of his pocket, Davis began: + +"It was a fine, sunny, showery day in April. The big studio window--" + +He got no farther. Almost the entire audience broke into a shout of +laughter and applause. Davis had read thirteen of the opening words of +Trilby. + +All publishing houses employ "readers" outside of those in their own +offices for the reading of manuscripts on special subjects. One of these +"outside readers" was given a manuscript for criticism. He took it home +and began its reading. He had finished only a hundred pages or so when, +by a curious coincidence, the card of the author of the manuscript was +brought to the "reader." The men were close friends. + +Hastily gathering up the manuscript, the critic shoved the work into a +drawer of his desk, and asked that his friend be shown in. + +The evening was passed in conversation; as the visitor rose to leave, +his host, rising also and seating himself on his desk, asked: + +"What have you been doing lately? Haven't seen much of you." + +"No," said the friend. "It may interest you to know that I have been +turning to literary work, and have just completed what I consider to be +an important book." + +"Really?" commented the "reader." + +"Yes," went on his friend. "I submitted it a few days ago to one of the +big publishing houses. But, great Scott, you can never tell what these +publishers will do with a thing of that sort. They give their +manuscripts to all kinds of fools to read. I suppose, by this time, some +idiot, who doesn't know a thing of the subject about which I have +written, is sitting on my manuscript." + +Mechanically, the "reader" looked at the desk upon which he was sitting, +thought of the manuscript lying in the drawer directly under him, and +said: + +"Yes, that may be. Quite likely, in fact." + +Of no novel was the secret of the authorship ever so well kept as was +that of The Breadwinners, which, published anonymously in 1883, was the +talk of literary circles for a long time, and speculation as to its +authorship was renewed in the newspapers for years afterward. Bok wanted +very much to find out the author's name so that he could announce it in +his literary letter. He had his suspicions, but they were not well +founded until an amusing little incident occurred which curiously +revealed the secret to him. + +Bok was waiting to see one of the members of a publishing firm when a +well-known English publisher, visiting in America, was being escorted +out of the office, the conversation continuing as the two gentlemen +walked through the outer rooms. "My chief reason," said the English +publisher, as he stopped at the end of the outer office where Bok was +sitting, "for hesitating at all about taking an English set of plates of +the novel you speak of is because it is of anonymous authorship, a +custom of writing which has grown out of all decent proportions in your +country since the issue of that stupid book, The Breadwinners." + +As these last words were spoken, a man seated at a desk directly behind +the speaker looked up, smiled, and resumed reading a document which he +had dropped in to sign. A smile also spread over the countenance of the +American publisher as he furtively glanced over the shoulder of the +English visitor and caught the eye of the smiling man at the desk. + +Bok saw the little comedy, realized at once that he had discovered the +author of The Breadwinners, and stated to the publisher that he intended +to use the incident in his literary letter. But it proved to be one of +those heart-rending instances of a delicious morsel of news that must be +withheld from the journalist's use. The publisher acknowledged that Bok +had happened upon the true authorship, but placed him upon his honor to +make no use of the incident. And Bok learned again the vital +journalistic lesson that there are a great many things in the world that +the journalist knows and yet cannot write about. He would have been +years in advance of the announcement finally made that John Hay wrote +the novel. + +At another time, while waiting, Bok had an experience which, while +interesting, was saddening instead of amusing. He was sitting in Mark +Twain's sitting-room in his home in Hartford waiting for the humorist to +return from a walk. Suddenly sounds of devotional singing came in +through the open window from the direction of the outer conservatory. +The singing was low, yet the sad tremor in the voice seemed to give it +special carrying power. + +"You have quite a devotional servant," Bok said to a maid who was +dusting the room. + +"Oh, that is not a servant who is singing, sir," was the answer. "You +can step to this window and see for yourself." + +Bok did so, and there, sitting alone on one of the rustic benches in the +flower-house, was a small, elderly woman. Keeping time with the first +finger of her right hand, as if with a baton, she was slightly swaying +her frail body as she sang, softly yet sweetly, Charles Wesley's hymn, +"Jesus, Lover of My Soul," and Sarah Flower Adams's "Nearer, My God, to +Thee." + +But the singer was not a servant. It was Harriet Beecher Stowe! + +On another visit to Hartford, shortly afterward, Bok was just turning +into Forrest Street when a little old woman came shambling along toward +him, unconscious, apparently, of people or surroundings. In her hand she +carried a small tree-switch. Bok did not notice her until just as he had +passed her he heard her calling to him: "Young man, young man." Bok +retraced his steps, and then the old lady said: "Young man, you have +been leaning against something white," and taking her tree-switch she +whipped some wall dust from the sleeve of Bok's coat. It was not until +that moment that Bok recognized in his self-appointed "brush" no less a +personage than Harriet Beecher Stowe. + +"This is Mrs. Stowe, is it not?" he asked, after tendering his thanks to +her. + +Those blue eyes looked strangely into his as she answered: + +"That is my name, young man. I live on this street. Are you going to +have me arrested for stopping you?" with which she gathered up her +skirts and quickly ran away, looking furtively over her shoulder at the +amazed young man, sorrowfully watching the running figure! + +Speaking of Mrs. Stowe brings to mind an unscrupulous and yet ingenious +trick just about this time played by a young man attached to one of the +New York publishing houses. One evening at dinner this chap happened to +be in a bookish company when the talk turned to the enthusiasm of the +Southern negro for an illustrated Bible. The young publishing clerk +listened intently, and next day he went to a Bible publishing house in +New York which issued a Bible gorgeous with pictures and entered into an +arrangement with the proprietors whereby he should have the Southern +territory. He resigned his position, and within a week he was in the +South. He made arrangements with an artist friend to make a change in +each copy of the Bible which he contracted for. The angels pictured +therein were white in color. He had these made black, so he could show +that there were black angels as well as white ones. The Bibles cost him +just eighty cents apiece. He went about the South and offered the Bibles +to the astonished and open-mouthed negroes for eight dollars each, two +dollars and a half down and the rest in monthly payments. His sales were +enormous. Then he went his rounds all over again and offered to close +out the remaining five dollars and a half due him by a final payment of +two dollars and a half each. In nearly every case the bait was +swallowed, and on each Bible he thus cleared four dollars and twenty +cents net! + +Running the elevator in the building where a prominent publishing firm +had its office was a negro of more than ordinary intelligence. The firm +had just published a subscription book on mechanical engineering, a +chapter of which was devoted to the construction and operation of +passenger elevators. One of the agents selling the book thought he might +find a customer in Washington. + +"Wash," said the book-agent, "you ought to buy a copy of this book, do +you know it?" + +"No, boss, don't want no books. Don't git no time fo' readin' books," +drawled Wash. "It teks all mah time to run dis elevator." + +"But this book will help you to run your elevator. See here: there's a +whole chapter here on elevators," persisted the canvasser. + +"Don't want no help to run dis elevator," said the darky. "Dis elevator +runs all right now." + +"But," said the canvasser, "this will help you to run it better. You +will know twice as much when you get through." + +"No, boss, no, dat's just it," returned Wash. "Don't want to learn +nothing, boss," he said. "Why, boss, I know more now than I git paid +for." + +There was one New York newspaper that prided itself on its huge +circulation, and its advertising canvassers were particularly insistent +in securing the advertisements of publishers. Of course, the real +purpose of the paper was to secure a certain standing for itself, which +it lacked, rather than to be of any service to the publishers. + +By dint of perseverance, its agents finally secured from one of the +ten-cent magazines, then so numerous, a large advertisement of a special +number, and in order to test the drawing power of the newspaper as a +medium, there was inserted a line in large black type: + +"SEND TEN CENTS FOR A NUMBER." + +But the compositor felt that magazine literature should be even cheaper +than it was, and to that thought in his mind his fingers responded, so +that when the advertisement appeared, this particular bold-type line +read: + +"SEND TEN CENTS FOR A YEAR." + +This wonderful offer appealed with singular force to the class of +readers of this particular paper, and they decided to take advantage of +it. The advertisement appeared on Sunday, and Monday's first mail +brought the magazine over eight hundred letters with ten cents enclosed +"for a year's subscription as per your advertisement in yesterday's --." +The magazine management consulted its lawyer, who advised the publisher +to make the newspaper pay the extra ninety cents on each subscription, +and, although this demand was at first refused, the proprietors of the +daily finally yielded. At the end of the first week eight thousand and +fifty-five letters with ten cents enclosed had reached the magazine, and +finally the total was a few over twelve thousand! + + + + +XIV. Last Years in New York + + +Edward Bok's lines were now to follow those of advertising for several +years. He was responsible for securing the advertisements for The Book +Buyer and The Presbyterian Review. While the former was, frankly, a +house-organ, its editorial contents had so broadened as to make the +periodical of general interest to book-lovers, and with the subscribers +constituting the valuable list of Scribner book-buyers, other publishers +were eager to fish in the Scribner pond. + +With The Presbyterian Review, the condition was different. A magazine +issued quarterly naturally lacks the continuity desired by the +advertiser; the scope of the magazine was limited, and so was the +circulation. It was a difficult magazine to "sell" to the advertiser, +and Bok's salesmanship was taxed to the utmost. Although all that the +publishers asked was that the expense of getting out the periodical be +met, with its two hundred and odd pages even this was difficult. It was +not an attractive proposition. + +The most interesting feature of the magazine to Bok appeared to be the +method of editing. It was ostensibly edited by a board, but, +practically, by Professor Francis L. Patton, D.D., of Princeton +Theological Seminary (afterward president of Princeton University), and +Doctor Charles A. Briggs, of Union Theological Seminary. The views of +these two theologians differed rather widely, and when, upon several +occasions, they met in Bok's office, on bringing in their different +articles to go into the magazine, lively discussions ensued. Bok did not +often get the drift of these discussions, but he was intensely +interested in listening to the diverse views of the two theologians. + +One day the question of heresy came up between the two men, and during a +pause in the discussion, Bok, looking for light, turned to Doctor Briggs +and asked: "Doctor, what really is heresy?" + +Doctor Briggs, taken off his guard for a moment, looked blankly at his +young questioner, and repeated: "What is heresy?" + +"Yes," repeated Bok, "just what is heresy, Doctor?" + +"That's right," interjected Doctor Patton, with a twinkle in his eyes, +"what is heresy, Briggs?" + +"Would you be willing to write it down for me?" asked Bok, fearful that +he should not remember Doctor Briggs's definition even if he were told. + +And Doctor Briggs wrote: + +"Heresy is anything in doctrine or practice that departs from the mind +of the Church as officially defined. + +Charles A. Briggs. + +"Let me see," asked Doctor Patton, and when he read it, he muttered: +"Humph, pretty broad, pretty broad." + +"Well," answered the nettled Doctor Briggs, "perhaps you can give a less +broad definition, Patton." + +"No, no," answered the Princeton theologian, as the slightest wink came +from the eye nearest Bok, "I wouldn't attempt it for a moment. Too much +for me." + +On another occasion, as the two were busy in their discussion of some +article to be inserted in the magazine, Bok listening with all his +might, Doctor Patton, suddenly turning to the young listener, asked, in +the midst of the argument: "Whom are the Giants going to play this +afternoon, Bok?" + +Doctor Briggs's face was a study. For a moment the drift of the question +was an enigma to him: then realizing that an important theological +discussion had been interrupted by a trivial baseball question, he +gathered up his papers and stamped violently out of the office. Doctor +Patton made no comment, but, with a smile, he asked Bok: "Johnnie Ward +going to play to-day, do you know? Thought I might ask Mr. Scribner if +you could go up to the game this afternoon." + +It is unnecessary to say to which of the two men Bok was the more +attracted, and when it came, each quarter, to figuring how many articles +could go into the Review without exceeding the cost limit fixed by the +house, it was always a puzzle to Doctor Briggs why the majority of the +articles left out were invariably those that he had brought in, while +many of those which Doctor Patton handed in somehow found their place, +upon the final assembling, among the contents. + +"Your articles are so long," Bok would explain. + +"Long?" Doctor Briggs would echo. "You don't measure theological +discussions by the yardstick, young man." + +"Perhaps not," the young assembler would maintain. + +But we have to do some measuring here by the composition-stick, just the +same." + +And the Union Seminary theologian was never able successfully, to vault +that hurdle! + +From his boyhood days (up to the present writing) Bok was a pronounced +baseball "fan," and so Doctor Patton appealed to a warm place in the +young man's heart when he asked him the questions about the New York +baseball team. There was, too, a baseball team among the Scribner young +men of which Bok was a part. This team played, each Saturday afternoon, +a team from another publishing house, and for two seasons it was +unbeatable. Not only was this baseball aggregation close to the hearts +of the Scribner employees, but, in an important game, the junior member +of the firm played on it and the senior member was a spectator. Frank N. +Doubleday played on first base; William D. Moffat, later of Moffat, Yard +& Company, and now editor of The Mentor, was behind the bat; Bok +pitched; Ernest Dressel North, the present authority on rare editions of +books, was in the field, as were also Ray Safford, now a director in the +Scribner corporation, and Owen W. Brewer, at present a prominent figure +in Chicago's book world. It was a happy group, all closely banded +together in their business interests and in their human relations as +well. + +With Scribner's Magazine now in the periodical field, Bok would be asked +on his trips to the publishing houses to have an eye open for +advertisements for that periodical as well. Hence his education in the +solicitation of advertisements became general, and gave him a +sympathetic understanding of the problems of the advertising solicitor +which was to stand him in good stead when, in his later experience, he +was called upon to view the business problems of a magazine from the +editor's position. His knowledge of the manufacture of the two magazines +in his charge was likewise educative, as was the fascinating study of +typography which always had, and has to-day, a wonderful attraction for +him. + +It was, however, in connection with the advertising of the general books +of the house, and in his relations with their authors, that Bok found +his greatest interest. It was for him to find the best manner in which +to introduce to the public the books issued by the house, and the +general study of the psychology of publicity which this called for +attracted Bok greatly. + +Bok was now asked to advertise a novel published by the Scribners which, +when it was issued, and for years afterward, was pointed to as a proof +of the notion that a famous name was all that was necessary to ensure +the acceptance of a manuscript by even a leading publishing house. The +facts in the case were that this manuscript was handed in one morning by +a friend of the house with the remark that he submitted it at the +suggestion of the author, who did not desire that his identity should be +known until after the manuscript had been read and passed upon by the +house. It was explained that the writer was not a famous author; in +fact, he had never written anything before; this was his first book of +any sort; he merely wanted to "try his wings." The manuscript was read +in due time by the Scribner readers, and the mutual friend was advised +that the house would be glad to publish the novel, and was ready to +execute and send a contract to the author if the firm knew in whose name +the agreement should be made. Then came the first intimation of the +identity of the author: the friend wrote that if the publishers would +look in the right-hand corner of the first page of the manuscript they +would find there the author's name. Search finally revealed an asterisk. +The author of the novel (Valentino) was William Waldorf Astor. + +Although the Scribners did not publish Mark Twain's books, the humorist +was a frequent visitor to the retail store, and occasionally he would +wander back to the publishing department located at the rear of the +store, which was then at 743 Broadway. + +Smoking was not permitted in the Scribner offices, and, of course, Mark +Twain was always smoking. He generally smoked a granulated tobacco which +he kept in a long check bag made of silk and rubber. When he sauntered +to the back of the Scribner store, he would generally knock the residue +from the bowl of the pipe, take out the stem, place it in his vest +pocket, like a pencil, and drop the bowl into the bag containing the +granulated tobacco. When he wanted to smoke again (which was usually +five minutes later) he would fish out the bowl, now automatically filled +with tobacco, insert the stem, and strike a light. One afternoon as he +wandered into Bok's office, he was just putting his pipe away. The pipe, +of the corncob variety, was very aged and black. Bok asked him whether +it was the only pipe he had. + +"Oh, no," Mark answered, "I have several. But they're all like this. I +never smoke a new corncob pipe. A new pipe irritates the throat. No +corncob pipe is fit for anything until it has been used at least a +fortnight." + +"How do you break in a pipe, then?" asked Bok. + +"That's the trick," answered Mark Twain. "I get a cheap man--a man who +doesn't amount to much, anyhow: who would be as well, or better, +dead--and pay him a dollar to break in the pipe for me. I get him to +smoke the pipe for a couple of weeks, then put in a new stem, and +continue operations as long as the pipe holds together." + +Bok's newspaper syndicate work had brought him into contact with Fanny +Davenport, then at the zenith of her career as an actress. Miss +Davenport, or Mrs. Melbourne McDowell as she was in private life, had +never written for print; but Bok, seeing that she had something to say +about her art and the ability to say it, induced her to write for the +newspapers through his syndicate. The actress was overjoyed to have +revealed to her a hitherto unsuspected gift; Bok published her articles +successfully, and gave her a publicity that her press agent had never +dreamed of. Miss Davenport became interested in the young publisher, and +after watching the methods which he employed in successfully publishing +her writings, decided to try to obtain his services as her assistant +manager. She broached the subject, offered him a five years' contract +for forty weeks' service, with a minimum of fifteen weeks each year to +spend in or near New York, at a salary, for the first year, of three +thousand dollars, increasing annually until the fifth year, when he was +to receive sixty-four hundred dollars. + +Bok was attracted to the work: he had never seen the United States, was +anxious to do so, and looked upon the chance as a good opportunity. Miss +Davenport had the contract made out, executed it, and then, in high +glee, Bok took it home to show it to his mother. He had reckoned without +question upon her approval, only to meet with an immediate and decided +negative to the proposition as a whole, general and specific. She argued +that the theatrical business was not for him; and she saw ahead and +pointed out so strongly the mistake he was making that he sought Miss +Davenport the next day and told her of his mother's stand. The actress +suggested that she see the mother; she did, that day, and she came away +from the interview a wiser if a sadder woman. Miss Davenport frankly +told Bok that with such an instinctive objection as his mother seemed to +have, he was right to follow her advice and the contract was not to be +thought of. + +It is difficult to say whether this was or was not for Bok the +turning-point which comes in the life of every young man. Where the +venture into theatrical life would have led him no one can, of course, +say. One thing is certain: Bok's instinct and reason both failed him in +this instance. He believes now that had his venture into the theatrical +field been temporary or permanent, the experiment, either way, would +have been disastrous. + +Looking back and viewing the theatrical profession even as it was in +that day (of a much higher order than now), he is convinced he would +never have been happy in it. He might have found this out in a year or +more, after the novelty of travelling had worn off, and asked release +from his contract; in that case he would have broken his line of +progress in the publishing business. From whatever viewpoint he has +looked back upon this, which he now believes to have been the crisis in +his life, he is convinced that his mother's instinct saved him from a +grievous mistake. + +The Scribner house, in its foreign-book department, had imported some +copies of Bourrienne's Life of Napoleon, and a set had found its way to +Bok's desk for advertising purposes. He took the books home to glance +them over, found himself interested, and sat up half the night to read +them. Then he took the set to the editor of the New York Star, and +suggested that such a book warranted a special review, and offered to +leave the work for the literary editor. + +"You have read the books?" asked the editor. + +"Every word," returned Bok. + +"Then, why don't you write the review?" suggested the editor. + +This was a new thought to Bok. "Never wrote a review," he said. + +"Try it," answered the editor. "Write a column." + +"A column wouldn't scratch the surface of this book," suggested the +embryo reviewer. + +"Well, give it what it is worth," returned the editor. + +Bok did. He wrote a page of the paper. + +"Too much, too much," said the editor. "Heavens, man, we've got to get +some news into this paper." + +"Very well," returned the reviewer. "Read it, and cut it where you like. +That's the way I see the book." + +And next Sunday the review appeared, word for word, as Bok had written +it. His first review had successfully passed! + +But Bok was really happiest in that part of his work which concerned +itself with the writing of advertisements. The science of advertisement +writing, which meant to him the capacity to say much in little space, +appealed strongly. He found himself more honestly attracted to this than +to the writing of his literary letter, his editorials, or his book +reviewing, of which he was now doing a good deal. He determined to +follow where his bent led; he studied the mechanics of unusual +advertisements wherever he saw them; he eagerly sought a knowledge of +typography and its best handling in an advertisement, and of the value +and relation of illustrations to text. He perceived that his work along +these lines seemed to give satisfaction to his employers, since they +placed more of it in his hands to do; and he sought in every way to +become proficient in the art. + +To publishers whose advertisements he secured for the periodicals in his +charge, he made suggestions for the improvement of their announcements, +and found his suggestions accepted. He early saw the value of white +space as one of the most effective factors in advertising; but this was +a difficult argument, he soon found, to convey successfully to others. A +white space in an advertisement was to the average publisher something +to fill up; Bok saw in it something to cherish for its effectiveness. +But he never got very far with his idea: he could not convince (perhaps +because he failed to express his ideas convincingly) his advertisers of +what he felt and believed so strongly. + +An occasion came in which he was permitted to prove his contention. The +Scribners had published Andrew Carnegie's volume, Triumphant Democracy, +and the author desired that some special advertising should be done in +addition to that allowed by the appropriation made by the house. To +Bok's grateful ears came the injunction from the steel magnate: "Use +plenty of white space." In conjunction with Mr. Doubleday, Bok prepared +and issued this extra advertising, and for once, at least, the wisdom of +using white space was demonstrated. But it was only a flash in the pan. +Publishers were unwilling to pay for "unused space," as they termed it. +Each book was a separate unit, others argued: it was not like +advertising one article continuously in which money could be invested; +and only a limited amount could be spent on a book which ran its course, +even at its best, in a very short time. + +And, rightly or wrongly, book advertising has continued much along the +same lines until the present day. In fact, in no department of +manufacturing or selling activity has there been so little progress +during the past fifty years as in bringing books to the notice of the +public. In all other lines, the producer has brought his wares to the +public, making it easier and still easier for it to obtain his goods, +while the public, if it wants a book, must still seek the book instead +of being sought by it. + +That there is a tremendous unsupplied book demand in this country there +is no doubt: the wider distribution and easier access given to +periodicals prove this point. Now and then there has been tried an +unsupported or not well-thought-out plan for bringing books to a public +not now reading them, but there seems little or no understanding of the +fact that there lies an uncultivated field of tremendous promise to the +publisher who will strike out on a new line and market his books, so +that the public will not have to ferret out a book-store or wind through +the maze of a department store. The American reading public is not the +book-reading public that it should be or could be made to be; but the +habit must be made easy for it to acquire. Books must be placed where +the public can readily get at them. It will not, of its own volition, +seek them. It did not do so with magazines; it will not do so with +books. + +In the meanwhile, Bok's literary letter had prospered until it was now +published in some forty-five newspapers. One of these was the +Philadelphia Times. In that paper, each week, the letter had been read +by Mr. Cyrus H. K. Curtis, the owner and publisher of The Ladies' Home +Journal. Mr. Curtis had decided that he needed an editor for his +magazine, in order to relieve his wife, who was then editing it, and he +fixed upon the writer of Literary Leaves as his man. He came to New +York, consulted Will Carleton, the poet, and found that while the letter +was signed by William J. Bok, it was actually written by his brother who +was with the Scribners. So he sought Bok out there. + +The publishing house had been advertising in the Philadelphia magazine, +so that the visit of Mr. Curtis was not an occasion for surprise. Mr. +Curtis told Bok he had read his literary letter in the Philadelphia +Times, and suggested that perhaps he might write a similar department +for The Ladies' Home Journal. Bok saw no reason why he should not, and +told Mr. Curtis so, and promised to send over a trial installment. The +Philadelphia publisher then deftly went on, explained editorial +conditions in his magazine, and, recognizing the ethics of the occasion +by not offering Bok another position while he was already occupying one, +asked him if he knew the man for the place. + +"Are you talking at me or through me?" asked Bok. + +"Both," replied Mr. Curtis. + +This was in April of 1889. + +Bok promised Mr. Curtis he would look over the field, and meanwhile he +sent over to Philadelphia the promised trial "literary gossip" +installment. It pleased Mr. Curtis, who suggested a monthly department, +to which Bok consented. He also turned over in his mind the wisdom of +interrupting his line of progress with the Scribners, and in New York, +and began to contemplate the possibilities in Philadelphia and the work +there. + +He gathered a collection of domestic magazines then published, and +looked them over to see what was already in the field. Then he began to +study himself, his capacity for the work, and the possibility of finding +it congenial. He realized that it was absolutely foreign to his Scribner +work: that it meant a radical departure. But his work with his newspaper +syndicate naturally occurred to him, and he studied it with a view of +its adaptation to the field of the Philadelphia magazine. + +His next step was to take into his confidence two or three friends whose +judgment he trusted and discuss the possible change. Without an +exception, they advised against it. The periodical had no standing, they +argued; Bok would be out of sympathy with its general atmosphere after +his Scribner environment; he was now in the direct line of progress in +New York publishing houses; and, to cap the climax, they each argued in +turn, he would be buried in Philadelphia: New York was the centre, etc., +etc. + +More than any other single argument, this last point destroyed Bok's +faith in the judgment of his friends. He had had experience enough to +realize that a man could not be buried in any city, provided he had the +ability to stand out from his fellow-men. He knew from his biographical +reading that cream will rise to the surface anywhere, in Philadelphia as +well as in New York: it all depended on whether the cream was there: it +was up to the man. Had he within him that peculiar, subtle something +that, for the want of a better phrase, we call the editorial instinct? +That was all there was to it, and that decision had to be his and his +alone! + +A business trip for the Scribners now calling him West, Bok decided to +stop at Philadelphia, have a talk with Mr. Curtis, and look over his +business plant. He did this, and found Mr. Curtis even more desirous +than before to have him consider the position. Bok's instinct was +strongly in favor of an acceptance. A natural impulse moved him, without +reasoning, to action. Reasoning led only to a cautious mental state, and +caution is a strong factor in the Dutch character. The longer he pursued +a conscious process of reasoning, the farther he got from the position. +But the instinct remained strong. + +On his way back from the West, he stopped in Philadelphia again to +consult his friend, George W. Childs; and here he found the only person +who was ready to encourage him to make the change. + +Bok now laid the matter before his mother, in whose feminine instinct he +had supreme confidence. With her, he met with instant discouragement. +But in subsequent talks he found that her opposition was based not upon +the possibilities inherent in the position, but on a mother's natural +disinclination to be separated from one of her sons. In the case of +Fanny Davenport's offer the mother's instinct was strong against the +proposition itself. But in the present instance it was the mother's love +that was speaking; not her instinct or judgment. + +Bok now consulted his business associates, and, to a man, they +discouraged the step, but almost invariably upon the argument that it +was suicidal to leave New York. He had now a glimpse of the truth that +there is no man so provincially narrow as the untravelled New Yorker who +believes in his heart that the sun rises in the East River and sets in +the North River. + +He realized more keenly than ever before that the decision rested with +him alone. On September 1, 1889, Bok wrote to Mr. Curtis, accepting the +position in Philadelphia; and on October 13 following he left the +Scribners, where he had been so fortunate and so happy, and, after a +week's vacation, followed where his instinct so strongly led, but where +his reason wavered. + +On October 20, 1889, Edward Bok became the editor of The Ladies' Home +Journal. + + + + +XV. Successful Editorship + + +There is a popular notion that the editor of a woman's magazine should +be a woman. At first thought, perhaps, this sounds logical. But it is a +curious fact that by far the larger number of periodicals for women, the +world over, are edited by men; and where, as in some cases, a woman is +the proclaimed editor, the direction of the editorial policy is +generally in the hands of a man, or group of men, in the background. Why +this is so has never been explained, any more than why the majority of +women's dressmakers are men; why music, with its larger appeal to women, +has been and is still being composed, largely, by men, and why its +greatest instrumental performers are likewise men; and why the church, +with its larger membership of women, still has, as it always has had, +men for its greatest preachers. + +In fact, we may well ponder whether the full editorial authority and +direction of a modern magazine, either essentially feminine in its +appeal or not, can safely be entrusted to a woman when one considers how +largely executive is the nature of such a position, and how thoroughly +sensitive the modern editor must be to the hundred and one practical +business matters which to-day enter into and form so large a part of the +editorial duties. We may question whether women have as yet had +sufficient experience in the world of business to cope successfully with +the material questions of a pivotal editorial position. Then, again, it +is absolutely essential in the conduct of a magazine with a feminine or +home appeal to have on the editorial staff women who are experts in +their line; and the truth is that women will work infinitely better +under the direction of a man than of a woman. + +It would seem from the present outlook that, for some time, at least, +the so-called woman's magazine of large purpose and wide vision is very +likely to be edited by a man. It is a question, however, whether the day +of the woman's magazine, as we have known it, is not passing. Already +the day has gone for the woman's magazine built on the old lines which +now seem so grotesque and feeble in the light of modern growth. The +interests of women and of men are being brought closer with the years, +and it will not be long before they will entirely merge. This means a +constantly diminishing necessity for the distinctly feminine magazine. + +Naturally, there will always be a field in the essentially feminine +pursuits which have no place in the life of a man, but these are rapidly +being cared for by books, gratuitously distributed, issued by the +manufacturers of distinctly feminine and domestic wares; for such +publications the best talent is being employed, and the results are +placed within easy access of women, by means of newspaper advertisement, +the store-counter, or the mails. These will sooner or later--and much +sooner than later--supplant the practical portions of the woman's +magazine, leaving only the general contents, which are equally +interesting to men and to women. Hence the field for the magazine with +the essentially feminine appeal is contracting rather than broadening, +and it is likely to contract much more rapidly in the future. + +The field was altogether different when Edward Bok entered it in 1889. +It was not only wide open, but fairly crying out to be filled. The day +of Godey's Lady's Book had passed; Peterson's Magazine was breathing its +last; and the home or women's magazines that had attempted to take their +place were sorry affairs. It was this consciousness of a void ready to +be filled that made the Philadelphia experiment so attractive to the +embryo editor. He looked over the field and reasoned that if such +magazines as did exist could be fairly successful, if women were ready +to buy such, how much greater response would there be to a magazine of +higher standards, of larger initiative--a magazine that would be an +authoritative clearing-house for all the problems confronting women in +the home, that brought itself closely into contact with those problems +and tried to solve them in an entertaining and efficient way; and yet a +magazine of uplift and inspiration: a magazine, in other words, that +would give light and leading in the woman's world. + +The method of editorial expression in the magazines of 1889 was also +distinctly vague and prohibitively impersonal. The public knew the name +of scarcely a single editor of a magazine: there was no personality that +stood out in the mind: the accepted editorial expression was the +indefinite "we"; no one ventured to use the first person singular and +talk intimately to the reader. Edward Bok's biographical reading had +taught him that the American public loved a personality: that it was +always ready to recognize and follow a leader, provided, of course, that +the qualities of leadership were demonstrated. He felt the time had +come--the reference here and elsewhere is always to the realm of popular +magazine literature appealing to a very wide audience--for the editor of +some magazine to project his personality through the printed page and to +convince the public that he was not an oracle removed from the people, +but a real human being who could talk and not merely write on paper. + +He saw, too, that the average popular magazine of 1889 failed of large +success because it wrote down to the public--a grievous mistake that so +many editors have made and still make. No one wants to be told, either +directly or indirectly, that he knows less than he does, or even that he +knows as little as he does: every one is benefited by the opposite +implication, and the public will always follow the leader who +comprehends this bit of psychology. There is always a happy medium +between shooting over the public's head and shooting too far under it. +And it is because of the latter aim that we find the modern popular +magazine the worthless thing that, in so many instances, it is to-day. + +It is the rare editor who rightly gauges his public psychology. Perhaps +that is why, in the enormous growth of the modern magazine, there have +been produced so few successful editors. The average editor is obsessed +with the idea of "giving the public what it wants," whereas, in fact, +the public, while it knows what it wants when it sees it, cannot clearly +express its wants, and never wants the thing that it does ask for, +although it thinks it does at the time. But woe to the editor and his +periodical if he heeds that siren voice! + +The editor has, therefore, no means of finding it out aforehand by +putting his ear to the ground. Only by the simplest rules of psychology +can he edit rightly so that he may lead, and to the average editor of +to-day, it is to be feared, psychology is a closed book. His mind is all +too often focussed on the circulation and advertising, and all too +little on the intangibles that will bring to his periodical the results +essential in these respects. + +The editor is the pivot of a magazine. On him everything turns. If his +gauge of the public is correct, readers will come: they cannot help +coming to the man who has something to say himself, or who presents +writers who have. And if the reader comes, the advertiser must come. He +must go where his largest market is: where the buyers are. The +advertiser, instead of being the most difficult factor in a magazine +proposition, as is so often mistakenly thought, is, in reality, the +simplest. He has no choice but to advertise in the successful +periodical. He must come along. The editor need never worry about him. +If the advertiser shuns the periodical's pages, the fault is rarely that +of the advertiser: the editor can generally look for the reason nearer +home. + +One of Edward Bok's first acts as editor was to offer a series of prizes +for the best answers to three questions he put to his readers: what in +the magazine did they like least and why; what did they like best and +why; and what omitted feature or department would they like to see +installed? Thousands of answers came, and these the editor personally +read carefully and classified. Then he gave his readers' suggestions +back to them in articles and departments, but never on the level +suggested by them. He gave them the subjects they asked for, but +invariably on a slightly higher plane; and each year he raised the +standard a notch. He always kept "a huckleberry or two" ahead of his +readers. His psychology was simple: come down to the level which the +public sets and it will leave you at the moment you do it. It always +expects of its leaders that they shall keep a notch above or a step +ahead. The American public always wants something a little better than +it asks for, and the successful man, in catering to it, is he who +follows this golden rule. + + + + +XVI. First Years as a Woman's Editor + + +Edward Bok has often been referred to as the one "who made The Ladies' +Home Journal out of nothing," who "built it from the ground up," or, in +similar terms, implying that when he became its editor in 1889 the +magazine was practically non-existent. This is far from the fact. The +magazine was begun in 1883, and had been edited by Mrs. Cyrus H. K. +Curtis, for six years, under her maiden name of Louisa Knapp, before Bok +undertook its editorship. Mrs. Curtis had laid a solid foundation of +principle and policy for the magazine: it had achieved a circulation of +440,000 copies a month when she transferred the editorship, and it had +already acquired such a standing in the periodical world as to attract +the advertisements of Charles Scribner's Sons, which Mr. Doubleday, and +later Bok himself, gave to the Philadelphia magazine--advertising which +was never given lightly, or without the most careful investigation of +the worth of the circulation of a periodical. + +What every magazine publisher knows as the most troublous years in the +establishment of a periodical, the first half-dozen years of its +existence, had already been weathered by the editor and publisher. The +wife as editor and the husband as publisher had combined to lay a solid +basis upon which Bok had only to build: his task was simply to rear a +structure upon the foundation already laid. It is to the vision and to +the genius of the first editor of The Ladies' Home Journal that the +unprecedented success of the magazine is primarily due. It was the +purpose and the policy of making a magazine of authoritative service for +the womanhood of America, a service which would visualize for womanhood +its highest domestic estate, that had won success for the periodical +from its inception. It is difficult to believe, in the multiplicity of +similar magazines to-day, that such a purpose was new; that The Ladies' +Home Journal was a path-finder; but the convincing proof is found in the +fact that all the later magazines of this class have followed in the +wake of the periodical conceived by Mrs. Curtis, and have ever since +been its imitators. + +When Edward Bok succeeded Mrs. Curtis, he immediately encountered +another popular misconception of a woman's magazine--the conviction that +if a man is the editor of a periodical with a distinctly feminine +appeal, he must, as the term goes, "understand women." If Bok had +believed this to be true, he would never have assumed the position. How +deeply rooted is this belief was brought home to him on every hand when +his decision to accept the Philadelphia position was announced. His +mother, knowing her son better than did any one else, looked at him with +amazement. She could not believe that he was serious in his decision to +cater to women's needs when he knew so little about them. His friends, +too, were intensely amused, and took no pains to hide their amusement +from him. They knew him to be the very opposite of "a lady's man," and +when they were not convulsed with hilarity they were incredulous and +marvelled. + +No man, perhaps, could have been chosen for the position who had a less +intimate knowledge of women. Bok had no sister, no women confidantes: he +had lived with and for his mother. She was the only woman he really knew +or who really knew him. His boyhood days had been too full of poverty +and struggle to permit him to mingle with the opposite sex. And it is a +curious fact that Edward Bok's instinctive attitude toward women was +that of avoidance. He did not dislike women, but it could not be said +that he liked them. They had never interested him. Of women, therefore, +he knew little; of their needs less. Nor had he the slightest desire, +even as an editor, to know them better, or to seek to understand them. +Even at that age, he knew that, as a man, he could not, no matter what +effort he might make, and he let it go at that. + +What he saw in the position was not the need to know women; he could +employ women for that purpose. He perceived clearly that the editor of a +magazine was largely an executive: his was principally the work of +direction; of studying currents and movements, watching their formation, +their tendency, their efficacy if advocated or translated into +actuality; and then selecting from the horizon those that were for the +best interests of the home. For a home was something Edward Bok did +understand. He had always lived in one; had struggled to keep it +together, and he knew every inch of the hard road that makes for +domestic permanence amid adverse financial conditions. And at the home +he aimed rather than at the woman in it. + +It was upon his instinct that he intended to rely rather than upon any +knowledge of woman. His first act in the editorial chair of The Ladies' +Home Journal showed him to be right in this diagnosis of himself, for +the incident proved not only how correct was his instinct, but how +woefully lacking he was in any knowledge of the feminine nature. + +He had divined the fact that in thousands of cases the American mother +was not the confidante of her daughter, and reasoned if an inviting +human personality could be created on the printed page that would supply +this lamentable lack of American family life, girls would flock to such +a figure. But all depended on the confidence which the written word +could inspire. He tried several writers, but in each case the particular +touch that he sought for was lacking. It seemed so simple to him, and +yet he could not translate it to others. Then, in desperation, he wrote +an installment of such a department as he had in mind himself, intending +to show it to a writer he had in view, thus giving her a visual +demonstration. He took it to the office the next morning, intending to +have it copied, but the manuscript accidentally attached itself to +another intended for the composing-room, and it was not until the +superintendent of the composing-room during the day said to him, "I +didn't know Miss Ashmead wrote," that Bok knew where his manuscript had +gone. + +Miss Ashmead?" asked the puzzled editor. + +Yes, Miss Ashmead in your department," was the answer. + +The whereabouts of the manuscript was then disclosed, and the editor +called for its return. He had called the department "Side Talks with +Girls" by Ruth Ashmead. + +"My girls all hope this is going into the magazine," said the +superintendent when he returned the manuscript. + +"Why?" asked the editor. + +"Well, they say it's the best stuff for girls they have ever read. +They'd love to know Miss Ashmead better." + +Here was exactly what the editor wanted, but he was the author! He +changed the name to Ruth Ashmore, and decided to let the manuscript go +into the magazine. He reasoned that he would then have a month in which +to see the writer he had in mind, and he would show her the proof. But a +month filled itself with other duties, and before the editor was aware +of it, the composition-room wanted "copy" for the second installment of +"Side Talks with Girls." Once more the editor furnished the copy! + +Within two weeks after the second article had been written, the magazine +containing the first installment of the new department appeared, and the +next day two hundred letters were received for "Ruth Ashmore," with the +mail-clerk asking where they should be sent. "Leave them with me, +please," replied the editor. On the following day the mail-clerk handed +him five hundred more. + +The editor now took two letters from the top and opened them. He never +opened the third! That evening he took the bundle home, and told his +mother of his predicament. She read the letters and looked at her son. +"You have no right to read these," she said. The son readily agreed. + +His instinct had correctly interpreted the need, but he never dreamed +how far the feminine nature would reveal itself on paper. + +The next morning the editor, with his letters, took the train for New +York and sought his friend, Mrs. Isabel A. Mallon, the "Bab" of his +popular syndicate letter. + +"Have you read this department?" he asked, pointing to the page in the +magazine. + +"I have," answered Mrs. Mallon. "Very well done, too, it is. Who is +'Ruth Ashmore'?' + +"You are," answered Edward Bok. And while it took considerable +persuasion, from that time on Mrs. Mallon became Ruth Ashmore, the most +ridiculed writer in the magazine world, and yet the most helpful editor +that ever conducted a department in periodical literature. For sixteen +years she conducted the department, until she passed away, her last act +being to dictate a letter to a correspondent. In those sixteen years she +had received one hundred and fifty-eight thousand letters: she kept +three stenographers busy, and the number of girls who to-day bless the +name of Ruth Ashmore is legion. + +But the newspaper humorists who insisted that Ruth Ashmore was none +other than Edward Bok never knew the partial truth of their joke! + +The editor soon supplemented this department with one dealing with the +spiritual needs of the mature woman. "The King's Daughters" was then an +organization at the summit of its usefulness, with Margaret Bottome its +president. Edward Bok had heard Mrs. Bottome speak, had met her +personally, and decided that she was the editor for the department he +had in mind. + +"I want it written in an intimate way as if there were only two persons +in the world, you and the person reading. I want heart to speak to +heart. We will make that the title," said the editor, and unconsciously +he thus created the title that has since become familiar wherever +English is spoken: "Heart to Heart Talks." The title gave the department +an instantaneous hearing; the material in it carried out its spirit, and +soon Mrs. Bottome's department rivaled, in popularity, the page by Ruth +Ashmore. + +These two departments more than anything else, and the irresistible +picture of a man editing a woman's magazine, brought forth an era of +newspaper paragraphing and a flood of so-called "humorous" references to +the magazine and editor. It became the vogue to poke fun at both. The +humorous papers took it up, the cartoonists helped it along, and actors +introduced the name of the magazine on the stage in plays and skits. +Never did a periodical receive such an amount of gratuitous advertising. +Much of the wit was absolutely without malice: some of it was written by +Edward Bok's best friends, who volunteered to "let up" would he but +raise a finger. + +But he did not raise the finger. No one enjoyed the "paragraphs" more +heartily when the wit was good, and in that case, if the writer was +unknown to him, he sought him out and induced him to write for him. In +this way, George Fitch was found on the Peoria, Illinois, Transcript and +introduced to his larger public in the magazine and book world through +The Ladies' Home Journal, whose editor he believed he had "most +unmercifully roasted";--but he had done it so cleverly that the editor +at once saw his possibilities. + +When all his friends begged Bok to begin proceedings against the New +York Evening Sun because of the libellous (?) articles written about him +by "The Woman About Town," the editor admired the style rather than the +contents, made her acquaintance, and secured her as a regular writer: +she contributed to the magazine some of the best things published in its +pages. But she did not abate her opinions of Bok and his magazine in her +articles in the newspaper, and Bok did not ask it of her: he felt that +she had a right to her opinions--those he was not buying; but he was +eager to buy her direct style in treating subjects he knew no other +woman could so effectively handle. + +And with his own limited knowledge of the sex, he needed, and none knew +it better than did he, the ablest women he could obtain to help him +realize his ideals. Their personal opinions of him did not matter so +long as he could command their best work. Sooner or later, when his +purposes were better understood, they might alter those opinions. For +that he could afford to wait. But he could not wait to get their work. + +By this time the editor had come to see that the power of a magazine +might lie more securely behind the printed page than in it. He had begun +to accustom his readers to writing to his editors upon all conceivable +problems. + +This he decided to encourage. He employed an expert in each line of +feminine endeavor, upon the distinct understanding that the most +scrupulous attention should be given to her correspondence: that every +letter, no matter how inconsequential, should be answered quickly, +fully, and courteously, with the questioner always encouraged to come +again if any problem of whatever nature came to her. He told his editors +that ignorance on any question was a misfortune, not a crime; and he +wished their correspondence treated in the most courteous and helpful +spirit. + +Step by step, the editor built up this service behind the magazine until +he had a staff of thirty-five editors on the monthly pay-roll; in each +issue, he proclaimed the willingness of these editors to answer +immediately any questions by mail, he encouraged and cajoled his readers +to form the habit of looking upon his magazine as a great clearing-house +of information. Before long, the letters streamed in by the tens of +thousands during a year. The editor still encouraged, and the total ran +into the hundreds of thousands, until during the last year, before the +service was finally stopped by the Great War of 1917-18, the yearly +correspondence totalled nearly a million letters. + +The work of some of these editors never reached the printed page, and +yet was vastly more important than any published matter could possibly +be. Out of the work of Ruth Ashmore, for instance, there grew a class of +cases of the most confidential nature. These cases, distributed all over +the country, called for special investigation and personal contact. Bok +selected Mrs. Lyman Abbott for this piece of delicate work, and, through +the wide acquaintance of her husband, she was enabled to reach, +personally, every case in every locality, and bring personal help to +bear on it. These cases mounted into the hundreds, and the good +accomplished through this quiet channel cannot be overestimated. + +The lack of opportunity for an education in Bok's own life led him to +cast about for some plan whereby an education might be obtained without +expense by any one who desired. He finally hit upon the simple plan of +substituting free scholarships for the premiums then so frequently +offered by periodicals for subscriptions secured. Free musical education +at the leading conservatories was first offered to any girl who would +secure a certain number of subscriptions to The Ladies' Home Journal, +the complete offer being a year's free tuition, with free room, free +board, free piano in her own room, and all travelling expenses paid. The +plan was an immediate success: the solicitation of a subscription by a +girl desirous of educating herself made an irresistible appeal. + +This plan was soon extended, so as to include all the girls' colleges, +and finally all the men's colleges, so that a free education might be +possible at any educational institution. So comprehensive it became that +to the close of 1919, one thousand four hundred and fifty-five free +scholarships had been awarded. The plan has now been in operation long +enough to have produced some of the leading singers and instrumental +artists of the day, whose names are familiar to all, as well as +instructors in colleges and scores of teachers; and to have sent several +score of men into conspicuous positions in the business and professional +world. + +Edward Bok has always felt that but for his own inability to secure an +education, and his consequent desire for self-improvement, the +realization of the need in others might not have been so strongly felt +by him, and that his plan whereby thousands of others were benefited +might never have been realized. + +The editor's correspondence was revealing, among other deficiencies, the +wide-spread unpreparedness of the average American girl for motherhood, +and her desperate ignorance when a new life was given her. On the theory +that with the realization of a vital need there is always the person to +meet it, Bok consulted the authorities of the Babies' Hospital of New +York, and found Doctor Emmet Holt's house physician, Doctor Emelyn L. +Coolidge. To the authorities in the world of babies, Bok's discovery +was, of course, a known and serious fact. + +Doctor Coolidge proposed that the magazine create a department of +questions and answers devoted to the problems of young mothers. This was +done, and from the publication of the first issue the questions began to +come in. Within five years the department had grown to such proportions +that Doctor Coolidge proposed a plan whereby mothers might be +instructed, by mail, in the rearing of babies--in their general care, +their feeding, and the complete hygiene of the nursery. + +Bok had already learned, in his editorial experience, carefully to weigh +a woman's instinct against a man's judgment, but the idea of raising +babies by mail floored him. He reasoned, however, that a woman, and more +particularly one who had been in a babies' hospital for years, knew more +about babies than he could possibly know. He consulted baby-specialists +in New York and Philadelphia, and, with one accord, they declared the +plan not only absolutely impracticable but positively dangerous. Bok's +confidence in woman's instinct, however, persisted, and he asked Doctor +Coolidge to map out a plan. + +This called for the services of two physicians: Miss Marianna Wheeler, +for many years superintendent of the Babies' Hospital, was to look after +the prospective mother before the baby's birth; and Doctor Coolidge, +when the baby was born, would immediately send to the young mother a +printed list of comprehensive questions, which, when answered, would be +immediately followed by a full set of directions as to the care of the +child, including carefully prepared food formulæ . At the end of the +first month, another set of questions was to be forwarded for answer by +the mother, and this monthly service was to be continued until the child +reached the age of two years. The contact with the mother would then +become intermittent, dependent upon the condition of mother and child. +All the directions and formulæ were to be used only under the direction +of the mother's attendant physician, so that the fullest cooperation +might be established between the physician on the case and the advisory +department of the magazine. + +Despite advice to the contrary, Bok decided, after consulting a number +of mothers, to establish the system. It was understood that the greatest +care was to be exercised: the most expert advice, if needed, was to be +sought and given, and the thousands of cases at the Babies' Hospital +were to be laid under contribution. + +There was then begun a magazine department which was to be classed among +the most clear-cut pieces of successful work achieved by The Ladies' +Home Journal. + +Step by step, the new departure won its way, and was welcomed eagerly by +thousands of young mothers. It was not long before the warmest +commendation from physicians all over the country was received. +Promptness of response and thoroughness of diagnosis were, of course, +the keynotes of the service: where the cases were urgent, the special +delivery post and, later, the night-letter telegraph service were used. + +The plan is now in its eleventh year of successful operation. Some idea +of the enormous extent of its service can be gathered from the amazing +figures that, at the close of the tenth year, show over forty thousand +prospective mothers have been advised, while the number of babies +actually "raised" by Doctor Coolidge approaches eighty thousand. Fully +ninety-five of every hundred of these babies registered have remained +under the monthly letter-care of Doctor Coolidge until their first year, +when the mothers receive a diet list which has proved so effective for +future guidance that many mothers cease to report regularly. Eighty-five +out of every hundred babies have remained in the registry until their +graduation at the age of two. Over eight large sets of library drawers +are required for the records of the babies always under the supervision +of the registry. + +Scores of physicians who vigorously opposed the work at the start have +amended their opinions and now not only give their enthusiastic +endorsement, but have adopted Doctor Coolidge's food formulæ for their +private and hospital cases. + +It was this comprehensive personal service, built up back of the +magazine from the start, that gave the periodical so firm and unique a +hold on its clientele. It was not the printed word that was its chief +power: scores of editors who have tried to study and diagnose the appeal +of the magazine from the printed page, have remained baffled at the +remarkable confidence elicited from its readers. They never looked back +of the magazine, and therefore failed to discover its secret. Bok went +through three financial panics with the magazine, and while other +periodicals severely suffered from diminished circulation at such times, +The Ladies' Home Journal always held its own. Thousands of women had +been directly helped by the magazine; it had not remained an inanimate +printed thing, but had become a vital need in the personal lives of its +readers. + +So intimate had become this relation, so efficient was the service +rendered, that its readers could not be pried loose from it; where women +were willing and ready, when the domestic pinch came, to let go of other +reading matter, they explained to their husbands or fathers that The +Ladies' Home Journal was a necessity--they did not feel that they could +do without it. The very quality for which the magazine had been held up +to ridicule by the unknowing and unthinking had become, with hundreds of +thousands of women, its source of power and the bulwark of its success. + +Bok was beginning to realize the vision which had lured him from New +York: that of putting into the field of American magazines a periodical +that should become such a clearing-house as virtually to make it an +institution. + +He felt that, for the present at least, he had sufficiently established +the personal contact with his readers through the more intimate +departments, and decided to devote his efforts to the literary features +of the magazine. + + + + +XVII. Eugene Field's Practical Jokes + + +Eugene Field was one of Edward Bok's close friends and also his despair, +as was likely to be the case with those who were intimate with the +Western poet. One day Field said to Bok: "I am going to make you the +most widely paragraphed man in America." The editor passed the remark +over, but he was to recall it often as his friend set out to make his +boast good. + +The fact that Bok was unmarried and the editor of a woman's magazine +appealed strongly to Field's sense of humor. He knew the editor's +opposition to patent medicines, and so he decided to join the two facts +in a paragraph, put on the wire at Chicago, to the effect that the +editor was engaged to be married to Miss Lavinia Pinkham, the +granddaughter of Mrs. Lydia Pinkham, of patent-medicine fame. The +paragraph carefully described Miss Pinkham, the school where she had +been educated, her talents, her wealth, etc. Field was wise enough to +put the paragraph not in his own column in the Chicago News, lest it be +considered in the light of one of his practical jokes, but on the news +page of the paper, and he had it put on the Associated Press wire. + +He followed this up a few days later with a paragraph announcing Bok's +arrival at a Boston hotel. Then came a paragraph saying that Miss +Pinkham was sailing for Paris to buy her trousseau. The paragraphs were +worded in the most matter-of-fact manner, and completely fooled the +newspapers, even those of Boston. Field was delighted at the success of +his joke, and the fact that Bok was in despair over the letters that +poured in upon him added to Field's delight. + +He now asked Bok to come to Chicago. "I want you to know some of my +cronies," he wrote. "Julia [his wife] is away, so we will shift for +ourselves." Bok arrived in Chicago one Sunday afternoon, and was to dine +at Field's house that evening. He found a jolly company: James Whitcomb +Riley, Sol Smith Russell the actor, Opie Read, and a number of Chicago's +literary men. + +When seven o'clock came, some one suggested to Field that something to +eat might not be amiss. + +"Shortly," answered the poet. "Wife is out; cook is new, and dinner will +be a little late. Be patient." But at eight o'clock there was still no +dinner. Riley began to grow suspicious and slipped down-stairs. He found +no one in the kitchen and the range cold. He came back and reported. +"Nonsense," said Field. "It can't be." All went down-stairs to find out +the truth. "Let's get supper ourselves," suggested Russell. Then it was +discovered that not a morsel of food was to be found in the +refrigerator, closet, or cellar. "That's a joke on us," said Field. +"Julia has left us without a crumb to eat. + +It was then nine o'clock. Riley and Bok held a council of war and +decided to slip out and buy some food, only to find that the front, +basement, and back doors were locked and the keys missing! Field was +very sober. "Thorough woman, that wife of mine," he commented. But his +friends knew better. + +Finally, the Hoosier poet and the Philadelphia editor crawled through +one of the basement windows and started on a foraging expedition. Of +course, Field lived in a residential section where there were few +stores, and on Sunday these were closed. There was nothing to do but to +board a down-town car. Finally they found a delicatessen shop open, and +the two hungry men amazed the proprietor by nearly buying out his stock. + +It was after ten o'clock when Riley and Bok got back to the house with +their load of provisions to find every door locked, every curtain drawn, +and the bolt sprung on every window. Only the cellar grating remained, +and through this the two dropped their bundles and themselves, and +appeared in the dining-room, dirty and dishevelled, to find the party at +table enjoying a supper which Field had carefully hidden and brought out +when they had left the house. + +Riley, cold and hungry, and before this time the victim of Field's +practical jokes, was not in a merry humor and began to recite +paraphrases of Field's poems. Field retorted by paraphrasing Riley's +poems, and mimicking the marked characteristics of Riley's speech. This +started Sol Smith Russell, who mimicked both. The fun grew fast and +furious, the entire company now took part, Mrs. Field's dresses were +laid under contribution, and Field, Russell, and Riley gave an impromptu +play. And it was upon this scene that Mrs. Field, after a continuous +ringing of the door-bell and nearly battering down the door, appeared at +seven o'clock the next morning! + +It was fortunate that Eugene Field had a patient wife; she needed every +ounce of patience that she could command. And no one realized this more +keenly than did her husband. He once told of a dream he had which +illustrated the endurance of his wife. + +"I thought," said Field, "that I had died and gone to heaven. I had some +difficulty in getting past St. Peter, who regarded me with doubt and +suspicion, and examined my records closely, but finally permitted me to +enter the pearly gates. As I walked up the street of the heavenly city, +I saw a venerable old man with long gray hair and flowing beard. His +benignant face encouraged me to address him. 'I have just arrived and I +am entirely unacquainted,' I said. 'May I ask your name?' + +"'My name,' he replied, 'is Job.' + +"'Indeed,' I exclaimed, 'are you that Job whom we were taught to revere +as the most patient being in the world?' + +"'The same,' he said, with a shadow of hesitation; 'I did have quite a +reputation for patience once, but I hear that there is a woman now on +earth, in Chicago, who has suffered more than I ever did, and she has +endured it with great resignation.' + +"'Why,' said I, 'that is curious. I am just from earth, and from +Chicago, and I do not remember to have heard of her case. What is her +name?' + +"'Mrs. Eugene Field,' was the reply. + +"Just then I awoke," ended Field. + +The success of Field's paragraph engaging Bok to Miss Pinkham stimulated +the poet to greater effort. Bok had gone to Europe; Field, having found +out the date of his probable return, just about when the steamer was +due, printed an interview with the editor "at quarantine" which sounded +so plausible that even the men in Bok's office in Philadelphia were +fooled and prepared for his arrival. The interview recounted, in detail, +the changes in women's fashions in Paris, and so plausible had Field +made it, based upon information obtained at Marshall Field's, that even +the fashion papers copied it. + +All this delighted Field beyond measure. Bok begged him to desist; but +Field answered by printing an item to the effect that there was the +highest authority for denying "the reports industriously circulated some +time ago to the effect that Mr. Bok was engaged to be married to a New +England young lady, whereas, as a matter of fact, it is no violation of +friendly confidence that makes it possible to announce that the +Philadelphia editor is engaged to Mrs. Frank Leslie, of New York." + +It so happened that Field put this new paragraph on the wire just about +the time that Bok's actual engagement was announced. Field was now +deeply contrite, and sincerely promised Bok and his fiancée to reform. +"I'm through, you mooning, spooning calf, you," he wrote Bok, and his +friend believed him, only to receive a telegram the next day from Mrs. +Field warning him that "Gene is planning a series of telephonic +conversations with you and Miss Curtis at college that I think should +not be printed." Bok knew it was of no use trying to curb Field's +industry, and so he wired the editor of the Chicago News for his +cooperation. Field, now checked, asked Bok and his fiancée and the +parents of both to come to Chicago, be his guests for the World's Fair, +and "let me make amends." + +It was a happy visit. Field was all kindness, and, of course, the entire +party was charmed by his personality. But the boy in him could not be +repressed. He had kept it down all through the visit. "No, not a +joke-cross my heart," he would say, and then he invited the party to +lunch with him on their way to the train when they were leaving for +home. "But we shall be in our travelling clothes, not dressed for a +luncheon," protested the women. It was an unfortunate protest, for it +gave Field an idea! "Oh," he assured them, "just a good-bye luncheon at +the club; just you folks and Julia and me." They believed him, only to +find upon their arrival at the club an assembly of over sixty guests at +one of the most elaborate luncheons ever served in Chicago, with each +woman guest carefully enjoined by Field, in his invitation, to "put on +her prettiest and most elaborate costume in order to dress up the +table!" + +One day Field came to Philadelphia to give a reading in Camden in +conjunction with George W. Cable. It chanced that his friend, Francis +Wilson, was opening that same evening in Philadelphia in a new comic +opera which Field had not seen. He immediately refused to give his +reading, and insisted upon going to the theatre. The combined efforts of +his manager, Wilson, Mr. Cable, and his friends finally persuaded him to +keep his engagement and join in a double-box party later at the theatre. +To make sure that he would keep his lecture appointment, Bok decided to +go to Camden with him. Field and Cable were to appear alternately. + +Field went on for his first number; and when he came off, he turned to +Bok and said: "No use, Bok, I'm a sick man. I must go home. Cable can +see this through," and despite every protestation Field bundled himself +into his overcoat and made for his carriage. "Sick, Bok, really sick," +he muttered as they rode along. Then seeing a fruit-stand he said: "Buy +me a bag of oranges, like a good fellow. They'll do me good." + +When Philadelphia was reached, he suggested: "Do you know I think it +would do me good to go and see Frank in the new play? Tell the driver to +go to the theatre like a good boy." Of course, that had been his intent +all along! When the theatre was reached he insisted upon taking the +oranges with him. "They'll steal 'em if you leave 'em there," he said. + +Field lost all traces of his supposed illness the moment he reached the +box. Francis Wilson was on the stage with Marie Jansen. "Isn't it +beautiful?" said Field, and directing the attention of the party to the +players, he reached under his chair for the bag of oranges, took one +out, and was about to throw it at Wilson when Bok caught his arm, took +the orange away from him, and grabbed the bag. Field never forgave Bok +for this act of watchfulness. "Treason," he hissed--"going back on a +friend." + +The one object of Field's ambition was to achieve the distinction of so +"fussing" Francis Wilson that he would be compelled to ring down the +curtain. He had tried every conceivable trick: had walked on the stage +in one of Wilson's scenes; had started a quarrel with an usher in the +audience--everything that ingenuity could conceive he had practised on +his friend. Bok had known this penchant of Field's, and when he insisted +on taking the bag of oranges into the theatre, Field's purpose was +evident! + +One day Bok received a wire from Field: "City of New Orleans purposing +give me largest public reception on sixth ever given an author. Event of +unusual quality. Mayor and city officials peculiarly desirous of having +you introduce me to vast audience they propose to have. Hate to ask you +to travel so far, but would be great favor to me. Wire answer." Bok +wired back his willingness to travel to New Orleans and oblige his +friend. It occurred to Bok, however, to write to a friend in New Orleans +and ask the particulars. Of course, there was never any thought of Field +going to New Orleans or of any reception. Bok waited for further +advices, and a long letter followed from Field giving him a glowing +picture of the reception planned. Bok sent a message to his New Orleans +friend to be telegraphed from New Orleans on the sixth: "Find whole +thing to be a fake. Nice job to put over on me. Bok." Field was +overjoyed at the apparent success of his joke and gleefully told his +Chicago friends all about it--until he found out that the joke had been +on him. "Durned dirty, I call it," he wrote Bok. + +It was a lively friendship that Eugene Field gave to Edward Bok, full of +anxieties and of continuous forebodings, but it was worth all that it +cost in mental perturbation. No rarer friend ever lived: in his serious +moments he gave one a quality of unforgetable friendship that remains a +precious memory. But his desire for practical jokes was uncontrollable: +it meant being constantly on one's guard, and even then the pranks could +not always be thwarted! + + + + +XVIII. Building Up a Magazine + + +The newspaper paragraphers were now having a delightful time with Edward +Bok and his woman's magazine, and he was having a delightful time with +them. The editor's publicity sense made him realize how valuable for his +purposes was all this free advertising. The paragraphers believed, in +their hearts, that they were annoying the young editor; they tried to +draw his fire through their articles. But he kept quiet, put his tongue +in his cheek, and determined to give them some choice morsels for their +wit. + +He conceived the idea of making familiar to the public the women who +were back of the successful men of the day. He felt sure that his +readers wanted to know about these women. But to attract his newspaper +friends he labelled the series, "Unknown Wives of Well-Known Men" and +"Clever Daughters of Clever Men." + +The alliterative titles at once attracted the paragraphers; they fell +upon them like hungry trout, and a perfect fusillade of paragraphs +began. This is exactly what the editor wanted; and he followed these two +series immediately by inducing the daughter of Charles Dickens to write +of "My Father as I Knew Him," and Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher, of "Mr. +Beecher as I Knew Him." Bok now felt that he had given the newspapers +enough ammunition to last for some time; and he turned his attention to +building up a more permanent basis for his magazine. + +The two authors of that day who commanded more attention than any others +were William Dean Howells and Rudyard Kipling. Bok knew that these two +would give to his magazine the literary quality that it needed, and so +he laid them both under contribution. He bought Mr. Howells's new novel, +"The Coast of Bohemia," and arranged that Kipling's new novelette upon +which he was working should come to the magazine. Neither the public nor +the magazine editors had expected Bok to break out along these more +permanent lines, and magazine publishers began to realize that a new +competitor had sprung up in Philadelphia. Bok knew they would feel this; +so before he announced Mr. Howells's new novel, he contracted with the +novelist to follow this with his autobiography. This surprised the +editors of the older magazines, for they realized that the Philadelphia +editor had completely tied up the leading novelist of the day for his +next two years' output. + +Meanwhile, in order that the newspapers might be well supplied with +barbs for their shafts, he published an entire number of his magazine +written by famous daughters of famous men. This unique issue presented +contributions by the daughters of Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, +President Harrison, Horace Greeley, William M. Thackeray, William Dean +Howells, General Sherman, Julia Ward Howe, Jefferson Davis, Mr. +Gladstone, and a score of others. This issue simply filled the +paragraphers with glee. Then once more Bok turned to material calculated +to cement the foundation for a more permanent structure. + +He noted, early in its progress, the gathering strength of the drift +toward woman suffrage, and realized that the American woman was not +prepared, in her knowledge of her country, to exercise the privilege of +the ballot. Bok determined to supply the deficiency to his readers, and +concluded to put under contract the President of the United States, +Benjamin Harrison, the moment he left office, to write a series of +articles explaining the United States. No man knew this subject better +than the President; none could write better; and none would attract such +general attention to his magazine, reasoned Bok. He sought the +President, talked it over with him, and found him favorable to the idea. +But the President was in doubt at that time whether he would be a +candidate for another term, and frankly told Bok that he would be taking +too much risk to wait for him. He suggested that the editor try to +prevail upon his then secretary of state, James G. Blaine, to undertake +the series, and offered to see Mr. Blaine and induce him to a favorable +consideration. Bok acquiesced, and a few days afterward received from +Mr. Blaine a request to come to Washington. + +Bok had had a previous experience with Mr. Blaine which had impressed +him to an unusual degree. Many years before, he had called upon him at +his hotel in New York, seeking his autograph, had been received, and as +the statesman was writing his signature he said: "Your name is a +familiar one to me. I have had correspondence with an Edward Bok who is +secretary of state for the Transvaal Republic. Are you related to him?" + +Bok explained that this was his uncle, and that he was named for him. + +Years afterward Bok happened to be at a public meeting where Mr. Blaine +was speaking, and the statesman, seeing him, immediately called him by +name. Bok knew of the reputed marvels of Mr. Blaine's memory, but this +proof of it amazed him. + +"It is simply inconceivable, Mr. Blaine," said Bok, "that you should +remember my name after all these years." + +"Not at all, my boy," returned Mr. Blaine. "Memorizing is simply +association. You associate a fact or an incident with a name and you +remember the name. It never leaves you. The moment I saw you I +remembered you told me that your uncle was secretary of state for the +Transvaal. That at once brought your name to me. You see how simple a +trick it is." + +But Bok did not see, since remembering the incident was to him an even +greater feat of memory than recalling the name. It was a case of having +to remember two things instead of one. + +At all events, Bok was no stranger to James G. Blaine when he called +upon him at his Lafayette Place home in Washington. + +"You've gone ahead in the world some since I last saw you," was the +statesman's greeting. "It seems to go with the name." + +This naturally broke the ice for the editor at once. + +"Let's go to my library where we can talk quietly. What train are you +making back to Philadelphia, by the way?" + +"The four, if I can," replied Bok. + +"Excuse me a moment," returned Mr. Blaine, and when he came back to the +room, he said: "Now let's talk over this interesting proposition that +the President has told me about." + +The two discussed the matter and completed arrangements whereby Mr. +Blaine was to undertake the work. Toward the latter end of the talk, Bok +had covertly--as he thought--looked at his watch to keep track of his +train. + +"It's all right about that train," came from Mr. Blaine, with his back +toward Bok, writing some data of the talk at his desk. "You'll make it +all right." + +Bok wondered how he should, as it then lacked only seventeen minutes of +four. But as Mr. Blaine reached the front door, he said to the editor: +"My carriage is waiting at the curb to take you to the station, and the +coachman has your seat in the parlor car." + +And with this knightly courtesy, Mr. Blaine shook hands with Bok, who +was never again to see him, nor was the contract ever to be fulfilled. +For early in 1893 Mr. Blaine passed away without having begun the work. + +Again Bok turned to the President, and explained to him that, for some +reason or other, the way seemed to point to him to write the articles +himself. By that time President Harrison had decided that he would not +succeed himself. Accordingly he entered into an agreement with the +editor to begin to write the articles immediately upon his retirement +from office. And the day after Inauguration Day every newspaper +contained an Associated Press despatch announcing the former President's +contract with The Ladies' Home Journal. + +Shortly afterward, Benjamin Harrison's articles on "This Country of +Ours" successfully appeared in the magazine. + +During Bok's negotiations with President Harrison in connection with his +series of articles, he was called to the White House for a conference. +It was midsummer. Mrs. Harrison was away at the seashore, and the +President was taking advantage of her absence by working far into the +night. + +The President, his secretary, and Bok sat down to dinner. + +The Marine Band was giving its weekly concert on the green, and after +dinner the President suggested that Bok and he adjourn to the "back lot" +and enjoy the music. + +"You have a coat?" asked the President. + +"No, thank you," Bok answered. "I don't need one." + +"Not in other places, perhaps," he said, "but here you do. The dampness +comes up from the Potomac at nightfall, and it's just as well to be +careful. It's Mrs. Harrison's dictum," he added smiling. "Halford, send +up for one of my light coats, will you, please?" + +Bok remarked, as he put on the President's coat, that this was probably +about as near as he should ever get to the presidency. + +"Well, it's a question whether you want to get nearer to it," answered +the President. He looked very white and tired in the moonlight. + +"Still," Bok said with a smile, "some folks seem to like it well enough +to wish to get it a second time." + +"True," he answered, "but that's what pride will do for a man. Try one +of these cigars." + +A cigar! Bok had been taking his tobacco in smaller doses with paper +around them. He had never smoked a cigar. Still, one cannot very well +refuse a presidential cigar! + +"Thank you," Bok said as he took one from the President's case. He +looked at the cigar and remembered all he had read of Benjamin +Harrison's black cigars. This one was black--inky black--and big. + +"Allow me," he heard the President suddenly say, as he handed him a +blazing match. There was no escape. The aroma was delicious, but--Two or +three whiffs of that cigar, and Bok decided the best thing to do was to +let it go out. He did. + +"I have allowed you to talk so much," said the President after a while, +"that you haven't had a chance to smoke. Allow me," and another match +crackled into flame. + +"Thank you," the editor said, as once more he lighted the cigar, and the +fumes went clear up into the farthest corner of his brain. + +"Take a fresh cigar," said the President after a while. "That doesn't +seem to burn well. You will get one like that once in a while, although +I am careful about my cigars." + +"No, thanks, Mr. President," Bok said hurriedly. "It's I, not the +cigar." + +"Well, prove it to me with another," was the quick rejoinder, as he held +out his case, and in another minute a match again crackled. "There is +only one thing worse than a bad smoke, and that is an office-seeker," +chuckled the President. + +Bok couldn't prove that the cigars were bad, naturally. So smoke that +cigar he did, to the bitter end, and it was bitter! In fifteen minutes +his head and stomach were each whirling around, and no more welcome +words had Bok ever heard than when the President said: "Well, suppose we +go in. Halford and I have a day's work ahead of us yet." + +The President went to work. + +Bok went to bed. He could not get there quick enough, and he +didn't--that is, not before he had experienced that same sensation of +which Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote: he never could understand, he said, +why young authors found so much trouble in getting into the magazines, +for his first trip to Europe was not a day old before, without even the +slightest desire or wish on his part, he became a contributor to the +Atlantic! + +The next day, and for days after, Bok smelled, tasted, and felt that +presidential cigar! + +A few weeks afterward, Bok was talking after dinner with the President +at a hotel in New York, when once more the cigar-case came out and was +handed to Bok. + +"No, thank you, Mr. President," was the instant reply, as visions of his +night in the White House came back to him. "I am like the man from the +West who was willing to try anything once." + +And he told the President the story of the White House cigar. + +The editor decided to follow General Harrison's discussion of American +affairs by giving his readers a glimpse of foreign politics, and he +fixed upon Mr. Gladstone as the one figure abroad to write for him. He +sailed for England, visited Hawarden Castle, and proposed to Mr. +Gladstone that he should write a series of twelve autobiographical +articles which later could be expanded into a book. + +Bok offered fifteen thousand dollars for the twelve articles--a goodly +price in those days--and he saw that the idea and the terms attracted +the English statesman. But he also saw that the statesman was not quite +ready. He decided, therefore, to leave the matter with him, and keep the +avenue of approach favorably open by inducing Mrs. Gladstone to write +for him. Bok knew that Mrs. Gladstone had helped her husband in his +literary work, that she was a woman who had lived a full-rounded life, +and after a day's visit and persuasion, with Mr. Gladstone as an amused +looker-on, the editor closed a contract with Mrs. Gladstone for a series +of reminiscent articles "From a Mother's Life." + +Some time after Bok had sent the check to Mrs. Gladstone, he received a +letter from Mr. Gladstone expressing the opinion that his wife must have +written with a golden pen, considering the size of the honorarium. +"But," he added, "she is so impressed with this as the first money she +has ever earned by her pen that she is reluctant to part with the check. +The result is that she has not offered it for deposit, and has decided +to frame it. Considering the condition of our exchequer, I have tried to +explain to her, and so have my son and daughter, that if she were to +present the check for payment and allow it to pass through the bank, the +check would come back to you and that I am sure your company would +return it to her as a souvenir of the momentous occasion. Our arguments +are of no avail, however, and it occurred to me that an assurance from +you might make the check more useful than it is at present!" + +Bok saw with this disposition that, as he had hoped, the avenue of +favorable approach to Mr. Gladstone had been kept open. The next summer +Bok again visited Hawarden, where he found the statesman absorbed in +writing a life of Bishop Butler, from which it was difficult for him to +turn away. He explained that it would take at least a year or two to +finish this work. Bok saw, of course, his advantage, and closed a +contract with the English statesman whereby he was to write the twelve +autobiographical articles immediately upon his completion of the work +then under his hand. + +Here again, however, as in the case of Mr. Blaine, the contract was +never fulfilled, for Mr. Gladstone passed away before he could free his +mind and begin on the work. + +The vicissitudes of an editor's life were certainly beginning to +demonstrate themselves to Edward Bok. + +The material that the editor was publishing and the authors that he was +laying under contribution began to have marked effect upon the +circulation of the magazine, and it was not long before the original +figures were doubled, an edition--enormous for that day--of seven +hundred and fifty thousand copies was printed and sold each month, the +magical figure of a million was in sight, and the periodical was rapidly +taking its place as one of the largest successes of the day. + +Mr. Curtis's single proprietorship of the magazine had been changed into +a corporation called The Curtis Publishing Company, with a capital of +five hundred thousand dollars, with Mr. Curtis as president, and Bok as +vice-president. + +The magazine had by no means an easy road to travel financially. The +doubling of the subscription price to one dollar per year had materially +checked the income for the time being; the huge advertising bills, +sometimes exceeding three hundred thousand dollars a year, were +difficult to pay; large credit had to be obtained, and the banks were +carrying a considerable quantity of Mr. Curtis's notes. But Mr. Curtis +never wavered in his faith in his proposition and his editor. In the +first he invested all he had and could borrow, and to the latter he gave +his undivided support. The two men worked together rather as father and +son--as, curiously enough, they were to be later--than as employer and +employee. To Bok, the daily experience of seeing Mr. Curtis finance his +proposition in sums that made the publishing world of that day gasp with +sceptical astonishment was a wonderful opportunity, of which the editor +took full advantage so as to learn the intricacies of a world which up +to that time he had known only in a limited way. + +What attracted Bok immensely to Mr. Curtis's methods was their perfect +simplicity and directness. He believed absolutely in the final outcome +of his proposition: where others saw mist and failure ahead, he saw +clear weather and the port of success. Never did he waver: never did he +deflect from his course. He knew no path save the direct one that led +straight to success, and, through his eyes, he made Bok see it with +equal clarity until Bok wondered why others could not see it. But they +could not. Cyrus Curtis would never be able, they said, to come out from +under the load he had piled up. Where they differed from Mr. Curtis was +in their lack of vision: they could not see what he saw! + +It has been said that Mr. Curtis banished patent-medicine advertisements +from his magazine only when he could afford to do so. That is not true, +as a simple incident will show. In the early days, he and Bok were +opening the mail one Friday full of anxiety because the pay-roll was due +that evening, and there was not enough money in the bank to meet it. +From one of the letters dropped a certified check for five figures for a +contract equal to five pages in the magazine. It was a welcome sight, +for it meant an easy meeting of the pay-roll for that week and two +succeeding weeks. But the check was from a manufacturing patent-medicine +company. Without a moment's hesitation, Mr. Curtis slipped it back into +the envelope, saying: "Of course, that we can't take." He returned the +check, never gave the matter a second thought, and went out and borrowed +more money to meet his pay-roll! + +With all respect to American publishers, there are very few who could +have done this--or indeed, would do it to-day, under similar +conditions--particularly in that day when it was the custom for all +magazines to accept patent-medicine advertising; The Ladies' Home +Journal was practically the only publication of standing in the United +States refusing that class of business! + +Bok now saw advertising done on a large scale by a man who believed in +plenty of white space surrounding the announcement in the advertisement. +He paid Mr. Howells $10,000 for his autobiography, and Mr. Curtis spent +$50,000 in advertising it. "It is not expense," he would explain to Bok, +"it is investment. We are investing in a trade-mark. It will all come +back in time." And when the first $100,000 did not come back as Mr. +Curtis figured, he would send another $100,000 after it, and then both +came back. + +Bok's experience in advertisement writing was now to stand him in +excellent stead. He wrote all the advertisements and from that day to +the day of his retirement, practically every advertisement of the +magazine was written by him. + +Mr. Curtis believed that the editor should write the advertisements of a +magazine's articles. "You are the one who knows them, what is in them +and your purpose," he said to Bok, who keenly enjoyed this advertisement +writing. He put less and less in his advertisements. Mr. Curtis made +them larger and larger in the space which they occupied in the media +used. In this way The Ladies' Home Journal advertisements became +distinctive for their use of white space, and as the advertising world +began to say: "You can't miss them." Only one feature was advertised at +one time, but the "feature" was always carefully selected for its wide +popular appeal, and then Mr. Curtis spared no expense to advertise it +abundantly. As much as $400,000 was spent in one year in advertising +only a few features--a gigantic sum in those days, approached by no +other periodical. But Mr. Curtis believed in showing the advertising +world that he was willing to take his own medicine. + +Naturally, such a campaign of publicity announcing the most popular +attractions offered by any magazine of the day had but one effect: the +circulation leaped forward by bounds, and the advertising columns of the +magazine rapidly filled up. + +The success of The Ladies' Home Journal began to look like an assured +fact, even to the most sceptical. + +As a matter of fact, it was only at its beginning, as both publisher +and editor knew. But they desired to fill the particular field of the +magazine so quickly and fully that there would be small room for +competition. The woman's magazine field was to belong to them! + + + + +XIX. Personality Letters + + +Edward Bok was always interested in the manner in which personality was +expressed in letters. For this reason he adopted, as a boy, the method +of collecting not mere autographs, but letters characteristic of their +writers which should give interesting insight into the most famous men +and women of the day. He secured what were really personality letters. + +One of these writers was Mark Twain. The humorist was not kindly +disposed toward autograph collectors, and the fact that in this case the +collector aimed to raise the standard of the hobby did not appease him. +Still, it brought forth a characteristic letter: + +"I hope I shall not offend you; I shall certainly say nothing with the +intention to offend you. I must explain myself, however, and I will do +it as kindly as I can. What you ask me to do, I am asked to do as often +as one-half dozen times a week. Three hundred letters a year! One's +impulse is to freely consent, but one's time and necessary occupations +will not permit it. There is no way but to decline in all cases, making +no exceptions, and I wish to call your attention to a thing which has +probably not occurred to you, and that is this: that no man takes +pleasure in exercising his trade as a pastime. Writing is my trade, and +I exercise it only when I am obliged to. You might make your request of +a doctor, or a builder, or a sculptor, and there would be no impropriety +in it, but if you asked either of those for a specimen of his trade, his +handiwork, he would be justified in rising to a point of order. It would +never be fair to ask a doctor for one of his corpses to remember him by. + +"MARK TWAIN". + +At another time, after an interesting talk with Mark Twain, Bok wrote an +account of the interview, with the humorist's permission. Desirous that +the published account should be in every respect accurate, the +manuscript was forwarded to Mark Twain for his approval. This resulted +in the following interesting letter: + +"MY DEAR MR. BOK: + +"No, no--it is like most interviews, pure twaddle, and valueless. + +"For several quite plain and simple reasons, an 'interview' must, as a +rule, be an absurdity. And chiefly for this reason: it is an attempt to +use a boat on land, or a wagon on water, to speak figuratively. Spoken +speech is one thing, written speech is quite another. Print is a proper +vehicle for the latter, but it isn't for the former. The moment 'talk' +is put into print you recognize that it is not what it was when you +heard it; you perceive that an immense something has disappeared from +it. That is its soul. You have nothing but a dead carcass left on your +hands. Color, play of feature, the varying modulations of voice, the +laugh, the smile, the informing inflections, everything that gave that +body warmth, grace, friendliness, and charm, and commended it to your +affection, or at least to your tolerance, is gone, and nothing is left, +but a pallid, stiff and repulsive cadaver. + +"Such is 'talk,' almost invariably, as you see it lying in state in an +'interview.' The interviewer seldom tries to tell one how a thing was +said; he merely puts in the naked remark, and stops there. When one +writes for print, his methods are very different. He follows forms which +have but little resemblance to conversation, but they make the reader +understand what the writer is trying to convey. And when the writer is +making a story, and finds it necessary to report some of the talk of his +characters, observe how cautiously and anxiously he goes at that risky +and difficult thing: + +"'If he had dared to say that thing in my presence,' said Alfred, taking +a mock heroic attitude, and casting an arch glance upon the company, +'blood would have flowed.' + +"'If he had dared to say that thing in my presence,' said Hawkwood, with +that in his eye which caused more than one heart in that guilty +assemblage to quake, 'blood would have flowed.' + +"'If he had dared to say that thing in my presence,' said the paltry +blusterer, with valor on his tongue and pallor on his lips, 'blood would +have flowed.' + +"So painfully aware is the novelist that naked talk in print conveys no +meaning, that he loads, and often overloads, almost every utterance of +his characters with explanations and interpretations. It is a loud +confession that print is a poor vehicle for 'talk,' it is a recognition +that uninterpreted talk in print would result in confusion to the +reader, not instruction. + +"Now, in your interview you have certainly been most accurate, you have +set down the sentences I uttered as I said them. But you have not a word +of explanation; what my manner was at several points is not indicated. +Therefore, no reader can possibly know where I was in earnest and where +I was joking; or whether I was joking altogether or in earnest +altogether. Such a report of a conversation has no value. It can convey +many meanings to the reader, but never the right one. To add +interpretations which would convey the right meaning is a something +which would require--what? An art so high and fine and difficult that no +possessor of it would ever be allowed to waste it on interviews. + +"No; spare the reader and spare me; leave the whole interview out; it is +rubbish. I wouldn't talk in my sleep if I couldn't talk better than +that. + +"If you wish to print anything, print this letter; it may have some +value, for it may explain to a reader here and there why it is that in +interviews as a rule men seem to talk like anybody but themselves. + +"Sincerely yours, + +"MARK TWAIN." + +The Harpers had asked Bok to write a book descriptive of his +autograph-letter collection, and he had consented. The propitious +moment, however, never came in his busy life. One day he mentioned the +fact to Doctor Oliver Wendell Holmes and the poet said: "Let me write +the introduction for it." Bok, of course, eagerly accepted, and within a +few days he received the following, which, with the book, never reached +publication: + +"How many autograph writers have had occasion to say with the Scotch +trespasser climbing his neighbor's wall, when asked where he was going +Bok again!' + +"Edward Bok has persevered like the widow in scripture, and the most +obdurate subjects of his quest have found it for their interest to give +in, lest by his continual coming he should weary them. We forgive him; +almost admire him for his pertinacity; only let him have no imitators. +The tax he has levied must not be imposed a second time. + +"An autograph of a distinguished personage means more to an imaginative +person than a prosaic looker-on dreams of. Along these lines ran the +consciousness and the guiding will of Napoleon, or Washington, of Milton +or Goethe. + +"His breath warmed the sheet of paper which you have before you. The +microscope will show you the trail of flattened particles left by the +tesselated epidermis of his hand as it swept along the manuscript. Nay, +if we had but the right developing fluid to flow over it, the surface of +the sheet would offer you his photograph as the light pictured it at the +instant of writing. + +"Look at Mr. Bok's collection with such thoughts, ...and you will cease +to wonder at his pertinacity and applaud the conquests of his +enthusiasm. + +"Oliver Wendell Holmes." + +Whenever biographers of the New England school of writers have come to +write of John Greenleaf Whittier, they have been puzzled as to the +scanty number of letters and private papers left by the poet. This +letter, written to Bok, in comment upon a report that the poet had +burned all his letters, is illuminating: + +"Dear Friend: + +"The report concerning the burning of my letters is only true so far as +this: some years ago I destroyed a large collection of letters I had +received not from any regard to my own reputation, but from the fear +that to leave them liable to publicity might be injurious or unpleasant +to the writers or their friends. They covered much of the anti-slavery +period and the War of the Rebellion, and many of them I knew were +strictly private and confidential. I was not able at the time to look +over the MS. and thought it safest to make a bonfire of it all. I have +always regarded a private and confidential letter as sacred and its +publicity in any shape a shameful breach of trust, unless authorized by +the writer. I only wish my own letters to thousands of correspondents +may be as carefully disposed of. + +"You may use this letter as you think wise and best. + +"Very truly thy friend, + +"John G. Whittier." + +Once in a while a bit of untold history crept into a letter sent to Bok; +as for example in the letter, referred to in a previous chapter from +General Jubal A. Early, the Confederate general, in which he gave an +explanation, never before fully given, of his reasons for the burning of +Chambersburg, Pennsylvania: + +"The town of Chambersburg was burned on the same day on which the demand +on it was made by McCausland and refused. It was ascertained that a +force of the enemy's cavalry was approaching, and there was no time for +delay. Moreover, the refusal was peremptory, and there was no reason for +delay unless the demand was a mere idle threat. + +"I had no knowledge of what amount of money there might be in +Chambersburg. I knew that it was a town of some twelve thousand +inhabitants. The town of Frederick, in Maryland, which was a much +smaller town than Chambersburg, had in June very promptly responded to +my demand on it for $200,000, some of the inhabitants, who were friendly +to me, expressing a regret that I had not made it $500,000. There were +one or more National Banks at Chambersburg, and the town ought to have +been able to raise the sum I demanded. I never heard that the refusal +was based on the inability to pay such a sum, and there was no offer to +pay any sum. The value of the houses destroyed by Hunter, with their +contents, was fully $100,000 in gold, and at the time I made the demand +the price of gold in greenbacks had very nearly reached $3.00 and was +going up rapidly. Hence it was that I required the $500,000 in +greenbacks, if the gold was not paid, to provide against any further +depreciation of the paper money. + +"I would have been fully justified by the laws of retaliation in war in +burning the town without giving the inhabitants the opportunity of +redeeming it. + +"J. A. Early." + +Bok wrote to Eugene Field, once, asking him why in all his verse he had +never written any love-songs, and suggesting that the story of Jacob and +Rachel would have made a theme for a beautiful love-poem. Field's reply +is interesting and characteristic, and throws a light on an omission in +his works at which many have wondered: + +"Dear Bok: + +"I'll see what I can do with the suggestion as to Jacob and Rachel. +Several have asked me why I have never written any love-songs. That is +hard to answer. I presume it is because I married so young. I was +married at twenty-three, and did not begin to write until I was +twenty-nine. Most of my lullabies are, in a sense, love-songs; so is 'To +a Usurper,' 'A Valentine,' 'The Little Bit of a Woman,' 'Lovers' Lane,' +etc., but not the kind commonly called love-songs. I am sending you +herewith my first love-song, and even into it has crept a cadence that +makes it a love-song of maturity rather than of youth. I do not know +that you will care to have it, but it will interest you as the first.... + +"Ever sincerely yours, + +"Eugene Field." + +During the last years of his life, Bok tried to interest Benjamin +Harrison, former President of the United States, in golf, since his +physician had ordered "moderate outdoor exercise." Bok offered to equip +him with the necessary clubs and balls. When he received the balls, the +ex-president wrote: + +"Thanks. But does not a bottle of liniment go with each ball?" + +When William Howard Taft became President of the United States, the +impression was given out that journalists would not be so welcome at the +White House as they had been during the administration of President +Roosevelt. Mr. Taft, writing to Bok about another matter, asked why he +had not called and talked it over while in Washington. Bok explained the +impression that was current; whereupon came the answer, swift and +definite! + +"There are no _personæ non gratæ_ at the White House. I long ago learned +the waste of time in maintaining such a class." + +There was in circulation during Henry Ward Beecher's lifetime a story, +which is still revived every now and then, that on a hot Sunday morning +in early summer, he began his sermon in Plymouth Church by declaring +that "It is too damned hot to preach." Bok wrote to the great preacher, +asked him the truth of this report, and received this definite denial: + +"My Dear Friend: + +"No, I never did begin a sermon with the remark that "it is d--d hot," +etc. It is a story a hundred years old, revamped every few years to suit +some new man. When I am dead and gone, it will be told to the rising +generation respecting some other man, and then, as now, there will be +fools who will swear that they heard it! + +"Henry Ward Beecher." + +When Bok's father passed away, he left, among his effects, a large +number of Confederate bonds. Bok wrote to Jefferson Davis, asking if +they had any value, and received this characteristic answer: + +"I regret my inability to give an opinion. The theory of the Confederate +Government, like that of the United States, was to separate the sword +from the purse. Therefore, the Confederate States Treasury was under the +control not of the Chief Executive, but of the Congress and the +Secretary of the Treasury. This may explain my want of special +information in regard to the Confederate States Bonds. Generally, I may +state that the Confederate Government cannot have preserved a fund for +the redemption of its Bonds other than the cotton subscribed by our +citizens for that purpose. At the termination of the War, the United +States Government, claiming to be the successor of the Confederate +Government, seized all its property which could be found, both at home +and abroad. I have not heard of any purpose to apply these assets to the +payment of the liabilities of the Confederacy, and, therefore, have been +at a loss to account for the demand which has lately been made for the +Confederate Bonds. + +"Jefferson Davis." + +Always the soul of courtesy itself, and most obliging in granting the +numerous requests which came to him for his autograph, William Dean +Howells finally turned; and Bok always considered himself fortunate that +the novelist announced his decision to him in the following +characteristic letter: + +"The requests for my autograph have of late become so burdensome that I +am obliged either to refuse all or to make some sort of limitation. +Every author must have an uneasy fear that his signature is 'collected' +at times like postage-stamps, and at times 'traded' among the collectors +for other signatures. That would not matter so much if the applicants +were always able to spell his name, or were apparently acquainted with +his work or interested in it. + +"I propose, therefore, to give my name hereafter only to such askers as +can furnish me proof by intelligent comment upon it that they have read +some book of mine. If they can inclose a bookseller's certificate that +they have bought the book, their case will be very much strengthened; +but I do not insist upon this. In all instances a card and a stamped and +directed envelope must be inclosed. I will never 'add a sentiment' +except in the case of applicants who can give me proof that they have +read all my books, now some thirty or forty in number. + +"W. D. Howells." + +It need hardly be added that Mr. Howells's good nature prevented his +adherence to his rule! + +Rudyard Kipling is another whose letters fairly vibrate with +personality; few men can write more interestingly, or, incidentally, +considering his microscopic handwriting, say more on a letter page. + +Bok was telling Kipling one day about the scrapple so dear to the heart +of the Philadelphian as a breakfast dish. The author had never heard of +it or tasted it, and wished for a sample. So, upon his return home, Bok +had a Philadelphia market-man send some of the Philadelphia-made +article, packed in ice, to Kipling in his English home. There were +several pounds of it and Kipling wrote: + +"By the way, that scrapple--which by token is a dish for the +Gods--arrived in perfect condition, and I ate it all, or as much as I +could get hold of. I am extremely grateful for it. It's all nonsense +about pig being unwholesome. There isn't a Mary-ache in a barrel of +scrapple." + +Then later came this afterthought: + +"A noble dish is that scrapple, but don't eat three slices and go to +work straight on top of 'em. That's the way to dyspepsia! + +"P. S. I wish to goodness you'd give another look at England before +long. It's quite a country; really it is. Old, too, I believe." + +It was Kipling who suggested that Bok should name his Merion home +"Swastika." Bok asked what the author knew about the mystic sign: + +"There is a huge book (I've forgotten the name, but the Smithsonian will +know)," he wrote back, "about the Swastika (pronounced Swas-ti-ka to +rhyme with 'car's ticker'), in literature, art, religion, dogma, etc. I +believe there are two sorts of Swastikas, one [figure] and one [figure]; +one is bad, the other is good, but which is which I know not for sure. +The Hindu trader opens his yearly account-books with a Swastika as 'an +auspicious beginning,' and all the races of the earth have used it. It's +an inexhaustible subject, and some man in the Smithsonian ought to be +full of it. Anyhow, the sign on the door or the hearth should protect +you against fire and water and thieves. + +"By this time should have reached you a Swastika door-knocker, which I +hope may fit in with the new house and the new name. It was made by a +village-smith; and you will see that it has my initials, to which I hope +you will add yours, that the story may be complete. + +"We are settled out here in Cape Town, eating strawberries in January +and complaining of the heat, which for the last two days has been a +little more than we pampered folk are used to; say 70° at night. But +what a lovely land it is, and how superb are the hydrangeas! Figure to +yourself four acres of 'em, all in bloom on the hillside near our home!" + +Bok had visited the Panama Canal before its completion and had talked +with the men, high and low, working on it, asking them how they felt +about President Roosevelt's action in "digging the Canal first and +talking about it afterwards." He wrote the result of his talks to +Colonel Roosevelt, and received this reply: + +"I shall always keep your letter, for I shall want my children and +grandchildren to see it after I am gone. I feel just as you do about the +Canal. It is the greatest contribution I was able to make to my country; +and while I do not believe my countrymen appreciate this at the moment, +I am extremely pleased to know that the men on the Canal do, for they +are the men who have done and are doing the great job. I am awfully +pleased that you feel the way you do. + +"Theodore Roosevelt." + +In 1887, General William Tecumseh Sherman was much talked about as a +candidate for the presidency, until his famous declaration came out: "I +will not run if nominated, and will not serve if elected." During the +weeks of talk, however, much was said of General Sherman's religious +views, some contending that he was a Roman Catholic; others that he was +a Protestant. + +Bok wrote to General Sherman and asked him. His answer was direct: + +"My family is strongly Roman Catholic, but I am not. Until I ask some +favor the public has no claim to question me further." + +When Mrs. Sherman passed away, Doctor T. DeWitt Talmage wrote General +Sherman a note of condolence, and what is perhaps one of the fullest +expositions of his religious faith to which he ever gave expression came +from him in a most remarkable letter, which Doctor Talmage gave to Bok. + +"New York, December 12, 1886. + +"My Dear Friend: + +"Your most tender epistle from Mansfield, Ohio, of December 9 brought +here last night by your son awakens in my brain a flood of memories. +Mrs. Sherman was by nature and inheritance an Irish Catholic. Her +grandfather, Hugh Boyle, was a highly educated classical scholar, whom I +remember well,--married the half sister of the mother of James G. Blaine +at Brownsville, Pa., settled in our native town Lancaster, Fairfield +County, Ohio, and became the Clerk of the County Court. He had two +daughters, Maria and Susan. Maria became the wife of Thomas Ewing, about +1819, and was the mother of my wife, Ellen Boyle Ewing. She was so +staunch to what she believed the true Faith that I am sure that though +she loved her children better than herself, she would have seen them die +with less pang, than to depart from the "Faith." Mr. Ewing was a great +big man, an intellectual giant, and looked down on religion as something +domestic, something consoling which ought to be encouraged; and to him +it made little difference whether the religion was Methodist, +Presbyterian, Baptist, or Catholic, provided the acts were 'half as +good' as their professions. + +"In 1829 my father, a Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, died at +Lebanon away from home, leaving his widow, Mary Hoyt of Norwalk, Conn. +(sister to Charles and James Hoyt of Brooklyn) with a frame house in +Lancaster, an income of $200 a year and eleven as hungry, rough, and +uncouth children as ever existed on earth. But father had been kind, +generous, manly with a big heart; and when it ceased to beat friends +turned up--Our Uncle Stoddard took Charles, the oldest; W. I. married +the next, Elisabeth (still living); Amelia was soon married to a +merchant in Mansfield, McCorab; I, the third son, was adopted by Thomas +Ewing, a neighbor, and John fell to his namesake in Mt. Vernon, a +merchant. + +"Surely 'Man proposes and God disposes.' I could fill a hundred pages, +but will not bore you. A half century has passed and you, a Protestant +minister, write me a kind, affectionate letter about my Catholic wife +from Mansfield, one of my family homes, where my mother, Mary Hoyt, +died, and where our Grandmother, Betsey Stoddard, lies buried. Oh, what +a flood of memories come up at the name of Betsey Stoddard,--daughter of +the Revd. Mr. Stoddard, who preached three times every Sunday, and as +often in between as he could cajole a congregation at ancient Woodbury, +Conn.,--who came down from Mansfield to Lancaster, three days' hard +journey to regulate the family of her son Judge Sherman, whose gentle +wife was as afraid of Grandma as any of us boys. She never spared the +rod or broom, but she had more square solid sense to the yard than any +woman I ever saw. From her Charles, John, and I inherit what little +sense we possess. + +"Lancaster, Fairfield County, was our paternal home, Mansfield that of +Grandmother Stoddard and her daughter, Betsey Parker. There Charles and +John settled, and when in 1846 I went to California Mother also went +there, and there died in 1851. + +"When a boy, once a year I had to drive my mother in an old 'dandy +wagon' on her annual visit. The distance was 75 miles, further than +Omaha is from San Francisco. We always took three days and stopped at +every house to gossip with the woman folks, and dispense medicines and +syrups to the sick, for in those days all had the chills or ague. If I +could I would not awaken Grandmother Betsey Stoddard because she would +be horrified at the backsliding of the servants of Christ,--but oh! how +I would like to take my mother, Mary Hoyt, in a railroad car out to +California, to Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, among the vineyards of +grapes, the groves of oranges, lemons and pomegranates. How clearly +recurs to me the memory of her exclamation when I told her I had been +ordered around Cape Horn to California. Her idea was about as definite +as mine or yours as to, Where is Stanley? but she saw me return with +some nuggets to make her life more comfortable. + +"She was a strong Presbyterian to the end, but she loved my Ellen, and +the love was mutual. All my children have inherited their mother's +faith, and she would have given anything if I would have simply said +Amen; but it is simply impossible. + +"But I am sure that you know that the God who created the minnow, and +who has moulded the rose and carnation, given each its sweet fragrance, +will provide for those mortal men who strive to do right in the world +which he himself has stocked with birds, animals, and men;--at all +events, I will trust Him with absolute confidence. + +"With great respect and affection, + +"Yours truly, + +"W. T. Sherman." + + + + +XX. Meeting a Reverse or Two + + +With the hitherto unreached magazine circulation of a million copies a +month in sight, Edward Bok decided to give a broader scope to the +periodical. He was determined to lay under contribution not only the +most famous writers of the day, but also to seek out those well-known +persons who usually did not contribute to the magazines; always keeping +in mind the popular appeal of his material, but likewise aiming +constantly to widen its scope and gradually to lift its standard. + +Sailing again for England, he sought and secured the acquaintance of +Rudyard Kipling, whose alert mind was at once keenly interested in what +Bok was trying to do. He was willing to co-operate, with the result that +Bok secured the author's new story, William the Conqueror. When Bok read +the manuscript, he was delighted; he had for some time been reading +Kipling's work with enthusiasm, and he saw at once that here was one of +the author's best tales. + +At that time, Frances E. Willard had brought her agitation for +temperance prominently before the public, and Bok had promised to aid +her by eliminating from his magazine, so far as possible, all scenes +which represented alcoholic drinking. It was not an iron-clad rule, but, +both from the principle fixed for his own life and in the interest of +the thousands of young people who read his magazine, he believed it +would be better to minimize all incidents portraying alcoholic drinking +or drunkenness. Kipling's story depicted several such scenes; so when +Bok sent the proofs he suggested that if Kipling could moderate some of +these scenes, it would be more in line with the policy of the magazine. +Bok did not make a special point of the matter, leaving it to Kipling's +judgment to decide how far he could make such changes and preserve the +atmosphere of his story. + +From this incident arose the widely published story that Bok cabled +Kipling, asking permission to omit a certain drinking reference, and +substitute something else, whereupon Kipling cabled back: "Substitute +Mellin's Food." As a matter of fact (although it is a pity to kill such +a clever story), no such cable was ever sent and no such reply ever +received. As Kipling himself wrote to Bok: "No, I said nothing about +Mellin's Food. I wish I had." An American author in London happened to +hear of the correspondence between the editor and the author, it +appealed to his sense of humor, and the published story was the result. +If it mattered, it is possible that Brander Matthews could accurately +reveal the originator of the much-published yarn. + +From Kipling's house Bok went to Tunbridge Wells to visit Mary Anderson, +the one-time popular American actress, who had married Antonio de +Navarro and retired from the stage. A goodly number of editors had tried +to induce the retired actress to write, just as a number of managers had +tried to induce her to return to the stage. All had failed. But Bok +never accepted the failure of others as a final decision for himself; +and after two or three visits, he persuaded Madame de Navarro to write +her reminiscences, which he published with marked success in the +magazine. + +The editor was very desirous of securing something for his magazine that +would delight children, and he hit upon the idea of trying to induce +Lewis Carroll to write another Alice in Wonderland series. He was told +by English friends that this would be difficult, since the author led a +secluded life at Oxford and hardly ever admitted any one into his +confidence. But Bok wanted to beard the lion in his den, and an Oxford +graduate volunteered to introduce him to an Oxford don through whom, if +it were at all possible, he could reach the author. The journey to +Oxford was made, and Bok was introduced to the don, who turned out to be +no less a person than the original possessor of the highly colored +vocabulary of the "White Rabbit" of the Alice stories. + +"Impossible," immediately declared the don. "You couldn't persuade +Dodgson to consider it." Bok, however, persisted, and it so happened +that the don liked what he called "American perseverance." + +"Well, come along," he said. "We'll beard the lion in his den, as you +say, and see what happens. You know, of course, that it is the Reverend +Charles L. Dodgson that we are going to see, and I must introduce you to +that person, not to Lewis Carroll. He is a tutor in mathematics here, as +you doubtless know; lives a rigidly secluded life; dislikes strangers; +makes no friends; and yet withal is one of the most delightful men in +the world if he wants to be." + +But as it happened upon this special occasion when Bok was introduced to +him in his chambers in Tom Quad, Mr. Dodgson did not "want to be" +delightful. There was no doubt that back of the studied reserve was a +kindly, charming, gracious gentleman, but Bok's profession had been +mentioned and the author was on rigid guard. + +When Bok explained that one of the special reasons for his journey from +America this summer was to see him, the Oxford mathematician +sufficiently softened to ask the editor to sit down. + +Bok then broached his mission. + +"You are quite in error, Mr. Bok," was the Dodgson comment. "You are not +speaking to the person you think you are addressing." + +For a moment Bok was taken aback. Then he decided to go right to the +point. + +"Do I understand, Mr. Dodgson, that you are not 'Lewis Carroll'; that +you did not write Alice in Wonderland?" + +For an answer the tutor rose, went into another room, and returned with +a book which he handed to Bok. "This is my book," he said simply. It was +entitled An Elementary Treatise on Determinants, by C. L. Dodgson. When +he looked up, Bok found the author's eyes riveted on him. + +"Yes," said Bok. "I know, Mr. Dodgson. If I remember correctly, this is +the same book of which you sent a copy to Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, +when she wrote to you for a personal copy of your Alice." + +Dodgson made no comment. The face was absolutely without expression save +a kindly compassion intended to convey to the editor that he was making +a terrible mistake. + +"As I said to you in the beginning, Mr. Bok, you are in error. You are +not speaking to 'Lewis Carroll.'" And then: "Is this the first time you +have visited Oxford?" + +Bok said it was; and there followed the most delightful two hours with +the Oxford mathematician and the Oxford don, walking about and into the +wonderful college buildings, and afterward the three had a bite of lunch +together. But all efforts to return to "Lewis Carroll" were futile. +While saying good-by to his host, Bok remarked: + +"I can't help expressing my disappointment, Mr. Dodgson, in my quest in +behalf of the thousands of American children who love you and who would +so gladly welcome 'Lewis Carroll' back." + +The mention of children and their love for him momentarily had its +effect. For an instant a different light came into the eyes, and Bok +instinctively realized Dodgson was about to say something. But he +checked himself. Bok had almost caught him off his guard. + +"I am sorry," he finally said at the parting at the door, "that you +should be disappointed, for the sake of the children as well as for your +own sake. I only regret that I cannot remove the disappointment." + +And as the trio walked to the station, the don said: "That is his +attitude toward all, even toward me. He is not 'Lewis Carroll' to any +one; is extremely sensitive on the point, and will not acknowledge his +identity. That is why he lives so much to himself. He is in daily dread +that some one will mention Alice in his presence. Curious, but there it +is." + +Edward Bok's next quest was to be even more disappointing; he was never +even to reach the presence of the person he sought. This was Florence +Nightingale, the Crimean nurse. Bok was desirous of securing her own +story of her experiences, but on every hand he found an unwillingness +even to take him to her house. "No use," said everybody. "She won't see +any one. Hates publicity and all that sort of thing, and shuns the +public." Nevertheless, the editor journeyed to the famous nurse's home +on South Street, in the West End of London, only to be told that "Miss +Nightingale never receives strangers." + +"But I am not a stranger," insisted the editor. "I am one of her friends +from America. Please take my card to her." + +This mollified the faithful secretary, but the word instantly came back +that Miss Nightingale was not receiving any one that day. Bok wrote her +a letter asking for an appointment, which was never answered. Then he +wrote another, took it personally to the house, and awaited an answer, +only to receive the message that "Miss Nightingale says there is no +answer to the letter." + +Bok had with such remarkable uniformity secured whatever he sought, that +these experiences were new to him. Frankly, they puzzled him. He was not +easily baffled, but baffled he now was, and that twice in succession. +Turn as he might, he could find no way in which to reopen an approach to +either the Oxford tutor or the Crimean nurse. They were plainly too much +for him, and he had to acknowledge his defeat. The experience was good +for him; he did not realize this at the time, nor did he enjoy the +sensation of not getting what he wanted. Nevertheless, a reverse or two +was due. Not that his success was having any undesirable effect upon +him; his Dutch common sense saved him from any such calamity. But at +thirty years of age it is not good for any one, no matter how well +balanced, to have things come his way too fast and too consistently. And +here were breaks. He could not have everything he wanted, and it was +just as well that he should find that out. + +In his next quest he found himself again opposed by his London friends. +Unable to secure a new Alice in Wonderland for his child readers, he +determined to give them Kate Greenaway. But here he had selected another +recluse. Everybody discouraged him. The artist never saw visitors, he +was told, and she particularly shunned editors and publishers. Her own +publishers confessed that Miss Greenaway was inaccessible to them. "We +conduct all our business with her by correspondence. I have never seen +her personally myself," said a member of the firm. + +Bok inwardly decided that two failures in two days were sufficient, and +he made up his mind that there should not be a third. He took a bus for +the long ride to Hampstead Heath, where the illustrator lived, and +finally stood before a picturesque Queen Anne house that one would have +recognized at once, with its lower story of red brick, its upper part +covered with red tiles, its windows of every size and shape, as the +inspiration of Kate Greenaway's pictures. As it turned out later, Miss +Greenaway's sister opened the door and told the visitor that Miss +Greenaway was not at home. + +"But, pardon me, has not Miss Greenaway returned? Is not that she?" +asked Bok, as he indicated a figure just coming down the stairs. And as +the sister turned to see, Bok stepped into the hall. At least he was +inside! Bok had never seen a photograph of Miss Greenaway, he did not +know that the figure coming down-stairs was the artist; but his instinct +had led him right, and good fortune was with him. + +He now introduced himself to Kate Greenaway, and explained that one of +his objects in coming to London was to see her on behalf of thousands of +American children. Naturally there was nothing for the illustrator to do +but to welcome her visitor. She took him into the garden, where he saw +at once that he was seated under the apple-tree of Miss Greenaway's +pictures. It was in full bloom, a veritable picture of spring +loveliness. Bok's love for nature pleased the artist and when he +recognized the cat that sauntered up, he could see that he was making +headway. But when he explained his profession and stated his errand, the +atmosphere instantly changed. Miss Greenaway conveyed the unmistakable +impression that she had been trapped, and Bok realized at once that he +had a long and difficult road ahead. + +Still, negotiate it he must and he did! And after luncheon in the +garden, with the cat in his lap, Miss Greenaway perceptibly thawed out, +and when the editor left late that afternoon he had the promise of the +artist that she would do her first magazine work for him. That promise +was kept monthly, and for nearly two years her articles appeared, with +satisfaction to Miss Greenaway and with great success to the magazine. + +The next opposition to Bok's plans arose from the soreness generated by +the absence of copyright laws between the United States and Great +Britain and Europe. The editor, who had been publishing a series of +musical compositions, solicited the aid of Sir Arthur Sullivan. But it +so happened that Sir Arthur's most famous composition, "The Lost Chord," +had been taken without leave by American music publishers, and sold by +the hundreds of thousands with the composer left out on pay-day. Sir +Arthur held forth on this injustice, and said further that no accurate +copy of "The Lost Chord" had, so far as he knew, ever been printed in +the United States. Bok saw his chance, and also an opportunity for a +little Americanization. + +"Very well, Sir Arthur," suggested Bok; "with your consent, I will +rectify both the inaccuracy and the injustice. Write out a correct +version of 'The Lost Chord'; I will give it to nearly a million readers, +and so render obsolete the incorrect copies; and I shall be only too +happy to pay you the first honorarium for an American publication of the +song. You can add to the copy the statement that this is the first +American honorarium you have ever received, and so shame the American +publishers for their dishonesty." + +This argument appealed strongly to the composer, who made a correct +transcript of his famous song, and published it with the following note: + +"This is the first and only copy of "The Lost Chord" which has ever been +sent by me to an American publisher. I believe all the reprints in +America are more or less incorrect. I have pleasure in sending this copy +to my friend, Mr. Edward W. Bok, for publication in The Ladies' Home +Journal for which he gives me an honorarium, the only one I have ever +received from an American publisher for this song. + +"Arthur Sullivan." + +At least, thought Bok, he had healed one man's soreness toward America. +But the next day he encountered another. On his way to Paris, he stopped +at Amiens to see Jules Verne. Here he found special difficulty in that +the aged author could not speak English, and Bok knew only a few words +of casual French. Finally a neighbor's servant who knew a handful of +English words was commandeered, and a halting three-cornered +conversation was begun. + +Bok found two grievances here: the author was incensed at the American +public because it had insisted on classing his books as juveniles, and +accepting them as stories of adventure, whereas he desired them to be +recognized as prophetic stories based on scientific facts--an insistence +which, as all the world knows, has since been justified. Bok explained, +however, that the popular acceptance of the author's books as stories of +adventure was by no means confined to America; that even in his own +country the same was true. But Jules Verne came back with the rejoinder +that if the French were a pack of fools, that was no reason why the +Americans should also be. + +The argument weighed somewhat with the author, however, for he then +changed the conversation, and pointed out how he had been robbed by +American publishers who had stolen his books. So Bok was once more face +to face with the old non-copyright conditions; and although he explained +the existence then of a new protective law, the old man was not +mollified. He did not take kindly to Bok's suggestion for new work, and +closed the talk, extremely difficult to all three, by declaring that his +writing days were over. + +But Bok was by no means through with non-copyright echoes, for he was +destined next day to take part in an even stormier interview on the same +subject with Alexander Dumas _fils_. Bok had been publishing a series of +articles in which authors had told how they had been led to write their +most famous books, and he wanted Dumas to tell "How I Came to Write +'Camille.'" + +To act as translator this time, Bok took a trusted friend with him, +whose services he found were needed, as Dumas was absolutely without +knowledge of English. No sooner was the editor's request made known to +him than the storm broke. Dumas, hotly excited, denounced the Americans +as robbers who had deprived him of his rightful returns on his book and +play, and ended by declaring that he would trust no American editor or +publisher. + +The mutual friend explained the new copyright conditions and declared +that Bok intended to treat the author honorably. But Dumas was not to be +mollified. He launched forth upon a new arraignment of the Americans; +dishonesty was bred in their bones! and they were robbers by instinct. +All of this distinctly nettled Bok's Americanism. The interpreting +friend finally suggested that the article should be written while Bok +was in Paris; that he should be notified when the manuscript was ready, +that he should then appear with the actual money in hand in French +notes; and that Dumas should give Bok the manuscript when Bok handed +Dumas the money. + +"After I count it," said Dumas. + +This was the last straw! + +"Pray ask him," Bok suggested to the interpreter, "what assurance I have +that he will deliver the manuscript to me after he has the money." The +friend protested against translating this thrust, but Bok insisted, and +Dumas, not knowing what was coming, insisted that the message be given +him. When it was, the man was a study; he became livid with rage. + +"But," persisted Bok, "say to Monsieur Dumas that I have the same +privilege of distrusting him as he apparently has of distrusting me." + +And Bok can still see the violent gesticulations of the storming French +author, his face burning with passionate anger, as the two left him. + +Edward Bok now sincerely hoped that his encounters with the absence of a +law that has been met were at an end! + +Rosa Bonheur, the painter of "The Horse Fair," had been represented to +Bok as another recluse who was as inaccessible as Kate Greenaway. He had +known of the painter's intimate relations with the ex-Empress Eugenie, +and desired to get these reminiscences. Everybody dissuaded him; but +again taking a French friend he made the journey to Fontainebleau, where +the artist lived in a chateau in the little village of By. + +A group of dogs, great, magnificent tawny creatures, welcomed the two +visitors to the chateau; and the most powerful door that Bok had ever +seen, as securely bolted as that of a cell, told of the inaccessibility +of the mistress of the house. Two blue-frocked peasants explained how +impossible it was for any one to see their mistress, so Bok asked +permission to come in and write her a note. + +This was granted; and then, as in the case of Kate Greenaway, Rosa +Bonheur herself walked into the hall, in a velvet jacket, dressed, as +she always was, in man's attire. A delightful smile lighted the strong +face, surmounted by a shock of gray hair, cut short at the back; and +from the moment of her first welcome there was no doubt of her +cordiality to the few who were fortunate enough to work their way into +her presence. It was a wonderful afternoon, spent in the painter's +studio in the upper part of the chateau; and Bok carried away with him +the promise of Rosa Bonheur to write the story of her life for +publication in the magazine. + +On his return to London the editor found that Charles Dana Gibson had +settled down there for a time. Bok had always wanted Gibson to depict +the characters of Dickens; and he felt that this was the opportunity, +while the artist was in London and could get the atmosphere for his +work. Gibson was as keen for the idea as was Bok, and so the two +arranged the series which was subsequently published. + +On his way to his steamer to sail for home, Bok visited "Ian Maclaren," +whose Bonnie Brier Bush stories were then in great vogue, and not only +contracted for Doctor Watson's stories of the immediate future, but +arranged with him for a series of articles which, for two years +thereafter, was published in the magazine. + +The editor now sailed for home, content with his assembly of foreign +"features." + +On the steamer, Bok heard of the recent discovery of some unpublished +letters by Louisa May Alcott, written to five girls, and before +returning to Philadelphia, he went to Boston, got into touch with the +executors of the will of Miss Alcott, brought the letters back with him +to read, and upon reaching Philadelphia, wired his acceptance of them +for publication. + +But the traveller was not at once to enjoy his home. After only a day in +Philadelphia he took a train for Indianapolis. Here lived the most +thoroughly American writer of the day, in Bok's estimation: James +Whitcomb Riley. An arrangement, perfected before his European visit, had +secured to Bok practically exclusive rights to all the output of his +Chicago friend Eugene Field, and he felt that Riley's work would +admirably complement that of Field. This Bok explained to Riley, who +readily fell in with the idea, and the editor returned to Philadelphia +with a contract to see Riley's next dozen poems. A little later Field +passed away. His last poem, "The Dream Ship," and his posthumous story +"The Werewolf" appeared in The Ladies' Home Journal. + +A second series of articles was also arranged for with Mr. Harrison, in +which he was to depict, in a personal way, the life of a President of +the United States, the domestic life of the White House, and the +financial arrangements made by the government for the care of the chief +executive and his family. The first series of articles by the former +President had been very successful; Bok felt that they had accomplished +much in making his women readers familiar with their country and the +machinery of its government. After this, which had been undeniably solid +reading, Bok reasoned that the supplementary articles, in lighter vein, +would serve as a sort of dessert. And so it proved. + +Bok now devoted his attention to strengthening the fiction in his +magazine. He sought Mark Twain, and bought his two new stories; he +secured from Bret Harte a tale which he had just finished; and then ran +the gamut of the best fiction writers of the day, and secured their best +output. Marion Crawford, Conan Doyle, Sarah Orne Jewett, John Kendrick +Bangs, Kate Douglas Wiggin, Hamlin Garland, Mrs. Burton Harrison, +Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Mary E. Wilkins, Jerome K. Jerome, Anthony +Hope, Joel Chandler Harris, and others followed in rapid succession. + +He next turned for a moment to his religious department, decided that it +needed a freshening of interest, and secured Dwight L. Moody, whose +evangelical work was then so prominently in the public eye, to conduct +"Mr. Moody's Bible Class" in the magazine--practically a study of the +stated Bible lesson of the month with explanation in Moody's simple and +effective style. + +The authors for whom the Journal was now publishing attracted the +attention of all the writers of the day, and the supply of good material +became too great for its capacity. Bok studied the mechanical make-up, +and felt that by some method he must find more room in the front +portion. He had allotted the first third of the magazine to the general +literary contents and the latter two-thirds to departmental features. +Toward the close of the number, the departments narrowed down from full +pages to single columns with advertisements on each side. + +One day Bok was handling a story by Rudyard Kipling which had overrun +the space allowed for it in the front. The story had come late, and the +rest of the front portion of the magazine had gone to press. The editor +was in a quandary what to do with the two remaining columns of the +Kipling tale. There were only two pages open, and these were at the +back. He remade those pages, and continued the story from pages 6 and 7 +to pages 38 and 39. + +At once Bok saw that this was an instance where "necessity was the +mother of invention." He realized that if he could run some of his front +material over to the back he would relieve the pressure at the front, +present a more varied contents there, and make his advertisements more +valuable by putting them next to the most expensive material in the +magazine. + +In the next issue he combined some of his smaller departments in the +back; and thus, in 1896, he inaugurated the method of "running over into +the back" which has now become a recognized principle in the make-up of +magazines of larger size. At first, Bok's readers objected, but he +explained why he did it; that they were the benefiters by the plan; and, +so far as readers can be satisfied with what is, at best, an awkward +method of presentation, they were content. To-day the practice is +undoubtedly followed to excess, some magazines carrying as much as +eighty and ninety columns over from the front to the back; from such +abuse it will, of course, free itself either by a return to the original +method of make-up or by the adoption of some other less-irritating plan. + +In his reading about the America of the past, Bok had been impressed by +the unusual amount of interesting personal material that constituted +what is termed unwritten history--original events of tremendous personal +appeal in which great personalities figured but which had not sufficient +historical importance to have been included in American history. Bok +determined to please his older readers by harking back to the past and +at the same time acquainting the younger generation with the picturesque +events which had preceded their time. + +He also believed that if he could "dress up" the past, he could arrest +the attention of a generation which was too likely to boast of its +interest only in the present and the future. He took a course of reading +and consulted with Mr. Charles A. Dana, editor of the New York Sun, who +had become interested in his work and had written him several voluntary +letters of commendation. Mr. Dana gave material help in the selection of +subjects and writers; and was intensely amused and interested by the +manner in which his youthful confrere "dressed up" the titles of what +might otherwise have looked like commonplace articles. + +"I know," said Bok to the elder editor, "it smacks a little of the +sensational, Mr. Dana, but the purpose I have in mind of showing the +young people of to-day that some great things happened before they came +on the stage seems to me to make it worth while." + +Mr. Dana agreed with this view, supplemented every effort of the +Philadelphia editor in several subsequent talks, and in 1897 The Ladies' +Home Journal began one of the most popular series it ever published. It +was called "Great Personal Events," and the picturesque titles explained +them. He first pictured the enthusiastic evening "When Jenny Lind Sang +in Castle Garden," and, as Bok added to pique curiosity, "when people +paid $20 to sit in rowboats to hear the Swedish nightingale." + +This was followed by an account of the astonishing episode "When Henry +Ward Beecher Sold Slaves in Plymouth Pulpit"; the picturesque journey +"When Louis Kossuth Rode Up Broadway"; the triumphant tour "When General +Grant Went Round the World"; the forgotten story of "When an Actress Was +the Lady of the White House"; the sensational striking of the gold vein +in 1849, "When Mackay Struck the Great Bonanza"; the hitherto +little-known instance "When Louis Philippe Taught School in +Philadelphia"; and even the lesser-known fact of the residence of the +brother of Napoleon Bonaparte in America, "When the King of Spain Lived +on the Banks of the Schuylkill"; while the story of "When John Wesley +Preached in Georgia" surprised nearly every Methodist, as so few had +known that the founder of their church had ever visited America. Each +month picturesque event followed graphic happening, and never was +unwritten history more readily read by the young, or the memories of the +older folk more catered to than in this series which won new friends for +the magazine on every hand. + + + + +XXI. A Signal Piece of Constructive Work + + +The influence of his grandfather and the injunction of his grandmother +to her sons that each "should make the world a better or a more +beautiful place to live in" now began to be manifest in the grandson. +Edward Bok was unconscious that it was this influence. What directly led +him to the signal piece of construction in which he engaged was the +wretched architecture of small houses. As he travelled through the +United States he was appalled by it. Where the houses were not +positively ugly, they were, to him, repellently ornate. Money was wasted +on useless turrets, filigree work, or machine-made ornamentation. Bok +found out that these small householders never employed an architect, but +that the houses were put up by builders from their own plans. + +Bok felt a keen desire to take hold of the small American house and make +it architecturally better. He foresaw, however, that the subject would +finally include small gardening and interior decoration. He feared that +the subject would become too large for the magazine, which was already +feeling the pressure of the material which he was securing. He +suggested, therefore, to Mr. Curtis that they purchase a little magazine +published in Buffalo, N. Y., called Country Life, and develop it into a +first-class periodical devoted to the general subject of a better +American architecture, gardening, and interior decoration, with special +application to the small house. The magazine was purchased, and while +Bok was collecting his material for a number of issues ahead, he edited +and issued, for copyright purposes, a four-page magazine. + +An opportunity now came to Mr. Curtis to purchase The Saturday Evening +Post, a Philadelphia weekly of honored prestige, founded by Benjamin +Franklin. It was apparent at once that the company could not embark upon +the development of two magazines at the same time, and as a larger field +was seen for The Saturday Evening Post, it was decided to leave Country +Life in abeyance for the present. + +Mr. Frank Doubleday, having left the Scribners and started a +publishing-house of his own, asked Bok to transfer to him the copyright +and good will of Country Life--seeing that there was little chance for +The Curtis Publishing Company to undertake its publication. Mr. Curtis +was willing, but he knew that Bok had set his heart on the new magazine +and left it for him to decide. The editor realized, as the Doubleday +Company could take up the magazine at once, the unfairness of holding +indefinitely the field against them by the publication of a mere +copyright periodical. And so, with a feeling as if he were giving up his +child to another father, Bok arranged that The Curtis Publishing Company +should transfer to the Doubleday, Page Company all rights to the title +and periodical of which the present beautiful publication Country Life +is the outgrowth. + +Bok now turned to The Ladies' Home Journal as his medium for making the +small-house architecture of America better. He realized the limitation +of space, but decided to do the best he could under the circumstances. +He believed he might serve thousands of his readers if he could make it +possible for them to secure, at moderate cost, plans for well-designed +houses by the leading domestic architects in the country. He consulted a +number of architects, only to find them unalterably opposed to the idea. +They disliked the publicity of magazine presentation; prices differed +too much in various parts of the country; and they did not care to risk +the criticism of their contemporaries. It was "cheapening" their +profession! + +Bok saw that he should have to blaze the way and demonstrate the +futility of these arguments. At last he persuaded one architect to +co-operate with him, and in 1895 began the publication of a series of +houses which could be built, approximately, for from one thousand five +hundred dollars to five thousand dollars. The idea attracted attention +at once, and the architect-author was swamped with letters and inquiries +regarding his plans. + +This proved Bok's instinct to be correct as to the public willingness to +accept such designs; upon this proof he succeeded in winning over two +additional architects to make plans. He offered his readers full +building specifications and plans to scale of the houses with estimates +from four builders in different parts of the United States for five +dollars a set. The plans and specifications were so complete in every +detail that any builder could build the house from them. + +A storm of criticism now arose from architects and builders all over the +country, the architects claiming that Bok was taking "the bread out of +their mouths" by the sale of plans, and local builders vigorously +questioned the accuracy of the estimates. But Bok knew he was right and +persevered. + +Slowly but surely he won the approval of the leading architects, who saw +that he was appealing to a class of house-builders who could not afford +to pay an architect's fee, and that, with his wide circulation, he might +become an influence for better architecture through these small houses. +The sets of plans and specifications sold by the thousands. It was not +long before the magazine was able to present small-house plans by the +foremost architects of the country, whose services the average +householder could otherwise never have dreamed of securing. + +Bok not only saw an opportunity to better the exterior of the small +houses, but he determined that each plan published should provide for +two essentials: every servant's room should have two windows to insure +cross-ventilation, and contain twice the number of cubic feet usually +given to such rooms; and in place of the American parlor, which he +considered a useless room, should be substituted either a living-room or +a library. He did not point to these improvements; every plan simply +presented the larger servant's room and did not present a parlor. It is +a singular fact that of the tens of thousands of plans sold, not a +purchaser ever noticed the absence of a parlor except one woman in +Brookline, Mass., who, in erecting a group of twenty-five "Journal +houses," discovered after she had built ten that not one contained a +parlor! + +"Ladies' Home Journal houses" were now going up in communities all over +the country, and Bok determined to prove that they could be erected for +the prices given. Accordingly, he published a prize offer of generous +amount for the best set of exterior and interior photographs of a house +built after a Journal plan within the published price. Five other and +smaller prizes were also offered. A legally attested builder's +declaration was to accompany each set of photographs. The sets +immediately began to come in, until over five thousand had been +received. Bok selected the best of these, awarded the prizes, and began +the presentation of the houses actually built after the published plans. + +Of course this publication gave fresh impetus to the whole scheme; +prospective house-builders pointed their builders to the proof given, +and additional thousands of sets of plans were sold. The little houses +became better and better in architecture as the series went on, and +occasionally a plan for a house costing as high as ten thousand dollars +was given. + +For nearly twenty-five years Bok continued to publish pictures of houses +and plans. Entire colonies of "Ladies' Home Journal houses" have sprung +up, and building promoters have built complete suburban developments +with them. How many of these homes have been erected it is, of course, +impossible to say; the number certainly runs into the thousands. + +It was one of the most constructive and far-reaching pieces of work that +Bok did during his editorial career--a fact now recognized by all +architects. Shortly before Stanford White passed away, he wrote: "I +firmly believe that Edward Bok has more completely influenced American +domestic architecture for the better than any man in this generation. +When he began, I was short-sighted enough to discourage him, and refused +to co-operate with him. If Bok came to me now, I would not only make +plans for him, but I would waive any fee for them in retribution for my +early mistake." + +Bok then turned to the subject of the garden for the small house, and +the development of the grounds around the homes which he had been +instrumental in putting on the earth. He encountered no opposition here. +The publication of small gardens for small houses finally ran into +hundreds of pages, the magazine supplying planting plans and full +directions as to when and how to plant-this time without cost. + +Next the editor decided to see what he could do for the better and +simpler furnishing of the small American home. Here was a field almost +limitless in possible improvement, but he wanted to approach it in a new +way. The best method baffled him until one day he met a woman friend who +told him that she was on her way to a funeral at a friend's home. + +"I didn't know you were so well acquainted with Mrs. S--," said Bok. + +"I wasn't, as a matter of fact," replied the woman. "I'll be perfectly +frank; I am going to the funeral just to see how Mrs. S--'s house is +furnished. She was always thought to have great taste, you know, and, +whether you know it or not, a woman is always keen to look into another +woman's home." + +Bok realized that he had found the method of presentation for his +interior-furnishing plan if he could secure photographs of the most +carefully furnished homes in America. He immediately employed the best +available expert, and within six months there came to him an assorted +collection of over a thousand photographs of well-furnished rooms. The +best were selected, and a series of photographic pages called "Inside of +100 Homes" was begun. The editor's woman friend had correctly pointed +the way to him, for this series won for his magazine the enviable +distinction of being the first magazine of standing to reach the then +marvellous record of a circulation of one million copies a month. The +editions containing the series were sold out as fast as they could be +printed. + +The editor followed this up with another successful series, again +pictorial. He realized that to explain good taste in furnishing by text +was almost impossible. So he started a series of all-picture pages +called "Good Taste and Bad Taste." He presented a chair that was bad in +lines and either useless or uncomfortable to sit in, and explained where +and why it was bad; and then put a good chair next to it, and explained +where and why it was good. + +The lesson to the eye was simply and directly effective; the pictures +told their story as no printed word could have done, and furniture +manufacturers and dealers all over the country, feeling the pressure +from their customers, began to put on the market the tables, chairs, +divans, bedsteads, and dressing-tables which the magazine was portraying +as examples of good taste. It was amazing that, within five years, the +physical appearance of domestic furniture in the stores completely +changed. + +The next undertaking was a systematic plan for improving the pictures on +the walls of the American home. Bok was employing the best artists of +the day: Edwin A. Abbey, Howard Pyle, Charles Dana Gibson, W. L. Taylor, +Albert Lynch, Will H. Low, W. T. Smedley, Irving R. Wiles, and others. +As his magazine was rolled to go through the mails, the pictures +naturally suffered; Bok therefore decided to print a special edition of +each important picture that he published, an edition on plate-paper, +without text, and offered to his readers at ten cents a copy. Within a +year he had sold nearly one hundred thousand copies, such pictures as W. +L. Taylor's "The Hanging of the Crane" and "Home-Keeping Hearts" being +particularly popular. + +Pictures were difficult to advertise successfully; it was before the +full-color press had become practicable for rapid magazine work; and +even the large-page black-and-white reproductions which Bok could give +in his magazine did not, of course, show the beauty of the original +paintings, the majority of which were in full color. He accordingly made +arrangements with art publishers to print his pictures in their original +colors; then he determined to give the public an opportunity to see what +the pictures themselves looked like. + +He asked his art editor to select the two hundred and fifty best +pictures and frame them. Then he engaged the art gallery of the +Philadelphia Art Club, and advertised an exhibition of the original +paintings. No admission was charged. The gallery was put into gala +attire, and the pictures were well hung. The exhibition, which was +continued for two weeks, was visited by over fifteen thousand persons. + +His success here induced Bok to take the collection to New York. The +galleries of the American Art Association were offered him, but he +decided to rent the ballroom of the Hotel Waldorf. The hotel was then +new; it was the talk not only of the town but of the country, while the +ballroom had been pictured far and wide. It would have a publicity +value. He could secure the room for only four days, but he determined to +make the most of the short time. The exhibition was well advertised; a +"private view" was given the evening before the opening day, and when, +at nine o'clock the following morning, the doors of the exhibition were +thrown open, over a thousand persons were waiting in line. + +The hotel authorities had to resort to a special cordon of police to +handle the crowds, and within four days over seventeen thousand persons +had seen the pictures. On the last evening it was after midnight before +the doors could be closed to the waiting-line. Boston was next visited, +and there, at the Art Club Gallery, the previous successes were +repeated. Within two weeks over twenty-eight thousand persons visited +the exhibition. + +Other cities now clamored for a sight of the pictures, and it was +finally decided to end the exhibitions by a visit to Chicago. The +success here exceeded that in any of the other cities. The banquet-hall +of the Auditorium Hotel had been engaged; over two thousand persons were +continually in a waiting-line outside, and within a week nearly thirty +thousand persons pushed and jostled themselves into the gallery. Over +eight thousand persons in all had viewed the pictures in the four +cities. + +The exhibition was immediately followed by the publication of a +portfolio of the ten pictures that had proved the greatest favorites. +These were printed on plate-paper and the portfolio was offered by Bok +to his readers for one dollar. The first thousand sets were exhausted +within a fortnight. A second thousand were printed, and these were +quickly sold out. + +Bok's next enterprise was to get his pictures into the homes of the +country on a larger scale; he determined to work through the churches. +He selected the fifty best pictures, made them into a set and offered +first a hundred sets to selected schools, which were at once taken. Then +he offered two hundred and fifty sets to churches to sell at their +fairs. The managers were to promise to erect a Ladies' Home Journal +booth (which Bok knew, of course, would be most effective advertising), +and the pictures were to sell at twenty-five and fifty cents each, with +some at a dollar each. The set was offered to the churches for five +dollars: the actual cost of reproduction and expressage. On the day +after the publication of the magazine containing the offer, enough +telegraphic orders were received to absorb the entire edition. A second +edition was immediately printed; and finally ten editions, four thousand +sets in all, were absorbed before the demand was filled. By this method, +two hundred thousand pictures had been introduced into American homes, +and over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in money had been raised +by the churches as their portion. + +But all this was simply to lead up to the realization of Bok's cherished +dream: the reproduction, in enormous numbers, of the greatest pictures +in the world in their original colors. The plan, however, was not for +the moment feasible: the cost of the four-color process was at that time +prohibitive, and Bok had to abandon it. But he never lost sight of it. +He knew the hour would come when he could carry it out, and he bided his +time. + +It was not until years later that his opportunity came, when he +immediately made up his mind to seize it. The magazine had installed a +battery of four-color presses; the color-work in the periodical was +attracting universal attention, and after all stages of experimentation +had been passed, Bok decided to make his dream a reality. He sought the +co-operation of the owners of the greatest private art galleries in the +country: J. Pierpont Morgan, Henry C. Frick, Joseph E. Widener, George +W. Elkins, John G. Johnson, Charles P. Taft, Mrs. John L. Gardner, +Charles L. Freer, Mrs. Havemeyer, and the owners of the Benjamin Altman +Collection, and sought permission to reproduce their greatest paintings. + +Although each felt doubtful of the ability of any process adequately to +reproduce their masterpieces, the owners heartily co-operated with Bok. +But Bok's co-editors discouraged his plan, since it would involve +endless labor, the exclusive services of a corps of photographers and +engravers, and the employment of the most careful pressmen available in +the United States. The editor realized that the obstacles were numerous +and that the expense would be enormous; but he felt sure that the +American public was ready for his idea. And early in 1912 he announced +his series and began its publication. + +The most wonderful Rembrandt, Velasquez, Turner, Hobbema, Van Dyck, +Raphael, Frans Hals, Romney, Gainsborough, Whistler, Corot, Mauve, +Vermeer, Fragonard, Botticelli, and Titian reproductions followed in +such rapid succession as fairly to daze the magazine readers. Four +pictures were given in each number, and the faithfulness of the +reproductions astonished even their owners. The success of the series +was beyond Bok's own best hopes. He was printing and selling one and +three-quarter million copies of each issue of his magazine; and before +he was through he had presented to American homes throughout the breadth +of the country over seventy million reproductions of forty separate +master-pieces of art. + +The dream of years had come true. + +Bok had begun with the exterior of the small American house and made an +impression upon it; he had brought the love of flowers into the hearts +of thousands of small householders who had never thought they could have +an artistic garden within a small area; he had changed the lines of +furniture, and he had put better art on the walls of these homes. He had +conceived a full-rounded scheme, and he had carried it out. + +It was a peculiar satisfaction to Bok that Theodore Roosevelt once +summed up this piece of work in these words: "Bok is the only man I ever +heard of who changed, for the better, the architecture of an entire +nation, and he did it so quickly and yet so effectively that we didn't +know it was begun before it was finished. That is a mighty big job for +one man to have done." + + + + +XXII. An Adventure in Civic and Private Art + + +Edward Bok now turned his attention to those influences of a more public +nature which he felt could contribute to elevate the standard of public +taste. + +He was surprised, on talking with furnishers of homes, to learn to what +extent women whose husbands had recently acquired means would refer to +certain styles of decoration and hangings which they had seen in the +Pullman parlor-cars. He had never seriously regarded the influence of +the furnishing of these cars upon the travelling public; now he realized +that, in a decorative sense, they were a distinct factor and a very +unfortunate one. + +For in those days, twenty years ago, the decoration of the Pullman +parlor-car was atrocious. Colors were in riotous discord; every foot of +wood-panelling was carved and ornamented, nothing being left of the +grain of even the most beautiful woods; gilt was recklessly laid on +everywhere regardless of its fitness or relation. The hangings in the +cars were not only in bad taste, but distinctly unsanitary; the heaviest +velvets and showiest plushes were used; mirrors with bronzed and +redplushed frames were the order of the day; cord portières, +lambrequins, and tasselled fringes were still in vogue in these cars. It +was a veritable riot of the worst conceivable ideas; and it was this +standard that these women of the new-money class were accepting and +introducing into their homes! + +Bok wrote an editorial calling attention to these facts. The Pullman +Company paid no attention to it, but the railroad journals did. With one +accord they seized the cudgel which Bok had raised, and a series of +hammerings began. The Pullman conductors began to report to their +division chiefs that the passengers were criticising the cars, and the +company at last woke up. It issued a cynical rejoinder; whereupon Bok +wrote another editorial, and the railroad journals once more joined in +the chorus. + +The president of a large Western railroad wrote to Bok that he agreed +absolutely with his position, and asked whether he had any definite +suggestions to offer for the improvement of some new cars which they +were about to order. Bok engaged two of the best architects and +decorators in the country, and submitted the results to the officials of +the railroad company, who approved of them heartily. The Pullman Company +did not take very kindly, however, to suggestions thus brought to them. +But a current had been started; the attention of the travelling public +had been drawn for the first time to the wretched decoration of the +cars; and public sentiment was beginning to be vocal. + +The first change came when a new dining-car on the Chicago, Burlington +and Quincy Railroad suddenly appeared. It was an artistically treated +Flemish-oak-panelled car with longitudinal beams and cross-beams, giving +the impression of a ceiling-beamed room. Between the "beams" was a quiet +tone of deep yellow. The sides of the car were wainscoting of plain +surface done in a Flemish stain rubbed down to a dull finish. The grain +of the wood was allowed to serve as decoration; there was no carving. +The whole tone of the car was that of the rich color of the sunflower. +The effect upon the travelling public was instantaneous. Every passenger +commented favorably on the car. + +The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad now followed suit by +introducing a new Pullman chair-car. The hideous and germ-laden plush or +velvet curtains were gone, and leather hangings of a rich tone took +their place. All the grill-work of a bygone age was missing; likewise +the rope curtains. The woods were left to show the grain; no carving was +visible anywhere. The car was a relief to the eye, beautiful and simple, +and easy to keep clean. Again the public observed, and expressed its +pleasure. + +The Pullman people now saw the drift, and wisely reorganized their +decorative department. Only those who remember the Pullman parlor-car of +twenty years ago can realize how long a step it is from the atrociously +decorated, unsanitary vehicle of that day to the simple car of to-day. + +It was only a step from the Pullman car to the landscape outside, and +Bok next decided to see what he could do toward eliminating the hideous +bill-board advertisements which defaced the landscape along the lines of +the principal roads. He found a willing ally in this idea in Mr. J. +Horace McFarland, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, one of the most skilful +photographers in the country, and the president of The American Civic +Association. McFarland and Bok worked together; they took innumerable +photographs, and began to publish them, calling public attention to the +intrusion upon the public eye. + +Page after page appeared in the magazine, and after a few months these +roused public discussion as to legal control of this class of +advertising. Bok meanwhile called the attention of women's clubs and +other civic organizations to the question, and urged that they clean +their towns of the obnoxious bill-boards. Legislative measures +regulating the size, character, and location of bill-boards were +introduced in various States, a tax on each bill-board was suggested in +other States, and the agitation began to bear fruit. + +Bok now called upon his readers in general to help by offering a series +of prizes totalling several thousands of dollars for two photographs, +one showing a fence, barn, or outbuilding painted with an advertisement +or having a bill-board attached to it, or a field with a bill-board in +it, and a second photograph of the same spot showing the advertisement +removed, with an accompanying affidavit of the owner of the property, +legally attested, asserting that the advertisement had been permanently +removed. Hundreds of photographs poured in, scores of prizes were +awarded, the results were published, and requests came in for a second +series of prizes, which were duly awarded. + +While Bok did not solve the problem of bill-board advertising, and while +in some parts of the country it is a more flagrant nuisance to-day than +ever before, he had started the first serious agitation against +bill-board advertising of bad design, detrimental, from its location, to +landscape beauty. He succeeded in getting rid of a huge bill-board which +had been placed at the most picturesque spot at Niagara Falls; and +hearing of "the largest advertisement sign in the world" to be placed on +the rim of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, he notified the advertisers +that a photograph of the sign, if it was erected, would be immediately +published in the magazine and the attention of the women of America +called to the defacement of one of the most impressive and beautiful +scenes in the world. The article to be advertised was a household +commodity, purchased by women; and the owners realized that the proposed +advertisement would not be to the benefit of their product. The sign was +abandoned. + +Of course the advertisers whose signs were shown in the magazine +immediately threatened the withdrawal of their accounts from The Ladies' +Home Journal, and the proposed advertiser at the Grand Canyon, whose +business was conspicuous in each number of the magazine, became actively +threatening. But Bok contended that the one proposition had absolutely +no relation to the other, and that if concerns advertised in the +magazine simply on the basis of his editorial policy toward bill-board +advertising, it was, to say the least, not a sound basis for +advertising. No advertising account was ever actually withdrawn. + +In their travels about, Mr. McFarland and Bok began to note the +disreputably untidy spots which various municipalities allowed in the +closest proximity to the centre of their business life, in the most +desirable residential sections, and often adjacent to the most important +municipal buildings and parks. It was decided to select a dozen cities, +pick out the most flagrant instances of spots which were not only an +eyesore and a disgrace from a municipal standpoint, but a menace to +health and meant a depreciation of real-estate value. + +Lynn, Massachusetts, was the initial city chosen, a number of +photographs were taken, and the first of a series of "Dirty Cities" was +begun in the magazine. The effect was instantaneous. The people of Lynn +rose in protest, and the municipal authorities threatened suit against +the magazine; the local newspapers were virulent in their attacks. +Without warning, they argued, Bok had held up their city to disgrace +before the entire country; the attack was unwarranted; in bad taste; +every citizen in Lynn should thereafter cease to buy the magazine, and +so the criticisms ran. In answer Bok merely pointed to the photographs; +to the fact that the camera could not lie, and that if he had +misrepresented conditions he was ready to make amends. + +Of course the facts could not be gainsaid; local pride was aroused, and +as a result not only were the advertised "dirty spots" cleaned up, but +the municipal authorities went out and hunted around for other spots in +the city, not knowing what other photographs Bok might have had taken. + +Trenton, New Jersey, was the next example, and the same storm of public +resentment broke loose--with exactly the same beneficial results in the +end to the city. Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, was the third one of +America's "dirty cities." Here public anger rose particularly high, the +magazine practically being barred from the news-stands. But again the +result was to the lasting benefit of the community. + +Memphis, Tennessee, came next, but here a different spirit was met. +Although some resentment was expressed, the general feeling was that a +service had been rendered the city, and that the only wise and practical +solution was for the city to meet the situation. The result here was a +group of municipal buildings costing millions of dollars, photographs of +which The Ladies' Home Journal subsequently published with gratification +to itself and to the people of Memphis. + +Cities throughout the country now began to look around to see whether +they had dirty spots within their limits, not knowing when the McFarland +photographers might visit them. Bok received letters from various +municipalities calling his attention to the fact that they were +cognizant of spots in their cities and were cleaning up, and asking +that, if he had photographs of these spots, they should not be +published. + +It happened that in two such instances Bok had already prepared sets of +photographs for publication. These he sent to the mayors of the +respective cities, stating that if they would return them with an +additional set showing the spots cleaned up there would be no occasion +for their publication. In both cases this was done. Atlanta, Georgia; +New Haven, Connecticut; Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and finally Bok's own +city of Philadelphia were duly chronicled in the magazine; local storms +broke and calmed down-with the spots in every instance improved. + +It was an interesting experiment in photographic civics. The pity of it +is that more has not been done along this and similar lines. + +The time now came when Bok could demonstrate the willingness of his own +publishing company to do what it could to elevate the public taste in +art. With the increasing circulation of The Ladies' Home Journal and of +The Saturday Evening Post the business of the company had grown to such +dimensions that in 1908 plans for a new building were started. For +purposes of air and light the vicinity of Independence Square was +selected. Mr. Curtis purchased an entire city block facing the square, +and the present huge but beautiful publication building was conceived. + +Bok strongly believed that good art should find a place in public +buildings where large numbers of persons might find easy access to it. +The proximity of the proposed new structure to historic Independence +Hall and the adjacent buildings would make it a focal point for visitors +from all parts of the country and the world. The opportunity presented +itself to put good art, within the comprehension of a large public, into +the new building, and Bok asked permission of Mr. Curtis to introduce a +strong note of mural decoration. The idea commended itself to Mr. Curtis +as adding an attraction to the building and a contribution to public +art. + +The great public dining-room, seating over seven hundred persons, on the +top floor of the building, affording unusual lighting facilities, was +first selected; and Maxfield Parrish was engaged to paint a series of +seventeen panels to fill the large spaces between the windows and an +unusually large wall space at the end of the room. Parrish contracted to +give up all other work and devote himself to the commission which +attracted him greatly. + +For over a year he made sketches, and finally the theme was decided +upon: a bevy of youths and maidens in gala costume, on their way through +gardens and along terraces to a great fete, with pierrots and dancers +and musicians on the main wall space. It was to be a picture of happy +youth and sunny gladness. Five years after the conception of the idea +the final panel was finished and installed in the dining-room, where the +series has since been admired by the thirty to fifty thousand visitors +who come to the Curtis Building each year from foreign lands and from +every State in America. No other scheme of mural decoration was ever +planned on so large a scale for a commercial building, or so +successfully carried out. + +The great wall space of over one thousand square feet, unobstructed by a +single column, in the main foyer of the building was decided upon as the +place for the pivotal note to be struck by some mural artist. After +looking carefully over the field, Bok finally decided upon Edwin A. +Abbey. He took a steamer and visited Abbey in his English home. The +artist was working on his canvases for the State capitol at Harrisburg, +and it was agreed that the commission for the Curtis Building was to +follow the completion of the State work. + +"What subject have you in mind?" asked Abbey. + +"None," replied Bok. "That is left entirely to you." + +The artist and his wife looked at each other in bewilderment. + +"Rather unusual," commented Abbey. "You have nothing in mind at all?" + +"Nothing, except to get the best piece of work you have ever done," was +the assurance. + +Poor Abbey! His life had been made so tortuous by suggestions, ideas, +yes, demands made upon him in the work of the Harrisburg panels upon +which he was engaged, that a commission in which he was to have free +scope, his brush full leeway, with no one making suggestions but himself +and Mrs. Abbey, seemed like a dream. When he explained this, Bok assured +him that was exactly what he was offering him: a piece of work, the +subject to be his own selection, with the assurance of absolute liberty +to carry out his own ideas. Never was an artist more elated. + +"Then, I'll give you the best piece of work of my life," said Abbey. + +"Perhaps there is some subject which you have long wished to paint +rather than any other," asked Bok, "that might fit our purpose +admirably?" + +There was: a theme that he had started as a fresco for Mrs. Abbey's +bedroom. But it would not answer this purpose at all, although he +confessed he would rather paint it than any subject in the realm of all +literature and art. + +"And the subject?" asked Bok. + +"The Grove of Academe," replied Abbey, and the eyes of the artist and +his wife were riveted on the editor. + +"With Plato and his disciples?" asked Bok. + +"The same," said Abbey. "But you see it wouldn't fit." + +"Wouldn't fit?" echoed Bok. "Why, it's the very thing." + +Abbey and his wife were now like two happy children. Mrs. Abbey fetched +the sketches which her husband had begun years ago, and when Bok saw +them he was delighted. He realized at once that conditions and choice +would conspire to produce Abbey's greatest piece of mural work. + +The arrangements were quickly settled; the Curtis architect had +accompanied Bok to explain the architectural possibilities to Abbey, and +when the artist bade good-by to the two at the railroad station, his +last words were: + +"Bok, you are going to get the best Abbey in the world." + +And Mrs. Abbey echoed the prophecy! + +But Fate intervened. On the day after Abbey had stretched his great +canvas in Sargent's studio in London, expecting to begin his work the +following week, he suddenly passed away, and what would, in all +likelihood, have been Edwin Abbey's mural masterpiece was lost to the +world. + +Assured of Mrs. Abbey's willingness to have another artist take the +theme of the Grove of Academe and carry it out as a mural decoration, +Bok turned to Howard Pyle. He knew Pyle had made a study of Plato, and +believed that, with his knowledge and love of the work of the Athenian +philosopher, a good decoration would result. Pyle was then in Italy; Bok +telephoned the painter's home in Wilmington, Delaware, to get his +address, only to be told that an hour earlier word had been received by +the family that Pyle had been fatally stricken the day before. + +Once more Bok went over the field of mural art and decided this time +that he would go far afield, and present his idea to Boutet de Monvel, +the French decorative artist. Bok had been much impressed with some +decorative work by De Monvel which had just been exhibited in New York. +By letter he laid the proposition in detail before the artist, asked for +a subject, and stipulated that if the details could be arranged the +artist should visit the building and see the place and surroundings for +himself. After a lengthy correspondence, and sketches submitted and +corrected, a plan for what promised to be a most unusual and +artistically decorative panel was arrived at. + +The date for M. de Monvel's visit to Philadelphia was fixed, a final +letter from the artist reached Bok on a Monday morning, in which a few +remaining details were satisfactorily cleared up, and a cable was sent +assuring De Monvel of the entire satisfaction of the company with his +final sketches and arrangements. The following morning Bok picked up his +newspaper to read that Boutet de Monvel had suddenly passed away in +Paris the previous evening! + +Bok, thoroughly bewildered, began to feel as if some fatal star hung +over his cherished decoration. Three times in succession he had met the +same decree of fate. + +He consulted six of the leading mural decorators in America, asking +whether they would consent, not in competition, to submit each a +finished full-color sketch of the subject which he believed fitted for +the place in mind; they could take the Grove of Academe or not, as they +chose; the subject was to be of their own selection. Each artist was to +receive a generous fee for his sketch, whether accepted or rejected. In +due time, the six sketches were received; impartial judges were +selected, no names were attached to the sketches, several conferences +were held, and all the sketches were rejected! + +Bok was still exactly where he started, while the building was nearly +complete, with no mural for the large place so insistently demanding it. + +He now recalled a marvellous stage-curtain entirely of glass mosaic +executed by Louis C. Tiffany, of New York, for the Municipal Theatre at +Mexico City. The work had attracted universal attention at its +exhibition, art critics and connoisseurs had praised it unstintingly, +and Bok decided to experiment in that direction. + +Just as the ancient Egyptians and Persians had used glazed brick and +tile, set in cement, as their form of wall decoration, so Mr. Tiffany +had used favrile glass, set in cement. The luminosity was marvellous; +the effect of light upon the glass was unbelievably beautiful, and the +colorings obtained were a joy to the senses. + +Here was not only a new method in wall decoration, but one that was +entirely practicable. Glass would not craze like tiles or mosaic; it +would not crinkle as will canvas; it needed no varnish. It would retain +its color, freshness, and beauty, and water would readily cleanse it +from dust. + +He sought Mr. Tiffany, who was enthusiastic over the idea of making an +example of his mosaic glass of such dimensions which should remain in +this country, and gladly offered to co-operate. But, try as he might, +Bok could not secure an adequate sketch for Mr. Tiffany to carry out. +Then he recalled that one day while at Maxfield Parrish's summer home in +New Hampshire the artist had told him of a dream garden which he would +like to construct, not on canvas but in reality. Bok suggested to +Parrish that he come to New York. He asked him if he could put his dream +garden on canvas. The artist thought he could; in fact, was greatly +attracted to the idea; but he knew nothing of mosaic work, and was not +particularly attracted by the idea of having his work rendered in that +medium. + +Bok took Parrish to Mr. Tiffany's studio; the two artists talked +together, the glass-worker showed the canvas-painter his work, with the +result that the two became enthusiastic to co-operate in trying the +experiment. Parrish agreed to make a sketch for Mr. Tiffany's approval, +and within six months, after a number of conferences and an equal number +of sketches, they were ready to begin the work. Bok only hoped that this +time both artists would outlive their commissions! + +It was a huge picture to be done in glass mosaic. The space to be filled +called for over a million pieces of glass, and for a year the services +of thirty of the most skilled artisans would be required. The work had +to be done from a series of bromide photographs enlarged to a size +hitherto unattempted. But at last the decoration was completed; the +finished art piece was placed on exhibition in New York and over seven +thousand persons came to see it. The leading art critics pronounced the +result to be the most amazing instance of the tone capacity of +glass-work ever achieved. It was a veritable wonder-piece, far exceeding +the utmost expression of paint and canvas. + +For six months a group of skilled artisans worked to take the picture +apart in New York, transport it and set it into its place in +Philadelphia. But at last it was in place: the wonder-picture in glass +of which painters have declared that "mere words are only aggravating in +describing this amazing picture." Since that day over one hundred +thousand visitors to the building have sat in admiration before it. + +The Grove of Academe was to become a Dream Garden, but it was only after +six years of incessant effort, with obstacles and interventions almost +insurmountable, that the dream became true. + + + + +XXIII. Theodore Roosevelt's Influence + + +When the virile figure of Theodore Roosevelt swung down the national +highway, Bok was one of thousands of young men who felt strongly the +attraction of his personality. Colonel Roosevelt was only five years the +senior of the editor; he spoke, therefore, as one of his own years. The +energy with which he said and did things appealed to Bok. He made +Americanism something more real, more stirring than Bok had ever felt +it; he explained national questions in a way that caught Bok's fancy and +came within his comprehension. Bok's lines had been cast with many of +the great men of the day, but he felt that there was something +distinctive about the personality of this man: his method of doing +things and his way of saying things. Bok observed everything Colonel +Roosevelt did and read everything he wrote. + +The editor now sought an opportunity to know personally the man whom he +admired. It came at a dinner at the University Club, and Colonel +Roosevelt suggested that they meet there the following day for a +"talk-fest." For three hours the two talked together. The fact that +Colonel Roosevelt was of Dutch ancestry interested Bok; that Bok was +actually of Dutch birth made a strong appeal to the colonel. With his +tremendous breadth of interests, Roosevelt, Bok found, had followed him +quite closely in his work, and was familiar with "its high points," as +he called them. "We must work for the same ends," said the colonel, "you +in your way, I in mine. But our lines are bound to cross. You and I can +each become good Americans by giving our best to make America better. +With the Dutch stock there is in both of us, there's no limit to what we +can do. Let's go to it." Naturally that talk left the two firm friends. + +Bok felt somehow that he had been given a new draft of Americanism: the +word took on a new meaning for him; it stood for something different, +something deeper and finer than before. And every subsequent talk with +Roosevelt deepened the feeling and stirred Bok's deepest ambitions. "Go +to it, you Dutchman," Roosevelt would say, and Bok would go to it. A +talk with Roosevelt always left him feeling as if mountains were the +easiest things in the world to move. + +One of Theodore Roosevelt's arguments which made a deep impression upon +Bok was that no man had a right to devote his entire life to the making +of money. "You are in a peculiar position," said the man of Oyster Bay +one day to Bok; "you are in that happy position where you can make money +and do good at the same time. A man wields a tremendous power for good +or for evil who is welcomed into a million homes and read with +confidence. That's fine, and is all right so far as it goes, and in your +case it goes very far. Still, there remains more for you to do. The +public has built up for you a personality: now give that personality to +whatever interests you in contact with your immediate fellow-men: +something in your neighborhood, your city, or your State. With one hand +work and write to your national audience: let no fads sway you. Hew +close to the line. But, with the other hand, swing into the life +immediately around you. Think it over." + +Bok did think it over. He was now realizing the dream of his life for +which he had worked: his means were sufficient to give his mother every +comfort; to install her in the most comfortable surroundings wherever +she chose to live; to make it possible for her to spend the winters in +the United States and the summers in the Netherlands, and thus to keep +in touch with her family and friends in both countries. He had for years +toiled unceasingly to reach this point: he felt he had now achieved at +least one goal. + +He had now turned instinctively to the making of a home for himself. +After an engagement of four years he had been married, on October 22, +1896, to Mary Louise Curtis, the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Cyrus H. K. +Curtis; two sons had been born to them; he had built and was occupying a +house at Merion, Pennsylvania, a suburb six miles from the Philadelphia +City Hall. When she was in this country his mother lived with him, and +also his brother, and, with a strong belief in life insurance, he had +seen to it that his family was provided for in case of personal +incapacity or of his demise. In other words, he felt that he had put his +own house in order; he had carried out what he felt is every man's duty: +to be, first of all, a careful and adequate provider for his family. He +was now at the point where he could begin to work for another goal, the +goal that he felt so few American men saw: the point in his life where +he could retire from the call of duty and follow the call of +inclination. + +At the age of forty he tried to look ahead and plan out his life as far +as he could. Barring unforeseen obstacles, he determined to retire from +active business when he reached his fiftieth year, and give the +remainder of his life over to those interests and influences which he +assumed now as part of his life, and which, at fifty, should seem to him +best worth while. He realized that in order to do this he must do two +things: he must husband his financial resources and he must begin to +accumulate a mental reserve. + +The wide public acceptance of the periodical which he edited naturally +brought a share of financial success to him. He had experienced poverty, +and as he subsequently wrote, in an article called "Why I Believe in +Poverty," he was deeply grateful for his experience. He had known what +it was to be poor; he had seen others dear to him suffer for the bare +necessities; there was, in fact, not a single step on that hard road +that he had not travelled. He could, therefore, sympathize with the +fullest understanding with those similarly situated, could help as one +who knew from practice and not from theory. He realized what a +marvellous blessing poverty can be; but as a condition to experience, to +derive from it poignant lessons, and then to get out of; not as a +condition to stay in. + +Of course many said to Bok when he wrote the article in which he +expressed these beliefs: "That's all very well; easy enough to say, but +how can you get out of it?" Bok realized that he could not definitely +show any one the way. No one had shown him. No two persons can find the +same way out. Bok determined to lift himself out of poverty because his +mother was not born in it, did not belong in it, and could not stand it. +That gave him the first essential: a purpose. Then he backed up the +purpose with effort and an ever-ready willingness to work, and to work +at anything that came his way, no matter what it was, so long as it +meant "the way out." He did not pick and choose; he took what came, and +did it in the best way he knew how; and when he did not like what he was +doing he still did it as well as he could while he was doing it, but +always with an eye single to the purpose not to do it any longer than +was strictly necessary. He used every rung in the ladder as a rung to +the one above. He always gave more than his particular position or +salary asked for. He never worked by the clock; always by the job; and +saw that it was well done regardless of the time it took to do it. This +meant effort, of course, untiring, ceaseless, unsparing; and it meant +work, hard as nails. + +He was particularly careful never to live up to his income; and as his +income increased he increased not the percentage of expenditure but the +percentage of saving. Thrift was, of course, inborn with him as a +Dutchman, but the necessity for it as a prime factor in life was burned +into him by his experience with poverty. But he interpreted thrift not +as a trait of niggardliness, but as Theodore Roosevelt interpreted it: +common sense applied to spending. + +At forty, therefore, he felt he had learned the first essential to +carrying out his idea of retirement at fifty. + +The second essential--varied interests outside of his business upon +which he could rely on relinquishing his duties--he had not cultivated. +He had quite naturally, in line with his belief that concentration means +success, immersed himself in his business to the exclusion of almost +everything else. He felt that he could now spare a certain percentage of +his time to follow Theodore Roosevelt's ideas and let the breezes of +other worlds blow over him. In that way he could do as Roosevelt +suggested and as Bok now firmly believed was right: he could develop +himself along broader lines, albeit the lines of his daily work were +broadening in and of themselves, and he could so develop a new set of +inner resources upon which he could draw when the time came to +relinquish his editorial position. + +He saw, on every side, the pathetic figures of men who could not let go +after their greatest usefulness was past; of other men who dropped +before they realized their arrival at the end of the road; and, most +pathetic of all, of men who having retired, but because of lack of inner +resources did not know what to do with themselves, had become a trial to +themselves, their families, and their communities. + +Bok decided that, given health and mental freshness, he would say +good-by to his public before his public might decide to say good-by to +him. So, at forty, he candidly faced the facts of life and began to +prepare himself for his retirement at fifty under circumstances that +would be of his own making and not those of others. + +And thereby Edward Bok proved that he was still, by instinct, a +Dutchman, and had not in his thirty-four years of residence in the +United States become so thoroughly Americanized as he believed. + +However, it was an American, albeit of Dutch extraction, one whom he +believed to be the greatest American in his own day, who had set him +thinking and shown him the way. + + + + +XXIV. Theodore Roosevelt's Anonymous Editorial Work + + +While Theodore Roosevelt was President of the United States, Bok was +sitting one evening talking with him, when suddenly Mr. Roosevelt turned +to him and said with his usual emphasis: "Bok, I envy you your power +with your public." + +The editor was frankly puzzled. + +"That is a strange remark from the President of the United States," he +replied. + +"You may think so," was the rejoinder. "But listen. When do I get the +ear of the public? In its busiest moments. My messages are printed in +the newspapers and read hurriedly, mostly by men in trolleys or +railroad-cars. Women hardly ever read them, I should judge. Now you are +read in the evening by the fireside or under the lamp, when the day's +work is over and the mind is at rest from other things and receptive to +what you offer. Don't you see where you have it on me?" + +This diagnosis was keenly interesting, and while the President talked +during the balance of the evening, Bok was thinking. Finally, he said: +"Mr. President, I should like to share my power with you." + +"How?" asked Mr. Roosevelt. + +"You recognize that women do not read your messages; and yet no +President's messages ever discussed more ethical questions that women +should know about and get straight in their minds. As it is, some of +your ideas are not at all understood by them; your strenuous-life +theory, for instance, your factory-law ideas, and particularly your +race-suicide arguments. Men don't fully understand them, for that +matter; women certainly do not." + +"I am aware of all that," said the President. "What is your plan to +remedy it?" + +"Have a department in my magazine, and explain your ideas," suggested +Bok. + +"Haven't time for another thing. You know that," snapped back the +President. "Wish I had." + +"Not to write it, perhaps, yourself," returned Bok. + +"But why couldn't you find time to do this: select the writer here in +Washington in whose accuracy you have the most implicit faith; let him +talk with you for one hour each month on one of those subjects; let him +write out your views, and submit the manuscript to you; and we will have +a department stating exactly how the material is obtained and how far it +represents your own work. In that way, with only an hour's work each +month, you can get your views, correctly stated, before this vast +audience when it is not in trolleys or railroad-cars." + +"But I haven't the hour," answered Roosevelt, impressed, however, as Bok +saw. "I have only half an hour, when I am awake, when I am really idle, +and that is when I am being shaved." + +"Well," calmly suggested the editor, "why not two of those half-hours a +month, or perhaps one?" + +"What?" answered the President, sitting upright, his teeth flashing but +his smile broadening. "You Dutchman, you'd make me work while I'm +getting shaved, too?" + +"Well," was the answer, "isn't the result worth the effort?" + +"Bok, you are absolutely relentless," said the President. "But you're +right. The result would be worth the effort. What writer have you in +mind? You seem to have thought this thing through." + +"How about O'Brien? You think well of him?" + +(Robert L. O'Brien, now editor of the Boston Herald, was then Washington +correspondent for the Boston Transcript and thoroughly in the +President's confidence.) + +"Fine," said the President. "I trust O'Brien implicitly. All right, if +you can get O'Brien to add it on, I'll try it." + +And so the "shaving interviews" were begun; and early in 1906 there +appeared in The Ladies' Home Journal a department called "The +President," with the subtitle: "A Department in which will be presented +the attitude of the President on those national questions which affect +the vital interests of the home, by a writer intimately acquainted and +in close touch with him." + +O'Brien talked with Mr. Roosevelt once a month, wrote out the results, +the President went over the proofs carefully, and the department was +conducted with great success for a year. + +But Theodore Roosevelt was again to be the editor of a department in The +Ladies' Home Journal; this time to be written by himself under the +strictest possible anonymity, so closely adhered to that, until this +revelation, only five persons have known the authorship. + +Feeling that it would be an interesting experiment to see how far +Theodore Roosevelt's ideas could stand unsupported by the authority of +his vibrant personality, Bok suggested the plan to the colonel. It was +just after he had returned from his South American trip. He was +immediately interested. + +"But how can we keep the authorship really anonymous?" he asked. + +"Easily enough," answered Bok, "if you're willing to do the work. Our +letters about it must be written in long hand addressed to each other's +homes; you must write your manuscript in your own hand; I will copy it +in mine, and it will go to the printer in that way. I will personally +send you the proofs; you mark your corrections in pencil, and I will +copy them in ink; the company will pay me for each article, and I will +send you my personal check each month. By this means, the identity of +the author will be concealed." + +Colonel Roosevelt was never averse to hard work if it was necessary to +achieve a result that he felt was worth while. + +"All right," wrote the colonel finally. "I'll try--with you!--the +experiment for a year: 12 articles... I don't know that I can give your +readers satisfaction, but I shall try my very best. I am very glad to be +associated with you, anyway. At first I doubted the wisdom of the plan, +merely because I doubted whether I could give you just that you wished. +I never know what an audience wants: I know what it ought to want: and +sometimes I can give it, or make it accept what I think it needs--and +sometimes I cannot. But the more I thought over your proposal, the more +I liked it... Whether the wine will be good enough to attract without +any bush I don't know; and besides, in such cases the fault is not in +the wine, but in the fact that the consumers decline to have their +attention attracted unless there is a bush!" + +In the latter part of 1916 an anonymous department called "Men" was +begun in the magazine. + +The physical work was great. The colonel punctiliously held to the +conditions, and wrote manuscript and letters with his own hand, and Bok +carried out his part of the agreement. Nor was this simple, for Colonel +Roosevelt's manuscript--particularly when, as in this case, it was +written on yellow paper with a soft pencil and generously +interlined--was anything but legible. Month after month the two men +worked each at his own task. To throw the public off the scent, during +the conduct of the department, an article or two by Colonel Roosevelt +was published in another part of the magazine under his own name, and in +the department itself the anonymous author would occasionally quote +himself. + +It was natural that the appearance of a department devoted to men in a +woman's magazine should attract immediate attention. The department took +up the various interests of a man's life, such as real efficiency; his +duties as an employer and his usefulness to his employees; the +employee's attitude toward his employer; the relations of men and women; +a father's relations to his sons and daughters; a man's duty to his +community; the public-school system; a man's relation to his church, and +kindred topics. + +The anonymity of the articles soon took on interest from the +positiveness of the opinions discussed; but so thoroughly had Colonel +Roosevelt covered his tracks that, although he wrote in his usual style, +in not a single instance was his name connected with the department. +Lyman Abbott was the favorite "guess" at first; then after various other +public men had been suggested, the newspapers finally decided upon +former President Eliot of Harvard University as the writer. + +All this intensely interested and amused Colonel Roosevelt and he fairly +itched with the desire to write a series of criticisms of his own +articles to Doctor Eliot. Bok, however, persuaded the colonel not to +spend more physical effort than he was already doing on the articles; +for, in addition, he was notating answers on the numerous letters +received, and those Bok answered "on behalf of the author." + +For a year, the department continued. During all that time the secret of +the authorship was known to only one man, besides the colonel and Bok, +and their respective wives! + +When the colonel sent his last article in the series to Bok, he wrote: + +"Now that the work is over, I wish most cordially to thank you, my dear +fellow, for your unvarying courtesy and kindness. I have not been +satisfied with my work. This is the first time I ever tried to write +precisely to order, and I am not one of those gifted men who can do so +to advantage. Generally I find that the 3,000 words is not the right +length and that I wish to use 2,000 or 4,000! And in consequence feel as +if I had either padded or mutilated the article. And I am not always +able to feel that every month I have something worth saying on a given +subject. + +"But I hope that you have not been too much disappointed." + +Bok had not been, and neither had his public! + +In the meanwhile, Bok had arranged with Colonel Roosevelt for his +reading and advising upon manuscripts of special significance for the +magazine. In this work, Colonel Roosevelt showed his customary +promptness and thoroughness. A manuscript, no matter how long it might +be, was in his hands scarcely forty-eight hours, more generally +twenty-four, before it was read, a report thereon written, and the +article on its way back. His reports were always comprehensive and +invariably interesting. There was none of the cut-and-dried flavor of +the opinion of the average "reader"; he always put himself into the +report, and, of course, that meant a warm personal touch. If he could +not encourage the publication of a manuscript, his reasons were always +fully given, and invariably without personal bias. + +On one occasion Bok sent him a manuscript which he was sure was, in its +views, at variance with the colonel's beliefs. The colonel, he knew, +felt strongly on the subject, and Bok wondered what would be his +criticism. The report came back promptly. He reviewed the article +carefully and ended: "Of course, this is all at variance with my own +views. I believe thoroughly and completely that this writer is all +wrong. And yet, from his side of the case, I am free to say that he +makes out the best case I have read anywhere. I think a magazine should +present both sides of all questions; and if you want to present this +side, I should strongly recommend that you do so with this article." + + Sagamore Hill. April 26th 1916 + + This is a really noteworthy story--a + profoundly touching story--of the Americanizing + of an immigrant girl, who between babyhood + and young womanhood leaps over a space + which in all outward and humanizing essentials + is far more important than the distance + painfully traversed by her forefathers during + the preceding thousand years. When we tend to + grow disheartened over some of the developments + of our American civilization, it is well + worth while seeing what this same + civilization holds for starved and noble + souls who have elsewhere been denied what + here we hold to be, as a matter of course, rights + free to all--altho we do not, as we should do, + make these rights accessible to all who are + willing with resolute earnestness to strive for them. + I most cordially commend this story. + + Theodore Roosevelt + + One of Theodore Roosevelt's "Reports" as a reader of + special manuscripts" + +Not long after, Bok decided to induce Colonel Roosevelt to embark upon +an entirely new activity, and negotiations were begun (alas, too late! +for it was in the autumn of 1918), which, owing to their tentative +character, were never made public. Bok told Colonel Roosevelt that he +wanted to invest twenty-five thousand dollars a year in American +boyhood--the boyhood that he felt twenty years hence would be the +manhood of America, and that would actually solve the problems with +which we were now grappling. + +Although, all too apparently, he was not in his usual vigorous health, +Colonel Roosevelt was alert in a moment. + +"Fine!" he said, with his teeth gleaming. "Couldn't invest better +anywhere. How are you going to do it?" + +"By asking you to assume the active headship of the National Boy Scouts +of America, and paying you that amount each year as a fixed salary." + +The colonel looked steadily ahead for a moment, without a word, and then +with the old Roosevelt smile wreathing his face and his teeth fairly +gleaming, he turned to his "tempter," as he called him, and said: + +"Do you know that was very well put? Yes, sir, very well put." + +"Yes?" answered Bok. "Glad you think so. But how about your acceptance +of the idea?" + +"That's another matter; quite another matter. How about the organization +itself? There are men in it that don't approve of me at all, you know," +he said. + +Bok explained that the organization knew nothing of his offer; that it +was entirely unofficial. It was purely a personal thought. He believed +the Boy Scouts of America needed a leader; that the colonel was the one +man in the United States fitted by every natural quality to be that +leader; that the Scouts would rally around him, and that, at his call, +instead of four hundred thousand Scouts, as there were then, the +organization would grow into a million and more. Bok further explained +that he believed his connection with the national organization was +sufficient, if Colonel Roosevelt would favorably consider such a +leadership, to warrant him in presenting it to the national officers; +and he was inclined to believe they would welcome the opportunity. He +could not assure the colonel of this! He had no authority for saying +they would; but was Colonel Roosevelt receptive to the idea? + +At first, the colonel could not see it. But he went over the ground as +thoroughly as a half-hour talk permitted; and finally the opportunity +for doing a piece of constructive work that might prove second to none +that he had ever done, made its appeal. + +"You mean for me to be the active head?" asked the colonel. + +"Could you be anything else, colonel?" answered Bok. + +"Quite so," said the colonel. "That's about right. Do you know," he +pondered, "I think Edie (Mrs. Roosevelt) might like me to do something +like that. She would figure it would keep me out of mischief in 1920," +and the colonel's smile spread over his face. + +"Bok," he at last concluded, "do you know, after all, I think you've +said something! Let's think it over. Let's see how I get along with this +trouble of mine. I am not sure, you know, how far I can go in the +future. Not at all sure, you know--not at all. That last trip of mine to +South America was a bit too much. Shouldn't have done it, you know. I +know it now. Well, as I say, let's both think it over and through; I +will, gladly and most carefully. There's much in what you say; it's a +great chance; I'd love doing it. By Jove! it would be wonderful to rally +a million boys for real Americanism, as you say. It looms up as I think +it over. Suppose we let it simmer for a month or two." + +And so it was left--for "a month or two." It was to be +forever--unfortunately. Edward Bok has always felt that the most +worth-while idea that ever came to him had, for some reason he never +could understand, come too late. He felt, as he will always feel, that +the boys of America had lost a national leader that might have led +them--where would have been the limit? + + + + +XXV. The President and the Boy + + +One of the incidents connected with Edward Bok that Theodore Roosevelt +never forgot was when Bok's eldest boy chose the colonel as a Christmas +present. And no incident better portrays the wonderful character of the +colonel than did his remarkable response to the compliment. + +A vicious attack of double pneumonia had left the heart of the boy very +weak--and Christmas was close by! So the father said: + +"It's a quiet Christmas for you this year, boy. Suppose you do this: +think of the one thing in the world that you would rather have than +anything else and I'll give you that, and that will have to be your +Christmas." + +"I know now," came the instant reply. + +"But the world is a big place, and there are lots of things in it, you +know." + +"I know that," said the boy, "but this is something I have wanted for a +long time, and would rather have than anything else in the world." And +he looked as if he meant it. + +"Well, out with it, then, if you're so sure." + +And to the father's astonished ears came this request: + +"Take me to Washington as soon as my heart is all right, introduce me to +President Roosevelt, and let me shake hands with him." + +"All right," said the father, after recovering from his surprise. "I'll +see whether I can fix it." And that morning a letter went to the +President saying that he had been chosen as a Christmas present. +Naturally, any man would have felt pleased, no matter how high his +station, and for Theodore Roosevelt, father of boys, the message had a +special appeal. + +The letter had no sooner reached Washington than back came an answer, +addressed not to the father but to the boy! It read: + +"The White House, Washington. + +"November 13th, 1907. + +"Dear Curtis: + +"Your father has just written me, and I want him to bring you on and +shake hands with me as soon as you are well enough to travel. Then I am +going to give you, myself, a copy of the book containing my hunting +trips since I have been President; unless you will wait until the new +edition, which contains two more chapters, is out. If so, I will send it +to you, as this new edition probably won't be ready when you come on +here. + +"Give my warm regards to your father and mother. + +"Sincerely yours, + +"Theodore Roosevelt." + +Here was joy serene! But the boy's heart had acted queerly for a few +days, and so the father wrote, thanked the President, and said that as +soon as the heart moderated a bit the letter would be given the boy. It +was a rare bit of consideration that now followed. No sooner had the +father's letter reached the White House than an answer came back by +first post--this time with a special-delivery stamp on it. It was +Theodore Roosevelt, the father, who wrote this time; his mind and time +filled with affairs of state, and yet full of tender thoughtfulness for +a little boy: + +"Dear Mr. Bok:-- + +"I have your letter of the 16th instant. I hope the little fellow will +soon be all right. Instead of giving him my letter, give him a message +from me based on the letter, if that will be better for him. Tell Mrs. +Bok how deeply Mrs. Roosevelt and I sympathize with her. We know just +how she feels. + +"Sincerely yours, + +"Theodore Roosevelt." + +"That's pretty fine consideration," said the father. He got the letter +during a business conference and he read it aloud to the group of +business men. Some there were in that group who keenly differed with the +President on national issues, but they were all fathers, and two of the +sturdiest turned and walked to the window as they said: "Yes, that is +fine!" + +Then came the boy's pleasure when he was handed the letter; the next few +days were spent inditing an answer to "my friend, the President." At +last the momentous epistle seemed satisfactory, and off to the busy +presidential desk went the boyish note, full of thanks and assurances +that he would come just as soon as he could, and that Mr. Roosevelt must +not get impatient! + +The "soon as he could" time, however, did not come as quickly as all had +hoped!--a little heart pumped for days full of oxygen and accelerated by +hypodermic injections is slow to mend. But the President's framed +letter, hanging on the spot on the wall first seen in the morning, was a +daily consolation. + +Then, in March, although four months after the promise--and it would not +have been strange, in his busy life, for the President to have forgotten +or at least overlooked it--on the very day that the book was published +came a special "large-paper" copy of The Outdoor Pastimes of an American +Hunter, and on the fly-leaf there greeted the boy, in the President's +own hand: + +"To Master Curtis Bok, + +"With the best wishes of his friend, + +"Theodore Roosevelt. + +"March 11, 1908." + +The boy's cup was now full, and so said his letter to the President. And +the President wrote back to the father: "I am really immensely amused +and interested, and shall be mighty glad to see the little fellow." + +In the spring, on a beautiful May day, came the great moment. The mother +had to go along, the boy insisted, to see the great event, and so the +trio found themselves shaking the hand of the President's secretary at +the White House. + +"Oh, the President is looking for you, all right," he said to the boy, +and then the next moment the three were in a large room. Mr. Roosevelt, +with beaming face, was already striding across the room, and with a +"Well, well, and so this is my friend Curtis!" the two stood looking +into each other's faces, each fairly wreathed in smiles, and each +industriously shaking the hand of the other. + +"Yes, Mr. President, I'm mighty glad to see you!" said the boy. + +"I am glad to see you, Curtis," returned Mr. Roosevelt. + +Then there came a white rose from the presidential desk for the mother, +but after that father and mother might as well have faded away. Nobody +existed save the President and the boy. The anteroom was full; in the +Cabinet-room a delegation waited to be addressed. But affairs of state +were at a complete standstill as, with boyish zeal, the President became +oblivious to all but the boy before him. + +"Now, Curtis, I've got some pictures here of bears that a friend of mine +has just shot. Look at that whopper, fifteen hundred pounds--that's as +much as a horse weighs, you know. Now, my friend shot him"--and it was a +toss-up who was the more keenly interested, the real boy or the man-boy, +as picture after picture came out and bear adventure crowded upon the +heels of bear adventure. + +"Gee, he's a corker, all right!" came from the boy at one point, and +then, from the President: "That's right, he is a corker. Now you see his +head here"--and then both were off again. + +The private secretary came in at this point and whispered in the +President's ear. + +"I know, I know. I'll see him later. Say that I am very busy now." And +the face beamed with smiles. + +"Now, Mr. President--" began the father. + +"No, sir; no, sir; not at all. Affairs can wait. This is a long-standing +engagement between Curtis and me, and that must come first. Isn't that +so, Curtis?" + +Of course the boy agreed. + +Suddenly the boy looked around the room and said: + +"Where's your gun, Mr. President? Got it here?" + +"No," laughingly came from the President, "but I'll tell you"--and then +the two heads were together again. + +A moment for breath-taking came, and the boy said: + +"Aren't you ever afraid of being shot?" + +"You mean while I am hunting?" + +"Oh, no. I mean as President." + +"No," replied the smiling President. "I'll tell you, Curtis; I'm too +busy to think about that. I have too many things to do to bother about +anything of that sort. When I was in battle I was always too anxious to +get to the front to think about the shots. And here--well, here I'm too +busy too. Never think about it. But I'll tell you, Curtis, there are +some men down there," pointing out of the window in the direction of the +capitol, "called the Congress, and if they would only give me the four +battleships I want, I'd be perfectly willing to have any one take a +crack at me." Then, for the first time recognizing the existence of the +parents, the President said: "And I don't know but if they did pick me +off I'd be pretty well ahead of the game." + +Just in that moment only did the boy-knowing President get a single inch +above the boy-interest. It was astonishing to see the natural accuracy +with which the man gauged the boy-level. + +"Now, how would you like to see a bear, Curtis?" came next. "I know +where there's a beauty, twelve hundred pounds." + +"Must be some bear!" interjected the boy. + +"That's what it is," put in the President. "Regular cinnamon-brown +type"--and then off went the talk to the big bear at the Washington +"Zoo" where the President was to send the boy. + +Then, after a little: "Now, Curtis, see those men over there in that +room. They've travelled from all parts of the country to come here at my +invitation, and I've got to make a little speech to them, and I'll do +that while you go off to see the bear." + +And then the hand came forth to say good-by. The boy put his in it, each +looked into the other's face, and on neither was there a place big +enough to put a ten-cent piece that was not wreathed in smiles. "He +certainly is all right," said the boy to the father, looking wistfully +after the President. + +Almost to the other room had the President gone when he, too, +instinctively looked back to find the boy following him with his eyes. +He stopped, wheeled around, and then the two instinctively sought each +other again. The President came back, the boy went forward. This time +each held out both hands, and as each looked once more into the other's +eyes a world of complete understanding was in both faces, and every +looker-on smiled with them. + +"Good-by, Curtis," came at last from the President. + +"Good-by, Mr. President," came from the boy. + +Then, with another pump-handly shake and with a "Gee, but he's great, +all right!" the boy went out to see the cinnamon-bear at the "Zoo," and +to live it all over in the days to come. + +Two boy-hearts had met, although one of them belonged to the President +of the United States. + + + + +XXVI. The Literary Back-Stairs + + +His complete absorption in the magazine work now compelled Bok to close +his newspaper syndicate in New York and end the writing of his weekly +newspaper literary letter. He decided, however, to transfer to the pages +of his magazine his idea of making the American public more conversant +with books and authors. Accordingly, he engaged Robert Bridges (the +present editor of Scribner's Magazine) to write a series of +conversational book-talks under his nom de plume of "Droch." Later, this +was supplemented by the engagement of Hamilton W. Mabie, who for years +reviewed the newest books. + +In almost every issue of the magazine there appeared also an article +addressed to the literary novice. Bok was eager, of course, to attract +the new authors to the magazine; but, particularly, he had in mind the +correction of the popular notion, then so prevalent (less so to-day, +fortunately, but still existent), that only the manuscripts of famous +authors were given favorable reading in editorial offices; that in these +offices there really existed a clique, and that unless the writer knew +the literary back-stairs he had a slim chance to enter and be heard. + +In the minds of these misinformed writers, these back-stairs are gained +by "knowing the editor" or through "having some influence with him." +These writers have conclusively settled two points in their own minds: +first, that an editor is antagonistic to the struggling writer; and, +second, that a manuscript sent in the ordinary manner to an editor never +reaches him. Hence, some "influence" is necessary, and they set about to +secure it. + +Now, the truth is, of course, that there are no "literary back-stairs" +to the editorial office of the modern magazine. There cannot be. The +making of a modern magazine is a business proposition; the editor is +there to make it pay. He can do this only if he is of service to his +readers, and that depends on his ability to obtain a class of material +essentially the best of its kind and varied in its character. + +The "best," while it means good writing, means also that it shall say +something. The most desired writer in the magazine office is the man who +has something to say, and knows how to say it. Variety requires that +there shall be many of these writers, and it is the editor's business to +ferret them out. It stands to reason, therefore, that there can be no +such thing as a "clique"; limitation by the editor of his list of +authors would mean being limited to the style of the few and the +thoughts of a handful. And with a public that easily tires even of the +best where it continually comes from one source, such an editorial +policy would be suicidal. + +Hence, if the editor is more keenly alert for one thing than for +another, it is for the new writer. The frequency of the new note in his +magazine is his salvation; for just in proportion as he can introduce +that new note is his success with his readers. A successful magazine is +exactly like a successful store: it must keep its wares constantly fresh +and varied to attract the eye and hold the patronage of its customers. + +With an editor ever alive to the new message, the new note, the fresh +way of saying a thing, the new angle on a current subject, whether in +article or story--since fiction is really to-day only a reflection of +modern thought--the foolish notion that an editor must be approached +through "influence," by a letter of introduction from some friend or +other author, falls of itself. There is no more powerful lever to open +the modern magazine door than a postage-stamp on an envelope containing +a manuscript that says something. No influence is needed to bring that +manuscript to the editor's desk or to his attention. That he will +receive it the sender need not for a moment doubt; his mail is too +closely scanned for that very envelope. + +The most successful authors have "broken into" the magazines very often +without even a letter accompanying their first manuscript. The name and +address in the right-hand corner of the first page; some "return" stamps +in the left corner, and all that the editor requires is there. The +author need tell nothing about the manuscript; if what the editor wants +is in it he will find it. An editor can stand a tremendous amount of +letting alone. If young authors could be made to realize how simple is +the process of "breaking into" the modern magazine, which apparently +gives them such needless heartburn, they would save themselves infinite +pains, time, and worry. + +Despite all the rubbish written to the contrary, manuscripts sent to the +magazines of to-day are, in every case, read, and frequently more +carefully read than the author imagines. Editors know that, from the +standpoint of good business alone, it is unwise to return a manuscript +unread. Literary talent has been found in many instances where it was +least expected. + +This does not mean that every manuscript received by a magazine is read +from first page to last. There is no reason why it should be, any more +than that all of a bad egg should be eaten to prove that it is bad. The +title alone sometimes decides the fate of a manuscript. If the subject +discussed is entirely foreign to the aims of the magazine, it is simply +a case of misapplication on the author's part; and it would be a waste +of time for the editor to read something which he knows from its subject +he cannot use. + +This, of course, applies more to articles than to other forms of +literary work, although unsuitability in a poem is naturally as quickly +detected. Stories, no matter how unpromising they may appear at the +beginning, are generally read through, since gold in a piece of fiction +has often been found almost at the close. This careful attention to +manuscripts in editorial offices is fixed by rules, and an author's +indorsement or a friend's judgment never affects the custom. + +At no time does the fallacy hold in a magazine office that "a big name +counts for everything and an unknown name for nothing." There can be no +denial of the fact that where a name of repute is attached to a +meritorious story or article the combination is ideal. But as between an +indifferent story and a well-known name and a good story with an unknown +name the editor may be depended upon to accept the latter. Editors are +very careful nowadays to avoid the public impatience that invariably +follows upon publishing material simply on account of the name attached +to it. Nothing so quickly injures the reputation of a magazine in the +estimation of its readers. If a person, taking up a magazine, reads a +story attracted by a famous name, and the story disappoints, the editor +has a doubly disappointed reader on his hands: a reader whose high +expectations from the name have not been realized and who is +disappointed with the story. + +It is a well-known fact among successful magazine editors that their +most striking successes have been made by material to which unknown +names were attached, where the material was fresh, the approach new, the +note different. That is what builds up a magazine; the reader learns to +have confidence in what he finds in the periodical, whether it bears a +famous name or not. + +Nor must the young author believe that the best work in modern magazine +literature "is dashed off at white heat." What is dashed off reads +dashed off, and one does not come across it in the well-edited magazine, +because it is never accepted. Good writing is laborious writing, the +result of revision upon revision. The work of masters such as Robert +Louis Stevenson and Rudyard Kipling represents never less than eight or +ten revisions, and often a far greater number. It was Stevenson who once +said to Edward Bok, after a laborious correction of certain proofs: "My +boy, I could be a healthy man, I think, if I did something else than +writing. But to write, as I try to write, takes every ounce of my +vitality." Just as the best "impromptu" speeches are those most +carefully prepared, so do the simplest articles and stories represent +the hardest kind of work; the simpler the method seems and the easier +the article reads, the harder, it is safe to say, was the work put into +it. + +But the author must also know when to let his material alone. In his +excessive regard for style even so great a master as Robert Louis +Stevenson robbed his work of much of the spontaneity and natural charm +found, for example, in his Vailima Letters. The main thing is for a +writer to say what he has to say in the best way, natural to himself, in +which he can say it, and then let it alone--always remembering that, +provided he has made himself clear, the message itself is of greater +import than the manner in which it is said. Up to a certain point only +is a piece of literary work an artistic endeavor. A readable, lucid +style is far preferable to what is called a "literary style"--a foolish +phrase, since it often means nothing except a complicated method of +expression which confuses rather than clarifies thought. What the public +wants in its literature is human nature, and that human nature simply +and forcibly expressed. This is fundamental, and this is why true +literature has no fashion and knows no change, despite the cries of the +modern weaklings who affect weird forms. The clarity of Shakespeare is +the clarity of to-day and will be that of to-morrow. + + + + +XXVII. Women's Clubs and Woman Suffrage + + +Edward Bok was now jumping from one sizzling frying-pan into another. He +had become vitally interested in the growth of women's clubs as a power +for good, and began to follow their work and study their methods. He +attended meetings; he had his editors attend others and give him +reports; he collected and read the year-books of scores of clubs, and he +secured and read a number of the papers that had been presented by +members at these meetings. He saw at once that what might prove a +wonderful power in the civic life of the nation was being misdirected +into gatherings of pseudo-culture, where papers ill-digested and mostly +copied from books were read and superficially discussed. + +Apparently the average club thought nothing of disposing of the works of +the Victorian poets in one afternoon; the Italian Renaissance was "fully +treated and most ably discussed," according to one programme, at a +single meeting; Rembrandt and his school were likewise disposed of in +one afternoon, and German literature was "adequately treated" at one +session "in able papers." + +Bok gathered a mass of this material, and then paid his respects to it +in the magazine. He recited his evidence and then expressed his opinion +of it. He realized that his arraignment of the clubs would cost the +magazine hundreds of friends; but, convinced of the great power of the +woman's club with its activities rightly directed, he concluded that he +could afford to risk incurring displeasure if he might point the way to +more effective work. The one was worth the other. + +The displeasure was not slow in making itself manifest. It came to +maturity overnight, as it were, and expressed itself in no uncertain +terms. Every club flew to arms, and Bok was intensely interested to note +that the clubs whose work he had taken as "horrible examples," although +he had not mentioned their names, were the most strenuous in their +denials of the methods outlined in the magazine, and that the members of +those clubs were particularly heated in their attacks upon him. + +He soon found that he had stirred up quite as active a hornet's nest as +he had anticipated. Letters by the hundred poured in attacking and +reviling him. In nearly every case the writers fell back upon personal +abuse, ignoring his arguments altogether. He became the subject of +heated debates at club meetings, at conventions, in the public press; +and soon long petitions demanding his removal as editor began to come to +Mr. Curtis. These petitions were signed by hundreds of names. Bok read +them with absorbed interest, and bided his time for action. Meanwhile he +continued his articles of criticism in the magazine, and these, of +course, added fuel to the conflagration. + +Former President Cleveland now came to Bok's side, and in an article in +the magazine went even further than Bok had ever thought of going in his +criticism of women's clubs. This article deflected the criticism from +Bok momentarily, and Mr. Cleveland received a grilling to which his +experiences in the White House were "as child's play," as he expressed +it. The two men, the editor and the former President, were now bracketed +as copartners in crime in the eyes of the club-women, and nothing too +harsh could be found to say or write of either. + +Meanwhile Bok had been watching the petitions for his removal which kept +coming in. He was looking for an opening, and soon found it. One of the +most prominent women's clubs sent a protest condemning his attitude and +advising him by resolutions, which were enclosed, that unless he ceased +his attacks, the members of the -- Woman's Club had resolved "to +unitedly and unanimously boycott The Ladies' Home Journal and had +already put the plan into effect with the current issue." + +Bok immediately engaged counsel in the city where the club was situated, +and instructed his lawyer to begin proceedings, for violation of the +Sherman Act, against the president and the secretary of the club, and +three other members; counsel to take particular pains to choose, if +possible, the wives of three lawyers. + +Within forty-eight hours Bok heard from the husbands of the five wives, +who pointed out to him that the women had acted in entire ignorance of +the law, and suggested a reconsideration of his action. Bok replied by +quoting from the petition which set forth that it was signed "by the +most intelligent women of -- who were thoroughly versed in civic and +national affairs"; and if this were true, Bok argued, it naturally +followed that they must have been cognizant of a legislative measure so +well known and so widely discussed as the Sherman Act. He was basing his +action, he said, merely on their declaration. + +Bok could easily picture to himself the chagrin and wrath of the women, +with the husbands laughing up their sleeves at the turn of affairs. "My +wife never could see the humor in the situation," said one of these +husbands to Bok, when he met him years later. Bok capitulated, and then +apparently with great reluctance, only when the club sent him an +official withdrawal of the protest and an apology for "its +ill-considered action." It was years after that one of the members of +the club, upon meeting Bok, said to him: "Your action did not increase +the club's love for you, but you taught it a much-needed lesson which it +never forgot." + +Up to this time, Bok had purposely been destructive in his criticism. +Now, he pointed out a constructive plan whereby the woman's club could +make itself a power in every community. He advocated less of the +cultural and more of the civic interest, and urged that the clubs study +the numerous questions dealing with the life of their communities. This +seems strange, in view of the enormous amount of civic work done by +women's clubs to-day. But at that time, when the woman's club movement +was unformed, these civic matters found but a small part in the majority +of programmes; in a number of cases none at all. + +Of course, the clubs refused to accept or even to consider his +suggestions; they were quite competent to decide for themselves the +particular subjects for their meetings, they argued; they did not care +to be tutored or guided, particularly by Bok. They were much too angry +with him even to admit that his suggestions were practical and in order. +But he knew, of course, that they would adopt them of their own +volition--under cover, perhaps, but that made no difference, so long as +the end was accomplished. One club after another, during the following +years, changed its programme, and soon the supposed cultural interest +had yielded first place to the needful civic questions. + +For years, however, the club-women of America did not forgive Bok. They +refused to buy or countenance his magazine, and periodically they +attacked it or made light of it. But he knew he had made his point, and +was content to leave it to time to heal the wounds. This came years +afterward, when Mrs. Pennypacker became president of the General +Federation of Women's Clubs and Mrs. Rudolph Blankenburg, +vice-president. + +Those two far-seeing women and Bok arranged that an official department +of the Federation should find a place in The Ladies' Home Journal, with +Mrs. Pennypacker as editor and Mrs. Blankenburg, who lived in +Philadelphia, as the resident consulting editor. The idea was arranged +agreeably to all three; the Federation officially endorsed its +president's suggestion, and for several years the department was one of +the most successful in the magazine. + +The breach had been healed; two powerful forces were working together, +as they should, for the mutual good of the American woman. No relations +could have been pleasanter than those between the editor-in-chief of the +magazine and the two departmental editors. The report was purposely set +afloat that Bok had withdrawn from his position of antagonism (?) toward +women's clubs, and this gave great satisfaction to thousands of women +club-members and made everybody happy! + +At this time the question of suffrage for women was fast becoming a +prominent issue, and naturally Bok was asked to take a stand on the +question in his magazine. No man sat at a larger gateway to learn the +sentiments of numbers of women on any subject. He read his vast +correspondence carefully. He consulted women of every grade of +intelligence and in every station in life. Then he caused a straw-vote +to be taken among a selected list of thousands of his subscribers in +large cities and in small towns. The result of all these inquiries was +most emphatic and clear: by far the overwhelming majority of the women +approached either were opposed to the ballot or were indifferent to it. +Those who desired to try the experiment were negligible in number. So +far as the sentiment of any wide public can be secured on any given +topic, this seemed to be the dominant opinion. + +Bok then instituted a systematic investigation of conditions in those +states where women had voted for years; but he could not see, from a +thoughtful study of his investigations, that much had been accomplished. +The results certainly did not measure up to the prophecies constantly +advanced by the advocates of a nation-wide equal suffrage. + +The editor now carefully looked into the speeches of the suffragists, +examined the platform of the National body in favor of woman suffrage, +and talked at length with such leaders in the movement as Susan B. +Anthony, Julia Ward Howe, Anna Howard Shaw, and Jane Addams. + +All this time Bok had kept his own mind open. He was ready to have the +magazine, for whose editorial policy he was responsible, advocate that +side of the issue which seemed for the best interests of the American +woman. + +The arguments that a woman should not have a vote because she was a +woman; that it would interfere with her work in the home; that it would +make her more masculine; that it would take her out of her own home; +that it was a blow at domesticity and an actual menace to the home life +of America--these did not weight with him. There was only one question +for him to settle: Was the ballot something which, in its demonstrated +value or in its potentiality, would serve the best interests of American +womanhood? + +After all his investigations of both sides of the question, Bok decided +upon a negative answer. He felt that American women were not ready to +exercise the privilege intelligently and that their mental attitude was +against it. + +Forthwith he said so in his magazine. And the storm broke. The +denunciations brought down upon him by his attitude toward woman's clubs +was as nothing compared to what was now let loose. The attacks were +bitter. His arguments were ignored; and the suffragists evidently +decided to concentrate their criticisms upon the youthful years of the +editor. They regarded this as a most vulnerable point of attack, and +reams of paper were used to prove that the opinion of a man so young in +years and so necessarily unformed in his judgment was of no value. + +Unfortunately, the suffragists did not know, when they advanced this +argument, that it would be overthrown by the endorsement of Bok's point +of view by such men and women of years and ripe judgment as Doctor +Eliot, then president of Harvard University, former President Cleveland, +Lyman Abbott, Margaret Deland, and others. When articles by these +opponents to suffrage appeared, the argument of youth hardly held good; +and the attacks of the suffragists were quickly shifted to the ground of +"narrow-mindedness and old-fashioned fogyism." + +The article by former President Cleveland particularly stirred the ire +of the attacking suffragists, and Miss Anthony hurled a broadside at the +former President in a newspaper interview. Unfortunately for her best +judgment, and the strength of her argument, the attack became intensely +personal; and of course, nullified its force. But it irritated Mr. +Cleveland, who called Bok to his Princeton home and read him a draft of +a proposed answer for publication in Bok's magazine. + +Those who knew Mr. Cleveland were well aware of the force that he could +put into his pen when he chose, and in this proposed article he +certainly chose! It would have made very unpleasant reading for Miss +Anthony in particular, as well as for her friends. Bok argued strongly +against the article. He reminded Mr. Cleveland that it would be +undignified to make such an answer; that it was always an unpopular +thing to attack a woman in public, especially a woman who was old and +ill; that she would again strive for the last word; that there would be +no point to the controversy and nothing gained by it. He pleaded with +Mr. Cleveland to meet Miss Anthony's attack by a dignified silence. + +These arguments happily prevailed. In reality, Mr. Cleveland was not +keen to attack Miss Anthony or any other woman; such a thought was +foreign to his nature. He summed up his feeling to Bok when he tore up +the draft of his article and smilingly said: "Well, I've got if off my +chest, that is the main thing. I wanted to get it out of my system, and +talking it over has driven it out. It is better in the fire," and he +threw the torn paper into the open grate. + +As events turned out, it was indeed fortunate that the matter had been +so decided; for the article would have appeared in the number of Bok's +magazine published on the day that Miss Anthony passed away. It would +have been a most unfortunate moment, to say the least, for the +appearance of an attack such as Mr. Cleveland had in mind. + +This incident, like so many instances that might be adduced, points with +singular force to the value of that editorial discrimination which the +editor often makes between what is wise or unwise for him to publish. +Bok realized that had he encouraged Mr. Cleveland to publish the +article, he could have exhausted any edition he might have chosen to +print. Times without number, editors make such decisions directly +against what would be of temporary advantage to their publications. The +public never hears of these incidents. + +More often than not the editor hears "stories" that, if printed, would +be a "scoop" which would cause his publication to be talked about from +one end of the country to the other. The public does not give credit to +the editor, particularly of the modern newspaper, for the high code of +honor which constantly actuates him in his work. The prevailing notion +is that an editor prints all that he knows, and much that he does not +know. Outside of those in the inner government circles, no group of men, +during the Great War, had more information of a confidential nature +constantly given or brought to them, and more zealously guarded it, than +the editors of the newspapers of America. Among no other set of +professional men is the code of honor so high; and woe betide the +journalist who, in the eyes of his fellow-workers, violates, even in the +slightest degree, that code of editorial ethics. Public men know how +true is this statement; the public at large, however, has not the first +conception of it. If it had, it would have a much higher opinion of its +periodicals and newspapers. + +At this juncture, Rudyard Kipling unconsciously came into the very +centre of the suffragists' maelstrom of attack when he sent Bok his +famous poem: "The Female of the Species." The suffragists at once took +the argument in the poem as personal to themselves, and now Kipling got +the full benefit of their vitriolic abuse. Bok sent a handful of these +criticisms to Kipling, who was very gleeful about them. "I owe you a +good laugh over the clippings," he wrote. "They were delightful. But +what a quantity of spare time some people in this world have to burn!" + +It was a merry time; and the longer it continued the more heated were +the attacks. The suffragists now had a number of targets, and they took +each in turn and proceeded to riddle it. That Bok was publishing +articles explaining both sides of the question, presenting arguments by +the leading suffragists as well as known anti-suffragists, did not +matter in the least. These were either conveniently overlooked, or, when +referred to at all, were considered in the light of "sops" to the +offended women. + +At last Bok reached the stage where he had exhausted all the arguments +worth printing, on both sides of the question, and soon the storm calmed +down. + +It was always a matter of gratification to him that the woman who had +most bitterly assailed him during the suffrage controversy, Anna Howard +Shaw, became in later years one of his stanchest friends, and was an +editor on his pay-roll. When the United States entered the Great War, +Bok saw that Doctor Shaw had undertaken a gigantic task in promising, as +chairman, to direct the activities of the National Council for Women. He +went to see her in Washington, and offered his help and that of the +magazine. Doctor Shaw, kindliest of women in her nature, at once +accepted the offer; Bok placed the entire resources of the magazine and +of its Washington editorial force at her disposal; and all through +America's participation in the war, she successfully conducted a monthly +department in The Ladies' Home Journal. + +"Such help," she wrote at the close, "as you and your associates have +extended me and my co-workers; such unstinted co-operation and such +practical guidance I never should have dreamed possible. You made your +magazine a living force in our work; we do not see now how we would have +done without it. You came into our activities at the psychological +moment, when we most needed what you could give us, and none could have +given with more open hands and fuller hearts." + +So the contending forces in a bitter word-war came together and worked +together, and a mutual regard sprang up between the woman and the man +who had once so radically differed. + + + + +XXVIII. Going Home with Kipling, and as a Lecturer + + +It was in June, 1899, when Rudyard Kipling, after the loss of his +daughter and his own almost fatal illness from pneumonia in America, +sailed for his English home on the White Star liner, Teutonic. The party +consisted of Kipling, his wife, his father J. Lockwood Kipling, Mr. and +Mrs. Frank N. Doubleday, and Bok. It was only at the last moment that +Bok decided to join the party, and the steamer having its full +complement of passengers, he could only secure one of the officers' +large rooms on the upper deck. Owing to the sensitive condition of +Kipling's lungs, it was not wise for him to be out on deck except in the +most favorable weather. The atmosphere of the smoking-room was +forbidding, and as the rooms of the rest of the party were below deck, +it was decided to make Bok's convenient room the headquarters of the +party. Here they assembled for the best part of each day; the talk +ranged over literary and publishing matters of mutual interest, and +Kipling promptly labelled the room "The Hatchery,"--from the plans and +schemes that were hatched during these discussions. + +It was decided on the first day out that the party, too active-minded to +remain inert for any length of time, should publish a daily newspaper to +be written on large sheets of paper and to be read each evening to the +group. It was called The Teuton Tonic; Mr. Doubleday was appointed +publisher and advertising manager; Mr. Lockwood Kipling was made art +editor to embellish the news; Rudyard Kipling was the star reporter, and +Bok was editor. + +Kipling, just released from his long confinement, like a boy out of +school, was the life of the party--and when, one day, he found a woman +aboard reading a copy of The Ladies' Home Journal his joy knew no +bounds; he turned in the most inimitable "copy" to the Tonic, describing +the woman's feelings as she read the different departments in the +magazine. Of course, Bok, as editor of the Tonic, promptly pigeon-holed +the reporter's "copy"; then relented, and, in a fine spirit of +large-mindedness, "printed" Kipling's pæans of rapture over Bok's +subscriber. The preparation of the paper was a daily joy: it kept the +different members busy, and each evening the copy was handed to "the +large circle of readers"--the two women of the party--to read aloud. At +the end of the sixth day, it was voted to "suspend publication," and the +daily of six issues was unanimously bequeathed to the little daughter of +Mr. Lockwood de Forest, a close friend of the Kipling family--a choice +bit of Kiplingania. + +One day it was decided by the party that Bok should be taught the game +of poker, and Kipling at once offered to be the instructor! He wrote out +a list of the "hands" for Bok's guidance, which was placed in the centre +of the table, and the party, augmented by the women, gathered to see the +game. + +A baby had been born that evening in the steerage, and it was decided to +inaugurate a small "jack-pot" for the benefit of the mother. All went +well until about the fourth hand, when Bok began to bid higher than had +been originally planned. Kipling questioned the beginner's knowledge of +the game and his tactics, but Bok retorted it was his money that he was +putting into the pot and that no one was compelled to follow his bets if +he did not choose to do so. Finally, the jack-pot assumed altogether too +large dimensions for the party, Kipling "called" and Bok, true to the +old idea of "beginner's luck" in cards, laid down a royal flush! This +was too much, and poker, with Bok in it, was taboo from that moment. +Kipling's version of this card-playing does not agree in all particulars +with the version here written. "Bok learned the game of poker," Kipling +says; "had the deck stacked on him, and on hearing that there was a +woman aboard who read The Ladies' Home Journal insisted on playing after +that with the cabin-door carefully shut." But Kipling's art as a +reporter for The Tonic was not as reliable as the art of his more +careful book work. + +Bok derived special pleasure on this trip from his acquaintance with +Father Kipling, as the party called him. Rudyard Kipling's respect for +his father was the tribute of a loyal son to a wonderful father. + +"What annoys me," said Kipling, speaking of his father one day, "is when +the pater comes to America to have him referred to in the newspapers as +'the father of Rudyard Kipling.' It is in India where they get the +relation correct: there I am always 'the son of Lockwood Kipling.'" + +Father Kipling was, in every sense, a choice spirit: gentle, kindly, and +of a most remarkably even temperament. His knowledge of art, his wide +reading, his extensive travel, and an interest in every phase of the +world's doings, made him a rare conversationalist, when inclined to +talk, and an encyclopedia of knowledge as extensive as it was accurate. +It was very easy to grow fond of Father Kipling, and he won Bok's +affection as few men ever did. + +Father Kipling's conversation was remarkable in that he was exceedingly +careful of language and wasted few words. + +One day Kipling and Bok were engaged in a discussion of the Boer +problem, which was then pressing. Father Kipling sat by listening, but +made no comment on the divergent views, since, Kipling holding the +English side of the question and Bok the Dutch side, it followed that +they could not agree. Finally Father Kipling arose and said: "Well, I +will take a stroll and see if I can't listen to the water and get all +this din out of my ears." + +Both men felt gently but firmly rebuked and the discussion was never +again taken up. + +Bok tried on one occasion to ascertain how the father regarded the son's +work. + +"You should feel pretty proud of your son," remarked Bok. + +"A good sort," was the simple reply. + +"I mean, rather, of his work. How does that strike you?" asked Bok. + +"Which work?" + +"His work as a whole," explained Bok. + +"Creditable," was the succinct answer. + +"No more than that?" asked Bok. + +"Can there be more?" came from the father. + +"Well," said Bok, "the judgment seems a little tame as applied to one +who is generally regarded as a genius." + +"By whom?" + +"The critics, for instance," replied Bok. + +"There are no such," came the answer. + +"No such what, Mr. Kipling?" asked Bok. + +"Critics." + +"No critics?" + +"No," and for the first time the pipe was removed for a moment. "A +critic is one who only exists as such in his own imagination." + +"But surely you must consider that Rud has done some great work?" +persisted Bok. + +"Creditable," came once more. + +"You think him capable of great work, do you not?" asked Bok. For a +moment there was silence. Then: + +"He has a certain grasp of the human instinct. That, some day, I think, +will lead him to write a great work." + +There was the secret: the constant holding up to the son, apparently, of +something still to be accomplished; of a goal to be reached; of a higher +standard to be attained. Rudyard Kipling was never in danger of +unintelligent laudation from his safest and most intelligent reader. + +During the years which intervened until his passing away, Bok sought to +keep in touch with Father Kipling, and received the most wonderful +letters from him. One day he enclosed in a letter a drawing which he had +made showing Sakia Muni sitting under the bo-tree with two of his +disciples, a young man and a young woman, gathered at his feet. It was a +piece of exquisite drawing. "I like to think of you and your work in +this way," wrote Mr. Kipling, "and so I sketched it for you." Bok had +the sketch enlarged, engaged John La Farge to translate it into glass, +and inserted it in a window in the living-room of his home at Merion. + +After Father Kipling had passed away, the express brought to Bok one day +a beautiful plaque of red clay, showing the elephant's head, the lotus, +and the swastika, which the father had made for the son. It was the +original model of the insignia which, as a watermark, is used in the +pages of Kipling's books and on the cover of the subscription edition. + +"I am sending with this for your acceptance," wrote Kipling to Bok, "as +some little memory of my father to whom you were so kind, the original +of one of the plaques that he used to make for me. I thought it being +the swastika would be appropriate for your swastika. May it bring you +even more good fortune." + +To those who knew Lockwood Kipling, it is easier to understand the +genius and the kindliness of the son. For the sake of the public's +knowledge, it is a distinct loss that there is not a better +understanding of the real sweetness of character of the son. The +public's only idea of the great writer is naturally one derived from +writers who do not understand him, or from reporters whom he refused to +see, while Kipling's own slogan is expressed in his own words: "I have +always managed to keep clear of 'personal' things as much as possible." + + If + + If you can keep your head when all about you + Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, + If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, + But make allowance for their doubting too; + If you can wait and not grow tired by waiting + Or, being lied about don't deal in lies, + Or, being hated, don't give way to hating, + And yet don't look too good or talk too wise; + + If you can dream and not make dreams your master, + If you can think and not make thoughts your aim, + If you can meet with triumph and disaster, + And treat those two imposters just the same; + If you can stand to hear the truth you've spoken + Twisted by Knaves to make a trap for fools, + Or watch the work you've given your life to broken, + And stoop and build it up with worn-out tools; + + If you can make one pile of all your winnings + And risk it at one game of pitch-and-toss, + And lose, and start again from your beginnings + And never breath a word about your loss, + If you can force you heart and nerve and sinew + To serve your turn long after they are gone, + And so hold on, though there is nothing in you + Except the will that says to them, "Hold on!" + + If you can talk to crowds and keep your virtue, + And walk with Kings nor lose the common touch, + If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, + If all men count with you, but none too much; + If you can fill the unforgiving minute + With sixty seconds worth of distance run, + Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it + And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son! + + Copied out from memory by Rudyard Kipling. + Batemons: Sept. 1913 + for E.W. Bok on his 50th Birthday + +It was on Bok's fiftieth birthday that Kipling sent him a copy of "If." +Bok had greatly admired this poem, but knowing Kipling's distaste for +writing out his own work, he had resisted the strong desire to ask him +for a copy of it. It is significant of the author's remarkable memory +that he wrote it, as he said, "from memory," years after its +publication, and yet a comparison of the copy with the printed form, +corrected by Kipling, fails to discover the difference of a single word. + +The lecture bureaus now desired that Edward Bok should go on the +platform. Bok had never appeared in the role of a lecturer, but he +reasoned that through the medium of the rostrum he might come in closer +contact with the American public, meet his readers personally, and +secure some first-hand constructive criticism of his work. This last he +was always encouraging. It was a naive conception of a lecture tour, but +Bok believed it and he contracted for a tour beginning at Richmond, +Virginia, and continuing through the South and Southwest as far as Saint +Joseph, Missouri, and then back home by way of the Middle West. + +Large audiences greeted him wherever he went, but he had not gone far on +his tour when he realized that he was not getting what he thought he +would. There was much entertaining and lionizing, but nothing to help +him in his work by pointing out to him where he could better it. He +shrank from the pitiless publicity that was inevitable; he became more +and more self-conscious when during the first five minutes on the stage +he felt the hundreds of opera-glasses levelled at him, and he and Mrs. +Bok, who accompanied him, had not a moment to themselves from early +morning to midnight. Yet his large correspondence was following him from +the office, and the inevitable invitations in each city had at least to +be acknowledged. Bok realized he had miscalculated the benefits of a +lecture tour to his work, and began hopefully to wish for the ending of +the circuit. + +One afternoon as he was returning with his manager from a large +reception, the "impresario" said to him: "I don't like these receptions. +They hurt the house." + +"The house?" echoed Bok. + +"Yes, the attendance." + +"But you told me the house for this evening was sold out?" said the +lecturer. + +"That is true enough. House, and even the stage. Not a seat unsold. But +hundreds just come to see you and not to hear your lecture, and this +exposure of a lecturer at so crowded a reception as this, before the +talk, satisfies the people without their buying a ticket. My rule is +that a lecturer should not be seen in public before his lecture, and I +wish you would let me enforce the rule with you. It wears you out, +anyway, and no receptions until afterward will give you more time for +yourself and save your vitality for the talk." + +Bok was entirely acquiescent. He had no personal taste for the continued +round of functions, but he had accepted it as part of the game. + +The idea from this talk that impressed Bok, however, with particular +force, was that the people who crowded his houses came to see him and +not to hear his lecture. Personal curiosity, in other words. This was a +new thought. He had been too busy to think of his personality; now he +realized a different angle to the situation. And, much to his manager's +astonishment, two days afterwards Bok refused to sign an agreement for +another tour later in the year. He had had enough of exhibiting himself +as a curiosity. He continued his tour; but before its conclusion fell +ill--a misfortune with a pleasant side to it, for three of his +engagements had to be cancelled. + +The Saint Joseph engagement could not be cancelled. The house had been +oversold; it was for the benefit of a local charity which besought Bok +by wire after wire to keep a postponed date. He agreed, and he went. He +realized that he was not well, but he did not realize the extent of his +mental and physical exhaustion until he came out on the platform and +faced the crowded auditorium. Barely sufficient space had been left for +him and for the speaker's desk; the people on the stage were close to +him, and he felt distinctly uncomfortable. + +Then, to his consternation, it suddenly dawned upon him that his tired +mind had played a serious trick on him. He did not remember a line of +his lecture; he could not even recall how it began! He arose, after his +introduction, in a bath of cold perspiration. The applause gave him a +moment to recover himself, but not a word came to his mind. He sparred +for time by some informal prefatory remarks expressing regret at his +illness and that he had been compelled to disappoint his audience a few +days before, and then he stood helpless! In sheer desperation he looked +at Mrs. Bok sitting in the stage box, who, divining her husband's +plight, motioned to the inside pocket of his coat. He put his hand there +and pulled out a copy of his lecture which she had placed there! The +whole tragic comedy had happened so quickly that the audience was +absolutely unaware of what had occurred, and Bok went on and practically +read his lecture. But it was not a successful evening for his audience +or for himself, and the one was doubtless as glad when it was over as +the other. + +When he reached home, he was convinced that he had had enough of +lecturing! He had to make a second short tour, however, for which he had +contracted with another manager before embarking on the first. This tour +took him to Indianapolis, and after the lecture, James Whitcomb Riley +gave him a supper. There were some thirty men in the party; the affair +was an exceedingly happy one; the happiest that Bok had attended. He +said this to Riley on the way to the hotel. + +"Usually," said Bok, "men, for some reason or other, hold aloof from me +on these lecture tours. They stand at a distance and eye me, and I see +wonder on their faces rather than a desire to mix." + +"You've noticed that, then?" smilingly asked the poet. + +"Yes, and I can't quite get it. At home, my friends are men. Why should +it be different in other cities?" + +"I'll tell you," said Riley. "Five or six of the men you met to-night +were loath to come. When I pinned them down to their reason, it was I +thought: they regard you as an effeminate being, a sissy." + +"Good heavens!" interrupted Bok. + +"Fact," said Riley, "and you can't wonder at it nor blame them. You have +been most industriously paragraphed, in countless jests, about your +penchant for pink teas, your expert knowledge of tatting, crocheting, +and all that sort of stuff. Look what Eugene Field has done in that +direction. These paragraphs have, doubtless, been good advertising for +your magazine, and, in a way, for you. But, on the other hand, they have +given a false impression of you. Men have taken these paragraphs +seriously and they think of you as the man pictured in them. It's a +fact; I know. It's all right after they meet you and get your measure. +The joke then is on them. Four of the men I fairly dragged to the dinner +this evening said this to me just before I left. That is one reason why +I advise you to keep on lecturing. Get around and show yourself, and +correct this universal impression. Not that you can't stand when men +think of you, but it's unpleasant." + +It was unpleasant, but Bok decided that the solution as found in +lecturing was worse than the misconception. From that day to this he +never lectured again. + +But the public conception of himself, especially that of men, awakened +his interest and amusement. Some of his friends on the press were still +busy with their paragraphs, and he promptly called a halt and asked them +to desist. "Enough was as good as a feast," he told them, and explained +why. + +One day Bok got a distinctly amusing line on himself from a chance +stranger. He was riding from Washington to Philadelphia in the smoking +compartment, when the newsboy stuck his head in the door and yelled: +"Ladies' Home Journal, out to-day." He had heard this many times before; +but on this particular day, upon hearing the title of his own magazine +yelled almost in his ears, he gave an involuntary start. + +Opposite to him sat a most companionable young fellow, who, noticing +Bok's start, leaned over and with a smile said: "I know, I know just how +you feel. That's the way I feel whenever I hear the name of that damned +magazine. Here, boy," he called to the retreating magazine-carrier, +"give me a copy of that Ladies' Home Disturber: I might as well buy it +here as in the station." + +Then to Bok: "Honest, if I don't bring home that sheet on the day it is +out, the wife is in a funk. She runs her home by it literally. Same with +you?" + +"The same," answered Bok. "As a matter of fact, in our family, we live +by it, on it, and from it." + +Bok's neighbor, of course, couldn't get the real point of this, but he +thought he had it. + +"Exactly," he replied. "So do we. That fellow Bok certainly has the +women buffaloed for good. Ever see him?" + +"Oh, yes," answered Bok. + +"Live in Philadelphia?" + +"Yes." + +"There's where the thing is published, all right. What does Bok look +like?" + +"Oh," answered Bok carelessly, "just like, well, like all of us. In +fact, he looks something like me." + +"Does he, now?" echoed the man. "Shouldn't think it would make you very +proud!" + +And, the train pulling in at Baltimore, Bok's genial neighbor sent him a +hearty good-bye and ran out with the much-maligned magazine under his +arm! + +He had an occasion or two now to find out what women thought of him! + +He was leaving the publication building one evening after office hours +when just as he opened the front door, a woman approached. Bok explained +that the building was closed. + +"Well, I am sorry," said the woman in a dejected tone, "for I don't +think I can manage to come again." + +"Is there anything I can do?" asked Bok. "I am employed here." + +"No-o," said the woman. "I came to see Mr. Curtis on a personal matter." + +"I shall see him this evening," suggested Bok, "and can give him a +message for you if you like." + +"Well, I don't know if you can. I came to complain to him about Mr. +Bok," announced the woman. + +"Oh, well," answered Bok, with a slight start at the matter-of-fact +announcement, "that is serious; quite serious. If you will explain your +complaint, I will surely see that it gets to Mr. Curtis." + +Bok's interest grew. + +"Well, you see," said the woman, "it is this way. I live in a +three-family flat. Here is my name and card," and a card came out of a +bag. "I subscribe to The Ladies' Home Journal. It is delivered at my +house each month by Mr. Bok. Now I have told that man three times over +that when he delivers the magazine, he must ring the bell twice. But he +just persists in ringing once and then that cat who lives on the first +floor gets my magazine, reads it, and keeps it sometimes for three days +before I get it! Now, I want Mr. Curtis to tell Mr. Bok that he must do +as I ask and ring the bell twice. Can you give him that message for me? +There's no use talking to Mr. Bok; I've done that, as I say." + +And Bok solemnly assured his subscriber that he would! + +Bok's secretary told him one day that there was in the outer office the +most irate woman he had ever tried to handle; that he had tried for half +an hour to appease her, but it was of no use. She threatened to remain +until Bok admitted her, and see him she would, and tell him exactly what +she thought of him. The secretary looked as if he had been through a +struggle. "It's hopeless," he said. "Will you see her?" + +"Certainly," said Bok. "Show her in." + +The moment the woman came in, she began a perfect torrent of abuse. Bok +could not piece out, try as he might, what it was all about. But he did +gather from the explosion that the woman considered him a hypocrite who +wrote one thing and did another; that he was really a thief, stealing a +woman's money, and so forth. There was no chance of a word for fully +fifteen minutes and then, when she was almost breathless, Bok managed to +ask if his caller would kindly tell him just what he had done. + +Another torrent of incoherent abuse came forth, but after a while it +became apparent that the woman's complaint was that she had sent a +dollar for a subscription to The Ladies' Home Journal; had never had a +copy of the magazine, had complained, and been told there was no record +of the money being received. And as she had sent her subscription to Bok +personally, he had purloined the dollar! + +It was fully half an hour before Bok could explain to the irate woman +that he never remembered receiving a letter from her; that +subscriptions, even when personally addressed to him, did not come to +his desk, etc.; that if she would leave her name and address he would +have the matter investigated. Absolutely unconvinced that anything would +be done, and unaltered in her opinion about Bok, the woman finally left. + +Two days later a card was handed in to the editor with a note asking him +to see for a moment the husband of his irate caller. When the man came +in, he looked sheepish and amused in turn, and finally said: + +"I hardly know what to say, because I don't know what my wife said to +you. But if what she said to me is any index of her talk with you, I +want to apologize for her most profoundly. She isn't well, and we shall +both have to let it go at that. As for her subscription, you, of course, +never received it, for, with difficulty, I finally extracted the fact +from her that she pinned a dollar bill to a postal card and dropped it +in a street postal box. And she doesn't yet see that she has done +anything extraordinary, or that she had a faith in Uncle Sam that I call +sublime." + +The Journal had been calling the attention of its readers to the +defacement of the landscape by billboard advertisers. One day on his way +to New York he found himself sitting in a sleeping-car section opposite +a woman and her daughter. + +The mother was looking at the landscape when suddenly she commented: + +"There are some of those ugly advertising signs that Mr. Bok says are +such a defacement to the landscape. I never noticed them before, but he +is right, and I am going to write and tell him so." + +"Oh, mamma, don't," said the girl. "That man is pampered enough by +women. Don't make him worse. Ethel says he is now the vainest man in +America." + +Bok's eyes must have twinkled, and just then the mother looked at him, +caught his eye; she gave a little gasp, and Bok saw that she had +telepathically discovered him! + +He smiled, raised his hat, presented his card to the mother, and said: +"Excuse me, but I do want to defend myself from that last statement, if +I may. I couldn't help overhearing it." + +The mother, a woman of the world, read the name on the card quickly and +smiled, but the daughter's face was a study as she leaned over and +glanced at the card. She turned scarlet and then white. + +"Now, do tell me," asked Bok of the daughter, "who 'Ethel' is, so that I +may try at least to prove that I am not what she thinks." + +The daughter was completely flustered. For the rest of the journey, +however, the talk was informal; the girl became more at ease, and Bok +ended by dining with the mother and daughter at their hotel that +evening. + +But he never found out "Ethel's" other name! + +There were curiously amusing sides to a man's editorship of a woman's +magazine! + + + + +XXIX. An Excursion into the Feminine Nature + + +The strangling hold which the Paris couturiers had secured on the +American woman in their absolute dictation as to her fashions in dress, +had interested Edward Bok for some time. As he studied the question, he +was constantly amazed at the audacity with which these French +dressmakers and milliners, often themselves of little taste and scant +morals, cracked the whip, and the docility with which the American woman +blindly and unintelligently danced to their measure. The deeper he went +into the matter, too, the more deceit and misrepresentation did he find +in the situation. It was inconceivable that the American woman should +submit to what was being imposed upon her if she knew the facts. He +determined that she should. The process of Americanization going on +within him decided him to expose the Paris conditions and advocate and +present American-designed fashions for women. + +The Journal engaged the best-informed woman in Paris frankly to lay open +the situation to the American women; she proved that the designs sent +over by the so-called Paris arbiters of fashion were never worn by the +Frenchwoman of birth and good taste; that they were especially designed +and specifically intended for "the bizarre American trade," as one +polite Frenchman called it; and that the only women in Paris who wore +these grotesque and often immoderate styles were of the demimonde. + +This article was the opening gun of the campaign, and this was quickly +followed by a second equally convincing--both articles being written +from the inside of the gilded circles of the couturiers' shops. Madame +Sarah Bernhardt was visiting the United States at the time, and Bok +induced the great actress to verify the statements printed. She went +farther and expressed amazement at the readiness with which the American +woman had been duped; and indicated her horror on seeing American women +of refined sensibilities and position dressed in the gowns of the +_déclassé_ street-women of Paris. The somewhat sensational nature of the +articles attracted the attention of the American newspapers, which +copied and commented on them; the gist of them was cabled over to Paris, +and, of course, the Paris couturiers denied the charges. But their +denials were in general terms; and no convincing proof of the falsity of +the charges was furnished. The French couturier simply resorted to a +shrug of the shoulder and a laugh, implying that the accusations were +beneath his notice. + +Bok now followed the French models of dresses and millinery to the +United States, and soon found that for every genuine Parisian model sold +in the large cities at least ten were copies, made in New York shops, +but with the labels of the French dressmakers and milliners sewed on +them. He followed the labels to their source, and discovered a firm one +of whose specialties was the making of these labels bearing the names of +the leading French designers. They were manufactured by the gross, and +sold in bundles to the retailers. Bok secured a list of the buyers of +these labels and found that they represented some of the leading +merchants throughout the country. All these facts he published. The +retailers now sprang up in arms and denied the charges, but again the +denials were in general terms. Bok had the facts and they knew it. These +facts were too specific and too convincing to be controverted. + +The editor had now presented a complete case before the women of America +as to the character of the Paris-designed fashions and the manner in +which women were being hoodwinked in buying imitations. + +Meanwhile, he had engaged the most expert designers in the world of +women's dress and commissioned them to create American designs. He sent +one of his editors to the West to get first-hand motifs from Indian +costumes and adapt them as decorative themes for dress embroideries. +Three designers searched the Metropolitan Museum for new and artistic +ideas, and he induced his company to install a battery of four-color +presses in order that the designs might be given in all the beauty of +their original colors. For months designers and artists worked; he had +the designs passed upon by a board of judges composed of New York women +who knew good clothes, and then he began their publication. + +The editor of The New York Times asked Bok to conduct for that newspaper +a prize contest for the best American-designed dresses and hats, and +edit a special supplement presenting them in full colors, the prizes to +be awarded by a jury of six of the leading New York women best versed in +matters of dress. Hundreds of designs were submitted, the best were +selected, and the supplement issued under the most successful auspices. + +In his own magazine, Bok published pages of American-designed fashions: +their presence in the magazine was advertised far and wide; conventions +of dressmakers were called to consider the salability of +domestic-designed fashions; and a campaign with the slogan "American +Fashions for American Women" was soon in full swing. + +But there it ended. The women looked the designs over with interest, as +they did all designs of new clothes, and paid no further attention to +them. The very fact that they were of American design prejudiced the +women against them. America never had designed good clothes, they +argued: she never would. Argument availed naught. The Paris germ was +deep-rooted in the feminine mind of America: the women acknowledged that +they were, perhaps, being hoodwinked by spurious French dresses and +hats; that the case presented by Bok seemed convincing enough, but the +temptation to throw a coat over a sofa or a chair to expose a Parisian +label to the eyes of some other woman was too great; there was always a +gambling chance that her particular gown, coat, or hat was an actual +Paris creation. + +Bok called upon the American woman to come out from under the yoke of +the French couturiers, show her patriotism, and encourage American +design. But it was of no use. He talked with women on every hand; his +mail was full of letters commending him for his stand; but as for actual +results, there were none. One of his most intelligent woman-friends +finally summed up the situation for him: + +"You can rail against the Paris domination all you like; you can expose +it for the fraud that it is, and we know that it is; but it is all to no +purpose, take my word. When it comes to the question of her personal +adornment, a woman employs no reason; she knows no logic. She knows that +the adornment of her body is all that she has to match the other woman +and outdo her, and to attract the male, and nothing that you can say +will influence her a particle. I know this all seems incomprehensible to +you as a man, but that is the feminine nature. You are trying to fight +something that is unfightable." + +"Has the American woman no instinct of patriotism, then?" asked Bok. + +"Not the least," was the answer, "when it comes to her adornment. What +Paris says, she will do, blindly and unintelligently if you will, but +she will do it. She will sacrifice her patriotism; she will even justify +a possible disregard of the decencies. Look at the present Parisian +styles. They are absolutely indecent. Women know it, but they follow +them just the same, and they will. It is all very unpleasant to say +this, but it is the truth and you will find it out. Your effort, fine as +it is, will bear no fruit." + +Wherever Bok went, women upon whose judgment he felt he could rely, told +him, in effect, the same thing. They were all regretful, in some cases +ashamed of their sex, universally apologetic; but one and all declared +that such is "the feminine nature," and Bok would only have his trouble +for nothing. + +And so it proved. For a period, the retail shops were more careful in +the number of genuine French models of gowns and hats which they +exhibited, and the label firm confessed that its trade had fallen off. +But this was only temporary. Within a year after The Journal stopped the +campaign, baffled and beaten, the trade in French labels was greater +than ever, hundreds of French models were sold that had never crossed +the ocean, the American woman was being hoodwinked on every hand, and +the reign of the French couturier was once more supreme. + +There was no disguising the fact that the case was hopeless, and Bok +recognized and accepted the inevitable. He had, at least, the +satisfaction of having made an intelligent effort to awaken the American +woman to her unintelligent submission. But she refused to be awakened. +She preferred to be a tool: to be made a fool of. + +Bok's probe into the feminine nature had been keenly disappointing. He +had earnestly tried to serve the American woman, and he had failed. But +he was destined to receive a still greater and deeper disappointment on +his next excursion into the feminine nature, although, this time, he was +to win. + +During his investigations into women's fashions, he had unearthed the +origin of the fashionable aigrette, the most desired of all the +feathered possessions of womankind. He had been told of the cruel +torture of the mother-heron, who produced the beautiful aigrette only in +her period of maternity and who was cruelly slaughtered, usually left to +die slowly rather than killed, leaving her whole nest of baby-birds to +starve while they awaited the return of the mother-bird. + +Bok was shown the most heart-rending photographs portraying the butchery +of the mother and the starvation of her little ones. He collected all +the photographs that he could secure, had the most graphic text written +to them, and began their publication. He felt certain that the mere +publication of the frightfully convincing photographs would be enough to +arouse the mother-instinct in every woman and stop the wearing of the +so-highly prized feather. But for the second time in his attempt to +reform the feminine nature he reckoned beside the mark. + +He published a succession of pages showing the frightful cost at which +the aigrette was secured. There was no challenging the actual facts as +shown by the photographic lens: the slaughter of the mother-bird, and +the starving baby-birds; and the importers of the feather wisely +remained quiet, not attempting to answer Bok's accusations. Letters +poured in upon the editor from Audubon Society workers; from lovers of +birds, and from women filled with the humanitarian instinct. But Bok +knew that the answer was not with those few: the solution lay with the +larger circle of American womanhood from which he did not hear. + +He waited for results. They came. But they were not those for which he +had striven. After four months of his campaign, he learned from the +inside of the importing-houses which dealt in the largest stocks of +aigrettes in the United States that the demand for the feather had more +than quadrupled! Bok was dumbfounded! He made inquiries in certain +channels from which he knew he could secure the most reliable +information, and after all the importers had been interviewed, the +conviction was unescapable that just in proportion as Bok had dwelt upon +the desirability of the aigrette as the hallmark of wealth and fashion, +upon its expense, and the fact that women regarded it as the last word +in feminine adornment, he had by so much made these facts familiar to +thousands of women who had never before known of them, and had created +the desire to own one of the precious feathers. + +Bok could not and would not accept these conclusions. It seemed to him +incredible that women would go so far as this in the question of +personal adornment. He caused the increased sales to be traced from +wholesaler to retailer, and from retailer to customer, and was amazed at +the character and standing of the latter. He had a number of those +buyers who lived in adjacent cities, privately approached and +interviewed, and ascertained that, save in two instances, they were all +his readers, had seen the gruesome pictures he had presented, and then +had deliberately purchased the coveted aigrette. + +Personally again he sought the most intelligent of his woman-friends, +talked with scores of others, and found himself facing the same trait in +feminine nature which he had encountered in his advocacy of American +fashions. But this time it seemed to Bok that the facts he had presented +went so much deeper. + +"It will be hard for you to believe," said one of his most trusted +woman-friends. "I grant your arguments: there is no gainsaying them. But +you are fighting the same thing again that you do not understand: the +feminine nature that craves outer adornment will secure it at any cost, +even at the cost of suffering." + +"Yes," argued Bok. "But if there is one thing above everything else that +we believe a woman feels and understands, it is the mother-instinct. Do +you mean to tell me that it means nothing to her that these birds are +killed in their period of motherhood, and that a whole nest of starving +baby-birds is the price of every aigrette?" + +"I won't say that this does not weigh with a woman. It does, naturally. +But when it comes to her possession of an ornament of beauty, as +beautiful as the aigrette, it weighs with her, but it doesn't tip the +scale against her possession of it. I am sorry to have to say this to +you, but it is a fact. A woman will regret that the mother-bird must be +tortured and her babies starve, but she will have the aigrette. She +simply trains herself to forget the origin. + +"Take my own case. You will doubtless be shocked when I tell you that I +was perfectly aware of the conditions under which the aigrette is +obtained before you began your exposure of the method. But did it +prevent my purchase of one? Not at all. Why? Because I am a woman: I +realize that no head ornament will set off my hair so well as an +aigrette. Say I am cruel if you like. I wish the heron-mother didn't +have to be killed or the babies starve, but, Mr. Bok, I must have my +beautiful aigrette!" + +Bok was frankly astounded: he had certainly probed deep this time into +the feminine nature. With every desire and instinct to disbelieve the +facts, the deeper his inquiries went, the stronger the evidence rolled +up: there was no gainsaying it; no sense in a further disbelief of it. + +But Bok was determined that this time he would not fail. His sense of +justice and protection to the mother-bird and her young was now fully +aroused. He resolved that he would, by compulsion, bring about what he +had failed to do by persuasion. He would make it impossible for women to +be untrue to their most sacred instinct. He sought legal talent, had a +bill drawn up making it a misdemeanor to import, sell, purchase, or wear +an aigrette. Armed with this measure, and the photographs and articles +which he had published, he sought and obtained the interest and promise +of support of the most influential legislators in several States. He +felt a sense of pride in his own sex that he had no trouble in winning +the immediate interest of every legislator with whom he talked. + +Where he had failed with women, he was succeeding with men! The +outrageous butchery of the birds and the circumstances under which they +were tortured appealed with direct force to the sporting instinct in +every man, and aroused him. Bok explained to each that he need expect no +support for such a measure from women save from the members of the +Audubon Societies, and a few humanitarian women and bird-lovers. Women, +as a whole, he argued from his experiences, while they would not go so +far as openly to oppose such a measure, for fear of public comment, +would do nothing to further its passage, for in their hearts they +preferred failure to success for the legislation. They had frankly told +him so: he was not speaking from theory. + +In one State after another Bok got into touch with legislators. He +counselled, in each case, a quiet passage for the measure instead of one +that would draw public attention to it. + +Meanwhile, a strong initiative had come from the Audubon Societies +throughout the country, and from the National Association of Audubon +Societies, at New York. This latter society also caused to be introduced +bills of its own to the same and in various legislatures, and here Bok +had a valuable ally. It was a curious fact that the Audubon officials +encountered their strongest resistance in Bok's own State: Pennsylvania. +But Bok's personal acquaintance with legislators in his Keystone State +helped here materially. + +The demand for the aigrette constantly increased and rose to hitherto +unknown figures. In one State where Bok's measure was pending before the +legislature, he heard of the coming of an unusually large shipment of +aigrettes to meet this increased demand. He wired the legislator in +charge of the measure apprising him of this fact, of what he intended to +do, and urging speed in securing the passage of the bill. Then he caused +the shipment to be seized at the dock on the ground of illegal +importation. + +The importing firm at once secured an injunction restraining the +seizure. Bok replied by serving a writ setting the injunction aside. The +lawyers of the importers got busy, of course, but meanwhile the +legislator had taken advantage of a special evening session, had the +bill passed, and induced the governor to sign it, the act taking effect +at once. + +This was exactly what Bok had been playing for. The aigrettes were now +useless; they could not be reshipped to another State, they could not be +offered for sale. The suit was dropped, and Bok had the satisfaction of +seeing the entire shipment, valued at $160,000, destroyed. He had not +saved the lives of the mother-birds, but, at least, he had prevented +hundreds of American women from wearing the hallmark of torture. + +State after State now passed an aigrette-prohibition law until fourteen +of the principal States, including practically all the large cities, +fell into line. + +Later, the National Association of Audubon Societies had introduced into +the United States Congress and passed a bill prohibiting the importation +of bird-feathers into the country, thus bringing a Federal law into +existence. + +Bok had won his fight, it is true, but he derived little satisfaction +from the character of his victory. His ideal of womanhood had received a +severe jolt. Women had revealed their worst side to him, and he did not +like the picture. He had appealed to what he had been led to believe was +the most sacred instinct in a woman's nature. He received no response. +Moreover, he saw the deeper love for personal vanity and finery +absolutely dominate the mother-instinct. He was conscious that something +had toppled off its pedestal which could never be replaced. + +He was aware that his mother's words, when he accepted his editorial +position, were coming terribly true: "I am sorry you are going to take +this position. It will cost you the high ideal you have always held of +your mother's sex. But a nature, as is the feminine nature, wholly +swayed inwardly by emotion, and outwardly influenced by an insatiate +love for personal adornment, will never stand the analysis you will give +it." + +He realized that he was paying a high price for his success. Such +experiences as these--and, unfortunately, they were only two of +several--were doubtless in his mind when, upon his retirement, the +newspapers clamored for his opinions of women. "No, thank you," he said +to one and all, "not a word." + +He did not give his reasons. + +He never will. + + + + +XXX. Cleaning Up the Patent-Medicine and Other Evils + + +In 1892 The Ladies' Home Journal announced that it would thereafter +accept no advertisements of patent medicines for its pages. It was a +pioneer stroke. During the following two years, seven other newspapers +and periodicals followed suit. The American people were slaves to +self-medication, and the patent-medicine makers had it all their own +way. There was little or no legal regulation as to the ingredients in +their nostrums; the mails were wide open to their circulars, and the +pages of even the most reputable periodicals welcomed their +advertisements. The patent-medicine business in the United States ran +into the hundreds of millions of dollars annually. The business is still +large; then it was enormous. + +Into this army of deceit and spurious medicines, The Ladies' Home +Journal fired the first gun. Neither the public nor the patent-medicine +people paid much attention to the first attacks. But as they grew, and +the evidence multiplied, the public began to comment and the nostrum +makers began to get uneasy. + +The magazine attacked the evil from every angle. It aroused the public +by showing the actual contents of some of their pet medicines, or the +absolute worthlessness of them. The Editor got the Women's Christian +Temperance Union into action against the periodicals for publishing +advertisements of medicines containing as high as forty per cent +alcohol. He showed that the most confidential letters written by women +with private ailments were opened by young clerks of both sexes, laughed +at and gossiped over, and that afterward their names and addresses, +which they had been told were held in the strictest confidence, were +sold to other lines of business for five cents each. He held the +religious press up to the scorn of church members for accepting +advertisements which the publishers knew and which he proved to be not +only fraudulent, but actually harmful. He called the United States Post +Office authorities to account for accepting and distributing obscene +circular matter. + +He cut an advertisement out of a newspaper which ended with the +statement: + +"Mrs. Pinkham, in her laboratory at Lynn, Massachusetts, is able to do +more for the ailing women of America than the family physician. Any +woman, therefore, is responsible for her own suffering who will not take +the trouble to write to Mrs. Pinkham for advice." + +Next to this advertisement representing Mrs. Lydia Pinkham as "in her +laboratory," Bok simply placed the photograph of Mrs. Pinkham's +tombstone in Pine Grove Cemetery, at Lynn, showing that Mrs. Pinkham had +passed away twenty-two years before! + +It was one of the most effective pieces of copy that the magazine used +in the campaign. It told its story with absolute simplicity, but with +deadly force. + +The proprietors of "Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup" had strenuously +denied the presence of morphine in their preparation. Bok simply bought +a bottle of the syrup in London, where, under the English Pharmacy Act, +the authorities compelled the proprietors of the syrup to affix the +following declaration on each bottle: "This preparation, containing, +among other valuable ingredients, a small amount of morphine is, in +accordance with the Pharmacy Act, hereby labelled 'Poison!'" The +magazine published a photograph of the label, and it told its own +convincing story. It is only fair to say that the makers of this remedy +now publish their formula. + +Bok now slipped a cog in his machinery. He published a list of +twenty-seven medicines, by name, and told what they contained. One +preparation, he said, contained alcohol, opium, and digitalis. He +believed he had been extremely careful in this list. He had consulted +the highest medical authorities, physicians, and chemists. But in the +instance of the one preparation referred to above he was wrong. + +The analysis had been furnished by the secretary of the State Board of +Health of Massachusetts; a recognized expert, who had taken it from the +analysis of a famous German chemist. It was in nearly every standard +medical authority, and was accepted by the best medical authorities. Bok +accepted these authorities as final. Nevertheless, the analysis and the +experts were wrong. A suit for two hundred thousand dollars was brought +by the patent-medicine company against The Curtis Publishing Company, +and, of course, it was decided in favor of the former. But so strong a +public sentiment had been created against the whole business of patent +medicines by this time that the jury gave a verdict of only sixteen +thousand dollars, with costs, against the magazine. + +Undaunted, Bok kept on. He now engaged Mark Sullivan, then a young +lawyer in downtown New York, induced him to give up his practice, and +bring his legal mind to bear upon the problem. It was the beginning of +Sullivan's subsequent journalistic career, and he justified Bok's +confidence in him. He exposed the testimonials to patent medicines from +senators and congressmen then so widely published, showed how they were +obtained by a journalist in Washington who made a business of it. He +charged seventy-five dollars for a senator's testimonial, forty dollars +for that of a congressman, and accepted no contract for less than five +thousand dollars. + +Sullivan next exposed the disgraceful violation of the confidence of +women by these nostrum vendors in selling their most confidential +letters to any one who would buy them. Sullivan himself bought thousands +of these letters and names, and then wrote about them in the magazine. +One prominent firm indignantly denied the charge, asserting that +whatever others might have done, their names were always held sacred. In +answer to this declaration Sullivan published an advertisement of this +righteous concern offering fifty thousand of their names for sale. + +Bok had now kept up the fight for over two years, and the results were +apparent on every hand. Reputable newspapers and magazines were closing +their pages to the advertisements of patent medicines; legislation was +appearing in several States; the public had been awakened to the fraud +practised upon it, and a Federal Pure Food and Drug Act was beginning to +be talked about. + +Single-handed, The Ladies' Home Journal kept up the fight until Mark +Sullivan produced an unusually strong article, but too legalistic for +the magazine. He called the attention of Norman Hapgood, then editor of +Collier's Weekly, to it, who accepted it at once, and, with Bok's +permission, engaged Sullivan, who later succeeded Hapgood as editor of +Collier's. Robert J. Collier now brought Samuel Hopkins Adams to Bok's +attention and asked the latter if he should object if Collier's Weekly +joined him in his fight. The Philadelphia editor naturally welcomed the +help of the weekly, and Adams began his wonderfully effective campaign. + +The weekly and the monthly now pounded away together; other periodicals +and newspapers, seeing success ahead, and desiring to be part of it and +share the glory, came into the conflict, and it was not long before so +strong a public sentiment had been created as to bring about the passage +of the United States Food and Drug Act, and the patent-medicine business +of the United States had received a blow from which it has never +recovered. To-day the pages of every newspaper and periodical of +recognized standing are closed to the advertisements of patent +medicines; the Drug Act regulates the ingredients, and post office +officials scan the literature sent through the United States mails. + +There are distinct indications that the time has come once more to scan +the patent-medicine horizon carefully, but the conditions existing in +1920 are radically different from those prevailing in 1904. + +One day when Bok was at luncheon with Doctor Lyman Abbott, the latter +expressed the wish that Bok would take up the subject of venereal +disease as he had the patent-medicine question. + +"Not our question," answered Bok. + +"It is most decidedly your question," was the reply. + +Bok cherished the highest regard for Doctor Abbott's opinion and +judgment, and this positive declaration amazed him. + +"Read up on the subject," counselled Doctor Abbott, "and you will find +that the evil has its direct roots in the home with the parents. You +will agree with me before you go very far that it is your question." + +Bok began to read on the unsavory subject. It was exceedingly unpleasant +reading, but for two years Bok persisted, only to find that Doctor +Abbott was right. The root of the evil lay in the reticence of parents +with children as to the mystery of life; boys and girls were going out +into the world blind-folded as to any knowledge of their physical +selves; "the bloom must not be rubbed off the peach," was the belief of +thousands of parents, and the results were appalling. Bok pursued his +investigations from books direct into the "Homes of Refuge," "Doors of +Hope," and similar institutions, and unearthed a condition, the direct +results of the false modesty of parents, that was almost unbelievable. + +Bok had now all his facts, but realized that for his magazine, of all +magazines, to take up this subject would be like a bolt from the blue in +tens of thousands of homes. But this very fact, the unquestioned +position of the magazine, the remarkable respect which its readers had +for it, and the confidence with which parents placed the periodical on +their home tables--all this was, after all, Bok thought, the more reason +why he should take up the matter and thresh it out. He consulted with +friends, who advised against it; his editors were all opposed to the +introduction of the unsavory subject into the magazine. + +"But it isn't unsavory," argued Bok. "That is just it. We have made it +so by making it mysterious, by surrounding it with silence, by making it +a forbidden topic. It is the most beautiful story in life." + +Mr. Curtis, alone, encouraged his editor. Was he sure he was right? If +he was, why not go ahead? Bok called his attention to the fact that a +heavy loss in circulation was a foregone conclusion; he could calculate +upon one hundred thousand subscribers, at least, stopping the magazine. +"It is a question of right," answered the publisher, "not of +circulation." + +And so, in 1906, with the subject absolutely prohibited in every +periodical and newspaper of standing, never discussed at a public +gathering save at medical meetings, Bok published his first editorial. + +The readers of his magazine fairly gasped; they were dumb with +astonishment! The Ladies' Home Journal, of all magazines, to discuss +such a subject! When they had recovered from their astonishment, the +parents began to write letters, and one morning Bok was confronted with +a large waste-basket full brought in by his two office boys. + +"Protests," laconically explained one of his editors. "More than that, +the majority threaten to stop their subscription unless you stop." + +"All right, that proves I am right," answered Bok. "Write to each one +and say that what I have written is nothing as compared in frankness to +what is coming, and that we shall be glad to refund the unfulfilled part +of their subscriptions." + +Day after day, thousands of letters came in. The next issue contained +another editorial, stronger than the first. Bok explained that he would +not tell the actual story of the beginning of life in the magazine--that +was the prerogative of the parents, and he had no notion of taking it +away from either; but that he meant to insist upon putting their duty +squarely up to them, that he realized it was a long fight, hence the +articles to come would be many and continued; and that those of his +readers who did not believe in his policy had better stop the magazine +at once. But he reminded them that no solution of any question was ever +reached by running away from it. This question had to be faced some +time, and now was as good a time as any. + +Thousands of subscriptions were stopped; advertisements gave notice that +they would cancel their accounts; the greatest pressure was placed upon +Mr. Curtis to order his editor to cease, and Bok had the grim experience +of seeing his magazine, hitherto proclaimed all over the land as a model +advocate of the virtues, refused admittance into thousands of homes, and +saw his own friends tear the offending pages out of the periodical +before it was allowed to find a place on their home-tables. + +But The Journal kept steadily on. Number after number contained some +article on the subject, and finally such men and women as Jane Addams, +Cardinal Gibbons, Margaret Deland, Henry van Dyke, President Eliot, the +Bishop of London, braved the public storm, came to Bok's aid, and wrote +articles for his magazine heartily backing up his lonely fight. + +The public, seeing this array of distinguished opinion expressing +itself, began to wonder "whether there might not be something in what +Bok was saying, after all." At the end of eighteen months, inquiries +began to take the place of protests; and Bok knew then that the fight +was won. He employed two experts, one man and one woman, to answer the +inquiries, and he had published a series of little books, each written +by a different author on a different aspect of the question. + +This series was known as The Edward Bok Books. They sold for twenty-five +cents each, without profit to either editor or publisher. The series +sold into the tens of thousands. Information was, therefore, to be had, +in authoritative form, enabling every parent to tell the story to his or +her child. Bok now insisted that every parent should do this, and +announced that he intended to keep at the subject until the parents did. +He explained that the magazine had lost about seventy-five thousand +subscribers, and that it might just as well lose some more; but that the +insistence should go on. + +Slowly but surely the subject became a debatable one. Where, when Bok +began, the leading prophylactic society in New York could not secure +five speaking dates for its single lecturer during a session, it was now +put to it to find open dates for over ten speakers. Mothers' clubs, +women's clubs, and organizations of all kinds clamored for authoritative +talks; here and there a much-veiled article apologetically crept into +print, and occasionally a progressive school board or educational +institution experimented with a talk or two. + +The Ladies' Home Journal published a full-page editorial declaring that +seventy of every one hundred special surgical operations on women were +directly or indirectly the result of one cause; that sixty of every one +hundred new-born blinded babies were blinded soon after birth from this +same cause; and that every man knew what this cause was! + +Letters from men now began to pour in by the hundreds. With an oath on +nearly every line, they told him that their wives, daughters, sisters, +or mothers had demanded to know this cause, and that they had to tell +them. Bok answered these heated men and told them that was exactly why +the Journal had published the editorial, and that in the next issue +there would be another for those women who might have missed his first. +He insisted that the time had come when women should learn the truth, +and that, so far as it lay in his power, he intended to see that they +did know. + +The tide of public opinion at last turned toward The Ladies' Home +Journal and its campaign. Women began to realize that it had a case; +that it was working for their best interests and for those of their +children, and they decided that the question might as well be faced. Bok +now felt that his part in the work was done. He had started something +well on its way; the common sense of the public must do the rest. He had +taken the question of natural life, and stripped it of its false mystery +in the minds of hundreds of thousands of young people; had started their +inquiring minds; had shown parents the way; had made a forbidden topic a +debatable subject, discussed in open gatherings, by the press, an +increasing number of books, and in schools and colleges. He dropped the +subject, only to take up one that was more or less akin to it. + +That was the public drinking-cup. Here was a distinct menace that actual +examples and figures showed was spreading the most loathsome diseases +among innocent children. In 1908, he opened up the subject by ruthlessly +publishing photographs that were unpleasantly but tremendously +convincing. He had now secured the confidence of his vast public, who +listened attentively to him when he spoke on an unpleasant topic; and +having learned from experience that he would simply keep on until he got +results, his readers decided that this time they would act quickly. So +quick a result was hardly ever achieved in any campaign. Within six +months legislation all over the country was introduced or enacted +prohibiting the common drinking-cup in any public gathering-place, park, +store, or theatre, and substituting the individual paper cup. Almost +over night, the germ-laden common drinking-cup, which had so widely +spread disease, disappeared; and in a number of States, the common +towel, upon Bok's insistence, met the same fate. Within a year, one of +the worst menaces to American life had been wiped out by public +sentiment. + +Bok was now done with health measures for a while, and determined to see +what he could do with two or three civic questions that he felt needed +attention. + + + + +XXXI. Adventures in Civics + + +The electric power companies at Niagara Falls were beginning to draw so +much water from above the great Horseshoe Falls as to bring into +speculation the question of how soon America's greatest scenic asset +would be a coal-pile with a thin trickle of water crawling down its vast +cliffs. Already companies had been given legal permission to utilize +one-quarter of the whole flow, and additional companies were asking for +further grants. Permission for forty per cent of the whole volume of +water had been granted. J. Horace McFarland, as President of the +American Civic Association, called Bok's attention to the matter, and +urged him to agitate it through his magazine so that restrictive +legislation might be secured. + +Bok went to Washington, conferred with President Roosevelt, and found +him cognizant of the matter in all its aspects. + +"I can do nothing," said the President, "unless there is an awakened +public sentiment that compels action. Give me that, and I'll either put +the subject in my next message to Congress or send a special message. +I'm from Missouri on this point," continued the President. "Show me that +the American people want their Falls preserved, and I'll do the rest. +But I've got to be shown." Bok assured the President he could +demonstrate this to him. + +The next number of his magazine presented a graphic picture of the +Horseshoe Falls as they were and the same Falls as they would be if more +water was allowed to be taken for power: a barren coal-pile with a tiny +rivulet of water trickling down its sides. The editorial asked whether +the American women were going to allow this? If not, each, if an +American, should write to the President, and, if a Canadian, to Earl +Grey, then Governor-General of Canada. Very soon after the magazine had +reached its subscribers' hands, the letters began to reach the White +House; not by dozens, as the President's secretary wrote to Bok, but by +the hundreds and then by the thousands. "Is there any way to turn this +spigot off?" telegraphed the President's secretary. "We are really being +inundated." + +Bok went to Washington and was shown the huge pile of letters. + +"All right," said the President. "That's all I want. You've proved it to +me that there is a public sentiment." + +The clerks at Rideau Hall, at Ottawa, did not know what had happened one +morning when the mail quadrupled in size and thousands of protests came +to Earl Grey. He wired the President, the President exchanged views with +the governor-general, and the great international campaign to save +Niagara Falls had begun. The American Civic Association and scores of +other civic and patriotic bodies had joined in the clamor. + +The attorney-general and the secretary of state were instructed by the +President to look into the legal and diplomatic aspects of the question, +and in his next message to Congress President Roosevelt uttered a +clarion call to that body to restrict the power-grabbing companies. + +The Ladies' Home Journal urged its readers to write to their congressmen +and they did by the thousands. Every congressman and senator was +overwhelmed. As one senator said: "I have never seen such an avalanche. +But thanks to The Ladies' Home Journal, I have received these hundreds +of letters from my constituents; they have told me what they want done, +and they are mostly from those of my people whose wishes I am bound to +respect." + +The power companies, of course, promptly sent their attorneys and +lobbyists to Washington; but the public sentiment aroused was too strong +to be disregarded, and on June 29, 1906, the President signed the Burton +Bill restricting the use of the water of Niagara Falls. + +The matter was then referred to the secretary of war, William Howard +Taft, to grant the use of such volume of water as would preserve the +beauty of the Falls. McFarland and Bok wanted to be sure that Secretary +Taft felt the support of public opinion, for his policy was to be +conservative, and tremendous pressure was being brought upon him from +every side to permit a more liberal use of water. Bok turned to his +readers and asked them to write to Secretary Taft and assure him of the +support of the American women in his attitude of conservatism. + +The flood of letters that descended upon the secretary almost taxed even +his genial nature; and when Mr. McFarland, as the editorial +representative of The Ladies' Home Journal, arose to speak at the public +hearing in Washington, the secretary said: "I can assure you that you +don't have to say very much. Your case has already been pleaded for you +by, I should say at the most conservative estimate, at least one hundred +thousand women. Why, I have had letters from even my wife and my +mother." + +Secretary Taft adhered to his conservative policy, Sir Wilfred Laurier, +premier of Canada, met the overtures of Secretary of State Root, a new +international document was drawn up, and Niagara Falls had been saved to +the American people. + +In 1905 and in previous years the casualties resulting from fireworks on +the Fourth of July averaged from five to six thousand each year. The +humorous weekly Life and The Chicago Tribune had been for some time +agitating a restricted use of fireworks on the national fete day, but +nevertheless the list of casualties kept creeping to higher figures. Bok +decided to help by arousing the parents of America, in whose hands, +after all, lay the remedy. He began a series of articles in the +magazine, showing what had happened over a period of years, the +criminality of allowing so many young lives to be snuffed out, and +suggested how parents could help by prohibiting the deadly firecrackers +and cannon, and how organizations could assist by influencing the +passing of city ordinances. Each recurring January, The Journal returned +to the subject, looking forward to the coming Fourth. It was a +deep-rooted custom to eradicate, and powerful influences, in the form of +thousands of small storekeepers, were at work upon local officials to +pay no heed to the agitation. Gradually public opinion changed. The +newspapers joined in the cry; women's organizations insisted upon action +from local municipal bodies. + +Finally, the civic spirit in Cleveland, Ohio, forced the passage of a +city ordinance prohibiting the sale or use of fireworks on the Fourth. +The following year when Cleveland reported no casualties as compared to +an ugly list for the previous. Fourth, a distinct impression was made +upon other cities. Gradually, other municipalities took action, and year +by year the list of Fourth of July casualties grew perceptibly shorter. +New York City was now induced to join the list of prohibitive cities, by +a personal appeal made to its mayor by Bok, and on the succeeding Fourth +of July the city authorities, on behalf of the people of New York City, +conferred a gold medal upon Edward Bok for his services in connection +with the birth of the new Fourth in that city. + +There still remains much to be done in cities as yet unawakened; but a +comparison of the list of casualties of 1920 with that of 1905 proves +the growth in enlightened public sentiment in fifteen years to have been +steadily increasing. It is an instance not of Bok taking the +initiative--that had already been taken--but of throwing the whole force +of the magazine with those working in the field to help. It is the +American woman who is primarily responsible for the safe and sane +Fourth, so far as it already exists in this country to-day, and it is +the American woman who can make it universal. + +Mrs. Pennypacker, as president of The Federation of Women's Clubs, now +brought to Bok's attention the conditions under which the average rural +school-teacher lived; the suffering often entailed on her in having to +walk miles to the schoolhouse in wintry weather; the discomfort she had +to put up with in the farm-houses where she was compelled to live, with +the natural result, under those conditions, that it was almost +impossible to secure the services of capable teachers, or to have good +teaching even where efficient teachers were obtained. + +Mrs. Pennypacker suggested that Bok undertake the creation of a public +sentiment for a residence for the teacher in connection with the +schoolhouse. The parson was given a parsonage; why not the teacher a +"teacherage"? The Journal co-operated with Mrs. Pennypacker and she +began the agitation of the subject in the magazine. She also spoke on +the subject wherever she went, and induced women's clubs all over the +country to join the magazine in its advocacy of the "teacherage." + +By personal effort, several "teacherages" were established in connection +with new schoolhouses; photographs of these were published and sent +personally to school-boards all over the country; the members of women's +clubs saw to it that the articles were brought to the attention of +members of their local school-boards; and the now-generally accepted +idea that a "teacherage" must accompany a new schoolhouse was well on +its way to national recognition. + +It only remains now for communities to install a visiting nurse in each +of these "teacherages" so that the teacher need not live in solitary +isolation, and that the health of the children at school can be looked +after at first hand. Then the nurse shall be at the call of every small +American community--particularly to be available in cases of childbirth, +since in these thinly settled districts it is too often impossible to +obtain the services of a physician, with the result of a high percentage +of fatalities to mothers that should not be tolerated by a wealthy and +progressive people. No American mother, at childbirth, should be denied +the assistance of professional skill, no matter how far she may live +from a physician. And here is where a visiting nurse in every community +can become an institution of inestimable value. + +Just about this time a group of Philadelphia physicians, headed by +Doctor Samuel McClintock Hamill, which had formed itself into a hygienic +committee for babies, waited upon Bok to ask him to join them in the +creation of a permanent organization devoted to the welfare of babies +and children. Bok found that he was dealing with a company of +representative physicians, and helped to organize "The Child +Federation," an organization "to do good on a business basis." + +It was to go to the heart of the problem of the baby in the congested +districts of Philadelphia, and do a piece of intensive work in the ward +having the highest infant mortality, establishing the first health +centre in the United States actively managed by competent physicians and +nurses. This centre was to demonstrate to the city authorities that the +fearful mortality among babies, particularly in summer, could be +reduced. + +Meanwhile, there was created a "Baby Saving Show," a set of graphic +pictures conveying to the eye methods of sanitation and other too often +disregarded essentials of the wise care and feeding of babies; and this +travelled, like a theatrical attraction, to different parts of the city. +"Little Mothers' Leagues" were organized to teach the little girl of ten +or twelve, so often left in charge of a family of children when the +mother is at work during the day, and demonstrations were given in +various parts of the city. + +The Child Federation now undertook one activity after the other. Under +its auspices, the first municipal Christmas tree ever erected in +Philadelphia was shown in the historic Independence Square, and with two +bands of music giving concerts every day from Christmas to New Year's +Day, attracted over two hundred thousand persons. A pavilion was erected +in City Hall Square, the most central spot in the city, and the "Baby +Saving Show" was permanently placed there and visited by over one +hundred thousand visitors from every part of the country on their way to +and from the Pennsylvania Station at Broad Street. + +A searching investigation of the Day Nurseries of Philadelphia--probably +one of the most admirable pieces of research work ever made in a +city--changed the methods in vogue and became a standard guide for +similar institutions throughout the country. So successful were the +Little Mothers' Leagues that they were introduced into the public +schools of Philadelphia, and are to-day a regular part of the +curriculum. The Health Centre, its success being proved, was taken over +by the city Board of Health, and three others were established. + +To-day The Child Federation is recognized as one of the most practically +conducted child welfare agencies in Philadelphia, and its methods have +been followed by similar organizations all over the country. It is now +rapidly becoming the central medium through which the other agencies in +Philadelphia are working, thus avoiding the duplication of infant +welfare work in the city. Broadening its scope, it is not unlikely to +become one of the greatest indirect influences in the welfare work of +Philadelphia and the vicinity, through which other organizations will be +able to work. + +Bok's interest and knowledge in civic matters had now peculiarly +prepared him for a personal adventure into community work. Merion, where +he lived, was one of the most beautiful of the many suburbs that +surround the Quaker City; but, like hundreds of similar communities, +there had been developed in it no civic interest. Some of the most +successful business men of Philadelphia lived in Merion; they had +beautiful estates, which they maintained without regard to expense, but +also without regard to the community as a whole. They were busy men; +they came home tired after a day in the city; they considered themselves +good citizens if they kept their own places sightly, but the idea of +devoting their evenings to the problems of their community had never +occurred to them before the evening when two of Bok's neighbors called +to ask his help in forming a civic association. + +A canvass of the sentiment of the neighborhood revealed the unanimous +opinion that the experiment, if attempted, would be a failure,--an +attitude not by any means confined to the residents of Merion! Bok +decided to test it out; he called together twenty of his neighbors, put +the suggestion before them and asked for two thousand dollars as a +start, so that a paid secretary might be engaged, since the men +themselves were too busy to attend to the details of the work. The +amount was immediately subscribed, and in 1913 The Merion Civic +Association applied for a charter and began its existence. + +The leading men in the community were elected as a Board of Directors, +and a salaried secretary was engaged to carry out the directions of the +Board. The association adopted the motto: "To be nation right, and State +right, we must first be community right." Three objectives were selected +with which to attract community interest and membership: safety to life, +in the form of proper police protection; safety to property, in the form +of adequate hydrant and fire-engine service; and safety to health, in +careful supervision of the water and milk used in the community. + +"The three S's," as they were called, brought an immediate response. +They were practical in their appeal, and members began to come in. The +police force was increased from one officer at night and none in the +day, to three at night and two during the day, and to this the +Association added two special night officers of its own. Private +detectives were intermittently brought in to "check up" and see that the +service was vigilant. A fire hydrant was placed within seven hundred +feet of every house, with the insurance rates reduced from twelve and +one-half to thirty per cent; the services of three fire-engine companies +was arranged for. Fire-gongs were introduced into the community to guard +against danger from interruption of telephone service. The water supply +was chemically analyzed each month and the milk supply carefully +scrutinized. One hundred and fifty new electric-light posts specially +designed, and pronounced by experts as the most beautiful and practical +road lamps ever introduced into any community, were erected, making +Merion the best-lighted community in its vicinity. + +At every corner was erected an artistically designed cast-iron road +sign; instead of the unsightly wooden ones, cast-iron automobile +warnings were placed at every dangerous spot; community bulletin-boards, +preventing the display of notices on trees and poles, were placed at the +railroad station; litter-cans were distributed over the entire +community; a new railroad station and post-office were secured; the +station grounds were laid out as a garden by a landscape architect; new +roads of permanent construction, from curb to curb, were laid down; +uniform tree-planting along the roads was introduced; bird-houses were +made and sold, so as to attract bird-life to the community; toll-gates +were abolished along the two main arteries of travel; the removal of all +telegraph and telephone poles was begun; an efficient Boy Scout troop +was organized, and an American Legion post; the automobile speed limit +was reduced from twenty-four to fifteen miles as a protection to +children; roads were regularly swept, cleaned, and oiled, and uniform +sidewalks advocated and secured. + +Within seven years so efficiently had the Association functioned that +its work attracted attention far beyond its own confines and that of +Philadelphia, and caused Theodore Roosevelt voluntarily to select it as +a subject for a special magazine article in which he declared it to +"stand as a model in civic matters." To-day it may be conservatively +said of The Merion Civic Association that it is pointed out as one of +the most successful suburban civic efforts in the country; as Doctor +Lyman Abbott said in The Outlook, it has made "Merion a model suburb, +which may standardize ideal suburban life, certainly for Philadelphia, +possibly for the United States." + +When the armistice was signed in November, 1918, the Association +immediately canvassed the neighborhood to erect a suitable Tribute +House, as a memorial to the eighty-three Merion boys who had gone into +the Great War: a public building which would comprise a community +centre, with an American Legion Post room, a Boy Scout house, an +auditorium, and a meeting-place for the civic activities of Merion. A +subscription was raised, and plans were already drawn for the Tribute +House, when Mr. Eldridge R. Johnson, president of the Victor Talking +Machine Company, one of the strong supporters of The Merion Civic +Association, presented his entire estate of twelve acres, the finest in +Merion, to the community, and agreed to build a Tribute House at his own +expense. The grounds represented a gift of two hundred thousand dollars, +and the building a gift of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This +building, now about to be erected, will be one of the most beautiful and +complete community centres in the United States. + +Perhaps no other suburban civic effort proves the efficiency of +community co-operation so well as does the seven years' work of The +Merion Civic Association. It is a practical demonstration of what a +community can do for itself by concerted action. It preached, from the +very start, the gospel of united service; it translated into actual +practice the doctrine of being one's brother's keeper, and it taught the +invaluable habit of collective action. The Association has no legal +powers; it rules solely by persuasion; it accomplishes by the power of +combination; by a spirit of the community for the community. + +When The Merion Civic Association was conceived, the spirit of local +pride was seemingly not present in the community. As a matter of fact, +it was there as it is in practically every neighborhood; it was simply +dormant; it had to be awakened, and its value brought vividly to the +community consciousness. + + + + +XXXII. A Bewildered Bok + + +One of the misfortunes of Edward Bok's training, which he realized more +clearly as time went on, was that music had little or no place in his +life. His mother did not play; and aside from the fact that his father +and mother were patrons of the opera during their residence in The +Netherlands, the musical atmosphere was lacking in his home. He realized +how welcome an outlet music might be in his now busy life. So what he +lacked himself and realized as a distinct omission in his own life he +decided to make possible for others. + +The Ladies' Home Journal began to strike a definite musical note. It +first caught the eye and ear of its public by presenting the popular new +marches by John Philip Sousa; and when the comic opera of "Robin Hood" +became the favorite of the day, it secured all the new compositions by +Reginald de Koven. Following these, it introduced its readers to new +compositions by Sir Arthur Sullivan, Tosti, Moscowski, Richard Strauss, +Paderewski, Josef Hofmann, Edouard Strauss, and Mascagni. Bok induced +Josef Hofmann to give a series of piano lessons in his magazine, and +Madame Marchesi a series of vocal lessons. The Journal introduced its +readers to all the great instrumental and vocal artists of the day +through articles; it offered prizes for the best piano and vocal +compositions; it had the leading critics of New York, Boston, and +Chicago write articles explanatory of orchestral music and how to listen +to music. + +Bok was early attracted by the abilities of Josef Hofmann. In 1898, he +met the pianist, who was then twenty-two years old. Of his musical +ability Bok could not judge, but he was much impressed by his unusual +mentality, and soon both learned and felt that Hofmann's art was deeply +and firmly rooted. Hofmann had a wider knowledge of affairs than other +musicians whom Bok had met; he had not narrowed his interests to his own +art. He was striving to achieve a position in his art, and, finding that +he had literary ability, Bok asked him to write a reminiscent article on +his famous master, Rubinstein. + +This was followed by other articles; the publication of his new mazurka; +still further articles; and then, in 1907, Bok offered him a regular +department in the magazine and a salaried editorship on his staff. + +Bok's musical friends and the music critics tried to convince the editor +that Hofmann's art lay not so deep as Bok imagined; that he had been a +child prodigy, and would end where all child prodigies invariably +end--opinions which make curious reading now in view of Hofmann's +commanding position in the world of music. But while Bok lacked musical +knowledge, his instinct led him to adhere to his belief in Hofmann; and +for twelve years, until Bok's retirement as editor, the pianist was a +regular contributor to the magazine. His success was, of course, +unquestioned. He answered hundreds of questions sent him by his readers, +and these answers furnished such valuable advice for piano students that +two volumes were made in book form and are to-day used by piano teachers +and students as authoritative guides. + +Meanwhile, Bok's marriage had brought music directly into his domestic +circle. Mrs. Bok loved music, was a pianist herself, and sought to +acquaint her husband with what his former training had omitted. Hofmann +and Bok had become strong friends outside of the editorial relation, and +the pianist frequently visited the Bok home. But it was some time, even +with these influences surrounding him, before music began to play any +real part in Bok's own life. + +He attended the opera occasionally; more or less under protest, because +of its length, and because his mind was too practical for the indirect +operatic form. He could not remain patient at a recital; the effort to +listen to one performer for an hour and a half was too severe a tax upon +his restless nature. The Philadelphia Orchestra gave a symphony concert +each Saturday evening, and Bok dreaded the coming of that evening in +each week for fear of being taken to hear music which he was convinced +was "over his head." + +Like many men of his practical nature, he had made up his mind on this +point without ever having heard such a concert. The word "symphony" was +enough; it conveyed to him a form of the highest music quite beyond his +comprehension. Then, too, in the back of his mind there was the feeling +that, while he was perfectly willing to offer the best that the musical +world afforded in his magazine, his readers were primarily women, and +the appeal of music, after all, he felt was largely, if not wholly, to +the feminine nature. It was very satisfying to him to hear his wife play +in the evening; but when it came to public concerts, they were not for +his masculine nature. In other words, Bok shared the all too common +masculine notion that music is for women and has little place in the +lives of men. + +One day Josef Hofmann gave Bok an entirely new point of view. The artist +was rehearsing in Philadelphia for an appearance with the orchestra, and +the pianist was telling Bok and his wife of the desire of Leopold +Stokowski, who had recently become conductor of the Philadelphia +Orchestra, to eliminate encores from his symphonic programmes; he wanted +to begin the experiment with Hofmann's appearance that week. This was a +novel thought to Bok: why eliminate encores from any concert? If he +liked the way any performer played, he had always done his share to +secure an encore. Why should not the public have an encore if it desired +it, and why should a conductor or a performer object? Hofmann explained +to him the entity of a symphonic programme; that it was made up with one +composition in relation to the others as a sympathetic unit, and that an +encore was an intrusion, disturbing the harmony of the whole. + +"I wish you would let Stokowski come out and explain to you what he is +trying to do," said Hofmann. "He knows what he wants, and he is right in +his efforts; but he doesn't know how to educate the public. There is +where you could help him." + +But Bok had no desire to meet Stokowski. He mentally pictured the +conductor: long hair; feet never touching the earth; temperament galore; +he knew them! And he had no wish to introduce the type into his home +life. + +Mrs. Bok, however, ably seconded Josef Hofmann, and endeavored to +dissipate Bok's preconceived notion, with the result that Stokowksi came +to the Bok home. + +Bok was not slow to see that Stokowski was quite the reverse of his +mental picture, and became intensely interested in the youthful +conductor's practical way of looking at things. It was agreed that the +encore "bull" was to be taken by the horns that week; that no matter +what the ovation to Hofmann might be, however the public might clamor, +no encore was to be forthcoming; and Bok was to give the public an +explanation during the following week. The next concert was to present +Mischa Elman, and his co-operation was assured so that continuity of +effort might be counted upon. + +In order to have first-hand information, Bok attended the concert that +Saturday evening. The symphony, Dvorak's "New World Symphony," amazed +Bok by its beauty; he was more astonished that he could so easily grasp +any music in symphonic form. He was equally surprised at the simple +beauty of the other numbers on the programme, and wondered not a little +at his own perfectly absorbed attention during Hofmann's playing of a +rather long concerto. + +The pianist's performance was so beautiful that the audience was +uproarious in its approval; it had calculated, of course, upon an +encore, and recalled the pianist again and again until he had appeared +and bowed his thanks several times. But there was no encore; the stage +hands appeared and moved the piano to one side, and the audience +relapsed into unsatisfied and rather bewildered silence. + +Then followed Bok's publicity work in the newspapers, beginning the next +day, exonerating Hofmann and explaining the situation. The following +week, with Mischa Elman as soloist, the audience once more tried to have +its way and its cherished encore, but again none was forthcoming. Once +more the newspapers explained; the battle was won, and the no-encore +rule has prevailed at the Philadelphia Orchestra concerts from that day +to this, with the public entirely resigned to the idea and satisfied +with the reason therefor. + +But the bewildered Bok could not make out exactly what had happened to +his preconceived notion about symphonic music. He attended the following +Saturday evening concert; listened to a Brahms symphony that pleased him +even more than had "The New World," and when, two weeks later, he heard +the Tschaikowski "Pathetique" and later the "Unfinished" symphony, by +Schubert, and a Beethoven symphony, attracted by each in turn, he +realized that his prejudice against the whole question of symphonic +music had been both wrongly conceived and baseless. + +He now began to see the possibility of a whole world of beauty which up +to that time had been closed to him, and he made up his mind that he +would enter it. Somehow or other, he found the appeal of music did not +confine itself to women; it seemed to have a message for men. Then, too, +instead of dreading the approach of Saturday evenings, he was looking +forward to them, and invariably so arranged his engagements that they +might not interfere with his attendance at the orchestra concerts. + +After a busy week, he discovered that nothing he had ever experienced +served to quiet him so much as these end-of-the-week concerts. They were +not too long, an hour and a half at the utmost; and, above all, except +now and then, when the conductor would take a flight into the world of +Bach, he found he followed him with at least a moderate degree of +intelligence; certainly with personal pleasure and inner satisfaction. + +Bok concluded he would not read the articles he had published on the +meaning of the different "sections" of a symphony orchestra, or the +books issued on that subject. He would try to solve the mechanism of an +orchestra for himself, and ascertain as he went along the relation that +each portion bore to the other. When, therefore, in 1913, the president +of the Philadelphia Orchestra Association asked him to become a member +of its Board of Directors, his acceptance was a natural step in the +gradual development of his interest in orchestral music. + +The public support given to orchestras now greatly interested Bok. He +was surprised to find that every symphony orchestra had a yearly +deficit. This he immediately attributed to faulty management; but on +investigating the whole question he learned that a symphony orchestra +could not possibly operate, at a profit or even on a self-sustaining +basis, because of its weekly change of programme, the incessant +rehearsals required, and the limited number of times it could actually +play within a contracted season. An annual deficit was inevitable. + +He found that the Philadelphia Orchestra had a small but faithful group +of guarantors who each year made good the deficit in addition to paying +for its concert seats. This did not seem to Bok a sound business plan; +it made of the orchestra a necessarily exclusive organization, +maintained by a few; and it gave out this impression to the general +public, which felt that it did not "belong," whereas the true relation +of public and orchestra was that of mutual dependence. Other orchestras, +he found, as, for example, the Boston Symphony and the New York +Philharmonic had their deficits met by one individual patron in each +case. This, to Bok's mind, was an even worse system, since it entirely +excluded the public, making the orchestra dependent on the continued +interest and life of a single man. + +In 1916 Bok sought Mr. Alexander Van Rensselaer, the president of the +Philadelphia Orchestra Association, and proposed that he, himself, +should guarantee the deficit of the orchestra for five years, provided +that during that period an endowment fund should be raised, contributed +by a large number of subscribers, and sufficient in amount to meet, from +its interest, the annual deficit. It was agreed that the donor should +remain in strict anonymity, an understanding which has been adhered to +until the present writing. + +The offer from the "anonymous donor," presented by the president, was +accepted by the Orchestra Association. A subscription to an endowment +fund was shortly afterward begun; and the amount had been brought to +eight hundred thousand dollars when the Great War interrupted any +further additions. In the autumn of 1919, however, a city-wide campaign +for an addition of one million dollars to the endowment fund was +launched. The amount was not only secured, but over-subscribed. Thus, +instead of a guarantee fund, contributed by thirteen hundred +subscribers, with the necessity for annual collection, an endowment fund +of one million eight hundred thousand dollars, contributed by fourteen +thousand subscribers, has been secured; and the Philadelphia Orchestra +has been promoted from a privately maintained organization to a public +institution in which fourteen thousand residents of Philadelphia feel a +proprietary interest. It has become in fact, as well as in name, "our +orchestra." + + + + +XXXIII. How Millions of People Are Reached + + +The success of The Ladies' Home Journal went steadily forward. The +circulation had passed the previously unheard-of figure for a monthly +magazine of a million and a half copies per month; it had now touched a +million and three-quarters. + +And not only was the figure so high, but the circulation itself was +absolutely free from "water." The public could not obtain the magazine +through what are known as clubbing-rates, since no subscriber was +permitted to include any other magazine with it; years ago it had +abandoned the practice of offering premiums or consideration of any kind +to induce subscriptions; and the newsdealers were not allowed to return +unsold copies of the periodical. Hence every copy was either purchased +by the public at the full price at a newsstand, or subscribed for at its +stated subscription price. It was, in short, an authoritative +circulation. And on every hand the question was being asked: "How is it +done? How is such a high circulation obtained?" + +Bok's invariable answer was that he gave his readers the very best of +the class of reading that he believed would interest them, and that he +spared neither effort nor expense to obtain it for them. When Mr. +Howells once asked him how he classified his audience, Bok replied: "We +appeal to the intelligent American woman rather than to the intellectual +type." And he gave her the best he could obtain. As he knew her to be +fond of the personal type of literature, he gave her in succession Jane +Addams's story of "My Fifteen Years at Hull House," and the remarkable +narration of Helen Keller's "Story of My Life"; he invited Henry Van +Dyke, who had never been in the Holy Land, to go there, camp out in a +tent, and then write a series of sketches, "Out of Doors in the Holy +Land"; he induced Lyman Abbott to tell the story of "My Fifty Years as a +Minister." He asked Gene Stratton Porter to tell of her bird-experiences +in the series: "What I Have Done with Birds"; he persuaded Dean Hodges +to turn from his work of training young clergymen at the Episcopal +Seminary, at Cambridge, and write one of the most successful series of +Bible stories for children ever printed; and then he supplemented this +feature for children by publishing Rudyard Kipling's "Just So" stories +and his "Puck of Pook's Hill." He induced F. Hopkinson Smith to tell the +best stories he had ever heard in his wide travels in "The Man in the +Arm Chair"; he got Kate Douglas Wiggin to tell a country church +experience of hers in "The Old Peabody Pew"; and Jean Webster her +knowledge of almshouse life in "Daddy Long Legs." + +The readers of The Ladies' Home Journal realized that it searched the +whole field of endeavor in literature and art to secure what would +interest them, and they responded with their support. + +Another of Bok's methods in editing was to do the common thing in an +uncommon way. He had the faculty of putting old wine in new bottles and +the public liked it. His ideas were not new; he knew there were no new +ideas, but he presented his ideas in such a way that they seemed new. It +is a significant fact, too, that a large public will respond more +quickly to an idea than it will to a name. + +This The Ladies' Home Journal proved again and again. Its most +pronounced successes, from the point of view of circulation, were those +in which the idea was the sole and central appeal. For instance, when it +gave American women an opportunity to look into a hundred homes and see +how they were furnished, it added a hundred thousand copies to the +circulation. There was nothing new in publishing pictures of rooms and, +had it merely done this, it is questionable whether success would have +followed the effort. It was the way in which it was done. The note +struck entered into the feminine desire, reflected it, piqued curiosity, +and won success. + +Again, when The Journal decided to show good taste and bad taste in +furniture, in comparative pictures, another hundred thousand circulation +came to it. There was certainly nothing new in the comparative idea; but +applied to a question of taste, which could not be explained so clearly +in words, it seemed new. + +Had it simply presented masterpieces of art as such, the series might +have attracted little attention. But when it announced that these +masterpieces had always been kept in private galleries, and seen only by +the favored few; that the public had never been allowed to get any +closer to them than to read of the fabulous prices paid by their +millionaire owners; and that now the magazine would open the doors of +those exclusive galleries and let the public in--public curiosity was at +once piqued, and over one hundred and fifty thousand persons who had +never before bought the magazine were added to the list. + +In not one of these instances, nor in the case of other successful +series, did the appeal to the public depend upon the names of +contributors; there were none: it was the idea which the public liked +and to which it responded. + +The editorial Edward Bok enjoyed this hugely; the real Edward Bok did +not. The one was bottled up in the other. It was a case of absolute +self-effacement. The man behind the editor knew that if he followed his +own personal tastes and expressed them in his magazine, a limited +audience would be his instead of the enormous clientele that he was now +reaching. It was the man behind the editor who had sought expression in +the idea of Country Life, the magazine which his company sold to +Doubleday, Page & Company, and which he would personally have enjoyed +editing. + +It was in 1913 that the real Edward Bok, bottled up for twenty-five +years, again came to the surface. The majority stockholders of The +Century Magazine wanted to dispose of their interest in the periodical. +Overtures were made to The Curtis Publishing Company, but its hands were +full, and the matter was presented for Bok's personal consideration. The +idea interested him, as he saw in The Century a chance for his +self-expression. He entered into negotiations, looked carefully into the +property itself and over the field which such a magazine might fill, +decided to buy it, and install an active editor while he, as a close +adviser, served as the propelling power. + +Bok figured out that there was room for one of the trio of what was, and +still is, called the standard-sized magazines, namely Scribner's, +Harper's, and The Century. He believed, as he does to-day, that any one +of these magazines could be so edited as to preserve all its traditions +and yet be so ingrafted with the new progressive, modern spirit as to +dominate the field and constitute itself the leader in that particular +group. He believed that there was a field which would produce a +circulation in the neighborhood of a quarter of a million copies a month +for one of those magazines, so that it would be considered not, as now, +one of three, but the one. + +What Bok saw in the possibilities of the standard illustrated magazine +has been excellently carried out by Mr. Ellery Sedgwick in The Atlantic +Monthly; every tradition has been respected, and yet the new progressive +note introduced has given it a position and a circulation never before +attained by a non-illustrated magazine of the highest class. + +As Bok studied the field, his confidence in the proposition, as he saw +it, grew. For his own amusement, he made up some six issues of The +Century as he visualized it, and saw that the articles he had included +were all obtainable. He selected a business manager and publisher who +would relieve him of the manufacturing problems; but before the contract +was actually closed Bok, naturally, wanted to consult Mr. Curtis, who +was just returning from abroad, as to this proposed sharing of his +editor. + +For one man to edit two magazines inevitably meant a distribution of +effort, and this Mr. Curtis counselled against. He did not believe that +any man could successfully serve two masters; it would also mean a +division of public association; it might result in Bok's physical +undoing, as already he was overworked. Mr. Curtis's arguments, of +course, prevailed; the negotiations were immediately called off, and for +the second time--for some wise reason, undoubtedly--the real Edward Bok +was subdued. He went back into the bottle! + +A cardinal point in Edward Bok's code of editing was not to commit his +magazine to unwritten material, or to accept and print articles or +stories simply because they were the work of well-known persons. And as +his acquaintance with authors multiplied, he found that the greater the +man the more willing he was that his work should stand or fall on its +merit, and that the editor should retain his prerogative of +declination--if he deemed it wise to exercise it. + +Rudyard Kipling was, and is, a notable example of this broad and just +policy. His work is never imposed upon an editor; it is invariably +submitted, in its completed form, for acceptance or declination. "Wait +until it's done," said Kipling once to Bok as he outlined a story to him +which the editor liked, "and see whether you want it. You can't tell +until then." (What a difference from the type of author who insists that +an editor must take his or her story before a line is written!) + +"I told Watt to send you," he writes to Bok, "the first four of my child +stories (you see I hadn't forgotten my promise), and they may serve to +amuse you for a while personally, even if you don't use them for +publication. Frankly, I don't myself see how they can be used for the L. +H. J.; but they're part of a scheme of mine for trying to give children +not a notion of history, but a notion of the time sense which is at the +bottom of all knowledge of history; and history, rightly understood, +means the love of one's fellow-men and the land one lives in." + +James Whitcomb Riley was another who believed that an editor should have +the privilege of saying "No" if he so elected. When Riley was writing a +series of poems for Bok, the latter, not liking a poem which the Hoosier +poet sent him, returned it to him. He wondered how Riley would receive a +declination--naturally a rare experience. But his immediate answer +settled the question: + +"Thanks equally for your treatment of both poems, [he wrote], the one +accepted and the other returned. Maintain your own opinions and respect, +and my vigorous esteem for you shall remain 'deep-rooted in the fruitful +soil.' No occasion for apology whatever. In my opinion, you are wrong; +in your opinion, you are right; therefore, you are right,--at least +righter than wronger. It is seldom that I drop other work for logic, but +when I do, as my grandfather was wont to sturdily remark, 'it is to some +purpose, I can promise you.' + +"Am goin' to try mighty hard to send you the dialect work you've so long +wanted; in few weeks at furthest. 'Patience and shuffle the cards.' + +"I am really, just now, stark and bare of one common-sense idea. In the +writing line, I was never so involved before and see no end to the +ink-(an humorous voluntary provocative, I trust of much +merriment)-creasing pressure of it all. + +"Even the hope of waking to find myself famous is denied me, since I +haven't time in which to fall asleep. Therefore, very drowsily and +yawningly indeed, I am your + +"James Whitcomb Riley." + +Neither did the President of the United States consider himself above a +possible declination of his material if it seemed advisable to the +editor. In 1916 Woodrow Wilson wrote to Bok: + +"Sometime ago you kindly intimated to me that you would like to publish +an article from me. At first, it seemed impossible for me to undertake +anything of the kind, but I have found a little interval in which I have +written something on Mexico which I hope you will think worthy of +publication. If not, will you return it to me?" + +The President, too, acted as an intermediary in turning authors in Bok's +direction, when the way opened. In a letter written not on the official +White House letterhead, but on his personal "up-stairs" stationery, as +it is called, he asks: + +"Will you do me the favor of reading the enclosed to see if it is worthy +of your acceptance for the Journal, or whether you think it indicates +that the writer, with a few directions and suggestions, might be useful +to you? + +"It was written by --. She is a woman of great refinement, of a very +unusually broad social experience, and of many exceptional gifts, who +thoroughly knows what she is writing about, whether she has yet +discovered the best way to set it forth or not. She is one of the most +gifted and resourceful hostesses I have known, but has now fallen upon +hard times. + +"Among other things that she really knows, she really does thoroughly +know old furniture and all kinds of china worth knowing. + +"Pardon me if I have been guilty of an indiscretion in sending this +direct to you. I am throwing myself upon your indulgence in my desire to +help a splendid woman. + +"She has a great collection of recipes which housekeepers would like to +have. Does a serial cook-book sound like nonsense?" + +A further point in his editing which Bok always kept in view was his +rule that the editor must always be given the privilege of revising or +editing a manuscript. Bok's invariable rule was, of course, to submit +his editing for approval, but here again the bigger the personality back +of the material, the more willing the author was to have his manuscript +"blue pencilled," if he were convinced that the deletions or +condensations improved or at least did not detract from his arguments. +It was the small author who ever resented the touch of the editorial +pencil upon his precious effusions. + +As a matter of fact there are few authors who cannot be edited with +advantage, and it would be infinitely better for our reading if this +truth was applied to some of the literature of to-day. + +Bok had once under his hand a story by Mark Twain, which he believed +contained passages that should be deleted. They represented a goodly +portion of the manuscript. They were, however, taken out, and the result +submitted to the humorist. The answer was curious. Twain evidently saw +that Bok was right, for he wrote: "Of course, I want every single line +and word of it left out," and then added: "Do me the favor to call the +next time you are again in Hartford. I want to say things which--well, I +want to argue with you." Bok never knew what those "things" were, for at +the next meeting they were not referred to. + +It is, perhaps, a curious coincidence that all the Presidents of the +United States whose work Bok had occasion to publish were uniformly +liberal with regard to having their material edited. + +Colonel Roosevelt was always ready to concede improvement: "Fine," he +wrote; "the changes are much for the better. I never object to my work +being improved, where it needs it, so long as the sense is not altered." + +William Howard Taft wrote, after being subjected to editorial revision: +"You have done very well by my article. You have made it much more +readable by your rearrangement." + +Mr. Cleveland was very likely to let his interest in a subject run +counter to the space exigencies of journalism; and Bok, in one instance, +had to reduce one of his articles considerably. He explained the reason +and enclosed the revision. + +"I am entirely willing to have the article cut down as you suggest," +wrote the former President. "I find sufficient reason for this in the +fact that the matter you suggest for elimination has been largely +exploited lately. And in looking the matter over carefully, I am +inclined to think that the article expurgated as you suggest will gain +in unity and directness. At first, I feared it would appear a little +'bobbed' off, but you are a much better judge of that than I. ... I +leave it altogether to you." + +It was always interesting to Bok, as a study of mental processes, to +note how differently he and some author with whom he would talk it over +would see the method of treating some theme. He was discussing the +growing unrest among American women with Rudyard Kipling at the latter's +English home; and expressed the desire that the novelist should treat +the subject and its causes. + +They talked until the early hours, when it was agreed that each should +write out a plan, suggest the best treatment, and come together the next +morning. When they did so, Kipling had mapped out the scenario of a +novel; Bok had sketched out the headings of a series of analytical +articles. Neither one could see the other's viewpoint, Kipling +contending for the greater power of fiction and Bok strongly arguing for +the value of the direct essay. In this instance, the point was never +settled, for the work failed to materialize in any form! + +If the readers of The Ladies' Home Journal were quick to support its +editor when he presented an idea that appealed to them, they were +equally quick to tell him when he gave them something of which they did +not approve. An illustration of this occurred during the dance-craze +that preceded the Great War. In 1914, America was dance-mad, and the +character of the dances rapidly grew more and more offensive. Bok's +readers, by the hundreds, urged him to come out against the tendency. + +The editor looked around and found that the country's terpsichorean +idols were Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Castle; he decided that, with their +cooperation, he might, by thus going to the fountainhead, effect an +improvement through the introduction, by the Castles, of better and more +decorous new dances. Bok could see no reason why the people should not +dance, if they wanted to, so long as they kept within the bounds of +decency. + +He found the Castles willing and eager to co-operate, not only because of +the publicity it would mean for them, but because they were themselves +not in favor of the new mode. They had little sympathy for the +elimination of the graceful dance by the introduction of what they +called the "shuffle" or the "bunny-hug," "turkey-trot," and other +ungraceful and unworthy dances. It was decided that the Castles should, +through Bok's magazine and their own public exhibitions, revive the +gavotte, the polka, and finally the waltz. They would evolve these into +new forms and Bok would present them pictorially. A series of three +double-page presentations was decided upon, allowing for large +photographs so that the steps could be easily seen and learned from the +printed page. + +The magazine containing the first "lesson" was no sooner published than +protests began to come in by the hundreds. Bok had not stated his +object, and the public misconstrued his effort and purpose into an +acknowledgment that he had fallen a victim to the prevailing craze. He +explained in letters, but to no purpose. Try as he might, Bok could not +rid the pages of the savor of the cabaret. He published the three dances +as agreed, but he realized he had made a mistake, and was as much +disgusted as were his readers. Nor did he, in the slightest degree, +improve the dance situation. The public refused to try the new Castle +dances, and kept on turkey-trotting and bunny-hugging. + +The Ladies' Home Journal followed the Castle lessons with a series of +the most beautiful dances of Madam Pavlowa, the Russian dancer, hoping +to remove the unfavorable impression of the former series. But it was +only partially successful. Bok had made a mistake in recognizing the +craze at all; he should have ignored it, as he had so often in the past +ignored other temporary, superficial hysterics of the public. The +Journal readers knew the magazine had made a mistake and frankly said +so. + +Which shows that, even after having been for over twenty-five years in +the editorial chair, Edward Bok was by no means infallible in his +judgment of what the public wanted or would accept. + +No man is, for that matter. + + + + +XXXIV. A War Magazine and War Activities + + +When, early in 1917, events began so to shape themselves as directly to +point to the entrance of the United States into the Great War, Edward +Bok set himself to formulate a policy for The Ladies' Home Journal. He +knew that he was in an almost insurmountably difficult position. The +huge edition necessitated going to press fully six weeks in advance of +publication, and the preparation of material fully four weeks previous +to that. He could not, therefore, get much closer than ten weeks to the +date when his readers received the magazine. And he knew that events, in +war time, had a way of moving rapidly. + +Late in January he went to Washington, consulted those authorities who +could indicate possibilities to him better than any one else, and found, +as he had suspected, that the entry of the United States into the war +was a practical certainty; it was only a question of time. + +Bok went South for a month's holiday to get ready for the fray, and in +the saddle and on the golf links he formulated a policy. The newspapers +and weeklies would send innumerable correspondents to the front, and +obviously, with the necessity for going to press so far in advance, The +Journal could not compete with them. They would depict every activity in +the field. There was but one logical thing for him to do: ignore the +"front" entirely, refuse all the offers of correspondents, men and +women, who wanted to go with the armies for his magazine, and cover +fully and practically the results of the war as they would affect the +women left behind. He went carefully over the ground to see what these +would be, along what particular lines women's activities would be most +likely to go, and then went home and back to Washington. + +It was now March. He conferred with the President, had his fears +confirmed, and offered all the resources of his magazine to the +government. His diagnosis of the situation was verified in every detail +by the authorities whom he consulted. The Ladies' Home Journal could +best serve by keeping up the morale at home and by helping to meet the +problems that would confront the women; as the President said: "Give +help in the second line of defense." + +A year before, Bok had opened a separate editorial office in Washington +and had secured Dudley Harmon, the Washington correspondent for The New +York Sun, as his editor-in-charge. The purpose was to bring the women of +the country into a clearer understanding of their government and a +closer relation with it. This work had been so successful as to +necessitate a force of four offices and twenty stenographers. Bok now +placed this Washington office on a war-basis, bringing it into close +relation with every department of the government that would be connected +with the war activities. By this means, he had an editor and an +organized force on the spot, devoting full time to the preparation of +war material, with Mr. Harmon in daily conference with the department +chiefs to secure the newest developments. + +Bok learned that the country's first act would be to recruit for the +navy, so as to get this branch of the service into a state of +preparedness. He therefore secured Franklin D. Roosevelt, assistant +secretary of the navy, to write an article explaining to mothers why +they should let their boys volunteer for the Navy and what it would mean +to them. + +He made arrangements at the American Red Cross Headquarters for an +official department to begin at once in the magazine, telling women the +first steps that would be taken by the Red Cross and how they could +help. He secured former President William Howard Taft, as chairman of +the Central Committee of the Red Cross, for the editor of this +department. + +He cabled to Viscount Northcliffe and Ian Hay for articles showing what +the English women had done at the outbreak of the war, the mistakes they +had made, what errors the American women should avoid, the right lines +along which English women had worked and how their American sisters +could adapt these methods to transatlantic conditions. + +And so it happened that when the first war issue of The Journal appeared +on April 20th, only three weeks after the President's declaration, it +was the only monthly that recognized the existence of war, and its pages +had already begun to indicate practical lines along which women could +help. + +The President planned to bring the Y. M. C. A. into the service by +making it a war-work body, and Bok immediately made arrangements for a +page to appear each month under the editorship of John R. Mott, general +secretary of the International Y. M. C. A. Committee. + +The editor had been told that the question of food would come to be of +paramount importance; he knew that Herbert Hoover had been asked to +return to America as soon as he could close his work abroad, and he +cabled over to his English representative to arrange that the proposed +Food Administrator should know, at first hand, of the magazine and its +possibilities for the furtherance of the proposed Food Administration +work. + +The Food Administration was no sooner organized than Bok made +arrangements for an authoritative department to be conducted in his +magazine, reflecting the plans and desires of the Food Administration, +and Herbert Hoover's first public declaration as food administrator to +the women of America was published in The Ladies' Home Journal. Bok now +placed all the resources of his four-color press-work at Mr. Hoover's +disposal; and the Food Administration's domestic experts, in conjunction +with the full culinary staff of the magazine, prepared the new war +dishes and presented them appetizingly in full colors under the personal +endorsement of Mr. Hoover and the Food Administration. From six to +sixteen articles per month were now coming from Mr. Hoover's department +alone. + +The Department of Agriculture was laid under contribution by the +magazine for the best ideas for the raising of food from the soil in the +creation of war-gardens. + +Doctor Anna Howard Shaw had been appointed chairman of the National +Committee of the Women's Council of National Defence, and Bok arranged +at once with her that she should edit a department page in his magazine, +setting forth the plans of the committee and how the women of America +could co-operate therewith. + +The magazine had thus practically become the semiofficial mouthpiece of +all the various government war bureaus and war-work bodies. James A. +Flaherty, supreme knight of the Knights of Columbus, explained the +proposed work of that body; Commander Evangeline Booth presented the +plans of the Salvation Army, and Mrs. Robert E. Speer, president of the +National Board of the Young Women's Christian Association, reflected the +activities of her organization; while the President's daughter, Miss +Margaret Wilson, discussed her work for the opening of all schoolhouses +as community war-centres. + +The magazine reflected in full-color pictures the life and activities of +the boys in the American camps, and William C. Gorgas, surgeon-general +of the United States, was the spokesman in the magazine for the health +of the boys. + +Secretary of the Treasury McAdoo interpreted the first Liberty Loan +"drive" to the women; the President of the United States, in a special +message to women, wrote in behalf of the subsequent Loan; Bernard +Baruch, as chairman of the War Industries Board, made clear the need for +war-time thrift; the recalled ambassador to Germany, James W. Gerard, +told of the ingenious plans resorted to by German women which American +women could profitably copy; and Elizabeth, Queen of the Belgians, +explained the plight of the babies and children of Belgium, and made a +plea to the women of the magazine to help. So straight to the point did +the Queen write, and so well did she present her case that within six +months there had been sent to her, through The Ladies' Home Journal, two +hundred and forty-eight thousand cans of condensed milk, seventy-two +thousand cans of pork and beans, five thousand cans of infants' prepared +food, eighty thousand cans of beef soup, and nearly four thousand +bushels of wheat, purchased with the money donated by the magazine +readers. + +On the coming of the coal question, the magazine immediately reflected +the findings and recommendations of the Fuel Administration, and Doctor +H. A. Garfield, as fuel administrator, placed the material of his Bureau +at the disposal of the magazine's Washington editor. + +The Committee on Public Information now sought the magazine for the +issuance of a series of official announcements explanatory of matters to +women. + +When the "meatless" and the "wheatless" days were inaugurated, the women +of America found that the magazine had anticipated their coming; and the +issue appearing on the first of these days, as publicly announced by the +Food Administration, presented pages of substitutes in full colors. + +Of course, miscellaneous articles on the war there were, without number. +Before the war was ended, the magazine did send a representative to the +front in Catherine Van Dyke, who did most effective work for the +magazine in articles of a general nature. The full-page battle pictures, +painted from data furnished by those who took actual part, were +universally commended and exhausted even the largest editions that could +be printed. A source of continual astonishment was the number of copies +of the magazine found among the boys in France; it became the third in +the official War Department list of the most desired American +periodicals, evidently representing a tie between the boys and their +home folks. But all these "war" features, while appreciated and +desirable, were, after all, but a side-issue to the more practical +economic work of the magazine. It was in this service that the magazine +excelled, it was for this reason that the women at home so eagerly +bought it, and that it was impossible to supply each month the editions +called for by the extraordinary demand. + +Considering the difficulties to be surmounted, due to the advance +preparation of material, and considering that, at the best, most of its +advance information, even by the highest authorities, could only be in +the nature of surmise, the comprehensive manner in which The Ladies' +Home Journal covered every activity of women during the Great War, will +always remain one of the magazine's most noteworthy achievements. This +can be said without reserve here, since the credit is due to no single +person; it was the combined, careful work of its entire staff, weighing +every step before it was taken, looking as clearly into the future as +circumstances made possible, and always seeking the most authoritative +sources of information. + +Bok merely directed. Each month, before his magazine went to press, he +sought counsel and vision from at least one of three of the highest +sources; and upon this guidance, as authoritative as anything could be +in times of war when no human vision can actually foretell what the next +day will bring forth, he acted. The result, as one now looks back upon +it, was truly amazing; an uncanny timeliness would often color material +on publication day. Of course, much of this was due to the close +government co-operation, so generously and painstakingly given. + +With the establishment of the various war boards in Washington, Bok +received overtures to associate himself exclusively with them and move +to the capital. He sought the best advice and with his own instincts +pointing in the same way, he decided that he could give his fullest +service by retaining his editorial position and adding to that such +activities as his leisure allowed. He undertook several private +commissions for the United States Government, and then he was elected +vice-president of the Philadelphia Belgian Relief Commission. + +With the Belgian consul-general for the United States, Mr. Paul +Hagemans, as the president of the Commission, and guided by his intimate +knowledge of the Belgian people, Bok selected a committee of the ablest +buyers and merchants in the special lines of foods which he would have +to handle. The Commission raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, with +which it purchased foods and chartered ships. The quantities of food ran +into prodigious figures; Bok felt that he was feeding the world; and yet +when the holds of the ships began to take in the thousands of crates of +canned goods, the bags of peas and beans, and the endless tins of +condensed milk, it was amazing how the piled-up boxes melted from the +piers and the ship-holds yawned for more. Flour was sent in seemingly +endless hundreds of barrels. + +Each line of goods was bought by a specialist on the Committee at the +lowest quantity prices; and the result was that the succession of ships +leaving the port of Philadelphia was a credit to the generosity of the +people of the city and the commonwealth. The Commission delegated one of +its members to go to Belgium and personally see that the food actually +reached the needy Belgian people. + +In September, 1917, word was received from John R. Mott that Bok had +been appointed State chairman for the Y. M. C. A. War Work Council for +Pennsylvania; that a country-wide campaign for twenty-five million +dollars would be launched six weeks hence, and that Pennsylvania's quota +was three millions of dollars. He was to set up an organization +throughout the State, conduct the drive from Philadelphia, speak at +various centres in Pennsylvania, and secure the allocated quota. Bok +knew little or nothing about the work of the Y. M. C. A.; he accordingly +went to New York headquarters and familiarized himself with the work +being done and proposed; and then began to set up his State machinery. +The drive came off as scheduled, Pennsylvania doubled its quota, +subscribing six instead of three millions of dollars, and of this was +collected five million eight hundred and twenty-nine thousand +dollars--almost one hundred per cent. + +Bok, who was now put on the National War Work Council of the Y. M. C. A. +at New York, was asked to take part in the creation of the machinery +necessary for the gigantic piece of work that the organization had been +called upon by the President of the United States to do. It was a +herculean task; practically impossible with any large degree of +efficiency in view of the almost insurmountable obstacles to be +contended with. But step by step the imperfect machinery was set up, and +it began to function in the home camps. Then the overseas work was +introduced by the first troops going to France, and the difficulties +increased a hundredfold. + +But Bok's knowledge of the workings of the government departments at +Washington, the war boards, and the other war-work organizations soon +convinced him that the Y. M. C. A. was not the only body, asked to set +up an organization almost overnight, that was staggering under its load +and falling down as often as it was functioning. + +The need for Y. M. C. A. secretaries overseas and in the camps soon +became acute, and Bok was appointed chairman of the Philadelphia +Recruiting Committee. As in the case of his Belgian relief work, he at +once surrounded himself with an able committee: this time composed of +business and professional men trained in a knowledge of human nature in +the large, and of wide acquaintance in the city. Simultaneously, Bok +secured the release of one of the ablest men in the Y. M. C. A. service +in New York, Edward S. Wilkinson, who became the permanent secretary of +the Philadelphia Committee. Bok organized a separate committee composed +of automobile manufacturers to recruit for chauffeurs and mechanicians; +another separate committee recruited for physical directors, and later a +third committee recruited for women. + +The work was difficult because the field of selection was limited. No +men between the military ages could be recruited; the War Boards at +Washington had drawn heavily upon the best men of the city; the +slightest physical defect barred out a man, on account of the exposure +and strain of the Y. M. C. A. work; the residue was not large. + +It was scarcely to be wondered at that so many incompetent secretaries +had been passed and sent over to France. How could it have been +otherwise with the restricted selection? But the Philadelphia Committee +was determined, nevertheless, that its men should be of the best, and it +decided that to get a hundred men of unquestioned ability would be to do +a greater job than to send over two hundred men of indifferent quality. +The Committee felt that enough good men were still in Philadelphia and +the vicinity, if they could be pried loose from their business and home +anchorages, and that it was rather a question of incessant work than an +impossible task. + +Bok took large advertising spaces in the Philadelphia newspapers, asking +for men of exceptional character to go to France in the service of the +Y. M. C. A.; and members of the Committee spoke before the different +commercial bodies at their noon luncheons. The applicants now began to +come, and the Committee began its discriminating selection. Each +applicant was carefully questioned by the secretary before he appeared +before the Committee, which held sittings twice a week. Hence of over +twenty-five hundred applicants, only three hundred appeared before the +Committee, of whom two hundred and fifty-eight were passed and sent +overseas. + +The Committee's work was exceptionally successful; it soon proved of so +excellent a quality as to elicit a cabled request from Paris +headquarters to send more men of the Philadelphia type. The secret of +this lay in the sterling personnel of the Committee itself, and its +interpretation of the standards required; and so well did it work that +when Bok left for the front to be absent from Philadelphia for ten +weeks, his Committee, with Thomas W. Hulme, of the Pennsylvania +Railroad, acting as Chairman, did some of its best work. + +The after-results, according to the report of the New York headquarters, +showed that no Y. M. C. A. recruiting committee had equalled the work of +the Philadelphia committee in that its men, in point of service, had +proved one hundred per cent secretaries. With two exceptions, the entire +two hundred and fifty-eight men passed, brought back one hundred per +cent records, some of them having been placed in the most important +posts abroad and having given the most difficult service. The work of +the other Philadelphia committees, particularly that of the Women's +Committee, was equally good. + +To do away with the multiplicity of "drives," rapidly becoming a drain +upon the efforts of the men engaged in them, a War Chest Committee was +now formed in Philadelphia and vicinity to collect money for all the +war-work agencies. Bok was made a member of the Executive Committee, and +chairman of the Publicity Committee. In May, 1918, a campaign for twenty +millions of dollars was started; the amount was subscribed, and although +much of it had to be collected after the armistice, since the +subscriptions were in twelve monthly payments, a total of fifteen and a +half million dollars was paid in and turned over to the different +agencies. + +Bok, who had been appointed one of the Boy Scout commissioners in his +home district of Merion, saw the possibilities of the Boy Scouts in the +Liberty Loan and other campaigns. Working in co-operation with the other +commissioners, and the scoutmaster of the Merion Troop, Bok supported +the boys in their work in each campaign as it came along. Although there +were in the troop only nine boys, in ages ranging from twelve to +fourteen years--Bok's younger son was one of them--so effectively did +these youngsters work under the inspiration of the scoutmaster, Thomas +Dun Belfield, that they soon attracted general attention and acquired +distinction as one of the most efficient troops in the vicinity of +Philadelphia. They won nearly all the prizes offered in their vicinity, +and elicited the special approval of the Secretary of the Treasury. + +Although only "gleaners" in most of the campaigns--that is, working only +in the last three days after the regular committees had scoured the +neighborhood--these Merion Boy Scouts sold over one million four hundred +thousand dollars in Liberty Bonds, and raised enough money in the Y. M. +C. A. campaign to erect one of the largest huts in France for the army +boys, and a Y. M. C. A. gymnasium at the League Island Navy Yard +accommodating two thousand sailor-boys. + +In the summer of 1918, the eight leading war-work agencies, excepting +the Red Cross, were merged, for the purpose of one drive for funds, into +the United War Work Campaign, and Bok was made chairman for +Pennsylvania. In November a country-wide campaign was launched, the +quota for Pennsylvania being twenty millions of dollars--the largest +amount ever asked of the commonwealth. Bok organized a committee of the +representative men of Pennsylvania, and proceeded to set up the +machinery to secure the huge sum. He had no sooner done this, however, +than he had to sail for France, returning only a month before the +beginning of the campaign. + +But the efficient committee had done its work; upon his return Bok found +the organization complete. On the first day of the campaign, the false +rumor that an armistice had been signed made the raising of the large +amount seem almost hopeless; furthermore, owing to the influenza raging +throughout the commonwealth, no public meetings had been permitted or +held. Still, despite all these obstacles, not only was the twenty +millions subscribed but oversubscribed to the extent of nearly a million +dollars; and in face of the fact that every penny of this large total +had to be collected after the signing of the armistice, twenty millions +of dollars was paid in and turned over to the war agencies. + +It is indeed a question whether any single war act on the part of the +people of Pennsylvania redounds so highly to their credit as this +marvellous evidence of patriotic generosity. It was one form of +patriotism to subscribe so huge a sum while the war was on and the guns +were firing; it was quite another and a higher patriotism to subscribe +and pay such a sum after the war was over! + +Bok's position as State chairman of the United War Work Campaign made it +necessary for him to follow authoritatively and closely the work of each +of the eight different organizations represented in the fund. Because he +felt he had to know what the Knights of Columbus, the Salvation Army, +the Y. W. C. A., and the others were doing with the money he had been +instrumental in collecting, and for which he felt, as chairman, +responsible to the people of Pennsylvania, he learned to know their work +just as thoroughly as he knew what the Y. M. C. A. was doing. + +He had now seen and come into personal knowledge of the work of the Y. +M. C. A. from his Philadelphia point of vantage, with his official +connection with it at New York headquarters; he had seen the work as it +was done in the London and Paris headquarters; and he had seen the +actual work in the American camps, the English rest-camps, back of the +French lines, in the trenches, and as near the firing-line as he had +been permitted to go. + +He had, in short, seen the Y. M. C. A. function from every angle, but he +had also seen the work of the other organizations in England and France, +back of the lines and in the trenches. He found them all +faulty--necessarily so. Each had endeavored to create an organization +within an incredibly short space of time and in the face of adverse +circumstances. Bok saw at once that the charge that the Y. M. C. A. was +"falling down" in its work was as false as that the Salvation Army was +doing "a marvellous work" and that the K. of C. was "efficient where +others were incompetent," and that the Y. W. C. A. was "nowhere to be +seen." + +The Salvation Army was unquestionably doing an excellent piece of work +within a most limited area; it could not be on a wider scale, when one +considered the limited personnel it had at its command. The work of the +K. of C. was not a particle more or less efficient than the work of the +other organizations. What it did, it strove to do well, but so did the +others. The Y. W. C. A. made little claim about its work in France, +since the United States Government would not, until nearly at the close +of the war, allow women to be sent over in the uniforms of any of the +war-work organizations. But no one can gainsay for a single moment the +efficient service rendered by the Y. W. C. A. in its hostess-house work +in the American camps; that work alone would have entitled it to the +support of the American people. That of the Y. M. C. A. was on so large +a scale that naturally its inefficiency was often in proportion to its +magnitude. + +Bok was in France when the storm of criticism against the Y. M. C. A. +broke out, and, as State chairman for Pennsylvania, it was his duty to +meet the outcry when it came over to the United States. That the work of +the Y. M. C. A. was faulty no one can deny. Bok saw the "holes" long +before they were called to the attention of the public, but he also saw +the almost impossible task, in face of prevailing difficulties, of +caulking them up. No one who was not in France can form any conception +of the practically insurmountable obstacles against which all the +war-work organizations worked; and the larger the work the greater were +the obstacles, naturally. That the Y. M. C. A. and the other similar +agencies made mistakes is not the wonder so much as that they did not +make more. The real marvel is that they did so much efficient work. For +after we get a little farther away from the details and see the work of +these agencies in its broader aspects, when we forget the lapses--which, +after all, though irritating and regrettable, were not major--the record +as a whole will stand as a most signal piece of volunteer service. + +What was actually accomplished was nothing short of marvellous; and it +is this fact that must be borne in mind; not the omissions, but the +commissions. And when the American public gets that point of view--as it +will, and, for that matter, is already beginning to do--the work of the +American Y. M. C. A. will no longer suffer for its omissions, but will +amaze and gladden by its accomplishments. As an American officer of high +rank said to Bok at Chaumont headquarters: "The mind cannot take in what +the war would have been without the 'Y.'" And that, in time, will be the +universal American opinion, extended, in proportion to their work, to +all the war-work agencies and the men and women who endured, suffered, +and were killed in their service. + + + + +XXXV. At the Battle-Fronts in the Great War + + +It was in the summer of 1918 that Edward Bok received from the British +Government, through its department of public information, of which Lord +Beaverbrook was the minister, an invitation to join a party of thirteen +American editors to visit Great Britain and France. The British +Government, not versed in publicity methods, was anxious that selected +parties of American publicists should see, personally, what Great +Britain had done, and was doing in the war; and it had decided to ask a +few individuals to pay personal visits to its munition factories, its +great aerodromes, its Great Fleet, which then lay in the Firth of Forth, +and to the battle-fields. It was understood that no specific obligation +rested upon any member of the party to write of what he saw: he was +asked simply to observe and then, with discretion, use his observations +for his own guidance and information in future writing. In fact, each +member was explicitly told that much of what he would see could not be +revealed either personally or in print. + +The party embarked in August amid all the attendant secrecy of war +conditions. The steamer was known only by a number, although later it +turned out to be the White Star liner, Adriatic. Preceded by a powerful +United States cruiser, flanked by destroyers, guided overhead by +observation balloons, the Adriatic was found to be the first ship in a +convoy of sixteen other ships with thirty thousand United States troops +on board. + +It was a veritable Armada that steamed out of lower New York harbor on +that early August morning, headed straight into the rising sun. But it +was a voyage of unpleasant war reminders, with life-savers carried every +moment of the day, with every light out at night, with every window and +door as if hermetically sealed so that the stuffy cabins deprived of +sleep those accustomed to fresh air, with over sixty army men and +civilians on watch at night, with life-drills each day, with lessons as +to behavior in life-boats; and with a fleet of eighteen British +destroyers meeting the convoy upon its approach to the Irish Coast after +a thirteen days' voyage of constant anxiety. No one could say he +travelled across the Atlantic Ocean in war days for pleasure, and no one +did. + +Once ashore, the party began a series of inspections of munition plants, +ship-yards, aeroplane factories and of meetings with the different +members of the English War Cabinet. Luncheons and dinners were the order +of each day until broken by a journey to Edinburgh to see the amazing +Great Fleet, with the addition of six of the foremost fighting machines +of the United States Navy, all straining like dogs at leash, awaiting an +expected dash from the bottled-up German fleet. It was a formidable +sight, perhaps never equalled: those lines of huge, menacing, and yet +protecting fighting machines stretching down the river for miles, all +conveying the single thought of the power and extent of the British Navy +and its formidable character as a fighting unit. + +It was upon his return to London that Bok learned, through the +confidence of a member of the British "inner circle," the amazing news +that the war was practically over: that Bulgaria had capitulated and was +suing for peace; that two of the Central Power provinces had indicated +their strong desire that the war should end; and that the first peace +intimations had gone to the President of the United States. All +diplomatic eyes were turned toward Washington. Yet not a hint of the +impending events had reached the public. The Germans were being beaten +back, that was known; it was evident that the morale of the German army +was broken; that Foch had turned the tide toward victory; but even the +best-informed military authorities outside of the inner diplomatic +circles, predicted that the war would last until the spring of 1919, +when a final "drive" would end it. Yet, at that very moment, the end of +the war was in sight! + +Next Bok went to France to visit the battle-fields. It was arranged that +the party should first, under guidance of British officers, visit back +of the British lines; and then, successively, be turned over to the +American and French Governments, and visit the operations back of their +armies. + +It is an amusing fact that although each detail of officers delegated to +escort the party "to the front" received the most explicit instructions +from their superior officers to take the party only to the quiet sectors +where there was no fighting going on, each detail from the three +governments successively brought the party directly under shell-fire, +and each on the first day of the "inspection." It was unconsciously +done: the officers were as much amazed to find themselves under fire as +were the members of the party, except that the latter did not feel the +responsibility to an equal degree. The officers, in each case, were +plainly worried: the editors were intensely interested. + +They were depressing trips through miles and miles of devastated +villages and small cities. From two to three days each were spent in +front-line posts on the Amiens-Bethune, Albert-Peronne, +Bapaume-Soissons, St. Mihiel, and back of the Argonne sectors. Often, +the party was the first civilian group to enter a town evacuated only a +week before, and all the horrible evidence of bloody warfare was fresh +and plain. Bodies of German soldiers lay in the trenches where they had +fallen; wired bombs were on every hand, so that no object could be +touched that lay on the battle-fields; the streets of some of the towns +were still mined, so that no automobiles could enter; the towns were +deserted, the streets desolate. It was an appalling panorama of the most +frightful results of war. + +The picturesqueness and romance of the war of picture books were +missing. To stand beside an English battery of thirty guns laying a +barrage as they fired their shells to a point ten miles distant, made +one feel as if one were an actual part of real warfare, and yet far +removed from it, until the battery was located from the enemy's "sausage +observation"; then the shells from the enemy fired a return salvo, and +the better part of valor was discretion a few miles farther back. + +The amazing part of the "show," however, was the American doughboy. +Never was there a more cheerful, laughing, good-natured set of boys in +the world; never a more homesick, lonely, and complaining set. But good +nature predominated, and the smile was always uppermost, even when the +moment looked the blackest, the privations were worst, and the longing +for home the deepest. + +Bok had been talking to a boy who lived near his own home, who was on +his way to the front and "over the top" in the Argonne mess. Three days +afterward, at a hospital base where a hospital train was just +discharging its load of wounded, Bok walked among the boys as they lay +on their stretchers on the railroad platform waiting for bearers to +carry them into the huts. As he approached one stretcher, a cheery voice +called, "Hello, Mr. Bok. Here I am again." + +It was the boy he had left just seventy-two hours before hearty and +well. + +"Well, my boy, you weren't in it long, were you?" + +"No, sir," answered the boy; "Fritzie sure got me first thing. Hadn't +gone a hundred yards over the top. Got a cigarette?" (the invariable +question). + +Bok handed a cigarette to the boy, who then said: "Mind sticking it in +my mouth?" Bok did so and then offered him a light; the boy continued, +all with his wonderful smile: "If you don't mind, would you just light +it? You see, Fritzie kept both of my hooks as souvenirs." + +With both arms amputated, the boy could still jest and smile! + +It was the same boy who on his hospital cot the next day said: "Don't +you think you could do something for the chap next to me, there on my +left? He's really suffering: cried like hell all last night. It would be +a Godsend if you could get Doc to do something." + +A promise was given that the surgeon should be seen at once, but the boy +was asked: "How about you?" + +"Oh," came the cheerful answer, "I'm all right. I haven't anything to +hurt. My wounded members are gone--just plain gone. But that chap has +got something--he got the real thing!" + +What was the real thing according to such a boy's idea? + +There were beautiful stories that one heard "over there." One of the +most beautiful acts of consideration was told, later, of a lovable boy +whose throat had been practically shot away. During his convalescence he +had learned the art of making beaded bags. It kept him from talking, the +main prescription. But one day he sold the bag which he had first made +to a visitor, and with his face radiant with glee he sought the +nurse-mother to tell her all about his good fortune. Of course, nothing +but a series of the most horrible guttural sounds came from the boy: not +a word could be understood. It was his first venture into the world with +the loss of his member, and the nurse-mother could not find it in her +heart to tell the boy that not a word which he spoke was understandable. +With eyes full of tears she placed both of her hands on the boy's +shoulders and said to him: "I am so sorry, my boy. I cannot understand a +word you say to me. You evidently do not know that I am totally deaf. +Won't you write what you want to tell me?" + +A look of deepest compassion swept the face of the boy. To think that +one could be so afflicted, and yet so beautifully tender and always so +radiantly cheerful, he wrote her. + +Pathos and humor followed rapidly one upon the other "at the front" in +those gruesome days, and Bok was to have his spirits lightened somewhat +by an incident of the next day. He found himself in one of the numerous +little towns where our doughboys were billeted, some in the homes of the +peasants, others in stables, barns, outhouses, lean-tos, and what not. +These were the troops on their way to the front where the fighting in +the Argonne Forest was at that time going on. As Bok was walking with an +American officer, the latter pointed to a doughboy crossing the road, +followed by as disreputable a specimen of a pig as he had ever seen. +Catching Bok's smile, the officer said: "That's Pinney and his porker. +Where you see the one you see the other." + +Bok caught up with the boy, and said: "Found a friend, I see, Buddy?" + +"I sure have," grinned the doughboy, "and it sticks closer than a poor +relation, too." + +"Where did you pick it up?" + +"Oh, in there," said the soldier, pointing to a dilapidated barn. + +"Why in there?" + +"My home," grinned the boy. + +"Let me see," said Bok, and the doughboy took him in with the pig +following close behind. "Billeted here--been here six days. The pig was +here when we came, and the first night I lay down and slept, it came up +to me and stuck its snout in my face and woke me up. Kind enough, all +right, but not very comfortable: it stinks so." + +"Yes; it certainly does. What did you do?" + +"Oh, I got some grub I had and gave it to eat: thought it might be +hungry, you know. I guess that sort of settled it, for the next night it +came again and stuck its snout right in my mug. I turned around, but it +just climbed over me and there it was." + +"Well, what did you do then? Chase it out?" + +"Chase it out?" said the doughboy, looking into Bok's face with the most +unaffected astonishment. "Why, mister, that's a mother-pig, that is. +She's going to have young ones in a few days. How could I chase her +out?" + +"You're quite right, Buddy," said Bok. "You couldn't do that." + +"Oh, no," said the boy. "The worst of it is, what am I going to do with +her when we move up within a day or two? I can't take her along to the +front, and I hate to leave her here. Some one might treat her rough." + +"Captain," said Bok, hailing the officer, "you can attend to that, can't +you, when the time comes?" + +"I sure can, and I sure will," answered the Captain. And with a quick +salute, Pinney and his porker went off across the road! + +Bok was standing talking to the commandant of one of the great French +army supply depots one morning. He was a man of forty; a colonel in the +regular French army. An erect, sturdy-looking man with white hair and +mustache, and who wore the single star of a subaltern on his sleeve, +came up, saluted, delivered a message, and then asked: + +"Are there any more orders, sir?" + +"No," was the reply. + +He brought his heels together with a click, saluted again, and went +away. + +The commandant turned to Bok with a peculiar smile on his face and +asked: + +"Do you know who that man is?" + +"No," was the reply. + +"That is my father," was the answer. + +The father was then exactly seventy-two years old. He was a retired +business man when the war broke out. After two years of the heroic +struggle he decided that he couldn't keep out of it. He was too old to +fight, but after long insistence he secured a commission. By one of the +many curious coincidences of the war he was assigned to serve under his +own son. + +When under the most trying conditions, the Americans never lost their +sense of fun. On the staff of a prison hospital in Germany, where a +number of captured American soldiers were being treated, a German +sergeant became quite friendly with the prisoners under his care. One +day he told them that he had been ordered to active service on the +front. He felt convinced that he would be captured by the English, and +asked the Americans if they would not give him some sort of testimonial +which he could show if he were taken prisoner, so that he would not be +ill-treated. + +The Americans were much amused at this idea, and concocted a note of +introduction, written in English. The German sergeant knew no English +and could not understand his testimonial, but he tucked it in his +pocket, well satisfied. + +In due time, he was sent to the front and was captured by "the ladies +from hell," as the Germans called the Scotch kilties. He at once +presented his introduction, and his captors laughed heartily when they +read: + +"This is L--. He is not a bad sort of chap. Don't shoot him; torture him +slowly to death." + +One evening as Bok was strolling out after dinner a Red Cross nurse came +to him, explained that she had two severely wounded boys in what +remained of an old hut: that they were both from Pennsylvania, and had +expressed a great desire to see him as a resident of their State. + +"Neither can possibly survive the night," said the nurse. + +"They know that?" asked Bok. + +"Oh, yes, but like all our boys they are lying there joking with each +other." + +Bok was taken into what remained of a room in a badly shelled farmhouse, +and there, on two roughly constructed cots, lay the two boys. Their +faces had been bandaged so that nothing was visible except the eyes of +each boy. A candle in a bottle standing on a box gave out the only +light. But the eyes of the boys were smiling as Bok came in and sat down +on the box on which the nurse had been sitting. He talked with the boys, +got as much of their stories from them as he could, and told them such +home news as he thought might interest them. + +After half an hour he arose to leave, when the nurse said: "There is no +one here, Mr. Bok, to say the last words to these boys. Will you do it?" +Bok stood transfixed. In sending men over in the service of the Y. M. C. +A. he had several times told them to be ready for any act that they +might be asked to render, even the most sacred one. And here he stood +himself before that duty. He felt as if he stood stripped before his +Maker. Through the glassless window the sky lit up constantly with the +flashes of the guns, and then followed the booming of a shell as it +landed. + +"Yes, won't you, sir?" asked the boy on the right cot as he held out his +hand. Bok took it, and then the hand of the other boy reached out. + +What to say, he did not know. Then, to his surprise, he heard himself +repeating extract after extract from a book by Lyman Abbott called The +Other Room, a message to the bereaved declaring the non-existence of +death, but that we merely move from this earth to another: from one room +to another, as it were. Bok had not read the book for years, but here +was the subconscious self supplying the material for him in his moment +of greatest need. Then he remembered that just before leaving home he +had heard sung at matins, after the prayer for the President, a +beautiful song called "Passing Souls." He had asked the rector for a +copy of it; and, wondering why, he had put it in his wallet that he +carried with him. He took it out now and holding the hand of the boy at +his right, he read to them: + + For the passing souls we pray, + Saviour, meet them on their way; + Let their trust lay hold on Thee + Ere they touch eternity. + + Holy counsels long forgot + Breathe again 'mid shell and shot; + Through the mist of life's last pain + None shall look to Thee in vain. + + To the hearts that know Thee, Lord, + Thou wilt speak through flood or sword; + Just beyond the cannon's roar, + Thou art on the farther shore. + + For the passing souls we pray, + Saviour, meet them on the way; + Thou wilt hear our yearning call, + Who hast loved and died for all. + +Absolute stillness reigned in the room save for the half-suppressed sob +from the nurse and the distant booming of the cannon. As Bok finished, +he heard the boy at his right say slowly: "Saviour-meet-me-on-my-way": +with a little emphasis on the word "my." The hand in his relaxed slowly, +and then fell on the cot; and he saw that the soul of another brave +American boy had "gone West." + +Bok glanced at the other boy, reached for his hand, shook it, and +looking deep into his eyes, he left the little hut. + +He little knew where and how he was to look into those eyes again! + +Feeling the need of air in order to get hold of himself after one of the +most solemn moments of his visit to the front, Bok strolled out, and +soon found himself on what only a few days before had been a field of +carnage where the American boys had driven back the Germans. Walking in +the trenches and looking out, in the clear moonlight, over the field of +desolation and ruin, and thinking of the inferno that had been enacted +there only so recently, he suddenly felt his foot rest on what seemed to +be a soft object. Taking his "ever-ready" flash from his pocket, he shot +a ray at his feet, only to realize that his foot was resting on the face +of a dead German! + +Bok had had enough for one evening! In fact, he had had enough of war in +all its aspects; and he felt a sigh of relief when, a few days +thereafter, he boarded The Empress of Asia for home, after a ten-weeks +absence. + +He hoped never again to see, at first hand, what war meant! + + + + +XXXVI. The End of Thirty Years' Editorship + + +On the voyage home, Edward Bok decided that, now the war was over, he +would ask his company to release him from the editorship of The Ladies' +Home Journal. His original plan had been to retire at the end of a +quarter of a century of editorship, when in his fiftieth year. He was, +therefore, six years behind his schedule. In October, 1919, he would +reach his thirtieth anniversary as editor, and he fixed upon this as an +appropriate time for the relinquishment of his duties. + +He felt he had carried out the conditions under which the editorship of +the magazine had been transferred to him by Mrs. Curtis, that he had +brought them to fruition, and that any further carrying on of the +periodical by him would be of a supplementary character. He had, too, +realized his hope of helping to create a national institution of service +to the American woman, and he felt that his part in the work was done. + +He considered carefully where he would leave an institution which the +public had so thoroughly associated with his personality, and he felt +that at no point in its history could he so safely transfer it to other +hands. The position of the magazine in the public estimation was +unquestioned; it had never been so strong. Its circulation not only had +outstripped that of any other monthly periodical, but it was still +growing so rapidly that it was only a question of a few months when it +would reach the almost incredible mark of two million copies per month. +With its advertising patronage exceeding that of any other monthly, the +periodical had become, probably, the most valuable and profitable piece +of magazine property in the world. + +The time might never come again when all conditions would be equally +favorable to a change of editorship. The position of the magazine was so +thoroughly assured that its progress could hardly be affected by the +retirement of one editor, and the accession of another. There was a +competent editorial staff, the members of which had been with the +periodical from ten to thirty years each. This staff had been a very +large factor in the success of the magazine. While Bok had furnished the +initiative and supplied the directing power, a large part of the +editorial success of the magazine was due to the staff. It could carry +on the magazine without his guidance. + +Moreover, Bok wished to say good-bye to his public before it decided, +for some reason or other, to say good-bye to him. He had no desire to +outstay his welcome. That public had been wonderfully indulgent toward +his shortcomings, lenient with his errors, and tremendously inspiring to +his best endeavor. He would not ask too much of it. Thirty years was a +long tenure of office, one of the longest, in point of consecutively +active editorship, in the history of American magazines. + +He had helped to create and to put into the life of the American home a +magazine of peculiar distinction. From its beginning it had been unlike +any other periodical; it had always retained its individuality as a +magazine apart from the others. It had sought to be something more than +a mere assemblage of stories and articles. It had consistently stood for +ideals; and, save in one or two instances, it had carried through what +it undertook to achieve. It had a record of worthy accomplishment; a +more fruitful record than many imagined. It had become a national +institution such as no other magazine had ever been. It was indisputably +accepted by the public and by business interests alike as the recognized +avenue of approach to the intelligent homes of America. + +Edward Bok was content to leave it at this point. + +He explained all this in December, 1918, to the Board of Directors, and +asked that his resignation be considered. It was understood that he was +to serve out his thirty years, thus remaining with the magazine for the +best part of another year. + +In the material which The Journal now included in its contents, it began +to point the way to the problems which would face women during the +reconstruction period. Bok scanned the rather crowded field of thought +very carefully, and selected for discussion in the magazine such +questions as seemed to him most important for the public to understand +in order to face and solve its impending problems. The outstanding +question he saw which would immediately face men and women of the +country was the problem of Americanization. The war and its +after-effects had clearly demonstrated this to be the most vital need in +the life of the nation, not only for the foreign-born but for the +American as well. + +The more one studied the problem the clearer it became that the vast +majority of American-born needed a refreshing, and, in many cases, a new +conception of American ideals as much as did the foreign-born, and that +the latter could never be taught what America and its institutions stood +for until they were more clearly defined in the mind of the men and +women of American birth. + +Bok went to Washington, consulted with Franklin K. Lane, secretary of +the interior, of whose department the Government Bureau of +Americanization was a part. A comprehensive series of articles was +outlined; the most expert writer, Esther Everett Lape, who had several +years of actual experience in Americanization work, was selected; +Secretary Lane agreed personally to read and pass upon the material, and +to assume the responsibility for its publication. + +With the full and direct co-operation of the Federal Bureau of +Americanization, the material was assembled and worked up with the +result that, in the opinion of the director of the Federal Bureau, the +series proved to be the most comprehensive exposition of practical +Americanization adapted to city, town, and village, thus far published. + +The work on this series was one of the last acts of Edward Bok's +editorship; and it was peculiarly gratifying to him that his editorial +work should end with the exposition of that Americanization of which he +himself was a product. It seemed a fitting close to the career of a +foreign-born Americanized editor. + +The scope of the reconstruction articles now published, and the clarity +of vision shown in the selection of the subjects, gave a fresh impetus +to the circulation of the magazine; and now that the government's +embargo on the use of paper had been removed, the full editions of the +periodical could again be printed. The public responded instantly. + +The result reached phenomenal figures. The last number under Bok's full +editorial control was the issue of October, 1919. This number was +oversold with a printed edition of two million copies--a record never +before achieved by any magazine. This same issue presented another +record unattained in any single number of any periodical in the world. +It carried between its covers the amazing total of over one million +dollars in advertisements. + +This was the psychological point at which to stop. And Edward Bok did. +Although his official relation as editor did not terminate until +January, 1920, when the number which contained his valedictory editorial +was issued, his actual editorship ceased on September 22, 1919. On that +day he handed over the reins to his successor. + +As Bok was, on that day, about to leave his desk for the last time, it +was announced that a young soldier whom he "had met and befriended in +France" was waiting to see him. When the soldier walked into the office +he was to Bok only one of the many whom he had met on the other side. +But as the boy shook hands with him and said: "I guess you do not +remember me, Mr. Bok," there was something in the eyes into which he +looked that startled him. And then, in a flash, the circumstances under +which he had last seen those eyes came to him. + +"Good heavens, my boy, you are not one of those two boys in the little +hut that I--" + +"To whom you read the poem 'Passing Souls,' that evening. Yes, sir, I'm +the boy who had hold of your left hand. My bunkie, Ben, went West that +same evening, you remember." + +"Yes," replied the editor, "I remember; I remember only too well," and +again Bok felt the hand in his relax, drop from his own, and heard the +words: "Saviour-meet-me-on-my way." + +The boy's voice brought Bok back to the moment. + +"It's wonderful you should remember me; my face was all bound up--I +guess you couldn't see anything but my eyes." + +"Just the eyes, that's right," said Bok. "But they burned into me all +right, my boy." + +"I don't think I get you, sir," said the boy. + +"No, you wouldn't," Bok replied. "You couldn't, boy, not until you're +older. But, tell me, how in the world did you ever get out of it?" + +"Well, sir," answered the boy, with that shyness which we all have come +to know in the boys who actually did, "I guess it was a close call, all +right. But just as you left us, a hospital corps happened to come along +on its way to the back and Miss Nelson--the nurse, you remember?--she +asked them to take me along. They took me to a wonderful hospital, gave +me fine care, and then after a few weeks they sent me back to the +States, and I've been in a hospital over here ever since. Now, except +for this thickness of my voice that you notice, which Doc says will be +all right soon, I'm fit again. The government has given me a job, and I +came here on leave just to see my parents up-State, and I thought I'd +like you to know that I didn't go West after all." + +Fifteen minutes later, Edward Bok left his editorial office for the last +time. + +But as he went home his thoughts were not of his last day at the office, +nor of his last acts as editor, but of his last caller--the soldier-boy +whom he had left seemingly so surely on his way "West," and whose eyes +had burned into his memory on that fearful night a year before! + +Strange that this boy should have been his last visitor! + +As John Drinkwater, in his play, makes Abraham Lincoln say to General +Grant: + +"It's a queer world!" + + + + +XXXVII. The Third Period + + +The announcement of Edward Bok's retirement came as a great surprise to +his friends. Save for one here and there, who had a clearer vision, the +feeling was general that he had made a mistake. He was fifty-six, in the +prime of life, never in better health, with "success lying easily upon +him"--said one; "at the very summit of his career," said another--and +all agreed it was "queer," "strange,"--unless, they argued, he was +really ill. Even the most acute students of human affairs among his +friends wondered. It seemed incomprehensible that any man should want to +give up before he was, for some reason, compelled to do so. A man should +go on until he "dropped in the harness," they argued. + +Bok agreed that any man had a perfect right to work until he did "drop +in the harness." But, he argued, if he conceded this right to others, +why should they not concede to him the privilege of dropping with the +blinders off? + +"But," continued the argument, "a man degenerates when he retires from +active affairs." And then, instances were pointed out as notable +examples. "A year of retirement and he was through," was the picture +given of one retired man. "In two years, he was glad to come back," and +so the examples ran on. "No big man ever retired from active business +and did great work afterwards," Bok was told. + +"No?" he answered. "Not even Cyrus W. Field or Herbert Hoover?" + +And all this time Edward Bok's failure to be entirely Americanized was +brought home to his consciousness. After fifty years, he was still not +an American! He had deliberately planned, and then had carried out his +plan, to retire while he still had the mental and physical capacity to +enjoy the fruits of his years of labor! For foreign to the American way +of thinking it certainly was: the protestations and arguments of his +friends proved that to him. After all, he was still Dutch; he had held +on to the lesson which his people had learned years ago; that the people +of other European countries had learned; that the English had +discovered: that the Great Adventure of Life was something more than +material work, and that the time to go is while the going is good! + +For it cannot be denied that the pathetic picture we so often see is +found in American business life more frequently than in that of any +other land: men unable to let go--not only for their own good, but to +give the younger men behind them an opportunity. Not that a man should +stop work, for man was born to work, and in work he should find his +greatest refreshment. But so often it does not occur to the man in a +pivotal position to question the possibility that at sixty or seventy he +can keep steadily in touch with a generation whose ideas are controlled +by men twenty years younger. Unconsciously he hangs on beyond his +greatest usefulness and efficiency: he convinces himself that he is +indispensable to his business, while, in scores of cases, the business +would be distinctly benefited by his retirement and the consequent +coming to the front of the younger blood. + +Such a man in a position of importance seems often not to see that he +has it within his power to advance the fortunes of younger men by +stepping out when he has served his time, while by refusing to let go he +often works dire injustice and even disaster to his younger associates. + +The sad fact is that in all too many instances the average American +business man is actually afraid to let go because he realizes that out +of business he should not know what to do. For years he has so excluded +all other interests that at fifty or sixty or seventy he finds himself a +slave to his business, with positively no inner resources. Retirement +from the one thing he does know would naturally leave such a man useless +to himself and his family, and his community: worse than useless, as a +matter of fact, for he would become a burden to himself, a nuisance to +his family, and, when he would begin to write "letters" to the +newspapers, a bore to the community. + +It is significant that a European or English business man rarely reaches +middle age devoid of acquaintance with other matters; he always lets the +breezes from other worlds of thought blow through his ideas, with the +result that when he is ready to retire from business he has other +interests to fall back upon. Fortunately it is becoming less uncommon +for American men to retire from business and devote themselves to other +pursuits; and their number will undoubtedly increase as time goes on, +and we learn the lessons of life with a richer background. But one +cannot help feeling regretful that the custom is not growing more +rapidly. + +A man must unquestionably prepare years ahead for his retirement, not +alone financially, but mentally as well. Bok noticed as a curious fact +that nearly every business man who told him he had made a mistake in his +retirement, and that the proper life for a man is to stick to the game +and see it through--"hold her nozzle agin the bank" as Jim Bludso would +say--was a man with no resources outside his business. Naturally, a +retirement is a mistake in the eyes of such a man; but oh, the pathos of +such a position: that in a world of so much interest, in an age so +fascinatingly full of things worth doing, a man should have allowed +himself to become a slave to his business, and should imagine no other +man happy without the same claims! + +It is this lesson that the American business man has still to learn: +that no man can be wholly efficient in his life, that he is not living a +four-squared existence, if he concentrates every waking thought on his +material affairs. He has still to learn that man cannot live by bread +alone. The making of money, the accumulation of material power, is not +all there is to living. Life is something more than these, and the man +who misses this truth misses the greatest joy and satisfaction that can +come into his life-service for others. + +Some men argue that they can give this service and be in business, too. +But service with such men generally means drawing a check for some +worthy cause, and nothing more. Edward Bok never belittled the giving of +contributions--he solicited too much money himself for the causes in +which he was interested--but it is a poor nature that can satisfy itself +that it is serving humanity by merely signing checks. There is no form +of service more comfortable or so cheap. Real service, however, demands +that a man give himself with his check. And that the average man cannot +do if he remains in affairs. + +Particularly true is this to-day, when every problem of business is so +engrossing, demanding a man's full time and thought. It is the rare man +who can devote himself to business and be fresh for the service of +others afterward. No man can, with efficiency, serve two masters so +exacting as are these. Besides, if his business has seemed important +enough to demand his entire attention, are not the great uplift +questions equally worth his exclusive thought? Are they easier of +solution than the material problems? + +A man can live a life full-square only when he divides it into three +periods: + +First: that of education, acquiring the fullest and best within his +reach and power; + +Second: that of achievement: achieving for himself and his family, and +discharging the first duty of any man, that in case of his incapacity +those who are closest to him are provided for. But such provision does +not mean an accumulation that becomes to those he leaves behind him an +embarrassment rather than a protection. To prevent this, the next period +confronts him: + +Third: Service for others. That is the acid test where many a man falls +short: to know when he has enough, and to be willing not only to let +well enough alone, but to give a helping hand to the other fellow; to +recognize, in a practical way, that we are our brother's keeper; that a +brotherhood of man does exist outside after-dinner speeches. Too many +men make the mistake, when they reach the point of enough, of going on +pursuing the same old game: accumulating more money, grasping for more +power until either a nervous breakdown overtakes them and a sad +incapacity results, or they drop "in the harness," which is, of course, +only calling an early grave by another name. They cannot seem to get the +truth into their heads that as they have been helped by others so should +they now help others: as their means have come from the public, so now +they owe something in turn to that public. + +No man has a right to leave the world no better than he found it. He +must add something to it: either he must make its people better and +happier, or he must make the face of the world fairer to look at. And +the one really means the other. + +"Idealism," immediately say some. Of course, it is. But what is the +matter with idealism? What really is idealism? Do one-tenth of those who +use the phrase so glibly know its true meaning, the part it has played in +the world? The worthy interpretation of an ideal is that it embodies an +idea--a conception of the imagination. All ideas are at first ideals. +They must be. The producer brings forth an idea, but some dreamer has +dreamed it before him either in whole or in part. + +Where would the human race be were it not for the ideals of men? It is +idealists, in a large sense, that this old world needs to-day. Its soil +is sadly in need of new seed. Washington, in his day, was decried as an +idealist. So was Jefferson. It was commonly remarked of Lincoln that he +was a "rank idealist." Morse, Watt, Marconi, Edison--all were, at first, +adjudged idealists. We say of the League of Nations that it is ideal, +and we use the term in a derogatory sense. But that was exactly what was +said of the Constitution of the United States. "Insanely ideal" was the +term used of it. + +The idealist, particularly to-day when there is so great need of him, is +not to be scoffed at. It is through him and only through him that the +world will see a new and clear vision of what is right. It is he who has +the power of going out of himself--that self in which too many are +nowadays so deeply imbedded; it is he who, in seeking the ideal, will, +through his own clearer perception or that of others, transform the +ideal into the real. "Where there is no vision, the people perish." + +It was his remark that he retired because he wanted "to play" that +Edward Bok's friends most completely misunderstood. "Play" in their +minds meant tennis, golf, horseback, polo, travel, etc.--(curious that +scarcely one mentioned reading!). It so happens that no one enjoys some +of these play-forms more than Bok; but "God forbid," he said, "that I +should spend the rest of my days in a bunker or in the saddle. In +moderation," he added, "yes; most decidedly." But the phrase of "play" +meant more to him than all this. Play is diversion: exertion of the mind +as well as of the body. There is such a thing as mental play as well as +physical play. We ask of play that it shall rest, refresh, exhilarate. +Is there any form of mental activity that secures all these ends so +thoroughly and so directly as doing something that a man really likes to +do, doing it with all his heart, all the time conscious that he is +helping to make the world better for some one else? + +A man's "play" can take many forms. If his life has been barren of books +or travel, let him read or see the world. But he reaches his high estate +by either of these roads only when he reads or travels to enrich himself +in order to give out what he gets to enrich the lives of others. He owes +it to himself to get his own refreshment, his own pleasure, but he need +not make that pure self-indulgence. + +Other men, more active in body and mind, feel drawn to the modern arena +of the great questions that puzzle. It matters not in which direction a +man goes in these matters any more than the length of a step matters so +much as does the direction in which the step is taken. He should seek +those questions which engross his deepest interest, whether literary, +musical, artistic, civic, economic, or what not. + +Our cities, towns, communities of all sizes and kinds, urban and rural, +cry out for men to solve their problems. There is room and to spare for +the man of any bent. The old Romans looked forward, on coming to the age +or retirement, which was definitely fixed by rule, to a rural life, when +they hied themselves to a little home in the country, had open house for +their friends, and "kept bees." While bee-keeping is unquestionably +interesting, there are to-day other and more vital occupations awaiting +the retired American. + +The main thing is to secure that freedom of movement that lets a man go +where he will and do what he thinks he can do best, and prove to himself +and to others that the acquirement of the dollar is not all there is to +life. No man can realize, until on awakening some morning he feels the +exhilaration, the sense of freedom that comes from knowing he can choose +his own doings and control his own goings. Time is of more value than +money, and it is that which the man who retires feels that he possesses. +Hamilton Mabie once said, after his retirement from an active editorial +position: "I am so happy that the time has come when I elect what I +shall do," which is true; but then he added: "I have rubbed out the word +'must' from my vocabulary," which was not true. No man ever reaches that +point. Duty of some sort confronts a man in business or out of business, +and duty spells "must." But there is less "must" in the vocabulary of +the retired man; and it is this lessened quantity that gives the tang of +joy to the new day. + +It is a wonderful inner personal satisfaction to reach the point when a +man can say: "I have enough." His soul and character are refreshed by +it: he is made over by it. He begins a new life! he gets a sense of a +new joy; he feels, for the first time, what a priceless possession is +that thing that he never knew before, freedom. And if he seeks that +freedom at the right time, when he is at the summit of his years and +powers and at the most opportune moment in his affairs, he has that +supreme satisfaction denied to so many men, the opposite of which comes +home with such cruel force to them: that they have overstayed their +time: they have worn out their welcome. + +There is no satisfaction that so thoroughly satisfies as that of going +while the going is good. + +Still-- + +The friends of Edward Bok may be right when they said he made a mistake +in his retirement. + +However-- + +As Mr. Dooley says: "It's a good thing, sometimes, to have people size +ye up wrong, Hinnessey: it's whin they've got ye'er measure ye're in +danger." + +Edward Bok's friends have failed to get his measure--yet! + +They still have to learn what he has learned and is learning every day: +"the joy," as Charles Lamb so aptly put it upon his retirement, "of +walking about and around instead of to and fro." + +The question now naturally arises, having read this record thus far: To +what extent, with his unusual opportunities of fifty years, has the +Americanization of Edward Bok gone? How far is he, to-day, an American? +These questions, so direct and personal in their nature, are perhaps +best answered in a way more direct and personal than the method thus far +adopted in this chronicle. We will, therefore, let Edward Bok answer +these questions for himself, in closing this record of his +Americanization. + + + + +XXXVIII. Where America Fell Short with Me + + +When I came to the United States as a lad of six, the most needful +lesson for me, as a boy, was the necessity for thrift. I had been taught +in my home across the sea that thrift was one of the fundamentals in a +successful life. My family had come from a land (the Netherlands) noted +for its thrift; but we had been in the United States only a few days +before the realization came home strongly to my father and mother that +they had brought their children to a land of waste. + +Where the Dutchman saved, the American wasted. There was waste, and the +most prodigal waste, on every hand. In every street-car and on every +ferry-boat the floors and seats were littered with newspapers that had +been read and thrown away or left behind. If I went to a grocery store +to buy a peck of potatoes, and a potato rolled off the heaping measure, +the groceryman, instead of picking it up, kicked it into the gutter for +the wheels of his wagon to run over. The butcher's waste filled my +mother's soul with dismay. If I bought a scuttle of coal at the corner +grocery, the coal that missed the scuttle, instead of being shovelled up +and put back into the bin, was swept into the street. My young eyes +quickly saw this; in the evening I gathered up the coal thus swept away, +and during the course of a week I collected a scuttleful. The first time +my mother saw the garbage pail of a family almost as poor as our own, +with the wife and husband constantly complaining that they could not get +along, she could scarcely believe her eyes. A half pan of hominy of the +preceding day's breakfast lay in the pail next to a third of a loaf of +bread. In later years, when I saw, daily, a scow loaded with the garbage +of Brooklyn householders being towed through New York harbor out to sea, +it was an easy calculation that what was thrown away in a week's time +from Brooklyn homes would feed the poor of the Netherlands. + +At school, I quickly learned that to "save money" was to be "stingy"; as +a young man, I soon found that the American disliked the word "economy," +and on every hand as plenty grew spending grew. There was literally +nothing in American life to teach me thrift or economy; everything to +teach me to spend and to waste. + +I saw men who had earned good salaries in their prime, reach the years +of incapacity as dependents. I saw families on every hand either living +quite up to their means or beyond them; rarely within them. The more a +man earned, the more he--or his wife--spent. I saw fathers and mothers +and their children dressed beyond their incomes. The proportion of +families who ran into debt was far greater than those who saved. When a +panic came, the families "pulled in"; when the panic was over, they "let +out." But the end of one year found them precisely where they were at +the close of the previous year, unless they were deeper in debt. + +It was in this atmosphere of prodigal expenditure and culpable waste +that I was to practise thrift: a fundamental in life! And it is into +this atmosphere that the foreign-born comes now, with every inducement +to spend and no encouragement to save. For as it was in the days of my +boyhood, so it is to-day--only worse. One need only go over the +experiences of the past two years, to compare the receipts of merchants +who cater to the working-classes and the statements of savings-banks +throughout the country, to read the story of how the foreign-born are +learning the habit of criminal wastefulness as taught them by the +American. + +Is it any wonder, then, that in this, one of the essentials in life and +in all success, America fell short with me, as it is continuing to fall +short with every foreign-born who comes to its shores? + +As a Dutch boy, one of the cardinal truths taught me was that whatever +was worth doing was worth doing well: that next to honesty came +thoroughness as a factor in success. It was not enough that anything +should be done: it was not done at all if it was not done well. I came +to America to be taught exactly the opposite. The two infernal +Americanisms "That's good enough" and "That will do" were early taught +me, together with the maxim of quantity rather than quality. + +It was not the boy at school who could write the words in his copy-book +best who received the praise of the teacher; it was the boy who could +write the largest number of words in a given time. The acid test in +arithmetic was not the mastery of the method, but the number of minutes +required to work out an example. If a boy abbreviated the month January +to "Jan." and the word Company to "Co." he received a hundred per cent +mark, as did the boy who spelled out the words and who could not make +the teacher see that "Co." did not spell "Company." + +As I grew into young manhood, and went into business, I found on every +hand that quantity counted for more than quality. The emphasis was +almost always placed on how much work one could do in a day, rather than +upon how well the work was done. Thoroughness was at a discount on every +hand; production at a premium. It made no difference in what direction I +went, the result was the same: the cry was always for quantity, +quantity! And into this atmosphere of almost utter disregard for quality +I brought my ideas of Dutch thoroughness and my conviction that doing +well whatever I did was to count as a cardinal principle in life. + +During my years of editorship, save in one or two conspicuous instances, +I was never able to assign to an American writer, work which called for +painstaking research. In every instance, the work came back to me either +incorrect in statement, or otherwise obviously lacking in careful +preparation. + +One of the most successful departments I ever conducted in The Ladies' +Home Journal called for infinite reading and patient digging, with the +actual results sometimes almost negligible. I made a study of my +associates by turning the department over to one after another, and +always with the same result: absolute lack of a capacity for patient +research. As one of my editors, typically American, said to me: "It +isn't worth all the trouble that you put into it." Yet no single +department ever repaid the searcher more for his pains. Save for +assistance derived from a single person, I had to do the work myself for +all the years that the department continued. It was apparently +impossible for the American to work with sufficient patience and care to +achieve a result. + +We all have our pet notions as to the particular evil which is "the +curse of America," but I always think that Theodore Roosevelt came +closest to the real curse when he classed it as a lack of thoroughness. + +Here again, in one of the most important matters in life, did America +fall short with me; and, what is more important, she is falling short +with every foreigner that comes to her shores. + +In the matter of education, America fell far short in what should be the +strongest of all her institutions: the public school. A more inadequate, +incompetent method of teaching, as I look back over my seven years of +attendance at three different public schools, it is difficult to +conceive. If there is one thing that I, as a foreign-born child, should +have been carefully taught, it is the English language. The individual +effort to teach this, if effort there was, and I remember none, was +negligible. It was left for my father to teach me, or for me to dig it +out for myself. There was absolutely no indication on the part of +teacher or principal of responsibility for seeing that a foreign-born +boy should acquire the English language correctly. I was taught as if I +were American-born, and, of course, I was left dangling in the air, with +no conception of what I was trying to do. + +My father worked with me evening after evening; I plunged my young mind +deep into the bewildering confusions of the language--and no one +realizes the confusions of the English language as does the +foreign-born--and got what I could through these joint efforts. But I +gained nothing from the much-vaunted public-school system which the +United States had borrowed from my own country, and then had rendered +incompetent--either by a sheer disregard for the thoroughness that makes +the Dutch public schools the admiration of the world, or by too close a +regard for politics. + +Thus, in her most important institution to the foreign-born, America +fell short. And while I am ready to believe that the public school may +have increased in efficiency since that day, it is, indeed, a question +for the American to ponder, just how far the system is efficient for the +education of the child who comes to its school without a knowledge of +the first word in the English language. Without a detailed knowledge of +the subject, I know enough of conditions in the average public school +to-day to warrant at least the suspicion that Americans would not be +particularly proud of the system, and of what it gives for which +annually they pay millions of dollars in taxes. + +I am aware in making this statement that I shall be met with convincing +instances of intelligent effort being made with the foreign-born +children in special classes. No one has a higher respect for those +efforts than I have--few, other than educators, know of them better than +I do, since I did not make my five-year study of the American public +school system for naught. But I am not referring to the exceptional +instance here and there. I merely ask of the American, interested as he +is or should be in the Americanization of the strangers within his +gates, how far the public school system, as a whole, urban and rural, +adapts itself, with any true efficiency, to the foreign-born child. I +venture to color his opinion in no wise; I simply ask that he will +inquire and ascertain for himself, as he should do if he is interested +in the future welfare of his country and his institutions; for what +happens in America in the years to come depends, in large measure, on +what is happening to-day in the public schools of this country. + +As a Dutch boy I was taught a wholesome respect for law and for +authority. The fact was impressed upon me that laws of themselves were +futile unless the people for whom they were made respected them, and +obeyed them in spirit more even than in the letter. I came to America to +feel, on every hand, that exactly the opposite was true. Laws were +passed, but were not enforced; the spirit to enforce them was lacking in +the people. There was little respect for the law; there was scarcely any +for those appointed to enforce it. + +The nearest that a boy gets to the law is through the policeman. In the +Netherlands a boy is taught that a policeman is for the protection of +life and property; that he is the natural friend of every boy and man +who behaves himself. The Dutch boy and the policeman are, naturally, +friendly in their relations. I came to America to be told that a +policeman is a boy's natural enemy; that he is eager to arrest him if he +can find the slightest reason for doing so. A policeman, I was informed, +was a being to hold in fear, not in respect. He was to be avoided, not +to be made friends with. The result was that, as did all boys, I came to +regard the policeman on our beat as a distinct enemy. His presence meant +that we should "stiffen up"; his disappearance was the signal for us to +"let loose." + +So long as one was not caught, it did not matter. I heard mothers tell +their little children that if they did not behave themselves, the +policeman would put them into a bag and carry them off, or cut their +ears off. Of course, the policeman became to them an object of terror; +the law he represented, a cruel thing that stood for punishment. Not a +note of respect did I ever hear for the law in my boyhood days. A law +was something to be broken, to be evaded, to call down upon others as a +source of punishment, but never to be regarded in the light of a +safeguard. + +And as I grew into manhood, the newspapers rang on every side with +disrespect for those in authority. Under the special dispensation of the +liberty of the press, which was construed into the license of the press, +no man was too high to escape editorial vituperation if his politics did +not happen to suit the management, or if his action ran counter to what +the proprietors believed it should be. It was not criticism of his acts, +it was personal attack upon the official; whether supervisor, mayor, +governor, or president, it mattered not. + +It is a very unfortunate impression that this American lack of respect +for those in authority makes upon the foreign-born mind. It is difficult +for the foreigner to square up the arrest and deportation of a man who, +through an incendiary address, seeks to overthrow governmental +authority, with the ignoring of an expression of exactly the same +sentiments by the editor of his next morning's newspaper. In other +words, the man who writes is immune, but the man who reads, imbibes, and +translates the editor's words into action is immediately marked as a +culprit, and America will not harbor him. But why harbor the original +cause? Is the man who speaks with type less dangerous than he who speaks +with his mouth or with a bomb? + +At the most vital part of my life, when I was to become an American +citizen and exercise the right of suffrage, America fell entirely short. +It reached out not even the suggestion of a hand. + +When the Presidential Conventions had been held in the year I reached my +legal majority, and I knew I could vote, I endeavored to find out +whether, being foreign-born, I was entitled to the suffrage. No one +could tell me; and not until I had visited six different municipal +departments, being referred from one to another, was it explained that, +through my father's naturalization, I became, automatically, as his son, +an American citizen. I decided to read up on the platforms of the +Republican and Democratic parties, but I could not secure copies +anywhere, although a week had passed since they had been adopted in +convention. + +I was told the newspapers had printed them. It occurred to me there must +be many others besides myself who were anxious to secure the platforms +of the two parties in some more convenient form. With the eye of +necessity ever upon a chance to earn an honest penny, I went to a +newspaper office, cut out from its files the two platforms, had them +printed in a small pocket edition, sold one edition to the American News +Company and another to the News Company controlling the Elevated +Railroad bookstands in New York City, where they sold at ten cents each. +So great was the demand which I had only partially guessed, that within +three weeks I had sold such huge editions of the little books that I had +cleared over a thousand dollars. + +But it seemed to me strange that it should depend on a foreign-born +American to supply an eager public with what should have been supplied +through the agency of the political parties or through some educational +source. + +I now tried to find out what a vote actually meant. It must be recalled +that I was only twenty-one years old, with scant education, and with no +civic agency offering me the information I was seeking. I went to the +headquarters of each of the political parties and put my query. I was +regarded with puzzled looks. + +"What does it mean to vote?" asked one chairman. + +"Why, on Election Day you go up to the ballot-box and put your ballot +in, and that's all there is to it." + +But I knew very well that that was not all there was to it, and was +determined to find out the significance of the franchise. I met with +dense ignorance on every hand. I went to the Brooklyn Library, and was +frankly told by the librarian that he did not know of a book that would +tell me what I wanted to know. This was in 1884. + +As the campaign increased in intensity, I found myself a desired person +in the eyes of the local campaign managers, but not one of them could +tell me the significance and meaning of the privilege I was for the +first time to exercise. + +Finally, I spent an evening with Seth Low, and, of course, got the +desired information. + +But fancy the quest I had been compelled to make to acquire the simple +information that should have been placed in my hands or made readily +accessible to me. And how many foreign-born would take equal pains to +ascertain what I was determined to find out? + +Surely America fell short here at the moment most sacred to me: that of +my first vote! + +Is it any easier to-day for the foreign citizen to acquire this +information when he approaches his first vote? I wonder! Not that I do +not believe there are agencies for this purpose. You know there are, and +so do I. But how about the foreign-born? Does he know it? Is it not +perhaps like the owner of the bulldog who assured the friend calling on +him that it never attacked friends of the family? "Yes," said the +friend, "that's all right. You know and I know that I am a friend of the +family; but does the dog know?" + +Is it to-day made known to the foreign-born, about to exercise his +privilege of suffrage for the first time, where he can be told what that +privilege means: is the means to know made readily accessible to him: is +it, in fact, as it should be, brought to him? + +It was not to me; is it to him? + +One fundamental trouble with the present desire for Americanization is +that the American is anxious to Americanize two classes--if he is a +reformer, the foreign-born; if he is an employer, his employees. It +never occurs to him that he himself may be in need of Americanization. +He seems to take it for granted that because he is American-born, he is +an American in spirit and has a right understanding of American ideals. +But that, by no means, always follows. There are thousands of the +American-born who need Americanization just as much as do the +foreign-born. There are hundreds of American employers who know far less +of American ideals than do some of their employees. In fact, there are +those actually engaged to-day in the work of Americanization, men at the +top of the movement, who sadly need a better conception of true +Americanism. + +An excellent illustration of this came to my knowledge when I attended a +large Americanization Conference in Washington. One of the principal +speakers was an educator of high standing and considerable influence in +one of the most important sections of the United States. In a speech +setting forth his ideas of Americanization, he dwelt with much emphasis +and at considerable length upon instilling into the mind of the +foreign-born the highest respect for American institutions. + +After the Conference he asked me whether he could see me that afternoon +at my hotel; he wanted to talk about contributing to the magazine. When +he came, before approaching the object of his talk, he launched out on a +tirade against the President of the United States; the weakness of the +Cabinet, the inefficiency of the Congress, and the stupidity of the +Senate. If words could have killed, there would have not remained a +single living member of the Administration at Washington. + +After fifteen minutes of this, I reminded him of his speech and the +emphasis which he had placed upon the necessity of inculcating in the +foreign-born respect for American institutions. + +Yet this man was a power in his community, a strong influence upon +others; he believed he could Americanize others, when he himself, +according to his own statements, lacked the fundamental principle of +Americanization. What is true of this man is, in lesser or greater +degree, true of hundreds of others. Their Americanization consists of +lip-service; the real spirit, the only factor which counts in the +successful teaching of any doctrine, is absolutely missing. We certainly +cannot teach anything approaching a true Americanism until we ourselves +feel and believe and practise in our own lives what we are teaching to +others. No law, no lip-service, no effort, however well-intentioned, +will amount to anything worth while in inculcating the true American +spirit in our foreign-born citizens until we are sure that the American +spirit is understood by ourselves and is warp and woof of our own being. + +To the American, part and parcel of his country, these particulars in +which his country falls short with the foreign-born are, perhaps, not so +evident; they may even seem not so very important. But to the +foreign-born they seem distinct lacks; they loom large; they form +serious handicaps which, in many cases, are never surmounted; they are a +menace to that Americanization which is, to-day, more than ever our +fondest dream, and which we now realize more keenly than before is our +most vital need. + +It is for this reason that I have put them down here as a concrete +instance of where and how America fell short in my own Americanization, +and, what is far more serious to me, where she is falling short in her +Americanization of thousands of other foreign-born. + +"Yet you succeeded," it will be argued. + +That may be; but you, on the other hand, must admit that I did not +succeed by reason of these shortcomings: it was in spite of them, by +overcoming them--a result that all might not achieve. + + + + +XXXIX. What I Owe to America + + +Whatever shortcomings I may have found during my fifty-year period of +Americanization; however America may have failed to help my transition +from a foreigner into an American, I owe to her the most priceless gift +that any nation can offer, and that is opportunity. + +As the world stands to-day, no nation offers opportunity in the degree +that America does to the foreign-born. Russia may, in the future, as I +like to believe she will, prove a second United States of America in +this respect. She has the same limitless area; her people the same +potentialities. But, as things are to-day, the United States offers, as +does no other nation, a limitless opportunity: here a man can go as far +as his abilities will carry him. It may be that the foreign-born, as in +my own case, must hold on to some of the ideals and ideas of the land of +his birth; it may be that he must develop and mould his character by +overcoming the habits resulting from national shortcomings. But into the +best that the foreign-born can retain, America can graft such a wealth +of inspiration, so high a national idealism, so great an opportunity for +the highest endeavor, as to make him the fortunate man of the earth +to-day. + +He can go where he will: no traditions hamper him; no limitations are +set except those within himself. The larger the area he chooses in which +to work, the larger the vision he demonstrates, the more eager the +people are to give support to his undertakings if they are convinced +that he has their best welfare as his goal. There is no public +confidence equal to that of the American public, once it is obtained. It +is fickle, of course, as are all publics, but fickle only toward the man +who cannot maintain an achieved success. + +A man in America cannot complacently lean back upon victories won, as he +can in the older European countries, and depend upon the glamour of the +past to sustain him or the momentum of success to carry him. Probably +the most alert public in the world, it requires of its leaders that they +be alert. Its appetite for variety is insatiable, but its appreciation, +when given, is full-handed and whole-hearted. The American public never +holds back from the man to whom it gives; it never bestows in a +niggardly way; it gives all or nothing. + +What is not generally understood of the American people is their +wonderful idealism. Nothing so completely surprises the foreign-born as +the discovery of this trait in the American character. The impression is +current in European countries--perhaps less generally since the war--that +America is given over solely to a worship of the American dollar. While +between nations as between individuals, comparisons are valueless, it +may not be amiss to say, from personal knowledge, that the Dutch worship +the gulden infinitely more than do the Americans the dollar. + +I do not claim that the American is always conscious of this idealism; +often he is not. But let a great convulsion touching moral questions +occur, and the result always shows how close to the surface is his +idealism. And the fact that so frequently he puts over it a thick veneer +of materialism does not affect its quality. The truest approach, the +only approach in fact, to the American character is, as Viscount Bryce +has so well said, through its idealism. + +It is this quality which gives the truest inspiration to the +foreign-born in his endeavor to serve the people of his adopted country. +He is mentally sluggish, indeed, who does not discover that America will +make good with him if he makes good with her. + +But he must play fair. It is essentially the straight game that the true +American plays, and he insists that you shall play it too. Evidence +there is, of course, to the contrary in American life, experiences that +seem to give ground for the belief that the man succeeds who is not +scrupulous in playing his cards. But never is this true in the long run. +Sooner or later--sometimes, unfortunately, later than sooner--the public +discovers the trickery. In no other country in the world is the moral +conception so clear and true as in America, and no people will give a +larger and more permanent reward to the man whose effort for that public +has its roots in honor and truth. + +"The sky is the limit" to the foreign-born who comes to America endowed +with honest endeavor, ceaseless industry, and the ability to carry +through. In any honest endeavor, the way is wide open to the will to +succeed. Every path beckons, every vista invites, every talent is called +forth, and every efficient effort finds its due reward. In no land is +the way so clear and so free. + +How good an American has the process of Americanization made me? That I +cannot say. Who can say that of himself? But when I look around me at +the American-born I have come to know as my close friends, I wonder +whether, after all, the foreign-born does not make in some sense a +better American--whether he is not able to get a truer perspective; +whether his is not the deeper desire to see America greater; whether he +is not less content to let its faulty institutions be as they are; +whether in seeing faults more clearly he does not make a more decided +effort to have America reach those ideals or those fundamentals of his +own land which he feels are in his nature, and the best of which he is +anxious to graft into the character of his adopted land? + +It is naturally with a feeling of deep satisfaction that I remember two +Presidents of the United States considered me a sufficiently typical +American to wish to send me to my native land as the accredited minister +of my adopted country. And yet when I analyze the reasons for my choice +in both these instances, I derive a deeper satisfaction from the fact +that my strong desire to work in America for America led me to ask to be +permitted to remain here. + +It is this strong impulse that my Americanization has made the driving +power of my life. And I ask no greater privilege than to be allowed to +live to see my potential America become actual: the America that I like +to think of as the America of Abraham Lincoln and of Theodore +Roosevelt--not faultless, but less faulty. It is a part in trying to +shape that America, and an opportunity to work in that America when it +comes, that I ask in return for what I owe to her. A greater privilege +no man could have. + + + + Edward William Bok: Biographical Data + + 1863: Born, October 9, at Helder, Netherlands. + 1870: September 20: Arrived in the United States. + 1870: Entered public schools of Brooklyn, New York. + 1873: Obtained first position in Frost's Bakery, + Smith Street, Brooklyn, at 50 cents per week. + 1876: August 7: Entered employ of the Western + Union Telegraph Company as office-boy. + 1882: Entered employ of Henry Holt & Company as stenographer. + 1884: Entered employ of Charles Scribner's Sons as stenographer. + 1884: Became editor of The Brooklyn Magazine. + 1886: Founded The Bok Syndicate Press. + 1887: Published Henry Ward Beecher Memorial (privately printed). + 1889: October 20: Became editor of The Ladies' Home Journal. + 1890: Published Successward: Doubleday, McClure & Company. + 1894: Published Before He Is Twenty: Fleming H. Revell Company. + 1896: October 22: Married Mary Louise Curtis. + 1897: September 7: Son born: William Curtis Bok. + 1900: Published The Young Man in Business: L. C. Page & Company. + 1905: January 25: Son born: Cary William Bok. + 1906: Published Her Brother's Letters (Anonymous): Moffat, Yard & Co. + 1907: Degree of LL.D. of Order of Augustinian Fathers conferred by + order of Pope Pius X., by the Most Reverend Diomede Falconio, D.D., + Apostolic Delegate to the United States, at Villanova College. + 1910: Degree of LL.D. conferred, in absentia, by Hope College, Holland, + Michigan (the only Dutch college in the United States). + 1911: Founded, with others, The Child Federation of Philadelphia. + 1912: Published: The Edward Bok Books of Self-Knowledge; five + volumes: Fleming H. Revell Company. + 1913: Founded, with others, The Merion Civic Association, at Merion, + Pennsylvania. + 1915: Published Why I Believe in Poverty: Houghton, Mifflin Company. + 1916: Published poem, God's Hand, set to music by Josef Hofmann: + Schirmer & Company. + 1917: Vice-president Philadelphia Belgian Relief Commission. + 1917: Member of National Y. M. C. A. War Work Council. + 1917: State chairman for Pennsylvania of Y. M. C. A. War Work Council. + 1918: Member of Executive Committee and chairman of Publicity Committee, + Philadelphia War Chest. + 1918: Chairman of Philadelphia Y. M. C. A. Recruiting Committee. + 1918: State chairman for Pennsylvania of United War Work Campaign. + 1918: August-November: visited the battle-fronts in France as guest of + the British Government. + 1919: September 22: Relinquished editorship of The Ladies' Home Journal, + completing thirty years of service. + 1920: September 20: Upon the 50th anniversary of arrival in the United + States, published The Americanization of Edward Bok. + + + +The Expression of a Personal Pleasure + +I cannot close this record of a boy's development without an attempt to +suggest the sense of deep personal pleasure which I feel that the +imprint on the title-page of this book should be that of the publishing +house which, thirty-six years ago, I entered as stenographer. It was +there I received my start; it was there I laid the foundation of that +future career then so hidden from me. The happiest days of my young +manhood were spent in the employ of this house; I there began +friendships which have grown closer with each passing year. And one of +my deepest sources of satisfaction is, that during all the thirty-one +years which have followed my resignation from the Scribner house, it has +been my good fortune to hold the friendship, and, as I have been led to +believe, the respect of my former employers. That they should now be my +publishers demonstrates, in a striking manner, the curious turning of +the wheel of time, and gives me a sense of gratification difficult of +expression. + +Edward W. Bok + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Americanization of Edward Bok, by +Edward William Bok + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AMERICANIZATION OF EDWARD BOK *** + +***** This file should be named 3538-8.txt or 3538-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/3/3538/ + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Americanization of Edward Bok + The Autobiography of a Dutch Boy Fifty Years After + +Author: Edward William Bok + +Release Date: March 8, 2010 [EBook #3538] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AMERICANIZATION OF EDWARD BOK *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer and Chuck Greif + + + + + +</pre> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<h1>The Americanization of Edward Bok</h1> + +<p class="c">The Autobiography<br />of a Dutch Boy Fifty Years After</p> + +<h2>by Edward William Bok (1863-1930)</h2> + +<p class="dedication">to the american woman i owe much,<br />but to two women i owe more,<br /><br /> +MY MOTHER<br />and<br />MY WIFE.<br /><br /> +and to them i dedicate this account of the boy<br />to whom one gave +birth and brought to manhood<br />and the other blessed with all a<br /> +home and family may mean.</p> + +<h3><a name="An_Explanation" id="An_Explanation"></a>An Explanation</h3> + +<p>T<span class="smcap">his</span> book was to have been written in 1914, when I foresaw some leisure +to write it, for I then intended to retire from active editorship. But +the war came, an entirely new set of duties commanded, and the project +was laid aside.</p> + +<p>Its title and the form, however, were then chosen. By the form I refer +particularly to the use of the third person. I had always felt the most +effective method of writing an autobiography, for the sake of a better +perspective, was mentally to separate the writer from his subject by +this device.</p> + +<p>Moreover, this method came to me very naturally in dealing with the +Edward Bok, editor and publicist, whom I have tried to describe in this +book, because, in many respects, he has had and has been a personality +apart from my private self. I have again and again found myself watching +with intense amusement and interest the Edward Bok of this book at work. +I have, in turn, applauded him and criticised him, as I do in this book. +Not that I ever considered myself bigger or broader than this Edward +Bok: simply that he was different. His tastes, his outlook, his manner +of looking at things were totally at variance with my own. In fact, my +chief difficulty during Edward Bok's directorship of The Ladies' Home +Journal was to abstain from breaking through the editor and revealing my +real self. Several times I did so, and each time I saw how different was +the effect from that when the editorial Edward Bok had been allowed +sway. Little by little I learned to subordinate myself and to let him +have full rein.</p> + +<p>But no relief of my life was so great to me personally as his decision +to retire from his editorship. My family and friends were surprised and +amused by my intense and obvious relief when he did so. Only to those +closest to me could I explain the reason for the sense of absolute +freedom and gratitude that I felt.</p> + +<p>Since that time my feelings have been an interesting study to myself. +There are no longer two personalities. The Edward Bok of whom I have +written has passed out of my being as completely as if he had never been +there, save for the records and files on my library shelves. It is easy, +therefore, for me to write of him as a personality apart: in fact, I +could not depict him from any other point of view. To write of him in +the first person, as if he were myself, is impossible, for he is not.</p> + +<p>The title suggests my principal reason for writing the book. Every life +has some interest and significance; mine, perhaps, a special one. Here +was a little Dutch boy unceremoniously set down in America unable to +make himself understood or even to know what persons were saying; his +education was extremely limited, practically negligible; and yet, by +some curious decree of fate, he was destined to write, for a period of +years, to the largest body of readers ever addressed by an American +editor—the circulation of the magazine he edited running into figures +previously unheard of in periodical literature. He made no pretense to +style or even to composition: his grammar was faulty, as it was natural +it should be, in a language not his own. His roots never went deep, for +the intellectual soil had not been favorable to their growth;—yet, it +must be confessed, he achieved.</p> + +<p>But how all this came about, how such a boy, with every disadvantage to +overcome, was able, apparently, to "make good"—this possesses an +interest and for some, perhaps, a value which, after all, is the only +reason for any book.</p> + +<p class="r smcap">Edward W. Bok</p> + +<p>MERION, PENNSYLVANIA, 1920</p> + +<h3><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h3> + +<table summary="data" +cellspacing="0" +cellpadding="5"> +<tr><td> </td><td><a href="#An_Explanation">An Explanation</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td><a href="#An_Introduction_of_Two_Persons">An Introduction of Two Persons</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#I">I</a>.</td><td>The First Days in America</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#II">II</a>.</td><td>The First Job: Fifty Cents a Week</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#III">III</a>.</td><td>The Hunger for Self-Education</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#IV">IV</a>.</td><td>A Presidential Friend and a Boston Pilgrimage</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#V">V</a>.</td><td>Going to the Theatre with Longfellow</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#VI">VI</a>.</td><td>Phillips Brooks's Books and Emerson's Mental Mist</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#VII">VII</a>.</td><td>A Plunge into Wall Street</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#VIII">VIII</a>.</td><td>Starting a Newspaper Syndicate</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#IX">IX</a>.</td><td>Association with Henry Ward Beecher</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#X">X</a>.</td><td>The First "Woman's Page," "Literary Leaves," and Entering Scribner's</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XI">XI</a>.</td><td>The Chances for Success</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XII">XII</a>.</td><td>Baptism Under Fire</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XIII">XIII</a>.</td><td>Publishing Incidents and Anecdotes</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XIV">XIV</a>.</td><td>Last Years in New York</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XV">XV</a>.</td><td>Successful Editorship</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XVI">XVI</a>.</td><td>First Years as a Woman's Editor</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XVII">XVII</a>.</td><td>Eugene Field's Practical Jokes</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XVIII">XVIII</a>.</td><td>Building Up a Magazine</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XIX">XIX</a>.</td><td>Personality Letters</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XX">XX</a>.</td><td>Meeting a Reverse or Two</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXI">XXI</a>.</td><td>A Signal Piece of Constructive Work</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXII">XXII</a>.</td><td>An Adventure in Civic and Private Art</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXIII">XXIII</a>.</td><td>Theodore Roosevelt's Influence</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXIV">XXIV</a>.</td><td>Theodore Roosevelt's Anonymous Editorial Work</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXV">XXV</a>.</td><td>The President and the Boy</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXVI">XXVI</a>.</td><td>The Literary Back-Stairs</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXVII">XXVII</a>.</td><td>Women's Clubs and Woman Suffrage</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXVIII">XXVIII</a>.</td><td>Going Home with Kipling, and as a Lecturer</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXIX">XXIX</a>.</td><td>An Excursion into the Feminine Nature</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXX">XXX</a>.</td><td>Cleaning Up the Patent-Medicine and Other Evils</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXXI">XXXI</a>.</td><td>Adventures in Civics</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXXII">XXXII</a>.</td><td>A Bewildered Bok</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXXIII">XXXIII</a>.</td><td>How Millions of People Are Reached</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXXIV">XXXIV</a>.</td><td>A War Magazine and War Activities</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXXV">XXXV</a>.</td><td>At the Battle-Fronts in the Great War</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXXVI">XXXVI</a>.</td><td>The End of Thirty Years' Editorship</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXXVII">XXXVII</a>.</td><td>The Third Period</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXXVIII">XXXVIII</a>.</td><td>Where America Fell Short with Me</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXXIX">XXXIX</a>.</td><td>What I Owe to America</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td><a href="#Biographical_Data">Edward William Bok: Biographical Data</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td><a href="#The_Expression_of_a_Personal_Pleasure">The Expression of a Personal Pleasure</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<h3><a name="An_Introduction_of_Two_Persons" id="An_Introduction_of_Two_Persons"></a>An Introduction of Two Persons</h3> + +<p class="hang">IN WHOSE LIVES ARE FOUND THE SOURCE AND MAINSPRING OF SOME OF THE +EFFORTS OF THE AUTHOR OF THIS BOOK IN HIS LATER YEARS</p> + +<div class="italics"> +<p>Along an island in the North Sea, five miles from the Dutch Coast, +stretches a dangerous ledge of rocks that has proved the graveyard of +many a vessel sailing that turbulent sea. On this island once lived a +group of men who, as each vessel was wrecked, looted the vessel and +murdered those of the crew who reached shore. The government of the +Netherlands decided to exterminate the island pirates, and for the job +King William selected a young lawyer at The Hague.</p> + +<p>"I want you to clean up that island," was the royal order. It was a +formidable job for a young man of twenty-odd years. By royal +proclamation he was made mayor of the island, and within a year, a court +of law being established, the young attorney was appointed judge; and in +that dual capacity he "cleaned up" the island.</p> + +<p>The young man now decided to settle on the island, and began to look +around for a home. It was a grim place, barren of tree or living green +of any kind; it was as if a man had been exiled to Siberia. Still, +argued the young mayor, an ugly place is ugly only because it is not +beautiful. And beautiful he determined this island should be.</p> + +<p>One day the young mayor-judge called together his council. "We must have +trees," he said; "we can make this island a spot of beauty if we will!" +But the practical seafaring men demurred; the little money they had was +needed for matters far more urgent than trees.</p> + +<p>"Very well," was the mayor's decision—and little they guessed what the +words were destined to mean—"I will do it myself." And that year he +planted one hundred trees, the first the island had ever seen.</p> + +<p>"Too cold," said the islanders; "the severe north winds and storms will +kill them all."</p> + +<p>"Then I will plant more," said the unperturbed mayor. And for the fifty +years that he lived on the island he did so. He planted trees each year; +and, moreover, he had deeded to the island government land which he +turned into public squares and parks, and where each spring he set out +shrubs and plants.</p> + +<p>Moistened by the salt mist the trees did not wither, but grew +prodigiously. In all that expanse of turbulent sea—and only those who +have seen the North Sea in a storm know how turbulent it can be—there +was not a foot of ground on which the birds, storm-driven across the +water-waste, could rest in their flight. Hundreds of dead birds often +covered the surface of the sea. Then one day the trees had grown tall +enough to look over the sea, and, spent and driven, the first birds came +and rested in their leafy shelter. And others came and found protection, +and gave their gratitude vent in song. Within a few years so many birds +had discovered the trees in this new island home that they attracted the +attention not only of the native islanders but also of the people on the +shore five miles distant, and the island became famous as the home of +the rarest and most beautiful birds. So grateful were the birds for +their resting-place that they chose one end of the island as a special +spot for the laying of their eggs and the raising of their young, and +they fairly peopled it. It was not long before ornithologists from +various parts of the world came to "Eggland," as the farthermost point +of the island came to be known, to see the marvellous sight, not of +thousands but of hundreds of thousands of bird-eggs.</p> + +<p>A pair of storm-driven nightingales had now found the island and mated +there; their wonderful notes thrilled even the souls of the natives; and +as dusk fell upon the seabound strip of land the women and children +would come to "the square" and listen to the evening notes of the birds +of golden song. The two nightingales soon grew into a colony, and within +a few years so rich was the island in its nightingales that over to the +Dutch coast and throughout the land and into other countries spread the +fame of "The Island of Nightingales."</p> + +<p>Meantime, the young mayor-judge, grown to manhood, had kept on planting +trees each year, setting out his shrubbery and plants, until their +verdure now beautifully shaded the quaint, narrow lanes, and transformed +into cool wooded roads what once had been only barren sun-baked wastes. +Artists began to hear of the place and brought their canvases, and on +the walls of hundreds of homes throughout the world hang to-day bits of +the beautiful lanes and wooded spots of "The Island of Nightingales." +The American artist William M. Chase took his pupils there almost +annually. "In all the world to-day," he declared to his students, as +they exclaimed at the natural cool restfulness of the island, "there is +no more beautiful place."</p> + +<p>The trees are now majestic in their height of forty or more feet, for it +is nearly a hundred years since the young attorney went to the island +and planted the first tree; to-day the churchyard where he lies is a +bower of cool green, with the trees that he planted dropping their +moisture on the lichen-covered stone on his grave.</p> + +<p>This much did one man do. But he did more.</p> + +<p>After he had been on the barren island two years he went to the mainland +one day, and brought back with him a bride. It was a bleak place for a +bridal home, but the young wife had the qualities of the husband. "While +you raise your trees," she said, "I will raise our children." And within +a score of years the young bride sent thirteen happy-faced, +well-brought-up children over that island, and there was reared a home +such as is given to few. Said a man who subsequently married a daughter +of that home: "It was such a home that once you had been in it you felt +you must be of it, and that if you couldn't marry one of the daughters +you would have been glad to have married the cook."</p> + +<p>One day when the children had grown to man's and woman's estate the +mother called them all together and said to them, "I want to tell you +the story of your father and of this island," and she told them the +simple story that is written here.</p> + +<p>"And now," she said, "as you go out into the world I want each of you to +take with you the spirit of your father's work, and each in your own way +and place, to do as he has done: make you the world a bit more beautiful +and better because you have been in it. That is your mother's message to +you."</p> + +<p>The first son to leave the island home went with a band of hardy men to +South Africa, where they settled and became known as "the Boers." +Tirelessly they worked at the colony until towns and cities sprang up +and a new nation came into being: The Transvaal Republic. The son became +secretary of state of the new country, and to-day the United States of +South Africa bears tribute, in part, to the mother's message to "make +the world a bit more beautiful and better."</p> + +<p>The second son left home for the Dutch mainland, where he took charge of +a small parish; and when he had finished his work he was mourned by king +and peasant as one of the leading clergymen of his time and people.</p> + +<p>A third son, scorning his own safety, plunged into the boiling surf on +one of those nights of terror so common to that coast, rescued a +half-dead sailor, carried him to his father's house, and brought him +back to a life of usefulness that gave the world a record of +imperishable value. For the half-drowned sailor was Heinrich Schliemann, +the famous explorer of the dead cities of Troy.</p> + +<p>The first daughter now left the island nest; to her inspiration her +husband owed, at his life's close, a shelf of works in philosophy which +to-day are among the standard books of their class.</p> + +<p>The second daughter worked beside her husband until she brought him to +be regarded as one of the ablest preachers of his land, speaking for +more than forty years the message of man's betterment.</p> + +<p>To another son it was given to sit wisely in the councils of his land; +another followed the footsteps of his father. Another daughter, refusing +marriage for duty, ministered unto and made a home for one whose eyes +could see not.</p> + +<p>So they went out into the world, the girls and boys of that island home, +each carrying the story of their father's simple but beautiful work and +the remembrance of their mother's message. Not one from that home but +did well his or her work in the world; some greater, some smaller, but +each left behind the traces of a life well spent.</p> + +<p>And, as all good work is immortal, so to-day all over the world goes on +the influence of this one man and one woman, whose life on that little +Dutch island changed its barren rocks to a bower of verdure, a home for +the birds and the song of the nightingale. The grandchildren have gone +to the four corners of the globe, and are now the generation of +workers—some in the far East Indies; others in Africa; still others in +our own land of America. But each has tried, according to the talents +given, to carry out the message of that day, to tell the story of the +grandfather's work; just as it is told here by the author of this book, +who, in the efforts of his later years, has tried to carry out, so far +as opportunity has come to him, the message of his grandmother:</p> + +<p>"Make you the world a bit more beautiful and better because you have +been in it."</p> +</div> + +<h1>The Americanization of Edward Bok</h1> + +<h3><a name="I" id="I"></a>I.</h3> + +<p class="heading">The First Days in America</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> Leviathan of the Atlantic Ocean, in 1870, was The Queen, and when +she was warped into her dock on September 20 of that year, she +discharged, among her passengers, a family of four from the Netherlands +who were to make an experiment of Americanization.</p> + +<p>The father, a man bearing one of the most respected names in the +Netherlands, had acquired wealth and position for himself; unwise +investments, however, had swept away his fortune, and in preference to a +new start in his own land, he had decided to make the new beginning in +the United States, where a favorite brother-in-law had gone several +years before. But that, never a simple matter for a man who has reached +forty-two, is particularly difficult for a foreigner in a strange land. +This fact he and his wife were to find out. The wife, also carefully +reared, had been accustomed to a scale of living which she had now to +abandon. Her Americanization experiment was to compel her, for the first +time in her life, to become a housekeeper without domestic help. There +were two boys: the elder, William, was eight and a half years of age; +the younger, in nineteen days from his landing-date, was to celebrate +his seventh birthday.</p> + +<p>This younger boy was Edward William Bok. He had, according to the Dutch +custom, two other names, but he had decided to leave those in the +Netherlands. And the American public was, in later years, to omit for +him the "William."</p> + +<p>Edward's first six days in the United States were spent in New York, and +then he was taken to Brooklyn, where he was destined to live for nearly +twenty years.</p> + +<p>Thanks to the linguistic sense inherent in the Dutch, and to an +educational system that compels the study of languages, English was +already familiar to the father and mother. But to the two sons, who had +barely learned the beginnings of their native tongue, the English +language was as a closed book. It seemed a cruel decision of the father +to put his two boys into a public school in Brooklyn, but he argued that +if they were to become Americans, the sooner they became part of the +life of the country and learned its language for themselves, the better. +And so, without the ability to make known the slightest want or to +understand a single word, the morning after their removal to Brooklyn, +the two boys were taken by their father to a public school.</p> + +<p>The American public-school teacher was perhaps even less well equipped +in those days than she is to-day to meet the needs of two Dutch boys who +could not understand a word she said, and who could only wonder what it +was all about. The brothers did not even have the comfort of each +other's company, for, graded by age, they were placed in separate +classes.</p> + +<p>Nor was the American boy of 1870 a whit less cruel than is the American +boy of 1920; and he was none the less loath to show that cruelty. This +trait was evident at the first recess of the first day at school. At the +dismissal, the brothers naturally sought each other, only to find +themselves surrounded by a group of tormentors who were delighted to +have such promising objects for their fun. And of this opportunity they +made the most. There was no form of petty cruelty boys' minds could +devise that was not inflicted upon the two helpless strangers. Edward +seemed to look particularly inviting, and nicknaming him "Dutchy" they +devoted themselves at each noon recess and after school to inflicting +their cruelties upon him.</p> + +<p>Louis XIV may have been right when he said that "every new language +requires a new soul," but Edward Bok knew that while spoken languages +might differ, there is one language understood by boys the world over. +And with this language Edward decided to do some experimenting. After a +few days at school, he cast his eyes over the group of his tormentors, +picked out one who seemed to him the ringleader, and before the boy was +aware of what had happened, Edward Bok was in the full swing of his +first real experiment with Americanization. Of course the American boy +retaliated. But the boy from the Netherlands had not been born and +brought up in the muscle-building air of the Dutch dikes for nothing, +and after a few moments he found himself looking down on his tormentor +and into the eyes of a crowd of very respectful boys and giggling girls +who readily made a passageway for his brother and himself when they +indicated a desire to leave the schoolyard and go home.</p> + +<p>Edward now felt that his Americanization had begun; but, always +believing that a thing begun must be carried to a finish, he took, or +gave—it depends upon the point of view—two or three more lessons in +this particular phase of Americanization before he convinced these +American schoolboys that it might be best for them to call a halt upon +further excursions in torment.</p> + +<p>At the best, they were difficult days at school for a boy of six without +the language. But the national linguistic gift inherent in the Dutch +race came to the boy's rescue, and as the roots of the Anglo-Saxon lie +in the Frisian tongue, and thus in the language of his native country, +Edward soon found that with a change of vowel here and there the English +language was not so difficult of conquest. At all events, he set out to +master it.</p> + +<p>But his fatal gift of editing, although its possession was unknown to +him, began to assert itself when, just as he seemed to be getting along +fairly well, he balked at following the Spencerian style of writing in +his copybooks. Instinctively he rebelled at the flourishes which +embellished that form of handwriting. He seemed to divine somehow that +such penmanship could not be useful or practicable for after life, and +so, with that Dutch stolidity that, once fixed, knows no altering, he +refused to copy his writing lessons. Of course trouble immediately +ensued between Edward and his teacher. Finding herself against a literal +blank wall—for Edward simply refused, but had not the gift of English +with which to explain his refusal—the teacher decided to take the +matter to the male principal of the school. She explained that she had +kept Edward after school for as long as two hours to compel him to copy +his Spencerian lesson, but that the boy simply sat quiet. He was +perfectly well-behaved, she explained, but as to his lesson, he would +attempt absolutely nothing.</p> + +<p>It was the prevailing custom in the public schools of 1870 to punish +boys by making them hold out the palms of their hands, upon which the +principal would inflict blows with a rattan. The first time Edward was +punished in this way, his hand became so swollen he wondered at a system +of punishment which rendered him incapable of writing, particularly as +the discerning principal had chosen the boy's right hand upon which to +rain the blows. Edward was told to sit down at the principal's own desk +and copy the lesson. He sat, but he did not write. He would not for one +thing, and he could not if he would. After half an hour of purposeless +sitting, the principal ordered Edward again to stand up and hold out his +hand; and once more the rattan fell in repeated blows. Of course it did +no good, and as it was then five o'clock, and the principal had +inflicted all the punishment that the law allowed, and as he probably +wanted to go home as much as Edward did, he dismissed the sore-handed +but more-than-ever-determined Dutch boy.</p> + +<p>Edward went home to his father, exhibited his swollen hand, explained +the reason, and showed the penmanship lesson which he had refused to +copy. It is a singular fact that even at that age he already understood +Americanization enough to realize that to cope successfully with any +American institution, one must be constructive as well as destructive. +He went to his room, brought out a specimen of Italian handwriting which +he had seen in a newspaper, and explained to his father that this +simpler penmanship seemed to him better for practical purposes than the +curlicue fancifully embroidered Spencerian style; that if he had to +learn penmanship, why not learn the system that was of more possible use +in after life?</p> + +<p>Now, your Dutchman is nothing if not practical. He is very simple and +direct in his nature, and is very likely to be equally so in his mental +view. Edward's father was distinctly interested—very much amused, as he +confessed to the boy in later years—in his son's discernment of the +futility of the Spencerian style of penmanship. He agreed with the boy, +and, next morning, accompanied him to school and to the principal. The +two men were closeted together, and when they came out Edward was sent +to his classroom. For some weeks he was given no penmanship lessons, and +then a new copy-book was given him with a much simpler style. He pounced +upon it, and within a short time stood at the head of his class in +writing.</p> + +<p>The same instinct that was so often to lead Edward aright in his future +life, at its very beginning served him in a singularly valuable way in +directing his attention to the study of penmanship; for it was through +his legible handwriting that later, in the absence of the typewriter, he +was able to secure and satisfactorily fill three positions which were to +lead to his final success.</p> + +<p>Years afterward Edward had the satisfaction of seeing public-school +pupils given a choice of penmanship lessons: one along the flourish +lines and the other of a less ornate order. Of course, the boy never +associated the incident of his refusal with the change until later when +his mother explained to him that the principal of the school, of whom +the father had made a warm friend, was so impressed by the boy's simple +but correct view, that he took up the matter with the board of +education, and a choice of systems was considered and later decided +upon.</p> + +<p>From this it will be seen that, unconsciously, Edward Bok had started +upon his career of editing!</p> + +<h3><a name="II" id="II"></a>II.</h3> + +<p class="heading">The First Job: Fifty Cents a Week</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> Elder Bok did not find his "lines cast in pleasant places" in the +United States. He found himself, professionally, unable to adjust the +methods of his own land and of a lifetime to those of a new country. As +a result the fortunes of the transplanted family did not flourish, and +Edward soon saw his mother physically failing under burdens to which her +nature was not accustomed nor her hands trained. Then he and his brother +decided to relieve their mother in the housework by rising early in the +morning, building the fire, preparing breakfast, and washing the dishes +before they went to school. After school they gave up their play hours, +and swept and scrubbed, and helped their mother to prepare the evening +meal and wash the dishes afterward. It was a curious coincidence that it +should fall upon Edward thus to get a first-hand knowledge of woman's +housework which was to stand him in such practical stead in later years.</p> + +<p>It was not easy for the parents to see their boys thus forced to do work +which only a short while before had been done by a retinue of servants. +And the capstone of humiliation seemed to be when Edward and his +brother, after having for several mornings found no kindling wood or +coal to build the fire, decided to go out of evenings with a basket and +pick up what wood they could find in neighboring lots, and the bits of +coal spilled from the coal-bin of the grocery-store, or left on the +curbs before houses where coal had been delivered. The mother +remonstrated with the boys, although in her heart she knew that the +necessity was upon them. But Edward had been started upon his +Americanization career, and answered: "This is America, where one can do +anything if it is honest. So long as we don't steal the wood or coal, +why shouldn't we get it?" And, turning away, the saddened mother said +nothing.</p> + +<p>But while the doing of these homely chores was very effective in +relieving the untrained and tired mother, it added little to the family +income. Edward looked about and decided that the time had come for him, +young as he was, to begin some sort of wage-earning. But how and where? +The answer he found one afternoon when standing before the shop-window +of a baker in the neighborhood. The owner of the bakery, who had just +placed in the window a series of trays filled with buns, tarts, and +pies, came outside to look at the display. He found the hungry boy +wistfully regarding the tempting-looking wares.</p> + +<p>"Look pretty good, don't they?" asked the baker.</p> + +<p>"They would," answered the Dutch boy with his national passion for +cleanliness, "if your window were clean."</p> + +<p>"That's so, too," mused the baker. "Perhaps you'll clean it."</p> + +<p>"I will," was the laconic reply. And Edward Bok, there and then, got his +first job. He went in, found a step-ladder, and put so much Dutch energy +into the cleaning of the large show-window that the baker immediately +arranged with him to clean it every Tuesday and Friday afternoon after +school. The salary was to be fifty cents per week!</p> + +<p>But one day, after he had finished cleaning the window, and the baker +was busy in the rear of the store, a customer came in, and Edward +ventured to wait on her. Dexterously he wrapped up for another the +fragrant currant-buns for which his young soul—and stomach—so +hungered! The baker watched him, saw how quickly and smilingly he served +the customer, and offered Edward an extra dollar per week if he would +come in afternoons and sell behind the counter. He immediately entered +into the bargain with the understanding that, in addition to his salary +of a dollar and a half per week, he should each afternoon carry home +from the good things unsold a moderate something as a present to his +mother. The baker agreed, and Edward promised to come each afternoon +except Saturday.</p> + +<p>"Want to play ball, hey?" said the baker.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I want to play ball," replied the boy, but he was not reserving +his Saturday afternoons for games, although, boy-like, that might be his +preference.</p> + +<p>Edward now took on for each Saturday morning—when, of course, there was +no school—the delivery route of a weekly paper called the South +Brooklyn Advocate. He had offered to deliver the entire neighborhood +edition of the paper for one dollar, thus increasing his earning +capacity to two dollars and a half per week.</p> + +<p>Transportation, in those days in Brooklyn, was by horse-cars, and the +car-line on Smith Street nearest Edward's home ran to Coney Island. Just +around the corner where Edward lived the cars stopped to water the +horses on their long haul. The boy noticed that the men jumped from the +open cars in summer, ran into the cigar-store before which the +watering-trough was placed, and got a drink of water from the ice-cooler +placed near the door. But that was not so easily possible for the women, +and they, especially the children, were forced to take the long ride +without a drink. It was this that he had in mind when he reserved his +Saturday afternoon to "play ball."</p> + +<p>Here was an opening, and Edward decided to fill it. He bought a shining +new pail, screwed three hooks on the edge from which he hung three clean +shimmering glasses, and one Saturday afternoon when a car stopped the +boy leaped on, tactfully asked the conductor if he did not want a drink, +and then proceeded to sell his water, cooled with ice, at a cent a glass +to the passengers. A little experience showed that he exhausted a pail +with every two cars, and each pail netted him thirty cents. Of course +Sunday was a most profitable day; and after going to Sunday-school in +the morning, he did a further Sabbath service for the rest of the day by +refreshing tired mothers and thirsty children on the Coney Island +cars—at a penny a glass!</p> + +<p>But the profit of six dollars which Edward was now reaping in his newly +found "bonanza" on Saturday and Sunday afternoons became apparent to +other boys, and one Saturday the young ice-water boy found that he had a +competitor; then two and soon three. Edward immediately met the +challenge; he squeezed half a dozen lemons into each pail of water, +added some sugar, tripled his charge, and continued his monopoly by +selling "Lemonade, three cents a glass." Soon more passengers were +asking for lemonade than for plain drinking-water!</p> + +<p>One evening Edward went to a party of young people, and his latent +journalistic sense whispered to him that his young hostess might like to +see her social affair in print. He went home, wrote up the party, being +careful to include the name of every boy and girl present, and next +morning took the account to the city editor of the Brooklyn Eagle, with +the sage observation that every name mentioned in that paragraph +represented a buyer of the paper, who would like to see his or her name +in print, and that if the editor had enough of these reports he might +very advantageously strengthen the circulation of The Eagle. The editor +was not slow to see the point, and offered Edward three dollars a column +for such reports. On his way home, Edward calculated how many parties he +would have to attend a week to furnish a column, and decided that he +would organize a corps of private reporters himself. Forthwith, he saw +every girl and boy he knew, got each to promise to write for him an +account of each party he or she attended or gave, and laid great stress +on a full recital of names. Within a few weeks, Edward was turning in to +The Eagle from two to three columns a week; his pay was raised to four +dollars a column; the editor was pleased in having started a department +that no other paper carried, and the "among those present" at the +parties all bought the paper and were immensely gratified to see their +names.</p> + +<p>So everybody was happy, and Edward Bok, as a full-fledged reporter, had +begun his journalistic career.</p> + +<p>It is curious how deeply embedded in his nature, even in his earliest +years, was the inclination toward the publishing business. The word +"curious" is used here because Edward is the first journalist in the Bok +family in all the centuries through which it extends in Dutch history. +On his father's side, there was a succession of jurists. On the mother's +side, not a journalist is visible.</p> + +<p>Edward attended the Sunday-school of the Carroll Park Methodist +Episcopal Church, in Brooklyn, of which a Mr. Elkins was superintendent. +One day he learned that Mr. Elkins was associated with the publishing +house of Harper and Brothers. Edward had heard his father speak of +Harper's Weekly and of the great part it had played in the Civil War; +his father also brought home an occasional copy of Harper's Weekly and +of Harper's Magazine. He had seen Harper's Young People; the name of +Harper and Brothers was on some of his school-books; and he pictured in +his mind how wonderful it must be for a man to be associated with +publishers of periodicals that other people read, and books that other +folks studied. The Sunday-school superintendent henceforth became a +figure of importance in Edward's eyes; many a morning the boy hastened +from home long before the hour for school, and seated himself on the +steps of the Elkins house under the pretext of waiting for Mr. Elkins's +son to go to school, but really for the secret purpose of seeing Mr. +Elkins set forth to engage in the momentous business of making books and +periodicals. Edward would look after the superintendent's form until it +was lost to view; then, with a sigh, he would go to school, forgetting +all about the Elkins boy whom he had told the father he had come to call +for!</p> + +<p>One day Edward was introduced to a girl whose father, he learned, was +editor of the New York Weekly. Edward could not quite place this +periodical; he had never seen it, he had never heard of it. So he bought +a copy, and while its contents seemed strange, and its air unfamiliar in +comparison with the magazines he found in his home, still an editor was +an editor. He was certainly well worth knowing. So he sought his newly +made young lady friend, asked permission to call upon her, and to +Edward's joy was introduced to her father. It was enough for Edward to +look furtively at the editor upon his first call, and being encouraged +to come again, he promptly did so the next evening. The daughter has +long since passed away, and so it cannot hurt her feelings now to +acknowledge that for years Edward paid court to her only that he might +know her father, and have those talks with him about editorial methods +that filled him with ever-increasing ambition to tread the path that +leads to editorial tribulations.</p> + +<p>But what with helping his mother, tending the baker's shop in +after-school hours, serving his paper route, plying his street-car +trade, and acting as social reporter, it soon became evident to Edward +that he had not much time to prepare his school lessons. By a supreme +effort, he managed to hold his own in his class, but no more. +Instinctively, he felt that he was not getting all that he might from +his educational opportunities, yet the need for him to add to the family +income was, if anything, becoming greater. The idea of leaving school +was broached to his mother, but she rebelled. She told the boy that he +was earning something now and helping much. Perhaps the tide with the +father would turn and he would find the place to which his unquestioned +talents entitled him. Finally the father did. He associated himself with +the Western Union Telegraph Company as translator, a position for which +his easy command of languages admirably fitted him. Thus, for a time, +the strain upon the family exchequer was lessened.</p> + +<p>But the American spirit of initiative had entered deep into the soul of +Edward Bok. The brother had left school a year before, and found a place +as messenger in a lawyer's office; and when one evening Edward heard his +father say that the office boy in his department had left, he asked that +he be allowed to leave school, apply for the open position, and get the +rest of his education in the great world itself. It was not easy for the +parents to see the younger son leave school at so early an age, but the +earnestness of the boy prevailed.</p> + +<p>And so, at the age of thirteen, Edward Bok left school, and on Monday, +August 7, 1876, he became office boy in the electricians' department of +the Western Union Telegraph Company at six dollars and twenty-five cents +per week.</p> + +<p>And, as such things will fall out in this curiously strange world, it +happened that as Edward drew up his chair for the first time to his desk +to begin his work on that Monday morning, there had been born in Boston, +exactly twelve hours before, a girl-baby who was destined to become his +wife. Thus at the earliest possible moment after her birth, Edward Bok +started to work for her!</p> + +<h3><a name="III" id="III"></a>III.</h3> + +<p class="heading">The Hunger for Self-Education</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">With</span> school-days ended, the question of self-education became an +absorbing thought with Edward Bok. He had mastered a schoolboy's +English, but seven years of public-school education was hardly a basis +on which to build the work of a lifetime. He saw each day in his duties +as office boy some of the foremost men of the time. It was the period of +William H. Vanderbilt's ascendancy in Western Union control; and the +railroad millionnaire and his companions, Hamilton McK. Twombly, James +H. Banker, Samuel F. Barger, Alonzo B. Cornell, Augustus Schell, William +Orton, were objects of great interest to the young office boy. Alexander +Graham Bell and Thomas A. Edison were also constant visitors to the +department. He knew that some of these men, too, had been deprived of +the advantage of collegiate training, and yet they had risen to the top. +But how? The boy decided to read about these men and others, and find +out. He could not, however, afford the separate biographies, so he went +to the libraries to find a compendium that would authoritatively tell +him of all successful men. He found it in Appleton's Encyclopedia, and, +determining to have only the best, he saved his luncheon money, walked +instead of riding the five miles to his Brooklyn home, and, after a +period of saving, had his reward in the first purchase from his own +earnings: a set of the Encyclopedia. He now read about all the +successful men, and was encouraged to find that in many cases their +beginnings had been as modest as his own, and their opportunities of +education as limited.</p> + +<p>One day it occurred to him to test the accuracy of the biographies he +was reading. James A. Garfield was then spoken of for the presidency; +Edward wondered whether it was true that the man who was likely to be +President of the United States had once been a boy on the tow-path, and +with a simple directness characteristic of his Dutch training, wrote to +General Garfield, asking whether the boyhood episode was true, and +explaining why he asked. Of course any public man, no matter how large +his correspondence, is pleased to receive an earnest letter from an +information-seeking boy. General Garfield answered warmly and fully. +Edward showed the letter to his father, who told the boy that it was +valuable and he should keep it. This was a new idea. He followed it +further: if one such letter was valuable, how much more valuable would +be a hundred! If General Garfield answered him, would not other famous +men? Why not begin a collection of autograph letters? Everybody +collected something.</p> + +<p>Edward had collected postage-stamps, and the hobby had, incidentally, +helped him wonderfully in his study of geography. Why should not +autograph letters from famous persons be of equal service in his +struggle for self-education? Not simple autographs—they were +meaningless; but actual letters which might tell him something useful. +It never occurred to the boy that these men might not answer him.</p> + +<p>So he took his Encyclopedia—its trustworthiness now established in his +mind by General Garfield's letter—and began to study the lives of +successful men and women. Then, with boyish frankness, he wrote on some +mooted question in one famous person's life; he asked about the date of +some important event in another's, not given in the Encyclopedia; or he +asked one man why he did this or why some other man did that.</p> + +<p>Most interesting were, of course, the replies. Thus General Grant +sketched on an improvised map the exact spot where General Lee +surrendered to him; Longfellow told him how he came to write +"Excelsior"; Whittier told the story of "The Barefoot Boy"; Tennyson +wrote out a stanza or two of "The Brook," upon condition that Edward +would not again use the word "awful," which the poet said "is slang for +'very,'" and "I hate slang."</p> + +<p>One day the boy received a letter from the Confederate general Jubal A. +Early, giving the real reason why he burned Chambersburg. A friend +visiting Edward's father, happening to see the letter, recognized in it +a hitherto-missing bit of history, and suggested that it be published in +the New York Tribune. The letter attracted wide attention and provoked +national discussion.</p> + +<p>This suggested to the editor of The Tribune that Edward might have other +equally interesting letters; so he despatched a reporter to the boy's +home. This reporter was Ripley Hitchcock, who afterward became literary +adviser for the Appletons and Harpers. Of course Hitchcock at once saw a +"story" in the boy's letters, and within a few days The Tribune appeared +with a long article on its principal news page giving an account of the +Brooklyn boy's remarkable letters and how he had secured them. The +Brooklyn Eagle quickly followed with a request for an interview; the +Boston Globe followed suit; the Philadelphia Public Ledger sent its New +York correspondent; and before Edward was aware of it, newspapers in +different parts of the country were writing about "the well-known +Brooklyn autograph collector."</p> + +<p>Edward Bok was quick to see the value of the publicity which had so +suddenly come to him. He received letters from other autograph +collectors all over the country who sought to "exchange" with him. +References began to creep into letters from famous persons to whom he +had written, saying they had read about his wonderful collection and +were proud to be included in it. George W. Childs, of Philadelphia, +himself the possessor of probably one of the finest collections of +autograph letters in the country, asked Edward to come to Philadelphia +and bring his collection with him—which he did, on the following +Sunday, and brought it back greatly enriched.</p> + +<p>Several of the writers felt an interest in a boy who frankly told them +that he wanted to educate himself, and asked Edward to come and see +them. Accordingly, when they lived in New York or Brooklyn, or came to +these cities on a visit, he was quick to avail himself of their +invitations. He began to note each day in the newspapers the +"distinguished arrivals" at the New York hotels; and when any one with +whom he had corresponded arrived, Edward would, after business hours, go +up-town, pay his respects, and thank him in person for his letters. No +person was too high for Edward's boyish approach; President Garfield, +General Grant, General Sherman, President Hayes—all were called upon, +and all received the boy graciously and were interested in the problem +of his self-education. It was a veritable case of making friends on +every hand; friends who were to be of the greatest help and value to the +boy in his after-years, although he had no conception of it at the time.</p> + +<p>The Fifth Avenue Hotel, in those days the stopping-place of the majority +of the famous men and women visiting New York, represented to the young +boy who came to see these celebrities the very pinnacle of opulence. +Often while waiting to be received by some dignitary, he wondered how +one could acquire enough means to live at a place of such luxury. The +main dining-room, to the boy's mind, was an object of special interest. +He would purposely sneak up-stairs and sit on one of the soft sofas in +the foyer simply to see the well-dressed diners go in and come out. +Edward would speculate on whether the time would ever come when he could +dine in that wonderful room just once!</p> + +<p>One evening he called, after the close of business, upon General and +Mrs. Grant, whom he had met before, and who had expressed a desire to +see his collection. It can readily be imagined what a red-letter day it +made in the boy's life to have General Grant say: "It might be better +for us all to go down to dinner first and see the collection afterward." +Edward had purposely killed time between five and seven o'clock, +thinking that the general's dinner-hour, like his own, was at six. He +had allowed an hour for the general to eat his dinner, only to find that +he was still to begin it. The boy could hardly believe his ears, and +unable to find his voice, he failed to apologize for his modest suit or +his general after-business appearance.</p> + +<p>As in a dream he went down in the elevator with his host and hostess, +and when the party of three faced toward the dining-room entrance, so +familiar to the boy, he felt as if his legs must give way under him. +There have since been other red-letter days in Edward Bok's life, but +the moment that still stands out preeminent is that when two colored +head waiters at the dining-room entrance, whom he had so often watched, +bowed low and escorted the party to their table. At last, he was in that +sumptuous dining-hall. The entire room took on the picture of one great +eye, and that eye centred on the party of three—as, in fact, it +naturally would. But Edward felt that the eye was on him, wondering why +he should be there.</p> + +<p>What he ate and what he said he does not recall. General Grant, not a +voluble talker himself, gently drew the boy out, and Mrs. Grant seconded +him, until toward the close of the dinner he heard himself talking. He +remembers that he heard his voice, but what that voice said is all dim +to him. One act stamped itself on his mind. The dinner ended with a +wonderful dish of nuts and raisins, and just before the party rose from +the table Mrs. Grant asked the waiter to bring her a paper bag. Into +this she emptied the entire dish, and at the close of the evening she +gave it to Edward "to eat on the way home." It was a wonderful evening, +afterward up-stairs, General Grant smoking the inevitable cigar, and +telling stories as he read the letters of different celebrities. Over +those of Confederate generals he grew reminiscent; and when he came to a +letter from General Sherman, Edward remembers that he chuckled audibly, +reread it, and then turning to Mrs. Grant, said: "Julia, listen to this +from Sherman. Not bad." The letter he read was this:</p> + +<p class="top5">"Dear Mr. Bok:—</p> + +<p>"I prefer not to make scraps of sentimental writing. When I write +anything I want it to be real and connected in form, as, for +instance, in your quotation from Lord Lytton's play of +'Richelieu,' 'The pen is mightier than the sword.' Lord Lytton +would never have put his signature to so naked a sentiment. +Surely I will not.</p> + +<p>"In the text there was a prefix or qualification:</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Beneath the rule of men entirely great</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The pen is mightier than the sword.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>"Now, this world does not often present the condition of facts +herein described. Men entirely great are very rare indeed, +and even Washington, who approached greatness as near as any +mortal, found good use for the sword and the pen, each in its +proper sphere.</p> + +<p>"You and I have seen the day when a great and good man ruled this +country (Lincoln) who wielded a powerful and prolific pen, and +yet had to call to his assistance a million of flaming swords.</p> + +<p>"No, I cannot subscribe to your sentiment, 'The pen is mightier +than the sword,' which you ask me to write, because it is not true.</p> + +<p>"Rather, in the providence of God, there is a time for all things; +a time when the sword may cut the Gordian knot, and set free the +principles of right and justice, bound up in the meshes of hatred, +revenge, and tyranny, that the pens of mighty men like Clay, +Webster, Crittenden, and Lincoln were unable to disentangle.</p> + +<p>"Wishing you all success, I am, with respect, your friend,</p> + +<p class="r">"W. T. Sherman."</p> + +<p class="top5">Mrs. Grant had asked Edward to send her a photograph of himself, and +after one had been taken, the boy took it to the Fifth Avenue Hotel, +intending to ask the clerk to send it to her room. Instead, he met +General and Mrs. Grant just coming from the elevator, going out to +dinner. The boy told them his errand, and said he would have the +photograph sent up-stairs.</p> + +<p>"I am so sorry we are just going out to dinner," said Mrs. Grant, "for +the general had some excellent photographs just taken of himself, and he +signed one for you, and put it aside, intending to send it to you when +yours came." Then, turning to the general, she said: "Ulysses, send up +for it. We have a few moments."</p> + +<p>"I'll go and get it. I know just where it is," returned the general. +"Let me have yours," he said, turning to Edward. "I am glad to exchange +photographs with you, boy."</p> + +<p>To Edward's surprise, when the general returned he brought with him, not +a duplicate of the small _carte-de-visite_ size which he had given the +general—all that he could afford—but a large, full cabinet size.</p> + +<p>"They make 'em too big," said the general, as he handed it to Edward.</p> + +<p>But the boy didn't think so!</p> + +<p>That evening was one that the boy was long to remember. It suddenly came +to him that he had read a few days before of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln's +arrival in New York at Doctor Holbrook's sanitarium. Thither Edward +went; and within half an hour from the time he had been talking with +General Grant he was sitting at the bedside of Mrs. Lincoln, showing her +the wonderful photograph just presented to him. Edward saw that the +widow of the great Lincoln did not mentally respond to his pleasure in +his possession. It was apparent even to the boy that mental and physical +illness had done their work with the frail frame. But he had the memory, +at least, of having got that close to the great President.</p> + +<p class="c">Mrs. Abraham Lincoln, October 13th 1881</p> + +<p>The eventful evening, however, was not yet over. Edward had boarded a +Broadway stage to take him to his Brooklyn home when, glancing at the +newspaper of a man sitting next to him, he saw the headline: "Jefferson +Davis arrives in New York." He read enough to see that the Confederate +President was stopping at the Metropolitan Hotel, in lower Broadway, and +as he looked out of the stage-window the sign "Metropolitan Hotel" +stared him in the face. In a moment he was out of the stage; he wrote a +little note, asked the clerk to send it to Mr. Davis, and within five +minutes was talking to the Confederate President and telling of his +remarkable evening.</p> + +<p>Mr. Davis was keenly interested in the coincidence and in the boy before +him. He asked about the famous collection, and promised to secure for +Edward a letter written by each member of the Confederate Cabinet. This +he subsequently did. Edward remained with Mr. Davis until ten o'clock, +and that evening brought about an interchange of letters between the +Brooklyn boy and Mr. Davis at Beauvoir, Mississippi, that lasted until +the latter passed away.</p> + +<p>Edward was fast absorbing a tremendous quantity of biographical +information about the most famous men and women of his time, and he was +compiling a collection of autograph letters that the newspapers had made +famous throughout the country. He was ruminating over his possessions +one day, and wondering to what practical use he could put his +collection; for while it was proving educative to a wonderful degree, it +was, after all, a hobby, and a hobby means expense. His autograph quest +cost him stationery, postage, car-fare—all outgo. But it had brought +him no income, save a rich mental revenue. And the boy and his family +needed money. He did not know, then, the value of a background.</p> + +<p>He was thinking along this line in a restaurant when a man sitting next +to him opened a box of cigarettes, and taking a picture out of it threw +it on the floor. Edward picked it up, thinking it might be a "prospect" +for his collection of autograph letters. It was the picture of a +well-known actress. He then recalled an advertisement announcing that +this particular brand of cigarettes contained, in each package, a +lithographed portrait of some famous actor or actress, and that if the +purchaser would collect these he would, in the end, have a valuable +album of the greatest actors and actresses of the day. Edward turned the +picture over, only to find a blank reverse side. "All very well," he +thought, "but what does a purchaser have, after all, in the end, but a +lot of pictures? Why don't they use the back of each picture, and tell +what each did: a little biography? Then it would be worth keeping." With +his passion for self-education, the idea appealed very strongly to him; +and believing firmly that there were others possessed of the same +thirst, he set out the next day, in his luncheon hour, to find out who +made the picture.</p> + +<p>At the office of the cigarette company he learned that the making of the +pictures was in the hands of the Knapp Lithographic Company. The +following luncheon hour, Edward sought the offices of the company, and +explained his idea to Mr. Joseph P. Knapp, now the president of the +American Lithograph Company.</p> + +<p>"I'll give you ten dollars apiece if you will write me a +one-hundred-word biography of one hundred famous Americans," was Mr. +Knapp's instant reply. "Send me a list, and group them, as, for +instance: presidents and vice-presidents, famous soldiers, actors, +authors, etc."</p> + +<p>"And thus," says Mr. Knapp, as he tells the tale to-day, "I gave Edward +Bok his first literary commission, and started him off on his literary +career."</p> + +<p>And it is true.</p> + +<p>But Edward soon found the Lithograph Company calling for "copy," and, +write as he might, he could not supply the biographies fast enough. He, +at last, completed the first hundred, and so instantaneous was their +success that Mr. Knapp called for a second hundred, and then for a +third. Finding that one hand was not equal to the task, Edward offered +his brother five dollars for each biography; he made the same offer to +one or two journalists whom he knew and whose accuracy he could trust; +and he was speedily convinced that merely to edit biographies written by +others, at one-half the price paid to him, was more profitable than to +write himself.</p> + +<p>So with five journalists working at top speed to supply the hungry +lithograph presses, Mr. Knapp was likewise responsible for Edward Bok's +first adventure as an editor. It was commercial, if you will, but it was +a commercial editing that had a distinct educational value to a large +public.</p> + +<p>The important point is that Edward Bok was being led more and more to +writing and to editorship.</p> + +<h3><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV.</h3> + +<p class="heading">A Presidential Friend and a Boston Pilgrimage</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Edward Bok</span> had not been office boy long before he realized that if he +learned shorthand he would stand a better chance for advancement. So he +joined the Young Men's Christian Association in Brooklyn, and entered +the class in stenography. But as this class met only twice a week, +Edward, impatient to learn the art of "pothooks" as quickly as possible, +supplemented this instruction by a course given on two other evenings at +moderate cost by a Brooklyn business college. As the system taught in +both classes was the same, more rapid progress was possible, and the two +teachers were constantly surprised that he acquired the art so much more +quickly than the other students.</p> + +<p>Before many weeks Edward could "stenograph" fairly well, and as the +typewriter had not then come into its own, he was ready to put his +knowledge to practical use.</p> + +<p>An opportunity offered itself when the city editor of the Brooklyn Eagle +asked him to report two speeches at a New England Society dinner. The +speakers were to be the President of the United States, General Grant, +General Sherman, Mr. Evarts, and General Sheridan. Edward was to report +what General Grant and the President said, and was instructed to give +the President's speech verbatim.</p> + +<p>At the close of the dinner, the reporters came in and Edward was seated +directly in front of the President. In those days when a public dinner +included several kinds of wine, it was the custom to serve the reporters +with wine, and as the glasses were placed before Edward's plate he +realized that he had to make a decision then and there. He had, of +course, constantly seen wine on his father's table, as is the European +custom, but the boy had never tasted it. He decided he would not begin +then, when he needed a clear head. So, in order to get more room for his +note-book, he asked the waiter to remove the glasses.</p> + +<p>It was the first time he had ever attempted to report a public address. +General Grant's remarks were few, as usual, and as he spoke slowly, he +gave the young reporter no trouble. But alas for his stenographic +knowledge, when President Hayes began to speak! Edward worked hard, but +the President was too rapid for him; he did not get the speech, and he +noticed that the reporters for the other papers fared no better. Nothing +daunted, however, after the speechmaking, Edward resolutely sought the +President, and as the latter turned to him, he told him his plight, +explained it was his first important "assignment," and asked if he could +possibly be given a copy of the speech so that he could "beat" the other +papers.</p> + +<p>The President looked at him curiously for a moment, and then said: "Can +you wait a few minutes?"</p> + +<p>Edward assured him that he could.</p> + +<p>After fifteen minutes or so the President came up to where the boy was +waiting, and said abruptly:</p> + +<p>"Tell me, my boy, why did you have the wine-glasses removed from your +place?"</p> + +<p>Edward was completely taken aback at the question, but he explained his +resolution as well as he could.</p> + +<p>"Did you make that decision this evening?" the President asked.</p> + +<p>He had.</p> + +<p>"What is your name?" the President next inquired.</p> + +<p>He was told.</p> + +<p>"And you live, where?"</p> + +<p>Edward told him.</p> + +<p>"Suppose you write your name and address on this card for me," said the +President, reaching for one of the place-cards on the table.</p> + +<p>The boy did so.</p> + +<p>"Now, I am stopping with Mr. A. A. Low, on Columbia Heights. Is that in +the direction of your home?"</p> + +<p>It was.</p> + +<p>"Suppose you go with me, then, in my carriage," said the President, "and +I will give you my speech."</p> + +<p>Edward was not quite sure now whether he was on his head or his feet.</p> + +<p>As he drove along with the President and his host, the President asked +the boy about himself, what he was doing, etc. On arriving at Mr. Low's +house, the President went up-stairs, and in a few moments came down with +his speech in full, written in his own hand. Edward assured him he would +copy it, and return the manuscript in the morning.</p> + +<p>The President took out his watch. It was then after midnight. Musing a +moment, he said: "You say you are an office boy; what time must you be +at your office?"</p> + +<p>"Half past eight, sir."</p> + +<p>"Well, good night," he said, and then, as if it were a second thought: +"By the way, I can get another copy of the speech. Just turn that in as +it is, if they can read it."</p> + +<p>Afterward, Edward found out that, as a matter of fact, it was the +President's only copy. Though the boy did not then appreciate this act +of consideration, his instinct fortunately led him to copy the speech +and leave the original at the President's stopping-place in the morning.</p> + +<p>And for all his trouble, the young reporter was amply repaid by seeing +that The Eagle was the only paper which had a verbatim report of the +President's speech.</p> + +<p>But the day was not yet done!</p> + +<p>That evening, upon reaching home, what was the boy's astonishment to +find the following note:</p> + +<p class="top5">MY DEAR YOUNG FRIEND:—</p> + +<p>I have been telling Mrs. Hayes this morning of what you told me at the +dinner last evening, and she was very much interested. She would like to +see you, and joins me in asking if you will call upon us this evening at +eight-thirty.</p> + +<p>Very faithfully yours,</p> + +<p class="r">RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.</p> + +<p class="top5">Edward had not risen to the possession of a suit of evening clothes, and +distinctly felt its lack for this occasion. But, dressed in the best he +had, he set out, at eight o'clock, to call on the President of the +United States and his wife!</p> + +<p>He had no sooner handed his card to the butler than that dignitary, +looking at it, announced: "The President and Mrs. Hayes are waiting for +you!" The ring of those magic words still sounds in Edward's ears: "The +President and Mrs. Hayes are waiting for you!"—and he a boy of sixteen!</p> + +<p>Edward had not been in the room ten minutes before he was made to feel +as thoroughly at ease as if he were sitting in his own home before an +open fire with his father and mother. Skilfully the President drew from +him the story of his youthful hopes and ambitions, and before the boy +knew it he was telling the President and his wife all about his precious +Encyclopedia, his evening with General Grant, and his efforts to become +something more than an office boy. No boy had ever so gracious a +listener before; no mother could have been more tenderly motherly than +the woman who sat opposite him and seemed so honestly interested in all +that he told. Not for a moment during all those two hours was he allowed +to remember that his host and hostess were the President of the United +States and the first lady of the land!</p> + +<p>That evening was the first of many thus spent as the years rolled by; +unexpected little courtesies came from the White House, and later from +"Spiegel Grove"; a constant and unflagging interest followed each +undertaking on which the boy embarked. Opportunities were opened to him; +acquaintances were made possible; a letter came almost every month until +that last little note, late in 1892.</p> + +<p class="top5 nind"> +My Dear Friend:<br /><br /> +I would write you more fully if I could. You are always thoughtful & kind.<br /><br /> +Thankfully your friend<br /> +Rutherford B. Hayes<br /><br /> + +Thanks—Thanks for your steady friendship. +</p> + +<p class="top5">The simple act of turning down his wine-glasses had won for Edward Bok +two gracious friends.</p> + +<p>The passion for autograph collecting was now leading Edward to read the +authors whom he read about. He had become attached to the works of the +New England group: Longfellow, Holmes, and, particularly, of Emerson. +The philosophy of the Concord sage made a peculiarly strong appeal to +the young mind, and a small copy of Emerson's essays was always in +Edward's pocket on his long stage or horse-car rides to his office and +back.</p> + +<p>He noticed that these New England authors rarely visited New York, or, +if they did, their presence was not heralded by the newspapers among the +"distinguished arrivals." He had a great desire personally to meet these +writers; and, having saved a little money, he decided to take his week's +summer vacation in the winter, when he knew he should be more likely to +find the people of his quest at home, and to spend his savings on a trip +to Boston. He had never been away from home, so this trip was a +momentous affair.</p> + +<p>He arrived in Boston on Sunday evening; and the first thing he did was +to despatch a note, by messenger, to Doctor Oliver Wendell Holmes, +announcing the important fact that he was there, and what his errand +was, and asking whether he might come up and see Doctor Holmes any time +the next day. Edward naively told him that he could come as early as +Doctor Holmes liked—by breakfast-time, he was assured, as Edward was +all alone! Doctor Holmes's amusement at this ingenuous note may be +imagined.</p> + +<p>Within the hour the boy brought back this answer:</p> + +<p class="top5 nind">MY DEAR BOY:<br /><br /> +I shall certainly look for you to-morrow morning at eight +o'clock to have a piece of pie with me. That is real New +England, you know.<br /><br /> +Very cordially yours,<br /></p> +<p class="r">OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES."</p> + +<p>Edward was there at eight o'clock. Strictly speaking, he was there at +seven-thirty, and found the author already at his desk in that room +overlooking the Charles River, which he learned in after years to know +better.</p> + +<p>"Well," was the cheery greeting, "you couldn't wait until eight for your +breakfast, could you? Neither could I when I was a boy. I used to have +my breakfast at seven," and then telling the boy all about his boyhood, +the cheery poet led him to the dining-room, and for the first time he +breakfasted away from home and ate pie—and that with "The Autocrat" at +his own breakfast-table!</p> + +<p>A cosier time no boy could have had. Just the two were there, and the +smiling face that looked out over the plates and cups gave the boy +courage to tell all that this trip was going to mean to him.</p> + +<p>"And you have come on just to see us, have you?" chuckled the poet. +"Now, tell me, what good do you think you will get out of it?"</p> + +<p>He was told what the idea was: that every successful man had something +to tell a boy, that would be likely to help him, and that Edward wanted +to see the men who had written the books that people enjoyed. Doctor +Holmes could not conceal his amusement at all this.</p> + +<p>When breakfast was finished, Doctor Holmes said: "Do you know that I am +a full-fledged carpenter? No? Well, I am. Come into my carpenter-shop."</p> + +<p>And he led the way into a front-basement room where was a complete +carpenter's outfit.</p> + +<p>"You know I am a doctor," he explained, "and this shop is my medicine. I +believe that every man must have a hobby that is as different from his +regular work as it is possible to be. It is not good for a man to work +all the time at one thing. So this is my hobby. This is my change. I +like to putter away at these things. Every day I try to come down here +for an hour or so. It rests me because it gives my mind a complete +change. For, whether you believe it or not," he added with his +inimitable chuckle, "to make a poem and to make a chair are two very +different things."</p> + +<p>"Now," he continued, "if you think you can learn something from me, +learn that and remember it when you are a man. Don't keep always at your +business, whatever it may be. It makes no difference how much you like +it. The more you like it, the more dangerous it is. When you grow up you +will understand what I mean by an 'outlet'—a hobby, that is—in your +life, and it must be so different from your regular work that it will +take your thoughts into an entirely different direction. We doctors call +it a safety-valve, and it is. I would much rather," concluded the poet, +"you would forget all that I have ever written than that you should +forget what I tell you about having a safety-valve."</p> + +<p>"And now do you know," smilingly said the poet, "about the Charles River +here?" as they returned to his study and stood before the large bay +window. "I love this river," he said. "Yes, I love it," he repeated; +"love it in summer or in winter." And then he was quiet for a minute or +so.</p> + +<p>Edward asked him which of his poems were his favorites.</p> + +<p>"Well," he said musingly, "I think 'The Chambered Nautilus' is my most +finished piece of work, and I suppose it is my favorite. But there are +also 'The Voiceless,' 'My Aviary,' written at this window, 'The Battle +of Bunker Hill,' and 'Dorothy Q,' written to the portrait of my +great-grandmother which you see on the wall there. All these I have a +liking for, and when I speak of the poems I like best there are two +others that ought to be included—'The Silent Melody' and 'The Last +Leaf.' I think these are among my best."</p> + +<p>"What is the history of 'The Chambered Nautilus'?" Edward asked.</p> + +<p>"It has none," came the reply, "it wrote itself. So, too, did 'The +One-Hoss Shay.' That was one of those random conceptions that gallop +through the brain, and that you catch by the bridle. I caught it and +reined it. That is all."</p> + +<p>Just then a maid brought in a parcel, and as Doctor Holmes opened it on +his desk he smiled over at the boy and said:</p> + +<p>"Well, I declare, if you haven't come just at the right time. See those +little books? Aren't they wee?" and he handed the boy a set of three +little books, six inches by four in size, beautifully bound in half +levant. They were his "Autocrat" in one volume, and his better-known +poems in two volumes.</p> + +<p>"This is a little fancy of mine," he said. "My publishers, to please me, +have gotten out this tiny wee set. And here," as he counted the little +sets, "they have sent me six sets. Are they not exquisite little +things?" and he fondled them with loving glee. "Lucky, too, for me that +they should happen to come now, for I have been wondering what I could +give you as a souvenir of your visit to me, and here it is, sure enough! +My publishers must have guessed you were here and my mind at the same +time. Now, if you would like it, you shall carry home one of these +little sets, and I'll just write a piece from one of my poems and your +name on the fly-leaf of each volume. You say you like that little verse:</p> + +<p class="c">"'A few can touch the magic string.'</p> + +<p>Then I'll write those four lines in this volume." And he did.</p> + +<p>As each little volume went under the poet's pen Edward said, as his +heart swelled in gratitude:</p> + +<p>"Doctor Holmes, you are a man of the rarest sort to be so good to a +boy."</p> + +<p class="poem"> +A few can touch the magic string.<br /> +And noisy fame is proud to win them,—<br /> +Alas for those who never sing.<br /> +But die with all their music in them!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Oliver Wendell Holmes</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The pen stopped, the poet looked out on the Charles a moment, and then, +turning to the boy with a little moisture in his eye, he said:</p> + +<p>"No, my boy, I am not; but it does an old man's heart good to hear you +say it. It means much to those on the down-hill side to be well thought +of by the young who are coming up."</p> + +<p>As he wiped his gold pen, with its swan-quill holder, and laid it down, +he said:</p> + +<p>"That's the pen with which I wrote 'Elsie Venner' and the 'Autocrat' +papers. I try to take care of it."</p> + +<p>"You say you are going from me over to see Longfellow?" he continued, as +he reached out once more for the pen. "Well, then, would you mind if I +gave you a letter for him? I have something to send him."</p> + +<p>Sly but kindly old gentleman! The "something" he had to send Longfellow +was Edward himself, although the boy did not see through the subterfuge +at that time.</p> + +<p>"And now, if you are going, I'll walk along with you if you don't mind, +for I'm going down to Park Street to thank my publishers for these +little books, and that lies along your way to the Cambridge car."</p> + +<p>As the two walked along Beacon Street, Doctor Holmes pointed out the +residences where lived people of interest, and when they reached the +Public Garden he said:</p> + +<p>"You must come over in the spring some time, and see the tulips and +croci and hyacinths here. They are so beautiful.</p> + +<p>"Now, here is your car," he said as he hailed a coming horse-car. +"Before you go back you must come and see me and tell me all the people +you have seen; will you? I should like to hear about them. I may not +have more books coming in, but I might have a very good-looking +photograph of a very old-looking little man," he said as his eyes +twinkled. "Give my love to Longfellow when you see him, and don't forget +to give him my letter, you know. It is about a very important matter."</p> + +<p>And when the boy had ridden a mile or so with his fare in his hand he +held it out to the conductor, who grinned and said:</p> + +<p>"That's all right. Doctor Holmes paid me your fare, and I'm going to +keep that nickel if I lose my job for it."</p> + +<h3><a name="V" id="V"></a>V.</h3> + +<p class="heading">Going to the Theatre with Longfellow</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">When</span> Edward Bok stood before the home of Longfellow, he realized that he +was to see the man around whose head the boy's youthful reading had cast +a sort of halo. And when he saw the head itself he had a feeling that he +could see the halo. No kindlier pair of eyes ever looked at a boy, as, +with a smile, "the white Mr. Longfellow," as Mr. Howells had called him, +held out his hand.</p> + +<p>"I am very glad to see you, my boy," were his first words, and with them +he won the boy. Edward smiled back at the poet, and immediately the two +were friends.</p> + +<p>"I have been taking a walk this beautiful morning," he said next, "and +am a little late getting at my mail. Suppose you come in and sit at my +desk with me, and we will see what the postman has brought. He brings me +so many good things, you know."</p> + +<p>"Now, here is a little girl," he said, as he sat down at the desk with +the boy beside him, "who wants my autograph and a 'sentiment.' What +sentiment, I wonder, shall I send her?"</p> + +<p>"Why not send her 'Let us, then, be up and doing'?" suggested the boy. +"That's what I should like if I were she."</p> + +<p>"Should you, indeed?" said Longfellow. "That is a good suggestion. Now, +suppose you recite it off to me, so that I shall not have to look it up +in my books, and I will write as you recite. But slowly; you know I am +an old man, and write slowly."</p> + +<p>Edward thought it strange that Longfellow himself should not know his +own great words without looking them up. But he recited the four lines, +so familiar to every schoolboy, and when the poet had finished writing +them, he said:</p> + +<p>"Good! I see you have a memory. Now, suppose I copy these lines once +more for the little girl, and give you this copy? Then you can say, you +know, that you dictated my own poetry to me."</p> + +<p>Of course Edward was delighted, and Longfellow gave him the sheet as it +is here:</p> + +<p class="poem">Let us, then, be up and doing,<br /> +with a heart for any fate,<br /> +Still achieving, still pursuing,<br /> +Learn to labor and to wait.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Henry W. Longfellow</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Then, as the fine head bent down to copy the lines once more, Edward +ventured to say to him:</p> + +<p class="top5">"I should think it would keep you busy if you did this for every one who +asked you."</p> + +<p>"Well," said the poet, "you see, I am not so busy a man as I was some +years ago, and I shouldn't like to disappoint a little girl; should +you?"</p> + +<p>As he took up his letters again, he discovered five more requests for +his autograph. At each one he reached into a drawer in his desk, took a +card, and wrote his name on it.</p> + +<p>"There are a good many of these every day," said Longfellow, "but I +always like to do this little favor. It is so little to do, to write +your name on a card; and if I didn't do it some boy or girl might be +looking, day by day, for the postman and be disappointed. I only wish I +could write my name better for them. You see how I break my letters? +That's because I never took pains with my writing when I was a boy. I +don't think I should get a high mark for penmanship if I were at school, +do you?"</p> + +<p>"I see you get letters from Europe," said the boy, as Longfellow opened +an envelope with a foreign stamp on it.</p> + +<p>"Yes, from all over the world," said the poet. Then, looking at the boy +quickly, he said: "Do you collect postage-stamps?"</p> + +<p>Edward said he did.</p> + +<p>"Well, I have some right here, then," and going to a drawer in a desk he +took out a bundle of letters, and cut out the postage-stamps and gave +them to the boy.</p> + +<p>"There's one from the Netherlands. There's where I was born," Edward +ventured to say.</p> + +<p>"In the Netherlands? Then you are a real Dutchman. Well! Well!" he said, +laying down his pen. "Can you read Dutch?"</p> + +<p>The boy said he could.</p> + +<p>"Then," said the poet, "you are just the boy I am looking for." And +going to a bookcase behind him he brought out a book, and handing it to +the boy, he said, his eyes laughing: "Can you read that?"</p> + +<p>It was an edition of Longfellow's poems in Dutch.</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed," said Edward. "These are your poems in Dutch."</p> + +<p>"That's right," he said. "Now, this is delightful. I am so glad you +came. I received this book last week, and although I have been in the +Netherlands, I cannot speak or read Dutch. I wonder whether you would +read a poem to me and let me hear how it sounds."</p> + +<p>So Edward took "The Old Clock on the Stairs," and read it to him.</p> + +<p>The poet's face beamed with delight. "That's beautiful," he said, and +then quickly added: "I mean the language, not the poem."</p> + +<p>"Now," he went on, "I'll tell you what we'll do: we'll strike a bargain. +We Yankees are great for bargains, you know. If you will read me 'The +Village Blacksmith' you can sit in that chair there made out of the wood +of the old spreading chestnut-tree, and I'll take you out and show you +where the old shop stood. Is that a bargain?"</p> + +<p>Edward assured him it was. He sat in the chair of wood and leather, and +read to the poet several of his own poems in a language in which, when +he wrote them, he never dreamed they would ever be printed. He was very +quiet. Finally he said: "It seems so odd, so very odd, to hear something +you know so well sound so strange."</p> + +<p>"It's a great compliment, though, isn't it, sir?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"Ye-es," said the poet slowly. "Yes, yes," he added quickly. "It is, my +boy, a very great compliment."</p> + +<p>"Ah," he said, rousing himself, as a maid appeared, "that means +luncheon, or rather," he added, "it means dinner, for we have dinner in +the old New England fashion, in the middle of the day. I am all alone +to-day, and you must keep me company; will you? Then afterward we'll go +and take a walk, and I'll show you Cambridge. It is such a beautiful old +town, even more beautiful, I sometimes think, when the leaves are off +the trees.</p> + +<p>"Come," he said, "I'll take you up-stairs, and you can wash your hands +in the room where George Washington slept. And comb your hair, too, if +you want to," he added; "only it isn't the same comb that he used."</p> + +<p>To the boyish mind it was an historic breaking of bread, that midday +meal with Longfellow.</p> + +<p>"Can you say grace in Dutch?" he asked, as they sat down; and the boy +did.</p> + +<p>"Well," the poet declared, "I never expected to hear that at my table. I +like the sound of it."</p> + +<p>Then while the boy told all that he knew about the Netherlands, the poet +told the boy all about his poems. Edward said he liked "Hiawatha."</p> + +<p>"So do I," he said. "But I think I like 'Evangeline' better. Still," he +added, "neither one is as good as it should be. But those are the things +you see afterward so much better than you do at the time."</p> + +<p>It was a great event for Edward when, with the poet nodding and smiling +to every boy and man he met, and lifting his hat to every woman and +little girl, he walked through the fine old streets of Cambridge with +Longfellow. At one point of the walk they came to a theatrical +bill-board announcing an attraction that evening at the Boston Theatre. +Skilfully the old poet drew out from Edward that sometimes he went to +the theatre with his parents. As they returned to the gate of "Craigie +House" Edward said he thought he would go back to Boston.</p> + +<p>"And what have you on hand for this evening?" asked Longfellow.</p> + +<p>Edward told him he was going to his hotel to think over the day's +events.</p> + +<p>The poet laughed and said:</p> + +<p>"Now, listen to my plan. Boston is strange to you. Now we're going to +the theatre this evening, and my plan is that you come in now, have a +little supper with us, and then go with us to see the play. It is a +funny play, and a good laugh will do you more good than to sit in a +hotel all by yourself. Now, what do you think?"</p> + +<p>Of course the boy thought as Longfellow did, and it was a very happy boy +that evening who, in full view of the large audience in the immense +theatre, sat in that box. It was, as Longfellow had said, a play of +laughter, and just who laughed louder, the poet or the boy, neither ever +knew.</p> + +<p>Between the acts there came into the box a man of courtly presence, +dignified and yet gently courteous.</p> + +<p>"Ah! Phillips," said the poet, "how are you? You must know my young +friend here. This is Wendell Phillips, my boy. Here is a young man who +told me to-day that he was going to call on you and on Phillips Brooks +to-morrow. Now you know him before he comes to you."</p> + +<p>"I shall be glad to see you, my boy," said Mr. Phillips. "And so you are +going to see Phillips Brooks? Let me tell you something about Brooks. He +has a great many books in his library which are full of his marks and +comments. Now, when you go to see him you ask him to let you see some of +those books, and then, when he isn't looking, you put a couple of them +in your pocket. They would make splendid souvenirs, and he has so many +he would never miss them. You do it, and then when you come to see me +tell me all about it."</p> + +<p>And he and Longfellow smiled broadly.</p> + +<p>An hour later, when Longfellow dropped Edward at his hotel, he had not +only a wonderful day to think over but another wonderful day to look +forward to as well!</p> + +<p>He had breakfasted with Oliver Wendell Holmes; dined, supped, and been +to the theatre with Longfellow; and to-morrow he was to spend with +Phillips Brooks.</p> + +<p>Boston was a great place, Edward Bok thought, as he fell asleep.</p> + +<h3><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI.</h3> + +<p class="heading">Phillips Brooks's Books and Emerson's Mental Mist</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">No</span> one who called at Phillips Brooks's house was ever told that the +master of the house was out when he was in. That was a rule laid down by +Doctor Brooks: a maid was not to perjure herself for her master's +comfort or convenience. Therefore, when Edward was told that Doctor +Brooks was out, he knew he was out. The boy waited, and as he waited he +had a chance to look around the library and into the books. The rector's +faithful housekeeper said he might when he repeated what Wendell +Phillips had told him of the interest that was to be found in her +master's books. Edward did not tell her of Mr. Phillips's advice to +"borrow" a couple of books. He reserved that bit of information for the +rector of Trinity when he came in, an hour later.</p> + +<p>"Oh! did he?" laughingly said Doctor Brooks. "That is nice advice for a +man to give a boy. I am surprised at Wendell Phillips. He needs a little +talk: a ministerial visit. And have you followed his shameless advice?" +smilingly asked the huge man as he towered above the boy. "No? And to +think of the opportunity you had, too. Well, I am glad you had such +respect for my dumb friends. For they are my friends, each one of them," +he continued, as he looked fondly at the filled shelves. "Yes, I know +them all, and love each for its own sake. Take this little volume," and +he picked up a little volume of Shakespeare. "Why, we are the best of +friends: we have travelled miles together—all over the world, as a +matter of fact. It knows me in all my moods, and responds to each, no +matter how irritable I am. Yes, it is pretty badly marked up now, for a +fact, isn't it? Black; I never thought of that before that it doesn't +make a book look any better to the eye. But it means more to me because +of all that pencilling.</p> + +<p>"Now, some folks dislike my use of my books in this way. They love their +books so much that they think it nothing short of sacrilege to mark up a +book. But to me that's like having a child so prettily dressed that you +can't romp and play with it. What is the good of a book, I say, if it is +too pretty for use? I like to have my books speak to me, and then I like +to talk back to them.</p> + +<p>"Take my Bible, here," he continued, as he took up an old and much-worn +copy of the book. "I have a number of copies of the Great Book: one copy +I preach from; another I minister from; but this is my own personal +copy, and into it I talk and talk. See how I talk," and he opened the +Book and showed interleaved pages full of comments in his handwriting. +"There's where St. Paul and I had an argument one day. Yes, it was a +long argument, and I don't know now who won," he added smilingly. "But +then, no one ever wins in an argument, anyway; do you think so?</p> + +<p>"You see," went on the preacher, "I put into these books what other men +put into articles and essays for magazines and papers. I never write for +publications. I always think of my church when something comes to me to +say. There is always danger of a man spreading himself out thin if he +attempts too much, you know."</p> + +<p>Doctor Brooks must have caught the boy's eye, which, as he said this, +naturally surveyed his great frame, for he regarded him in an amused +way, and putting his hands on his girth, he said laughingly: "You are +thinking I would have to do a great deal to spread myself out thin, +aren't you?"</p> + +<p>The boy confessed he was, and the preacher laughed one of those deep +laughs of his that were so infectious.</p> + +<p>"But here I am talking about myself. Tell me something about yourself?"</p> + +<p>And when the boy told his object in coming to Boston, the rector of +Trinity Church was immensely amused.</p> + +<p>"Just to see us fellows! Well, and how do you like us so far?"</p> + +<p>And in the most comfortable way this true gentleman went on until the +boy mentioned that he must be keeping him from his work.</p> + +<p>"Not at all; not at all," was the quick and hearty response. "Not a +thing to do. I cleaned up all my mail before I had my breakfast this +morning.</p> + +<p>"These letters, you mean?" he said, as the boy pointed to some letters +on his desk unopened. "Oh, yes! Well, they must have come in a later +mail. Well, if it will make you feel any better I'll go through them, +and you can go through my books if you like. I'll trust you," he added +laughingly, as Wendell Phillips's advice occurred to him.</p> + +<p>"You like books, you say?" he went on, as he opened his letters. "Well, +then, you must come into my library here at any time you are in Boston, +and spend a morning reading anything I have that you like. Young men do +that, you know, and I like to have them. What's the use of good friends +if you don't share them? There's where the pleasure comes in."</p> + +<p>He asked the boy then about his newspaper work: how much it paid him, +and whether he felt it helped him in an educational way. The boy told +him he thought it did; that it furnished good lessons in the study of +human nature.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said, "I can believe that, so long as it is good journalism."</p> + +<p>Edward told him that he sometimes wrote for the Sunday paper, and asked +the preacher what he thought of that.</p> + +<p>"Well," he said, "that is not a crime."</p> + +<p>The boy asked him if he, then, favored the Sunday paper more than did +some other clergymen.</p> + +<p>"There is always good in everything, I think," replied Phillips Brooks. +"A thing must be pretty bad that hasn't some good in it." Then he +stopped, and after a moment went on: "My idea is that the fate of Sunday +newspapers rests very much with Sunday editors. There is a Sunday +newspaper conceivable in which we should all rejoice—all, that is, who +do not hold that a Sunday newspaper is always and per se wrong. But some +cause has, in many instances, brought it about that the Sunday paper is +below, and not above, the standard of its weekday brethren. I mean it is +apt to be more gossipy, more personal, more sensational, more frivolous; +less serious and thoughtful and suggestive. Taking for granted the fact +of special leisure on the part of its readers, it is apt to appeal to +the lower and not to the higher part of them, which the Sunday leisure +has set free. Let the Sunday newspaper be worthy of the day, and the day +will not reject it. So I say its fate is in the hands of its editor. He +can give it such a character as will make all good men its champions and +friends, or he can preserve for it the suspicion and dislike in which it +stands at present."</p> + +<p>Edward's journalistic instinct here got into full play; and although, as +he assured his host, he had had no such thought in coming, he asked +whether Doctor Brooks would object if he tried his reportorial wings by +experimenting as to whether he could report the talk.</p> + +<p>"I do not like the papers to talk about me," was the answer; "but if it +will help you, go ahead and practise on me. You haven't stolen my books +when you were told to do so, and I don't think you'll steal my name."</p> + +<p>The boy went back to his hotel, and wrote an article much as this +account is here written, which he sent to Doctor Brooks. "Let me keep it +by me," the doctor wrote, "and I will return it to you presently."</p> + +<p>And he did, with his comment on the Sunday newspaper, just as it is +given here, and with this note:</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If I must go into the</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">newspapers at all—which</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I should always vastly</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">prefer to avoid—no words could</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">have been more kind than</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">those of your article. You</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">were very good to send it</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">to me. I am ever</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sincerely, Your friend,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Phillips Brooks</span></p> + +<p>As he let the boy out of his house, at the end of that first meeting, he +said to him:</p> + +<p>"And you're going from me now to see Emerson? I don't know," he added +reflectively, "whether you will see him at his best. Still, you may. And +even if you do not, to have seen him, even as you may see him, is +better, in a way, than not to have seen him at all."</p> + +<p>Edward did not know what Phillips Brooks meant. But he was, sadly, to +find out the next day.</p> + +<p>A boy of sixteen was pretty sure of a welcome from Louisa Alcott, and +his greeting from her was spontaneous and sincere.</p> + +<p>"Why, you good boy," she said, "to come all the way to Concord to see +us," quite for all the world as if she were the one favored. "Now take +your coat off, and come right in by the fire."</p> + +<p>"Do tell me all about your visit," she continued.</p> + +<p>Before that cozey fire they chatted. It was pleasant to the boy to sit +there with that sweet-faced woman with those kindly eyes! After a while +she said: "Now I shall put on my coat and hat, and we shall walk over to +Emerson's house. I am almost afraid to promise that you will see him. He +sees scarcely any one now. He is feeble, and—" She did not finish the +sentence. "But we'll walk over there, at any rate."</p> + +<p>She spoke mostly of her father as the two walked along, and it was easy +to see that his condition was now the one thought of her life. Presently +they reached Emerson's house, and Miss Emerson welcomed them at the +door. After a brief chat Miss Alcott told of the boy's hope. Miss +Emerson shook her head.</p> + +<p>"Father sees no one now," she said, "and I fear it might not be a +pleasure if you did see him."</p> + +<p>Then Edward told her what Phillips Brooks had said.</p> + +<p>"Well," she said, "I'll see."</p> + +<p>She had scarcely left the room when Miss Alcott rose and followed her, +saying to the boy: "You shall see Mr. Emerson if it is at all possible."</p> + +<p>In a few minutes Miss Alcott returned, her eyes moistened, and simply +said: "Come."</p> + +<p>The boy followed her through two rooms, and at the threshold of the +third Miss Emerson stood, also with moistened eyes.</p> + +<p>"Father," she said simply, and there, at his desk, sat Emerson—the man +whose words had already won Edward Bok's boyish interest, and who was +destined to impress himself upon his life more deeply than any other +writer.</p> + +<p>Slowly, at the daughter's spoken word, Emerson rose with a wonderful +quiet dignity, extended his hand, and as the boy's hand rested in his, +looked him full in the eyes.</p> + +<p>No light of welcome came from those sad yet tender eyes. The boy closed +upon the hand in his with a loving pressure, and for a single moment the +eyelids rose, a different look came into those eyes, and Edward felt a +slight, perceptible response of the hand. But that was all!</p> + +<p>Quietly he motioned the boy to a chair beside the desk. Edward sat down +and was about to say something, when, instead of seating himself, +Emerson walked away to the window and stood there softly whistling and +looking out as if there were no one in the room. Edward's eyes had +followed Emerson's every footstep, when the boy was aroused by hearing a +suppressed sob, and as he looked around he saw that it came from Miss +Emerson. Slowly she walked out of the room. The boy looked at Miss +Alcott, and she put her finger to her mouth, indicating silence. He was +nonplussed.</p> + +<p>Edward looked toward Emerson standing in that window, and wondered what +it all meant. Presently Emerson left the window and, crossing the room, +came to his desk, bowing to the boy as he passed, and seated himself, +not speaking a word and ignoring the presence of the two persons in the +room.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the boy heard Miss Alcott say: "Have you read this new book by +Ruskin yet?"</p> + +<p>Slowly the great master of thought lifted his eyes from his desk, turned +toward the speaker, rose with stately courtesy from his chair, and, +bowing to Miss Alcott, said with great deliberation: "Did you speak to +me, madam?"</p> + +<p>The boy was dumfounded! Louisa Alcott, his Louisa! And he did not know +her! Suddenly the whole sad truth flashed upon the boy. Tears sprang +into Miss Alcott's eyes, and she walked to the other side of the room. +The boy did not know what to say or do, so he sat silent. With a +deliberate movement Emerson resumed his seat, and slowly his eyes roamed +over the boy sitting at the side of the desk. He felt he should say +something.</p> + +<p>"I thought, perhaps, Mr. Emerson," he said, "that you might be able to +favor me with a letter from Carlyle."</p> + +<p>At the mention of the name Carlyle his eyes lifted, and he asked: +"Carlyle, did you say, sir, Carlyle?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the boy, "Thomas Carlyle."</p> + +<p>"Ye-es," Emerson answered slowly. "To be sure, Carlyle. Yes, he was here +this morning. He will be here again to-morrow morning," he added +gleefully, almost like a child.</p> + +<p>Then suddenly: "You were saying—"</p> + +<p>Edward repeated his request.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I think so, I think so," said Emerson, to the boy's astonishment. +"Let me see. Yes, here in this drawer I have many letters from Carlyle."</p> + +<p>At these words Miss Alcott came from the other part of the room, her wet +eyes dancing with pleasure and her face wreathed in smiles.</p> + +<p>"I think we can help this young man; do you not think so, Louisa?" said +Emerson, smiling toward Miss Alcott. The whole atmosphere of the room +had changed. How different the expression of his eyes as now Emerson +looked at the boy! "And you have come all the way from New York to ask +me that!" he said smilingly as the boy told him of his trip. "Now, let +us see," he said, as he delved in a drawer full of letters.</p> + +<p>For a moment he groped among letters and papers, and then, softly +closing the drawer, he began that ominous low whistle once more, looked +inquiringly at each, and dropped his eyes straightway to the papers +before him on his desk. It was to be only for a few moments, then Miss +Alcott turned away.</p> + +<p>The boy felt the interview could not last much longer. So, anxious to +have some personal souvenir of the meeting, he said: "Mr. Emerson, will +you be so good as to write your name in this book for me?" and he +brought out an album he had in his pocket.</p> + +<p>"Name?" he asked vaguely.</p> + +<p>"Yes, please," said the boy, "your name: Ralph Waldo Emerson."</p> + +<p>But the sound of the name brought no response from the eyes.</p> + +<p>"Please write out the name you want," he said finally, "and I will copy +it for you if I can."</p> + +<p>It was hard for the boy to believe his own senses. But picking up a pen +he wrote: "Ralph Waldo Emerson, Concord; November 22, 1881."</p> + +<p>Emerson looked at it, and said mournfully: "Thank you." Then he picked +up the pen, and writing the single letter "R" stopped, followed his +finger until it reached the "W" of Waldo, and studiously copied letter +by letter! At the word "Concord" he seemed to hesitate, as if the task +were too great, but finally copied again, letter by letter, until the +second "c" was reached. "Another 'o,'" he said, and interpolated an +extra letter in the name of the town which he had done so much to make +famous the world over. When he had finished he handed back the book, in +which there was written:</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">R. Waldo Emerson</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Concord</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">November 22, 1881</span></p> + +<p>The boy put the book into his pocket; and as he did so Emerson's eye +caught the slip on his desk, in the boy's handwriting, and, with a smile +of absolute enlightenment, he turned and said:</p> + +<p>"You wish me to write my name? With pleasure. Have you a book with you?"</p> + +<p>Overcome with astonishment, Edward mechanically handed him the album +once more from his pocket. Quickly turning over the leaves, Emerson +picked up the pen, and pushing aside the slip, wrote without a moment's +hesitation:</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ralph Waldo Emerson</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Concord</span></p> + +<p>The boy was almost dazed at the instantaneous transformation in the man!</p> + +<p>Miss Alcott now grasped this moment to say: "Well, we must be going!"</p> + +<p>"So soon?" said Emerson, rising and smiling. Then turning to Miss Alcott +he said: "It was very kind of you, Louisa, to run over this morning and +bring your young friend."</p> + +<p>Then turning to the boy he said: "Thank you so much for coming to see +me. You must come over again while you are with the Alcotts. Good +morning! Isn't it a beautiful day out?" he said, and as he shook the +boy's hand there was a warm grasp in it, the fingers closed around those +of the boy, and as Edward looked into those deep eyes they twinkled and +smiled back.</p> + +<p>The going was all so different from the coming. The boy was grateful +that his last impression was of a moment when the eye kindled and the +hand pulsated.</p> + +<p>The two walked back to the Alcott home in an almost unbroken silence. +Once Edward ventured to remark:</p> + +<p>"You can have no idea, Miss Alcott, how grateful I am to you."</p> + +<p>"Well, my boy," she answered, "Phillips Brooks may be right: that it is +something to have seen him even so, than not to have seen him at all. +But to us it is so sad, so very sad. The twilight is gently closing in."</p> + +<p>And so it proved—just five months afterward.</p> + +<p>Eventful day after eventful day followed in Edward's Boston visit. The +following morning he spent with Wendell Phillips, who presented him with +letters from William Lloyd Garrison, Lucretia Mott, and other famous +persons; and then, writing a letter of introduction to Charles Francis +Adams, whom he enjoined to give the boy autograph letters from his two +presidential forbears, John Adams and John Quincy Adams, sent Edward on +his way rejoicing. Mr. Adams received the boy with equal graciousness +and liberality. Wonderful letters from the two Adamses were his when he +left.</p> + +<p>And then, taking the train for New York, Edward Bok went home, sitting +up all night in a day-coach for the double purpose of saving the cost of +a sleeping-berth and of having a chance to classify and clarify the +events of the most wonderful week in his life!</p> + +<h3><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII.</h3> + +<p class="heading">A Plunge into Wall Street</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> father of Edward Bok passed away when Edward was eighteen years of +age, and it was found that the amount of the small insurance left behind +would barely cover the funeral expenses. Hence the two boys faced the +problem of supporting the mother on their meagre income. They determined +to have but one goal: to put their mother back to that life of comfort +to which she had been brought up and was formerly accustomed. But that +was not possible on their income. It was evident that other employment +must be taken on during the evenings.</p> + +<p>The city editor of the Brooklyn Eagle had given Edward the assignment of +covering the news of the theatres; he was to ascertain "coming +attractions" and any other dramatic items of news interest. One Monday +evening, when a multiplicity of events crowded the reportorial corps, +Edward was delegated to "cover" the Grand Opera House, where Rose +Coghlan was to appear in a play that had already been seen in Brooklyn, +and called, therefore, for no special dramatic criticism. Yet The Eagle +wanted to cover it. It so happened that Edward had made another +appointment for that evening which he considered more important, and yet +not wishing to disappoint his editor he accepted the assignment. He had +seen Miss Coghlan in the play; so he kept his other engagement, and +without approaching the theatre he wrote a notice to the effect that +Miss Coghlan acted her part, if anything, with greater power than on her +previous Brooklyn visit, and so forth, and handed it in to his city +editor the next morning on his way to business.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, however, Miss Coghlan had been taken ill just before the +raising of the curtain, and, there being no understudy, no performance +had been given and the audience dismissed. All this was duly commented +upon by the New York morning newspapers. Edward read this bit of news on +the ferry-boat, but his notice was in the hands of the city editor.</p> + +<p>On reaching home that evening he found a summons from The Eagle, and the +next morning he received a rebuke, and was informed that his chances +with the paper were over. The ready acknowledgment and evident regret of +the crestfallen boy, however, appealed to the editor, and before the end +of the week he called the boy to him and promised him another chance, +provided the lesson had sunk in. It had, and it left a lasting +impression. It was always a cause of profound gratitude with Edward Bok +that his first attempt at "faking" occurred so early in his journalistic +career that he could take the experience to heart and profit by it.</p> + +<p>One evening when Edward was attending a theatrical performance, he +noticed the restlessness of the women in the audience between the acts. +In those days it was, even more than at present, the custom for the men +to go out between the acts, leaving the women alone. Edward looked at +the programme in his hands. It was a large eleven-by-nine sheet, four +pages, badly printed, with nothing in it save the cast, a few +advertisements, and an announcement of some coming attraction. The boy +mechanically folded the programme, turned it long side up and wondered +whether a programme of this smaller size, easier to handle, with an +attractive cover and some reading-matter, would not be profitable.</p> + +<p>When he reached home he made up an eight-page "dummy," pasted an +attractive picture on the cover, indicated the material to go inside, +and the next morning showed it to the manager of the theatre. The +programme as issued was an item of considerable expense to the +management; Edward offered to supply his new programme without cost, +provided he was given the exclusive right, and the manager at once +accepted the offer. Edward then sought a friend, Frederic L. Colver, who +had a larger experience in publishing and advertising, with whom he +formed a partnership. Deciding that immediately upon the issuance of +their first programme the idea was likely to be taken up by the other +theatres, Edward proceeded to secure the exclusive rights to them all. +The two young publishers solicited their advertisements on the way to +and from business mornings and evenings, and shortly the first +smaller-sized theatre programme, now in use in all theatres, appeared. +The venture was successful from the start, returning a comfortable +profit each week. Such advertisements as they could not secure for cash +they accepted in trade; and this latter arrangement assisted materially +in maintaining the households of the two publishers.</p> + +<p>Edward's partner now introduced him into a debating society called The +Philomathean Society, made up of young men connected with Plymouth +Church, of which Henry Ward Beecher was pastor. The debates took the +form of a miniature congress, each member representing a State, and it +is a curious coincidence that Edward drew, by lot, the representation of +the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The members took these debates very +seriously; no subject was too large for them to discuss. Edward became +intensely interested in the society's doings, and it was not long before +he was elected president.</p> + +<p>The society derived its revenue from the dues of its members and from an +annual concert given under its auspices in Plymouth Church. When the +time for the concert under Edward's presidency came around, he decided +that the occasion should be unique so as to insure a crowded house. He +induced Mr. Beecher to preside; he got General Grant's promise to come +and speak; he secured the gratuitous services of Emma C. Thursby, Annie +Louise Cary, Clara Louise Kellogg, and Evelyn Lyon Hegeman, all of the +first rank of concert-singers of that day, with the result that the +church could not accommodate the crowd which naturally was attracted by +such a programme.</p> + +<p>It now entered into the minds of the two young theatre-programme +publishers to extend their publishing interests by issuing an "organ" +for their society, and the first issue of The Philomathean Review duly +appeared with Mr. Colver as its publisher and Edward Bok as editor. +Edward had now an opportunity to try his wings in an editorial capacity. +The periodical was, of course, essentially an organ of the society; but +gradually it took on a more general character, so that its circulation +might extend over a larger portion of Brooklyn. With this extension came +a further broadening of its contents, which now began to take on a +literary character, and it was not long before its two projectors +realized that the periodical had outgrown its name. It was decided—late +in 1884—to change the name to The Brooklyn Magazine.</p> + +<p>There was a periodical called The Plymouth Pulpit, which presented +verbatim reports of the sermons of Mr. Beecher, and Edward got the idea +of absorbing the Pulpit in the Magazine. But that required more capital +than he and his partner could command. They consulted Mr. Beecher, who, +attracted by the enterprise of the two boys, sent them with letters of +introduction to a few of his most influential parishioners, with the +result that the pair soon had a sufficient financial backing by some of +the leading men of Brooklyn, like A. A. Low, H. B. Claflin, Rufus T. +Bush, Henry W. Slocum, Seth Low, Rossiter W. Raymond, Horatio C. King, +and others.</p> + +<p>The young publishers could now go on. Understanding that Mr. Beecher's +sermons might give a partial and denominational tone to the magazine, +Edward arranged to publish also in its pages verbatim reports of the +sermons of the Reverend T. De Witt Talmage, whose reputation was then at +its zenith. The young editor now realized that he had a rather heavy +cargo of sermons to carry each month; accordingly, in order that his +magazine might not appear to be exclusively religious, he determined +that its literary contents should be of a high order and equal in +interest to the sermons. But this called for additional capital, and the +capital furnished was not for that purpose.</p> + +<p>It is here that Edward's autographic acquaintances stood him in good +stead. He went in turn to each noted person he had met, explained his +plight and stated his ambitions, with the result that very soon the +magazine and the public were surprised at the distinction of the +contributors to The Brooklyn Magazine. Each number contained a +noteworthy list of them, and when an article by the President of the +United States, then Rutherford B. Hayes, opened one of the numbers, the +public was astonished, since up to that time the unwritten rule that a +President's writings were confined to official pronouncements had +scarcely been broken. William Dean Howells, General Grant, General +Sherman, Phillips Brooks, General Sheridan, Canon Farrar, Cardinal +Gibbons, Marion Harland, Margaret Sangster—the most prominent men and +women of the day, some of whom had never written for magazines—began to +appear in the young editor's contents. Editors wondered how the +publishers could afford it, whereas, in fact, not a single name +represented an honorarium. Each contributor had come gratuitously to the +aid of the editor.</p> + +<p>At first, the circulation of the magazine permitted the boys to wrap the +copies themselves; and then they, with two other boys, would carry as +huge bundles as they could lift, put them late at night on the front +platform of the street-cars, and take them to the post-office. Thus the +boys absolutely knew the growth of their circulation by the weight of +their bundles and the number of their front-platform trips each month. +Soon a baker's hand-cart was leased for an evening, and that was added +to the capacity of the front platforms. Then one eventful month it was +seen that a horse-truck would have to be employed. Within three weeks, a +double horse-truck was necessary, and three trips had to be made.</p> + +<p>By this time Edward Bok had become so intensely interested in the +editorial problem, and his partner in the periodical publishing part, +that they decided to sell out their theatre-programme interests and +devote themselves to the magazine and its rapidly increasing +circulation. All of Edward's editorial work had naturally to be done +outside of his business hours, in other words, in the evenings and on +Sundays; and the young editor found himself fully occupied. He now +revived the old idea of selecting a subject and having ten or twenty +writers express their views on it. It was the old symposium idea, but it +had not been presented in American journalism for a number of years. He +conceived the topic "Should America Have a Westminster Abbey?" and +induced some twenty of the foremost men and women of the day to discuss +it. When the discussion was presented in the magazine, the form being +new and the theme novel, Edward was careful to send advance sheets to +the newspapers, which treated it at length in reviews and editorials, +with marked effect upon the circulation of the magazine.</p> + +<p>All this time, while Edward Bok was an editor in his evenings he was, +during the day, a stenographer and clerk of the Western Union Telegraph +Company. The two occupations were hardly compatible, but each meant a +source of revenue to the boy, and he felt he must hold on to both.</p> + +<p>After his father passed away, the position of the boy's desk—next to +the empty desk of his father—was a cause of constant depression to him. +This was understood by the attorney for the company, Mr. Clarence Cary, +who sought the head of Edward's department, with the result that Edward +was transferred to Mr. Cary's department as the attorney's private +stenographer.</p> + +<p>Edward had been much attracted to Mr. Cary, and the attorney believed in +the boy, and decided to show his interest by pushing him along. He had +heard of the dual role which Edward was playing; he bought a copy of the +magazine, and was interested. Edward now worked with new zest for his +employer and friend; while in every free moment he read law, feeling +that, as almost all his forbears had been lawyers, he might perhaps be +destined for the bar. This acquaintance with the fundamental basis of +law, cursory as it was, became like a gospel to Edward Bok. In later +years, he was taught its value by repeated experience in his contact +with corporate laws, contracts, property leases, and other matters; and +he determined that, whatever the direction of activity taken by his +sons, each should spend at least a year in the study of law.</p> + +<p>The control of the Western Union Telegraph Company had now passed into +the hands of Jay Gould and his companions, and in the many legal matters +arising therefrom, Edward saw much, in his office, of "the little wizard +of Wall Street." One day, the financier had to dictate a contract, and, +coming into Mr. Cary's office, decided to dictate it then and there. An +hour afterward Edward delivered the copy of the contract to Mr. Gould, +and the financier was so struck by its accuracy and by the legibility of +the handwriting that afterward he almost daily "happened in" to dictate +to Mr. Cary's stenographer. Mr. Gould's private stenographer was in his +own office in lower Broadway; but on his way down-town in the morning +Mr. Gould invariably stopped at the Western Union Building, at 195 +Broadway, and the habit resulted in the installation of a private office +there. He borrowed Edward to do his stenography. The boy found himself +taking not only letters from Mr. Gould's dictation, but, what interested +him particularly, the financier's orders to buy and sell stock.</p> + +<p>Edward watched the effects on the stock-market of these little notes +which he wrote out and then shot through a pneumatic tube to Mr. Gould's +brokers. Naturally, the results enthralled the boy, and he told Mr. Cary +about his discoveries. This, in turn, interested Mr. Cary; Mr. Gould's +dictations were frequently given in Mr. Cary's own office, where, as his +desk was not ten feet from that of his stenographer, the attorney heard +them, and began to buy and sell according to the magnate's decisions.</p> + +<p>Edward had now become tremendously interested in the stock game which he +saw constantly played by the great financier; and having a little money +saved up, he concluded that he would follow in the wake of Mr. Gould's +orders. One day, he naively mentioned his desire to Mr. Gould, when the +financier seemed in a particularly favorable frame of mind; but Edward +did not succeed in drawing out the advice he hoped for. "At least," +reasoned Edward, "he knew of my intention; and if he considered it a +violation of confidence he would have said as much."</p> + +<p>Construing the financier's silence to mean at least not a prohibition, +Edward went to his Sunday-school teacher, who was a member of a Wall +Street brokerage firm, laid the facts before him, and asked him if he +would buy for him some Western Union stock. Edward explained, however, +that somehow he did not like the gambling idea of buying "on margin," +and preferred to purchase the stock outright. He was shown that this +would mean smaller profits; but the boy had in mind the loss of his +father's fortune, brought about largely by "stock margins," and he did +not intend to follow that example. So, prudently, under the brokerage of +his Sunday-school teacher, and guided by the tips of no less a man than +the controlling factor of stock-market finance, Edward Bok took his +first plunge in Wall Street!</p> + +<p>Of course the boy's buying and selling tallied precisely with the rise +and fall of Western Union stock. It could scarcely have been otherwise. +Jay Gould had the cards all in his hands; and as he bought and sold, so +Edward bought and sold. The trouble was, the combination did not end +there, as Edward might have foreseen had he been older and thus wiser. +For as Edward bought and sold, so did his Sunday-school teacher, and all +his customers who had seen the wonderful acumen of their broker in +choosing exactly the right time to buy and sell Western Union. But +Edward did not know this.</p> + +<p>One day a rumor became current on the Street that an agreement had been +reached by the Western Union Company and its bitter rival, the American +Union Telegraph Company, whereby the former was to absorb the latter. +Naturally, the report affected Western Union stock. But Mr. Gould denied +it in toto; said the report was not true, no such consolidation was in +view or had even been considered. Down tumbled the stock, of course.</p> + +<p>But it so happened that Edward knew the rumor was true, because Mr. +Gould, some time before, had personally given him the contract of +consolidation to copy. The next day a rumor to the effect that the +American Union was to absorb the Western Union appeared on the first +page of every New York newspaper. Edward knew exactly whence this rumor +emanated. He had heard it talked over. Again, Western Union stock +dropped several points. Then he noticed that Mr. Gould became a heavy +buyer. So became Edward—as heavy as he could. Jay Gould pooh-poohed the +latest rumor. The boy awaited developments.</p> + +<p>On Sunday afternoon, Edward's Sunday-school teacher asked the boy to +walk home with him, and on reaching the house took him into the study +and asked him whether he felt justified in putting all his savings in +Western Union just at that time when the price was tumbling so fast and +the market was so unsteady. Edward assured his teacher that he was +right, although he explained that he could not disclose the basis of his +assurance.</p> + +<p>Edward thought his teacher looked worried, and after a little there came +the revelation that he, seeing that Edward was buying to his limit, had +likewise done so. But the broker had bought on margin, and had his +margin wiped out by the decline in the stock caused by the rumors. He +explained to Edward that he could recoup his losses, heavy though they +were—in fact, he explained that nearly everything he possessed was +involved—if Edward's basis was sure and the stock would recover.</p> + +<p>Edward keenly felt the responsibility placed upon him. He could never +clearly diagnose his feelings when he saw his teacher in this new light. +The broker's "customers" had been hinted at, and the boy of eighteen +wondered how far his responsibility went, and how many persons were +involved. But the deal came out all right, for when, three days +afterward, the contract was made public, Western Union, of course, +skyrocketed, Jay Gould sold out, Edward sold out, the teacher-broker +sold out, and all the customers sold out!</p> + +<p>How long a string it was Edward never discovered, but he determined +there and then to end his Wall Street experience; his original amount +had multiplied; he was content to let well enough alone, and from that +day to this Edward Bok has kept out of Wall Street. He had seen enough +of its manipulations; and, although on "the inside," he decided that the +combination of his teacher and his customers was a responsibility too +great for him to carry.</p> + +<p>Furthermore, Edward decided to leave the Western Union. The longer he +remained, the less he liked its atmosphere. And the closer his contact +with Jay Gould the more doubtful he became of the wisdom of such an +association and perhaps its unconscious influence upon his own life in +its formative period.</p> + +<p>In fact, it was an experience with Mr. Gould that definitely fixed +Edward's determination. The financier decided one Saturday to leave on a +railroad inspection tour on the following Monday. It was necessary that +a special meeting of one of his railroad interests should be held before +his departure, and he fixed the meeting for Sunday at eleven-thirty at +his residence on Fifth Avenue. He asked Edward to be there to take the +notes of the meeting.</p> + +<p>The meeting was protracted, and at one o'clock Mr. Gould suggested an +adjournment for luncheon, the meeting to reconvene at two. Turning to +Edward, the financier said: "You may go out to luncheon and return in an +hour." So, on Sunday afternoon, with the Windsor Hotel on the opposite +corner as the only visible place to get something to eat, but where he +could not afford to go, Edward, with just fifteen cents in his pocket, +was turned out to find a luncheon place.</p> + +<p>He bought three apples for five cents—all that he could afford to +spend, and even this meant that he must walk home from the ferry to his +house in Brooklyn—and these he ate as he walked up and down Fifth +Avenue until his hour was over. When the meeting ended at three o'clock, +Mr. Gould said that, as he was leaving for the West early next morning, +he would like Edward to write out his notes, and have them at his house +by eight o'clock. There were over forty note-book pages of minutes. The +remainder of Edward's Sunday afternoon and evening was spent in +transcribing the notes. By rising at half past five the next morning he +reached Mr. Gould's house at a quarter to eight, handed him the minutes, +and was dismissed without so much as a word of thanks or a nod of +approval from the financier.</p> + +<p>Edward felt that this exceeded the limit of fair treatment by employer +of employee. He spoke of it to Mr. Cary, and asked whether he would +object if he tried to get away from such influence and secure another +position. His employer asked the boy in which direction he would like to +go, and Edward unhesitatingly suggested the publishing business. He +talked it over from every angle with his employer, and Mr. Cary not only +agreed with him that his decision was wise, but promised to find him a +position such as he had in mind.</p> + +<p>It was not long before Mr. Cary made good his word, and told Edward that +his friend Henry Holt, the publisher, would like to give him a trial.</p> + +<p>The day before he was to leave the Western Union Telegraph Company the +fact of his resignation became known to Mr. Gould. The financier told +the boy there was no reason for his leaving, and that he would +personally see to it that a substantial increase was made in his salary. +Edward explained that the salary, while of importance to him, did not +influence him so much as securing a position in a business in which he +felt he would be happier.</p> + +<p>"And what business is that?" asked the financier.</p> + +<p>"The publishing of books," replied the boy.</p> + +<p>"You are making a great mistake," answered the little man, fixing his +keen gray eyes on the boy. "Books are a luxury. The public spends its +largest money on necessities: on what it can't do without. It must +telegraph; it need not read. It can read in libraries. A promising boy +such as you are, with his life before him, should choose the right sort +of business, not the wrong one."</p> + +<p>But, as facts proved, the "little wizard of Wall Street" was wrong in +his prediction; Edward Bok was not choosing the wrong business.</p> + +<p>Years afterward when Edward was cruising up the Hudson with a yachting +party one Saturday afternoon, the sight of Jay Gould's mansion, upon +approaching Irvington, awakened the desire of the women on board to see +his wonderful orchid collection. Edward explained his previous +association with the financier and offered to recall himself to him, if +the party wished to take the chance of recognition. A note was written +to Mr. Gould, and sent ashore, and the answer came back that they were +welcome to visit the orchid houses. Jay Gould, in person, received the +party, and, placing it under the personal conduct of his gardener, +turned to Edward and, indicating a bench, said: "Come and sit down here +with me."</p> + +<p>"Well," said the financier, who was in his domestic mood, quite +different from his Wall Street aspect, "I see in the papers that you +seem to be making your way in the publishing business."</p> + +<p>Edward expressed surprise that the Wall Street magnate had followed his +work.</p> + +<p>"I have because I always felt you had it in you to make a successful +man. But not in that business," he added quickly. "You were born for the +Street. You would have made a great success there, and that is what I +had in mind for you. In the publishing business you will go just so far; +in the Street you could have gone as far as you liked. There is room +there; there is none in the publishing business. It's not too late now, +for that matter," continued the "little wizard," fastening his steel +eyes on the lad beside him!</p> + +<p>And Edward Bok has often speculated whither Jay Gould might have led +him. To many a young man, a suggestion from such a source would have +seemed the one to heed and follow. But Edward Bok's instinct never +failed him. He felt that his path lay far apart from that of Jay +Gould—and the farther the better!</p> + +<p>In 1882 Edward, with a feeling of distinct relief, left the employ of +the Western Union Telegraph Company and associated himself with the +publishing business in which he had correctly divined that his future +lay.</p> + +<p>His chief regret on leaving his position was in severing the close +relations, almost as of father and son, between Mr. Cary and himself. +When Edward was left alone, with the passing away of his father, +Clarence Cary had put his sheltering arm around the lonely boy, and with +the tremendous encouragement of the phrase that the boy never forgot, "I +think you have it in you, Edward, to make a successful man," he took him +under his wing. It was a turning-point in Edward Bok's life, as he felt +at the time and as he saw more clearly afterward.</p> + +<p>He remained in touch with his friend, however, keeping him advised of +his progress in everything he did, not only at that time, but all +through his later years. And it was given to Edward to feel the deep +satisfaction of having Mr. Cary say, before he passed away, that the boy +had more than justified the confidence reposed in him. Mr. Cary lived to +see him well on his way, until, indeed, Edward had had the proud +happiness of introducing to his benefactor the son who bore his name, +Cary William Bok.</p> + +<h3><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII.</h3> + +<p class="heading">Starting a Newspaper Syndicate</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Edward</span> felt that his daytime hours, spent in a publishing atmosphere as +stenographer with Henry Holt and Company, were more in line with his +editorial duties during the evenings. The Brooklyn Magazine was now +earning a comfortable income for its two young proprietors, and their +backers were entirely satisfied with the way it was being conducted. In +fact, one of these backers, Mr. Rufus T. Bush, associated with the +Standard Oil Company, who became especially interested, thought he saw +in the success of the two boys a possible opening for one of his sons, +who was shortly to be graduated from college. He talked to the publisher +and editor about the idea, but the boys showed by their books that while +there was a reasonable income for them, not wholly dependent on the +magazine, there was no room for a third.</p> + +<p>Mr. Bush now suggested that he buy the magazine for his son, alter its +name, enlarge its scope, and make of it a national periodical. +Arrangements were concluded, those who had financially backed the +venture were fully paid, and the two boys received a satisfactory amount +for their work in building up the magazine. Mr. Bush asked Edward to +suggest a name for the new periodical, and in the following month of +May, 1887, The Brooklyn Magazine became The American Magazine, with its +publication office in New York. But, though a great deal of money was +spent on the new magazine, it did not succeed. Mr. Bush sold his +interest in the periodical, which, once more changing its name, became +The Cosmopolitan Magazine. Since then it has passed through the hands of +several owners, but the name has remained the same. Before Mr. Bush sold +The American Magazine he had urged Edward to come back to it as its +editor, with promise of financial support; but the young man felt +instinctively that his return would not be wise. The magazine had been +The Cosmopolitan only a short time when the new owners, Mr. Paul J. +Slicht and Mr. E. D. Walker, also solicited the previous editor to +accept reappointment. But Edward, feeling that his baby had been +rechristened too often for him to father it again, declined the +proposition. He had not heard the last of it, however, for, by a curious +coincidence, its subsequent owner, entirely ignorant of Edward's +previous association with the magazine, invited him to connect himself +with it. Thus three times could Edward Bok have returned to the magazine +for whose creation he was responsible.</p> + +<p>Edward was now without editorial cares; but he had already, even before +disposing of the magazine, embarked on another line of endeavor. In +sending to a number of newspapers the advance sheets of a particularly +striking "feature" in one of his numbers of The Brooklyn Magazine, it +occurred to him that he was furnishing a good deal of valuable material +to these papers without cost. It is true his magazine was receiving the +advertising value of editorial comment; but the boy wondered whether the +newspapers would not be willing to pay for the privilege of simultaneous +publication. An inquiry or two proved that they would. Thus Edward +stumbled upon the "syndicate" plan of furnishing the same article to a +group of newspapers, one in each city, for simultaneous publication. He +looked over the ground, and found that while his idea was not a new one, +since two "syndicate" agencies already existed, the field was by no +means fully covered, and that the success of a third agency would depend +entirely upon its ability to furnish the newspapers with material +equally good or better than they received from the others. After +following the material furnished by these agencies for two or three +weeks, Edward decided that there was plenty of room for his new ideas.</p> + +<p>He discussed the matter with his former magazine partner, Colver, and +suggested that if they could induce Mr. Beecher to write a weekly +comment on current events for the newspapers it would make an auspicious +beginning. They decided to talk it over with the famous preacher. For to +be a "Plymouth boy"—that is, to go to the Plymouth Church Sunday-school +and to attend church there—was to know personally and become devoted to +Henry Ward Beecher. And the two were synonymous. There was no distance +between Mr. Beecher and his "Plymouth boys." Each understood the other. +The tie was that of absolute comradeship.</p> + +<p>"I don't believe in it, boys," said Mr. Beecher when Edward and his +friend broached the syndicate letter to him. "No one yet ever made a +cent out of my supposed literary work."</p> + +<p>All the more reason, was the argument, why some one should.</p> + +<p>Mr. Beecher smiled! How well he knew the youthful enthusiasm that rushes +in, etc.</p> + +<p>"Well, all right, boys! I like your pluck," he finally said. "I'll help +you if I can."</p> + +<p>The boys agreed to pay Mr. Beecher a weekly sum of two hundred and fifty +dollars—which he knew was considerable for them.</p> + +<p>When the first article had been written they took him their first check. +He looked at it quizzically, and then at the boys. Then he said simply: +"Thank you." He took a pin and pinned the check to his desk. There it +remained, much to the curiosity of the two boys.</p> + +<p>The following week he had written the second article and the boys gave +him another check. He pinned that up over the other. "I like to look at +them," was his only explanation, as he saw Edward's inquiring glance one +morning.</p> + +<p>The third check was treated the same way. When the boys handed him the +fourth, one morning, as he was pinning it up over the others, he asked: +"When do you get your money from the newspapers?"</p> + +<p>He was told that the bills were going out that morning for the four +letters constituting a month's service.</p> + +<p>"I see," he remarked.</p> + +<p>A fortnight passed, then one day Mr. Beecher asked: "Well, how are the +checks coming in?"</p> + +<p>"Very well," he was assured.</p> + +<p>"Suppose you let me see how much you've got in," he suggested, and the +boys brought the accounts to him.</p> + +<p>After looking at them he said: "That's very interesting. How much have +you in the bank?"</p> + +<p>He was told the balance, less the checks given to him. "But I haven't +turned them in yet," he explained. "Anyhow, you have enough in bank to +meet the checks you have given me, and a profit besides, haven't you?"</p> + +<p>He was assured they had.</p> + +<p>Then, taking his bank-book from a drawer, he unpinned the six checks on +his desk, indorsed each thus: wrote a deposit-slip, and, handing the +book to Edward, said:</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For deposit (??) in Bank</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">H. W. Beecher</span></p> + +<p>"Just hand that in at the bank as you go by, will you?"</p> + +<p>Edward was very young then, and Mr. Beecher's methods of financiering +seemed to him quite in line with current notions of the Plymouth +pastor's lack of business knowledge. But as the years rolled on the +incident appeared in a new light—a striking example of the great +preacher's wonderful considerateness.</p> + +<p>Edward had offered to help Mr. Beecher with his correspondence; at the +close of one afternoon, while he was with the Plymouth pastor at work, +an organ-grinder and a little girl came under the study window. A cold, +driving rain was pelting down. In a moment Mr. Beecher noticed the +girl's bare toes sticking out of her worn shoes.</p> + +<p>He got up, went into the hall, and called for one of his granddaughters.</p> + +<p>"Got any good, strong rain boots?" he asked when she appeared.</p> + +<p>"Why, yes, grandfather. Why?" was the answer.</p> + +<p>"More than one pair?" Mr. Beecher asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes, two or three, I think."</p> + +<p>"Bring me your strongest pair, will you, dear?" he asked. And as the +girl looked at him with surprise he said: "Just one of my notions."</p> + +<p>"Now, just bring that child into the house and put them on her feet for +me, will you?" he said when the shoes came. "I'll be able to work so +much better."</p> + +<p>One rainy day, as Edward was coming up from Fulton Ferry with Mr. +Beecher, they met an old woman soaked with the rain. "Here, you take +this, my good woman," said the clergyman, putting his umbrella over her +head and thrusting the handle into the astonished woman's hand. "Let's +get into this," he said to Edward simply, as he hailed a passing car.</p> + +<p>"There is a good deal of fraud about beggars," he remarked as he waved a +sot away from him one day; "but that doesn't apply to women and +children," he added; and he never passed such mendicants without +stopping. All the stories about their being tools in the hands of +accomplices failed to convince him. "They're women and children," he +would say, and that settled it for him.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter, son? Stuck?" he said once to a newsboy who was +crying with a heavy bundle of papers under his arm.</p> + +<p>"Come along with me, then," said Mr. Beecher, taking the boy's hand and +leading him into the newspaper office a few doors up the street.</p> + +<p>"This boy is stuck," he simply said to the man behind the counter. +"Guess The Eagle can stand it better than this boy; don't you think so?"</p> + +<p>To the grown man Mr. Beecher rarely gave charity. He believed in a +return for his alms.</p> + +<p>"Why don't you go to work?" he asked of a man who approached him one day +in the street.</p> + +<p>"Can't find any," said the man.</p> + +<p>"Looked hard for it?" was the next question.</p> + +<p>"I have," and the man looked Mr. Beecher in the eye.</p> + +<p>"Want some?" asked Mr. Beecher.</p> + +<p>"I do," said the man.</p> + +<p>"Come with me," said the preacher. And then to Edward, as they walked +along with the man following behind, he added: "That man is honest."</p> + +<p>"Let this man sweep out the church," he said to the sexton when they had +reached Plymouth Church.</p> + +<p>"But, Mr. Beecher," replied the sexton with wounded pride, "it doesn't +need it."</p> + +<p>"Don't tell him so, though," said Mr. Beecher with a merry twinkle of +the eye; and the sexton understood.</p> + +<p>Mr. Beecher was constantly thoughtful of a struggling young man's +welfare, even at the expense of his own material comfort. Anxious to +save him from the labor of writing out the newspaper articles, Edward, +himself employed during the daylight hours which Mr. Beecher preferred +for his original work, suggested a stenographer. The idea appealed to +Mr. Beecher, for he was very busy just then. He hesitated, but as Edward +persisted, he said: "All right; let him come to-morrow."</p> + +<p>The next day he said: "I asked that stenographer friend of yours not to +come again. No use of my trying to dictate. I am too old to learn new +tricks. Much easier for me to write myself."</p> + +<p>Shortly after that, however, Mr. Beecher dictated to Edward some +material for a book he was writing. Edward naturally wondered at this, +and asked the stenographer what had happened.</p> + +<p>"Nothing," he said. "Only Mr. Beecher asked me how much it would cost +you to have me come to him each week. I told him, and then he sent me +away."</p> + +<p>That was Henry Ward Beecher!</p> + +<p class="top5">Edward Bok was in the formative period between boyhood and young manhood +when impressions meant lessons, and associations meant ideals. Mr. +Beecher never disappointed. The closer one got to him, the greater he +became—in striking contrast to most public men, as Edward had already +learned.</p> + +<p>Then, his interests and sympathies were enormously wide. He took in so +much! One day Edward was walking past Fulton Market, in New York City, +with Mr. Beecher.</p> + +<p>"Never skirt a market," the latter said; "always go through it. It's the +next best thing, in the winter, to going South."</p> + +<p>Of course all the marketmen knew him, and they knew, too, his love for +green things.</p> + +<p>"What do you think of these apples, Mr. Beecher?" one marketman would +stop to ask.</p> + +<p>Mr. Beecher would answer heartily: "Fine! Don't see how you grow them. +All that my trees bear is a crop of scale. Still, the blossoms are +beautiful in the spring, and I like an apple-leaf. Ever examine one?" +The marketman never had. "Well, now, do, the next time you come across +an apple-tree in the spring."</p> + +<p>And thus he would spread abroad an interest in the beauties of nature +which were commonly passed over.</p> + +<p>"Wonderful man, Beecher is," said a market dealer in green goods once. +"I had handled thousands of bunches of celery in my life and never +noticed how beautiful its top leaves were until he picked up a bunch +once and told me all about it. Now I haven't the heart to cut the leaves +off when a customer asks me."</p> + +<p>His idea of his own vegetable-gardening at Boscobel, his Peekskill home, +was very amusing. One day Edward was having a hurried dinner, +preparatory to catching the New York train. Mr. Beecher sat beside the +boy, telling him of some things he wished done in Brooklyn.</p> + +<p>"No, I thank you," said Edward, as the maid offered him some potatoes.</p> + +<p>"Look here, young man," said Mr. Beecher, "don't pass those potatoes so +lightly. They're of my own raising—and I reckon they cost me about a +dollar a piece," he added with a twinkle in his eye.</p> + +<p>He was an education in so many ways! One instance taught Edward the +great danger of passionate speech that might unconsciously wound, and +the manliness of instant recognition of the error. Swayed by an +occasion, or by the responsiveness of an audience, Mr. Beecher would +sometimes say something which was not meant as it sounded. One evening, +at a great political meeting at Cooper Union, Mr. Beecher was at his +brightest and wittiest. In the course of his remarks he had occasion to +refer to ex-President Hayes; some one in the audience called out: "He +was a softy!"</p> + +<p>"No," was Mr. Beecher's quick response. "The country needed a poultice +at that time, and got it."</p> + +<p>"He's dead now, anyhow," responded the voice.</p> + +<p>"Not dead, my friend: he only sleepeth."</p> + +<p>It convulsed the audience, of course, and the reporters took it down in +their books.</p> + +<p>After the meeting Edward drove home with Mr. Beecher. After a while he +asked: "Well, how do you think it went?"</p> + +<p>Edward replied he thought it went very well, except that he did not like +the reference to ex-President Hayes.</p> + +<p>"What reference? What did I say?"</p> + +<p>Edward repeated it.</p> + +<p>"Did I say that?" he asked. Edward looked at him. Mr. Beecher's face was +tense. After a few moments he said: "That's generally the way with +extemporaneous remarks: they are always dangerous. The best impromptu +speeches and remarks are the carefully prepared kind," he added.</p> + +<p>Edward told him he regretted the reference because he knew that General +Hayes would read it in the New York papers, and he would be nonplussed +to understand it, considering the cordial relations which existed +between the two men. Mr. Beecher knew of Edward's relations with the +ex-President, and they had often talked of him together.</p> + +<p>Nothing more was said of the incident. When the Beecher home was reached +Mr. Beecher said: "Just come in a minute." He went straight to his desk, +and wrote and wrote. It seemed as if he would never stop. At last he +handed Edward an eight-page letter, closely written, addressed to +General Hayes.</p> + +<p>"Read that, and mail it, please, on your way home. Then it'll get there +just as quickly as the New York papers will."</p> + +<p>It was a superbly fine letter,—one of those letters which only Henry +Ward Beecher could write in his tenderest moods. And the reply which +came from Fremont, Ohio, was no less fine!</p> + +<h3><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX.</h3> + +<p class="heading">Association with Henry Ward Beecher</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">As</span> a letter-writer, Henry Ward Beecher was a constant wonder. He never +wrote a commonplace letter. There was always himself in it—in whatever +mood it found him.</p> + +<p>It was not customary for him to see all his mail. As a rule Mrs. Beecher +opened it, and attended to most of it. One evening Edward was helping +Mrs. Beecher handle an unusually large number of letters. He was reading +one when Mr. Beecher happened to come in and read what otherwise he +would not have seen:</p> + +<p class="top5">"Reverend Henry Ward Beecher.</p> + +<p>"Dear Sir:</p> + +<p>"I journeyed over from my New York hotel yesterday morning to hear you +preach, expecting, of course, to hear an exposition of the gospel of +Jesus Christ. Instead, I heard a political harangue, with no reason or +cohesion in it. You made an ass of yourself.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Very truly yours, __ __.</span></p> + +<p class="top5">"That's to the point," commented Mr. Beecher with a smile; and then +seating himself at his desk, he turned the sheet over and wrote:</p> + +<p class="top5">My Dear Sir:—</p> + +<p>"I am sorry you should have taken so long a journey to hear Christ +preached, and then heard what you are polite enough to call a 'political +harangue.' I am sorry, too, that you think I made an ass of myself. In +this connection I have but one consolation: that you didn't make an ass +of yourself. The Lord did that."</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Henry Ward Beecher.</span></p> + +<p class="top5">When the Reverend T. De Witt Talmage began to come into public notice in +Brooklyn, some of Mr. Beecher's overzealous followers unwisely gave the +impression that the Plymouth preacher resented sharing with another the +pulpit fame which he alone had so long unquestioningly held. Nothing, of +course, was further from Mr. Beecher's mind. As a matter of fact, the +two men were exceedingly good friends. Mr. Beecher once met Doctor +Talmage in a crowded business thoroughfare, where they got so deeply +interested in each other's talk that they sat down in some chairs +standing in front of a furniture store. A gathering throng of intensely +amused people soon brought the two men to the realization that they had +better move. Then Mr. Beecher happened to see that back of their heads +had been, respectively, two signs: one reading, "This style $3.45," the +other, "This style $4.25."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Mr. Beecher, as he and Doctor Talmage walked away laughing, +"I was ticketed higher than you, Talmage, anyhow."</p> + +<p>"You're worth more," rejoined Doctor Talmage.</p> + +<p>On another occasion, as the two men met they began to bandy each other.</p> + +<p>"Now, Talmage," said Mr. Beecher, his eyes twinkling, "let's have it +out. My people say that Plymouth holds more people than the Tabernacle, +and your folks stand up for the Tabernacle. Now which is it? What is +your estimate?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I should say that the Tabernacle holds about fifteen thousand +people," said Doctor Talmage with a smile.</p> + +<p>"Good," said Mr. Beecher, at once catching the spirit. "And I say that +Plymouth accommodates, comfortably, twenty thousand people. Now, let's +tell our respective trustees that it's settled, once for all."</p> + +<p>Mr. Beecher could never be induced to take note of what others said of +him. His friends, with more heart than head, often tried to persuade him +to answer some attack, but he invariably waved them off. He always saw +the ridiculous side of those attacks; never their serious import.</p> + +<p>At one time a fellow Brooklyn minister, a staunch Prohibitionist, +publicly reproved Mr. Beecher for being inconsistent in his temperance +views, to the extent that he preached temperance but drank beer at his +own dinner-table. This attack angered the friends of Mr. Beecher, who +tried to persuade him to answer the charge. But the Plymouth pastor +refused. "Friend — is a good fellow," was the only comment they could +elicit.</p> + +<p>"But he ought to be broadened," persisted the friends.</p> + +<p>"Well now," said Mr. Beecher, "that isn't always possible. For +instance," he continued, as that inimitable merry twinkle came into his +eyes, "sometime ago Friend — criticised me for something I had said. I +thought he ought not to have done so, and the next time we met I told +him so. He persisted, and I felt the only way to treat him was as I +would an unruly child. So I just took hold of him, laid him face down +over my knee, and proceeded to impress him as our fathers used to do of +old. And, do you know, I found that the Lord had not made a place on him +for me to lay my hand upon."</p> + +<p>And in the laughter which met this sally Mr. Beecher ended with "You +see, it isn't always possible to broaden a man."</p> + +<p>Mr. Beecher was rarely angry. Once, however, he came near it; yet he was +more displeased than angry. Some of his family and Edward had gone to a +notable public affair at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where a box had +been placed at Mr. Beecher's disposal. One member of the family was a +very beautiful girl who had brought a girl-friend. Both were attired in +full evening decollete costume. Mr. Beecher came in late from another +engagement. A chair had been kept vacant for him in the immediate front +of the box, since his presence had been widely advertised, and the +audience was expecting to see him. When he came in, he doffed his coat +and was about to go to the chair reserved for him, when he stopped, +stepped back, and sat down in a chair in the rear of the box. It was +evident from his face that something had displeased him. Mrs. Beecher +leaned over and asked him, but he offered no explanation. Nothing was +said.</p> + +<p>Edward went back to the house with Mr. Beecher; after talking awhile in +the study, the preacher, wishing to show him something, was going +up-stairs with his guest and had nearly reached the second landing when +there was the sound of a rush, the gas was quickly turned low, and two +white figures sped into one of the rooms.</p> + +<p>"My dears," called Mr. Beecher.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mr. Beecher," came a voice from behind the door of the room in +question.</p> + +<p>"Come here one minute," said Mr. Beecher.</p> + +<p>"But we cannot," said the voice. "We are ready for bed. Wait until—"</p> + +<p>"No; come as you are," returned Mr. Beecher.</p> + +<p>"Let me go down-stairs," Edward interrupted.</p> + +<p>"No; you stay right here," said Mr. Beecher.</p> + +<p>"Why, Mr. Beecher! How can we? Isn't Edward with you?"</p> + +<p>"You are keeping me waiting for you," was the quiet and firm answer.</p> + +<p>There was a moment's hesitation. Then the door opened and the figures of +the two girls appeared.</p> + +<p>"Now, turn up the gas, please, as it was," said Mr. Beecher.</p> + +<p>"But, Mr. Beecher—"</p> + +<p>"You heard me?"</p> + +<p>Up went the light, and the two beautiful girls of the box stood in their +night-dresses.</p> + +<p>"Now, why did you run away?" asked Mr. Beecher.</p> + +<p>"Why, Mr. Beecher! How can you ask such a question?" pouted one of the +girls, looking at her dress and then at Edward.</p> + +<p>"Exactly," said Mr. Beecher. "Your modesty leads you to run away from +this young man because he might possibly see you under a single light in +dresses that cover your entire bodies, while that same modesty did not +prevent you all this evening from sitting beside him, under a myriad of +lights, in dresses that exposed nearly half of your bodies. That's what +I call a distinction with a difference—with the difference to the +credit neither of your intelligence nor of your modesty. There is some +modesty in the dresses you have on: there was precious little in what +you girls wore this evening. Good night."</p> + +<p>"You do not believe, Mr. Beecher," Edward asked later, "in decollete +dressing for girls?"</p> + +<p>"No, and even less for women. A girl has some excuse of youth on her +side; a woman none at all."</p> + +<p>A few moments later he added:</p> + +<p>"A proper dress for any girl or woman is one that reveals the lady, but +not her person."</p> + +<p>Edward asked Mrs. Beecher one day whether Mr. Beecher had ever expressed +an opinion of his sister's famous book, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and she told +this interesting story of how the famous preacher read the story:</p> + +<p>"When the story was first published in The National Era, in chapters, +all our family, excepting Mr. Beecher, looked impatiently for its +appearance each week. But, try as we might, we could not persuade Mr. +Beecher to read it, or let us tell him anything about it.</p> + +<p>"'It's folly for you to be kept in constant excitement week after week,' +he would say. 'I shall wait till the work is completed, and take it all +at one dose.'</p> + +<p>"After the serial ended, the book came to Mr. Beecher on the morning of +a day when he had a meeting on hand for the afternoon and a speech to +make in the evening. The book was quietly laid one side, for he always +scrupulously avoided everything that could interfere with work he was +expected to do. But the next day was a free day. Mr. Beecher rose even +earlier than usual, and as soon as he was dressed he began to read Uncle +Tom's Cabin. When breakfast was ready he took his book with him to the +table, where reading and eating went on together; but he spoke never a +word. After morning prayers, he threw himself on the sofa, forgot +everything but his book, and read uninterruptedly till dinner-time. +Though evidently intensely interested, for a long time he controlled any +marked indication of it. Before noon I knew the storm was gathering that +would conquer his self-control, as it had done with us all. He +frequently 'gave way to his pocket-handkerchief,' to use one of his old +humorous remarks, in a most vigorous manner. In return for his teasing +me for reading the work weekly, I could not refrain from saying +demurely, as I passed him once: 'You seem to have a severe cold, Henry. +How could you have taken it?' But what did I gain? Not even a +half-annoyed shake of the head, or the semblance of a smile. I might as +well have spoken to the Sphinx.</p> + +<p>"When reminded that the dinner-bell had rung, he rose and went to the +table, still with his book in his hand. He asked the blessing with a +tremor in his voice, which showed the intense excitement under which he +was laboring. We were alone at the table, and there was nothing to +distract his thoughts. He drank his coffee, ate but little, and returned +to his reading, with no thought of indulging in his usual nap. His +almost uncontrollable excitement revealed itself in frequent +half-suppressed sobs.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Beecher was a very slow reader. I was getting uneasy over the marks +of strong feeling and excitement, and longed to have him finish the +book. I could see that he entered into the whole story, every scene, as +if it were being acted right before him, and he himself were the +sufferer. He had always been a pronounced Abolitionist, and the story he +was reading roused intensely all he had felt on that subject.</p> + +<p>"The night came on. It was growing late, and I felt impelled to urge him +to retire. Without raising his eyes from the book, he replied:</p> + +<p>"'Soon; soon; you go; I'll come soon.'</p> + +<p>"Closing the house, I went to our room; but not to sleep. The clock +struck twelve, one, two, three; and then, to my great relief, I heard +Mr. Beecher coming up-stairs. As he entered, he threw Uncle Tom's Cabin +on the table, exclaiming: 'There; I've done it! But if Hattie Stowe ever +writes anything more like that I'll—well! She has nearly killed me.'</p> + +<p>"And he never picked up the book from that day."</p> + +<p>Any one who knew Henry Ward Beecher at all knew of his love of books. He +was, however, most prodigal in lending his books and he always forgot +the borrowers. Then when he wanted a certain volume from his library he +could not find it. He would, of course, have forgotten the borrower, but +he had a unique method of tracing the book.</p> + +<p>One evening the great preacher suddenly appeared at a friend's house +and, quietly entering the drawing-room without removing his overcoat, he +walked up to his friend and said:</p> + +<p>"Rossiter, why don't you bring back that Ruskin of mine that I lent +you?"</p> + +<p>The man colored to the roots of his hair. "Why, Mr. Beecher," he said, +"I'll go up-stairs and get it for you right away. I would not have kept +it so long, only you told me I might."</p> + +<p>At this Beecher burst into a fit of merry laughter. "Found! Found!" he +shouted, as he took off his overcoat and threw himself into a chair.</p> + +<p>When he could stop laughing, he said: "You know, Rossiter, that I am +always ready to lend my books to any one who will make good use of them +and bring them back, but I always forget to whom I lend them. It +happened, in this case, that I wanted that volume of Ruskin about a week +ago; but when I went to the shelf for it, it was gone. I knew I must +have lent it, but to whom I could not remember. During the past week, I +began to demand the book of every friend I met to whom I might have lent +it. Of course, every one of them protested innocence; but at last I've +struck the guilty man. I shall know, in future, how to find my missing +books. The plan works beautifully."</p> + +<p class="top5">One evening, after supper, Mr. Beecher said to his wife:</p> + +<p>"Mother, what material have we among our papers about our early Indiana +days?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Beecher had long been importuned to write his autobiography, and he +had decided to do it after he had finished his Life of Christ.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Beecher had two boxes brought into the room.</p> + +<p>"Suppose you look into that box, if you will," said Mr. Beecher to +Edward, "and I'll take this one, and we'll see what we can find about +that time. Mother, you supervise and see how we look on the floor."</p> + +<p>And Mr. Beecher sat down on the floor in front of one box, +shoemaker-fashion, while Edward, likewise on the floor, started on the +other box.</p> + +<p>It was a dusty job, and the little room began to be filled with +particles of dust which set Mrs. Beecher coughing. At last she said: +"I'll leave you two to finish. I have some things to do up-stairs, and +then I'll retire. Don't be too late, Henry," she said.</p> + +<p>It was one of those rare evenings for Mr. Beecher—absolutely free from +interruption; and, with his memory constantly taken back to his early +days, he continued in a reminiscent mood that was charmingly intimate to +the boy.</p> + +<p>"Found something?" he asked at one intermission when quiet had reigned +longer than usual, and he saw Edward studying a huge pile of papers.</p> + +<p>"No, sir," said the boy. "Only a lot of papers about a suit."</p> + +<p>"What suit?" asked Mr. Beecher mechanically, with his head buried in his +box.</p> + +<p>"I don't know, sir," Edward replied naively, little knowing what he was +reopening to the preacher. "'Tilton versus Beecher' they are marked."</p> + +<p>Mr. Beecher said nothing, and after the boy had fingered the papers he +chanced to look in the preacher's direction and found him watching him +intently with a curiously serious look in his face.</p> + +<p>"Must have been a big suit," commented the boy. "Here's another pile of +papers about it."</p> + +<p>Edward could not make out Mr. Beecher's steady look at him as he sat +there on the floor mechanically playing with a paper in his hand.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he finally said, "it was a big suit. What does it mean to you?" +he asked suddenly.</p> + +<p>"To me?" Edward asked. "Nothing, sir. Why?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Beecher said nothing for a few moments, and turned to his box to +examine some more papers.</p> + +<p>Then the boy asked: "Was the Beecher in this suit you, Mr. Beecher?"</p> + +<p>Again was turned on him that serious, questioning look.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said after a bit. Then he thought again for a few moments and +said: "How old were you in 1875?"</p> + +<p>"Twelve," the boy replied.</p> + +<p>"Twelve," he repeated. "Twelve."</p> + +<p>He turned again to his box and Edward to his.</p> + +<p>"There doesn't seem to be anything more in this box," the boy said, "but +more papers in that suit," and he began to put the papers back.</p> + +<p>"What do you know about that 'suit,' as you call it?" asked Mr. Beecher, +stopping in his work.</p> + +<p>"Nothing," was the reply. "I never heard of it."</p> + +<p>"Never heard of it?" he repeated, and he fastened that curious look upon +Edward again. It was so compelling that it held the boy. For several +moments they looked at each other. Neither spoke.</p> + +<p>"That seems strange," he said, at last, as he renewed the search of his +box. "Never heard of it," he repeated almost to himself.</p> + +<p>Then for fully five minutes not a word was spoken.</p> + +<p>"But you will some day," said Mr. Beecher suddenly.</p> + +<p>"I will what, Mr. Beecher?" asked the boy. He had forgotten the previous +remark.</p> + +<p>Mr. Beecher looked at Edward and sighed. "Hear about it," he said.</p> + +<p>"I don't think I understand you," was the reply.</p> + +<p>"No, I don't think you do," he said. "I mean, you will some day hear +about that suit. And I don't know," then he hesitated, "but—but you +might as well get it straight. You say you were twelve then," he mused. +"What were you doing when you were twelve?"</p> + +<p>"Going to school," was the reply.</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course," said Mr. Beecher. "Well," he continued, turning on his +haunches so that his back rested against the box, "I am going to tell +you the story of that suit, and then you'll know it."</p> + +<p>Edward said nothing, and then began the recital of a story that he was +destined to remember. It was interesting then, as Mr. Beecher +progressed; but how thrice interesting that wonderful recital was to +prove as the years rolled by and the boy realized the wonderful telling +of that of all stories by Mr. Beecher himself!</p> + +<p>Slowly, and in that wonderfully low, mellow voice that so many knew and +loved, step by step, came the unfolding of that remarkable story. Once +or twice only did the voice halt, as when, after he had explained the +basis of the famous suit, he said:</p> + +<p>"Those were the charges. That is what it was all about."</p> + +<p>Then he looked at Edward and asked: "Do you know just what such charges +mean?"</p> + +<p>"I think I do," Edward replied, and the question was asked with such +feeling, and the answer was said so mechanically, that Mr. Beecher +replied simply: "Perhaps."</p> + +<p>"Well," he continued, "the suit was a 'long one,' as you said. For days +and weeks, yes, for months, it went on, from January to July, and those +were very full days: full of so many things that you would hardly +understand."</p> + +<p>And then he told the boy as much of the days in court as he thought he +would understand, and how the lawyers worked and worked, in court all +day, and up half the night, preparing for the next day. "Mostly around +that little table there," he said, pointing to a white, marble-topped +table against which the boy was leaning, and which now stands in Edward +Bok's study.</p> + +<p>"Finally the end came," he said, "after—well, months. To some it seemed +years," said Mr. Beecher, and his eyes looked tired.</p> + +<p>"Well," he continued, "the case went to the jury: the men, you know, who +had to decide. There were twelve of them."</p> + +<p>"Was it necessary that all twelve should think alike?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"That was what was hoped, my boy," said Mr. Beecher—"that was what was +hoped," he repeated.</p> + +<p>"Well, they did, didn't they?" Edward asked, as Mr. Beecher stopped.</p> + +<p>"Nine did," he replied. "Yes; nine did. But three didn't. Three +thought—" Mr. Beecher stopped and did not finish the sentence. "But +nine did," he repeated. "Nine to three it stood. That was the decision, +and then the judge discharged the jury," he said.</p> + +<p>There was naturally one question in the boyish mind to ask the man +before him—one question! Yet, instinctively, something within him made +him hesitate to ask that question. But at last his curiosity got the +better of the still, small voice of judgment.</p> + +<p>"And, Mr. Beecher—" the boy began.</p> + +<p>But Mr. Beecher knew! He knew what was at the end of the tongue, looked +clear into the boy's mind; and Edward can still see him lift that fine +head and look into his eyes, as he said, slowly and clearly:</p> + +<p>"And the decision of the nine was in exact accord with the facts."</p> + +<p>He had divined the question!</p> + +<p>As the two rose from the floor that night Edward looked at the clock. It +was past midnight; Mr. Beecher had talked for two hours; the boy had +spoken hardly at all.</p> + +<p>As the boy was going out, he turned to Mr. Beecher sitting thoughtfully +in his chair.</p> + +<p>"Good night, Mr. Beecher," he said.</p> + +<p>The Plymouth pastor pulled himself together, and with that wit that +never forsook him he looked at the clock, smiled, and answered: "Good +morning, I should say. God bless you, my boy." Then rising, he put his +arm around the boy's shoulders and walked with him to the door.</p> + +<h3><a name="X" id="X"></a>X.</h3> + +<p class="heading">The First "Woman's Page," "Literary Leaves," and Entering Scribner's</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Beecher's</span> weekly newspaper "syndicate" letter was not only +successful in itself, it made liberal money for the writer and for its +two young publishers, but it served to introduce Edward Bok's proposed +agency to the newspapers under the most favorable conditions. With one +stroke, the attention of newspaper editors had been attracted, and +Edward concluded to take quick advantage of it. He organized the Bok +Syndicate Press, with offices in New York, and his brother, William J. +Bok, as partner and active manager. Edward's days were occupied, of +course, with his duties in the Holt publishing house, where he was +acquiring a first-hand knowledge of the business.</p> + +<p>Edward's attention was now turned, for the first time, to women and +their reading habits. He became interested in the fact that the American +woman was not a newspaper reader. He tried to find out the psychology of +this, and finally reached the conclusion, on looking over the +newspapers, that the absence of any distinctive material for women was a +factor. He talked the matter over with several prominent New York +editors, who frankly acknowledged that they would like nothing better +than to interest women, and make them readers of their papers. But they +were equally frank in confessing that they were ignorant both of what +women wanted, and, even if they knew, of where such material was to be +had. Edward at once saw that here was an open field. It was a productive +field, since, as woman was the purchasing power, it would benefit the +newspaper enormously in its advertising if it could offer a feminine +clientele.</p> + +<p>There was a bright letter of New York gossip published in the New York +Star, called "Bab's Babble." Edward had read it, and saw the possibility +of syndicating this item as a woman's letter from New York. He +instinctively realized that women all over the country would read it. He +sought out the author, made arrangements with her and with former +Governor Dorscheimer, owner of the paper, and the letter was sent out to +a group of papers. It was an instantaneous success, and a syndicate of +ninety newspapers was quickly organized.</p> + +<p>Edward followed this up by engaging Ella Wheeler Wilcox, then at the +height of her career, to write a weekly letter on women's topics. This +he syndicated in conjunction with the other letter, and the editors +invariably grouped the two letters. This, in turn, naturally led to the +idea of supplying an entire page of matter of interest to women. The +plan was proposed to a number of editors, who at once saw the +possibilities in it and promised support. The young syndicator now laid +under contribution all the famous women writers of the day; he chose the +best of the men writers to write on women's topics; and it was not long +before the syndicate was supplying a page of women's material. The +newspapers played up the innovation, and thus was introduced into the +newspaper press of the United States the "Woman's Page."</p> + +<p>The material supplied by the Bok Syndicate Press was of the best; the +standard was kept high; the writers were selected from among the most +popular authors of the day; and readability was the cardinal note. The +women bought the newspapers containing the new page, the advertiser +began to feel the presence of the new reader, and every newspaper that +could not get the rights for the "Bok Page," as it came to be known, +started a "Woman's Page" of it own. Naturally, the material so obtained +was of an inferior character. No single newspaper could afford what the +syndicate, with the expense divided among a hundred newspapers, could +pay. Nor had the editors of these woman's pages either a standard or a +policy. In desperation they engaged any person they could to "get a lot +of woman's stuff." It was stuff, and of the trashiest kind. So that +almost coincident with the birth of the idea began its abuse and +disintegration; the result we see in the meaningless presentations which +pass for "woman's pages" in the newspaper of to-day.</p> + +<p>This is true even of the woman's material in the leading newspapers, and +the reason is not difficult to find. The average editor has, as a rule, +no time to study the changing conditions of women's interests; his time +is and must be engrossed by the news and editorial pages. He usually +delegates the Sunday "specials" to some editor who, again, has little +time to study the ever-changing women's problems, particularly in these +days, and he relies upon unintelligent advice, or he places his "woman's +page" in the hands of some woman with the comfortable assurance that, +being a woman, she ought to know what interests her sex.</p> + +<p>But having given the subject little thought, he attaches minor +importance to the woman's "stuff," regarding it rather in the light of +something that he "must carry to catch the women"; and forthwith he +either forgets it or refuses to give the editor of his woman's page even +a reasonable allowance to spend on her material. The result is, of +course, inevitable: pages of worthless material. There is, in fact, no +part of the Sunday newspaper of to-day upon which so much good and now +expensive white paper is wasted as upon the pages marked for the home, +for women, and for children.</p> + +<p>Edward Bok now became convinced, from his book-publishing association, +that if the American women were not reading the newspapers, the American +public, as a whole, was not reading the number of books that it should, +considering the intelligence and wealth of the people, and the cheap +prices at which books were sold. He concluded to see whether he could +not induce the newspapers to give larger and more prominent space to the +news of the book world.</p> + +<p>Owing to his constant contact with authors, he was in a peculiarly +fortunate position to know their plans in advance of execution, and he +was beginning to learn the ins and outs of the book-publishing world. He +canvassed the newspapers subscribing to his syndicate features, but +found a disinclination to give space to literary news. To the average +editor, purely literary features held less of an appeal than did the +features for women. Fewer persons were interested in books, they +declared; besides, the publishing houses were not so liberal advertisers +as the department stores. The whole question rested on a commercial +basis.</p> + +<p>Edward believed he could convince editors of the public interest in a +newsy, readable New York literary letter, and he prevailed upon the +editor of the New York Star to allow him to supplement the book reviews +of George Parsons Lathrop in that paper by a column of literary chat +called "Literary Leaves." For a number of weeks he continued to write +this department, and confine it to the New York paper, feeling that he +needed the experience for the acquirement of a readable style, and he +wanted to be sure that he had opened a sufficient number of productive +news channels to ensure a continuous flow of readable literary +information.</p> + +<p>Occasionally he sent to an editor here and there what he thought was a +particularly newsy letter just "for his information, not for sale." The +editor of the Philadelphia Times was the first to discover that his +paper wanted the letter, and the Boston Journal followed suit. Then the +editor of the Cincinnati Times-Star discovered the letter in the New +York Star, and asked that it be supplied weekly with the letter. These +newspapers renamed the letter "Bok's Literary Leaves," and the feature +started on its successful career.</p> + +<p>Edward had been in the employ of Henry Holt and Company as clerk and +stenographer for two years when Mr. Cary sent for him and told him that +there was an opening in the publishing house of Charles Scribner's Sons, +if he wanted to make a change. Edward saw at once the larger +opportunities possible in a house of the importance of the Scribners, +and he immediately placed himself in communication with Mr. Charles +Scribner, with the result that in January, 1884, he entered the employ +of these publishers as stenographer to the two members of the firm and +to Mr. Edward L. Burlingame, literary adviser to the house. He was to +receive a salary of eighteen dollars and thirty-three cents per week, +which was then considered a fair wage for stenographic work. The +typewriter had at that time not come into use, and all letters were +written in long-hand. Once more his legible handwriting had secured for +him a position.</p> + +<p>Edward Bok was now twenty-one years of age. He had already done a +prodigious amount of work for a boy of his years. He was always busy. +Every spare moment of his evenings was devoted either to writing his +literary letter, to the arrangement or editing of articles for his +newspaper syndicate, to the steady acquirement of autograph letters in +which he still persisted, or to helping Mr. Beecher in his literary +work. The Plymouth pastor was particularly pleased with Edward's +successful exploitation of his pen work; and he afterward wrote: "Bok is +the only man who ever seemed to make my literary work go and get money +out of it."</p> + +<p>Enterprise and energy the boy unquestionably possessed, but one need +only think back even thus far in his life to see the continuous good +fortune which had followed him in the friendships he had made, and in +the men with whom his life, at its most formative period, had come into +close contact. If we are inclined to credit young Bok with an +ever-willingness to work and a certain quality of initiative, the +influences which played upon him must also be taken into account.</p> + +<p>Take, for example, the peculiarly fortuitous circumstances under which +he entered the Scribner publishing house. As stenographer to the two +members of the firm, Bok was immediately brought into touch with the +leading authors of the day, their works as they were discussed in the +correspondence dictated to him, and the authors' terms upon which books +were published. In fact, he was given as close an insight as it was +possible for a young man to get into the inner workings of one of the +large publishing houses in the United States, with a list peculiarly +noted for the distinction of its authors and the broad scope of its +books.</p> + +<p>The Scribners had the foremost theological list of all the publishing +houses; its educational list was exceptionally strong; its musical list +excelled; its fiction represented the leading writers of the day; its +general list was particularly noteworthy; and its foreign department, +importing the leading books brought out in Great Britain and Europe, was +an outstanding feature of the business. The correspondence dictated to +Bok covered, naturally, all these fields, and a more remarkable +opportunity for self-education was never offered a stenographer.</p> + +<p>Mr. Burlingame was known in the publishing world for his singularly keen +literary appreciation, and was accepted as one of the best judges of +good fiction. Bok entered the Scribner employ as Mr. Burlingame was +selecting the best short stories published within a decade for a set of +books to be called "Short Stories by American Authors." The +correspondence for this series was dictated to Bok, and he decided to +read after Mr. Burlingame and thus get an idea of the best fiction of +the day. So whenever his chief wrote to an author asking for permission +to include his story in the proposed series, Bok immediately hunted up +the story and read it.</p> + +<p>Later, when the house decided to start Scribner's Magazine, and Mr. +Burlingame was selected to be its editor, all the preliminary +correspondence was dictated to Bok through his employers, and he +received a first-hand education in the setting up of the machinery +necessary for the publication of a magazine. All this he eagerly +absorbed.</p> + +<p>He was again fortunate in that his desk was placed in the advertising +department of the house; and here he found, as manager, an old-time +Brooklyn boy friend with whom he had gone to school: Frank N. Doubleday, +to-day the senior partner of Doubleday, Page and Company. Bok had been +attracted to advertising through his theatre programme and Brooklyn +Magazine experience, and here was presented a chance to learn the art at +first hand and according to the best traditions. So, whenever his +stenographic work permitted, he assisted Mr. Doubleday in preparing and +placing the advertisements of the books of the house.</p> + +<p>Mr. Doubleday was just reviving the publication of a house-organ called +The Book Buyer, and, given a chance to help in this, Bok felt he was +getting back into the periodical field, especially since, under Mr. +Doubleday's guidance, the little monthly soon developed into a literary +magazine of very respectable size and generally bookish contents.</p> + +<p>The house also issued another periodical, The Presbyterian Review, a +quarterly under the editorship of a board of professors connected with +the Princeton and Union Theological Seminaries. This ponderous-looking +magazine was not composed of what one might call "light reading," and as +the price of a single copy was eighty cents, and the advertisements it +could reasonably expect were necessarily limited in number, the +periodical was rather difficult to move. Thus the whole situation at the +Scribners' was adapted to give Edward an all-round training in the +publishing business. It was an exceptional opportunity.</p> + +<p>He worked early and late. An increase in his salary soon told him that +he was satisfying his employers, and then, when the new Scribner's +Magazine appeared, and a little later Mr. Doubleday was delegated to +take charge of the business end of it, Bok himself was placed in charge +of the advertising department, with the publishing details of the two +periodicals on his hands.</p> + +<p>He suddenly found himself directing a stenographer instead of being a +stenographer himself. Evidently his apprentice days were over. He had, +in addition, the charge of sending all the editorial copies of the new +books to the press for review, and of keeping a record of those reviews. +This naturally brought to his desk the authors of the house who wished +to see how the press received their works.</p> + +<p>The study of the writers who were interested in following the press +notices of their books, and those who were indifferent to them became a +fascinating game to young Bok. He soon discovered that the greater the +author the less he seemed to care about his books once they were +published. Bok noticed this, particularly, in the case of Robert Louis +Stevenson, whose work had attracted him, but, although he used the most +subtle means to inveigle the author into the office to read the press +notices, he never succeeded. Stevenson never seemed to have the +slightest interest in what the press said of his books.</p> + +<p>One day Mr. Burlingame asked Bok to take some proofs to Stevenson at his +home; thinking it might be a propitious moment to interest the author in +the popular acclaim that followed the publication of Doctor Jekyll and +Mr. Hyde, Bok put a bunch of press notices in his pocket. He found the +author in bed, smoking his inevitable cigarette.</p> + +<p>As the proofs were to be brought back, Bok waited, and thus had an +opportunity for nearly two hours to see the author at work. No man ever +went over his proofs more carefully than did Stevenson; his corrections +were numerous; and sometimes for ten minutes at a time he would sit +smoking and thinking over a single sentence, which, when he had +satisfactorily shaped it in his mind, he would recast on the proof.</p> + +<p>Stevenson was not a prepossessing figure at these times. With his sallow +skin and his black dishevelled hair, with finger-nails which had been +allowed to grow very long, with fingers discolored by tobacco—in short, +with a general untidiness that was all his own, Stevenson, so Bok felt, +was an author whom it was better to read than to see. And yet his +kindliness and gentleness more than offset the unattractiveness of his +physical appearance.</p> + +<p>After one or two visits from Bok, having grown accustomed to him, +Stevenson would discuss some sentence in an article, or read some +amended paragraph out loud and ask whether Bok thought it sounded +better. To pass upon Stevenson as a stylist was, of course, hardly +within Bok's mental reach, so he kept discreetly silent when Stevenson +asked his opinion.</p> + +<p>In fact, Bok reasoned it out that the novelist did not really expect an +answer or an opinion, but was at such times thinking aloud. The mental +process, however, was immensely interesting, particularly when Stevenson +would ask Bok to hand him a book on words lying on an adjacent table. +"So hard to find just the right word," Stevenson would say, and Bok got +his first realization of the truth of the maxim: "Easy writing, hard +reading; hard writing, easy reading."</p> + +<p>On this particular occasion when Stevenson finished, Bok pulled out his +clippings, told the author how his book was being received, and was +selling, what the house was doing to advertise it, explained the +forthcoming play by Richard Mansfield, and then offered the press +notices.</p> + +<p>Stevenson took the bundle and held it in his hand.</p> + +<p>"That's very nice to tell me all you have," he said, "and I have been +greatly interested. But you have really told me all about it, haven't +you, so why should I read these notices? Hadn't I better get busy on +another paper for Mr. Burlingame for the next magazine, else he'll be +after me? You know how impatient these editors are." And he handed back +the notices.</p> + +<p>Bok saw it was of no use: Stevenson was interested in his work, but, +beyond a certain point, not in the world's reception of it. Bok's +estimate of the author rose immeasurably. His attitude was in such sharp +contrast to that of others who came almost daily into the office to see +what the papers said, often causing discomfiture to the young +advertising director by insisting upon taking the notices with them. But +Bok always countered this desire by reminding the author that, of +course, in that case he could not quote from these desirable notices in +his advertisements of the book. And, invariably, the notices were left +behind!</p> + +<p>It now fell to the lot of the young advertiser to arouse the interest of +the public in what were to be some of the most widely read and +best-known books of the day: Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. +Hyde; Frances Hodgson Burnett's Little Lord Fauntleroy; Andrew +Carnegie's Triumphant Democracy; Frank R. Stockton's The Lady, or the +Tiger? and his Rudder Grange, and a succession of other books.</p> + +<p>The advertising of these books keenly sharpened the publicity sense of +the developing advertising director. One book could best be advertised +by the conventional means of the display advertisement; another, like +Triumphant Democracy, was best served by sending out to the newspapers a +"broadside" of pungent extracts; public curiosity in a novel like The +Lady, or the Tiger? was, of course, whetted by the publication of +literary notes as to the real denouement the author had in mind in +writing the story. Whenever Mr. Stockton came into the office Bok pumped +him dry as to his experiences with the story, such as when, at a dinner +party, his hostess served an ice-cream lady and a tiger to the author, +and the whole company watched which he chose.</p> + +<p>"And which did you choose?" asked the advertising director.</p> + +<p>"_Et tu, Brute?_" Stockton smilingly replied. "Well, I'll tell you. I +asked the butler to bring me another spoon, and then, with a spoon in +each hand, I attacked both the lady and the tiger at the same time."</p> + +<p>Once, when Stockton was going to Boston by the night boat, every room +was taken. The ticket agent recognized the author, and promised to get +him a desirable room if the author would tell which he had had in mind, +the lady or the tiger.</p> + +<p>"Produce the room," answered Stockton.</p> + +<p>The man did. Stockton paid for it, and then said: "To tell you the +truth, my friend, I don't know."</p> + +<p>And that was the truth, as Mr. Stockton confessed to his friends. The +idea of the story had fascinated him; when he began it he purposed to +give it a definite ending. But when he reached the end he didn't know +himself which to produce out of the open door, the lady or the tiger, +"and so," he used to explain, "I made up my mind to leave it hanging in +the air."</p> + +<p>To the present generation of readers, all this reference to Stockton's +story may sound strange, but for months it was the most talked-of story +of the time, and sold into large numbers.</p> + +<p>One day while Mr. Stockton was in Bok's office, A. B. Frost, the +illustrator, came in. Frost had become a full-fledged farmer with one +hundred and twenty acres of Jersey land, and Stockton had a large farm +in the South which was a financial burden to him.</p> + +<p>"Well, Stockton," said Frost, "I have found a way at last to make a farm +stop eating up money. Perhaps it will help you."</p> + +<p>Stockton was busy writing, but at this bit of hopeful news he looked up, +his eyes kindled, he dropped his pen, and eagerly said:</p> + +<p>"Tell me."</p> + +<p>And looking behind him to see that the way was clear, Frost answered:</p> + +<p>"Pave it solid, old man."</p> + +<p>When the stories of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Little Lord Fauntleroy +were made into plays, Bok was given an opportunity for an entirely +different kind of publicity. Both plays were highly successful; they ran +for weeks in succession, and each evening Bok had circulars of the books +in every seat of the theatre; he had a table filled with the books in +the foyer of each theatre; and he bombarded the newspapers with stories +of Mr. Mansfield's method of making the quick change from one character +to the other in the dual role of the Stevenson play, and with anecdotes +about the boy Tommy Russell in Mrs. Burnett's play. The sale of the +books went merrily on, and kept pace with the success of the plays. And +it all sharpened the initiative of the young advertiser and developed +his sense for publicity.</p> + +<p>One day while waiting in the anteroom of a publishing house to see a +member of the firm, he picked up a book and began to read it. Since he +had to wait for nearly an hour, he had read a large part of the volume +when he was at last admitted to the private office. When his business +was finished, Bok asked the publisher why this book was not selling.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," replied the publisher. "We had great hopes for it, but +somehow or other the public has not responded to it."</p> + +<p>"Are you sure you are telling the public about it in the right way?" +ventured Bok.</p> + +<p>The Scribner advertising had by this time attracted the attention of the +publishing world, and this publisher was entirely ready to listen to a +suggestion from his youthful caller.</p> + +<p>"I wish we published it," said Bok. "I think I could make it a go. It's +all in the book."</p> + +<p>"How would you advertise it?" asked the publisher.</p> + +<p>Bok promised the publisher he would let him know. He carried with him a +copy of the book, wrote some advertisements for it, prepared an +attractive "broadside" of extracts, to which the book easily lent +itself, wrote some literary notes about it, and sent the whole +collection to the publisher. Every particle of "copy" which Bok had +prepared was used, the book began to sell, and within three months it +was the most discussed book of the day.</p> + +<p>The book was Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward".</p> + +<h3><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI.</h3> + +<p class="heading">The Chances for Success</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Edward Bok</span> does not now remember whether the mental picture had been +given him, or whether he had conjured it up for himself; but he +certainly was possessed of the idea, as are so many young men entering +business, that the path which led to success was very difficult: that it +was overfilled with a jostling, bustling, panting crowd, each eager to +reach the goal; and all ready to dispute every step that a young man +should take; and that favoritism only could bring one to the top.</p> + +<p>After Bok had been in the world of affairs, he wondered where were these +choked avenues, these struggling masses, these competitors for every +inch of vantage. Then he gradually discovered that they did not exist.</p> + +<p>In the first place, he found every avenue leading to success wide open +and certainly not over-peopled. He was surprised how few there were who +really stood in a young man's way. He found that favoritism was not the +factor that he had been led to suppose. He realized it existed in a few +isolated cases, but to these every one had pointed and about these every +one had talked until, in the public mind, they had multiplied in number +and assumed a proportion that the facts did not bear out.</p> + +<p>Here and there a relative "played a favorite," but even with the push +and influence behind him "the lucky one," as he was termed, did not seem +to make progress, unless he had merit. It was not long before Bok +discovered that the possession of sheer merit was the only real factor +that actually counted in any of the places where he had been employed or +in others which he had watched; that business was so constructed and +conducted that nothing else, in the face of competition, could act as +current coin. And the amazing part of it all to Bok was how little merit +there was. Nothing astonished him more than the low average ability of +those with whom he worked or came into contact.</p> + +<p>He looked at the top, and instead of finding it overcrowded, he was +surprised at the few who had reached there; the top fairly begged for +more to climb its heights.</p> + +<p>For every young man, earnest, eager to serve, willing to do more than he +was paid for, he found ten trying to solve the problem of how little +they could actually do for the pay received.</p> + +<p>It interested Bok to listen to the talk of his fellow-workers during +luncheon hours and at all other times outside of office hours. When the +talk did turn on the business with which they were concerned, it +consisted almost entirely of wages, and he soon found that, with +scarcely an exception, every young man was terribly underpaid, and that +his employer absolutely failed to appreciate his work. It was +interesting, later, when Bok happened to get the angle of the employer, +to discover that, invariably, these same lamenting young men were those +who, from the employer's point of view, were either greatly overpaid or +so entirely worthless as to be marked for early decapitation.</p> + +<p>Bok felt that this constant thought of the wages earned or deserved was +putting the cart before the horse; he had schooled himself into the +belief that if he did his work well, and accomplished more than was +expected of him, the question of wages would take care of itself. But, +according to the talk on every side, it was he who had the cart before +the horse. Bok had not only tried always to fill the particular job set +for him but had made it a rule at the same time to study the position +just ahead, to see what it was like, what it demanded, and then, as the +opportunity presented itself, do a part of that job in addition to his +own. As a stenographer, he tried always to clear off the day's work +before he closed his desk. This was not always possible, but he kept it +before him as a rule to be followed rather than violated.</p> + +<p>One morning Bok's employer happened to come to the office earlier than +usual, to find the letters he had dictated late in the afternoon before +lying on his desk ready to be signed.</p> + +<p>"These are the letters I gave you late yesterday afternoon, are they +not?" asked the employer.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"Must have started early this morning, didn't you?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir," answered Bok. "I wrote them out last evening before I left."</p> + +<p>"Like to get your notes written out before they get stale?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"Good idea," said the employer.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," answered Bok, "and I think it is even a better idea to get a +day's work off before I take my apron off."</p> + +<p>"Well said," answered the employer, and the following payday Bok found +an increase in his weekly envelope.</p> + +<p>It is only fair, however, to add here, parenthetically, that it is +neither just nor considerate to a conscientious stenographer for an +employer to delay his dictation until the end of the day's work, when, +merely by judicious management of his affairs and time, he can give his +dictation directly after opening his morning mail. There are two sides +to every question; but sometimes the side of the stenographer is not +kept in mind by the employer.</p> + +<p>Bok found it a uniform rule among his fellow-workers to do exactly the +opposite to his own idea; there was an astonishing unanimity in working +by the clock; where the hour of closing was five o'clock the +preparations began five minutes before, with the hat and overcoat over +the back of the chair ready for the stroke of the hour. This concert of +action was curiously universal, no "overtime" was ever to be thought of, +and, as occasionally happened when the work did go over the hour, it was +not, to use the mildest term, done with care, neatness, or accuracy; it +was, to use a current phrase, "slammed off." Every moment beyond five +o'clock in which the worker was asked to do anything was by just so much +an imposition on the part of the employer, and so far as it could be +safely shown, this impression was gotten over to him.</p> + +<p>There was an entire unwillingness to let business interfere with any +anticipated pleasure or personal engagement. The office was all right +between nine and five; one had to be there to earn a living; but after +five, it was not to be thought of for one moment. The elevators which +ran on the stroke of five were never large enough to hold the throng +which besieged them.</p> + +<p>The talk during lunch hour rarely, if ever, turned toward business, +except as said before, when it dealt with underpaid services. In the +spring and summer it was invariably of baseball, and scores of young men +knew the batting averages of the different players and the standing of +the clubs with far greater accuracy than they knew the standing or the +discounts of the customers of their employers. In the winter the talk +was all of dancing, boxing, or plays.</p> + +<p>It soon became evident to Bok why scarcely five out of every hundred of +the young men whom he knew made any business progress. They were not +interested; it was a case of a day's work and a day's pay; it was not a +question of how much one could do but how little one could get away +with. The thought of how well one might do a given thing never seemed to +occur to the average mind.</p> + +<p>"Oh, what do you care?" was the favorite expression. "The boss won't +notice it if you break your back over his work; you won't get any more +pay."</p> + +<p>And there the subject was dismissed, and thoroughly dismissed, too.</p> + +<p>Eventually, then, Bok learned that the path that led to success was wide +open: the competition was negligible. There was no jostling. In fact, +travel on it was just a trifle lonely. One's fellow-travellers were +excellent company, but they were few! It was one of Edward Bok's +greatest surprises, but it was also one of his greatest stimulants. To +go where others could not go, or were loath to go, where at least they +were not, had a tang that savored of the freshest kind of adventure. And +the way was so simple, so much simpler, in fact, than its avoidance, +which called for so much argument, explanation, and discussion. One had +merely to do all that one could do, a little more than one was asked or +expected to do, and immediately one's head rose above the crowd and one +was in an employer's eye—where it is always so satisfying for an +employee to be! And as so few heads lifted themselves above the many, +there was never any danger that they would not be seen.</p> + +<p>Of course, Edward Bok had to prove to himself that his conception of +conditions was right. He felt instinctively that it was, however, and +with this stimulus he bucked the line hard. When others played, he +worked, fully convinced that his play-time would come later. Where +others shirked, he assumed. Where others lagged, he accelerated his +pace. Where others were indifferent to things around them, he observed +and put away the results for possible use later. He did not make of +himself a pack-horse; what he undertook he did from interest in it, and +that made it a pleasure to him when to others it was a burden. He +instinctively reasoned it out that an unpleasant task is never +accomplished by stepping aside from it, but that, unerringly, it will +return later to be met and done.</p> + +<p>Obstacles, to Edward Bok, soon became merely difficulties to be +overcome, and he trusted to his instinct to show him the best way to +overcome them. He soon learned that the hardest kind of work was back of +every success; that nothing in the world of business just happened, but +that everything was brought about, and only in one way—by a willingness +of spirit and a determination to carry through. He soon exploded for +himself the misleading and comfortable theory of luck: the only lucky +people, he found, were those who worked hard. To them, luck came in the +shape of what they had earned. There were exceptions here and there, as +there are to every rule; but the majority of these, he soon found, were +more in the seeming than in the reality. Generally speaking—and of +course to this rule there are likewise exceptions, or as the Frenchman +said, "All generalizations are false, including this one"—a man got in +this world about what he worked for.</p> + +<p>And that became, for himself, the rule of Edward Bok's life.</p> + +<h3><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII.</h3> + +<p class="heading">Baptism Under Fire</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> personnel of the Scribner house was very youthful from the members +of the firm clear down the line. It was veritably a house of young men.</p> + +<p>The story is told of a Boston publisher, sedate and fairly elderly, who +came to the Scribner house to transact business with several of its +departments. One of his errands concerning itself with advertising, he +was introduced to Bok, who was then twenty-four. Looking the youth over, +he transacted his business as well as he felt it could be transacted +with a manager of such tender years, and then sought the head of the +educational department: this brought him to another young man of +twenty-four.</p> + +<p>With his yearnings for some one more advanced in years full upon him, +the visitor now inquired for the business manager of the new magazine, +only to find a man of twenty-six. His next introduction was to the head +of the out-of-town business department, who was twenty-seven.</p> + +<p>At this point the Boston man asked to see Mr. Scribner. This disclosed +to him Mr. Arthur H. Scribner, the junior partner, who owned to +twenty-eight summers. Mustering courage to ask faintly for Mr. Charles +Scribner himself, he finally brought up in that gentleman's office only +to meet a man just turning thirty-three!</p> + +<p>"This is a young-looking crowd," said Mr. Scribner one day, looking over +his young men. And his eye rested on Bok. "Particularly you, Bok. +Doubleday looks his years better than you do, for at least he has a +moustache." Then, contemplatively: "You raise a moustache, Bok, and I'll +raise your salary."</p> + +<p>This appealed to Bok very strongly, and within a month he pointed out +the result to his employer. "Stand in the light here," said Mr. +Scribner. "Well, yes," he concluded dubiously, "it's there—something at +least. All right; I'll keep my part of the bargain."</p> + +<p>He did. But the next day he was nonplussed to see that the moustache had +disappeared from the lip of his youthful advertising manager. "Couldn't +quite stand it, Mr. Scribner," was the explanation. "Besides, you didn't +say I should keep it: you merely said to raise it."</p> + +<p>But the increase did not follow the moustache. To Bok's great relief, it +stuck!</p> + +<p>This youthful personnel, while it made for esprit de corps, had also its +disadvantages. One day as Bok was going out to lunch, he found a +small-statured man, rather plainly dressed, wandering around the retail +department, hoping for a salesman to wait on him. The young salesman on +duty, full of inexperience, had a ready smile and quick service ever +ready for "carriage trade," as he called it; but this particular +customer had come afoot, and this, together with his plainness of dress, +did not impress the young salesman. His attention was called to the +wandering customer, and it was suggested that he find out what was +wanted. When Bok returned from lunch, the young salesman, who, with a +beaming smile, had just most ceremoniously bowed the plainly dressed +little customer out of the street-door, said: "You certainly struck it +rich that time when you suggested my waiting on that little man! Such an +order! Been here ever since. Did you know who it was?"</p> + +<p>"No," returned Bok. "Who was it?"</p> + +<p>"Andrew Carnegie," beamed the salesman.</p> + +<p>Another youthful clerk in the Scribner retail bookstore, unconscious of +the customer's identity, waited one day on the wife of Mark Twain.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Clemens asked the young salesman for a copy of Taine's Ancient +Regime.</p> + +<p>"Beg pardon," said the clerk, "what book did you say?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Clemens repeated the author and title of the book.</p> + +<p>Going to the rear of the store, the clerk soon returned, only to +inquire: "May I ask you to repeat the name of the author?"</p> + +<p>"Taine, T-a-i-n-e," replied Mrs. Clemens.</p> + +<p>Then did the youthfulness of the salesman assert itself. Assuming an air +of superior knowledge, and looking at the customer with an air of +sympathy, he corrected Mrs. Clemens:</p> + +<p>"Pardon me, madam, but you have the name a trifle wrong. You mean +Twain-not Taine."</p> + +<p>With so many young men of the same age, there was a natural sense of +team-work and a spirit of comradeship that made for successful +co-operation. This spirit extended outside of business hours. At +luncheon there was a Scribner table in a neighboring restaurant, and +evenings saw the Scribner department heads mingling as friends. It was a +group of young men who understood and liked each other, with the natural +result that business went easier and better because of it.</p> + +<p>But Bok did not have much time for evening enjoyment, since his outside +interests had grown and prospered and they kept him busy. His syndicate +was regularly supplying over a hundred newspapers: his literary letter +had become an established feature in thirty different newspapers.</p> + +<p>Of course, his opportunities for making this letter interesting were +unusual. Owing to his Scribner connection, however, he had taken his +name from the letter and signed that of his brother. He had, also, +constantly to discriminate between the information that he could publish +without violation of confidence and that which he felt he was not at +liberty to print. This gave him excellent experience; for the most vital +of all essentials in the journalist is the ability unerringly to decide +what to print and what to regard as confidential.</p> + +<p>Of course, the best things that came to him he could not print. Whenever +there was a question, he gave the benefit of the doubt to the +confidential relation in which his position placed him with authors; and +his Dutch caution, although it deprived him of many a toothsome morsel +for his letter, soon became known to his confreres, and was a large +asset when, as an editor, he had to follow the golden rule of editorship +that teaches one to keep the ears open but the mouth shut.</p> + +<p>This Alpha and Omega of all the commandments in the editorial creed some +editors learn by sorrowful experience. Bok was, again, fortunate in +learning it under the most friendly auspices. He continued to work +without sparing himself, but his star remained in the ascendency. Just +how far a man's own efforts and standards keep a friendly star centred +over his head is a question. But Edward Bok has always felt that he was +materially helped by fortuitous conditions not of his own creation or +choice.</p> + +<p>He was now to receive his first public baptism of fire. He had published +a symposium, through his newspaper syndicate, discussing the question, +"Should Clergymen Smoke?" He had induced all the prominent clergymen in +the country to contribute their views, and so distinguished was the list +that the article created wide-spread attention.</p> + +<p>One of the contributors was the Reverend Richard S. Storrs, D.D., one of +the most distinguished of Brooklyn's coterie of clergy of that day. A +few days after the publication of the article, Bok was astounded to read +in the Brooklyn Eagle a sensational article, with large headlines, in +which Doctor Storrs repudiated his contribution to the symposium, +declared that he had never written or signed such a statement, and +accused Edward Bok of forgery.</p> + +<p>Coming from a man of Doctor Storrs's prominence, the accusation was, of +course, a serious one. Bok realized this at once. He foresaw the damage +it might work to the reputation of a young man trying to climb the +ladder of success, and wondered why Doctor Storrs had seen fit to accuse +him in this public manner instead of calling upon him for a personal +explanation. He thought perhaps he might find such a letter from Doctor +Storrs when he reached home, but instead he met a small corps of +reporters from the Brooklyn and New York newspapers. He told them +frankly that no one was more surprised at the accusation than he, but +that the original contributions were in the New York office of the +syndicate, and he could not corroborate his word until he had looked +into the papers and found Doctor Storrs's contribution.</p> + +<p>That evening Bok got at the papers in the case, and found out that, +technically, Doctor Storrs was right: he had not written or signed such +a statement. The compiler of the symposium, the editor of one of New +York's leading evening papers whom Bok had employed, had found Doctor +Storrs's declaration in favor of a clergyman's use of tobacco in an +address made some time before, had extracted it and incorporated it into +the symposium. It was, therefore, Doctor Storrs's opinion on the +subject, but not written for the occasion for which it was used. Bok +felt that his editor had led him into an indiscretion. Yet the +sentiments were those of the writer whose name was attached to them, so +that the act was not one of forgery. The editor explained that he had +sent the extract to Doctor Storrs, who had not returned it, and he had +taken silence to mean consent to the use of the material.</p> + +<p>Bok decided to say nothing until he heard from Doctor Storrs personally, +and so told the newspapers. But the clergyman did not stop his attack. +Of course, the newspapers egged him on and extracted from him the +further accusation that Bok's silence proved his guilt. Bok now took the +case to Mr. Beecher, and asked his advice.</p> + +<p>"Well, Edward, you are right and you are wrong," said Mr. Beecher. "And +so is Storrs, of course. It is beneath him to do what he has done. +Storrs and I are not good friends, as you know, and so I cannot go to +him and ask him the reason of his disclaimer. Otherwise I would. Of +course, he may have forgotten his remarks: that is always possible in a +busy man's life. He may not have received the letter enclosing them. +That is likewise possible. But I have a feeling that Storrs has some +reason for wishing to repudiate his views on this subject just at this +time. What it is I do not, of course, know, but his vehemence makes me +think so. I think I should let him have his rein. Keep you quiet. It may +damage you a little here and there, but in the end it won't harm you. In +the main point, you are right. You are not a forger. The sentiments are +his and he uttered them, and he should stand by them. He threatens to +bring you into court, I see from to-day's paper. Wait until he does so."</p> + +<p>Bok, chancing to meet Doctor Talmage, told him Mr. Beecher's advice, and +he endorsed it. "Remember, boy," said Doctor Talmage, "silence is never +so golden as when you are under fire. I know, for I have been there, as +you know, more than once. Keep quiet; and always believe this: that +there is a great deal of common sense abroad in the world, and a man is +always safe in trusting it to do him justice."</p> + +<p>They were not pleasant and easy days for Bok, for Doctor Storrs kept up +the din for several days. Bok waited for the word to appear in court. +But this never came, and the matter soon died down and out. And, +although Bok met the clergyman several times afterward in the years that +followed, no reference was ever made by him to the incident.</p> + +<p>But Edward Bok had learned a valuable lesson of silence under fire—an +experience that was to stand him in good stead when he was again +publicly attacked not long afterward.</p> + +<p>This occurred in connection with a notable anniversary celebration in +honor of Henry Ward Beecher, in which the entire city of Brooklyn was to +participate. It was to mark a mile-stone in Mr. Beecher's ministry and +in his pastorate of Plymouth Church. Bok planned a worldwide tribute to +the famed clergyman: he would get the most distinguished men and women +of this and other countries to express their esteem for the Plymouth +pastor in written congratulations, and he would bind these into a volume +for presentation to Mr. Beecher on the occasion. He consulted members of +the Beecher family, and, with their acquiescence, began to assemble the +material. He was in the midst of the work when Henry Ward Beecher passed +away. Bok felt that the tributes already received were too wonderful to +be lost to the world, and, after again consulting Mrs. Beecher and her +children, he determined to finish the collection and publish it as a +memorial for private distribution. After a prodigious correspondence, +the work was at last completed; and in June, 1887, the volume was +published, in a limited edition of five hundred copies. Bok distributed +copies of the volume to the members of Mr. Beecher's family, he had +orders from Mr. Beecher's friends, one hundred copies were offered to +the American public and one hundred copies were issued in an English +edition.</p> + +<p>With such a figure to whom to do honor, the contributors, of course, +included the foremost men and women of the time. Grover Cleveland was +then President of the United States, and his tribute was a notable one. +Mr. Gladstone, the Duke of Argyll, Pasteur, Canon Farrar, Bartholdi, +Salvini, and a score of others represented English and European opinion. +Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Greenleaf Whittier, T. De Witt Talmage, +Robert G. Ingersoll, Charles Dudley Warner, General Sherman, Julia Ward +Howe, Andrew Carnegie, Edwin Booth, Rutherford B. Hayes—there was +scarcely a leader of thought and of action of that day unrepresented. +The edition was, of course, quickly exhausted; and when to-day a copy +occasionally appears at an auction sale, it is sold at a high price.</p> + +<p>The newspapers gave very large space to the distinguished memorial, and +this fact angered a journalist, Joseph Howard, Junior, a man at one time +close to Mr. Beecher, who had befriended him. Howard had planned to be +the first in the field with a hastily prepared biography of the great +preacher, and he felt that Bok had forestalled him. Forthwith, he +launched a vicious attack on the compiler of the memorial, accusing him +of "making money out of Henry Ward Beecher's dead body" and of +"seriously offending the family of Mr. Beecher, who had had no say in +the memorial, which was therefore without authority, and hence extremely +distasteful to all."</p> + +<p>Howard had convinced a number of editors of the justice of his position, +and so he secured a wide publication for his attack. For the second +time, Edward Bok was under fire, and remembering his action on the +previous occasion, he again remained silent, and again the argument was +put forth that his silence implied guilt. But Mrs. Beecher and members +of the Beecher family did not observe silence, and quickly proved that +not only had Bok compiled the memorial as a labor of love and had lost +money on it, but that he had the full consent of the family in its +preparation.</p> + +<p>When, shortly afterward, Howard's hastily compiled "biography" of Mr. +Beecher appeared, a reporter asked Mrs. Beecher whether she and her +family had found it accurate.</p> + +<p>"Accurate, my child," said Mrs. Beecher. "Why, it is so accurate in its +absolute falsity that neither I nor the boys can find one fact or date +given correctly, although we have studied it for two days. Even the year +of Mr. Beecher's birth is wrong, and that is the smallest error!"</p> + +<p>Edward Bok little dreamed that these two experiences with public +criticism were to serve him as a foretaste of future attacks when he +would get the benefit of hundreds of pencils especially sharpened for +him.</p> + +<h3><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII.</h3> + +<p class="heading">Publishing Incidents and Anecdotes</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">One</span> evening some literary men were dining together previous to going to +a private house where a number of authors were to give readings from +their books. At the table the talk turned on the carelessness with which +the public reads books. Richard Harding Davis, one of the party, +contended that the public read more carefully than the others believed. +It was just at the time when Du Maurier's Trilby was in every one's +hands.</p> + +<p>"Don't you believe it," said one of the diners. "I'll warrant you could +take a portion of some well-known story to-night and palm it off on most +of your listeners as new stuff."</p> + +<p>"Done," said Davis. "Come along, and I'll prove you wrong."</p> + +<p>The reading was to be at the house of John Kendrick Bangs at Yonkers. +When Davis's "turn" in the programme came, he announced that he would +read a portion from an unpublished story written by himself. Immediately +there was a flutter in the audience, particularly among the younger +element.</p> + +<p>Pulling a roll of manuscript out of his pocket, Davis began:</p> + +<p>"It was a fine, sunny, showery day in April. The big studio window—"</p> + +<p>He got no farther. Almost the entire audience broke into a shout of +laughter and applause. Davis had read thirteen of the opening words of +Trilby.</p> + +<p>All publishing houses employ "readers" outside of those in their own +offices for the reading of manuscripts on special subjects. One of these +"outside readers" was given a manuscript for criticism. He took it home +and began its reading. He had finished only a hundred pages or so when, +by a curious coincidence, the card of the author of the manuscript was +brought to the "reader." The men were close friends.</p> + +<p>Hastily gathering up the manuscript, the critic shoved the work into a +drawer of his desk, and asked that his friend be shown in.</p> + +<p>The evening was passed in conversation; as the visitor rose to leave, +his host, rising also and seating himself on his desk, asked:</p> + +<p>"What have you been doing lately? Haven't seen much of you."</p> + +<p>"No," said the friend. "It may interest you to know that I have been +turning to literary work, and have just completed what I consider to be +an important book."</p> + +<p>"Really?" commented the "reader."</p> + +<p>"Yes," went on his friend. "I submitted it a few days ago to one of the +big publishing houses. But, great Scott, you can never tell what these +publishers will do with a thing of that sort. They give their +manuscripts to all kinds of fools to read. I suppose, by this time, some +idiot, who doesn't know a thing of the subject about which I have +written, is sitting on my manuscript."</p> + +<p>Mechanically, the "reader" looked at the desk upon which he was sitting, +thought of the manuscript lying in the drawer directly under him, and +said:</p> + +<p>"Yes, that may be. Quite likely, in fact."</p> + +<p>Of no novel was the secret of the authorship ever so well kept as was +that of The Breadwinners, which, published anonymously in 1883, was the +talk of literary circles for a long time, and speculation as to its +authorship was renewed in the newspapers for years afterward. Bok wanted +very much to find out the author's name so that he could announce it in +his literary letter. He had his suspicions, but they were not well +founded until an amusing little incident occurred which curiously +revealed the secret to him.</p> + +<p>Bok was waiting to see one of the members of a publishing firm when a +well-known English publisher, visiting in America, was being escorted +out of the office, the conversation continuing as the two gentlemen +walked through the outer rooms. "My chief reason," said the English +publisher, as he stopped at the end of the outer office where Bok was +sitting, "for hesitating at all about taking an English set of plates of +the novel you speak of is because it is of anonymous authorship, a +custom of writing which has grown out of all decent proportions in your +country since the issue of that stupid book, The Breadwinners."</p> + +<p>As these last words were spoken, a man seated at a desk directly behind +the speaker looked up, smiled, and resumed reading a document which he +had dropped in to sign. A smile also spread over the countenance of the +American publisher as he furtively glanced over the shoulder of the +English visitor and caught the eye of the smiling man at the desk.</p> + +<p>Bok saw the little comedy, realized at once that he had discovered the +author of The Breadwinners, and stated to the publisher that he intended +to use the incident in his literary letter. But it proved to be one of +those heart-rending instances of a delicious morsel of news that must be +withheld from the journalist's use. The publisher acknowledged that Bok +had happened upon the true authorship, but placed him upon his honor to +make no use of the incident. And Bok learned again the vital +journalistic lesson that there are a great many things in the world that +the journalist knows and yet cannot write about. He would have been +years in advance of the announcement finally made that John Hay wrote +the novel.</p> + +<p>At another time, while waiting, Bok had an experience which, while +interesting, was saddening instead of amusing. He was sitting in Mark +Twain's sitting-room in his home in Hartford waiting for the humorist to +return from a walk. Suddenly sounds of devotional singing came in +through the open window from the direction of the outer conservatory. +The singing was low, yet the sad tremor in the voice seemed to give it +special carrying power.</p> + +<p>"You have quite a devotional servant," Bok said to a maid who was +dusting the room.</p> + +<p>"Oh, that is not a servant who is singing, sir," was the answer. "You +can step to this window and see for yourself."</p> + +<p>Bok did so, and there, sitting alone on one of the rustic benches in the +flower-house, was a small, elderly woman. Keeping time with the first +finger of her right hand, as if with a baton, she was slightly swaying +her frail body as she sang, softly yet sweetly, Charles Wesley's hymn, +"Jesus, Lover of My Soul," and Sarah Flower Adams's "Nearer, My God, to +Thee."</p> + +<p>But the singer was not a servant. It was Harriet Beecher Stowe!</p> + +<p>On another visit to Hartford, shortly afterward, Bok was just turning +into Forrest Street when a little old woman came shambling along toward +him, unconscious, apparently, of people or surroundings. In her hand she +carried a small tree-switch. Bok did not notice her until just as he had +passed her he heard her calling to him: "Young man, young man." Bok +retraced his steps, and then the old lady said: "Young man, you have +been leaning against something white," and taking her tree-switch she +whipped some wall dust from the sleeve of Bok's coat. It was not until +that moment that Bok recognized in his self-appointed "brush" no less a +personage than Harriet Beecher Stowe.</p> + +<p>"This is Mrs. Stowe, is it not?" he asked, after tendering his thanks to +her.</p> + +<p>Those blue eyes looked strangely into his as she answered:</p> + +<p>"That is my name, young man. I live on this street. Are you going to +have me arrested for stopping you?" with which she gathered up her +skirts and quickly ran away, looking furtively over her shoulder at the +amazed young man, sorrowfully watching the running figure!</p> + +<p>Speaking of Mrs. Stowe brings to mind an unscrupulous and yet ingenious +trick just about this time played by a young man attached to one of the +New York publishing houses. One evening at dinner this chap happened to +be in a bookish company when the talk turned to the enthusiasm of the +Southern negro for an illustrated Bible. The young publishing clerk +listened intently, and next day he went to a Bible publishing house in +New York which issued a Bible gorgeous with pictures and entered into an +arrangement with the proprietors whereby he should have the Southern +territory. He resigned his position, and within a week he was in the +South. He made arrangements with an artist friend to make a change in +each copy of the Bible which he contracted for. The angels pictured +therein were white in color. He had these made black, so he could show +that there were black angels as well as white ones. The Bibles cost him +just eighty cents apiece. He went about the South and offered the Bibles +to the astonished and open-mouthed negroes for eight dollars each, two +dollars and a half down and the rest in monthly payments. His sales were +enormous. Then he went his rounds all over again and offered to close +out the remaining five dollars and a half due him by a final payment of +two dollars and a half each. In nearly every case the bait was +swallowed, and on each Bible he thus cleared four dollars and twenty +cents net!</p> + +<p>Running the elevator in the building where a prominent publishing firm +had its office was a negro of more than ordinary intelligence. The firm +had just published a subscription book on mechanical engineering, a +chapter of which was devoted to the construction and operation of +passenger elevators. One of the agents selling the book thought he might +find a customer in Washington.</p> + +<p>"Wash," said the book-agent, "you ought to buy a copy of this book, do +you know it?"</p> + +<p>"No, boss, don't want no books. Don't git no time fo' readin' books," +drawled Wash. "It teks all mah time to run dis elevator."</p> + +<p>"But this book will help you to run your elevator. See here: there's a +whole chapter here on elevators," persisted the canvasser.</p> + +<p>"Don't want no help to run dis elevator," said the darky. "Dis elevator +runs all right now."</p> + +<p>"But," said the canvasser, "this will help you to run it better. You +will know twice as much when you get through."</p> + +<p>"No, boss, no, dat's just it," returned Wash. "Don't want to learn +nothing, boss," he said. "Why, boss, I know more now than I git paid +for."</p> + +<p>There was one New York newspaper that prided itself on its huge +circulation, and its advertising canvassers were particularly insistent +in securing the advertisements of publishers. Of course, the real +purpose of the paper was to secure a certain standing for itself, which +it lacked, rather than to be of any service to the publishers.</p> + +<p>By dint of perseverance, its agents finally secured from one of the +ten-cent magazines, then so numerous, a large advertisement of a special +number, and in order to test the drawing power of the newspaper as a +medium, there was inserted a line in large black type:</p> + +<p class="c">"SEND TEN CENTS FOR A NUMBER."</p> + +<p>But the compositor felt that magazine literature should be even cheaper +than it was, and to that thought in his mind his fingers responded, so +that when the advertisement appeared, this particular bold-type line +read:</p> + +<p class="c">"SEND TEN CENTS FOR A YEAR."</p> + +<p>This wonderful offer appealed with singular force to the class of +readers of this particular paper, and they decided to take advantage of +it. The advertisement appeared on Sunday, and Monday's first mail +brought the magazine over eight hundred letters with ten cents enclosed +"for a year's subscription as per your advertisement in yesterday's —." +The magazine management consulted its lawyer, who advised the publisher +to make the newspaper pay the extra ninety cents on each subscription, +and, although this demand was at first refused, the proprietors of the +daily finally yielded. At the end of the first week eight thousand and +fifty-five letters with ten cents enclosed had reached the magazine, and +finally the total was a few over twelve thousand!</p> + +<h3><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>XIV.</h3> + +<p class="heading">Last Years in New York</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Edward Bok's</span> lines were now to follow those of advertising for several +years. He was responsible for securing the advertisements for The Book +Buyer and The Presbyterian Review. While the former was, frankly, a +house-organ, its editorial contents had so broadened as to make the +periodical of general interest to book-lovers, and with the subscribers +constituting the valuable list of Scribner book-buyers, other publishers +were eager to fish in the Scribner pond.</p> + +<p>With The Presbyterian Review, the condition was different. A magazine +issued quarterly naturally lacks the continuity desired by the +advertiser; the scope of the magazine was limited, and so was the +circulation. It was a difficult magazine to "sell" to the advertiser, +and Bok's salesmanship was taxed to the utmost. Although all that the +publishers asked was that the expense of getting out the periodical be +met, with its two hundred and odd pages even this was difficult. It was +not an attractive proposition.</p> + +<p>The most interesting feature of the magazine to Bok appeared to be the +method of editing. It was ostensibly edited by a board, but, +practically, by Professor Francis L. Patton, D.D., of Princeton +Theological Seminary (afterward president of Princeton University), and +Doctor Charles A. Briggs, of Union Theological Seminary. The views of +these two theologians differed rather widely, and when, upon several +occasions, they met in Bok's office, on bringing in their different +articles to go into the magazine, lively discussions ensued. Bok did not +often get the drift of these discussions, but he was intensely +interested in listening to the diverse views of the two theologians.</p> + +<p>One day the question of heresy came up between the two men, and during a +pause in the discussion, Bok, looking for light, turned to Doctor Briggs +and asked: "Doctor, what really is heresy?"</p> + +<p>Doctor Briggs, taken off his guard for a moment, looked blankly at his +young questioner, and repeated: "What is heresy?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," repeated Bok, "just what is heresy, Doctor?"</p> + +<p>"That's right," interjected Doctor Patton, with a twinkle in his eyes, +"what is heresy, Briggs?"</p> + +<p>"Would you be willing to write it down for me?" asked Bok, fearful that +he should not remember Doctor Briggs's definition even if he were told.</p> + +<p>And Doctor Briggs wrote:</p> + +<p>"Heresy is anything in doctrine or practice that departs from the mind +of the Church as officially defined.</p> + +<p>Charles A. Briggs.</p> + +<p>"Let me see," asked Doctor Patton, and when he read it, he muttered: +"Humph, pretty broad, pretty broad."</p> + +<p>"Well," answered the nettled Doctor Briggs, "perhaps you can give a less +broad definition, Patton."</p> + +<p>"No, no," answered the Princeton theologian, as the slightest wink came +from the eye nearest Bok, "I wouldn't attempt it for a moment. Too much +for me."</p> + +<p>On another occasion, as the two were busy in their discussion of some +article to be inserted in the magazine, Bok listening with all his +might, Doctor Patton, suddenly turning to the young listener, asked, in +the midst of the argument: "Whom are the Giants going to play this +afternoon, Bok?"</p> + +<p>Doctor Briggs's face was a study. For a moment the drift of the question +was an enigma to him: then realizing that an important theological +discussion had been interrupted by a trivial baseball question, he +gathered up his papers and stamped violently out of the office. Doctor +Patton made no comment, but, with a smile, he asked Bok: "Johnnie Ward +going to play to-day, do you know? Thought I might ask Mr. Scribner if +you could go up to the game this afternoon."</p> + +<p>It is unnecessary to say to which of the two men Bok was the more +attracted, and when it came, each quarter, to figuring how many articles +could go into the Review without exceeding the cost limit fixed by the +house, it was always a puzzle to Doctor Briggs why the majority of the +articles left out were invariably those that he had brought in, while +many of those which Doctor Patton handed in somehow found their place, +upon the final assembling, among the contents.</p> + +<p>"Your articles are so long," Bok would explain.</p> + +<p>"Long?" Doctor Briggs would echo. "You don't measure theological +discussions by the yardstick, young man."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not," the young assembler would maintain.</p> + +<p>But we have to do some measuring here by the composition-stick, just the +same."</p> + +<p>And the Union Seminary theologian was never able successfully, to vault +that hurdle!</p> + +<p>From his boyhood days (up to the present writing) Bok was a pronounced +baseball "fan," and so Doctor Patton appealed to a warm place in the +young man's heart when he asked him the questions about the New York +baseball team. There was, too, a baseball team among the Scribner young +men of which Bok was a part. This team played, each Saturday afternoon, +a team from another publishing house, and for two seasons it was +unbeatable. Not only was this baseball aggregation close to the hearts +of the Scribner employees, but, in an important game, the junior member +of the firm played on it and the senior member was a spectator. Frank N. +Doubleday played on first base; William D. Moffat, later of Moffat, Yard +& Company, and now editor of The Mentor, was behind the bat; Bok +pitched; Ernest Dressel North, the present authority on rare editions of +books, was in the field, as were also Ray Safford, now a director in the +Scribner corporation, and Owen W. Brewer, at present a prominent figure +in Chicago's book world. It was a happy group, all closely banded +together in their business interests and in their human relations as +well.</p> + +<p>With Scribner's Magazine now in the periodical field, Bok would be asked +on his trips to the publishing houses to have an eye open for +advertisements for that periodical as well. Hence his education in the +solicitation of advertisements became general, and gave him a +sympathetic understanding of the problems of the advertising solicitor +which was to stand him in good stead when, in his later experience, he +was called upon to view the business problems of a magazine from the +editor's position. His knowledge of the manufacture of the two magazines +in his charge was likewise educative, as was the fascinating study of +typography which always had, and has to-day, a wonderful attraction for +him.</p> + +<p>It was, however, in connection with the advertising of the general books +of the house, and in his relations with their authors, that Bok found +his greatest interest. It was for him to find the best manner in which +to introduce to the public the books issued by the house, and the +general study of the psychology of publicity which this called for +attracted Bok greatly.</p> + +<p>Bok was now asked to advertise a novel published by the Scribners which, +when it was issued, and for years afterward, was pointed to as a proof +of the notion that a famous name was all that was necessary to ensure +the acceptance of a manuscript by even a leading publishing house. The +facts in the case were that this manuscript was handed in one morning by +a friend of the house with the remark that he submitted it at the +suggestion of the author, who did not desire that his identity should be +known until after the manuscript had been read and passed upon by the +house. It was explained that the writer was not a famous author; in +fact, he had never written anything before; this was his first book of +any sort; he merely wanted to "try his wings." The manuscript was read +in due time by the Scribner readers, and the mutual friend was advised +that the house would be glad to publish the novel, and was ready to +execute and send a contract to the author if the firm knew in whose name +the agreement should be made. Then came the first intimation of the +identity of the author: the friend wrote that if the publishers would +look in the right-hand corner of the first page of the manuscript they +would find there the author's name. Search finally revealed an asterisk. +The author of the novel (Valentino) was William Waldorf Astor.</p> + +<p>Although the Scribners did not publish Mark Twain's books, the humorist +was a frequent visitor to the retail store, and occasionally he would +wander back to the publishing department located at the rear of the +store, which was then at 743 Broadway.</p> + +<p>Smoking was not permitted in the Scribner offices, and, of course, Mark +Twain was always smoking. He generally smoked a granulated tobacco which +he kept in a long check bag made of silk and rubber. When he sauntered +to the back of the Scribner store, he would generally knock the residue +from the bowl of the pipe, take out the stem, place it in his vest +pocket, like a pencil, and drop the bowl into the bag containing the +granulated tobacco. When he wanted to smoke again (which was usually +five minutes later) he would fish out the bowl, now automatically filled +with tobacco, insert the stem, and strike a light. One afternoon as he +wandered into Bok's office, he was just putting his pipe away. The pipe, +of the corncob variety, was very aged and black. Bok asked him whether +it was the only pipe he had.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," Mark answered, "I have several. But they're all like this. I +never smoke a new corncob pipe. A new pipe irritates the throat. No +corncob pipe is fit for anything until it has been used at least a +fortnight."</p> + +<p>"How do you break in a pipe, then?" asked Bok.</p> + +<p>"That's the trick," answered Mark Twain. "I get a cheap man—a man who +doesn't amount to much, anyhow: who would be as well, or better, +dead—and pay him a dollar to break in the pipe for me. I get him to +smoke the pipe for a couple of weeks, then put in a new stem, and +continue operations as long as the pipe holds together."</p> + +<p>Bok's newspaper syndicate work had brought him into contact with Fanny +Davenport, then at the zenith of her career as an actress. Miss +Davenport, or Mrs. Melbourne McDowell as she was in private life, had +never written for print; but Bok, seeing that she had something to say +about her art and the ability to say it, induced her to write for the +newspapers through his syndicate. The actress was overjoyed to have +revealed to her a hitherto unsuspected gift; Bok published her articles +successfully, and gave her a publicity that her press agent had never +dreamed of. Miss Davenport became interested in the young publisher, and +after watching the methods which he employed in successfully publishing +her writings, decided to try to obtain his services as her assistant +manager. She broached the subject, offered him a five years' contract +for forty weeks' service, with a minimum of fifteen weeks each year to +spend in or near New York, at a salary, for the first year, of three +thousand dollars, increasing annually until the fifth year, when he was +to receive sixty-four hundred dollars.</p> + +<p>Bok was attracted to the work: he had never seen the United States, was +anxious to do so, and looked upon the chance as a good opportunity. Miss +Davenport had the contract made out, executed it, and then, in high +glee, Bok took it home to show it to his mother. He had reckoned without +question upon her approval, only to meet with an immediate and decided +negative to the proposition as a whole, general and specific. She argued +that the theatrical business was not for him; and she saw ahead and +pointed out so strongly the mistake he was making that he sought Miss +Davenport the next day and told her of his mother's stand. The actress +suggested that she see the mother; she did, that day, and she came away +from the interview a wiser if a sadder woman. Miss Davenport frankly +told Bok that with such an instinctive objection as his mother seemed to +have, he was right to follow her advice and the contract was not to be +thought of.</p> + +<p>It is difficult to say whether this was or was not for Bok the +turning-point which comes in the life of every young man. Where the +venture into theatrical life would have led him no one can, of course, +say. One thing is certain: Bok's instinct and reason both failed him in +this instance. He believes now that had his venture into the theatrical +field been temporary or permanent, the experiment, either way, would +have been disastrous.</p> + +<p>Looking back and viewing the theatrical profession even as it was in +that day (of a much higher order than now), he is convinced he would +never have been happy in it. He might have found this out in a year or +more, after the novelty of travelling had worn off, and asked release +from his contract; in that case he would have broken his line of +progress in the publishing business. From whatever viewpoint he has +looked back upon this, which he now believes to have been the crisis in +his life, he is convinced that his mother's instinct saved him from a +grievous mistake.</p> + +<p>The Scribner house, in its foreign-book department, had imported some +copies of Bourrienne's Life of Napoleon, and a set had found its way to +Bok's desk for advertising purposes. He took the books home to glance +them over, found himself interested, and sat up half the night to read +them. Then he took the set to the editor of the New York Star, and +suggested that such a book warranted a special review, and offered to +leave the work for the literary editor.</p> + +<p>"You have read the books?" asked the editor.</p> + +<p>"Every word," returned Bok.</p> + +<p>"Then, why don't you write the review?" suggested the editor.</p> + +<p>This was a new thought to Bok. "Never wrote a review," he said.</p> + +<p>"Try it," answered the editor. "Write a column."</p> + +<p>"A column wouldn't scratch the surface of this book," suggested the +embryo reviewer.</p> + +<p>"Well, give it what it is worth," returned the editor.</p> + +<p>Bok did. He wrote a page of the paper.</p> + +<p>"Too much, too much," said the editor. "Heavens, man, we've got to get +some news into this paper."</p> + +<p>"Very well," returned the reviewer. "Read it, and cut it where you like. +That's the way I see the book."</p> + +<p>And next Sunday the review appeared, word for word, as Bok had written +it. His first review had successfully passed!</p> + +<p>But Bok was really happiest in that part of his work which concerned +itself with the writing of advertisements. The science of advertisement +writing, which meant to him the capacity to say much in little space, +appealed strongly. He found himself more honestly attracted to this than +to the writing of his literary letter, his editorials, or his book +reviewing, of which he was now doing a good deal. He determined to +follow where his bent led; he studied the mechanics of unusual +advertisements wherever he saw them; he eagerly sought a knowledge of +typography and its best handling in an advertisement, and of the value +and relation of illustrations to text. He perceived that his work along +these lines seemed to give satisfaction to his employers, since they +placed more of it in his hands to do; and he sought in every way to +become proficient in the art.</p> + +<p>To publishers whose advertisements he secured for the periodicals in his +charge, he made suggestions for the improvement of their announcements, +and found his suggestions accepted. He early saw the value of white +space as one of the most effective factors in advertising; but this was +a difficult argument, he soon found, to convey successfully to others. A +white space in an advertisement was to the average publisher something +to fill up; Bok saw in it something to cherish for its effectiveness. +But he never got very far with his idea: he could not convince (perhaps +because he failed to express his ideas convincingly) his advertisers of +what he felt and believed so strongly.</p> + +<p>An occasion came in which he was permitted to prove his contention. The +Scribners had published Andrew Carnegie's volume, Triumphant Democracy, +and the author desired that some special advertising should be done in +addition to that allowed by the appropriation made by the house. To +Bok's grateful ears came the injunction from the steel magnate: "Use +plenty of white space." In conjunction with Mr. Doubleday, Bok prepared +and issued this extra advertising, and for once, at least, the wisdom of +using white space was demonstrated. But it was only a flash in the pan. +Publishers were unwilling to pay for "unused space," as they termed it. +Each book was a separate unit, others argued: it was not like +advertising one article continuously in which money could be invested; +and only a limited amount could be spent on a book which ran its course, +even at its best, in a very short time.</p> + +<p>And, rightly or wrongly, book advertising has continued much along the +same lines until the present day. In fact, in no department of +manufacturing or selling activity has there been so little progress +during the past fifty years as in bringing books to the notice of the +public. In all other lines, the producer has brought his wares to the +public, making it easier and still easier for it to obtain his goods, +while the public, if it wants a book, must still seek the book instead +of being sought by it.</p> + +<p>That there is a tremendous unsupplied book demand in this country there +is no doubt: the wider distribution and easier access given to +periodicals prove this point. Now and then there has been tried an +unsupported or not well-thought-out plan for bringing books to a public +not now reading them, but there seems little or no understanding of the +fact that there lies an uncultivated field of tremendous promise to the +publisher who will strike out on a new line and market his books, so +that the public will not have to ferret out a book-store or wind through +the maze of a department store. The American reading public is not the +book-reading public that it should be or could be made to be; but the +habit must be made easy for it to acquire. Books must be placed where +the public can readily get at them. It will not, of its own volition, +seek them. It did not do so with magazines; it will not do so with +books.</p> + +<p>In the meanwhile, Bok's literary letter had prospered until it was now +published in some forty-five newspapers. One of these was the +Philadelphia Times. In that paper, each week, the letter had been read +by Mr. Cyrus H. K. Curtis, the owner and publisher of The Ladies' Home +Journal. Mr. Curtis had decided that he needed an editor for his +magazine, in order to relieve his wife, who was then editing it, and he +fixed upon the writer of Literary Leaves as his man. He came to New +York, consulted Will Carleton, the poet, and found that while the letter +was signed by William J. Bok, it was actually written by his brother who +was with the Scribners. So he sought Bok out there.</p> + +<p>The publishing house had been advertising in the Philadelphia magazine, +so that the visit of Mr. Curtis was not an occasion for surprise. Mr. +Curtis told Bok he had read his literary letter in the Philadelphia +Times, and suggested that perhaps he might write a similar department +for The Ladies' Home Journal. Bok saw no reason why he should not, and +told Mr. Curtis so, and promised to send over a trial installment. The +Philadelphia publisher then deftly went on, explained editorial +conditions in his magazine, and, recognizing the ethics of the occasion +by not offering Bok another position while he was already occupying one, +asked him if he knew the man for the place.</p> + +<p>"Are you talking at me or through me?" asked Bok.</p> + +<p>"Both," replied Mr. Curtis.</p> + +<p>This was in April of 1889.</p> + +<p>Bok promised Mr. Curtis he would look over the field, and meanwhile he +sent over to Philadelphia the promised trial "literary gossip" +installment. It pleased Mr. Curtis, who suggested a monthly department, +to which Bok consented. He also turned over in his mind the wisdom of +interrupting his line of progress with the Scribners, and in New York, +and began to contemplate the possibilities in Philadelphia and the work +there.</p> + +<p>He gathered a collection of domestic magazines then published, and +looked them over to see what was already in the field. Then he began to +study himself, his capacity for the work, and the possibility of finding +it congenial. He realized that it was absolutely foreign to his Scribner +work: that it meant a radical departure. But his work with his newspaper +syndicate naturally occurred to him, and he studied it with a view of +its adaptation to the field of the Philadelphia magazine.</p> + +<p>His next step was to take into his confidence two or three friends whose +judgment he trusted and discuss the possible change. Without an +exception, they advised against it. The periodical had no standing, they +argued; Bok would be out of sympathy with its general atmosphere after +his Scribner environment; he was now in the direct line of progress in +New York publishing houses; and, to cap the climax, they each argued in +turn, he would be buried in Philadelphia: New York was the centre, etc., +etc.</p> + +<p>More than any other single argument, this last point destroyed Bok's +faith in the judgment of his friends. He had had experience enough to +realize that a man could not be buried in any city, provided he had the +ability to stand out from his fellow-men. He knew from his biographical +reading that cream will rise to the surface anywhere, in Philadelphia as +well as in New York: it all depended on whether the cream was there: it +was up to the man. Had he within him that peculiar, subtle something +that, for the want of a better phrase, we call the editorial instinct? +That was all there was to it, and that decision had to be his and his +alone!</p> + +<p>A business trip for the Scribners now calling him West, Bok decided to +stop at Philadelphia, have a talk with Mr. Curtis, and look over his +business plant. He did this, and found Mr. Curtis even more desirous +than before to have him consider the position. Bok's instinct was +strongly in favor of an acceptance. A natural impulse moved him, without +reasoning, to action. Reasoning led only to a cautious mental state, and +caution is a strong factor in the Dutch character. The longer he pursued +a conscious process of reasoning, the farther he got from the position. +But the instinct remained strong.</p> + +<p>On his way back from the West, he stopped in Philadelphia again to +consult his friend, George W. Childs; and here he found the only person +who was ready to encourage him to make the change.</p> + +<p>Bok now laid the matter before his mother, in whose feminine instinct he +had supreme confidence. With her, he met with instant discouragement. +But in subsequent talks he found that her opposition was based not upon +the possibilities inherent in the position, but on a mother's natural +disinclination to be separated from one of her sons. In the case of +Fanny Davenport's offer the mother's instinct was strong against the +proposition itself. But in the present instance it was the mother's love +that was speaking; not her instinct or judgment.</p> + +<p>Bok now consulted his business associates, and, to a man, they +discouraged the step, but almost invariably upon the argument that it +was suicidal to leave New York. He had now a glimpse of the truth that +there is no man so provincially narrow as the untravelled New Yorker who +believes in his heart that the sun rises in the East River and sets in +the North River.</p> + +<p>He realized more keenly than ever before that the decision rested with +him alone. On September 1, 1889, Bok wrote to Mr. Curtis, accepting the +position in Philadelphia; and on October 13 following he left the +Scribners, where he had been so fortunate and so happy, and, after a +week's vacation, followed where his instinct so strongly led, but where +his reason wavered.</p> + +<p>On October 20, 1889, Edward Bok became the editor of The Ladies' Home +Journal.</p> + +<h3><a name="XV" id="XV"></a>XV.</h3> + +<p class="heading">Successful Editorship</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">There</span> is a popular notion that the editor of a woman's magazine should +be a woman. At first thought, perhaps, this sounds logical. But it is a +curious fact that by far the larger number of periodicals for women, the +world over, are edited by men; and where, as in some cases, a woman is +the proclaimed editor, the direction of the editorial policy is +generally in the hands of a man, or group of men, in the background. Why +this is so has never been explained, any more than why the majority of +women's dressmakers are men; why music, with its larger appeal to women, +has been and is still being composed, largely, by men, and why its +greatest instrumental performers are likewise men; and why the church, +with its larger membership of women, still has, as it always has had, +men for its greatest preachers.</p> + +<p>In fact, we may well ponder whether the full editorial authority and +direction of a modern magazine, either essentially feminine in its +appeal or not, can safely be entrusted to a woman when one considers how +largely executive is the nature of such a position, and how thoroughly +sensitive the modern editor must be to the hundred and one practical +business matters which to-day enter into and form so large a part of the +editorial duties. We may question whether women have as yet had +sufficient experience in the world of business to cope successfully with +the material questions of a pivotal editorial position. Then, again, it +is absolutely essential in the conduct of a magazine with a feminine or +home appeal to have on the editorial staff women who are experts in +their line; and the truth is that women will work infinitely better +under the direction of a man than of a woman.</p> + +<p>It would seem from the present outlook that, for some time, at least, +the so-called woman's magazine of large purpose and wide vision is very +likely to be edited by a man. It is a question, however, whether the day +of the woman's magazine, as we have known it, is not passing. Already +the day has gone for the woman's magazine built on the old lines which +now seem so grotesque and feeble in the light of modern growth. The +interests of women and of men are being brought closer with the years, +and it will not be long before they will entirely merge. This means a +constantly diminishing necessity for the distinctly feminine magazine.</p> + +<p>Naturally, there will always be a field in the essentially feminine +pursuits which have no place in the life of a man, but these are rapidly +being cared for by books, gratuitously distributed, issued by the +manufacturers of distinctly feminine and domestic wares; for such +publications the best talent is being employed, and the results are +placed within easy access of women, by means of newspaper advertisement, +the store-counter, or the mails. These will sooner or later—and much +sooner than later—supplant the practical portions of the woman's +magazine, leaving only the general contents, which are equally +interesting to men and to women. Hence the field for the magazine with +the essentially feminine appeal is contracting rather than broadening, +and it is likely to contract much more rapidly in the future.</p> + +<p>The field was altogether different when Edward Bok entered it in 1889. +It was not only wide open, but fairly crying out to be filled. The day +of Godey's Lady's Book had passed; Peterson's Magazine was breathing its +last; and the home or women's magazines that had attempted to take their +place were sorry affairs. It was this consciousness of a void ready to +be filled that made the Philadelphia experiment so attractive to the +embryo editor. He looked over the field and reasoned that if such +magazines as did exist could be fairly successful, if women were ready +to buy such, how much greater response would there be to a magazine of +higher standards, of larger initiative—a magazine that would be an +authoritative clearing-house for all the problems confronting women in +the home, that brought itself closely into contact with those problems +and tried to solve them in an entertaining and efficient way; and yet a +magazine of uplift and inspiration: a magazine, in other words, that +would give light and leading in the woman's world.</p> + +<p>The method of editorial expression in the magazines of 1889 was also +distinctly vague and prohibitively impersonal. The public knew the name +of scarcely a single editor of a magazine: there was no personality that +stood out in the mind: the accepted editorial expression was the +indefinite "we"; no one ventured to use the first person singular and +talk intimately to the reader. Edward Bok's biographical reading had +taught him that the American public loved a personality: that it was +always ready to recognize and follow a leader, provided, of course, that +the qualities of leadership were demonstrated. He felt the time had +come—the reference here and elsewhere is always to the realm of popular +magazine literature appealing to a very wide audience—for the editor of +some magazine to project his personality through the printed page and to +convince the public that he was not an oracle removed from the people, +but a real human being who could talk and not merely write on paper.</p> + +<p>He saw, too, that the average popular magazine of 1889 failed of large +success because it wrote down to the public—a grievous mistake that so +many editors have made and still make. No one wants to be told, either +directly or indirectly, that he knows less than he does, or even that he +knows as little as he does: every one is benefited by the opposite +implication, and the public will always follow the leader who +comprehends this bit of psychology. There is always a happy medium +between shooting over the public's head and shooting too far under it. +And it is because of the latter aim that we find the modern popular +magazine the worthless thing that, in so many instances, it is to-day.</p> + +<p>It is the rare editor who rightly gauges his public psychology. Perhaps +that is why, in the enormous growth of the modern magazine, there have +been produced so few successful editors. The average editor is obsessed +with the idea of "giving the public what it wants," whereas, in fact, +the public, while it knows what it wants when it sees it, cannot clearly +express its wants, and never wants the thing that it does ask for, +although it thinks it does at the time. But woe to the editor and his +periodical if he heeds that siren voice!</p> + +<p>The editor has, therefore, no means of finding it out aforehand by +putting his ear to the ground. Only by the simplest rules of psychology +can he edit rightly so that he may lead, and to the average editor of +to-day, it is to be feared, psychology is a closed book. His mind is all +too often focussed on the circulation and advertising, and all too +little on the intangibles that will bring to his periodical the results +essential in these respects.</p> + +<p>The editor is the pivot of a magazine. On him everything turns. If his +gauge of the public is correct, readers will come: they cannot help +coming to the man who has something to say himself, or who presents +writers who have. And if the reader comes, the advertiser must come. He +must go where his largest market is: where the buyers are. The +advertiser, instead of being the most difficult factor in a magazine +proposition, as is so often mistakenly thought, is, in reality, the +simplest. He has no choice but to advertise in the successful +periodical. He must come along. The editor need never worry about him. +If the advertiser shuns the periodical's pages, the fault is rarely that +of the advertiser: the editor can generally look for the reason nearer +home.</p> + +<p>One of Edward Bok's first acts as editor was to offer a series of prizes +for the best answers to three questions he put to his readers: what in +the magazine did they like least and why; what did they like best and +why; and what omitted feature or department would they like to see +installed? Thousands of answers came, and these the editor personally +read carefully and classified. Then he gave his readers' suggestions +back to them in articles and departments, but never on the level +suggested by them. He gave them the subjects they asked for, but +invariably on a slightly higher plane; and each year he raised the +standard a notch. He always kept "a huckleberry or two" ahead of his +readers. His psychology was simple: come down to the level which the +public sets and it will leave you at the moment you do it. It always +expects of its leaders that they shall keep a notch above or a step +ahead. The American public always wants something a little better than +it asks for, and the successful man, in catering to it, is he who +follows this golden rule.</p> + +<h3><a name="XVI" id="XVI"></a>XVI.</h3> + +<p class="heading">First Years as a Woman's Editor</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Edward Bok</span> has often been referred to as the one "who made The Ladies' +Home Journal out of nothing," who "built it from the ground up," or, in +similar terms, implying that when he became its editor in 1889 the +magazine was practically non-existent. This is far from the fact. The +magazine was begun in 1883, and had been edited by Mrs. Cyrus H. K. +Curtis, for six years, under her maiden name of Louisa Knapp, before Bok +undertook its editorship. Mrs. Curtis had laid a solid foundation of +principle and policy for the magazine: it had achieved a circulation of +440,000 copies a month when she transferred the editorship, and it had +already acquired such a standing in the periodical world as to attract +the advertisements of Charles Scribner's Sons, which Mr. Doubleday, and +later Bok himself, gave to the Philadelphia magazine—advertising which +was never given lightly, or without the most careful investigation of +the worth of the circulation of a periodical.</p> + +<p>What every magazine publisher knows as the most troublous years in the +establishment of a periodical, the first half-dozen years of its +existence, had already been weathered by the editor and publisher. The +wife as editor and the husband as publisher had combined to lay a solid +basis upon which Bok had only to build: his task was simply to rear a +structure upon the foundation already laid. It is to the vision and to +the genius of the first editor of The Ladies' Home Journal that the +unprecedented success of the magazine is primarily due. It was the +purpose and the policy of making a magazine of authoritative service for +the womanhood of America, a service which would visualize for womanhood +its highest domestic estate, that had won success for the periodical +from its inception. It is difficult to believe, in the multiplicity of +similar magazines to-day, that such a purpose was new; that The Ladies' +Home Journal was a path-finder; but the convincing proof is found in the +fact that all the later magazines of this class have followed in the +wake of the periodical conceived by Mrs. Curtis, and have ever since +been its imitators.</p> + +<p>When Edward Bok succeeded Mrs. Curtis, he immediately encountered +another popular misconception of a woman's magazine—the conviction that +if a man is the editor of a periodical with a distinctly feminine +appeal, he must, as the term goes, "understand women." If Bok had +believed this to be true, he would never have assumed the position. How +deeply rooted is this belief was brought home to him on every hand when +his decision to accept the Philadelphia position was announced. His +mother, knowing her son better than did any one else, looked at him with +amazement. She could not believe that he was serious in his decision to +cater to women's needs when he knew so little about them. His friends, +too, were intensely amused, and took no pains to hide their amusement +from him. They knew him to be the very opposite of "a lady's man," and +when they were not convulsed with hilarity they were incredulous and +marvelled.</p> + +<p>No man, perhaps, could have been chosen for the position who had a less +intimate knowledge of women. Bok had no sister, no women confidantes: he +had lived with and for his mother. She was the only woman he really knew +or who really knew him. His boyhood days had been too full of poverty +and struggle to permit him to mingle with the opposite sex. And it is a +curious fact that Edward Bok's instinctive attitude toward women was +that of avoidance. He did not dislike women, but it could not be said +that he liked them. They had never interested him. Of women, therefore, +he knew little; of their needs less. Nor had he the slightest desire, +even as an editor, to know them better, or to seek to understand them. +Even at that age, he knew that, as a man, he could not, no matter what +effort he might make, and he let it go at that.</p> + +<p>What he saw in the position was not the need to know women; he could +employ women for that purpose. He perceived clearly that the editor of a +magazine was largely an executive: his was principally the work of +direction; of studying currents and movements, watching their formation, +their tendency, their efficacy if advocated or translated into +actuality; and then selecting from the horizon those that were for the +best interests of the home. For a home was something Edward Bok did +understand. He had always lived in one; had struggled to keep it +together, and he knew every inch of the hard road that makes for +domestic permanence amid adverse financial conditions. And at the home +he aimed rather than at the woman in it.</p> + +<p>It was upon his instinct that he intended to rely rather than upon any +knowledge of woman. His first act in the editorial chair of The Ladies' +Home Journal showed him to be right in this diagnosis of himself, for +the incident proved not only how correct was his instinct, but how +woefully lacking he was in any knowledge of the feminine nature.</p> + +<p>He had divined the fact that in thousands of cases the American mother +was not the confidante of her daughter, and reasoned if an inviting +human personality could be created on the printed page that would supply +this lamentable lack of American family life, girls would flock to such +a figure. But all depended on the confidence which the written word +could inspire. He tried several writers, but in each case the particular +touch that he sought for was lacking. It seemed so simple to him, and +yet he could not translate it to others. Then, in desperation, he wrote +an installment of such a department as he had in mind himself, intending +to show it to a writer he had in view, thus giving her a visual +demonstration. He took it to the office the next morning, intending to +have it copied, but the manuscript accidentally attached itself to +another intended for the composing-room, and it was not until the +superintendent of the composing-room during the day said to him, "I +didn't know Miss Ashmead wrote," that Bok knew where his manuscript had +gone.</p> + +<p>Miss Ashmead?" asked the puzzled editor.</p> + +<p>Yes, Miss Ashmead in your department," was the answer.</p> + +<p>The whereabouts of the manuscript was then disclosed, and the editor +called for its return. He had called the department "Side Talks with +Girls" by Ruth Ashmead.</p> + +<p>"My girls all hope this is going into the magazine," said the +superintendent when he returned the manuscript.</p> + +<p>"Why?" asked the editor.</p> + +<p>"Well, they say it's the best stuff for girls they have ever read. +They'd love to know Miss Ashmead better."</p> + +<p>Here was exactly what the editor wanted, but he was the author! He +changed the name to Ruth Ashmore, and decided to let the manuscript go +into the magazine. He reasoned that he would then have a month in which +to see the writer he had in mind, and he would show her the proof. But a +month filled itself with other duties, and before the editor was aware +of it, the composition-room wanted "copy" for the second installment of +"Side Talks with Girls." Once more the editor furnished the copy!</p> + +<p>Within two weeks after the second article had been written, the magazine +containing the first installment of the new department appeared, and the +next day two hundred letters were received for "Ruth Ashmore," with the +mail-clerk asking where they should be sent. "Leave them with me, +please," replied the editor. On the following day the mail-clerk handed +him five hundred more.</p> + +<p>The editor now took two letters from the top and opened them. He never +opened the third! That evening he took the bundle home, and told his +mother of his predicament. She read the letters and looked at her son. +"You have no right to read these," she said. The son readily agreed.</p> + +<p>His instinct had correctly interpreted the need, but he never dreamed +how far the feminine nature would reveal itself on paper.</p> + +<p>The next morning the editor, with his letters, took the train for New +York and sought his friend, Mrs. Isabel A. Mallon, the "Bab" of his +popular syndicate letter.</p> + +<p>"Have you read this department?" he asked, pointing to the page in the +magazine.</p> + +<p>"I have," answered Mrs. Mallon. "Very well done, too, it is. Who is +'Ruth Ashmore'?'</p> + +<p>"You are," answered Edward Bok. And while it took considerable +persuasion, from that time on Mrs. Mallon became Ruth Ashmore, the most +ridiculed writer in the magazine world, and yet the most helpful editor +that ever conducted a department in periodical literature. For sixteen +years she conducted the department, until she passed away, her last act +being to dictate a letter to a correspondent. In those sixteen years she +had received one hundred and fifty-eight thousand letters: she kept +three stenographers busy, and the number of girls who to-day bless the +name of Ruth Ashmore is legion.</p> + +<p>But the newspaper humorists who insisted that Ruth Ashmore was none +other than Edward Bok never knew the partial truth of their joke!</p> + +<p>The editor soon supplemented this department with one dealing with the +spiritual needs of the mature woman. "The King's Daughters" was then an +organization at the summit of its usefulness, with Margaret Bottome its +president. Edward Bok had heard Mrs. Bottome speak, had met her +personally, and decided that she was the editor for the department he +had in mind.</p> + +<p>"I want it written in an intimate way as if there were only two persons +in the world, you and the person reading. I want heart to speak to +heart. We will make that the title," said the editor, and unconsciously +he thus created the title that has since become familiar wherever +English is spoken: "Heart to Heart Talks." The title gave the department +an instantaneous hearing; the material in it carried out its spirit, and +soon Mrs. Bottome's department rivaled, in popularity, the page by Ruth +Ashmore.</p> + +<p>These two departments more than anything else, and the irresistible +picture of a man editing a woman's magazine, brought forth an era of +newspaper paragraphing and a flood of so-called "humorous" references to +the magazine and editor. It became the vogue to poke fun at both. The +humorous papers took it up, the cartoonists helped it along, and actors +introduced the name of the magazine on the stage in plays and skits. +Never did a periodical receive such an amount of gratuitous advertising. +Much of the wit was absolutely without malice: some of it was written by +Edward Bok's best friends, who volunteered to "let up" would he but +raise a finger.</p> + +<p>But he did not raise the finger. No one enjoyed the "paragraphs" more +heartily when the wit was good, and in that case, if the writer was +unknown to him, he sought him out and induced him to write for him. In +this way, George Fitch was found on the Peoria, Illinois, Transcript and +introduced to his larger public in the magazine and book world through +The Ladies' Home Journal, whose editor he believed he had "most +unmercifully roasted";—but he had done it so cleverly that the editor +at once saw his possibilities.</p> + +<p>When all his friends begged Bok to begin proceedings against the New +York Evening Sun because of the libellous (?) articles written about him +by "The Woman About Town," the editor admired the style rather than the +contents, made her acquaintance, and secured her as a regular writer: +she contributed to the magazine some of the best things published in its +pages. But she did not abate her opinions of Bok and his magazine in her +articles in the newspaper, and Bok did not ask it of her: he felt that +she had a right to her opinions—those he was not buying; but he was +eager to buy her direct style in treating subjects he knew no other +woman could so effectively handle.</p> + +<p>And with his own limited knowledge of the sex, he needed, and none knew +it better than did he, the ablest women he could obtain to help him +realize his ideals. Their personal opinions of him did not matter so +long as he could command their best work. Sooner or later, when his +purposes were better understood, they might alter those opinions. For +that he could afford to wait. But he could not wait to get their work.</p> + +<p>By this time the editor had come to see that the power of a magazine +might lie more securely behind the printed page than in it. He had begun +to accustom his readers to writing to his editors upon all conceivable +problems.</p> + +<p>This he decided to encourage. He employed an expert in each line of +feminine endeavor, upon the distinct understanding that the most +scrupulous attention should be given to her correspondence: that every +letter, no matter how inconsequential, should be answered quickly, +fully, and courteously, with the questioner always encouraged to come +again if any problem of whatever nature came to her. He told his editors +that ignorance on any question was a misfortune, not a crime; and he +wished their correspondence treated in the most courteous and helpful +spirit.</p> + +<p>Step by step, the editor built up this service behind the magazine until +he had a staff of thirty-five editors on the monthly pay-roll; in each +issue, he proclaimed the willingness of these editors to answer +immediately any questions by mail, he encouraged and cajoled his readers +to form the habit of looking upon his magazine as a great clearing-house +of information. Before long, the letters streamed in by the tens of +thousands during a year. The editor still encouraged, and the total ran +into the hundreds of thousands, until during the last year, before the +service was finally stopped by the Great War of 1917-18, the yearly +correspondence totalled nearly a million letters.</p> + +<p>The work of some of these editors never reached the printed page, and +yet was vastly more important than any published matter could possibly +be. Out of the work of Ruth Ashmore, for instance, there grew a class of +cases of the most confidential nature. These cases, distributed all over +the country, called for special investigation and personal contact. Bok +selected Mrs. Lyman Abbott for this piece of delicate work, and, through +the wide acquaintance of her husband, she was enabled to reach, +personally, every case in every locality, and bring personal help to +bear on it. These cases mounted into the hundreds, and the good +accomplished through this quiet channel cannot be overestimated.</p> + +<p>The lack of opportunity for an education in Bok's own life led him to +cast about for some plan whereby an education might be obtained without +expense by any one who desired. He finally hit upon the simple plan of +substituting free scholarships for the premiums then so frequently +offered by periodicals for subscriptions secured. Free musical education +at the leading conservatories was first offered to any girl who would +secure a certain number of subscriptions to The Ladies' Home Journal, +the complete offer being a year's free tuition, with free room, free +board, free piano in her own room, and all travelling expenses paid. The +plan was an immediate success: the solicitation of a subscription by a +girl desirous of educating herself made an irresistible appeal.</p> + +<p>This plan was soon extended, so as to include all the girls' colleges, +and finally all the men's colleges, so that a free education might be +possible at any educational institution. So comprehensive it became that +to the close of 1919, one thousand four hundred and fifty-five free +scholarships had been awarded. The plan has now been in operation long +enough to have produced some of the leading singers and instrumental +artists of the day, whose names are familiar to all, as well as +instructors in colleges and scores of teachers; and to have sent several +score of men into conspicuous positions in the business and professional +world.</p> + +<p>Edward Bok has always felt that but for his own inability to secure an +education, and his consequent desire for self-improvement, the +realization of the need in others might not have been so strongly felt +by him, and that his plan whereby thousands of others were benefited +might never have been realized.</p> + +<p>The editor's correspondence was revealing, among other deficiencies, the +wide-spread unpreparedness of the average American girl for motherhood, +and her desperate ignorance when a new life was given her. On the theory +that with the realization of a vital need there is always the person to +meet it, Bok consulted the authorities of the Babies' Hospital of New +York, and found Doctor Emmet Holt's house physician, Doctor Emelyn L. +Coolidge. To the authorities in the world of babies, Bok's discovery +was, of course, a known and serious fact.</p> + +<p>Doctor Coolidge proposed that the magazine create a department of +questions and answers devoted to the problems of young mothers. This was +done, and from the publication of the first issue the questions began to +come in. Within five years the department had grown to such proportions +that Doctor Coolidge proposed a plan whereby mothers might be +instructed, by mail, in the rearing of babies—in their general care, +their feeding, and the complete hygiene of the nursery.</p> + +<p>Bok had already learned, in his editorial experience, carefully to weigh +a woman's instinct against a man's judgment, but the idea of raising +babies by mail floored him. He reasoned, however, that a woman, and more +particularly one who had been in a babies' hospital for years, knew more +about babies than he could possibly know. He consulted baby-specialists +in New York and Philadelphia, and, with one accord, they declared the +plan not only absolutely impracticable but positively dangerous. Bok's +confidence in woman's instinct, however, persisted, and he asked Doctor +Coolidge to map out a plan.</p> + +<p>This called for the services of two physicians: Miss Marianna Wheeler, +for many years superintendent of the Babies' Hospital, was to look after +the prospective mother before the baby's birth; and Doctor Coolidge, +when the baby was born, would immediately send to the young mother a +printed list of comprehensive questions, which, when answered, would be +immediately followed by a full set of directions as to the care of the +child, including carefully prepared food formulæ . At the end of the +first month, another set of questions was to be forwarded for answer by +the mother, and this monthly service was to be continued until the child +reached the age of two years. The contact with the mother would then +become intermittent, dependent upon the condition of mother and child. +All the directions and formulæ were to be used only under the direction +of the mother's attendant physician, so that the fullest cooperation +might be established between the physician on the case and the advisory +department of the magazine.</p> + +<p>Despite advice to the contrary, Bok decided, after consulting a number +of mothers, to establish the system. It was understood that the greatest +care was to be exercised: the most expert advice, if needed, was to be +sought and given, and the thousands of cases at the Babies' Hospital +were to be laid under contribution.</p> + +<p>There was then begun a magazine department which was to be classed among +the most clear-cut pieces of successful work achieved by The Ladies' +Home Journal.</p> + +<p>Step by step, the new departure won its way, and was welcomed eagerly by +thousands of young mothers. It was not long before the warmest +commendation from physicians all over the country was received. +Promptness of response and thoroughness of diagnosis were, of course, +the keynotes of the service: where the cases were urgent, the special +delivery post and, later, the night-letter telegraph service were used.</p> + +<p>The plan is now in its eleventh year of successful operation. Some idea +of the enormous extent of its service can be gathered from the amazing +figures that, at the close of the tenth year, show over forty thousand +prospective mothers have been advised, while the number of babies +actually "raised" by Doctor Coolidge approaches eighty thousand. Fully +ninety-five of every hundred of these babies registered have remained +under the monthly letter-care of Doctor Coolidge until their first year, +when the mothers receive a diet list which has proved so effective for +future guidance that many mothers cease to report regularly. Eighty-five +out of every hundred babies have remained in the registry until their +graduation at the age of two. Over eight large sets of library drawers +are required for the records of the babies always under the supervision +of the registry.</p> + +<p>Scores of physicians who vigorously opposed the work at the start have +amended their opinions and now not only give their enthusiastic +endorsement, but have adopted Doctor Coolidge's food formulæ for their +private and hospital cases.</p> + +<p>It was this comprehensive personal service, built up back of the +magazine from the start, that gave the periodical so firm and unique a +hold on its clientele. It was not the printed word that was its chief +power: scores of editors who have tried to study and diagnose the appeal +of the magazine from the printed page, have remained baffled at the +remarkable confidence elicited from its readers. They never looked back +of the magazine, and therefore failed to discover its secret. Bok went +through three financial panics with the magazine, and while other +periodicals severely suffered from diminished circulation at such times, +The Ladies' Home Journal always held its own. Thousands of women had +been directly helped by the magazine; it had not remained an inanimate +printed thing, but had become a vital need in the personal lives of its +readers.</p> + +<p>So intimate had become this relation, so efficient was the service +rendered, that its readers could not be pried loose from it; where women +were willing and ready, when the domestic pinch came, to let go of other +reading matter, they explained to their husbands or fathers that The +Ladies' Home Journal was a necessity—they did not feel that they could +do without it. The very quality for which the magazine had been held up +to ridicule by the unknowing and unthinking had become, with hundreds of +thousands of women, its source of power and the bulwark of its success.</p> + +<p>Bok was beginning to realize the vision which had lured him from New +York: that of putting into the field of American magazines a periodical +that should become such a clearing-house as virtually to make it an +institution.</p> + +<p>He felt that, for the present at least, he had sufficiently established +the personal contact with his readers through the more intimate +departments, and decided to devote his efforts to the literary features +of the magazine.</p> + +<h3><a name="XVII" id="XVII"></a>XVII.</h3> + +<p class="heading">Eugene Field's Practical Jokes</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Eugene Field</span> was one of Edward Bok's close friends and also his despair, +as was likely to be the case with those who were intimate with the +Western poet. One day Field said to Bok: "I am going to make you the +most widely paragraphed man in America." The editor passed the remark +over, but he was to recall it often as his friend set out to make his +boast good.</p> + +<p>The fact that Bok was unmarried and the editor of a woman's magazine +appealed strongly to Field's sense of humor. He knew the editor's +opposition to patent medicines, and so he decided to join the two facts +in a paragraph, put on the wire at Chicago, to the effect that the +editor was engaged to be married to Miss Lavinia Pinkham, the +granddaughter of Mrs. Lydia Pinkham, of patent-medicine fame. The +paragraph carefully described Miss Pinkham, the school where she had +been educated, her talents, her wealth, etc. Field was wise enough to +put the paragraph not in his own column in the Chicago News, lest it be +considered in the light of one of his practical jokes, but on the news +page of the paper, and he had it put on the Associated Press wire.</p> + +<p>He followed this up a few days later with a paragraph announcing Bok's +arrival at a Boston hotel. Then came a paragraph saying that Miss +Pinkham was sailing for Paris to buy her trousseau. The paragraphs were +worded in the most matter-of-fact manner, and completely fooled the +newspapers, even those of Boston. Field was delighted at the success of +his joke, and the fact that Bok was in despair over the letters that +poured in upon him added to Field's delight.</p> + +<p>He now asked Bok to come to Chicago. "I want you to know some of my +cronies," he wrote. "Julia [his wife] is away, so we will shift for +ourselves." Bok arrived in Chicago one Sunday afternoon, and was to dine +at Field's house that evening. He found a jolly company: James Whitcomb +Riley, Sol Smith Russell the actor, Opie Read, and a number of Chicago's +literary men.</p> + +<p>When seven o'clock came, some one suggested to Field that something to +eat might not be amiss.</p> + +<p>"Shortly," answered the poet. "Wife is out; cook is new, and dinner will +be a little late. Be patient." But at eight o'clock there was still no +dinner. Riley began to grow suspicious and slipped down-stairs. He found +no one in the kitchen and the range cold. He came back and reported. +"Nonsense," said Field. "It can't be." All went down-stairs to find out +the truth. "Let's get supper ourselves," suggested Russell. Then it was +discovered that not a morsel of food was to be found in the +refrigerator, closet, or cellar. "That's a joke on us," said Field. +"Julia has left us without a crumb to eat.</p> + +<p>It was then nine o'clock. Riley and Bok held a council of war and +decided to slip out and buy some food, only to find that the front, +basement, and back doors were locked and the keys missing! Field was +very sober. "Thorough woman, that wife of mine," he commented. But his +friends knew better.</p> + +<p>Finally, the Hoosier poet and the Philadelphia editor crawled through +one of the basement windows and started on a foraging expedition. Of +course, Field lived in a residential section where there were few +stores, and on Sunday these were closed. There was nothing to do but to +board a down-town car. Finally they found a delicatessen shop open, and +the two hungry men amazed the proprietor by nearly buying out his stock.</p> + +<p>It was after ten o'clock when Riley and Bok got back to the house with +their load of provisions to find every door locked, every curtain drawn, +and the bolt sprung on every window. Only the cellar grating remained, +and through this the two dropped their bundles and themselves, and +appeared in the dining-room, dirty and dishevelled, to find the party at +table enjoying a supper which Field had carefully hidden and brought out +when they had left the house.</p> + +<p>Riley, cold and hungry, and before this time the victim of Field's +practical jokes, was not in a merry humor and began to recite +paraphrases of Field's poems. Field retorted by paraphrasing Riley's +poems, and mimicking the marked characteristics of Riley's speech. This +started Sol Smith Russell, who mimicked both. The fun grew fast and +furious, the entire company now took part, Mrs. Field's dresses were +laid under contribution, and Field, Russell, and Riley gave an impromptu +play. And it was upon this scene that Mrs. Field, after a continuous +ringing of the door-bell and nearly battering down the door, appeared at +seven o'clock the next morning!</p> + +<p>It was fortunate that Eugene Field had a patient wife; she needed every +ounce of patience that she could command. And no one realized this more +keenly than did her husband. He once told of a dream he had which +illustrated the endurance of his wife.</p> + +<p>"I thought," said Field, "that I had died and gone to heaven. I had some +difficulty in getting past St. Peter, who regarded me with doubt and +suspicion, and examined my records closely, but finally permitted me to +enter the pearly gates. As I walked up the street of the heavenly city, +I saw a venerable old man with long gray hair and flowing beard. His +benignant face encouraged me to address him. 'I have just arrived and I +am entirely unacquainted,' I said. 'May I ask your name?'</p> + +<p>"'My name,' he replied, 'is Job.'</p> + +<p>"'Indeed,' I exclaimed, 'are you that Job whom we were taught to revere +as the most patient being in the world?'</p> + +<p>"'The same,' he said, with a shadow of hesitation; 'I did have quite a +reputation for patience once, but I hear that there is a woman now on +earth, in Chicago, who has suffered more than I ever did, and she has +endured it with great resignation.'</p> + +<p>"'Why,' said I, 'that is curious. I am just from earth, and from +Chicago, and I do not remember to have heard of her case. What is her +name?'</p> + +<p>"'Mrs. Eugene Field,' was the reply.</p> + +<p>"Just then I awoke," ended Field.</p> + +<p>The success of Field's paragraph engaging Bok to Miss Pinkham stimulated +the poet to greater effort. Bok had gone to Europe; Field, having found +out the date of his probable return, just about when the steamer was +due, printed an interview with the editor "at quarantine" which sounded +so plausible that even the men in Bok's office in Philadelphia were +fooled and prepared for his arrival. The interview recounted, in detail, +the changes in women's fashions in Paris, and so plausible had Field +made it, based upon information obtained at Marshall Field's, that even +the fashion papers copied it.</p> + +<p>All this delighted Field beyond measure. Bok begged him to desist; but +Field answered by printing an item to the effect that there was the +highest authority for denying "the reports industriously circulated some +time ago to the effect that Mr. Bok was engaged to be married to a New +England young lady, whereas, as a matter of fact, it is no violation of +friendly confidence that makes it possible to announce that the +Philadelphia editor is engaged to Mrs. Frank Leslie, of New York."</p> + +<p>It so happened that Field put this new paragraph on the wire just about +the time that Bok's actual engagement was announced. Field was now +deeply contrite, and sincerely promised Bok and his fiancée to reform. +"I'm through, you mooning, spooning calf, you," he wrote Bok, and his +friend believed him, only to receive a telegram the next day from Mrs. +Field warning him that "Gene is planning a series of telephonic +conversations with you and Miss Curtis at college that I think should +not be printed." Bok knew it was of no use trying to curb Field's +industry, and so he wired the editor of the Chicago News for his +cooperation. Field, now checked, asked Bok and his fiancée and the +parents of both to come to Chicago, be his guests for the World's Fair, +and "let me make amends."</p> + +<p>It was a happy visit. Field was all kindness, and, of course, the entire +party was charmed by his personality. But the boy in him could not be +repressed. He had kept it down all through the visit. "No, not a +joke-cross my heart," he would say, and then he invited the party to +lunch with him on their way to the train when they were leaving for +home. "But we shall be in our travelling clothes, not dressed for a +luncheon," protested the women. It was an unfortunate protest, for it +gave Field an idea! "Oh," he assured them, "just a good-bye luncheon at +the club; just you folks and Julia and me." They believed him, only to +find upon their arrival at the club an assembly of over sixty guests at +one of the most elaborate luncheons ever served in Chicago, with each +woman guest carefully enjoined by Field, in his invitation, to "put on +her prettiest and most elaborate costume in order to dress up the +table!"</p> + +<p>One day Field came to Philadelphia to give a reading in Camden in +conjunction with George W. Cable. It chanced that his friend, Francis +Wilson, was opening that same evening in Philadelphia in a new comic +opera which Field had not seen. He immediately refused to give his +reading, and insisted upon going to the theatre. The combined efforts of +his manager, Wilson, Mr. Cable, and his friends finally persuaded him to +keep his engagement and join in a double-box party later at the theatre. +To make sure that he would keep his lecture appointment, Bok decided to +go to Camden with him. Field and Cable were to appear alternately.</p> + +<p>Field went on for his first number; and when he came off, he turned to +Bok and said: "No use, Bok, I'm a sick man. I must go home. Cable can +see this through," and despite every protestation Field bundled himself +into his overcoat and made for his carriage. "Sick, Bok, really sick," +he muttered as they rode along. Then seeing a fruit-stand he said: "Buy +me a bag of oranges, like a good fellow. They'll do me good."</p> + +<p>When Philadelphia was reached, he suggested: "Do you know I think it +would do me good to go and see Frank in the new play? Tell the driver to +go to the theatre like a good boy." Of course, that had been his intent +all along! When the theatre was reached he insisted upon taking the +oranges with him. "They'll steal 'em if you leave 'em there," he said.</p> + +<p>Field lost all traces of his supposed illness the moment he reached the +box. Francis Wilson was on the stage with Marie Jansen. "Isn't it +beautiful?" said Field, and directing the attention of the party to the +players, he reached under his chair for the bag of oranges, took one +out, and was about to throw it at Wilson when Bok caught his arm, took +the orange away from him, and grabbed the bag. Field never forgave Bok +for this act of watchfulness. "Treason," he hissed—"going back on a +friend."</p> + +<p>The one object of Field's ambition was to achieve the distinction of so +"fussing" Francis Wilson that he would be compelled to ring down the +curtain. He had tried every conceivable trick: had walked on the stage +in one of Wilson's scenes; had started a quarrel with an usher in the +audience—everything that ingenuity could conceive he had practised on +his friend. Bok had known this penchant of Field's, and when he insisted +on taking the bag of oranges into the theatre, Field's purpose was +evident!</p> + +<p>One day Bok received a wire from Field: "City of New Orleans purposing +give me largest public reception on sixth ever given an author. Event of +unusual quality. Mayor and city officials peculiarly desirous of having +you introduce me to vast audience they propose to have. Hate to ask you +to travel so far, but would be great favor to me. Wire answer." Bok +wired back his willingness to travel to New Orleans and oblige his +friend. It occurred to Bok, however, to write to a friend in New Orleans +and ask the particulars. Of course, there was never any thought of Field +going to New Orleans or of any reception. Bok waited for further +advices, and a long letter followed from Field giving him a glowing +picture of the reception planned. Bok sent a message to his New Orleans +friend to be telegraphed from New Orleans on the sixth: "Find whole +thing to be a fake. Nice job to put over on me. Bok." Field was +overjoyed at the apparent success of his joke and gleefully told his +Chicago friends all about it—until he found out that the joke had been +on him. "Durned dirty, I call it," he wrote Bok.</p> + +<p>It was a lively friendship that Eugene Field gave to Edward Bok, full of +anxieties and of continuous forebodings, but it was worth all that it +cost in mental perturbation. No rarer friend ever lived: in his serious +moments he gave one a quality of unforgetable friendship that remains a +precious memory. But his desire for practical jokes was uncontrollable: +it meant being constantly on one's guard, and even then the pranks could +not always be thwarted!</p> + +<h3><a name="XVIII" id="XVIII"></a>XVIII.</h3> + +<p class="heading">Building Up a Magazine</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> newspaper paragraphers were now having a delightful time with Edward +Bok and his woman's magazine, and he was having a delightful time with +them. The editor's publicity sense made him realize how valuable for his +purposes was all this free advertising. The paragraphers believed, in +their hearts, that they were annoying the young editor; they tried to +draw his fire through their articles. But he kept quiet, put his tongue +in his cheek, and determined to give them some choice morsels for their +wit.</p> + +<p>He conceived the idea of making familiar to the public the women who +were back of the successful men of the day. He felt sure that his +readers wanted to know about these women. But to attract his newspaper +friends he labelled the series, "Unknown Wives of Well-Known Men" and +"Clever Daughters of Clever Men."</p> + +<p>The alliterative titles at once attracted the paragraphers; they fell +upon them like hungry trout, and a perfect fusillade of paragraphs +began. This is exactly what the editor wanted; and he followed these two +series immediately by inducing the daughter of Charles Dickens to write +of "My Father as I Knew Him," and Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher, of "Mr. +Beecher as I Knew Him." Bok now felt that he had given the newspapers +enough ammunition to last for some time; and he turned his attention to +building up a more permanent basis for his magazine.</p> + +<p>The two authors of that day who commanded more attention than any others +were William Dean Howells and Rudyard Kipling. Bok knew that these two +would give to his magazine the literary quality that it needed, and so +he laid them both under contribution. He bought Mr. Howells's new novel, +"The Coast of Bohemia," and arranged that Kipling's new novelette upon +which he was working should come to the magazine. Neither the public nor +the magazine editors had expected Bok to break out along these more +permanent lines, and magazine publishers began to realize that a new +competitor had sprung up in Philadelphia. Bok knew they would feel this; +so before he announced Mr. Howells's new novel, he contracted with the +novelist to follow this with his autobiography. This surprised the +editors of the older magazines, for they realized that the Philadelphia +editor had completely tied up the leading novelist of the day for his +next two years' output.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, in order that the newspapers might be well supplied with +barbs for their shafts, he published an entire number of his magazine +written by famous daughters of famous men. This unique issue presented +contributions by the daughters of Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, +President Harrison, Horace Greeley, William M. Thackeray, William Dean +Howells, General Sherman, Julia Ward Howe, Jefferson Davis, Mr. +Gladstone, and a score of others. This issue simply filled the +paragraphers with glee. Then once more Bok turned to material calculated +to cement the foundation for a more permanent structure.</p> + +<p>He noted, early in its progress, the gathering strength of the drift +toward woman suffrage, and realized that the American woman was not +prepared, in her knowledge of her country, to exercise the privilege of +the ballot. Bok determined to supply the deficiency to his readers, and +concluded to put under contract the President of the United States, +Benjamin Harrison, the moment he left office, to write a series of +articles explaining the United States. No man knew this subject better +than the President; none could write better; and none would attract such +general attention to his magazine, reasoned Bok. He sought the +President, talked it over with him, and found him favorable to the idea. +But the President was in doubt at that time whether he would be a +candidate for another term, and frankly told Bok that he would be taking +too much risk to wait for him. He suggested that the editor try to +prevail upon his then secretary of state, James G. Blaine, to undertake +the series, and offered to see Mr. Blaine and induce him to a favorable +consideration. Bok acquiesced, and a few days afterward received from +Mr. Blaine a request to come to Washington.</p> + +<p>Bok had had a previous experience with Mr. Blaine which had impressed +him to an unusual degree. Many years before, he had called upon him at +his hotel in New York, seeking his autograph, had been received, and as +the statesman was writing his signature he said: "Your name is a +familiar one to me. I have had correspondence with an Edward Bok who is +secretary of state for the Transvaal Republic. Are you related to him?"</p> + +<p>Bok explained that this was his uncle, and that he was named for him.</p> + +<p>Years afterward Bok happened to be at a public meeting where Mr. Blaine +was speaking, and the statesman, seeing him, immediately called him by +name. Bok knew of the reputed marvels of Mr. Blaine's memory, but this +proof of it amazed him.</p> + +<p>"It is simply inconceivable, Mr. Blaine," said Bok, "that you should +remember my name after all these years."</p> + +<p>"Not at all, my boy," returned Mr. Blaine. "Memorizing is simply +association. You associate a fact or an incident with a name and you +remember the name. It never leaves you. The moment I saw you I +remembered you told me that your uncle was secretary of state for the +Transvaal. That at once brought your name to me. You see how simple a +trick it is."</p> + +<p>But Bok did not see, since remembering the incident was to him an even +greater feat of memory than recalling the name. It was a case of having +to remember two things instead of one.</p> + +<p>At all events, Bok was no stranger to James G. Blaine when he called +upon him at his Lafayette Place home in Washington.</p> + +<p>"You've gone ahead in the world some since I last saw you," was the +statesman's greeting. "It seems to go with the name."</p> + +<p>This naturally broke the ice for the editor at once.</p> + +<p>"Let's go to my library where we can talk quietly. What train are you +making back to Philadelphia, by the way?"</p> + +<p>"The four, if I can," replied Bok.</p> + +<p>"Excuse me a moment," returned Mr. Blaine, and when he came back to the +room, he said: "Now let's talk over this interesting proposition that +the President has told me about."</p> + +<p>The two discussed the matter and completed arrangements whereby Mr. +Blaine was to undertake the work. Toward the latter end of the talk, Bok +had covertly—as he thought—looked at his watch to keep track of his +train.</p> + +<p>"It's all right about that train," came from Mr. Blaine, with his back +toward Bok, writing some data of the talk at his desk. "You'll make it +all right."</p> + +<p>Bok wondered how he should, as it then lacked only seventeen minutes of +four. But as Mr. Blaine reached the front door, he said to the editor: +"My carriage is waiting at the curb to take you to the station, and the +coachman has your seat in the parlor car."</p> + +<p>And with this knightly courtesy, Mr. Blaine shook hands with Bok, who +was never again to see him, nor was the contract ever to be fulfilled. +For early in 1893 Mr. Blaine passed away without having begun the work.</p> + +<p>Again Bok turned to the President, and explained to him that, for some +reason or other, the way seemed to point to him to write the articles +himself. By that time President Harrison had decided that he would not +succeed himself. Accordingly he entered into an agreement with the +editor to begin to write the articles immediately upon his retirement +from office. And the day after Inauguration Day every newspaper +contained an Associated Press despatch announcing the former President's +contract with The Ladies' Home Journal.</p> + +<p>Shortly afterward, Benjamin Harrison's articles on "This Country of +Ours" successfully appeared in the magazine.</p> + +<p>During Bok's negotiations with President Harrison in connection with his +series of articles, he was called to the White House for a conference. +It was midsummer. Mrs. Harrison was away at the seashore, and the +President was taking advantage of her absence by working far into the +night.</p> + +<p>The President, his secretary, and Bok sat down to dinner.</p> + +<p>The Marine Band was giving its weekly concert on the green, and after +dinner the President suggested that Bok and he adjourn to the "back lot" +and enjoy the music.</p> + +<p>"You have a coat?" asked the President.</p> + +<p>"No, thank you," Bok answered. "I don't need one."</p> + +<p>"Not in other places, perhaps," he said, "but here you do. The dampness +comes up from the Potomac at nightfall, and it's just as well to be +careful. It's Mrs. Harrison's dictum," he added smiling. "Halford, send +up for one of my light coats, will you, please?"</p> + +<p>Bok remarked, as he put on the President's coat, that this was probably +about as near as he should ever get to the presidency.</p> + +<p>"Well, it's a question whether you want to get nearer to it," answered +the President. He looked very white and tired in the moonlight.</p> + +<p>"Still," Bok said with a smile, "some folks seem to like it well enough +to wish to get it a second time."</p> + +<p>"True," he answered, "but that's what pride will do for a man. Try one +of these cigars."</p> + +<p>A cigar! Bok had been taking his tobacco in smaller doses with paper +around them. He had never smoked a cigar. Still, one cannot very well +refuse a presidential cigar!</p> + +<p>"Thank you," Bok said as he took one from the President's case. He +looked at the cigar and remembered all he had read of Benjamin +Harrison's black cigars. This one was black—inky black—and big.</p> + +<p>"Allow me," he heard the President suddenly say, as he handed him a +blazing match. There was no escape. The aroma was delicious, but—Two or +three whiffs of that cigar, and Bok decided the best thing to do was to +let it go out. He did.</p> + +<p>"I have allowed you to talk so much," said the President after a while, +"that you haven't had a chance to smoke. Allow me," and another match +crackled into flame.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," the editor said, as once more he lighted the cigar, and the +fumes went clear up into the farthest corner of his brain.</p> + +<p>"Take a fresh cigar," said the President after a while. "That doesn't +seem to burn well. You will get one like that once in a while, although +I am careful about my cigars."</p> + +<p>"No, thanks, Mr. President," Bok said hurriedly. "It's I, not the +cigar."</p> + +<p>"Well, prove it to me with another," was the quick rejoinder, as he held +out his case, and in another minute a match again crackled. "There is +only one thing worse than a bad smoke, and that is an office-seeker," +chuckled the President.</p> + +<p>Bok couldn't prove that the cigars were bad, naturally. So smoke that +cigar he did, to the bitter end, and it was bitter! In fifteen minutes +his head and stomach were each whirling around, and no more welcome +words had Bok ever heard than when the President said: "Well, suppose we +go in. Halford and I have a day's work ahead of us yet."</p> + +<p>The President went to work.</p> + +<p>Bok went to bed. He could not get there quick enough, and he +didn't—that is, not before he had experienced that same sensation of +which Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote: he never could understand, he said, +why young authors found so much trouble in getting into the magazines, +for his first trip to Europe was not a day old before, without even the +slightest desire or wish on his part, he became a contributor to the +Atlantic!</p> + +<p>The next day, and for days after, Bok smelled, tasted, and felt that +presidential cigar!</p> + +<p>A few weeks afterward, Bok was talking after dinner with the President +at a hotel in New York, when once more the cigar-case came out and was +handed to Bok.</p> + +<p>"No, thank you, Mr. President," was the instant reply, as visions of his +night in the White House came back to him. "I am like the man from the +West who was willing to try anything once."</p> + +<p>And he told the President the story of the White House cigar.</p> + +<p>The editor decided to follow General Harrison's discussion of American +affairs by giving his readers a glimpse of foreign politics, and he +fixed upon Mr. Gladstone as the one figure abroad to write for him. He +sailed for England, visited Hawarden Castle, and proposed to Mr. +Gladstone that he should write a series of twelve autobiographical +articles which later could be expanded into a book.</p> + +<p>Bok offered fifteen thousand dollars for the twelve articles—a goodly +price in those days—and he saw that the idea and the terms attracted +the English statesman. But he also saw that the statesman was not quite +ready. He decided, therefore, to leave the matter with him, and keep the +avenue of approach favorably open by inducing Mrs. Gladstone to write +for him. Bok knew that Mrs. Gladstone had helped her husband in his +literary work, that she was a woman who had lived a full-rounded life, +and after a day's visit and persuasion, with Mr. Gladstone as an amused +looker-on, the editor closed a contract with Mrs. Gladstone for a series +of reminiscent articles "From a Mother's Life."</p> + +<p>Some time after Bok had sent the check to Mrs. Gladstone, he received a +letter from Mr. Gladstone expressing the opinion that his wife must have +written with a golden pen, considering the size of the honorarium. +"But," he added, "she is so impressed with this as the first money she +has ever earned by her pen that she is reluctant to part with the check. +The result is that she has not offered it for deposit, and has decided +to frame it. Considering the condition of our exchequer, I have tried to +explain to her, and so have my son and daughter, that if she were to +present the check for payment and allow it to pass through the bank, the +check would come back to you and that I am sure your company would +return it to her as a souvenir of the momentous occasion. Our arguments +are of no avail, however, and it occurred to me that an assurance from +you might make the check more useful than it is at present!"</p> + +<p>Bok saw with this disposition that, as he had hoped, the avenue of +favorable approach to Mr. Gladstone had been kept open. The next summer +Bok again visited Hawarden, where he found the statesman absorbed in +writing a life of Bishop Butler, from which it was difficult for him to +turn away. He explained that it would take at least a year or two to +finish this work. Bok saw, of course, his advantage, and closed a +contract with the English statesman whereby he was to write the twelve +autobiographical articles immediately upon his completion of the work +then under his hand.</p> + +<p>Here again, however, as in the case of Mr. Blaine, the contract was +never fulfilled, for Mr. Gladstone passed away before he could free his +mind and begin on the work.</p> + +<p>The vicissitudes of an editor's life were certainly beginning to +demonstrate themselves to Edward Bok.</p> + +<p>The material that the editor was publishing and the authors that he was +laying under contribution began to have marked effect upon the +circulation of the magazine, and it was not long before the original +figures were doubled, an edition—enormous for that day—of seven +hundred and fifty thousand copies was printed and sold each month, the +magical figure of a million was in sight, and the periodical was rapidly +taking its place as one of the largest successes of the day.</p> + +<p>Mr. Curtis's single proprietorship of the magazine had been changed into +a corporation called The Curtis Publishing Company, with a capital of +five hundred thousand dollars, with Mr. Curtis as president, and Bok as +vice-president.</p> + +<p>The magazine had by no means an easy road to travel financially. The +doubling of the subscription price to one dollar per year had materially +checked the income for the time being; the huge advertising bills, +sometimes exceeding three hundred thousand dollars a year, were +difficult to pay; large credit had to be obtained, and the banks were +carrying a considerable quantity of Mr. Curtis's notes. But Mr. Curtis +never wavered in his faith in his proposition and his editor. In the +first he invested all he had and could borrow, and to the latter he gave +his undivided support. The two men worked together rather as father and +son—as, curiously enough, they were to be later—than as employer and +employee. To Bok, the daily experience of seeing Mr. Curtis finance his +proposition in sums that made the publishing world of that day gasp with +sceptical astonishment was a wonderful opportunity, of which the editor +took full advantage so as to learn the intricacies of a world which up +to that time he had known only in a limited way.</p> + +<p>What attracted Bok immensely to Mr. Curtis's methods was their perfect +simplicity and directness. He believed absolutely in the final outcome +of his proposition: where others saw mist and failure ahead, he saw +clear weather and the port of success. Never did he waver: never did he +deflect from his course. He knew no path save the direct one that led +straight to success, and, through his eyes, he made Bok see it with +equal clarity until Bok wondered why others could not see it. But they +could not. Cyrus Curtis would never be able, they said, to come out from +under the load he had piled up. Where they differed from Mr. Curtis was +in their lack of vision: they could not see what he saw!</p> + +<p>It has been said that Mr. Curtis banished patent-medicine advertisements +from his magazine only when he could afford to do so. That is not true, +as a simple incident will show. In the early days, he and Bok were +opening the mail one Friday full of anxiety because the pay-roll was due +that evening, and there was not enough money in the bank to meet it. +From one of the letters dropped a certified check for five figures for a +contract equal to five pages in the magazine. It was a welcome sight, +for it meant an easy meeting of the pay-roll for that week and two +succeeding weeks. But the check was from a manufacturing patent-medicine +company. Without a moment's hesitation, Mr. Curtis slipped it back into +the envelope, saying: "Of course, that we can't take." He returned the +check, never gave the matter a second thought, and went out and borrowed +more money to meet his pay-roll!</p> + +<p>With all respect to American publishers, there are very few who could +have done this—or indeed, would do it to-day, under similar +conditions—particularly in that day when it was the custom for all +magazines to accept patent-medicine advertising; The Ladies' Home +Journal was practically the only publication of standing in the United +States refusing that class of business!</p> + +<p>Bok now saw advertising done on a large scale by a man who believed in +plenty of white space surrounding the announcement in the advertisement. +He paid Mr. Howells $10,000 for his autobiography, and Mr. Curtis spent +$50,000 in advertising it. "It is not expense," he would explain to Bok, +"it is investment. We are investing in a trade-mark. It will all come +back in time." And when the first $100,000 did not come back as Mr. +Curtis figured, he would send another $100,000 after it, and then both +came back.</p> + +<p>Bok's experience in advertisement writing was now to stand him in +excellent stead. He wrote all the advertisements and from that day to +the day of his retirement, practically every advertisement of the +magazine was written by him.</p> + +<p>Mr. Curtis believed that the editor should write the advertisements of a +magazine's articles. "You are the one who knows them, what is in them +and your purpose," he said to Bok, who keenly enjoyed this advertisement +writing. He put less and less in his advertisements. Mr. Curtis made +them larger and larger in the space which they occupied in the media +used. In this way The Ladies' Home Journal advertisements became +distinctive for their use of white space, and as the advertising world +began to say: "You can't miss them." Only one feature was advertised at +one time, but the "feature" was always carefully selected for its wide +popular appeal, and then Mr. Curtis spared no expense to advertise it +abundantly. As much as $400,000 was spent in one year in advertising +only a few features—a gigantic sum in those days, approached by no +other periodical. But Mr. Curtis believed in showing the advertising +world that he was willing to take his own medicine.</p> + +<p>Naturally, such a campaign of publicity announcing the most popular +attractions offered by any magazine of the day had but one effect: the +circulation leaped forward by bounds, and the advertising columns of the +magazine rapidly filled up.</p> + +<p>The success of The Ladies' Home Journal began to look like an assured +fact, even to the most sceptical.</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact, it was only at its beginning, as both publisher +and editor knew. But they desired to fill the particular field of the +magazine so quickly and fully that there would be small room for +competition. The woman's magazine field was to belong to them!</p> + +<h3><a name="XIX" id="XIX"></a>XIX.</h3> + +<p class="heading">Personality Letters</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Edward Bok</span> was always interested in the manner in which personality was +expressed in letters. For this reason he adopted, as a boy, the method +of collecting not mere autographs, but letters characteristic of their +writers which should give interesting insight into the most famous men +and women of the day. He secured what were really personality letters.</p> + +<p>One of these writers was Mark Twain. The humorist was not kindly +disposed toward autograph collectors, and the fact that in this case the +collector aimed to raise the standard of the hobby did not appease him. +Still, it brought forth a characteristic letter:</p> + +<p class="top5">"I hope I shall not offend you; I shall certainly say nothing with the +intention to offend you. I must explain myself, however, and I will do +it as kindly as I can. What you ask me to do, I am asked to do as often +as one-half dozen times a week. Three hundred letters a year! One's +impulse is to freely consent, but one's time and necessary occupations +will not permit it. There is no way but to decline in all cases, making +no exceptions, and I wish to call your attention to a thing which has +probably not occurred to you, and that is this: that no man takes +pleasure in exercising his trade as a pastime. Writing is my trade, and +I exercise it only when I am obliged to. You might make your request of +a doctor, or a builder, or a sculptor, and there would be no impropriety +in it, but if you asked either of those for a specimen of his trade, his +handiwork, he would be justified in rising to a point of order. It would +never be fair to ask a doctor for one of his corpses to remember him by.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"MARK TWAIN".</span></p> + +<p class="top5">At another time, after an interesting talk with Mark Twain, Bok wrote an +account of the interview, with the humorist's permission. Desirous that +the published account should be in every respect accurate, the +manuscript was forwarded to Mark Twain for his approval. This resulted +in the following interesting letter:</p> + +<p class="top5">"MY DEAR MR. BOK:</p> + +<p>"No, no—it is like most interviews, pure twaddle, and valueless.</p> + +<p>"For several quite plain and simple reasons, an 'interview' must, as a +rule, be an absurdity. And chiefly for this reason: it is an attempt to +use a boat on land, or a wagon on water, to speak figuratively. Spoken +speech is one thing, written speech is quite another. Print is a proper +vehicle for the latter, but it isn't for the former. The moment 'talk' +is put into print you recognize that it is not what it was when you +heard it; you perceive that an immense something has disappeared from +it. That is its soul. You have nothing but a dead carcass left on your +hands. Color, play of feature, the varying modulations of voice, the +laugh, the smile, the informing inflections, everything that gave that +body warmth, grace, friendliness, and charm, and commended it to your +affection, or at least to your tolerance, is gone, and nothing is left, +but a pallid, stiff and repulsive cadaver.</p> + +<p>"Such is 'talk,' almost invariably, as you see it lying in state in an +'interview.' The interviewer seldom tries to tell one how a thing was +said; he merely puts in the naked remark, and stops there. When one +writes for print, his methods are very different. He follows forms which +have but little resemblance to conversation, but they make the reader +understand what the writer is trying to convey. And when the writer is +making a story, and finds it necessary to report some of the talk of his +characters, observe how cautiously and anxiously he goes at that risky +and difficult thing:</p> + +<p>"'If he had dared to say that thing in my presence,' said Alfred, taking +a mock heroic attitude, and casting an arch glance upon the company, +'blood would have flowed.'</p> + +<p>"'If he had dared to say that thing in my presence,' said Hawkwood, with +that in his eye which caused more than one heart in that guilty +assemblage to quake, 'blood would have flowed.'</p> + +<p>"'If he had dared to say that thing in my presence,' said the paltry +blusterer, with valor on his tongue and pallor on his lips, 'blood would +have flowed.'</p> + +<p>"So painfully aware is the novelist that naked talk in print conveys no +meaning, that he loads, and often overloads, almost every utterance of +his characters with explanations and interpretations. It is a loud +confession that print is a poor vehicle for 'talk,' it is a recognition +that uninterpreted talk in print would result in confusion to the +reader, not instruction.</p> + +<p>"Now, in your interview you have certainly been most accurate, you have +set down the sentences I uttered as I said them. But you have not a word +of explanation; what my manner was at several points is not indicated. +Therefore, no reader can possibly know where I was in earnest and where +I was joking; or whether I was joking altogether or in earnest +altogether. Such a report of a conversation has no value. It can convey +many meanings to the reader, but never the right one. To add +interpretations which would convey the right meaning is a something +which would require—what? An art so high and fine and difficult that no +possessor of it would ever be allowed to waste it on interviews.</p> + +<p>"No; spare the reader and spare me; leave the whole interview out; it is +rubbish. I wouldn't talk in my sleep if I couldn't talk better than +that.</p> + +<p>"If you wish to print anything, print this letter; it may have some +value, for it may explain to a reader here and there why it is that in +interviews as a rule men seem to talk like anybody but themselves.</p> + +<p>"Sincerely yours,</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"MARK TWAIN."</span></p> + +<p class="top5">The Harpers had asked Bok to write a book descriptive of his +autograph-letter collection, and he had consented. The propitious +moment, however, never came in his busy life. One day he mentioned the +fact to Doctor Oliver Wendell Holmes and the poet said: "Let me write +the introduction for it." Bok, of course, eagerly accepted, and within a +few days he received the following, which, with the book, never reached +publication:</p> + +<p class="top5">"How many autograph writers have had occasion to say with the Scotch +trespasser climbing his neighbor's wall, when asked where he was going<br /><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">Bok again!'</span></p> + +<p>"Edward Bok has persevered like the widow in scripture, and the most +obdurate subjects of his quest have found it for their interest to give +in, lest by his continual coming he should weary them. We forgive him; +almost admire him for his pertinacity; only let him have no imitators. +The tax he has levied must not be imposed a second time.</p> + +<p>"An autograph of a distinguished personage means more to an imaginative +person than a prosaic looker-on dreams of. Along these lines ran the +consciousness and the guiding will of Napoleon, or Washington, of Milton +or Goethe.</p> + +<p>"His breath warmed the sheet of paper which you have before you. The +microscope will show you the trail of flattened particles left by the +tesselated epidermis of his hand as it swept along the manuscript. Nay, +if we had but the right developing fluid to flow over it, the surface of +the sheet would offer you his photograph as the light pictured it at the +instant of writing.</p> + +<p>"Look at Mr. Bok's collection with such thoughts, ...and you will cease +to wonder at his pertinacity and applaud the conquests of his +enthusiasm.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Oliver Wendell Holmes."</span></p> + +<p class="top5">Whenever biographers of the New England school of writers have come to +write of John Greenleaf Whittier, they have been puzzled as to the +scanty number of letters and private papers left by the poet. This +letter, written to Bok, in comment upon a report that the poet had +burned all his letters, is illuminating:</p> + +<p class="top5">"Dear Friend:</p> + +<p>"The report concerning the burning of my letters is only true so far as +this: some years ago I destroyed a large collection of letters I had +received not from any regard to my own reputation, but from the fear +that to leave them liable to publicity might be injurious or unpleasant +to the writers or their friends. They covered much of the anti-slavery +period and the War of the Rebellion, and many of them I knew were +strictly private and confidential. I was not able at the time to look +over the MS. and thought it safest to make a bonfire of it all. I have +always regarded a private and confidential letter as sacred and its +publicity in any shape a shameful breach of trust, unless authorized by +the writer. I only wish my own letters to thousands of correspondents +may be as carefully disposed of.</p> + +<p>"You may use this letter as you think wise and best.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Very truly thy friend,</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 10em;">"John G. Whittier."</span></p> + +<p class="top5">Once in a while a bit of untold history crept into a letter sent to Bok; +as for example in the letter, referred to in a previous chapter from +General Jubal A. Early, the Confederate general, in which he gave an +explanation, never before fully given, of his reasons for the burning of +Chambersburg, Pennsylvania:</p> + +<p class="top5">"The town of Chambersburg was burned on the same day on which the demand +on it was made by McCausland and refused. It was ascertained that a +force of the enemy's cavalry was approaching, and there was no time for +delay. Moreover, the refusal was peremptory, and there was no reason for +delay unless the demand was a mere idle threat.</p> + +<p>"I had no knowledge of what amount of money there might be in +Chambersburg. I knew that it was a town of some twelve thousand +inhabitants. The town of Frederick, in Maryland, which was a much +smaller town than Chambersburg, had in June very promptly responded to +my demand on it for $200,000, some of the inhabitants, who were friendly +to me, expressing a regret that I had not made it $500,000. There were +one or more National Banks at Chambersburg, and the town ought to have +been able to raise the sum I demanded. I never heard that the refusal +was based on the inability to pay such a sum, and there was no offer to +pay any sum. The value of the houses destroyed by Hunter, with their +contents, was fully $100,000 in gold, and at the time I made the demand +the price of gold in greenbacks had very nearly reached $3.00 and was +going up rapidly. Hence it was that I required the $500,000 in +greenbacks, if the gold was not paid, to provide against any further +depreciation of the paper money.</p> + +<p>"I would have been fully justified by the laws of retaliation in war in +burning the town without giving the inhabitants the opportunity of +redeeming it.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 12em;">"J. A. Early."</span></p> + +<p class="top5">Bok wrote to Eugene Field, once, asking him why in all his verse he had +never written any love-songs, and suggesting that the story of Jacob and +Rachel would have made a theme for a beautiful love-poem. Field's reply +is interesting and characteristic, and throws a light on an omission in +his works at which many have wondered:</p> + +<p class="top5">"Dear Bok:</p> + +<p>"I'll see what I can do with the suggestion as to Jacob and Rachel. +Several have asked me why I have never written any love-songs. That is +hard to answer. I presume it is because I married so young. I was +married at twenty-three, and did not begin to write until I was +twenty-nine. Most of my lullabies are, in a sense, love-songs; so is 'To +a Usurper,' 'A Valentine,' 'The Little Bit of a Woman,' 'Lovers' Lane,' +etc., but not the kind commonly called love-songs. I am sending you +herewith my first love-song, and even into it has crept a cadence that +makes it a love-song of maturity rather than of youth. I do not know +that you will care to have it, but it will interest you as the first....</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Ever sincerely yours,</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 12em;">"Eugene Field."</span></p> + +<p class="top5">During the last years of his life, Bok tried to interest Benjamin +Harrison, former President of the United States, in golf, since his +physician had ordered "moderate outdoor exercise." Bok offered to equip +him with the necessary clubs and balls. When he received the balls, the +ex-president wrote:</p> + +<p>"Thanks. But does not a bottle of liniment go with each ball?"</p> + +<p>When William Howard Taft became President of the United States, the +impression was given out that journalists would not be so welcome at the +White House as they had been during the administration of President +Roosevelt. Mr. Taft, writing to Bok about another matter, asked why he +had not called and talked it over while in Washington. Bok explained the +impression that was current; whereupon came the answer, swift and +definite!</p> + +<p class="top5">"There are no _personæ non gratæ_ at the White House. I long ago learned +the waste of time in maintaining such a class."</p> + +<p class="top5">There was in circulation during Henry Ward Beecher's lifetime a story, +which is still revived every now and then, that on a hot Sunday morning +in early summer, he began his sermon in Plymouth Church by declaring +that "It is too damned hot to preach." Bok wrote to the great preacher, +asked him the truth of this report, and received this definite denial:</p> + +<p class="top5">"My Dear Friend:</p> + +<p>"No, I never did begin a sermon with the remark that "it is d—d hot," +etc. It is a story a hundred years old, revamped every few years to suit +some new man. When I am dead and gone, it will be told to the rising +generation respecting some other man, and then, as now, there will be +fools who will swear that they heard it!</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 12em;">"Henry Ward Beecher."</span></p> + +<p class="top5">When Bok's father passed away, he left, among his effects, a large +number of Confederate bonds. Bok wrote to Jefferson Davis, asking if +they had any value, and received this characteristic answer:</p> + +<p class="top5">"I regret my inability to give an opinion. The theory of the Confederate +Government, like that of the United States, was to separate the sword +from the purse. Therefore, the Confederate States Treasury was under the +control not of the Chief Executive, but of the Congress and the +Secretary of the Treasury. This may explain my want of special +information in regard to the Confederate States Bonds. Generally, I may +state that the Confederate Government cannot have preserved a fund for +the redemption of its Bonds other than the cotton subscribed by our +citizens for that purpose. At the termination of the War, the United +States Government, claiming to be the successor of the Confederate +Government, seized all its property which could be found, both at home +and abroad. I have not heard of any purpose to apply these assets to the +payment of the liabilities of the Confederacy, and, therefore, have been +at a loss to account for the demand which has lately been made for the +Confederate Bonds.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 12em;">"Jefferson Davis."</span></p> + +<p class="top5">Always the soul of courtesy itself, and most obliging in granting the +numerous requests which came to him for his autograph, William Dean +Howells finally turned; and Bok always considered himself fortunate that +the novelist announced his decision to him in the following +characteristic letter:</p> + +<p class="top5">"The requests for my autograph have of late become so burdensome that I +am obliged either to refuse all or to make some sort of limitation. +Every author must have an uneasy fear that his signature is 'collected' +at times like postage-stamps, and at times 'traded' among the collectors +for other signatures. That would not matter so much if the applicants +were always able to spell his name, or were apparently acquainted with +his work or interested in it.</p> + +<p>"I propose, therefore, to give my name hereafter only to such askers as +can furnish me proof by intelligent comment upon it that they have read +some book of mine. If they can inclose a bookseller's certificate that +they have bought the book, their case will be very much strengthened; +but I do not insist upon this. In all instances a card and a stamped and +directed envelope must be inclosed. I will never 'add a sentiment' +except in the case of applicants who can give me proof that they have +read all my books, now some thirty or forty in number.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 12em;">"W. D. Howells."</span></p> + +<p class="top5">It need hardly be added that Mr. Howells's good nature prevented his +adherence to his rule!</p> + +<p>Rudyard Kipling is another whose letters fairly vibrate with +personality; few men can write more interestingly, or, incidentally, +considering his microscopic handwriting, say more on a letter page.</p> + +<p>Bok was telling Kipling one day about the scrapple so dear to the heart +of the Philadelphian as a breakfast dish. The author had never heard of +it or tasted it, and wished for a sample. So, upon his return home, Bok +had a Philadelphia market-man send some of the Philadelphia-made +article, packed in ice, to Kipling in his English home. There were +several pounds of it and Kipling wrote:</p> + +<p class="top5">"By the way, that scrapple—which by token is a dish for the +Gods—arrived in perfect condition, and I ate it all, or as much as I +could get hold of. I am extremely grateful for it. It's all nonsense +about pig being unwholesome. There isn't a Mary-ache in a barrel of +scrapple."</p> + +<p class="top5">Then later came this afterthought:</p> + +<p class="top5">"A noble dish is that scrapple, but don't eat three slices and go to +work straight on top of 'em. That's the way to dyspepsia!</p> + +<p>"P. S. I wish to goodness you'd give another look at England before +long. It's quite a country; really it is. Old, too, I believe."</p> + +<p>It was Kipling who suggested that Bok should name his Merion home +"Swastika." Bok asked what the author knew about the mystic sign:</p> + +<p class="top5">"There is a huge book (I've forgotten the name, but the Smithsonian will +know)," he wrote back, "about the Swastika (pronounced Swas-ti-ka to +rhyme with 'car's ticker'), in literature, art, religion, dogma, etc. I +believe there are two sorts of Swastikas, one [figure] and one [figure]; +one is bad, the other is good, but which is which I know not for sure. +The Hindu trader opens his yearly account-books with a Swastika as 'an +auspicious beginning,' and all the races of the earth have used it. It's +an inexhaustible subject, and some man in the Smithsonian ought to be +full of it. Anyhow, the sign on the door or the hearth should protect +you against fire and water and thieves.</p> + +<p>"By this time should have reached you a Swastika door-knocker, which I +hope may fit in with the new house and the new name. It was made by a +village-smith; and you will see that it has my initials, to which I hope +you will add yours, that the story may be complete.</p> + +<p>"We are settled out here in Cape Town, eating strawberries in January +and complaining of the heat, which for the last two days has been a +little more than we pampered folk are used to; say 70° at night. But +what a lovely land it is, and how superb are the hydrangeas! Figure to +yourself four acres of 'em, all in bloom on the hillside near our home!"</p> + +<p class="top5">Bok had visited the Panama Canal before its completion and had talked +with the men, high and low, working on it, asking them how they felt +about President Roosevelt's action in "digging the Canal first and +talking about it afterwards." He wrote the result of his talks to +Colonel Roosevelt, and received this reply:</p> + +<p class="top5">"I shall always keep your letter, for I shall want my children and +grandchildren to see it after I am gone. I feel just as you do about the +Canal. It is the greatest contribution I was able to make to my country; +and while I do not believe my countrymen appreciate this at the moment, +I am extremely pleased to know that the men on the Canal do, for they +are the men who have done and are doing the great job. I am awfully +pleased that you feel the way you do.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 12em;">"Theodore Roosevelt."</span></p> + +<p class="top5">In 1887, General William Tecumseh Sherman was much talked about as a +candidate for the presidency, until his famous declaration came out: "I +will not run if nominated, and will not serve if elected." During the +weeks of talk, however, much was said of General Sherman's religious +views, some contending that he was a Roman Catholic; others that he was +a Protestant.</p> + +<p>Bok wrote to General Sherman and asked him. His answer was direct:</p> + +<p class="top5">"My family is strongly Roman Catholic, but I am not. Until I ask some +favor the public has no claim to question me further."</p> + +<p class="top5">When Mrs. Sherman passed away, Doctor T. DeWitt Talmage wrote General +Sherman a note of condolence, and what is perhaps one of the fullest +expositions of his religious faith to which he ever gave expression came +from him in a most remarkable letter, which Doctor Talmage gave to Bok.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span style="margin-left: 18em;">"New York, December 12, 1886.</span></span></p> + +<p>"My Dear Friend:</p> + +<p>"Your most tender epistle from Mansfield, Ohio, of December 9 brought +here last night by your son awakens in my brain a flood of memories. +Mrs. Sherman was by nature and inheritance an Irish Catholic. Her +grandfather, Hugh Boyle, was a highly educated classical scholar, whom I +remember well,—married the half sister of the mother of James G. Blaine +at Brownsville, Pa., settled in our native town Lancaster, Fairfield +County, Ohio, and became the Clerk of the County Court. He had two +daughters, Maria and Susan. Maria became the wife of Thomas Ewing, about +1819, and was the mother of my wife, Ellen Boyle Ewing. She was so +staunch to what she believed the true Faith that I am sure that though +she loved her children better than herself, she would have seen them die +with less pang, than to depart from the "Faith." Mr. Ewing was a great +big man, an intellectual giant, and looked down on religion as something +domestic, something consoling which ought to be encouraged; and to him +it made little difference whether the religion was Methodist, +Presbyterian, Baptist, or Catholic, provided the acts were 'half as +good' as their professions.</p> + +<p>"In 1829 my father, a Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, died at +Lebanon away from home, leaving his widow, Mary Hoyt of Norwalk, Conn. +(sister to Charles and James Hoyt of Brooklyn) with a frame house in +Lancaster, an income of $200 a year and eleven as hungry, rough, and +uncouth children as ever existed on earth. But father had been kind, +generous, manly with a big heart; and when it ceased to beat friends +turned up—Our Uncle Stoddard took Charles, the oldest; W. I. married +the next, Elisabeth (still living); Amelia was soon married to a +merchant in Mansfield, McCorab; I, the third son, was adopted by Thomas +Ewing, a neighbor, and John fell to his namesake in Mt. Vernon, a +merchant.</p> + +<p>"Surely 'Man proposes and God disposes.' I could fill a hundred pages, +but will not bore you. A half century has passed and you, a Protestant +minister, write me a kind, affectionate letter about my Catholic wife +from Mansfield, one of my family homes, where my mother, Mary Hoyt, +died, and where our Grandmother, Betsey Stoddard, lies buried. Oh, what +a flood of memories come up at the name of Betsey Stoddard,—daughter of +the Revd. Mr. Stoddard, who preached three times every Sunday, and as +often in between as he could cajole a congregation at ancient Woodbury, +Conn.,—who came down from Mansfield to Lancaster, three days' hard +journey to regulate the family of her son Judge Sherman, whose gentle +wife was as afraid of Grandma as any of us boys. She never spared the +rod or broom, but she had more square solid sense to the yard than any +woman I ever saw. From her Charles, John, and I inherit what little +sense we possess.</p> + +<p>"Lancaster, Fairfield County, was our paternal home, Mansfield that of +Grandmother Stoddard and her daughter, Betsey Parker. There Charles and +John settled, and when in 1846 I went to California Mother also went +there, and there died in 1851.</p> + +<p>"When a boy, once a year I had to drive my mother in an old 'dandy +wagon' on her annual visit. The distance was 75 miles, further than +Omaha is from San Francisco. We always took three days and stopped at +every house to gossip with the woman folks, and dispense medicines and +syrups to the sick, for in those days all had the chills or ague. If I +could I would not awaken Grandmother Betsey Stoddard because she would +be horrified at the backsliding of the servants of Christ,—but oh! how +I would like to take my mother, Mary Hoyt, in a railroad car out to +California, to Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, among the vineyards of +grapes, the groves of oranges, lemons and pomegranates. How clearly +recurs to me the memory of her exclamation when I told her I had been +ordered around Cape Horn to California. Her idea was about as definite +as mine or yours as to, Where is Stanley? but she saw me return with +some nuggets to make her life more comfortable.</p> + +<p>"She was a strong Presbyterian to the end, but she loved my Ellen, and +the love was mutual. All my children have inherited their mother's +faith, and she would have given anything if I would have simply said +Amen; but it is simply impossible.</p> + +<p>"But I am sure that you know that the God who created the minnow, and +who has moulded the rose and carnation, given each its sweet fragrance, +will provide for those mortal men who strive to do right in the world +which he himself has stocked with birds, animals, and men;—at all +events, I will trust Him with absolute confidence.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"With great respect and affection,</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 10m;">"Yours truly,</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 18em;">"W. T. Sherman."</span></p> + +<h3><a name="XX" id="XX"></a>XX.</h3> + +<p class="heading">Meeting a Reverse or Two</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">With</span> the hitherto unreached magazine circulation of a million copies a +month in sight, Edward Bok decided to give a broader scope to the +periodical. He was determined to lay under contribution not only the +most famous writers of the day, but also to seek out those well-known +persons who usually did not contribute to the magazines; always keeping +in mind the popular appeal of his material, but likewise aiming +constantly to widen its scope and gradually to lift its standard.</p> + +<p>Sailing again for England, he sought and secured the acquaintance of +Rudyard Kipling, whose alert mind was at once keenly interested in what +Bok was trying to do. He was willing to co-operate, with the result that +Bok secured the author's new story, William the Conqueror. When Bok read +the manuscript, he was delighted; he had for some time been reading +Kipling's work with enthusiasm, and he saw at once that here was one of +the author's best tales.</p> + +<p>At that time, Frances E. Willard had brought her agitation for +temperance prominently before the public, and Bok had promised to aid +her by eliminating from his magazine, so far as possible, all scenes +which represented alcoholic drinking. It was not an iron-clad rule, but, +both from the principle fixed for his own life and in the interest of +the thousands of young people who read his magazine, he believed it +would be better to minimize all incidents portraying alcoholic drinking +or drunkenness. Kipling's story depicted several such scenes; so when +Bok sent the proofs he suggested that if Kipling could moderate some of +these scenes, it would be more in line with the policy of the magazine. +Bok did not make a special point of the matter, leaving it to Kipling's +judgment to decide how far he could make such changes and preserve the +atmosphere of his story.</p> + +<p>From this incident arose the widely published story that Bok cabled +Kipling, asking permission to omit a certain drinking reference, and +substitute something else, whereupon Kipling cabled back: "Substitute +Mellin's Food." As a matter of fact (although it is a pity to kill such +a clever story), no such cable was ever sent and no such reply ever +received. As Kipling himself wrote to Bok: "No, I said nothing about +Mellin's Food. I wish I had." An American author in London happened to +hear of the correspondence between the editor and the author, it +appealed to his sense of humor, and the published story was the result. +If it mattered, it is possible that Brander Matthews could accurately +reveal the originator of the much-published yarn.</p> + +<p>From Kipling's house Bok went to Tunbridge Wells to visit Mary Anderson, +the one-time popular American actress, who had married Antonio de +Navarro and retired from the stage. A goodly number of editors had tried +to induce the retired actress to write, just as a number of managers had +tried to induce her to return to the stage. All had failed. But Bok +never accepted the failure of others as a final decision for himself; +and after two or three visits, he persuaded Madame de Navarro to write +her reminiscences, which he published with marked success in the +magazine.</p> + +<p>The editor was very desirous of securing something for his magazine that +would delight children, and he hit upon the idea of trying to induce +Lewis Carroll to write another Alice in Wonderland series. He was told +by English friends that this would be difficult, since the author led a +secluded life at Oxford and hardly ever admitted any one into his +confidence. But Bok wanted to beard the lion in his den, and an Oxford +graduate volunteered to introduce him to an Oxford don through whom, if +it were at all possible, he could reach the author. The journey to +Oxford was made, and Bok was introduced to the don, who turned out to be +no less a person than the original possessor of the highly colored +vocabulary of the "White Rabbit" of the Alice stories.</p> + +<p>"Impossible," immediately declared the don. "You couldn't persuade +Dodgson to consider it." Bok, however, persisted, and it so happened +that the don liked what he called "American perseverance."</p> + +<p>"Well, come along," he said. "We'll beard the lion in his den, as you +say, and see what happens. You know, of course, that it is the Reverend +Charles L. Dodgson that we are going to see, and I must introduce you to +that person, not to Lewis Carroll. He is a tutor in mathematics here, as +you doubtless know; lives a rigidly secluded life; dislikes strangers; +makes no friends; and yet withal is one of the most delightful men in +the world if he wants to be."</p> + +<p>But as it happened upon this special occasion when Bok was introduced to +him in his chambers in Tom Quad, Mr. Dodgson did not "want to be" +delightful. There was no doubt that back of the studied reserve was a +kindly, charming, gracious gentleman, but Bok's profession had been +mentioned and the author was on rigid guard.</p> + +<p>When Bok explained that one of the special reasons for his journey from +America this summer was to see him, the Oxford mathematician +sufficiently softened to ask the editor to sit down.</p> + +<p>Bok then broached his mission.</p> + +<p>"You are quite in error, Mr. Bok," was the Dodgson comment. "You are not +speaking to the person you think you are addressing."</p> + +<p>For a moment Bok was taken aback. Then he decided to go right to the +point.</p> + +<p>"Do I understand, Mr. Dodgson, that you are not 'Lewis Carroll'; that +you did not write Alice in Wonderland?"</p> + +<p>For an answer the tutor rose, went into another room, and returned with +a book which he handed to Bok. "This is my book," he said simply. It was +entitled An Elementary Treatise on Determinants, by C. L. Dodgson. When +he looked up, Bok found the author's eyes riveted on him.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Bok. "I know, Mr. Dodgson. If I remember correctly, this is +the same book of which you sent a copy to Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, +when she wrote to you for a personal copy of your Alice."</p> + +<p>Dodgson made no comment. The face was absolutely without expression save +a kindly compassion intended to convey to the editor that he was making +a terrible mistake.</p> + +<p>"As I said to you in the beginning, Mr. Bok, you are in error. You are +not speaking to 'Lewis Carroll.'" And then: "Is this the first time you +have visited Oxford?"</p> + +<p>Bok said it was; and there followed the most delightful two hours with +the Oxford mathematician and the Oxford don, walking about and into the +wonderful college buildings, and afterward the three had a bite of lunch +together. But all efforts to return to "Lewis Carroll" were futile. +While saying good-by to his host, Bok remarked:</p> + +<p>"I can't help expressing my disappointment, Mr. Dodgson, in my quest in +behalf of the thousands of American children who love you and who would +so gladly welcome 'Lewis Carroll' back."</p> + +<p>The mention of children and their love for him momentarily had its +effect. For an instant a different light came into the eyes, and Bok +instinctively realized Dodgson was about to say something. But he +checked himself. Bok had almost caught him off his guard.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry," he finally said at the parting at the door, "that you +should be disappointed, for the sake of the children as well as for your +own sake. I only regret that I cannot remove the disappointment."</p> + +<p>And as the trio walked to the station, the don said: "That is his +attitude toward all, even toward me. He is not 'Lewis Carroll' to any +one; is extremely sensitive on the point, and will not acknowledge his +identity. That is why he lives so much to himself. He is in daily dread +that some one will mention Alice in his presence. Curious, but there it +is."</p> + +<p>Edward Bok's next quest was to be even more disappointing; he was never +even to reach the presence of the person he sought. This was Florence +Nightingale, the Crimean nurse. Bok was desirous of securing her own +story of her experiences, but on every hand he found an unwillingness +even to take him to her house. "No use," said everybody. "She won't see +any one. Hates publicity and all that sort of thing, and shuns the +public." Nevertheless, the editor journeyed to the famous nurse's home +on South Street, in the West End of London, only to be told that "Miss +Nightingale never receives strangers."</p> + +<p>"But I am not a stranger," insisted the editor. "I am one of her friends +from America. Please take my card to her."</p> + +<p>This mollified the faithful secretary, but the word instantly came back +that Miss Nightingale was not receiving any one that day. Bok wrote her +a letter asking for an appointment, which was never answered. Then he +wrote another, took it personally to the house, and awaited an answer, +only to receive the message that "Miss Nightingale says there is no +answer to the letter."</p> + +<p>Bok had with such remarkable uniformity secured whatever he sought, that +these experiences were new to him. Frankly, they puzzled him. He was not +easily baffled, but baffled he now was, and that twice in succession. +Turn as he might, he could find no way in which to reopen an approach to +either the Oxford tutor or the Crimean nurse. They were plainly too much +for him, and he had to acknowledge his defeat. The experience was good +for him; he did not realize this at the time, nor did he enjoy the +sensation of not getting what he wanted. Nevertheless, a reverse or two +was due. Not that his success was having any undesirable effect upon +him; his Dutch common sense saved him from any such calamity. But at +thirty years of age it is not good for any one, no matter how well +balanced, to have things come his way too fast and too consistently. And +here were breaks. He could not have everything he wanted, and it was +just as well that he should find that out.</p> + +<p>In his next quest he found himself again opposed by his London friends. +Unable to secure a new Alice in Wonderland for his child readers, he +determined to give them Kate Greenaway. But here he had selected another +recluse. Everybody discouraged him. The artist never saw visitors, he +was told, and she particularly shunned editors and publishers. Her own +publishers confessed that Miss Greenaway was inaccessible to them. "We +conduct all our business with her by correspondence. I have never seen +her personally myself," said a member of the firm.</p> + +<p>Bok inwardly decided that two failures in two days were sufficient, and +he made up his mind that there should not be a third. He took a bus for +the long ride to Hampstead Heath, where the illustrator lived, and +finally stood before a picturesque Queen Anne house that one would have +recognized at once, with its lower story of red brick, its upper part +covered with red tiles, its windows of every size and shape, as the +inspiration of Kate Greenaway's pictures. As it turned out later, Miss +Greenaway's sister opened the door and told the visitor that Miss +Greenaway was not at home.</p> + +<p>"But, pardon me, has not Miss Greenaway returned? Is not that she?" +asked Bok, as he indicated a figure just coming down the stairs. And as +the sister turned to see, Bok stepped into the hall. At least he was +inside! Bok had never seen a photograph of Miss Greenaway, he did not +know that the figure coming down-stairs was the artist; but his instinct +had led him right, and good fortune was with him.</p> + +<p>He now introduced himself to Kate Greenaway, and explained that one of +his objects in coming to London was to see her on behalf of thousands of +American children. Naturally there was nothing for the illustrator to do +but to welcome her visitor. She took him into the garden, where he saw +at once that he was seated under the apple-tree of Miss Greenaway's +pictures. It was in full bloom, a veritable picture of spring +loveliness. Bok's love for nature pleased the artist and when he +recognized the cat that sauntered up, he could see that he was making +headway. But when he explained his profession and stated his errand, the +atmosphere instantly changed. Miss Greenaway conveyed the unmistakable +impression that she had been trapped, and Bok realized at once that he +had a long and difficult road ahead.</p> + +<p>Still, negotiate it he must and he did! And after luncheon in the +garden, with the cat in his lap, Miss Greenaway perceptibly thawed out, +and when the editor left late that afternoon he had the promise of the +artist that she would do her first magazine work for him. That promise +was kept monthly, and for nearly two years her articles appeared, with +satisfaction to Miss Greenaway and with great success to the magazine.</p> + +<p>The next opposition to Bok's plans arose from the soreness generated by +the absence of copyright laws between the United States and Great +Britain and Europe. The editor, who had been publishing a series of +musical compositions, solicited the aid of Sir Arthur Sullivan. But it +so happened that Sir Arthur's most famous composition, "The Lost Chord," +had been taken without leave by American music publishers, and sold by +the hundreds of thousands with the composer left out on pay-day. Sir +Arthur held forth on this injustice, and said further that no accurate +copy of "The Lost Chord" had, so far as he knew, ever been printed in +the United States. Bok saw his chance, and also an opportunity for a +little Americanization.</p> + +<p>"Very well, Sir Arthur," suggested Bok; "with your consent, I will +rectify both the inaccuracy and the injustice. Write out a correct +version of 'The Lost Chord'; I will give it to nearly a million readers, +and so render obsolete the incorrect copies; and I shall be only too +happy to pay you the first honorarium for an American publication of the +song. You can add to the copy the statement that this is the first +American honorarium you have ever received, and so shame the American +publishers for their dishonesty."</p> + +<p>This argument appealed strongly to the composer, who made a correct +transcript of his famous song, and published it with the following note:</p> + +<p class="top5">"This is the first and only copy of "The Lost Chord" which has ever been +sent by me to an American publisher. I believe all the reprints in +America are more or less incorrect. I have pleasure in sending this copy +to my friend, Mr. Edward W. Bok, for publication in The Ladies' Home +Journal for which he gives me an honorarium, the only one I have ever +received from an American publisher for this song.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 12em;">"Arthur Sullivan."</span></p> + +<p class="top5">At least, thought Bok, he had healed one man's soreness toward America. +But the next day he encountered another. On his way to Paris, he stopped +at Amiens to see Jules Verne. Here he found special difficulty in that +the aged author could not speak English, and Bok knew only a few words +of casual French. Finally a neighbor's servant who knew a handful of +English words was commandeered, and a halting three-cornered +conversation was begun.</p> + +<p>Bok found two grievances here: the author was incensed at the American +public because it had insisted on classing his books as juveniles, and +accepting them as stories of adventure, whereas he desired them to be +recognized as prophetic stories based on scientific facts—an insistence +which, as all the world knows, has since been justified. Bok explained, +however, that the popular acceptance of the author's books as stories of +adventure was by no means confined to America; that even in his own +country the same was true. But Jules Verne came back with the rejoinder +that if the French were a pack of fools, that was no reason why the +Americans should also be.</p> + +<p>The argument weighed somewhat with the author, however, for he then +changed the conversation, and pointed out how he had been robbed by +American publishers who had stolen his books. So Bok was once more face +to face with the old non-copyright conditions; and although he explained +the existence then of a new protective law, the old man was not +mollified. He did not take kindly to Bok's suggestion for new work, and +closed the talk, extremely difficult to all three, by declaring that his +writing days were over.</p> + +<p>But Bok was by no means through with non-copyright echoes, for he was +destined next day to take part in an even stormier interview on the same +subject with Alexander Dumas _fils_. Bok had been publishing a series of +articles in which authors had told how they had been led to write their +most famous books, and he wanted Dumas to tell "How I Came to Write +'Camille.'"</p> + +<p>To act as translator this time, Bok took a trusted friend with him, +whose services he found were needed, as Dumas was absolutely without +knowledge of English. No sooner was the editor's request made known to +him than the storm broke. Dumas, hotly excited, denounced the Americans +as robbers who had deprived him of his rightful returns on his book and +play, and ended by declaring that he would trust no American editor or +publisher.</p> + +<p>The mutual friend explained the new copyright conditions and declared +that Bok intended to treat the author honorably. But Dumas was not to be +mollified. He launched forth upon a new arraignment of the Americans; +dishonesty was bred in their bones! and they were robbers by instinct. +All of this distinctly nettled Bok's Americanism. The interpreting +friend finally suggested that the article should be written while Bok +was in Paris; that he should be notified when the manuscript was ready, +that he should then appear with the actual money in hand in French +notes; and that Dumas should give Bok the manuscript when Bok handed +Dumas the money.</p> + +<p>"After I count it," said Dumas.</p> + +<p>This was the last straw!</p> + +<p>"Pray ask him," Bok suggested to the interpreter, "what assurance I have +that he will deliver the manuscript to me after he has the money." The +friend protested against translating this thrust, but Bok insisted, and +Dumas, not knowing what was coming, insisted that the message be given +him. When it was, the man was a study; he became livid with rage.</p> + +<p>"But," persisted Bok, "say to Monsieur Dumas that I have the same +privilege of distrusting him as he apparently has of distrusting me."</p> + +<p>And Bok can still see the violent gesticulations of the storming French +author, his face burning with passionate anger, as the two left him.</p> + +<p>Edward Bok now sincerely hoped that his encounters with the absence of a +law that has been met were at an end!</p> + +<p>Rosa Bonheur, the painter of "The Horse Fair," had been represented to +Bok as another recluse who was as inaccessible as Kate Greenaway. He had +known of the painter's intimate relations with the ex-Empress Eugenie, +and desired to get these reminiscences. Everybody dissuaded him; but +again taking a French friend he made the journey to Fontainebleau, where +the artist lived in a chateau in the little village of By.</p> + +<p>A group of dogs, great, magnificent tawny creatures, welcomed the two +visitors to the chateau; and the most powerful door that Bok had ever +seen, as securely bolted as that of a cell, told of the inaccessibility +of the mistress of the house. Two blue-frocked peasants explained how +impossible it was for any one to see their mistress, so Bok asked +permission to come in and write her a note.</p> + +<p>This was granted; and then, as in the case of Kate Greenaway, Rosa +Bonheur herself walked into the hall, in a velvet jacket, dressed, as +she always was, in man's attire. A delightful smile lighted the strong +face, surmounted by a shock of gray hair, cut short at the back; and +from the moment of her first welcome there was no doubt of her +cordiality to the few who were fortunate enough to work their way into +her presence. It was a wonderful afternoon, spent in the painter's +studio in the upper part of the chateau; and Bok carried away with him +the promise of Rosa Bonheur to write the story of her life for +publication in the magazine.</p> + +<p>On his return to London the editor found that Charles Dana Gibson had +settled down there for a time. Bok had always wanted Gibson to depict +the characters of Dickens; and he felt that this was the opportunity, +while the artist was in London and could get the atmosphere for his +work. Gibson was as keen for the idea as was Bok, and so the two +arranged the series which was subsequently published.</p> + +<p>On his way to his steamer to sail for home, Bok visited "Ian Maclaren," +whose Bonnie Brier Bush stories were then in great vogue, and not only +contracted for Doctor Watson's stories of the immediate future, but +arranged with him for a series of articles which, for two years +thereafter, was published in the magazine.</p> + +<p>The editor now sailed for home, content with his assembly of foreign +"features."</p> + +<p>On the steamer, Bok heard of the recent discovery of some unpublished +letters by Louisa May Alcott, written to five girls, and before +returning to Philadelphia, he went to Boston, got into touch with the +executors of the will of Miss Alcott, brought the letters back with him +to read, and upon reaching Philadelphia, wired his acceptance of them +for publication.</p> + +<p>But the traveller was not at once to enjoy his home. After only a day in +Philadelphia he took a train for Indianapolis. Here lived the most +thoroughly American writer of the day, in Bok's estimation: James +Whitcomb Riley. An arrangement, perfected before his European visit, had +secured to Bok practically exclusive rights to all the output of his +Chicago friend Eugene Field, and he felt that Riley's work would +admirably complement that of Field. This Bok explained to Riley, who +readily fell in with the idea, and the editor returned to Philadelphia +with a contract to see Riley's next dozen poems. A little later Field +passed away. His last poem, "The Dream Ship," and his posthumous story +"The Werewolf" appeared in The Ladies' Home Journal.</p> + +<p>A second series of articles was also arranged for with Mr. Harrison, in +which he was to depict, in a personal way, the life of a President of +the United States, the domestic life of the White House, and the +financial arrangements made by the government for the care of the chief +executive and his family. The first series of articles by the former +President had been very successful; Bok felt that they had accomplished +much in making his women readers familiar with their country and the +machinery of its government. After this, which had been undeniably solid +reading, Bok reasoned that the supplementary articles, in lighter vein, +would serve as a sort of dessert. And so it proved.</p> + +<p>Bok now devoted his attention to strengthening the fiction in his +magazine. He sought Mark Twain, and bought his two new stories; he +secured from Bret Harte a tale which he had just finished; and then ran +the gamut of the best fiction writers of the day, and secured their best +output. Marion Crawford, Conan Doyle, Sarah Orne Jewett, John Kendrick +Bangs, Kate Douglas Wiggin, Hamlin Garland, Mrs. Burton Harrison, +Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Mary E. Wilkins, Jerome K. Jerome, Anthony +Hope, Joel Chandler Harris, and others followed in rapid succession.</p> + +<p>He next turned for a moment to his religious department, decided that it +needed a freshening of interest, and secured Dwight L. Moody, whose +evangelical work was then so prominently in the public eye, to conduct +"Mr. Moody's Bible Class" in the magazine—practically a study of the +stated Bible lesson of the month with explanation in Moody's simple and +effective style.</p> + +<p>The authors for whom the Journal was now publishing attracted the +attention of all the writers of the day, and the supply of good material +became too great for its capacity. Bok studied the mechanical make-up, +and felt that by some method he must find more room in the front +portion. He had allotted the first third of the magazine to the general +literary contents and the latter two-thirds to departmental features. +Toward the close of the number, the departments narrowed down from full +pages to single columns with advertisements on each side.</p> + +<p>One day Bok was handling a story by Rudyard Kipling which had overrun +the space allowed for it in the front. The story had come late, and the +rest of the front portion of the magazine had gone to press. The editor +was in a quandary what to do with the two remaining columns of the +Kipling tale. There were only two pages open, and these were at the +back. He remade those pages, and continued the story from pages 6 and 7 +to pages 38 and 39.</p> + +<p>At once Bok saw that this was an instance where "necessity was the +mother of invention." He realized that if he could run some of his front +material over to the back he would relieve the pressure at the front, +present a more varied contents there, and make his advertisements more +valuable by putting them next to the most expensive material in the +magazine.</p> + +<p>In the next issue he combined some of his smaller departments in the +back; and thus, in 1896, he inaugurated the method of "running over into +the back" which has now become a recognized principle in the make-up of +magazines of larger size. At first, Bok's readers objected, but he +explained why he did it; that they were the benefiters by the plan; and, +so far as readers can be satisfied with what is, at best, an awkward +method of presentation, they were content. To-day the practice is +undoubtedly followed to excess, some magazines carrying as much as +eighty and ninety columns over from the front to the back; from such +abuse it will, of course, free itself either by a return to the original +method of make-up or by the adoption of some other less-irritating plan.</p> + +<p>In his reading about the America of the past, Bok had been impressed by +the unusual amount of interesting personal material that constituted +what is termed unwritten history—original events of tremendous personal +appeal in which great personalities figured but which had not sufficient +historical importance to have been included in American history. Bok +determined to please his older readers by harking back to the past and +at the same time acquainting the younger generation with the picturesque +events which had preceded their time.</p> + +<p>He also believed that if he could "dress up" the past, he could arrest +the attention of a generation which was too likely to boast of its +interest only in the present and the future. He took a course of reading +and consulted with Mr. Charles A. Dana, editor of the New York Sun, who +had become interested in his work and had written him several voluntary +letters of commendation. Mr. Dana gave material help in the selection of +subjects and writers; and was intensely amused and interested by the +manner in which his youthful confrere "dressed up" the titles of what +might otherwise have looked like commonplace articles.</p> + +<p>"I know," said Bok to the elder editor, "it smacks a little of the +sensational, Mr. Dana, but the purpose I have in mind of showing the +young people of to-day that some great things happened before they came +on the stage seems to me to make it worth while."</p> + +<p>Mr. Dana agreed with this view, supplemented every effort of the +Philadelphia editor in several subsequent talks, and in 1897 The Ladies' +Home Journal began one of the most popular series it ever published. It +was called "Great Personal Events," and the picturesque titles explained +them. He first pictured the enthusiastic evening "When Jenny Lind Sang +in Castle Garden," and, as Bok added to pique curiosity, "when people +paid $20 to sit in rowboats to hear the Swedish nightingale."</p> + +<p>This was followed by an account of the astonishing episode "When Henry +Ward Beecher Sold Slaves in Plymouth Pulpit"; the picturesque journey +"When Louis Kossuth Rode Up Broadway"; the triumphant tour "When General +Grant Went Round the World"; the forgotten story of "When an Actress Was +the Lady of the White House"; the sensational striking of the gold vein +in 1849, "When Mackay Struck the Great Bonanza"; the hitherto +little-known instance "When Louis Philippe Taught School in +Philadelphia"; and even the lesser-known fact of the residence of the +brother of Napoleon Bonaparte in America, "When the King of Spain Lived +on the Banks of the Schuylkill"; while the story of "When John Wesley +Preached in Georgia" surprised nearly every Methodist, as so few had +known that the founder of their church had ever visited America. Each +month picturesque event followed graphic happening, and never was +unwritten history more readily read by the young, or the memories of the +older folk more catered to than in this series which won new friends for +the magazine on every hand.</p> + +<h3><a name="XXI" id="XXI"></a>XXI.</h3> + +<p class="heading">A Signal Piece of Constructive Work</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> influence of his grandfather and the injunction of his grandmother +to her sons that each "should make the world a better or a more +beautiful place to live in" now began to be manifest in the grandson. +Edward Bok was unconscious that it was this influence. What directly led +him to the signal piece of construction in which he engaged was the +wretched architecture of small houses. As he travelled through the +United States he was appalled by it. Where the houses were not +positively ugly, they were, to him, repellently ornate. Money was wasted +on useless turrets, filigree work, or machine-made ornamentation. Bok +found out that these small householders never employed an architect, but +that the houses were put up by builders from their own plans.</p> + +<p>Bok felt a keen desire to take hold of the small American house and make +it architecturally better. He foresaw, however, that the subject would +finally include small gardening and interior decoration. He feared that +the subject would become too large for the magazine, which was already +feeling the pressure of the material which he was securing. He +suggested, therefore, to Mr. Curtis that they purchase a little magazine +published in Buffalo, N. Y., called Country Life, and develop it into a +first-class periodical devoted to the general subject of a better +American architecture, gardening, and interior decoration, with special +application to the small house. The magazine was purchased, and while +Bok was collecting his material for a number of issues ahead, he edited +and issued, for copyright purposes, a four-page magazine.</p> + +<p>An opportunity now came to Mr. Curtis to purchase The Saturday Evening +Post, a Philadelphia weekly of honored prestige, founded by Benjamin +Franklin. It was apparent at once that the company could not embark upon +the development of two magazines at the same time, and as a larger field +was seen for The Saturday Evening Post, it was decided to leave Country +Life in abeyance for the present.</p> + +<p>Mr. Frank Doubleday, having left the Scribners and started a +publishing-house of his own, asked Bok to transfer to him the copyright +and good will of Country Life—seeing that there was little chance for +The Curtis Publishing Company to undertake its publication. Mr. Curtis +was willing, but he knew that Bok had set his heart on the new magazine +and left it for him to decide. The editor realized, as the Doubleday +Company could take up the magazine at once, the unfairness of holding +indefinitely the field against them by the publication of a mere +copyright periodical. And so, with a feeling as if he were giving up his +child to another father, Bok arranged that The Curtis Publishing Company +should transfer to the Doubleday, Page Company all rights to the title +and periodical of which the present beautiful publication Country Life +is the outgrowth.</p> + +<p>Bok now turned to The Ladies' Home Journal as his medium for making the +small-house architecture of America better. He realized the limitation +of space, but decided to do the best he could under the circumstances. +He believed he might serve thousands of his readers if he could make it +possible for them to secure, at moderate cost, plans for well-designed +houses by the leading domestic architects in the country. He consulted a +number of architects, only to find them unalterably opposed to the idea. +They disliked the publicity of magazine presentation; prices differed +too much in various parts of the country; and they did not care to risk +the criticism of their contemporaries. It was "cheapening" their +profession!</p> + +<p>Bok saw that he should have to blaze the way and demonstrate the +futility of these arguments. At last he persuaded one architect to +co-operate with him, and in 1895 began the publication of a series of +houses which could be built, approximately, for from one thousand five +hundred dollars to five thousand dollars. The idea attracted attention +at once, and the architect-author was swamped with letters and inquiries +regarding his plans.</p> + +<p>This proved Bok's instinct to be correct as to the public willingness to +accept such designs; upon this proof he succeeded in winning over two +additional architects to make plans. He offered his readers full +building specifications and plans to scale of the houses with estimates +from four builders in different parts of the United States for five +dollars a set. The plans and specifications were so complete in every +detail that any builder could build the house from them.</p> + +<p>A storm of criticism now arose from architects and builders all over the +country, the architects claiming that Bok was taking "the bread out of +their mouths" by the sale of plans, and local builders vigorously +questioned the accuracy of the estimates. But Bok knew he was right and +persevered.</p> + +<p>Slowly but surely he won the approval of the leading architects, who saw +that he was appealing to a class of house-builders who could not afford +to pay an architect's fee, and that, with his wide circulation, he might +become an influence for better architecture through these small houses. +The sets of plans and specifications sold by the thousands. It was not +long before the magazine was able to present small-house plans by the +foremost architects of the country, whose services the average +householder could otherwise never have dreamed of securing.</p> + +<p>Bok not only saw an opportunity to better the exterior of the small +houses, but he determined that each plan published should provide for +two essentials: every servant's room should have two windows to insure +cross-ventilation, and contain twice the number of cubic feet usually +given to such rooms; and in place of the American parlor, which he +considered a useless room, should be substituted either a living-room or +a library. He did not point to these improvements; every plan simply +presented the larger servant's room and did not present a parlor. It is +a singular fact that of the tens of thousands of plans sold, not a +purchaser ever noticed the absence of a parlor except one woman in +Brookline, Mass., who, in erecting a group of twenty-five "Journal +houses," discovered after she had built ten that not one contained a +parlor!</p> + +<p>"Ladies' Home Journal houses" were now going up in communities all over +the country, and Bok determined to prove that they could be erected for +the prices given. Accordingly, he published a prize offer of generous +amount for the best set of exterior and interior photographs of a house +built after a Journal plan within the published price. Five other and +smaller prizes were also offered. A legally attested builder's +declaration was to accompany each set of photographs. The sets +immediately began to come in, until over five thousand had been +received. Bok selected the best of these, awarded the prizes, and began +the presentation of the houses actually built after the published plans.</p> + +<p>Of course this publication gave fresh impetus to the whole scheme; +prospective house-builders pointed their builders to the proof given, +and additional thousands of sets of plans were sold. The little houses +became better and better in architecture as the series went on, and +occasionally a plan for a house costing as high as ten thousand dollars +was given.</p> + +<p>For nearly twenty-five years Bok continued to publish pictures of houses +and plans. Entire colonies of "Ladies' Home Journal houses" have sprung +up, and building promoters have built complete suburban developments +with them. How many of these homes have been erected it is, of course, +impossible to say; the number certainly runs into the thousands.</p> + +<p>It was one of the most constructive and far-reaching pieces of work that +Bok did during his editorial career—a fact now recognized by all +architects. Shortly before Stanford White passed away, he wrote: "I +firmly believe that Edward Bok has more completely influenced American +domestic architecture for the better than any man in this generation. +When he began, I was short-sighted enough to discourage him, and refused +to co-operate with him. If Bok came to me now, I would not only make +plans for him, but I would waive any fee for them in retribution for my +early mistake."</p> + +<p>Bok then turned to the subject of the garden for the small house, and +the development of the grounds around the homes which he had been +instrumental in putting on the earth. He encountered no opposition here. +The publication of small gardens for small houses finally ran into +hundreds of pages, the magazine supplying planting plans and full +directions as to when and how to plant-this time without cost.</p> + +<p>Next the editor decided to see what he could do for the better and +simpler furnishing of the small American home. Here was a field almost +limitless in possible improvement, but he wanted to approach it in a new +way. The best method baffled him until one day he met a woman friend who +told him that she was on her way to a funeral at a friend's home.</p> + +<p>"I didn't know you were so well acquainted with Mrs. S—," said Bok.</p> + +<p>"I wasn't, as a matter of fact," replied the woman. "I'll be perfectly +frank; I am going to the funeral just to see how Mrs. S—'s house is +furnished. She was always thought to have great taste, you know, and, +whether you know it or not, a woman is always keen to look into another +woman's home."</p> + +<p>Bok realized that he had found the method of presentation for his +interior-furnishing plan if he could secure photographs of the most +carefully furnished homes in America. He immediately employed the best +available expert, and within six months there came to him an assorted +collection of over a thousand photographs of well-furnished rooms. The +best were selected, and a series of photographic pages called "Inside of +100 Homes" was begun. The editor's woman friend had correctly pointed +the way to him, for this series won for his magazine the enviable +distinction of being the first magazine of standing to reach the then +marvellous record of a circulation of one million copies a month. The +editions containing the series were sold out as fast as they could be +printed.</p> + +<p>The editor followed this up with another successful series, again +pictorial. He realized that to explain good taste in furnishing by text +was almost impossible. So he started a series of all-picture pages +called "Good Taste and Bad Taste." He presented a chair that was bad in +lines and either useless or uncomfortable to sit in, and explained where +and why it was bad; and then put a good chair next to it, and explained +where and why it was good.</p> + +<p>The lesson to the eye was simply and directly effective; the pictures +told their story as no printed word could have done, and furniture +manufacturers and dealers all over the country, feeling the pressure +from their customers, began to put on the market the tables, chairs, +divans, bedsteads, and dressing-tables which the magazine was portraying +as examples of good taste. It was amazing that, within five years, the +physical appearance of domestic furniture in the stores completely +changed.</p> + +<p>The next undertaking was a systematic plan for improving the pictures on +the walls of the American home. Bok was employing the best artists of +the day: Edwin A. Abbey, Howard Pyle, Charles Dana Gibson, W. L. Taylor, +Albert Lynch, Will H. Low, W. T. Smedley, Irving R. Wiles, and others. +As his magazine was rolled to go through the mails, the pictures +naturally suffered; Bok therefore decided to print a special edition of +each important picture that he published, an edition on plate-paper, +without text, and offered to his readers at ten cents a copy. Within a +year he had sold nearly one hundred thousand copies, such pictures as W. +L. Taylor's "The Hanging of the Crane" and "Home-Keeping Hearts" being +particularly popular.</p> + +<p>Pictures were difficult to advertise successfully; it was before the +full-color press had become practicable for rapid magazine work; and +even the large-page black-and-white reproductions which Bok could give +in his magazine did not, of course, show the beauty of the original +paintings, the majority of which were in full color. He accordingly made +arrangements with art publishers to print his pictures in their original +colors; then he determined to give the public an opportunity to see what +the pictures themselves looked like.</p> + +<p>He asked his art editor to select the two hundred and fifty best +pictures and frame them. Then he engaged the art gallery of the +Philadelphia Art Club, and advertised an exhibition of the original +paintings. No admission was charged. The gallery was put into gala +attire, and the pictures were well hung. The exhibition, which was +continued for two weeks, was visited by over fifteen thousand persons.</p> + +<p>His success here induced Bok to take the collection to New York. The +galleries of the American Art Association were offered him, but he +decided to rent the ballroom of the Hotel Waldorf. The hotel was then +new; it was the talk not only of the town but of the country, while the +ballroom had been pictured far and wide. It would have a publicity +value. He could secure the room for only four days, but he determined to +make the most of the short time. The exhibition was well advertised; a +"private view" was given the evening before the opening day, and when, +at nine o'clock the following morning, the doors of the exhibition were +thrown open, over a thousand persons were waiting in line.</p> + +<p>The hotel authorities had to resort to a special cordon of police to +handle the crowds, and within four days over seventeen thousand persons +had seen the pictures. On the last evening it was after midnight before +the doors could be closed to the waiting-line. Boston was next visited, +and there, at the Art Club Gallery, the previous successes were +repeated. Within two weeks over twenty-eight thousand persons visited +the exhibition.</p> + +<p>Other cities now clamored for a sight of the pictures, and it was +finally decided to end the exhibitions by a visit to Chicago. The +success here exceeded that in any of the other cities. The banquet-hall +of the Auditorium Hotel had been engaged; over two thousand persons were +continually in a waiting-line outside, and within a week nearly thirty +thousand persons pushed and jostled themselves into the gallery. Over +eight thousand persons in all had viewed the pictures in the four +cities.</p> + +<p>The exhibition was immediately followed by the publication of a +portfolio of the ten pictures that had proved the greatest favorites. +These were printed on plate-paper and the portfolio was offered by Bok +to his readers for one dollar. The first thousand sets were exhausted +within a fortnight. A second thousand were printed, and these were +quickly sold out.</p> + +<p>Bok's next enterprise was to get his pictures into the homes of the +country on a larger scale; he determined to work through the churches. +He selected the fifty best pictures, made them into a set and offered +first a hundred sets to selected schools, which were at once taken. Then +he offered two hundred and fifty sets to churches to sell at their +fairs. The managers were to promise to erect a Ladies' Home Journal +booth (which Bok knew, of course, would be most effective advertising), +and the pictures were to sell at twenty-five and fifty cents each, with +some at a dollar each. The set was offered to the churches for five +dollars: the actual cost of reproduction and expressage. On the day +after the publication of the magazine containing the offer, enough +telegraphic orders were received to absorb the entire edition. A second +edition was immediately printed; and finally ten editions, four thousand +sets in all, were absorbed before the demand was filled. By this method, +two hundred thousand pictures had been introduced into American homes, +and over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in money had been raised +by the churches as their portion.</p> + +<p>But all this was simply to lead up to the realization of Bok's cherished +dream: the reproduction, in enormous numbers, of the greatest pictures +in the world in their original colors. The plan, however, was not for +the moment feasible: the cost of the four-color process was at that time +prohibitive, and Bok had to abandon it. But he never lost sight of it. +He knew the hour would come when he could carry it out, and he bided his +time.</p> + +<p>It was not until years later that his opportunity came, when he +immediately made up his mind to seize it. The magazine had installed a +battery of four-color presses; the color-work in the periodical was +attracting universal attention, and after all stages of experimentation +had been passed, Bok decided to make his dream a reality. He sought the +co-operation of the owners of the greatest private art galleries in the +country: J. Pierpont Morgan, Henry C. Frick, Joseph E. Widener, George +W. Elkins, John G. Johnson, Charles P. Taft, Mrs. John L. Gardner, +Charles L. Freer, Mrs. Havemeyer, and the owners of the Benjamin Altman +Collection, and sought permission to reproduce their greatest paintings.</p> + +<p>Although each felt doubtful of the ability of any process adequately to +reproduce their masterpieces, the owners heartily co-operated with Bok. +But Bok's co-editors discouraged his plan, since it would involve +endless labor, the exclusive services of a corps of photographers and +engravers, and the employment of the most careful pressmen available in +the United States. The editor realized that the obstacles were numerous +and that the expense would be enormous; but he felt sure that the +American public was ready for his idea. And early in 1912 he announced +his series and began its publication.</p> + +<p>The most wonderful Rembrandt, Velasquez, Turner, Hobbema, Van Dyck, +Raphael, Frans Hals, Romney, Gainsborough, Whistler, Corot, Mauve, +Vermeer, Fragonard, Botticelli, and Titian reproductions followed in +such rapid succession as fairly to daze the magazine readers. Four +pictures were given in each number, and the faithfulness of the +reproductions astonished even their owners. The success of the series +was beyond Bok's own best hopes. He was printing and selling one and +three-quarter million copies of each issue of his magazine; and before +he was through he had presented to American homes throughout the breadth +of the country over seventy million reproductions of forty separate +master-pieces of art.</p> + +<p>The dream of years had come true.</p> + +<p>Bok had begun with the exterior of the small American house and made an +impression upon it; he had brought the love of flowers into the hearts +of thousands of small householders who had never thought they could have +an artistic garden within a small area; he had changed the lines of +furniture, and he had put better art on the walls of these homes. He had +conceived a full-rounded scheme, and he had carried it out.</p> + +<p>It was a peculiar satisfaction to Bok that Theodore Roosevelt once +summed up this piece of work in these words: "Bok is the only man I ever +heard of who changed, for the better, the architecture of an entire +nation, and he did it so quickly and yet so effectively that we didn't +know it was begun before it was finished. That is a mighty big job for +one man to have done."</p> + +<h3><a name="XXII" id="XXII"></a>XXII.</h3> + +<p class="heading">An Adventure in Civic and Private Art</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Edward Bok</span> now turned his attention to those influences of a more public +nature which he felt could contribute to elevate the standard of public +taste.</p> + +<p>He was surprised, on talking with furnishers of homes, to learn to what +extent women whose husbands had recently acquired means would refer to +certain styles of decoration and hangings which they had seen in the +Pullman parlor-cars. He had never seriously regarded the influence of +the furnishing of these cars upon the travelling public; now he realized +that, in a decorative sense, they were a distinct factor and a very +unfortunate one.</p> + +<p>For in those days, twenty years ago, the decoration of the Pullman +parlor-car was atrocious. Colors were in riotous discord; every foot of +wood-panelling was carved and ornamented, nothing being left of the +grain of even the most beautiful woods; gilt was recklessly laid on +everywhere regardless of its fitness or relation. The hangings in the +cars were not only in bad taste, but distinctly unsanitary; the heaviest +velvets and showiest plushes were used; mirrors with bronzed and +redplushed frames were the order of the day; cord portières, +lambrequins, and tasselled fringes were still in vogue in these cars. It +was a veritable riot of the worst conceivable ideas; and it was this +standard that these women of the new-money class were accepting and +introducing into their homes!</p> + +<p>Bok wrote an editorial calling attention to these facts. The Pullman +Company paid no attention to it, but the railroad journals did. With one +accord they seized the cudgel which Bok had raised, and a series of +hammerings began. The Pullman conductors began to report to their +division chiefs that the passengers were criticising the cars, and the +company at last woke up. It issued a cynical rejoinder; whereupon Bok +wrote another editorial, and the railroad journals once more joined in +the chorus.</p> + +<p>The president of a large Western railroad wrote to Bok that he agreed +absolutely with his position, and asked whether he had any definite +suggestions to offer for the improvement of some new cars which they +were about to order. Bok engaged two of the best architects and +decorators in the country, and submitted the results to the officials of +the railroad company, who approved of them heartily. The Pullman Company +did not take very kindly, however, to suggestions thus brought to them. +But a current had been started; the attention of the travelling public +had been drawn for the first time to the wretched decoration of the +cars; and public sentiment was beginning to be vocal.</p> + +<p>The first change came when a new dining-car on the Chicago, Burlington +and Quincy Railroad suddenly appeared. It was an artistically treated +Flemish-oak-panelled car with longitudinal beams and cross-beams, giving +the impression of a ceiling-beamed room. Between the "beams" was a quiet +tone of deep yellow. The sides of the car were wainscoting of plain +surface done in a Flemish stain rubbed down to a dull finish. The grain +of the wood was allowed to serve as decoration; there was no carving. +The whole tone of the car was that of the rich color of the sunflower. +The effect upon the travelling public was instantaneous. Every passenger +commented favorably on the car.</p> + +<p>The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad now followed suit by +introducing a new Pullman chair-car. The hideous and germ-laden plush or +velvet curtains were gone, and leather hangings of a rich tone took +their place. All the grill-work of a bygone age was missing; likewise +the rope curtains. The woods were left to show the grain; no carving was +visible anywhere. The car was a relief to the eye, beautiful and simple, +and easy to keep clean. Again the public observed, and expressed its +pleasure.</p> + +<p>The Pullman people now saw the drift, and wisely reorganized their +decorative department. Only those who remember the Pullman parlor-car of +twenty years ago can realize how long a step it is from the atrociously +decorated, unsanitary vehicle of that day to the simple car of to-day.</p> + +<p>It was only a step from the Pullman car to the landscape outside, and +Bok next decided to see what he could do toward eliminating the hideous +bill-board advertisements which defaced the landscape along the lines of +the principal roads. He found a willing ally in this idea in Mr. J. +Horace McFarland, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, one of the most skilful +photographers in the country, and the president of The American Civic +Association. McFarland and Bok worked together; they took innumerable +photographs, and began to publish them, calling public attention to the +intrusion upon the public eye.</p> + +<p>Page after page appeared in the magazine, and after a few months these +roused public discussion as to legal control of this class of +advertising. Bok meanwhile called the attention of women's clubs and +other civic organizations to the question, and urged that they clean +their towns of the obnoxious bill-boards. Legislative measures +regulating the size, character, and location of bill-boards were +introduced in various States, a tax on each bill-board was suggested in +other States, and the agitation began to bear fruit.</p> + +<p>Bok now called upon his readers in general to help by offering a series +of prizes totalling several thousands of dollars for two photographs, +one showing a fence, barn, or outbuilding painted with an advertisement +or having a bill-board attached to it, or a field with a bill-board in +it, and a second photograph of the same spot showing the advertisement +removed, with an accompanying affidavit of the owner of the property, +legally attested, asserting that the advertisement had been permanently +removed. Hundreds of photographs poured in, scores of prizes were +awarded, the results were published, and requests came in for a second +series of prizes, which were duly awarded.</p> + +<p>While Bok did not solve the problem of bill-board advertising, and while +in some parts of the country it is a more flagrant nuisance to-day than +ever before, he had started the first serious agitation against +bill-board advertising of bad design, detrimental, from its location, to +landscape beauty. He succeeded in getting rid of a huge bill-board which +had been placed at the most picturesque spot at Niagara Falls; and +hearing of "the largest advertisement sign in the world" to be placed on +the rim of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, he notified the advertisers +that a photograph of the sign, if it was erected, would be immediately +published in the magazine and the attention of the women of America +called to the defacement of one of the most impressive and beautiful +scenes in the world. The article to be advertised was a household +commodity, purchased by women; and the owners realized that the proposed +advertisement would not be to the benefit of their product. The sign was +abandoned.</p> + +<p>Of course the advertisers whose signs were shown in the magazine +immediately threatened the withdrawal of their accounts from The Ladies' +Home Journal, and the proposed advertiser at the Grand Canyon, whose +business was conspicuous in each number of the magazine, became actively +threatening. But Bok contended that the one proposition had absolutely +no relation to the other, and that if concerns advertised in the +magazine simply on the basis of his editorial policy toward bill-board +advertising, it was, to say the least, not a sound basis for +advertising. No advertising account was ever actually withdrawn.</p> + +<p>In their travels about, Mr. McFarland and Bok began to note the +disreputably untidy spots which various municipalities allowed in the +closest proximity to the centre of their business life, in the most +desirable residential sections, and often adjacent to the most important +municipal buildings and parks. It was decided to select a dozen cities, +pick out the most flagrant instances of spots which were not only an +eyesore and a disgrace from a municipal standpoint, but a menace to +health and meant a depreciation of real-estate value.</p> + +<p>Lynn, Massachusetts, was the initial city chosen, a number of +photographs were taken, and the first of a series of "Dirty Cities" was +begun in the magazine. The effect was instantaneous. The people of Lynn +rose in protest, and the municipal authorities threatened suit against +the magazine; the local newspapers were virulent in their attacks. +Without warning, they argued, Bok had held up their city to disgrace +before the entire country; the attack was unwarranted; in bad taste; +every citizen in Lynn should thereafter cease to buy the magazine, and +so the criticisms ran. In answer Bok merely pointed to the photographs; +to the fact that the camera could not lie, and that if he had +misrepresented conditions he was ready to make amends.</p> + +<p>Of course the facts could not be gainsaid; local pride was aroused, and +as a result not only were the advertised "dirty spots" cleaned up, but +the municipal authorities went out and hunted around for other spots in +the city, not knowing what other photographs Bok might have had taken.</p> + +<p>Trenton, New Jersey, was the next example, and the same storm of public +resentment broke loose—with exactly the same beneficial results in the +end to the city. Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, was the third one of +America's "dirty cities." Here public anger rose particularly high, the +magazine practically being barred from the news-stands. But again the +result was to the lasting benefit of the community.</p> + +<p>Memphis, Tennessee, came next, but here a different spirit was met. +Although some resentment was expressed, the general feeling was that a +service had been rendered the city, and that the only wise and practical +solution was for the city to meet the situation. The result here was a +group of municipal buildings costing millions of dollars, photographs of +which The Ladies' Home Journal subsequently published with gratification +to itself and to the people of Memphis.</p> + +<p>Cities throughout the country now began to look around to see whether +they had dirty spots within their limits, not knowing when the McFarland +photographers might visit them. Bok received letters from various +municipalities calling his attention to the fact that they were +cognizant of spots in their cities and were cleaning up, and asking +that, if he had photographs of these spots, they should not be +published.</p> + +<p>It happened that in two such instances Bok had already prepared sets of +photographs for publication. These he sent to the mayors of the +respective cities, stating that if they would return them with an +additional set showing the spots cleaned up there would be no occasion +for their publication. In both cases this was done. Atlanta, Georgia; +New Haven, Connecticut; Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and finally Bok's own +city of Philadelphia were duly chronicled in the magazine; local storms +broke and calmed down-with the spots in every instance improved.</p> + +<p>It was an interesting experiment in photographic civics. The pity of it +is that more has not been done along this and similar lines.</p> + +<p>The time now came when Bok could demonstrate the willingness of his own +publishing company to do what it could to elevate the public taste in +art. With the increasing circulation of The Ladies' Home Journal and of +The Saturday Evening Post the business of the company had grown to such +dimensions that in 1908 plans for a new building were started. For +purposes of air and light the vicinity of Independence Square was +selected. Mr. Curtis purchased an entire city block facing the square, +and the present huge but beautiful publication building was conceived.</p> + +<p>Bok strongly believed that good art should find a place in public +buildings where large numbers of persons might find easy access to it. +The proximity of the proposed new structure to historic Independence +Hall and the adjacent buildings would make it a focal point for visitors +from all parts of the country and the world. The opportunity presented +itself to put good art, within the comprehension of a large public, into +the new building, and Bok asked permission of Mr. Curtis to introduce a +strong note of mural decoration. The idea commended itself to Mr. Curtis +as adding an attraction to the building and a contribution to public +art.</p> + +<p>The great public dining-room, seating over seven hundred persons, on the +top floor of the building, affording unusual lighting facilities, was +first selected; and Maxfield Parrish was engaged to paint a series of +seventeen panels to fill the large spaces between the windows and an +unusually large wall space at the end of the room. Parrish contracted to +give up all other work and devote himself to the commission which +attracted him greatly.</p> + +<p>For over a year he made sketches, and finally the theme was decided +upon: a bevy of youths and maidens in gala costume, on their way through +gardens and along terraces to a great fete, with pierrots and dancers +and musicians on the main wall space. It was to be a picture of happy +youth and sunny gladness. Five years after the conception of the idea +the final panel was finished and installed in the dining-room, where the +series has since been admired by the thirty to fifty thousand visitors +who come to the Curtis Building each year from foreign lands and from +every State in America. No other scheme of mural decoration was ever +planned on so large a scale for a commercial building, or so +successfully carried out.</p> + +<p>The great wall space of over one thousand square feet, unobstructed by a +single column, in the main foyer of the building was decided upon as the +place for the pivotal note to be struck by some mural artist. After +looking carefully over the field, Bok finally decided upon Edwin A. +Abbey. He took a steamer and visited Abbey in his English home. The +artist was working on his canvases for the State capitol at Harrisburg, +and it was agreed that the commission for the Curtis Building was to +follow the completion of the State work.</p> + +<p>"What subject have you in mind?" asked Abbey.</p> + +<p>"None," replied Bok. "That is left entirely to you."</p> + +<p>The artist and his wife looked at each other in bewilderment.</p> + +<p>"Rather unusual," commented Abbey. "You have nothing in mind at all?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing, except to get the best piece of work you have ever done," was +the assurance.</p> + +<p>Poor Abbey! His life had been made so tortuous by suggestions, ideas, +yes, demands made upon him in the work of the Harrisburg panels upon +which he was engaged, that a commission in which he was to have free +scope, his brush full leeway, with no one making suggestions but himself +and Mrs. Abbey, seemed like a dream. When he explained this, Bok assured +him that was exactly what he was offering him: a piece of work, the +subject to be his own selection, with the assurance of absolute liberty +to carry out his own ideas. Never was an artist more elated.</p> + +<p>"Then, I'll give you the best piece of work of my life," said Abbey.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps there is some subject which you have long wished to paint +rather than any other," asked Bok, "that might fit our purpose +admirably?"</p> + +<p>There was: a theme that he had started as a fresco for Mrs. Abbey's +bedroom. But it would not answer this purpose at all, although he +confessed he would rather paint it than any subject in the realm of all +literature and art.</p> + +<p>"And the subject?" asked Bok.</p> + +<p>"The Grove of Academe," replied Abbey, and the eyes of the artist and +his wife were riveted on the editor.</p> + +<p>"With Plato and his disciples?" asked Bok.</p> + +<p>"The same," said Abbey. "But you see it wouldn't fit."</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't fit?" echoed Bok. "Why, it's the very thing."</p> + +<p>Abbey and his wife were now like two happy children. Mrs. Abbey fetched +the sketches which her husband had begun years ago, and when Bok saw +them he was delighted. He realized at once that conditions and choice +would conspire to produce Abbey's greatest piece of mural work.</p> + +<p>The arrangements were quickly settled; the Curtis architect had +accompanied Bok to explain the architectural possibilities to Abbey, and +when the artist bade good-by to the two at the railroad station, his +last words were:</p> + +<p>"Bok, you are going to get the best Abbey in the world."</p> + +<p>And Mrs. Abbey echoed the prophecy!</p> + +<p>But Fate intervened. On the day after Abbey had stretched his great +canvas in Sargent's studio in London, expecting to begin his work the +following week, he suddenly passed away, and what would, in all +likelihood, have been Edwin Abbey's mural masterpiece was lost to the +world.</p> + +<p>Assured of Mrs. Abbey's willingness to have another artist take the +theme of the Grove of Academe and carry it out as a mural decoration, +Bok turned to Howard Pyle. He knew Pyle had made a study of Plato, and +believed that, with his knowledge and love of the work of the Athenian +philosopher, a good decoration would result. Pyle was then in Italy; Bok +telephoned the painter's home in Wilmington, Delaware, to get his +address, only to be told that an hour earlier word had been received by +the family that Pyle had been fatally stricken the day before.</p> + +<p>Once more Bok went over the field of mural art and decided this time +that he would go far afield, and present his idea to Boutet de Monvel, +the French decorative artist. Bok had been much impressed with some +decorative work by De Monvel which had just been exhibited in New York. +By letter he laid the proposition in detail before the artist, asked for +a subject, and stipulated that if the details could be arranged the +artist should visit the building and see the place and surroundings for +himself. After a lengthy correspondence, and sketches submitted and +corrected, a plan for what promised to be a most unusual and +artistically decorative panel was arrived at.</p> + +<p>The date for M. de Monvel's visit to Philadelphia was fixed, a final +letter from the artist reached Bok on a Monday morning, in which a few +remaining details were satisfactorily cleared up, and a cable was sent +assuring De Monvel of the entire satisfaction of the company with his +final sketches and arrangements. The following morning Bok picked up his +newspaper to read that Boutet de Monvel had suddenly passed away in +Paris the previous evening!</p> + +<p>Bok, thoroughly bewildered, began to feel as if some fatal star hung +over his cherished decoration. Three times in succession he had met the +same decree of fate.</p> + +<p>He consulted six of the leading mural decorators in America, asking +whether they would consent, not in competition, to submit each a +finished full-color sketch of the subject which he believed fitted for +the place in mind; they could take the Grove of Academe or not, as they +chose; the subject was to be of their own selection. Each artist was to +receive a generous fee for his sketch, whether accepted or rejected. In +due time, the six sketches were received; impartial judges were +selected, no names were attached to the sketches, several conferences +were held, and all the sketches were rejected!</p> + +<p>Bok was still exactly where he started, while the building was nearly +complete, with no mural for the large place so insistently demanding it.</p> + +<p>He now recalled a marvellous stage-curtain entirely of glass mosaic +executed by Louis C. Tiffany, of New York, for the Municipal Theatre at +Mexico City. The work had attracted universal attention at its +exhibition, art critics and connoisseurs had praised it unstintingly, +and Bok decided to experiment in that direction.</p> + +<p>Just as the ancient Egyptians and Persians had used glazed brick and +tile, set in cement, as their form of wall decoration, so Mr. Tiffany +had used favrile glass, set in cement. The luminosity was marvellous; +the effect of light upon the glass was unbelievably beautiful, and the +colorings obtained were a joy to the senses.</p> + +<p>Here was not only a new method in wall decoration, but one that was +entirely practicable. Glass would not craze like tiles or mosaic; it +would not crinkle as will canvas; it needed no varnish. It would retain +its color, freshness, and beauty, and water would readily cleanse it +from dust.</p> + +<p>He sought Mr. Tiffany, who was enthusiastic over the idea of making an +example of his mosaic glass of such dimensions which should remain in +this country, and gladly offered to co-operate. But, try as he might, +Bok could not secure an adequate sketch for Mr. Tiffany to carry out. +Then he recalled that one day while at Maxfield Parrish's summer home in +New Hampshire the artist had told him of a dream garden which he would +like to construct, not on canvas but in reality. Bok suggested to +Parrish that he come to New York. He asked him if he could put his dream +garden on canvas. The artist thought he could; in fact, was greatly +attracted to the idea; but he knew nothing of mosaic work, and was not +particularly attracted by the idea of having his work rendered in that +medium.</p> + +<p>Bok took Parrish to Mr. Tiffany's studio; the two artists talked +together, the glass-worker showed the canvas-painter his work, with the +result that the two became enthusiastic to co-operate in trying the +experiment. Parrish agreed to make a sketch for Mr. Tiffany's approval, +and within six months, after a number of conferences and an equal number +of sketches, they were ready to begin the work. Bok only hoped that this +time both artists would outlive their commissions!</p> + +<p>It was a huge picture to be done in glass mosaic. The space to be filled +called for over a million pieces of glass, and for a year the services +of thirty of the most skilled artisans would be required. The work had +to be done from a series of bromide photographs enlarged to a size +hitherto unattempted. But at last the decoration was completed; the +finished art piece was placed on exhibition in New York and over seven +thousand persons came to see it. The leading art critics pronounced the +result to be the most amazing instance of the tone capacity of +glass-work ever achieved. It was a veritable wonder-piece, far exceeding +the utmost expression of paint and canvas.</p> + +<p>For six months a group of skilled artisans worked to take the picture +apart in New York, transport it and set it into its place in +Philadelphia. But at last it was in place: the wonder-picture in glass +of which painters have declared that "mere words are only aggravating in +describing this amazing picture." Since that day over one hundred +thousand visitors to the building have sat in admiration before it.</p> + +<p>The Grove of Academe was to become a Dream Garden, but it was only after +six years of incessant effort, with obstacles and interventions almost +insurmountable, that the dream became true.</p> + +<h3><a name="XXIII" id="XXIII"></a>XXIII.</h3> + +<p class="heading">Theodore Roosevelt's Influence</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">When</span> the virile figure of Theodore Roosevelt swung down the national +highway, Bok was one of thousands of young men who felt strongly the +attraction of his personality. Colonel Roosevelt was only five years the +senior of the editor; he spoke, therefore, as one of his own years. The +energy with which he said and did things appealed to Bok. He made +Americanism something more real, more stirring than Bok had ever felt +it; he explained national questions in a way that caught Bok's fancy and +came within his comprehension. Bok's lines had been cast with many of +the great men of the day, but he felt that there was something +distinctive about the personality of this man: his method of doing +things and his way of saying things. Bok observed everything Colonel +Roosevelt did and read everything he wrote.</p> + +<p>The editor now sought an opportunity to know personally the man whom he +admired. It came at a dinner at the University Club, and Colonel +Roosevelt suggested that they meet there the following day for a +"talk-fest." For three hours the two talked together. The fact that +Colonel Roosevelt was of Dutch ancestry interested Bok; that Bok was +actually of Dutch birth made a strong appeal to the colonel. With his +tremendous breadth of interests, Roosevelt, Bok found, had followed him +quite closely in his work, and was familiar with "its high points," as +he called them. "We must work for the same ends," said the colonel, "you +in your way, I in mine. But our lines are bound to cross. You and I can +each become good Americans by giving our best to make America better. +With the Dutch stock there is in both of us, there's no limit to what we +can do. Let's go to it." Naturally that talk left the two firm friends.</p> + +<p>Bok felt somehow that he had been given a new draft of Americanism: the +word took on a new meaning for him; it stood for something different, +something deeper and finer than before. And every subsequent talk with +Roosevelt deepened the feeling and stirred Bok's deepest ambitions. "Go +to it, you Dutchman," Roosevelt would say, and Bok would go to it. A +talk with Roosevelt always left him feeling as if mountains were the +easiest things in the world to move.</p> + +<p>One of Theodore Roosevelt's arguments which made a deep impression upon +Bok was that no man had a right to devote his entire life to the making +of money. "You are in a peculiar position," said the man of Oyster Bay +one day to Bok; "you are in that happy position where you can make money +and do good at the same time. A man wields a tremendous power for good +or for evil who is welcomed into a million homes and read with +confidence. That's fine, and is all right so far as it goes, and in your +case it goes very far. Still, there remains more for you to do. The +public has built up for you a personality: now give that personality to +whatever interests you in contact with your immediate fellow-men: +something in your neighborhood, your city, or your State. With one hand +work and write to your national audience: let no fads sway you. Hew +close to the line. But, with the other hand, swing into the life +immediately around you. Think it over."</p> + +<p>Bok did think it over. He was now realizing the dream of his life for +which he had worked: his means were sufficient to give his mother every +comfort; to install her in the most comfortable surroundings wherever +she chose to live; to make it possible for her to spend the winters in +the United States and the summers in the Netherlands, and thus to keep +in touch with her family and friends in both countries. He had for years +toiled unceasingly to reach this point: he felt he had now achieved at +least one goal.</p> + +<p>He had now turned instinctively to the making of a home for himself. +After an engagement of four years he had been married, on October 22, +1896, to Mary Louise Curtis, the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Cyrus H. K. +Curtis; two sons had been born to them; he had built and was occupying a +house at Merion, Pennsylvania, a suburb six miles from the Philadelphia +City Hall. When she was in this country his mother lived with him, and +also his brother, and, with a strong belief in life insurance, he had +seen to it that his family was provided for in case of personal +incapacity or of his demise. In other words, he felt that he had put his +own house in order; he had carried out what he felt is every man's duty: +to be, first of all, a careful and adequate provider for his family. He +was now at the point where he could begin to work for another goal, the +goal that he felt so few American men saw: the point in his life where +he could retire from the call of duty and follow the call of +inclination.</p> + +<p>At the age of forty he tried to look ahead and plan out his life as far +as he could. Barring unforeseen obstacles, he determined to retire from +active business when he reached his fiftieth year, and give the +remainder of his life over to those interests and influences which he +assumed now as part of his life, and which, at fifty, should seem to him +best worth while. He realized that in order to do this he must do two +things: he must husband his financial resources and he must begin to +accumulate a mental reserve.</p> + +<p>The wide public acceptance of the periodical which he edited naturally +brought a share of financial success to him. He had experienced poverty, +and as he subsequently wrote, in an article called "Why I Believe in +Poverty," he was deeply grateful for his experience. He had known what +it was to be poor; he had seen others dear to him suffer for the bare +necessities; there was, in fact, not a single step on that hard road +that he had not travelled. He could, therefore, sympathize with the +fullest understanding with those similarly situated, could help as one +who knew from practice and not from theory. He realized what a +marvellous blessing poverty can be; but as a condition to experience, to +derive from it poignant lessons, and then to get out of; not as a +condition to stay in.</p> + +<p>Of course many said to Bok when he wrote the article in which he +expressed these beliefs: "That's all very well; easy enough to say, but +how can you get out of it?" Bok realized that he could not definitely +show any one the way. No one had shown him. No two persons can find the +same way out. Bok determined to lift himself out of poverty because his +mother was not born in it, did not belong in it, and could not stand it. +That gave him the first essential: a purpose. Then he backed up the +purpose with effort and an ever-ready willingness to work, and to work +at anything that came his way, no matter what it was, so long as it +meant "the way out." He did not pick and choose; he took what came, and +did it in the best way he knew how; and when he did not like what he was +doing he still did it as well as he could while he was doing it, but +always with an eye single to the purpose not to do it any longer than +was strictly necessary. He used every rung in the ladder as a rung to +the one above. He always gave more than his particular position or +salary asked for. He never worked by the clock; always by the job; and +saw that it was well done regardless of the time it took to do it. This +meant effort, of course, untiring, ceaseless, unsparing; and it meant +work, hard as nails.</p> + +<p>He was particularly careful never to live up to his income; and as his +income increased he increased not the percentage of expenditure but the +percentage of saving. Thrift was, of course, inborn with him as a +Dutchman, but the necessity for it as a prime factor in life was burned +into him by his experience with poverty. But he interpreted thrift not +as a trait of niggardliness, but as Theodore Roosevelt interpreted it: +common sense applied to spending.</p> + +<p>At forty, therefore, he felt he had learned the first essential to +carrying out his idea of retirement at fifty.</p> + +<p>The second essential—varied interests outside of his business upon +which he could rely on relinquishing his duties—he had not cultivated. +He had quite naturally, in line with his belief that concentration means +success, immersed himself in his business to the exclusion of almost +everything else. He felt that he could now spare a certain percentage of +his time to follow Theodore Roosevelt's ideas and let the breezes of +other worlds blow over him. In that way he could do as Roosevelt +suggested and as Bok now firmly believed was right: he could develop +himself along broader lines, albeit the lines of his daily work were +broadening in and of themselves, and he could so develop a new set of +inner resources upon which he could draw when the time came to +relinquish his editorial position.</p> + +<p>He saw, on every side, the pathetic figures of men who could not let go +after their greatest usefulness was past; of other men who dropped +before they realized their arrival at the end of the road; and, most +pathetic of all, of men who having retired, but because of lack of inner +resources did not know what to do with themselves, had become a trial to +themselves, their families, and their communities.</p> + +<p>Bok decided that, given health and mental freshness, he would say +good-by to his public before his public might decide to say good-by to +him. So, at forty, he candidly faced the facts of life and began to +prepare himself for his retirement at fifty under circumstances that +would be of his own making and not those of others.</p> + +<p>And thereby Edward Bok proved that he was still, by instinct, a +Dutchman, and had not in his thirty-four years of residence in the +United States become so thoroughly Americanized as he believed.</p> + +<p>However, it was an American, albeit of Dutch extraction, one whom he +believed to be the greatest American in his own day, who had set him +thinking and shown him the way.</p> + +<h3><a name="XXIV" id="XXIV"></a>XXIV.</h3> + +<p class="heading">Theodore Roosevelt's Anonymous Editorial Work</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">While</span> Theodore Roosevelt was President of the United States, Bok was +sitting one evening talking with him, when suddenly Mr. Roosevelt turned +to him and said with his usual emphasis: "Bok, I envy you your power +with your public."</p> + +<p>The editor was frankly puzzled.</p> + +<p>"That is a strange remark from the President of the United States," he +replied.</p> + +<p>"You may think so," was the rejoinder. "But listen. When do I get the +ear of the public? In its busiest moments. My messages are printed in +the newspapers and read hurriedly, mostly by men in trolleys or +railroad-cars. Women hardly ever read them, I should judge. Now you are +read in the evening by the fireside or under the lamp, when the day's +work is over and the mind is at rest from other things and receptive to +what you offer. Don't you see where you have it on me?"</p> + +<p>This diagnosis was keenly interesting, and while the President talked +during the balance of the evening, Bok was thinking. Finally, he said: +"Mr. President, I should like to share my power with you."</p> + +<p>"How?" asked Mr. Roosevelt.</p> + +<p>"You recognize that women do not read your messages; and yet no +President's messages ever discussed more ethical questions that women +should know about and get straight in their minds. As it is, some of +your ideas are not at all understood by them; your strenuous-life +theory, for instance, your factory-law ideas, and particularly your +race-suicide arguments. Men don't fully understand them, for that +matter; women certainly do not."</p> + +<p>"I am aware of all that," said the President. "What is your plan to +remedy it?"</p> + +<p>"Have a department in my magazine, and explain your ideas," suggested +Bok.</p> + +<p>"Haven't time for another thing. You know that," snapped back the +President. "Wish I had."</p> + +<p>"Not to write it, perhaps, yourself," returned Bok.</p> + +<p>"But why couldn't you find time to do this: select the writer here in +Washington in whose accuracy you have the most implicit faith; let him +talk with you for one hour each month on one of those subjects; let him +write out your views, and submit the manuscript to you; and we will have +a department stating exactly how the material is obtained and how far it +represents your own work. In that way, with only an hour's work each +month, you can get your views, correctly stated, before this vast +audience when it is not in trolleys or railroad-cars."</p> + +<p>"But I haven't the hour," answered Roosevelt, impressed, however, as Bok +saw. "I have only half an hour, when I am awake, when I am really idle, +and that is when I am being shaved."</p> + +<p>"Well," calmly suggested the editor, "why not two of those half-hours a +month, or perhaps one?"</p> + +<p>"What?" answered the President, sitting upright, his teeth flashing but +his smile broadening. "You Dutchman, you'd make me work while I'm +getting shaved, too?"</p> + +<p>"Well," was the answer, "isn't the result worth the effort?"</p> + +<p>"Bok, you are absolutely relentless," said the President. "But you're +right. The result would be worth the effort. What writer have you in +mind? You seem to have thought this thing through."</p> + +<p>"How about O'Brien? You think well of him?"</p> + +<p>(Robert L. O'Brien, now editor of the Boston Herald, was then Washington +correspondent for the Boston Transcript and thoroughly in the +President's confidence.)</p> + +<p>"Fine," said the President. "I trust O'Brien implicitly. All right, if +you can get O'Brien to add it on, I'll try it."</p> + +<p>And so the "shaving interviews" were begun; and early in 1906 there +appeared in The Ladies' Home Journal a department called "The +President," with the subtitle: "A Department in which will be presented +the attitude of the President on those national questions which affect +the vital interests of the home, by a writer intimately acquainted and +in close touch with him."</p> + +<p>O'Brien talked with Mr. Roosevelt once a month, wrote out the results, +the President went over the proofs carefully, and the department was +conducted with great success for a year.</p> + +<p>But Theodore Roosevelt was again to be the editor of a department in The +Ladies' Home Journal; this time to be written by himself under the +strictest possible anonymity, so closely adhered to that, until this +revelation, only five persons have known the authorship.</p> + +<p>Feeling that it would be an interesting experiment to see how far +Theodore Roosevelt's ideas could stand unsupported by the authority of +his vibrant personality, Bok suggested the plan to the colonel. It was +just after he had returned from his South American trip. He was +immediately interested.</p> + +<p>"But how can we keep the authorship really anonymous?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Easily enough," answered Bok, "if you're willing to do the work. Our +letters about it must be written in long hand addressed to each other's +homes; you must write your manuscript in your own hand; I will copy it +in mine, and it will go to the printer in that way. I will personally +send you the proofs; you mark your corrections in pencil, and I will +copy them in ink; the company will pay me for each article, and I will +send you my personal check each month. By this means, the identity of +the author will be concealed."</p> + +<p>Colonel Roosevelt was never averse to hard work if it was necessary to +achieve a result that he felt was worth while.</p> + +<p>"All right," wrote the colonel finally. "I'll try—with you!—the +experiment for a year: 12 articles... I don't know that I can give your +readers satisfaction, but I shall try my very best. I am very glad to be +associated with you, anyway. At first I doubted the wisdom of the plan, +merely because I doubted whether I could give you just that you wished. +I never know what an audience wants: I know what it ought to want: and +sometimes I can give it, or make it accept what I think it needs—and +sometimes I cannot. But the more I thought over your proposal, the more +I liked it... Whether the wine will be good enough to attract without +any bush I don't know; and besides, in such cases the fault is not in +the wine, but in the fact that the consumers decline to have their +attention attracted unless there is a bush!"</p> + +<p>In the latter part of 1916 an anonymous department called "Men" was +begun in the magazine.</p> + +<p>The physical work was great. The colonel punctiliously held to the +conditions, and wrote manuscript and letters with his own hand, and Bok +carried out his part of the agreement. Nor was this simple, for Colonel +Roosevelt's manuscript—particularly when, as in this case, it was +written on yellow paper with a soft pencil and generously +interlined—was anything but legible. Month after month the two men +worked each at his own task. To throw the public off the scent, during +the conduct of the department, an article or two by Colonel Roosevelt +was published in another part of the magazine under his own name, and in +the department itself the anonymous author would occasionally quote +himself.</p> + +<p>It was natural that the appearance of a department devoted to men in a +woman's magazine should attract immediate attention. The department took +up the various interests of a man's life, such as real efficiency; his +duties as an employer and his usefulness to his employees; the +employee's attitude toward his employer; the relations of men and women; +a father's relations to his sons and daughters; a man's duty to his +community; the public-school system; a man's relation to his church, and +kindred topics.</p> + +<p>The anonymity of the articles soon took on interest from the +positiveness of the opinions discussed; but so thoroughly had Colonel +Roosevelt covered his tracks that, although he wrote in his usual style, +in not a single instance was his name connected with the department. +Lyman Abbott was the favorite "guess" at first; then after various other +public men had been suggested, the newspapers finally decided upon +former President Eliot of Harvard University as the writer.</p> + +<p>All this intensely interested and amused Colonel Roosevelt and he fairly +itched with the desire to write a series of criticisms of his own +articles to Doctor Eliot. Bok, however, persuaded the colonel not to +spend more physical effort than he was already doing on the articles; +for, in addition, he was notating answers on the numerous letters +received, and those Bok answered "on behalf of the author."</p> + +<p>For a year, the department continued. During all that time the secret of +the authorship was known to only one man, besides the colonel and Bok, +and their respective wives!</p> + +<p>When the colonel sent his last article in the series to Bok, he wrote:</p> + +<p class="top5">"Now that the work is over, I wish most cordially to thank you, my dear +fellow, for your unvarying courtesy and kindness. I have not been +satisfied with my work. This is the first time I ever tried to write +precisely to order, and I am not one of those gifted men who can do so +to advantage. Generally I find that the 3,000 words is not the right +length and that I wish to use 2,000 or 4,000! And in consequence feel as +if I had either padded or mutilated the article. And I am not always +able to feel that every month I have something worth saying on a given +subject.</p> + +<p>"But I hope that you have not been too much disappointed."</p> + +<p class="top5">Bok had not been, and neither had his public!</p> + +<p>In the meanwhile, Bok had arranged with Colonel Roosevelt for his +reading and advising upon manuscripts of special significance for the +magazine. In this work, Colonel Roosevelt showed his customary +promptness and thoroughness. A manuscript, no matter how long it might +be, was in his hands scarcely forty-eight hours, more generally +twenty-four, before it was read, a report thereon written, and the +article on its way back. His reports were always comprehensive and +invariably interesting. There was none of the cut-and-dried flavor of +the opinion of the average "reader"; he always put himself into the +report, and, of course, that meant a warm personal touch. If he could +not encourage the publication of a manuscript, his reasons were always +fully given, and invariably without personal bias.</p> + +<p>On one occasion Bok sent him a manuscript which he was sure was, in its +views, at variance with the colonel's beliefs. The colonel, he knew, +felt strongly on the subject, and Bok wondered what would be his +criticism. The report came back promptly. He reviewed the article +carefully and ended: "Of course, this is all at variance with my own +views. I believe thoroughly and completely that this writer is all +wrong. And yet, from his side of the case, I am free to say that he +makes out the best case I have read anywhere. I think a magazine should +present both sides of all questions; and if you want to present this +side, I should strongly recommend that you do so with this article."</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<span style="margin-left: 18em;">Sagamore Hill. April 26th 1916</span><br /> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">This is a really noteworthy story—a</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">profoundly touching story—of the Americanizing</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of an immigrant girl, who between babyhood</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and young womanhood leaps over a space</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">which in all outward and humanizing essentials</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is far more important than the distance</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">painfully traversed by her forefathers during</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the preceding thousand years. When we tend to</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">grow disheartened over some of the developments</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of our American civilization, it is well</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">worth while seeing what this same</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">civilization holds for starved and noble</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">souls who have elsewhere been denied what</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">here we hold to be, as a matter of course, rights</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">free to all—altho we do not, as we should do,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">make these rights accessible to all who are</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">willing with resolute earnestness to strive for them.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I most cordially commend this story.</span><br /> + +<span style="margin-left: 18em;">Theodore Roosevelt</span><br /><br /> + +<span class="smcap">One of Theodore Roosevelt's "Reports" as a reader of +special manuscripts"</span></p> + +<p>Not long after, Bok decided to induce Colonel Roosevelt to embark upon +an entirely new activity, and negotiations were begun (alas, too late! +for it was in the autumn of 1918), which, owing to their tentative +character, were never made public. Bok told Colonel Roosevelt that he +wanted to invest twenty-five thousand dollars a year in American +boyhood—the boyhood that he felt twenty years hence would be the +manhood of America, and that would actually solve the problems with +which we were now grappling.</p> + +<p>Although, all too apparently, he was not in his usual vigorous health, +Colonel Roosevelt was alert in a moment.</p> + +<p>"Fine!" he said, with his teeth gleaming. "Couldn't invest better +anywhere. How are you going to do it?"</p> + +<p>"By asking you to assume the active headship of the National Boy Scouts +of America, and paying you that amount each year as a fixed salary."</p> + +<p>The colonel looked steadily ahead for a moment, without a word, and then +with the old Roosevelt smile wreathing his face and his teeth fairly +gleaming, he turned to his "tempter," as he called him, and said:</p> + +<p>"Do you know that was very well put? Yes, sir, very well put."</p> + +<p>"Yes?" answered Bok. "Glad you think so. But how about your acceptance +of the idea?"</p> + +<p>"That's another matter; quite another matter. How about the organization +itself? There are men in it that don't approve of me at all, you know," +he said.</p> + +<p>Bok explained that the organization knew nothing of his offer; that it +was entirely unofficial. It was purely a personal thought. He believed +the Boy Scouts of America needed a leader; that the colonel was the one +man in the United States fitted by every natural quality to be that +leader; that the Scouts would rally around him, and that, at his call, +instead of four hundred thousand Scouts, as there were then, the +organization would grow into a million and more. Bok further explained +that he believed his connection with the national organization was +sufficient, if Colonel Roosevelt would favorably consider such a +leadership, to warrant him in presenting it to the national officers; +and he was inclined to believe they would welcome the opportunity. He +could not assure the colonel of this! He had no authority for saying +they would; but was Colonel Roosevelt receptive to the idea?</p> + +<p>At first, the colonel could not see it. But he went over the ground as +thoroughly as a half-hour talk permitted; and finally the opportunity +for doing a piece of constructive work that might prove second to none +that he had ever done, made its appeal.</p> + +<p>"You mean for me to be the active head?" asked the colonel.</p> + +<p>"Could you be anything else, colonel?" answered Bok.</p> + +<p>"Quite so," said the colonel. "That's about right. Do you know," he +pondered, "I think Edie (Mrs. Roosevelt) might like me to do something +like that. She would figure it would keep me out of mischief in 1920," +and the colonel's smile spread over his face.</p> + +<p>"Bok," he at last concluded, "do you know, after all, I think you've +said something! Let's think it over. Let's see how I get along with this +trouble of mine. I am not sure, you know, how far I can go in the +future. Not at all sure, you know—not at all. That last trip of mine to +South America was a bit too much. Shouldn't have done it, you know. I +know it now. Well, as I say, let's both think it over and through; I +will, gladly and most carefully. There's much in what you say; it's a +great chance; I'd love doing it. By Jove! it would be wonderful to rally +a million boys for real Americanism, as you say. It looms up as I think +it over. Suppose we let it simmer for a month or two."</p> + +<p>And so it was left—for "a month or two." It was to be +forever—unfortunately. Edward Bok has always felt that the most +worth-while idea that ever came to him had, for some reason he never +could understand, come too late. He felt, as he will always feel, that +the boys of America had lost a national leader that might have led +them—where would have been the limit?</p> + +<h3><a name="XXV" id="XXV"></a>XXV.</h3> + +<p class="heading">The President and the Boy</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">One</span> of the incidents connected with Edward Bok that Theodore Roosevelt +never forgot was when Bok's eldest boy chose the colonel as a Christmas +present. And no incident better portrays the wonderful character of the +colonel than did his remarkable response to the compliment.</p> + +<p>A vicious attack of double pneumonia had left the heart of the boy very +weak—and Christmas was close by! So the father said:</p> + +<p>"It's a quiet Christmas for you this year, boy. Suppose you do this: +think of the one thing in the world that you would rather have than +anything else and I'll give you that, and that will have to be your +Christmas."</p> + +<p>"I know now," came the instant reply.</p> + +<p>"But the world is a big place, and there are lots of things in it, you +know."</p> + +<p>"I know that," said the boy, "but this is something I have wanted for a +long time, and would rather have than anything else in the world." And +he looked as if he meant it.</p> + +<p>"Well, out with it, then, if you're so sure."</p> + +<p>And to the father's astonished ears came this request:</p> + +<p>"Take me to Washington as soon as my heart is all right, introduce me to +President Roosevelt, and let me shake hands with him."</p> + +<p>"All right," said the father, after recovering from his surprise. "I'll +see whether I can fix it." And that morning a letter went to the +President saying that he had been chosen as a Christmas present. +Naturally, any man would have felt pleased, no matter how high his +station, and for Theodore Roosevelt, father of boys, the message had a +special appeal.</p> + +<p>The letter had no sooner reached Washington than back came an answer, +addressed not to the father but to the boy! It read:</p> + +<p class="top5"><span style="margin-left: 18em;">"The White House, Washington.</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 20em;">"November 13th, 1907.</span></p> + +<p>"Dear Curtis:</p> + +<p>"Your father has just written me, and I want him to bring you on and +shake hands with me as soon as you are well enough to travel. Then I am +going to give you, myself, a copy of the book containing my hunting +trips since I have been President; unless you will wait until the new +edition, which contains two more chapters, is out. If so, I will send it +to you, as this new edition probably won't be ready when you come on +here.</p> + +<p>"Give my warm regards to your father and mother.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 18em;">"Sincerely yours,</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 22em;">"Theodore Roosevelt."</span></p> + +<p class="top5">Here was joy serene! But the boy's heart had acted queerly for a few +days, and so the father wrote, thanked the President, and said that as +soon as the heart moderated a bit the letter would be given the boy. It +was a rare bit of consideration that now followed. No sooner had the +father's letter reached the White House than an answer came back by +first post—this time with a special-delivery stamp on it. It was +Theodore Roosevelt, the father, who wrote this time; his mind and time +filled with affairs of state, and yet full of tender thoughtfulness for +a little boy:</p> + +<p class="top5">"Dear Mr. Bok:—</p> + +<p>"I have your letter of the 16th instant. I hope the little fellow will +soon be all right. Instead of giving him my letter, give him a message +from me based on the letter, if that will be better for him. Tell Mrs. +Bok how deeply Mrs. Roosevelt and I sympathize with her. We know just +how she feels.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 10em;">"Sincerely yours,</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 18em;">"Theodore Roosevelt."</span></p> + +<p class="top5">"That's pretty fine consideration," said the father. He got the letter +during a business conference and he read it aloud to the group of +business men. Some there were in that group who keenly differed with the +President on national issues, but they were all fathers, and two of the +sturdiest turned and walked to the window as they said: "Yes, that is +fine!"</p> + +<p>Then came the boy's pleasure when he was handed the letter; the next few +days were spent inditing an answer to "my friend, the President." At +last the momentous epistle seemed satisfactory, and off to the busy +presidential desk went the boyish note, full of thanks and assurances +that he would come just as soon as he could, and that Mr. Roosevelt must +not get impatient!</p> + +<p>The "soon as he could" time, however, did not come as quickly as all had +hoped!—a little heart pumped for days full of oxygen and accelerated by +hypodermic injections is slow to mend. But the President's framed +letter, hanging on the spot on the wall first seen in the morning, was a +daily consolation.</p> + +<p>Then, in March, although four months after the promise—and it would not +have been strange, in his busy life, for the President to have forgotten +or at least overlooked it—on the very day that the book was published +came a special "large-paper" copy of The Outdoor Pastimes of an American +Hunter, and on the fly-leaf there greeted the boy, in the President's +own hand:</p> + +<p class="top5">"To Master Curtis Bok,</p> + +<p>"With the best wishes of his friend,</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 18em;">"Theodore Roosevelt.</span></p> + +<p>"March 11, 1908."</p> + +<p class="top5">The boy's cup was now full, and so said his letter to the President. And +the President wrote back to the father: "I am really immensely amused +and interested, and shall be mighty glad to see the little fellow."</p> + +<p>In the spring, on a beautiful May day, came the great moment. The mother +had to go along, the boy insisted, to see the great event, and so the +trio found themselves shaking the hand of the President's secretary at +the White House.</p> + +<p>"Oh, the President is looking for you, all right," he said to the boy, +and then the next moment the three were in a large room. Mr. Roosevelt, +with beaming face, was already striding across the room, and with a +"Well, well, and so this is my friend Curtis!" the two stood looking +into each other's faces, each fairly wreathed in smiles, and each +industriously shaking the hand of the other.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mr. President, I'm mighty glad to see you!" said the boy.</p> + +<p>"I am glad to see you, Curtis," returned Mr. Roosevelt.</p> + +<p>Then there came a white rose from the presidential desk for the mother, +but after that father and mother might as well have faded away. Nobody +existed save the President and the boy. The anteroom was full; in the +Cabinet-room a delegation waited to be addressed. But affairs of state +were at a complete standstill as, with boyish zeal, the President became +oblivious to all but the boy before him.</p> + +<p>"Now, Curtis, I've got some pictures here of bears that a friend of mine +has just shot. Look at that whopper, fifteen hundred pounds—that's as +much as a horse weighs, you know. Now, my friend shot him"—and it was a +toss-up who was the more keenly interested, the real boy or the man-boy, +as picture after picture came out and bear adventure crowded upon the +heels of bear adventure.</p> + +<p>"Gee, he's a corker, all right!" came from the boy at one point, and +then, from the President: "That's right, he is a corker. Now you see his +head here"—and then both were off again.</p> + +<p>The private secretary came in at this point and whispered in the +President's ear.</p> + +<p>"I know, I know. I'll see him later. Say that I am very busy now." And +the face beamed with smiles.</p> + +<p>"Now, Mr. President—" began the father.</p> + +<p>"No, sir; no, sir; not at all. Affairs can wait. This is a long-standing +engagement between Curtis and me, and that must come first. Isn't that +so, Curtis?"</p> + +<p>Of course the boy agreed.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the boy looked around the room and said:</p> + +<p>"Where's your gun, Mr. President? Got it here?"</p> + +<p>"No," laughingly came from the President, "but I'll tell you"—and then +the two heads were together again.</p> + +<p>A moment for breath-taking came, and the boy said:</p> + +<p>"Aren't you ever afraid of being shot?"</p> + +<p>"You mean while I am hunting?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no. I mean as President."</p> + +<p>"No," replied the smiling President. "I'll tell you, Curtis; I'm too +busy to think about that. I have too many things to do to bother about +anything of that sort. When I was in battle I was always too anxious to +get to the front to think about the shots. And here—well, here I'm too +busy too. Never think about it. But I'll tell you, Curtis, there are +some men down there," pointing out of the window in the direction of the +capitol, "called the Congress, and if they would only give me the four +battleships I want, I'd be perfectly willing to have any one take a +crack at me." Then, for the first time recognizing the existence of the +parents, the President said: "And I don't know but if they did pick me +off I'd be pretty well ahead of the game."</p> + +<p>Just in that moment only did the boy-knowing President get a single inch +above the boy-interest. It was astonishing to see the natural accuracy +with which the man gauged the boy-level.</p> + +<p>"Now, how would you like to see a bear, Curtis?" came next. "I know +where there's a beauty, twelve hundred pounds."</p> + +<p>"Must be some bear!" interjected the boy.</p> + +<p>"That's what it is," put in the President. "Regular cinnamon-brown +type"—and then off went the talk to the big bear at the Washington +"Zoo" where the President was to send the boy.</p> + +<p>Then, after a little: "Now, Curtis, see those men over there in that +room. They've travelled from all parts of the country to come here at my +invitation, and I've got to make a little speech to them, and I'll do +that while you go off to see the bear."</p> + +<p>And then the hand came forth to say good-by. The boy put his in it, each +looked into the other's face, and on neither was there a place big +enough to put a ten-cent piece that was not wreathed in smiles. "He +certainly is all right," said the boy to the father, looking wistfully +after the President.</p> + +<p>Almost to the other room had the President gone when he, too, +instinctively looked back to find the boy following him with his eyes. +He stopped, wheeled around, and then the two instinctively sought each +other again. The President came back, the boy went forward. This time +each held out both hands, and as each looked once more into the other's +eyes a world of complete understanding was in both faces, and every +looker-on smiled with them.</p> + +<p>"Good-by, Curtis," came at last from the President.</p> + +<p>"Good-by, Mr. President," came from the boy.</p> + +<p>Then, with another pump-handly shake and with a "Gee, but he's great, +all right!" the boy went out to see the cinnamon-bear at the "Zoo," and +to live it all over in the days to come.</p> + +<p>Two boy-hearts had met, although one of them belonged to the President +of the United States.</p> + +<h3><a name="XXVI" id="XXVI"></a>XXVI.</h3> + +<p class="heading">The Literary Back-Stairs</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">His</span> complete absorption in the magazine work now compelled Bok to close +his newspaper syndicate in New York and end the writing of his weekly +newspaper literary letter. He decided, however, to transfer to the pages +of his magazine his idea of making the American public more conversant +with books and authors. Accordingly, he engaged Robert Bridges (the +present editor of Scribner's Magazine) to write a series of +conversational book-talks under his nom de plume of "Droch." Later, this +was supplemented by the engagement of Hamilton W. Mabie, who for years +reviewed the newest books.</p> + +<p>In almost every issue of the magazine there appeared also an article +addressed to the literary novice. Bok was eager, of course, to attract +the new authors to the magazine; but, particularly, he had in mind the +correction of the popular notion, then so prevalent (less so to-day, +fortunately, but still existent), that only the manuscripts of famous +authors were given favorable reading in editorial offices; that in these +offices there really existed a clique, and that unless the writer knew +the literary back-stairs he had a slim chance to enter and be heard.</p> + +<p>In the minds of these misinformed writers, these back-stairs are gained +by "knowing the editor" or through "having some influence with him." +These writers have conclusively settled two points in their own minds: +first, that an editor is antagonistic to the struggling writer; and, +second, that a manuscript sent in the ordinary manner to an editor never +reaches him. Hence, some "influence" is necessary, and they set about to +secure it.</p> + +<p>Now, the truth is, of course, that there are no "literary back-stairs" +to the editorial office of the modern magazine. There cannot be. The +making of a modern magazine is a business proposition; the editor is +there to make it pay. He can do this only if he is of service to his +readers, and that depends on his ability to obtain a class of material +essentially the best of its kind and varied in its character.</p> + +<p>The "best," while it means good writing, means also that it shall say +something. The most desired writer in the magazine office is the man who +has something to say, and knows how to say it. Variety requires that +there shall be many of these writers, and it is the editor's business to +ferret them out. It stands to reason, therefore, that there can be no +such thing as a "clique"; limitation by the editor of his list of +authors would mean being limited to the style of the few and the +thoughts of a handful. And with a public that easily tires even of the +best where it continually comes from one source, such an editorial +policy would be suicidal.</p> + +<p>Hence, if the editor is more keenly alert for one thing than for +another, it is for the new writer. The frequency of the new note in his +magazine is his salvation; for just in proportion as he can introduce +that new note is his success with his readers. A successful magazine is +exactly like a successful store: it must keep its wares constantly fresh +and varied to attract the eye and hold the patronage of its customers.</p> + +<p>With an editor ever alive to the new message, the new note, the fresh +way of saying a thing, the new angle on a current subject, whether in +article or story—since fiction is really to-day only a reflection of +modern thought—the foolish notion that an editor must be approached +through "influence," by a letter of introduction from some friend or +other author, falls of itself. There is no more powerful lever to open +the modern magazine door than a postage-stamp on an envelope containing +a manuscript that says something. No influence is needed to bring that +manuscript to the editor's desk or to his attention. That he will +receive it the sender need not for a moment doubt; his mail is too +closely scanned for that very envelope.</p> + +<p>The most successful authors have "broken into" the magazines very often +without even a letter accompanying their first manuscript. The name and +address in the right-hand corner of the first page; some "return" stamps +in the left corner, and all that the editor requires is there. The +author need tell nothing about the manuscript; if what the editor wants +is in it he will find it. An editor can stand a tremendous amount of +letting alone. If young authors could be made to realize how simple is +the process of "breaking into" the modern magazine, which apparently +gives them such needless heartburn, they would save themselves infinite +pains, time, and worry.</p> + +<p>Despite all the rubbish written to the contrary, manuscripts sent to the +magazines of to-day are, in every case, read, and frequently more +carefully read than the author imagines. Editors know that, from the +standpoint of good business alone, it is unwise to return a manuscript +unread. Literary talent has been found in many instances where it was +least expected.</p> + +<p>This does not mean that every manuscript received by a magazine is read +from first page to last. There is no reason why it should be, any more +than that all of a bad egg should be eaten to prove that it is bad. The +title alone sometimes decides the fate of a manuscript. If the subject +discussed is entirely foreign to the aims of the magazine, it is simply +a case of misapplication on the author's part; and it would be a waste +of time for the editor to read something which he knows from its subject +he cannot use.</p> + +<p>This, of course, applies more to articles than to other forms of +literary work, although unsuitability in a poem is naturally as quickly +detected. Stories, no matter how unpromising they may appear at the +beginning, are generally read through, since gold in a piece of fiction +has often been found almost at the close. This careful attention to +manuscripts in editorial offices is fixed by rules, and an author's +indorsement or a friend's judgment never affects the custom.</p> + +<p>At no time does the fallacy hold in a magazine office that "a big name +counts for everything and an unknown name for nothing." There can be no +denial of the fact that where a name of repute is attached to a +meritorious story or article the combination is ideal. But as between an +indifferent story and a well-known name and a good story with an unknown +name the editor may be depended upon to accept the latter. Editors are +very careful nowadays to avoid the public impatience that invariably +follows upon publishing material simply on account of the name attached +to it. Nothing so quickly injures the reputation of a magazine in the +estimation of its readers. If a person, taking up a magazine, reads a +story attracted by a famous name, and the story disappoints, the editor +has a doubly disappointed reader on his hands: a reader whose high +expectations from the name have not been realized and who is +disappointed with the story.</p> + +<p>It is a well-known fact among successful magazine editors that their +most striking successes have been made by material to which unknown +names were attached, where the material was fresh, the approach new, the +note different. That is what builds up a magazine; the reader learns to +have confidence in what he finds in the periodical, whether it bears a +famous name or not.</p> + +<p>Nor must the young author believe that the best work in modern magazine +literature "is dashed off at white heat." What is dashed off reads +dashed off, and one does not come across it in the well-edited magazine, +because it is never accepted. Good writing is laborious writing, the +result of revision upon revision. The work of masters such as Robert +Louis Stevenson and Rudyard Kipling represents never less than eight or +ten revisions, and often a far greater number. It was Stevenson who once +said to Edward Bok, after a laborious correction of certain proofs: "My +boy, I could be a healthy man, I think, if I did something else than +writing. But to write, as I try to write, takes every ounce of my +vitality." Just as the best "impromptu" speeches are those most +carefully prepared, so do the simplest articles and stories represent +the hardest kind of work; the simpler the method seems and the easier +the article reads, the harder, it is safe to say, was the work put into +it.</p> + +<p>But the author must also know when to let his material alone. In his +excessive regard for style even so great a master as Robert Louis +Stevenson robbed his work of much of the spontaneity and natural charm +found, for example, in his Vailima Letters. The main thing is for a +writer to say what he has to say in the best way, natural to himself, in +which he can say it, and then let it alone—always remembering that, +provided he has made himself clear, the message itself is of greater +import than the manner in which it is said. Up to a certain point only +is a piece of literary work an artistic endeavor. A readable, lucid +style is far preferable to what is called a "literary style"—a foolish +phrase, since it often means nothing except a complicated method of +expression which confuses rather than clarifies thought. What the public +wants in its literature is human nature, and that human nature simply +and forcibly expressed. This is fundamental, and this is why true +literature has no fashion and knows no change, despite the cries of the +modern weaklings who affect weird forms. The clarity of Shakespeare is +the clarity of to-day and will be that of to-morrow.</p> + +<h3><a name="XXVII" id="XXVII"></a>XXVII.</h3> + +<p class="heading">Women's Clubs and Woman Suffrage</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Edward Bok</span> was now jumping from one sizzling frying-pan into another. He +had become vitally interested in the growth of women's clubs as a power +for good, and began to follow their work and study their methods. He +attended meetings; he had his editors attend others and give him +reports; he collected and read the year-books of scores of clubs, and he +secured and read a number of the papers that had been presented by +members at these meetings. He saw at once that what might prove a +wonderful power in the civic life of the nation was being misdirected +into gatherings of pseudo-culture, where papers ill-digested and mostly +copied from books were read and superficially discussed.</p> + +<p>Apparently the average club thought nothing of disposing of the works of +the Victorian poets in one afternoon; the Italian Renaissance was "fully +treated and most ably discussed," according to one programme, at a +single meeting; Rembrandt and his school were likewise disposed of in +one afternoon, and German literature was "adequately treated" at one +session "in able papers."</p> + +<p>Bok gathered a mass of this material, and then paid his respects to it +in the magazine. He recited his evidence and then expressed his opinion +of it. He realized that his arraignment of the clubs would cost the +magazine hundreds of friends; but, convinced of the great power of the +woman's club with its activities rightly directed, he concluded that he +could afford to risk incurring displeasure if he might point the way to +more effective work. The one was worth the other.</p> + +<p>The displeasure was not slow in making itself manifest. It came to +maturity overnight, as it were, and expressed itself in no uncertain +terms. Every club flew to arms, and Bok was intensely interested to note +that the clubs whose work he had taken as "horrible examples," although +he had not mentioned their names, were the most strenuous in their +denials of the methods outlined in the magazine, and that the members of +those clubs were particularly heated in their attacks upon him.</p> + +<p>He soon found that he had stirred up quite as active a hornet's nest as +he had anticipated. Letters by the hundred poured in attacking and +reviling him. In nearly every case the writers fell back upon personal +abuse, ignoring his arguments altogether. He became the subject of +heated debates at club meetings, at conventions, in the public press; +and soon long petitions demanding his removal as editor began to come to +Mr. Curtis. These petitions were signed by hundreds of names. Bok read +them with absorbed interest, and bided his time for action. Meanwhile he +continued his articles of criticism in the magazine, and these, of +course, added fuel to the conflagration.</p> + +<p>Former President Cleveland now came to Bok's side, and in an article in +the magazine went even further than Bok had ever thought of going in his +criticism of women's clubs. This article deflected the criticism from +Bok momentarily, and Mr. Cleveland received a grilling to which his +experiences in the White House were "as child's play," as he expressed +it. The two men, the editor and the former President, were now bracketed +as copartners in crime in the eyes of the club-women, and nothing too +harsh could be found to say or write of either.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Bok had been watching the petitions for his removal which kept +coming in. He was looking for an opening, and soon found it. One of the +most prominent women's clubs sent a protest condemning his attitude and +advising him by resolutions, which were enclosed, that unless he ceased +his attacks, the members of the — Woman's Club had resolved "to +unitedly and unanimously boycott The Ladies' Home Journal and had +already put the plan into effect with the current issue."</p> + +<p>Bok immediately engaged counsel in the city where the club was situated, +and instructed his lawyer to begin proceedings, for violation of the +Sherman Act, against the president and the secretary of the club, and +three other members; counsel to take particular pains to choose, if +possible, the wives of three lawyers.</p> + +<p>Within forty-eight hours Bok heard from the husbands of the five wives, +who pointed out to him that the women had acted in entire ignorance of +the law, and suggested a reconsideration of his action. Bok replied by +quoting from the petition which set forth that it was signed "by the +most intelligent women of — who were thoroughly versed in civic and +national affairs"; and if this were true, Bok argued, it naturally +followed that they must have been cognizant of a legislative measure so +well known and so widely discussed as the Sherman Act. He was basing his +action, he said, merely on their declaration.</p> + +<p>Bok could easily picture to himself the chagrin and wrath of the women, +with the husbands laughing up their sleeves at the turn of affairs. "My +wife never could see the humor in the situation," said one of these +husbands to Bok, when he met him years later. Bok capitulated, and then +apparently with great reluctance, only when the club sent him an +official withdrawal of the protest and an apology for "its +ill-considered action." It was years after that one of the members of +the club, upon meeting Bok, said to him: "Your action did not increase +the club's love for you, but you taught it a much-needed lesson which it +never forgot."</p> + +<p>Up to this time, Bok had purposely been destructive in his criticism. +Now, he pointed out a constructive plan whereby the woman's club could +make itself a power in every community. He advocated less of the +cultural and more of the civic interest, and urged that the clubs study +the numerous questions dealing with the life of their communities. This +seems strange, in view of the enormous amount of civic work done by +women's clubs to-day. But at that time, when the woman's club movement +was unformed, these civic matters found but a small part in the majority +of programmes; in a number of cases none at all.</p> + +<p>Of course, the clubs refused to accept or even to consider his +suggestions; they were quite competent to decide for themselves the +particular subjects for their meetings, they argued; they did not care +to be tutored or guided, particularly by Bok. They were much too angry +with him even to admit that his suggestions were practical and in order. +But he knew, of course, that they would adopt them of their own +volition—under cover, perhaps, but that made no difference, so long as +the end was accomplished. One club after another, during the following +years, changed its programme, and soon the supposed cultural interest +had yielded first place to the needful civic questions.</p> + +<p>For years, however, the club-women of America did not forgive Bok. They +refused to buy or countenance his magazine, and periodically they +attacked it or made light of it. But he knew he had made his point, and +was content to leave it to time to heal the wounds. This came years +afterward, when Mrs. Pennypacker became president of the General +Federation of Women's Clubs and Mrs. Rudolph Blankenburg, +vice-president.</p> + +<p>Those two far-seeing women and Bok arranged that an official department +of the Federation should find a place in The Ladies' Home Journal, with +Mrs. Pennypacker as editor and Mrs. Blankenburg, who lived in +Philadelphia, as the resident consulting editor. The idea was arranged +agreeably to all three; the Federation officially endorsed its +president's suggestion, and for several years the department was one of +the most successful in the magazine.</p> + +<p>The breach had been healed; two powerful forces were working together, +as they should, for the mutual good of the American woman. No relations +could have been pleasanter than those between the editor-in-chief of the +magazine and the two departmental editors. The report was purposely set +afloat that Bok had withdrawn from his position of antagonism (?) toward +women's clubs, and this gave great satisfaction to thousands of women +club-members and made everybody happy!</p> + +<p>At this time the question of suffrage for women was fast becoming a +prominent issue, and naturally Bok was asked to take a stand on the +question in his magazine. No man sat at a larger gateway to learn the +sentiments of numbers of women on any subject. He read his vast +correspondence carefully. He consulted women of every grade of +intelligence and in every station in life. Then he caused a straw-vote +to be taken among a selected list of thousands of his subscribers in +large cities and in small towns. The result of all these inquiries was +most emphatic and clear: by far the overwhelming majority of the women +approached either were opposed to the ballot or were indifferent to it. +Those who desired to try the experiment were negligible in number. So +far as the sentiment of any wide public can be secured on any given +topic, this seemed to be the dominant opinion.</p> + +<p>Bok then instituted a systematic investigation of conditions in those +states where women had voted for years; but he could not see, from a +thoughtful study of his investigations, that much had been accomplished. +The results certainly did not measure up to the prophecies constantly +advanced by the advocates of a nation-wide equal suffrage.</p> + +<p>The editor now carefully looked into the speeches of the suffragists, +examined the platform of the National body in favor of woman suffrage, +and talked at length with such leaders in the movement as Susan B. +Anthony, Julia Ward Howe, Anna Howard Shaw, and Jane Addams.</p> + +<p>All this time Bok had kept his own mind open. He was ready to have the +magazine, for whose editorial policy he was responsible, advocate that +side of the issue which seemed for the best interests of the American +woman.</p> + +<p>The arguments that a woman should not have a vote because she was a +woman; that it would interfere with her work in the home; that it would +make her more masculine; that it would take her out of her own home; +that it was a blow at domesticity and an actual menace to the home life +of America—these did not weight with him. There was only one question +for him to settle: Was the ballot something which, in its demonstrated +value or in its potentiality, would serve the best interests of American +womanhood?</p> + +<p>After all his investigations of both sides of the question, Bok decided +upon a negative answer. He felt that American women were not ready to +exercise the privilege intelligently and that their mental attitude was +against it.</p> + +<p>Forthwith he said so in his magazine. And the storm broke. The +denunciations brought down upon him by his attitude toward woman's clubs +was as nothing compared to what was now let loose. The attacks were +bitter. His arguments were ignored; and the suffragists evidently +decided to concentrate their criticisms upon the youthful years of the +editor. They regarded this as a most vulnerable point of attack, and +reams of paper were used to prove that the opinion of a man so young in +years and so necessarily unformed in his judgment was of no value.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, the suffragists did not know, when they advanced this +argument, that it would be overthrown by the endorsement of Bok's point +of view by such men and women of years and ripe judgment as Doctor +Eliot, then president of Harvard University, former President Cleveland, +Lyman Abbott, Margaret Deland, and others. When articles by these +opponents to suffrage appeared, the argument of youth hardly held good; +and the attacks of the suffragists were quickly shifted to the ground of +"narrow-mindedness and old-fashioned fogyism."</p> + +<p>The article by former President Cleveland particularly stirred the ire +of the attacking suffragists, and Miss Anthony hurled a broadside at the +former President in a newspaper interview. Unfortunately for her best +judgment, and the strength of her argument, the attack became intensely +personal; and of course, nullified its force. But it irritated Mr. +Cleveland, who called Bok to his Princeton home and read him a draft of +a proposed answer for publication in Bok's magazine.</p> + +<p>Those who knew Mr. Cleveland were well aware of the force that he could +put into his pen when he chose, and in this proposed article he +certainly chose! It would have made very unpleasant reading for Miss +Anthony in particular, as well as for her friends. Bok argued strongly +against the article. He reminded Mr. Cleveland that it would be +undignified to make such an answer; that it was always an unpopular +thing to attack a woman in public, especially a woman who was old and +ill; that she would again strive for the last word; that there would be +no point to the controversy and nothing gained by it. He pleaded with +Mr. Cleveland to meet Miss Anthony's attack by a dignified silence.</p> + +<p>These arguments happily prevailed. In reality, Mr. Cleveland was not +keen to attack Miss Anthony or any other woman; such a thought was +foreign to his nature. He summed up his feeling to Bok when he tore up +the draft of his article and smilingly said: "Well, I've got if off my +chest, that is the main thing. I wanted to get it out of my system, and +talking it over has driven it out. It is better in the fire," and he +threw the torn paper into the open grate.</p> + +<p>As events turned out, it was indeed fortunate that the matter had been +so decided; for the article would have appeared in the number of Bok's +magazine published on the day that Miss Anthony passed away. It would +have been a most unfortunate moment, to say the least, for the +appearance of an attack such as Mr. Cleveland had in mind.</p> + +<p>This incident, like so many instances that might be adduced, points with +singular force to the value of that editorial discrimination which the +editor often makes between what is wise or unwise for him to publish. +Bok realized that had he encouraged Mr. Cleveland to publish the +article, he could have exhausted any edition he might have chosen to +print. Times without number, editors make such decisions directly +against what would be of temporary advantage to their publications. The +public never hears of these incidents.</p> + +<p>More often than not the editor hears "stories" that, if printed, would +be a "scoop" which would cause his publication to be talked about from +one end of the country to the other. The public does not give credit to +the editor, particularly of the modern newspaper, for the high code of +honor which constantly actuates him in his work. The prevailing notion +is that an editor prints all that he knows, and much that he does not +know. Outside of those in the inner government circles, no group of men, +during the Great War, had more information of a confidential nature +constantly given or brought to them, and more zealously guarded it, than +the editors of the newspapers of America. Among no other set of +professional men is the code of honor so high; and woe betide the +journalist who, in the eyes of his fellow-workers, violates, even in the +slightest degree, that code of editorial ethics. Public men know how +true is this statement; the public at large, however, has not the first +conception of it. If it had, it would have a much higher opinion of its +periodicals and newspapers.</p> + +<p>At this juncture, Rudyard Kipling unconsciously came into the very +centre of the suffragists' maelstrom of attack when he sent Bok his +famous poem: "The Female of the Species." The suffragists at once took +the argument in the poem as personal to themselves, and now Kipling got +the full benefit of their vitriolic abuse. Bok sent a handful of these +criticisms to Kipling, who was very gleeful about them. "I owe you a +good laugh over the clippings," he wrote. "They were delightful. But +what a quantity of spare time some people in this world have to burn!"</p> + +<p>It was a merry time; and the longer it continued the more heated were +the attacks. The suffragists now had a number of targets, and they took +each in turn and proceeded to riddle it. That Bok was publishing +articles explaining both sides of the question, presenting arguments by +the leading suffragists as well as known anti-suffragists, did not +matter in the least. These were either conveniently overlooked, or, when +referred to at all, were considered in the light of "sops" to the +offended women.</p> + +<p>At last Bok reached the stage where he had exhausted all the arguments +worth printing, on both sides of the question, and soon the storm calmed +down.</p> + +<p>It was always a matter of gratification to him that the woman who had +most bitterly assailed him during the suffrage controversy, Anna Howard +Shaw, became in later years one of his stanchest friends, and was an +editor on his pay-roll. When the United States entered the Great War, +Bok saw that Doctor Shaw had undertaken a gigantic task in promising, as +chairman, to direct the activities of the National Council for Women. He +went to see her in Washington, and offered his help and that of the +magazine. Doctor Shaw, kindliest of women in her nature, at once +accepted the offer; Bok placed the entire resources of the magazine and +of its Washington editorial force at her disposal; and all through +America's participation in the war, she successfully conducted a monthly +department in The Ladies' Home Journal.</p> + +<p>"Such help," she wrote at the close, "as you and your associates have +extended me and my co-workers; such unstinted co-operation and such +practical guidance I never should have dreamed possible. You made your +magazine a living force in our work; we do not see now how we would have +done without it. You came into our activities at the psychological +moment, when we most needed what you could give us, and none could have +given with more open hands and fuller hearts."</p> + +<p>So the contending forces in a bitter word-war came together and worked +together, and a mutual regard sprang up between the woman and the man +who had once so radically differed.</p> + +<h3><a name="XXVIII" id="XXVIII"></a>XXVIII.</h3> + +<p class="heading">Going Home with Kipling, and as a Lecturer</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">It</span> was in June, 1899, when Rudyard Kipling, after the loss of his +daughter and his own almost fatal illness from pneumonia in America, +sailed for his English home on the White Star liner, Teutonic. The party +consisted of Kipling, his wife, his father J. Lockwood Kipling, Mr. and +Mrs. Frank N. Doubleday, and Bok. It was only at the last moment that +Bok decided to join the party, and the steamer having its full +complement of passengers, he could only secure one of the officers' +large rooms on the upper deck. Owing to the sensitive condition of +Kipling's lungs, it was not wise for him to be out on deck except in the +most favorable weather. The atmosphere of the smoking-room was +forbidding, and as the rooms of the rest of the party were below deck, +it was decided to make Bok's convenient room the headquarters of the +party. Here they assembled for the best part of each day; the talk +ranged over literary and publishing matters of mutual interest, and +Kipling promptly labelled the room "The Hatchery,"—from the plans and +schemes that were hatched during these discussions.</p> + +<p>It was decided on the first day out that the party, too active-minded to +remain inert for any length of time, should publish a daily newspaper to +be written on large sheets of paper and to be read each evening to the +group. It was called The Teuton Tonic; Mr. Doubleday was appointed +publisher and advertising manager; Mr. Lockwood Kipling was made art +editor to embellish the news; Rudyard Kipling was the star reporter, and +Bok was editor.</p> + +<p>Kipling, just released from his long confinement, like a boy out of +school, was the life of the party—and when, one day, he found a woman +aboard reading a copy of The Ladies' Home Journal his joy knew no +bounds; he turned in the most inimitable "copy" to the Tonic, describing +the woman's feelings as she read the different departments in the +magazine. Of course, Bok, as editor of the Tonic, promptly pigeon-holed +the reporter's "copy"; then relented, and, in a fine spirit of +large-mindedness, "printed" Kipling's pæans of rapture over Bok's +subscriber. The preparation of the paper was a daily joy: it kept the +different members busy, and each evening the copy was handed to "the +large circle of readers"—the two women of the party—to read aloud. At +the end of the sixth day, it was voted to "suspend publication," and the +daily of six issues was unanimously bequeathed to the little daughter of +Mr. Lockwood de Forest, a close friend of the Kipling family—a choice +bit of Kiplingania.</p> + +<p>One day it was decided by the party that Bok should be taught the game +of poker, and Kipling at once offered to be the instructor! He wrote out +a list of the "hands" for Bok's guidance, which was placed in the centre +of the table, and the party, augmented by the women, gathered to see the +game.</p> + +<p>A baby had been born that evening in the steerage, and it was decided to +inaugurate a small "jack-pot" for the benefit of the mother. All went +well until about the fourth hand, when Bok began to bid higher than had +been originally planned. Kipling questioned the beginner's knowledge of +the game and his tactics, but Bok retorted it was his money that he was +putting into the pot and that no one was compelled to follow his bets if +he did not choose to do so. Finally, the jack-pot assumed altogether too +large dimensions for the party, Kipling "called" and Bok, true to the +old idea of "beginner's luck" in cards, laid down a royal flush! This +was too much, and poker, with Bok in it, was taboo from that moment. +Kipling's version of this card-playing does not agree in all particulars +with the version here written. "Bok learned the game of poker," Kipling +says; "had the deck stacked on him, and on hearing that there was a +woman aboard who read The Ladies' Home Journal insisted on playing after +that with the cabin-door carefully shut." But Kipling's art as a +reporter for The Tonic was not as reliable as the art of his more +careful book work.</p> + +<p>Bok derived special pleasure on this trip from his acquaintance with +Father Kipling, as the party called him. Rudyard Kipling's respect for +his father was the tribute of a loyal son to a wonderful father.</p> + +<p>"What annoys me," said Kipling, speaking of his father one day, "is when +the pater comes to America to have him referred to in the newspapers as +'the father of Rudyard Kipling.' It is in India where they get the +relation correct: there I am always 'the son of Lockwood Kipling.'"</p> + +<p>Father Kipling was, in every sense, a choice spirit: gentle, kindly, and +of a most remarkably even temperament. His knowledge of art, his wide +reading, his extensive travel, and an interest in every phase of the +world's doings, made him a rare conversationalist, when inclined to +talk, and an encyclopedia of knowledge as extensive as it was accurate. +It was very easy to grow fond of Father Kipling, and he won Bok's +affection as few men ever did.</p> + +<p>Father Kipling's conversation was remarkable in that he was exceedingly +careful of language and wasted few words.</p> + +<p>One day Kipling and Bok were engaged in a discussion of the Boer +problem, which was then pressing. Father Kipling sat by listening, but +made no comment on the divergent views, since, Kipling holding the +English side of the question and Bok the Dutch side, it followed that +they could not agree. Finally Father Kipling arose and said: "Well, I +will take a stroll and see if I can't listen to the water and get all +this din out of my ears."</p> + +<p>Both men felt gently but firmly rebuked and the discussion was never +again taken up.</p> + +<p>Bok tried on one occasion to ascertain how the father regarded the son's +work.</p> + +<p>"You should feel pretty proud of your son," remarked Bok.</p> + +<p>"A good sort," was the simple reply.</p> + +<p>"I mean, rather, of his work. How does that strike you?" asked Bok.</p> + +<p>"Which work?"</p> + +<p>"His work as a whole," explained Bok.</p> + +<p>"Creditable," was the succinct answer.</p> + +<p>"No more than that?" asked Bok.</p> + +<p>"Can there be more?" came from the father.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Bok, "the judgment seems a little tame as applied to one +who is generally regarded as a genius."</p> + +<p>"By whom?"</p> + +<p>"The critics, for instance," replied Bok.</p> + +<p>"There are no such," came the answer.</p> + +<p>"No such what, Mr. Kipling?" asked Bok.</p> + +<p>"Critics."</p> + +<p>"No critics?"</p> + +<p>"No," and for the first time the pipe was removed for a moment. "A +critic is one who only exists as such in his own imagination."</p> + +<p>"But surely you must consider that Rud has done some great work?" +persisted Bok.</p> + +<p>"Creditable," came once more.</p> + +<p>"You think him capable of great work, do you not?" asked Bok. For a +moment there was silence. Then:</p> + +<p>"He has a certain grasp of the human instinct. That, some day, I think, +will lead him to write a great work."</p> + +<p>There was the secret: the constant holding up to the son, apparently, of +something still to be accomplished; of a goal to be reached; of a higher +standard to be attained. Rudyard Kipling was never in danger of +unintelligent laudation from his safest and most intelligent reader.</p> + +<p>During the years which intervened until his passing away, Bok sought to +keep in touch with Father Kipling, and received the most wonderful +letters from him. One day he enclosed in a letter a drawing which he had +made showing Sakia Muni sitting under the bo-tree with two of his +disciples, a young man and a young woman, gathered at his feet. It was a +piece of exquisite drawing. "I like to think of you and your work in +this way," wrote Mr. Kipling, "and so I sketched it for you." Bok had +the sketch enlarged, engaged John La Farge to translate it into glass, +and inserted it in a window in the living-room of his home at Merion.</p> + +<p>After Father Kipling had passed away, the express brought to Bok one day +a beautiful plaque of red clay, showing the elephant's head, the lotus, +and the swastika, which the father had made for the son. It was the +original model of the insignia which, as a watermark, is used in the +pages of Kipling's books and on the cover of the subscription edition.</p> + +<p>"I am sending with this for your acceptance," wrote Kipling to Bok, "as +some little memory of my father to whom you were so kind, the original +of one of the plaques that he used to make for me. I thought it being +the swastika would be appropriate for your swastika. May it bring you +even more good fortune."</p> + +<p>To those who knew Lockwood Kipling, it is easier to understand the +genius and the kindliness of the son. For the sake of the public's +knowledge, it is a distinct loss that there is not a better +understanding of the real sweetness of character of the son. The +public's only idea of the great writer is naturally one derived from +writers who do not understand him, or from reporters whom he refused to +see, while Kipling's own slogan is expressed in his own words: "I have +always managed to keep clear of 'personal' things as much as possible."</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;"><b>If</b></span><br /> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If you can keep your head when all about you</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">But make allowance for their doubting too;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If you can wait and not grow tired by waiting</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Or, being lied about don't deal in lies,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And yet don't look too good or talk too wise;</span><br /> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If you can dream and not make dreams your master,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">If you can think and not make thoughts your aim,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If you can meet with triumph and disaster,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And treat those two imposters just the same;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If you can stand to hear the truth you've spoken</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Twisted by Knaves to make a trap for fools,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or watch the work you've given your life to broken,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And stoop and build it up with worn-out tools;</span><br /> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If you can make one pile of all your winnings</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And risk it at one game of pitch-and-toss,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And lose, and start again from your beginnings</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And never breath a word about your loss,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If you can force you heart and nerve and sinew</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To serve your turn long after they are gone,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And so hold on, though there is nothing in you</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Except the will that says to them, "Hold on!"</span><br /> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If you can talk to crowds and keep your virtue,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And walk with Kings nor lose the common touch,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">If all men count with you, but none too much;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If you can fill the unforgiving minute</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">With sixty seconds worth of distance run,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And—which is more—you'll be a Man, my son!</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0em;">Copied out from memory by Rudyard Kipling.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Batemons: Sept. 1913</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">for E.W. Bok on his 50th Birthday</span></p> + +<p>It was on Bok's fiftieth birthday that Kipling sent him a copy of "If." +Bok had greatly admired this poem, but knowing Kipling's distaste for +writing out his own work, he had resisted the strong desire to ask him +for a copy of it. It is significant of the author's remarkable memory +that he wrote it, as he said, "from memory," years after its +publication, and yet a comparison of the copy with the printed form, +corrected by Kipling, fails to discover the difference of a single word.</p> + +<p>The lecture bureaus now desired that Edward Bok should go on the +platform. Bok had never appeared in the role of a lecturer, but he +reasoned that through the medium of the rostrum he might come in closer +contact with the American public, meet his readers personally, and +secure some first-hand constructive criticism of his work. This last he +was always encouraging. It was a naive conception of a lecture tour, but +Bok believed it and he contracted for a tour beginning at Richmond, +Virginia, and continuing through the South and Southwest as far as Saint +Joseph, Missouri, and then back home by way of the Middle West.</p> + +<p>Large audiences greeted him wherever he went, but he had not gone far on +his tour when he realized that he was not getting what he thought he +would. There was much entertaining and lionizing, but nothing to help +him in his work by pointing out to him where he could better it. He +shrank from the pitiless publicity that was inevitable; he became more +and more self-conscious when during the first five minutes on the stage +he felt the hundreds of opera-glasses levelled at him, and he and Mrs. +Bok, who accompanied him, had not a moment to themselves from early +morning to midnight. Yet his large correspondence was following him from +the office, and the inevitable invitations in each city had at least to +be acknowledged. Bok realized he had miscalculated the benefits of a +lecture tour to his work, and began hopefully to wish for the ending of +the circuit.</p> + +<p>One afternoon as he was returning with his manager from a large +reception, the "impresario" said to him: "I don't like these receptions. +They hurt the house."</p> + +<p>"The house?" echoed Bok.</p> + +<p>"Yes, the attendance."</p> + +<p>"But you told me the house for this evening was sold out?" said the +lecturer.</p> + +<p>"That is true enough. House, and even the stage. Not a seat unsold. But +hundreds just come to see you and not to hear your lecture, and this +exposure of a lecturer at so crowded a reception as this, before the +talk, satisfies the people without their buying a ticket. My rule is +that a lecturer should not be seen in public before his lecture, and I +wish you would let me enforce the rule with you. It wears you out, +anyway, and no receptions until afterward will give you more time for +yourself and save your vitality for the talk."</p> + +<p>Bok was entirely acquiescent. He had no personal taste for the continued +round of functions, but he had accepted it as part of the game.</p> + +<p>The idea from this talk that impressed Bok, however, with particular +force, was that the people who crowded his houses came to see him and +not to hear his lecture. Personal curiosity, in other words. This was a +new thought. He had been too busy to think of his personality; now he +realized a different angle to the situation. And, much to his manager's +astonishment, two days afterwards Bok refused to sign an agreement for +another tour later in the year. He had had enough of exhibiting himself +as a curiosity. He continued his tour; but before its conclusion fell +ill—a misfortune with a pleasant side to it, for three of his +engagements had to be cancelled.</p> + +<p>The Saint Joseph engagement could not be cancelled. The house had been +oversold; it was for the benefit of a local charity which besought Bok +by wire after wire to keep a postponed date. He agreed, and he went. He +realized that he was not well, but he did not realize the extent of his +mental and physical exhaustion until he came out on the platform and +faced the crowded auditorium. Barely sufficient space had been left for +him and for the speaker's desk; the people on the stage were close to +him, and he felt distinctly uncomfortable.</p> + +<p>Then, to his consternation, it suddenly dawned upon him that his tired +mind had played a serious trick on him. He did not remember a line of +his lecture; he could not even recall how it began! He arose, after his +introduction, in a bath of cold perspiration. The applause gave him a +moment to recover himself, but not a word came to his mind. He sparred +for time by some informal prefatory remarks expressing regret at his +illness and that he had been compelled to disappoint his audience a few +days before, and then he stood helpless! In sheer desperation he looked +at Mrs. Bok sitting in the stage box, who, divining her husband's +plight, motioned to the inside pocket of his coat. He put his hand there +and pulled out a copy of his lecture which she had placed there! The +whole tragic comedy had happened so quickly that the audience was +absolutely unaware of what had occurred, and Bok went on and practically +read his lecture. But it was not a successful evening for his audience +or for himself, and the one was doubtless as glad when it was over as +the other.</p> + +<p>When he reached home, he was convinced that he had had enough of +lecturing! He had to make a second short tour, however, for which he had +contracted with another manager before embarking on the first. This tour +took him to Indianapolis, and after the lecture, James Whitcomb Riley +gave him a supper. There were some thirty men in the party; the affair +was an exceedingly happy one; the happiest that Bok had attended. He +said this to Riley on the way to the hotel.</p> + +<p>"Usually," said Bok, "men, for some reason or other, hold aloof from me +on these lecture tours. They stand at a distance and eye me, and I see +wonder on their faces rather than a desire to mix."</p> + +<p>"You've noticed that, then?" smilingly asked the poet.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I can't quite get it. At home, my friends are men. Why should +it be different in other cities?"</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you," said Riley. "Five or six of the men you met to-night +were loath to come. When I pinned them down to their reason, it was I +thought: they regard you as an effeminate being, a sissy."</p> + +<p>"Good heavens!" interrupted Bok.</p> + +<p>"Fact," said Riley, "and you can't wonder at it nor blame them. You have +been most industriously paragraphed, in countless jests, about your +penchant for pink teas, your expert knowledge of tatting, crocheting, +and all that sort of stuff. Look what Eugene Field has done in that +direction. These paragraphs have, doubtless, been good advertising for +your magazine, and, in a way, for you. But, on the other hand, they have +given a false impression of you. Men have taken these paragraphs +seriously and they think of you as the man pictured in them. It's a +fact; I know. It's all right after they meet you and get your measure. +The joke then is on them. Four of the men I fairly dragged to the dinner +this evening said this to me just before I left. That is one reason why +I advise you to keep on lecturing. Get around and show yourself, and +correct this universal impression. Not that you can't stand when men +think of you, but it's unpleasant."</p> + +<p>It was unpleasant, but Bok decided that the solution as found in +lecturing was worse than the misconception. From that day to this he +never lectured again.</p> + +<p>But the public conception of himself, especially that of men, awakened +his interest and amusement. Some of his friends on the press were still +busy with their paragraphs, and he promptly called a halt and asked them +to desist. "Enough was as good as a feast," he told them, and explained +why.</p> + +<p>One day Bok got a distinctly amusing line on himself from a chance +stranger. He was riding from Washington to Philadelphia in the smoking +compartment, when the newsboy stuck his head in the door and yelled: +"Ladies' Home Journal, out to-day." He had heard this many times before; +but on this particular day, upon hearing the title of his own magazine +yelled almost in his ears, he gave an involuntary start.</p> + +<p>Opposite to him sat a most companionable young fellow, who, noticing +Bok's start, leaned over and with a smile said: "I know, I know just how +you feel. That's the way I feel whenever I hear the name of that damned +magazine. Here, boy," he called to the retreating magazine-carrier, +"give me a copy of that Ladies' Home Disturber: I might as well buy it +here as in the station."</p> + +<p>Then to Bok: "Honest, if I don't bring home that sheet on the day it is +out, the wife is in a funk. She runs her home by it literally. Same with +you?"</p> + +<p>"The same," answered Bok. "As a matter of fact, in our family, we live +by it, on it, and from it."</p> + +<p>Bok's neighbor, of course, couldn't get the real point of this, but he +thought he had it.</p> + +<p>"Exactly," he replied. "So do we. That fellow Bok certainly has the +women buffaloed for good. Ever see him?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," answered Bok.</p> + +<p>"Live in Philadelphia?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"There's where the thing is published, all right. What does Bok look +like?"</p> + +<p>"Oh," answered Bok carelessly, "just like, well, like all of us. In +fact, he looks something like me."</p> + +<p>"Does he, now?" echoed the man. "Shouldn't think it would make you very +proud!"</p> + +<p>And, the train pulling in at Baltimore, Bok's genial neighbor sent him a +hearty good-bye and ran out with the much-maligned magazine under his +arm!</p> + +<p>He had an occasion or two now to find out what women thought of him!</p> + +<p>He was leaving the publication building one evening after office hours +when just as he opened the front door, a woman approached. Bok explained +that the building was closed.</p> + +<p>"Well, I am sorry," said the woman in a dejected tone, "for I don't +think I can manage to come again."</p> + +<p>"Is there anything I can do?" asked Bok. "I am employed here."</p> + +<p>"No-o," said the woman. "I came to see Mr. Curtis on a personal matter."</p> + +<p>"I shall see him this evening," suggested Bok, "and can give him a +message for you if you like."</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't know if you can. I came to complain to him about Mr. +Bok," announced the woman.</p> + +<p>"Oh, well," answered Bok, with a slight start at the matter-of-fact +announcement, "that is serious; quite serious. If you will explain your +complaint, I will surely see that it gets to Mr. Curtis."</p> + +<p>Bok's interest grew.</p> + +<p>"Well, you see," said the woman, "it is this way. I live in a +three-family flat. Here is my name and card," and a card came out of a +bag. "I subscribe to The Ladies' Home Journal. It is delivered at my +house each month by Mr. Bok. Now I have told that man three times over +that when he delivers the magazine, he must ring the bell twice. But he +just persists in ringing once and then that cat who lives on the first +floor gets my magazine, reads it, and keeps it sometimes for three days +before I get it! Now, I want Mr. Curtis to tell Mr. Bok that he must do +as I ask and ring the bell twice. Can you give him that message for me? +There's no use talking to Mr. Bok; I've done that, as I say."</p> + +<p>And Bok solemnly assured his subscriber that he would!</p> + +<p>Bok's secretary told him one day that there was in the outer office the +most irate woman he had ever tried to handle; that he had tried for half +an hour to appease her, but it was of no use. She threatened to remain +until Bok admitted her, and see him she would, and tell him exactly what +she thought of him. The secretary looked as if he had been through a +struggle. "It's hopeless," he said. "Will you see her?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly," said Bok. "Show her in."</p> + +<p>The moment the woman came in, she began a perfect torrent of abuse. Bok +could not piece out, try as he might, what it was all about. But he did +gather from the explosion that the woman considered him a hypocrite who +wrote one thing and did another; that he was really a thief, stealing a +woman's money, and so forth. There was no chance of a word for fully +fifteen minutes and then, when she was almost breathless, Bok managed to +ask if his caller would kindly tell him just what he had done.</p> + +<p>Another torrent of incoherent abuse came forth, but after a while it +became apparent that the woman's complaint was that she had sent a +dollar for a subscription to The Ladies' Home Journal; had never had a +copy of the magazine, had complained, and been told there was no record +of the money being received. And as she had sent her subscription to Bok +personally, he had purloined the dollar!</p> + +<p>It was fully half an hour before Bok could explain to the irate woman +that he never remembered receiving a letter from her; that +subscriptions, even when personally addressed to him, did not come to +his desk, etc.; that if she would leave her name and address he would +have the matter investigated. Absolutely unconvinced that anything would +be done, and unaltered in her opinion about Bok, the woman finally left.</p> + +<p>Two days later a card was handed in to the editor with a note asking him +to see for a moment the husband of his irate caller. When the man came +in, he looked sheepish and amused in turn, and finally said:</p> + +<p>"I hardly know what to say, because I don't know what my wife said to +you. But if what she said to me is any index of her talk with you, I +want to apologize for her most profoundly. She isn't well, and we shall +both have to let it go at that. As for her subscription, you, of course, +never received it, for, with difficulty, I finally extracted the fact +from her that she pinned a dollar bill to a postal card and dropped it +in a street postal box. And she doesn't yet see that she has done +anything extraordinary, or that she had a faith in Uncle Sam that I call +sublime."</p> + +<p>The Journal had been calling the attention of its readers to the +defacement of the landscape by billboard advertisers. One day on his way +to New York he found himself sitting in a sleeping-car section opposite +a woman and her daughter.</p> + +<p>The mother was looking at the landscape when suddenly she commented:</p> + +<p>"There are some of those ugly advertising signs that Mr. Bok says are +such a defacement to the landscape. I never noticed them before, but he +is right, and I am going to write and tell him so."</p> + +<p>"Oh, mamma, don't," said the girl. "That man is pampered enough by +women. Don't make him worse. Ethel says he is now the vainest man in +America."</p> + +<p>Bok's eyes must have twinkled, and just then the mother looked at him, +caught his eye; she gave a little gasp, and Bok saw that she had +telepathically discovered him!</p> + +<p>He smiled, raised his hat, presented his card to the mother, and said: +"Excuse me, but I do want to defend myself from that last statement, if +I may. I couldn't help overhearing it."</p> + +<p>The mother, a woman of the world, read the name on the card quickly and +smiled, but the daughter's face was a study as she leaned over and +glanced at the card. She turned scarlet and then white.</p> + +<p>"Now, do tell me," asked Bok of the daughter, "who 'Ethel' is, so that I +may try at least to prove that I am not what she thinks."</p> + +<p>The daughter was completely flustered. For the rest of the journey, +however, the talk was informal; the girl became more at ease, and Bok +ended by dining with the mother and daughter at their hotel that +evening.</p> + +<p>But he never found out "Ethel's" other name!</p> + +<p>There were curiously amusing sides to a man's editorship of a woman's +magazine!</p> + +<h3><a name="XXIX" id="XXIX"></a>XXIX.</h3> + +<p class="heading">An Excursion into the Feminine Nature</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> strangling hold which the Paris couturiers had secured on the +American woman in their absolute dictation as to her fashions in dress, +had interested Edward Bok for some time. As he studied the question, he +was constantly amazed at the audacity with which these French +dressmakers and milliners, often themselves of little taste and scant +morals, cracked the whip, and the docility with which the American woman +blindly and unintelligently danced to their measure. The deeper he went +into the matter, too, the more deceit and misrepresentation did he find +in the situation. It was inconceivable that the American woman should +submit to what was being imposed upon her if she knew the facts. He +determined that she should. The process of Americanization going on +within him decided him to expose the Paris conditions and advocate and +present American-designed fashions for women.</p> + +<p>The Journal engaged the best-informed woman in Paris frankly to lay open +the situation to the American women; she proved that the designs sent +over by the so-called Paris arbiters of fashion were never worn by the +Frenchwoman of birth and good taste; that they were especially designed +and specifically intended for "the bizarre American trade," as one +polite Frenchman called it; and that the only women in Paris who wore +these grotesque and often immoderate styles were of the demimonde.</p> + +<p>This article was the opening gun of the campaign, and this was quickly +followed by a second equally convincing—both articles being written +from the inside of the gilded circles of the couturiers' shops. Madame +Sarah Bernhardt was visiting the United States at the time, and Bok +induced the great actress to verify the statements printed. She went +farther and expressed amazement at the readiness with which the American +woman had been duped; and indicated her horror on seeing American women +of refined sensibilities and position dressed in the gowns of the +_déclassé_ street-women of Paris. The somewhat sensational nature of the +articles attracted the attention of the American newspapers, which +copied and commented on them; the gist of them was cabled over to Paris, +and, of course, the Paris couturiers denied the charges. But their +denials were in general terms; and no convincing proof of the falsity of +the charges was furnished. The French couturier simply resorted to a +shrug of the shoulder and a laugh, implying that the accusations were +beneath his notice.</p> + +<p>Bok now followed the French models of dresses and millinery to the +United States, and soon found that for every genuine Parisian model sold +in the large cities at least ten were copies, made in New York shops, +but with the labels of the French dressmakers and milliners sewed on +them. He followed the labels to their source, and discovered a firm one +of whose specialties was the making of these labels bearing the names of +the leading French designers. They were manufactured by the gross, and +sold in bundles to the retailers. Bok secured a list of the buyers of +these labels and found that they represented some of the leading +merchants throughout the country. All these facts he published. The +retailers now sprang up in arms and denied the charges, but again the +denials were in general terms. Bok had the facts and they knew it. These +facts were too specific and too convincing to be controverted.</p> + +<p>The editor had now presented a complete case before the women of America +as to the character of the Paris-designed fashions and the manner in +which women were being hoodwinked in buying imitations.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, he had engaged the most expert designers in the world of +women's dress and commissioned them to create American designs. He sent +one of his editors to the West to get first-hand motifs from Indian +costumes and adapt them as decorative themes for dress embroideries. +Three designers searched the Metropolitan Museum for new and artistic +ideas, and he induced his company to install a battery of four-color +presses in order that the designs might be given in all the beauty of +their original colors. For months designers and artists worked; he had +the designs passed upon by a board of judges composed of New York women +who knew good clothes, and then he began their publication.</p> + +<p>The editor of The New York Times asked Bok to conduct for that newspaper +a prize contest for the best American-designed dresses and hats, and +edit a special supplement presenting them in full colors, the prizes to +be awarded by a jury of six of the leading New York women best versed in +matters of dress. Hundreds of designs were submitted, the best were +selected, and the supplement issued under the most successful auspices.</p> + +<p>In his own magazine, Bok published pages of American-designed fashions: +their presence in the magazine was advertised far and wide; conventions +of dressmakers were called to consider the salability of +domestic-designed fashions; and a campaign with the slogan "American +Fashions for American Women" was soon in full swing.</p> + +<p>But there it ended. The women looked the designs over with interest, as +they did all designs of new clothes, and paid no further attention to +them. The very fact that they were of American design prejudiced the +women against them. America never had designed good clothes, they +argued: she never would. Argument availed naught. The Paris germ was +deep-rooted in the feminine mind of America: the women acknowledged that +they were, perhaps, being hoodwinked by spurious French dresses and +hats; that the case presented by Bok seemed convincing enough, but the +temptation to throw a coat over a sofa or a chair to expose a Parisian +label to the eyes of some other woman was too great; there was always a +gambling chance that her particular gown, coat, or hat was an actual +Paris creation.</p> + +<p>Bok called upon the American woman to come out from under the yoke of +the French couturiers, show her patriotism, and encourage American +design. But it was of no use. He talked with women on every hand; his +mail was full of letters commending him for his stand; but as for actual +results, there were none. One of his most intelligent woman-friends +finally summed up the situation for him:</p> + +<p>"You can rail against the Paris domination all you like; you can expose +it for the fraud that it is, and we know that it is; but it is all to no +purpose, take my word. When it comes to the question of her personal +adornment, a woman employs no reason; she knows no logic. She knows that +the adornment of her body is all that she has to match the other woman +and outdo her, and to attract the male, and nothing that you can say +will influence her a particle. I know this all seems incomprehensible to +you as a man, but that is the feminine nature. You are trying to fight +something that is unfightable."</p> + +<p>"Has the American woman no instinct of patriotism, then?" asked Bok.</p> + +<p>"Not the least," was the answer, "when it comes to her adornment. What +Paris says, she will do, blindly and unintelligently if you will, but +she will do it. She will sacrifice her patriotism; she will even justify +a possible disregard of the decencies. Look at the present Parisian +styles. They are absolutely indecent. Women know it, but they follow +them just the same, and they will. It is all very unpleasant to say +this, but it is the truth and you will find it out. Your effort, fine as +it is, will bear no fruit."</p> + +<p>Wherever Bok went, women upon whose judgment he felt he could rely, told +him, in effect, the same thing. They were all regretful, in some cases +ashamed of their sex, universally apologetic; but one and all declared +that such is "the feminine nature," and Bok would only have his trouble +for nothing.</p> + +<p>And so it proved. For a period, the retail shops were more careful in +the number of genuine French models of gowns and hats which they +exhibited, and the label firm confessed that its trade had fallen off. +But this was only temporary. Within a year after The Journal stopped the +campaign, baffled and beaten, the trade in French labels was greater +than ever, hundreds of French models were sold that had never crossed +the ocean, the American woman was being hoodwinked on every hand, and +the reign of the French couturier was once more supreme.</p> + +<p>There was no disguising the fact that the case was hopeless, and Bok +recognized and accepted the inevitable. He had, at least, the +satisfaction of having made an intelligent effort to awaken the American +woman to her unintelligent submission. But she refused to be awakened. +She preferred to be a tool: to be made a fool of.</p> + +<p>Bok's probe into the feminine nature had been keenly disappointing. He +had earnestly tried to serve the American woman, and he had failed. But +he was destined to receive a still greater and deeper disappointment on +his next excursion into the feminine nature, although, this time, he was +to win.</p> + +<p>During his investigations into women's fashions, he had unearthed the +origin of the fashionable aigrette, the most desired of all the +feathered possessions of womankind. He had been told of the cruel +torture of the mother-heron, who produced the beautiful aigrette only in +her period of maternity and who was cruelly slaughtered, usually left to +die slowly rather than killed, leaving her whole nest of baby-birds to +starve while they awaited the return of the mother-bird.</p> + +<p>Bok was shown the most heart-rending photographs portraying the butchery +of the mother and the starvation of her little ones. He collected all +the photographs that he could secure, had the most graphic text written +to them, and began their publication. He felt certain that the mere +publication of the frightfully convincing photographs would be enough to +arouse the mother-instinct in every woman and stop the wearing of the +so-highly prized feather. But for the second time in his attempt to +reform the feminine nature he reckoned beside the mark.</p> + +<p>He published a succession of pages showing the frightful cost at which +the aigrette was secured. There was no challenging the actual facts as +shown by the photographic lens: the slaughter of the mother-bird, and +the starving baby-birds; and the importers of the feather wisely +remained quiet, not attempting to answer Bok's accusations. Letters +poured in upon the editor from Audubon Society workers; from lovers of +birds, and from women filled with the humanitarian instinct. But Bok +knew that the answer was not with those few: the solution lay with the +larger circle of American womanhood from which he did not hear.</p> + +<p>He waited for results. They came. But they were not those for which he +had striven. After four months of his campaign, he learned from the +inside of the importing-houses which dealt in the largest stocks of +aigrettes in the United States that the demand for the feather had more +than quadrupled! Bok was dumbfounded! He made inquiries in certain +channels from which he knew he could secure the most reliable +information, and after all the importers had been interviewed, the +conviction was unescapable that just in proportion as Bok had dwelt upon +the desirability of the aigrette as the hallmark of wealth and fashion, +upon its expense, and the fact that women regarded it as the last word +in feminine adornment, he had by so much made these facts familiar to +thousands of women who had never before known of them, and had created +the desire to own one of the precious feathers.</p> + +<p>Bok could not and would not accept these conclusions. It seemed to him +incredible that women would go so far as this in the question of +personal adornment. He caused the increased sales to be traced from +wholesaler to retailer, and from retailer to customer, and was amazed at +the character and standing of the latter. He had a number of those +buyers who lived in adjacent cities, privately approached and +interviewed, and ascertained that, save in two instances, they were all +his readers, had seen the gruesome pictures he had presented, and then +had deliberately purchased the coveted aigrette.</p> + +<p>Personally again he sought the most intelligent of his woman-friends, +talked with scores of others, and found himself facing the same trait in +feminine nature which he had encountered in his advocacy of American +fashions. But this time it seemed to Bok that the facts he had presented +went so much deeper.</p> + +<p>"It will be hard for you to believe," said one of his most trusted +woman-friends. "I grant your arguments: there is no gainsaying them. But +you are fighting the same thing again that you do not understand: the +feminine nature that craves outer adornment will secure it at any cost, +even at the cost of suffering."</p> + +<p>"Yes," argued Bok. "But if there is one thing above everything else that +we believe a woman feels and understands, it is the mother-instinct. Do +you mean to tell me that it means nothing to her that these birds are +killed in their period of motherhood, and that a whole nest of starving +baby-birds is the price of every aigrette?"</p> + +<p>"I won't say that this does not weigh with a woman. It does, naturally. +But when it comes to her possession of an ornament of beauty, as +beautiful as the aigrette, it weighs with her, but it doesn't tip the +scale against her possession of it. I am sorry to have to say this to +you, but it is a fact. A woman will regret that the mother-bird must be +tortured and her babies starve, but she will have the aigrette. She +simply trains herself to forget the origin.</p> + +<p>"Take my own case. You will doubtless be shocked when I tell you that I +was perfectly aware of the conditions under which the aigrette is +obtained before you began your exposure of the method. But did it +prevent my purchase of one? Not at all. Why? Because I am a woman: I +realize that no head ornament will set off my hair so well as an +aigrette. Say I am cruel if you like. I wish the heron-mother didn't +have to be killed or the babies starve, but, Mr. Bok, I must have my +beautiful aigrette!"</p> + +<p>Bok was frankly astounded: he had certainly probed deep this time into +the feminine nature. With every desire and instinct to disbelieve the +facts, the deeper his inquiries went, the stronger the evidence rolled +up: there was no gainsaying it; no sense in a further disbelief of it.</p> + +<p>But Bok was determined that this time he would not fail. His sense of +justice and protection to the mother-bird and her young was now fully +aroused. He resolved that he would, by compulsion, bring about what he +had failed to do by persuasion. He would make it impossible for women to +be untrue to their most sacred instinct. He sought legal talent, had a +bill drawn up making it a misdemeanor to import, sell, purchase, or wear +an aigrette. Armed with this measure, and the photographs and articles +which he had published, he sought and obtained the interest and promise +of support of the most influential legislators in several States. He +felt a sense of pride in his own sex that he had no trouble in winning +the immediate interest of every legislator with whom he talked.</p> + +<p>Where he had failed with women, he was succeeding with men! The +outrageous butchery of the birds and the circumstances under which they +were tortured appealed with direct force to the sporting instinct in +every man, and aroused him. Bok explained to each that he need expect no +support for such a measure from women save from the members of the +Audubon Societies, and a few humanitarian women and bird-lovers. Women, +as a whole, he argued from his experiences, while they would not go so +far as openly to oppose such a measure, for fear of public comment, +would do nothing to further its passage, for in their hearts they +preferred failure to success for the legislation. They had frankly told +him so: he was not speaking from theory.</p> + +<p>In one State after another Bok got into touch with legislators. He +counselled, in each case, a quiet passage for the measure instead of one +that would draw public attention to it.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, a strong initiative had come from the Audubon Societies +throughout the country, and from the National Association of Audubon +Societies, at New York. This latter society also caused to be introduced +bills of its own to the same and in various legislatures, and here Bok +had a valuable ally. It was a curious fact that the Audubon officials +encountered their strongest resistance in Bok's own State: Pennsylvania. +But Bok's personal acquaintance with legislators in his Keystone State +helped here materially.</p> + +<p>The demand for the aigrette constantly increased and rose to hitherto +unknown figures. In one State where Bok's measure was pending before the +legislature, he heard of the coming of an unusually large shipment of +aigrettes to meet this increased demand. He wired the legislator in +charge of the measure apprising him of this fact, of what he intended to +do, and urging speed in securing the passage of the bill. Then he caused +the shipment to be seized at the dock on the ground of illegal +importation.</p> + +<p>The importing firm at once secured an injunction restraining the +seizure. Bok replied by serving a writ setting the injunction aside. The +lawyers of the importers got busy, of course, but meanwhile the +legislator had taken advantage of a special evening session, had the +bill passed, and induced the governor to sign it, the act taking effect +at once.</p> + +<p>This was exactly what Bok had been playing for. The aigrettes were now +useless; they could not be reshipped to another State, they could not be +offered for sale. The suit was dropped, and Bok had the satisfaction of +seeing the entire shipment, valued at $160,000, destroyed. He had not +saved the lives of the mother-birds, but, at least, he had prevented +hundreds of American women from wearing the hallmark of torture.</p> + +<p>State after State now passed an aigrette-prohibition law until fourteen +of the principal States, including practically all the large cities, +fell into line.</p> + +<p>Later, the National Association of Audubon Societies had introduced into +the United States Congress and passed a bill prohibiting the importation +of bird-feathers into the country, thus bringing a Federal law into +existence.</p> + +<p>Bok had won his fight, it is true, but he derived little satisfaction +from the character of his victory. His ideal of womanhood had received a +severe jolt. Women had revealed their worst side to him, and he did not +like the picture. He had appealed to what he had been led to believe was +the most sacred instinct in a woman's nature. He received no response. +Moreover, he saw the deeper love for personal vanity and finery +absolutely dominate the mother-instinct. He was conscious that something +had toppled off its pedestal which could never be replaced.</p> + +<p>He was aware that his mother's words, when he accepted his editorial +position, were coming terribly true: "I am sorry you are going to take +this position. It will cost you the high ideal you have always held of +your mother's sex. But a nature, as is the feminine nature, wholly +swayed inwardly by emotion, and outwardly influenced by an insatiate +love for personal adornment, will never stand the analysis you will give +it."</p> + +<p>He realized that he was paying a high price for his success. Such +experiences as these—and, unfortunately, they were only two of +several—were doubtless in his mind when, upon his retirement, the +newspapers clamored for his opinions of women. "No, thank you," he said +to one and all, "not a word."</p> + +<p>He did not give his reasons.</p> + +<p>He never will.</p> + +<h3><a name="XXX" id="XXX"></a>XXX.</h3> + +<p class="heading">Cleaning Up the Patent-Medicine and Other Evils</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">In</span> 1892 The Ladies' Home Journal announced that it would thereafter +accept no advertisements of patent medicines for its pages. It was a +pioneer stroke. During the following two years, seven other newspapers +and periodicals followed suit. The American people were slaves to +self-medication, and the patent-medicine makers had it all their own +way. There was little or no legal regulation as to the ingredients in +their nostrums; the mails were wide open to their circulars, and the +pages of even the most reputable periodicals welcomed their +advertisements. The patent-medicine business in the United States ran +into the hundreds of millions of dollars annually. The business is still +large; then it was enormous.</p> + +<p>Into this army of deceit and spurious medicines, The Ladies' Home +Journal fired the first gun. Neither the public nor the patent-medicine +people paid much attention to the first attacks. But as they grew, and +the evidence multiplied, the public began to comment and the nostrum +makers began to get uneasy.</p> + +<p>The magazine attacked the evil from every angle. It aroused the public +by showing the actual contents of some of their pet medicines, or the +absolute worthlessness of them. The Editor got the Women's Christian +Temperance Union into action against the periodicals for publishing +advertisements of medicines containing as high as forty per cent +alcohol. He showed that the most confidential letters written by women +with private ailments were opened by young clerks of both sexes, laughed +at and gossiped over, and that afterward their names and addresses, +which they had been told were held in the strictest confidence, were +sold to other lines of business for five cents each. He held the +religious press up to the scorn of church members for accepting +advertisements which the publishers knew and which he proved to be not +only fraudulent, but actually harmful. He called the United States Post +Office authorities to account for accepting and distributing obscene +circular matter.</p> + +<p>He cut an advertisement out of a newspaper which ended with the +statement:</p> + +<p class="top5">"Mrs. Pinkham, in her laboratory at Lynn, Massachusetts, is able to do +more for the ailing women of America than the family physician. Any +woman, therefore, is responsible for her own suffering who will not take +the trouble to write to Mrs. Pinkham for advice."</p> + +<p class="top5">Next to this advertisement representing Mrs. Lydia Pinkham as "in her +laboratory," Bok simply placed the photograph of Mrs. Pinkham's +tombstone in Pine Grove Cemetery, at Lynn, showing that Mrs. Pinkham had +passed away twenty-two years before!</p> + +<p>It was one of the most effective pieces of copy that the magazine used +in the campaign. It told its story with absolute simplicity, but with +deadly force.</p> + +<p>The proprietors of "Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup" had strenuously +denied the presence of morphine in their preparation. Bok simply bought +a bottle of the syrup in London, where, under the English Pharmacy Act, +the authorities compelled the proprietors of the syrup to affix the +following declaration on each bottle: "This preparation, containing, +among other valuable ingredients, a small amount of morphine is, in +accordance with the Pharmacy Act, hereby labelled 'Poison!'" The +magazine published a photograph of the label, and it told its own +convincing story. It is only fair to say that the makers of this remedy +now publish their formula.</p> + +<p>Bok now slipped a cog in his machinery. He published a list of +twenty-seven medicines, by name, and told what they contained. One +preparation, he said, contained alcohol, opium, and digitalis. He +believed he had been extremely careful in this list. He had consulted +the highest medical authorities, physicians, and chemists. But in the +instance of the one preparation referred to above he was wrong.</p> + +<p>The analysis had been furnished by the secretary of the State Board of +Health of Massachusetts; a recognized expert, who had taken it from the +analysis of a famous German chemist. It was in nearly every standard +medical authority, and was accepted by the best medical authorities. Bok +accepted these authorities as final. Nevertheless, the analysis and the +experts were wrong. A suit for two hundred thousand dollars was brought +by the patent-medicine company against The Curtis Publishing Company, +and, of course, it was decided in favor of the former. But so strong a +public sentiment had been created against the whole business of patent +medicines by this time that the jury gave a verdict of only sixteen +thousand dollars, with costs, against the magazine.</p> + +<p>Undaunted, Bok kept on. He now engaged Mark Sullivan, then a young +lawyer in downtown New York, induced him to give up his practice, and +bring his legal mind to bear upon the problem. It was the beginning of +Sullivan's subsequent journalistic career, and he justified Bok's +confidence in him. He exposed the testimonials to patent medicines from +senators and congressmen then so widely published, showed how they were +obtained by a journalist in Washington who made a business of it. He +charged seventy-five dollars for a senator's testimonial, forty dollars +for that of a congressman, and accepted no contract for less than five +thousand dollars.</p> + +<p>Sullivan next exposed the disgraceful violation of the confidence of +women by these nostrum vendors in selling their most confidential +letters to any one who would buy them. Sullivan himself bought thousands +of these letters and names, and then wrote about them in the magazine. +One prominent firm indignantly denied the charge, asserting that +whatever others might have done, their names were always held sacred. In +answer to this declaration Sullivan published an advertisement of this +righteous concern offering fifty thousand of their names for sale.</p> + +<p>Bok had now kept up the fight for over two years, and the results were +apparent on every hand. Reputable newspapers and magazines were closing +their pages to the advertisements of patent medicines; legislation was +appearing in several States; the public had been awakened to the fraud +practised upon it, and a Federal Pure Food and Drug Act was beginning to +be talked about.</p> + +<p>Single-handed, The Ladies' Home Journal kept up the fight until Mark +Sullivan produced an unusually strong article, but too legalistic for +the magazine. He called the attention of Norman Hapgood, then editor of +Collier's Weekly, to it, who accepted it at once, and, with Bok's +permission, engaged Sullivan, who later succeeded Hapgood as editor of +Collier's. Robert J. Collier now brought Samuel Hopkins Adams to Bok's +attention and asked the latter if he should object if Collier's Weekly +joined him in his fight. The Philadelphia editor naturally welcomed the +help of the weekly, and Adams began his wonderfully effective campaign.</p> + +<p>The weekly and the monthly now pounded away together; other periodicals +and newspapers, seeing success ahead, and desiring to be part of it and +share the glory, came into the conflict, and it was not long before so +strong a public sentiment had been created as to bring about the passage +of the United States Food and Drug Act, and the patent-medicine business +of the United States had received a blow from which it has never +recovered. To-day the pages of every newspaper and periodical of +recognized standing are closed to the advertisements of patent +medicines; the Drug Act regulates the ingredients, and post office +officials scan the literature sent through the United States mails.</p> + +<p>There are distinct indications that the time has come once more to scan +the patent-medicine horizon carefully, but the conditions existing in +1920 are radically different from those prevailing in 1904.</p> + +<p>One day when Bok was at luncheon with Doctor Lyman Abbott, the latter +expressed the wish that Bok would take up the subject of venereal +disease as he had the patent-medicine question.</p> + +<p>"Not our question," answered Bok.</p> + +<p>"It is most decidedly your question," was the reply.</p> + +<p>Bok cherished the highest regard for Doctor Abbott's opinion and +judgment, and this positive declaration amazed him.</p> + +<p>"Read up on the subject," counselled Doctor Abbott, "and you will find +that the evil has its direct roots in the home with the parents. You +will agree with me before you go very far that it is your question."</p> + +<p>Bok began to read on the unsavory subject. It was exceedingly unpleasant +reading, but for two years Bok persisted, only to find that Doctor +Abbott was right. The root of the evil lay in the reticence of parents +with children as to the mystery of life; boys and girls were going out +into the world blind-folded as to any knowledge of their physical +selves; "the bloom must not be rubbed off the peach," was the belief of +thousands of parents, and the results were appalling. Bok pursued his +investigations from books direct into the "Homes of Refuge," "Doors of +Hope," and similar institutions, and unearthed a condition, the direct +results of the false modesty of parents, that was almost unbelievable.</p> + +<p>Bok had now all his facts, but realized that for his magazine, of all +magazines, to take up this subject would be like a bolt from the blue in +tens of thousands of homes. But this very fact, the unquestioned +position of the magazine, the remarkable respect which its readers had +for it, and the confidence with which parents placed the periodical on +their home tables—all this was, after all, Bok thought, the more reason +why he should take up the matter and thresh it out. He consulted with +friends, who advised against it; his editors were all opposed to the +introduction of the unsavory subject into the magazine.</p> + +<p>"But it isn't unsavory," argued Bok. "That is just it. We have made it +so by making it mysterious, by surrounding it with silence, by making it +a forbidden topic. It is the most beautiful story in life."</p> + +<p>Mr. Curtis, alone, encouraged his editor. Was he sure he was right? If +he was, why not go ahead? Bok called his attention to the fact that a +heavy loss in circulation was a foregone conclusion; he could calculate +upon one hundred thousand subscribers, at least, stopping the magazine. +"It is a question of right," answered the publisher, "not of +circulation."</p> + +<p>And so, in 1906, with the subject absolutely prohibited in every +periodical and newspaper of standing, never discussed at a public +gathering save at medical meetings, Bok published his first editorial.</p> + +<p>The readers of his magazine fairly gasped; they were dumb with +astonishment! The Ladies' Home Journal, of all magazines, to discuss +such a subject! When they had recovered from their astonishment, the +parents began to write letters, and one morning Bok was confronted with +a large waste-basket full brought in by his two office boys.</p> + +<p>"Protests," laconically explained one of his editors. "More than that, +the majority threaten to stop their subscription unless you stop."</p> + +<p>"All right, that proves I am right," answered Bok. "Write to each one +and say that what I have written is nothing as compared in frankness to +what is coming, and that we shall be glad to refund the unfulfilled part +of their subscriptions."</p> + +<p>Day after day, thousands of letters came in. The next issue contained +another editorial, stronger than the first. Bok explained that he would +not tell the actual story of the beginning of life in the magazine—that +was the prerogative of the parents, and he had no notion of taking it +away from either; but that he meant to insist upon putting their duty +squarely up to them, that he realized it was a long fight, hence the +articles to come would be many and continued; and that those of his +readers who did not believe in his policy had better stop the magazine +at once. But he reminded them that no solution of any question was ever +reached by running away from it. This question had to be faced some +time, and now was as good a time as any.</p> + +<p>Thousands of subscriptions were stopped; advertisements gave notice that +they would cancel their accounts; the greatest pressure was placed upon +Mr. Curtis to order his editor to cease, and Bok had the grim experience +of seeing his magazine, hitherto proclaimed all over the land as a model +advocate of the virtues, refused admittance into thousands of homes, and +saw his own friends tear the offending pages out of the periodical +before it was allowed to find a place on their home-tables.</p> + +<p>But The Journal kept steadily on. Number after number contained some +article on the subject, and finally such men and women as Jane Addams, +Cardinal Gibbons, Margaret Deland, Henry van Dyke, President Eliot, the +Bishop of London, braved the public storm, came to Bok's aid, and wrote +articles for his magazine heartily backing up his lonely fight.</p> + +<p>The public, seeing this array of distinguished opinion expressing +itself, began to wonder "whether there might not be something in what +Bok was saying, after all." At the end of eighteen months, inquiries +began to take the place of protests; and Bok knew then that the fight +was won. He employed two experts, one man and one woman, to answer the +inquiries, and he had published a series of little books, each written +by a different author on a different aspect of the question.</p> + +<p>This series was known as The Edward Bok Books. They sold for twenty-five +cents each, without profit to either editor or publisher. The series +sold into the tens of thousands. Information was, therefore, to be had, +in authoritative form, enabling every parent to tell the story to his or +her child. Bok now insisted that every parent should do this, and +announced that he intended to keep at the subject until the parents did. +He explained that the magazine had lost about seventy-five thousand +subscribers, and that it might just as well lose some more; but that the +insistence should go on.</p> + +<p>Slowly but surely the subject became a debatable one. Where, when Bok +began, the leading prophylactic society in New York could not secure +five speaking dates for its single lecturer during a session, it was now +put to it to find open dates for over ten speakers. Mothers' clubs, +women's clubs, and organizations of all kinds clamored for authoritative +talks; here and there a much-veiled article apologetically crept into +print, and occasionally a progressive school board or educational +institution experimented with a talk or two.</p> + +<p>The Ladies' Home Journal published a full-page editorial declaring that +seventy of every one hundred special surgical operations on women were +directly or indirectly the result of one cause; that sixty of every one +hundred new-born blinded babies were blinded soon after birth from this +same cause; and that every man knew what this cause was!</p> + +<p>Letters from men now began to pour in by the hundreds. With an oath on +nearly every line, they told him that their wives, daughters, sisters, +or mothers had demanded to know this cause, and that they had to tell +them. Bok answered these heated men and told them that was exactly why +the Journal had published the editorial, and that in the next issue +there would be another for those women who might have missed his first. +He insisted that the time had come when women should learn the truth, +and that, so far as it lay in his power, he intended to see that they +did know.</p> + +<p>The tide of public opinion at last turned toward The Ladies' Home +Journal and its campaign. Women began to realize that it had a case; +that it was working for their best interests and for those of their +children, and they decided that the question might as well be faced. Bok +now felt that his part in the work was done. He had started something +well on its way; the common sense of the public must do the rest. He had +taken the question of natural life, and stripped it of its false mystery +in the minds of hundreds of thousands of young people; had started their +inquiring minds; had shown parents the way; had made a forbidden topic a +debatable subject, discussed in open gatherings, by the press, an +increasing number of books, and in schools and colleges. He dropped the +subject, only to take up one that was more or less akin to it.</p> + +<p>That was the public drinking-cup. Here was a distinct menace that actual +examples and figures showed was spreading the most loathsome diseases +among innocent children. In 1908, he opened up the subject by ruthlessly +publishing photographs that were unpleasantly but tremendously +convincing. He had now secured the confidence of his vast public, who +listened attentively to him when he spoke on an unpleasant topic; and +having learned from experience that he would simply keep on until he got +results, his readers decided that this time they would act quickly. So +quick a result was hardly ever achieved in any campaign. Within six +months legislation all over the country was introduced or enacted +prohibiting the common drinking-cup in any public gathering-place, park, +store, or theatre, and substituting the individual paper cup. Almost +over night, the germ-laden common drinking-cup, which had so widely +spread disease, disappeared; and in a number of States, the common +towel, upon Bok's insistence, met the same fate. Within a year, one of +the worst menaces to American life had been wiped out by public +sentiment.</p> + +<p>Bok was now done with health measures for a while, and determined to see +what he could do with two or three civic questions that he felt needed +attention.</p> + +<h3><a name="XXXI" id="XXXI"></a>XXXI.</h3> + +<p class="heading">Adventures in Civics</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> electric power companies at Niagara Falls were beginning to draw so +much water from above the great Horseshoe Falls as to bring into +speculation the question of how soon America's greatest scenic asset +would be a coal-pile with a thin trickle of water crawling down its vast +cliffs. Already companies had been given legal permission to utilize +one-quarter of the whole flow, and additional companies were asking for +further grants. Permission for forty per cent of the whole volume of +water had been granted. J. Horace McFarland, as President of the +American Civic Association, called Bok's attention to the matter, and +urged him to agitate it through his magazine so that restrictive +legislation might be secured.</p> + +<p>Bok went to Washington, conferred with President Roosevelt, and found +him cognizant of the matter in all its aspects.</p> + +<p>"I can do nothing," said the President, "unless there is an awakened +public sentiment that compels action. Give me that, and I'll either put +the subject in my next message to Congress or send a special message. +I'm from Missouri on this point," continued the President. "Show me that +the American people want their Falls preserved, and I'll do the rest. +But I've got to be shown." Bok assured the President he could +demonstrate this to him.</p> + +<p>The next number of his magazine presented a graphic picture of the +Horseshoe Falls as they were and the same Falls as they would be if more +water was allowed to be taken for power: a barren coal-pile with a tiny +rivulet of water trickling down its sides. The editorial asked whether +the American women were going to allow this? If not, each, if an +American, should write to the President, and, if a Canadian, to Earl +Grey, then Governor-General of Canada. Very soon after the magazine had +reached its subscribers' hands, the letters began to reach the White +House; not by dozens, as the President's secretary wrote to Bok, but by +the hundreds and then by the thousands. "Is there any way to turn this +spigot off?" telegraphed the President's secretary. "We are really being +inundated."</p> + +<p>Bok went to Washington and was shown the huge pile of letters.</p> + +<p>"All right," said the President. "That's all I want. You've proved it to +me that there is a public sentiment."</p> + +<p>The clerks at Rideau Hall, at Ottawa, did not know what had happened one +morning when the mail quadrupled in size and thousands of protests came +to Earl Grey. He wired the President, the President exchanged views with +the governor-general, and the great international campaign to save +Niagara Falls had begun. The American Civic Association and scores of +other civic and patriotic bodies had joined in the clamor.</p> + +<p>The attorney-general and the secretary of state were instructed by the +President to look into the legal and diplomatic aspects of the question, +and in his next message to Congress President Roosevelt uttered a +clarion call to that body to restrict the power-grabbing companies.</p> + +<p>The Ladies' Home Journal urged its readers to write to their congressmen +and they did by the thousands. Every congressman and senator was +overwhelmed. As one senator said: "I have never seen such an avalanche. +But thanks to The Ladies' Home Journal, I have received these hundreds +of letters from my constituents; they have told me what they want done, +and they are mostly from those of my people whose wishes I am bound to +respect."</p> + +<p>The power companies, of course, promptly sent their attorneys and +lobbyists to Washington; but the public sentiment aroused was too strong +to be disregarded, and on June 29, 1906, the President signed the Burton +Bill restricting the use of the water of Niagara Falls.</p> + +<p>The matter was then referred to the secretary of war, William Howard +Taft, to grant the use of such volume of water as would preserve the +beauty of the Falls. McFarland and Bok wanted to be sure that Secretary +Taft felt the support of public opinion, for his policy was to be +conservative, and tremendous pressure was being brought upon him from +every side to permit a more liberal use of water. Bok turned to his +readers and asked them to write to Secretary Taft and assure him of the +support of the American women in his attitude of conservatism.</p> + +<p>The flood of letters that descended upon the secretary almost taxed even +his genial nature; and when Mr. McFarland, as the editorial +representative of The Ladies' Home Journal, arose to speak at the public +hearing in Washington, the secretary said: "I can assure you that you +don't have to say very much. Your case has already been pleaded for you +by, I should say at the most conservative estimate, at least one hundred +thousand women. Why, I have had letters from even my wife and my +mother."</p> + +<p>Secretary Taft adhered to his conservative policy, Sir Wilfred Laurier, +premier of Canada, met the overtures of Secretary of State Root, a new +international document was drawn up, and Niagara Falls had been saved to +the American people.</p> + +<p>In 1905 and in previous years the casualties resulting from fireworks on +the Fourth of July averaged from five to six thousand each year. The +humorous weekly Life and The Chicago Tribune had been for some time +agitating a restricted use of fireworks on the national fete day, but +nevertheless the list of casualties kept creeping to higher figures. Bok +decided to help by arousing the parents of America, in whose hands, +after all, lay the remedy. He began a series of articles in the +magazine, showing what had happened over a period of years, the +criminality of allowing so many young lives to be snuffed out, and +suggested how parents could help by prohibiting the deadly firecrackers +and cannon, and how organizations could assist by influencing the +passing of city ordinances. Each recurring January, The Journal returned +to the subject, looking forward to the coming Fourth. It was a +deep-rooted custom to eradicate, and powerful influences, in the form of +thousands of small storekeepers, were at work upon local officials to +pay no heed to the agitation. Gradually public opinion changed. The +newspapers joined in the cry; women's organizations insisted upon action +from local municipal bodies.</p> + +<p>Finally, the civic spirit in Cleveland, Ohio, forced the passage of a +city ordinance prohibiting the sale or use of fireworks on the Fourth. +The following year when Cleveland reported no casualties as compared to +an ugly list for the previous. Fourth, a distinct impression was made +upon other cities. Gradually, other municipalities took action, and year +by year the list of Fourth of July casualties grew perceptibly shorter. +New York City was now induced to join the list of prohibitive cities, by +a personal appeal made to its mayor by Bok, and on the succeeding Fourth +of July the city authorities, on behalf of the people of New York City, +conferred a gold medal upon Edward Bok for his services in connection +with the birth of the new Fourth in that city.</p> + +<p>There still remains much to be done in cities as yet unawakened; but a +comparison of the list of casualties of 1920 with that of 1905 proves +the growth in enlightened public sentiment in fifteen years to have been +steadily increasing. It is an instance not of Bok taking the +initiative—that had already been taken—but of throwing the whole force +of the magazine with those working in the field to help. It is the +American woman who is primarily responsible for the safe and sane +Fourth, so far as it already exists in this country to-day, and it is +the American woman who can make it universal.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Pennypacker, as president of The Federation of Women's Clubs, now +brought to Bok's attention the conditions under which the average rural +school-teacher lived; the suffering often entailed on her in having to +walk miles to the schoolhouse in wintry weather; the discomfort she had +to put up with in the farm-houses where she was compelled to live, with +the natural result, under those conditions, that it was almost +impossible to secure the services of capable teachers, or to have good +teaching even where efficient teachers were obtained.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Pennypacker suggested that Bok undertake the creation of a public +sentiment for a residence for the teacher in connection with the +schoolhouse. The parson was given a parsonage; why not the teacher a +"teacherage"? The Journal co-operated with Mrs. Pennypacker and she +began the agitation of the subject in the magazine. She also spoke on +the subject wherever she went, and induced women's clubs all over the +country to join the magazine in its advocacy of the "teacherage."</p> + +<p>By personal effort, several "teacherages" were established in connection +with new schoolhouses; photographs of these were published and sent +personally to school-boards all over the country; the members of women's +clubs saw to it that the articles were brought to the attention of +members of their local school-boards; and the now-generally accepted +idea that a "teacherage" must accompany a new schoolhouse was well on +its way to national recognition.</p> + +<p>It only remains now for communities to install a visiting nurse in each +of these "teacherages" so that the teacher need not live in solitary +isolation, and that the health of the children at school can be looked +after at first hand. Then the nurse shall be at the call of every small +American community—particularly to be available in cases of childbirth, +since in these thinly settled districts it is too often impossible to +obtain the services of a physician, with the result of a high percentage +of fatalities to mothers that should not be tolerated by a wealthy and +progressive people. No American mother, at childbirth, should be denied +the assistance of professional skill, no matter how far she may live +from a physician. And here is where a visiting nurse in every community +can become an institution of inestimable value.</p> + +<p>Just about this time a group of Philadelphia physicians, headed by +Doctor Samuel McClintock Hamill, which had formed itself into a hygienic +committee for babies, waited upon Bok to ask him to join them in the +creation of a permanent organization devoted to the welfare of babies +and children. Bok found that he was dealing with a company of +representative physicians, and helped to organize "The Child +Federation," an organization "to do good on a business basis."</p> + +<p>It was to go to the heart of the problem of the baby in the congested +districts of Philadelphia, and do a piece of intensive work in the ward +having the highest infant mortality, establishing the first health +centre in the United States actively managed by competent physicians and +nurses. This centre was to demonstrate to the city authorities that the +fearful mortality among babies, particularly in summer, could be +reduced.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, there was created a "Baby Saving Show," a set of graphic +pictures conveying to the eye methods of sanitation and other too often +disregarded essentials of the wise care and feeding of babies; and this +travelled, like a theatrical attraction, to different parts of the city. +"Little Mothers' Leagues" were organized to teach the little girl of ten +or twelve, so often left in charge of a family of children when the +mother is at work during the day, and demonstrations were given in +various parts of the city.</p> + +<p>The Child Federation now undertook one activity after the other. Under +its auspices, the first municipal Christmas tree ever erected in +Philadelphia was shown in the historic Independence Square, and with two +bands of music giving concerts every day from Christmas to New Year's +Day, attracted over two hundred thousand persons. A pavilion was erected +in City Hall Square, the most central spot in the city, and the "Baby +Saving Show" was permanently placed there and visited by over one +hundred thousand visitors from every part of the country on their way to +and from the Pennsylvania Station at Broad Street.</p> + +<p>A searching investigation of the Day Nurseries of Philadelphia—probably +one of the most admirable pieces of research work ever made in a +city—changed the methods in vogue and became a standard guide for +similar institutions throughout the country. So successful were the +Little Mothers' Leagues that they were introduced into the public +schools of Philadelphia, and are to-day a regular part of the +curriculum. The Health Centre, its success being proved, was taken over +by the city Board of Health, and three others were established.</p> + +<p>To-day The Child Federation is recognized as one of the most practically +conducted child welfare agencies in Philadelphia, and its methods have +been followed by similar organizations all over the country. It is now +rapidly becoming the central medium through which the other agencies in +Philadelphia are working, thus avoiding the duplication of infant +welfare work in the city. Broadening its scope, it is not unlikely to +become one of the greatest indirect influences in the welfare work of +Philadelphia and the vicinity, through which other organizations will be +able to work.</p> + +<p>Bok's interest and knowledge in civic matters had now peculiarly +prepared him for a personal adventure into community work. Merion, where +he lived, was one of the most beautiful of the many suburbs that +surround the Quaker City; but, like hundreds of similar communities, +there had been developed in it no civic interest. Some of the most +successful business men of Philadelphia lived in Merion; they had +beautiful estates, which they maintained without regard to expense, but +also without regard to the community as a whole. They were busy men; +they came home tired after a day in the city; they considered themselves +good citizens if they kept their own places sightly, but the idea of +devoting their evenings to the problems of their community had never +occurred to them before the evening when two of Bok's neighbors called +to ask his help in forming a civic association.</p> + +<p>A canvass of the sentiment of the neighborhood revealed the unanimous +opinion that the experiment, if attempted, would be a failure,—an +attitude not by any means confined to the residents of Merion! Bok +decided to test it out; he called together twenty of his neighbors, put +the suggestion before them and asked for two thousand dollars as a +start, so that a paid secretary might be engaged, since the men +themselves were too busy to attend to the details of the work. The +amount was immediately subscribed, and in 1913 The Merion Civic +Association applied for a charter and began its existence.</p> + +<p>The leading men in the community were elected as a Board of Directors, +and a salaried secretary was engaged to carry out the directions of the +Board. The association adopted the motto: "To be nation right, and State +right, we must first be community right." Three objectives were selected +with which to attract community interest and membership: safety to life, +in the form of proper police protection; safety to property, in the form +of adequate hydrant and fire-engine service; and safety to health, in +careful supervision of the water and milk used in the community.</p> + +<p>"The three S's," as they were called, brought an immediate response. +They were practical in their appeal, and members began to come in. The +police force was increased from one officer at night and none in the +day, to three at night and two during the day, and to this the +Association added two special night officers of its own. Private +detectives were intermittently brought in to "check up" and see that the +service was vigilant. A fire hydrant was placed within seven hundred +feet of every house, with the insurance rates reduced from twelve and +one-half to thirty per cent; the services of three fire-engine companies +was arranged for. Fire-gongs were introduced into the community to guard +against danger from interruption of telephone service. The water supply +was chemically analyzed each month and the milk supply carefully +scrutinized. One hundred and fifty new electric-light posts specially +designed, and pronounced by experts as the most beautiful and practical +road lamps ever introduced into any community, were erected, making +Merion the best-lighted community in its vicinity.</p> + +<p>At every corner was erected an artistically designed cast-iron road +sign; instead of the unsightly wooden ones, cast-iron automobile +warnings were placed at every dangerous spot; community bulletin-boards, +preventing the display of notices on trees and poles, were placed at the +railroad station; litter-cans were distributed over the entire +community; a new railroad station and post-office were secured; the +station grounds were laid out as a garden by a landscape architect; new +roads of permanent construction, from curb to curb, were laid down; +uniform tree-planting along the roads was introduced; bird-houses were +made and sold, so as to attract bird-life to the community; toll-gates +were abolished along the two main arteries of travel; the removal of all +telegraph and telephone poles was begun; an efficient Boy Scout troop +was organized, and an American Legion post; the automobile speed limit +was reduced from twenty-four to fifteen miles as a protection to +children; roads were regularly swept, cleaned, and oiled, and uniform +sidewalks advocated and secured.</p> + +<p>Within seven years so efficiently had the Association functioned that +its work attracted attention far beyond its own confines and that of +Philadelphia, and caused Theodore Roosevelt voluntarily to select it as +a subject for a special magazine article in which he declared it to +"stand as a model in civic matters." To-day it may be conservatively +said of The Merion Civic Association that it is pointed out as one of +the most successful suburban civic efforts in the country; as Doctor +Lyman Abbott said in The Outlook, it has made "Merion a model suburb, +which may standardize ideal suburban life, certainly for Philadelphia, +possibly for the United States."</p> + +<p>When the armistice was signed in November, 1918, the Association +immediately canvassed the neighborhood to erect a suitable Tribute +House, as a memorial to the eighty-three Merion boys who had gone into +the Great War: a public building which would comprise a community +centre, with an American Legion Post room, a Boy Scout house, an +auditorium, and a meeting-place for the civic activities of Merion. A +subscription was raised, and plans were already drawn for the Tribute +House, when Mr. Eldridge R. Johnson, president of the Victor Talking +Machine Company, one of the strong supporters of The Merion Civic +Association, presented his entire estate of twelve acres, the finest in +Merion, to the community, and agreed to build a Tribute House at his own +expense. The grounds represented a gift of two hundred thousand dollars, +and the building a gift of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This +building, now about to be erected, will be one of the most beautiful and +complete community centres in the United States.</p> + +<p>Perhaps no other suburban civic effort proves the efficiency of +community co-operation so well as does the seven years' work of The +Merion Civic Association. It is a practical demonstration of what a +community can do for itself by concerted action. It preached, from the +very start, the gospel of united service; it translated into actual +practice the doctrine of being one's brother's keeper, and it taught the +invaluable habit of collective action. The Association has no legal +powers; it rules solely by persuasion; it accomplishes by the power of +combination; by a spirit of the community for the community.</p> + +<p>When The Merion Civic Association was conceived, the spirit of local +pride was seemingly not present in the community. As a matter of fact, +it was there as it is in practically every neighborhood; it was simply +dormant; it had to be awakened, and its value brought vividly to the +community consciousness.</p> + +<h3><a name="XXXII" id="XXXII"></a>XXXII.</h3> + +<p class="heading">A Bewildered Bok</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">One</span> of the misfortunes of Edward Bok's training, which he realized more +clearly as time went on, was that music had little or no place in his +life. His mother did not play; and aside from the fact that his father +and mother were patrons of the opera during their residence in The +Netherlands, the musical atmosphere was lacking in his home. He realized +how welcome an outlet music might be in his now busy life. So what he +lacked himself and realized as a distinct omission in his own life he +decided to make possible for others.</p> + +<p>The Ladies' Home Journal began to strike a definite musical note. It +first caught the eye and ear of its public by presenting the popular new +marches by John Philip Sousa; and when the comic opera of "Robin Hood" +became the favorite of the day, it secured all the new compositions by +Reginald de Koven. Following these, it introduced its readers to new +compositions by Sir Arthur Sullivan, Tosti, Moscowski, Richard Strauss, +Paderewski, Josef Hofmann, Edouard Strauss, and Mascagni. Bok induced +Josef Hofmann to give a series of piano lessons in his magazine, and +Madame Marchesi a series of vocal lessons. The Journal introduced its +readers to all the great instrumental and vocal artists of the day +through articles; it offered prizes for the best piano and vocal +compositions; it had the leading critics of New York, Boston, and +Chicago write articles explanatory of orchestral music and how to listen +to music.</p> + +<p>Bok was early attracted by the abilities of Josef Hofmann. In 1898, he +met the pianist, who was then twenty-two years old. Of his musical +ability Bok could not judge, but he was much impressed by his unusual +mentality, and soon both learned and felt that Hofmann's art was deeply +and firmly rooted. Hofmann had a wider knowledge of affairs than other +musicians whom Bok had met; he had not narrowed his interests to his own +art. He was striving to achieve a position in his art, and, finding that +he had literary ability, Bok asked him to write a reminiscent article on +his famous master, Rubinstein.</p> + +<p>This was followed by other articles; the publication of his new mazurka; +still further articles; and then, in 1907, Bok offered him a regular +department in the magazine and a salaried editorship on his staff.</p> + +<p>Bok's musical friends and the music critics tried to convince the editor +that Hofmann's art lay not so deep as Bok imagined; that he had been a +child prodigy, and would end where all child prodigies invariably +end—opinions which make curious reading now in view of Hofmann's +commanding position in the world of music. But while Bok lacked musical +knowledge, his instinct led him to adhere to his belief in Hofmann; and +for twelve years, until Bok's retirement as editor, the pianist was a +regular contributor to the magazine. His success was, of course, +unquestioned. He answered hundreds of questions sent him by his readers, +and these answers furnished such valuable advice for piano students that +two volumes were made in book form and are to-day used by piano teachers +and students as authoritative guides.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, Bok's marriage had brought music directly into his domestic +circle. Mrs. Bok loved music, was a pianist herself, and sought to +acquaint her husband with what his former training had omitted. Hofmann +and Bok had become strong friends outside of the editorial relation, and +the pianist frequently visited the Bok home. But it was some time, even +with these influences surrounding him, before music began to play any +real part in Bok's own life.</p> + +<p>He attended the opera occasionally; more or less under protest, because +of its length, and because his mind was too practical for the indirect +operatic form. He could not remain patient at a recital; the effort to +listen to one performer for an hour and a half was too severe a tax upon +his restless nature. The Philadelphia Orchestra gave a symphony concert +each Saturday evening, and Bok dreaded the coming of that evening in +each week for fear of being taken to hear music which he was convinced +was "over his head."</p> + +<p>Like many men of his practical nature, he had made up his mind on this +point without ever having heard such a concert. The word "symphony" was +enough; it conveyed to him a form of the highest music quite beyond his +comprehension. Then, too, in the back of his mind there was the feeling +that, while he was perfectly willing to offer the best that the musical +world afforded in his magazine, his readers were primarily women, and +the appeal of music, after all, he felt was largely, if not wholly, to +the feminine nature. It was very satisfying to him to hear his wife play +in the evening; but when it came to public concerts, they were not for +his masculine nature. In other words, Bok shared the all too common +masculine notion that music is for women and has little place in the +lives of men.</p> + +<p>One day Josef Hofmann gave Bok an entirely new point of view. The artist +was rehearsing in Philadelphia for an appearance with the orchestra, and +the pianist was telling Bok and his wife of the desire of Leopold +Stokowski, who had recently become conductor of the Philadelphia +Orchestra, to eliminate encores from his symphonic programmes; he wanted +to begin the experiment with Hofmann's appearance that week. This was a +novel thought to Bok: why eliminate encores from any concert? If he +liked the way any performer played, he had always done his share to +secure an encore. Why should not the public have an encore if it desired +it, and why should a conductor or a performer object? Hofmann explained +to him the entity of a symphonic programme; that it was made up with one +composition in relation to the others as a sympathetic unit, and that an +encore was an intrusion, disturbing the harmony of the whole.</p> + +<p>"I wish you would let Stokowski come out and explain to you what he is +trying to do," said Hofmann. "He knows what he wants, and he is right in +his efforts; but he doesn't know how to educate the public. There is +where you could help him."</p> + +<p>But Bok had no desire to meet Stokowski. He mentally pictured the +conductor: long hair; feet never touching the earth; temperament galore; +he knew them! And he had no wish to introduce the type into his home +life.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Bok, however, ably seconded Josef Hofmann, and endeavored to +dissipate Bok's preconceived notion, with the result that Stokowksi came +to the Bok home.</p> + +<p>Bok was not slow to see that Stokowski was quite the reverse of his +mental picture, and became intensely interested in the youthful +conductor's practical way of looking at things. It was agreed that the +encore "bull" was to be taken by the horns that week; that no matter +what the ovation to Hofmann might be, however the public might clamor, +no encore was to be forthcoming; and Bok was to give the public an +explanation during the following week. The next concert was to present +Mischa Elman, and his co-operation was assured so that continuity of +effort might be counted upon.</p> + +<p>In order to have first-hand information, Bok attended the concert that +Saturday evening. The symphony, Dvorak's "New World Symphony," amazed +Bok by its beauty; he was more astonished that he could so easily grasp +any music in symphonic form. He was equally surprised at the simple +beauty of the other numbers on the programme, and wondered not a little +at his own perfectly absorbed attention during Hofmann's playing of a +rather long concerto.</p> + +<p>The pianist's performance was so beautiful that the audience was +uproarious in its approval; it had calculated, of course, upon an +encore, and recalled the pianist again and again until he had appeared +and bowed his thanks several times. But there was no encore; the stage +hands appeared and moved the piano to one side, and the audience +relapsed into unsatisfied and rather bewildered silence.</p> + +<p>Then followed Bok's publicity work in the newspapers, beginning the next +day, exonerating Hofmann and explaining the situation. The following +week, with Mischa Elman as soloist, the audience once more tried to have +its way and its cherished encore, but again none was forthcoming. Once +more the newspapers explained; the battle was won, and the no-encore +rule has prevailed at the Philadelphia Orchestra concerts from that day +to this, with the public entirely resigned to the idea and satisfied +with the reason therefor.</p> + +<p>But the bewildered Bok could not make out exactly what had happened to +his preconceived notion about symphonic music. He attended the following +Saturday evening concert; listened to a Brahms symphony that pleased him +even more than had "The New World," and when, two weeks later, he heard +the Tschaikowski "Pathetique" and later the "Unfinished" symphony, by +Schubert, and a Beethoven symphony, attracted by each in turn, he +realized that his prejudice against the whole question of symphonic +music had been both wrongly conceived and baseless.</p> + +<p>He now began to see the possibility of a whole world of beauty which up +to that time had been closed to him, and he made up his mind that he +would enter it. Somehow or other, he found the appeal of music did not +confine itself to women; it seemed to have a message for men. Then, too, +instead of dreading the approach of Saturday evenings, he was looking +forward to them, and invariably so arranged his engagements that they +might not interfere with his attendance at the orchestra concerts.</p> + +<p>After a busy week, he discovered that nothing he had ever experienced +served to quiet him so much as these end-of-the-week concerts. They were +not too long, an hour and a half at the utmost; and, above all, except +now and then, when the conductor would take a flight into the world of +Bach, he found he followed him with at least a moderate degree of +intelligence; certainly with personal pleasure and inner satisfaction.</p> + +<p>Bok concluded he would not read the articles he had published on the +meaning of the different "sections" of a symphony orchestra, or the +books issued on that subject. He would try to solve the mechanism of an +orchestra for himself, and ascertain as he went along the relation that +each portion bore to the other. When, therefore, in 1913, the president +of the Philadelphia Orchestra Association asked him to become a member +of its Board of Directors, his acceptance was a natural step in the +gradual development of his interest in orchestral music.</p> + +<p>The public support given to orchestras now greatly interested Bok. He +was surprised to find that every symphony orchestra had a yearly +deficit. This he immediately attributed to faulty management; but on +investigating the whole question he learned that a symphony orchestra +could not possibly operate, at a profit or even on a self-sustaining +basis, because of its weekly change of programme, the incessant +rehearsals required, and the limited number of times it could actually +play within a contracted season. An annual deficit was inevitable.</p> + +<p>He found that the Philadelphia Orchestra had a small but faithful group +of guarantors who each year made good the deficit in addition to paying +for its concert seats. This did not seem to Bok a sound business plan; +it made of the orchestra a necessarily exclusive organization, +maintained by a few; and it gave out this impression to the general +public, which felt that it did not "belong," whereas the true relation +of public and orchestra was that of mutual dependence. Other orchestras, +he found, as, for example, the Boston Symphony and the New York +Philharmonic had their deficits met by one individual patron in each +case. This, to Bok's mind, was an even worse system, since it entirely +excluded the public, making the orchestra dependent on the continued +interest and life of a single man.</p> + +<p>In 1916 Bok sought Mr. Alexander Van Rensselaer, the president of the +Philadelphia Orchestra Association, and proposed that he, himself, +should guarantee the deficit of the orchestra for five years, provided +that during that period an endowment fund should be raised, contributed +by a large number of subscribers, and sufficient in amount to meet, from +its interest, the annual deficit. It was agreed that the donor should +remain in strict anonymity, an understanding which has been adhered to +until the present writing.</p> + +<p>The offer from the "anonymous donor," presented by the president, was +accepted by the Orchestra Association. A subscription to an endowment +fund was shortly afterward begun; and the amount had been brought to +eight hundred thousand dollars when the Great War interrupted any +further additions. In the autumn of 1919, however, a city-wide campaign +for an addition of one million dollars to the endowment fund was +launched. The amount was not only secured, but over-subscribed. Thus, +instead of a guarantee fund, contributed by thirteen hundred +subscribers, with the necessity for annual collection, an endowment fund +of one million eight hundred thousand dollars, contributed by fourteen +thousand subscribers, has been secured; and the Philadelphia Orchestra +has been promoted from a privately maintained organization to a public +institution in which fourteen thousand residents of Philadelphia feel a +proprietary interest. It has become in fact, as well as in name, "our +orchestra."</p> + +<h3><a name="XXXIII" id="XXXIII"></a>XXXIII.</h3> + +<p class="heading">How Millions of People Are Reached</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> success of The Ladies' Home Journal went steadily forward. The +circulation had passed the previously unheard-of figure for a monthly +magazine of a million and a half copies per month; it had now touched a +million and three-quarters.</p> + +<p>And not only was the figure so high, but the circulation itself was +absolutely free from "water." The public could not obtain the magazine +through what are known as clubbing-rates, since no subscriber was +permitted to include any other magazine with it; years ago it had +abandoned the practice of offering premiums or consideration of any kind +to induce subscriptions; and the newsdealers were not allowed to return +unsold copies of the periodical. Hence every copy was either purchased +by the public at the full price at a newsstand, or subscribed for at its +stated subscription price. It was, in short, an authoritative +circulation. And on every hand the question was being asked: "How is it +done? How is such a high circulation obtained?"</p> + +<p>Bok's invariable answer was that he gave his readers the very best of +the class of reading that he believed would interest them, and that he +spared neither effort nor expense to obtain it for them. When Mr. +Howells once asked him how he classified his audience, Bok replied: "We +appeal to the intelligent American woman rather than to the intellectual +type." And he gave her the best he could obtain. As he knew her to be +fond of the personal type of literature, he gave her in succession Jane +Addams's story of "My Fifteen Years at Hull House," and the remarkable +narration of Helen Keller's "Story of My Life"; he invited Henry Van +Dyke, who had never been in the Holy Land, to go there, camp out in a +tent, and then write a series of sketches, "Out of Doors in the Holy +Land"; he induced Lyman Abbott to tell the story of "My Fifty Years as a +Minister." He asked Gene Stratton Porter to tell of her bird-experiences +in the series: "What I Have Done with Birds"; he persuaded Dean Hodges +to turn from his work of training young clergymen at the Episcopal +Seminary, at Cambridge, and write one of the most successful series of +Bible stories for children ever printed; and then he supplemented this +feature for children by publishing Rudyard Kipling's "Just So" stories +and his "Puck of Pook's Hill." He induced F. Hopkinson Smith to tell the +best stories he had ever heard in his wide travels in "The Man in the +Arm Chair"; he got Kate Douglas Wiggin to tell a country church +experience of hers in "The Old Peabody Pew"; and Jean Webster her +knowledge of almshouse life in "Daddy Long Legs."</p> + +<p>The readers of The Ladies' Home Journal realized that it searched the +whole field of endeavor in literature and art to secure what would +interest them, and they responded with their support.</p> + +<p>Another of Bok's methods in editing was to do the common thing in an +uncommon way. He had the faculty of putting old wine in new bottles and +the public liked it. His ideas were not new; he knew there were no new +ideas, but he presented his ideas in such a way that they seemed new. It +is a significant fact, too, that a large public will respond more +quickly to an idea than it will to a name.</p> + +<p>This The Ladies' Home Journal proved again and again. Its most +pronounced successes, from the point of view of circulation, were those +in which the idea was the sole and central appeal. For instance, when it +gave American women an opportunity to look into a hundred homes and see +how they were furnished, it added a hundred thousand copies to the +circulation. There was nothing new in publishing pictures of rooms and, +had it merely done this, it is questionable whether success would have +followed the effort. It was the way in which it was done. The note +struck entered into the feminine desire, reflected it, piqued curiosity, +and won success.</p> + +<p>Again, when The Journal decided to show good taste and bad taste in +furniture, in comparative pictures, another hundred thousand circulation +came to it. There was certainly nothing new in the comparative idea; but +applied to a question of taste, which could not be explained so clearly +in words, it seemed new.</p> + +<p>Had it simply presented masterpieces of art as such, the series might +have attracted little attention. But when it announced that these +masterpieces had always been kept in private galleries, and seen only by +the favored few; that the public had never been allowed to get any +closer to them than to read of the fabulous prices paid by their +millionaire owners; and that now the magazine would open the doors of +those exclusive galleries and let the public in—public curiosity was at +once piqued, and over one hundred and fifty thousand persons who had +never before bought the magazine were added to the list.</p> + +<p>In not one of these instances, nor in the case of other successful +series, did the appeal to the public depend upon the names of +contributors; there were none: it was the idea which the public liked +and to which it responded.</p> + +<p>The editorial Edward Bok enjoyed this hugely; the real Edward Bok did +not. The one was bottled up in the other. It was a case of absolute +self-effacement. The man behind the editor knew that if he followed his +own personal tastes and expressed them in his magazine, a limited +audience would be his instead of the enormous clientele that he was now +reaching. It was the man behind the editor who had sought expression in +the idea of Country Life, the magazine which his company sold to +Doubleday, Page & Company, and which he would personally have enjoyed +editing.</p> + +<p>It was in 1913 that the real Edward Bok, bottled up for twenty-five +years, again came to the surface. The majority stockholders of The +Century Magazine wanted to dispose of their interest in the periodical. +Overtures were made to The Curtis Publishing Company, but its hands were +full, and the matter was presented for Bok's personal consideration. The +idea interested him, as he saw in The Century a chance for his +self-expression. He entered into negotiations, looked carefully into the +property itself and over the field which such a magazine might fill, +decided to buy it, and install an active editor while he, as a close +adviser, served as the propelling power.</p> + +<p>Bok figured out that there was room for one of the trio of what was, and +still is, called the standard-sized magazines, namely Scribner's, +Harper's, and The Century. He believed, as he does to-day, that any one +of these magazines could be so edited as to preserve all its traditions +and yet be so ingrafted with the new progressive, modern spirit as to +dominate the field and constitute itself the leader in that particular +group. He believed that there was a field which would produce a +circulation in the neighborhood of a quarter of a million copies a month +for one of those magazines, so that it would be considered not, as now, +one of three, but the one.</p> + +<p>What Bok saw in the possibilities of the standard illustrated magazine +has been excellently carried out by Mr. Ellery Sedgwick in The Atlantic +Monthly; every tradition has been respected, and yet the new progressive +note introduced has given it a position and a circulation never before +attained by a non-illustrated magazine of the highest class.</p> + +<p>As Bok studied the field, his confidence in the proposition, as he saw +it, grew. For his own amusement, he made up some six issues of The +Century as he visualized it, and saw that the articles he had included +were all obtainable. He selected a business manager and publisher who +would relieve him of the manufacturing problems; but before the contract +was actually closed Bok, naturally, wanted to consult Mr. Curtis, who +was just returning from abroad, as to this proposed sharing of his +editor.</p> + +<p>For one man to edit two magazines inevitably meant a distribution of +effort, and this Mr. Curtis counselled against. He did not believe that +any man could successfully serve two masters; it would also mean a +division of public association; it might result in Bok's physical +undoing, as already he was overworked. Mr. Curtis's arguments, of +course, prevailed; the negotiations were immediately called off, and for +the second time—for some wise reason, undoubtedly—the real Edward Bok +was subdued. He went back into the bottle!</p> + +<p>A cardinal point in Edward Bok's code of editing was not to commit his +magazine to unwritten material, or to accept and print articles or +stories simply because they were the work of well-known persons. And as +his acquaintance with authors multiplied, he found that the greater the +man the more willing he was that his work should stand or fall on its +merit, and that the editor should retain his prerogative of +declination—if he deemed it wise to exercise it.</p> + +<p>Rudyard Kipling was, and is, a notable example of this broad and just +policy. His work is never imposed upon an editor; it is invariably +submitted, in its completed form, for acceptance or declination. "Wait +until it's done," said Kipling once to Bok as he outlined a story to him +which the editor liked, "and see whether you want it. You can't tell +until then." (What a difference from the type of author who insists that +an editor must take his or her story before a line is written!)</p> + +<p>"I told Watt to send you," he writes to Bok, "the first four of my child +stories (you see I hadn't forgotten my promise), and they may serve to +amuse you for a while personally, even if you don't use them for +publication. Frankly, I don't myself see how they can be used for the L. +H. J.; but they're part of a scheme of mine for trying to give children +not a notion of history, but a notion of the time sense which is at the +bottom of all knowledge of history; and history, rightly understood, +means the love of one's fellow-men and the land one lives in."</p> + +<p>James Whitcomb Riley was another who believed that an editor should have +the privilege of saying "No" if he so elected. When Riley was writing a +series of poems for Bok, the latter, not liking a poem which the Hoosier +poet sent him, returned it to him. He wondered how Riley would receive a +declination—naturally a rare experience. But his immediate answer +settled the question:</p> + +<p class="top5">"Thanks equally for your treatment of both poems, [he wrote], the one +accepted and the other returned. Maintain your own opinions and respect, +and my vigorous esteem for you shall remain 'deep-rooted in the fruitful +soil.' No occasion for apology whatever. In my opinion, you are wrong; +in your opinion, you are right; therefore, you are right,—at least +righter than wronger. It is seldom that I drop other work for logic, but +when I do, as my grandfather was wont to sturdily remark, 'it is to some +purpose, I can promise you.'</p> + +<p>"Am goin' to try mighty hard to send you the dialect work you've so long +wanted; in few weeks at furthest. 'Patience and shuffle the cards.'</p> + +<p>"I am really, just now, stark and bare of one common-sense idea. In the +writing line, I was never so involved before and see no end to the +ink-(an humorous voluntary provocative, I trust of much +merriment)-creasing pressure of it all.</p> + +<p>"Even the hope of waking to find myself famous is denied me, since I +haven't time in which to fall asleep. Therefore, very drowsily and +yawningly indeed, I am your</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 18em;">"James Whitcomb Riley."</span></p> + +<p class="top5">Neither did the President of the United States consider himself above a +possible declination of his material if it seemed advisable to the +editor. In 1916 Woodrow Wilson wrote to Bok:</p> + +<p class="top5">"Sometime ago you kindly intimated to me that you would like to publish +an article from me. At first, it seemed impossible for me to undertake +anything of the kind, but I have found a little interval in which I have +written something on Mexico which I hope you will think worthy of +publication. If not, will you return it to me?"</p> + +<p class="top5">The President, too, acted as an intermediary in turning authors in Bok's +direction, when the way opened. In a letter written not on the official +White House letterhead, but on his personal "up-stairs" stationery, as +it is called, he asks:</p> + +<p class="top5">"Will you do me the favor of reading the enclosed to see if it is worthy +of your acceptance for the Journal, or whether you think it indicates +that the writer, with a few directions and suggestions, might be useful +to you?</p> + +<p>"It was written by —. She is a woman of great refinement, of a very +unusually broad social experience, and of many exceptional gifts, who +thoroughly knows what she is writing about, whether she has yet +discovered the best way to set it forth or not. She is one of the most +gifted and resourceful hostesses I have known, but has now fallen upon +hard times.</p> + +<p>"Among other things that she really knows, she really does thoroughly +know old furniture and all kinds of china worth knowing.</p> + +<p>"Pardon me if I have been guilty of an indiscretion in sending this +direct to you. I am throwing myself upon your indulgence in my desire to +help a splendid woman.</p> + +<p>"She has a great collection of recipes which housekeepers would like to +have. Does a serial cook-book sound like nonsense?"</p> + +<p class="top5">A further point in his editing which Bok always kept in view was his +rule that the editor must always be given the privilege of revising or +editing a manuscript. Bok's invariable rule was, of course, to submit +his editing for approval, but here again the bigger the personality back +of the material, the more willing the author was to have his manuscript +"blue pencilled," if he were convinced that the deletions or +condensations improved or at least did not detract from his arguments. +It was the small author who ever resented the touch of the editorial +pencil upon his precious effusions.</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact there are few authors who cannot be edited with +advantage, and it would be infinitely better for our reading if this +truth was applied to some of the literature of to-day.</p> + +<p>Bok had once under his hand a story by Mark Twain, which he believed +contained passages that should be deleted. They represented a goodly +portion of the manuscript. They were, however, taken out, and the result +submitted to the humorist. The answer was curious. Twain evidently saw +that Bok was right, for he wrote: "Of course, I want every single line +and word of it left out," and then added: "Do me the favor to call the +next time you are again in Hartford. I want to say things which—well, I +want to argue with you." Bok never knew what those "things" were, for at +the next meeting they were not referred to.</p> + +<p>It is, perhaps, a curious coincidence that all the Presidents of the +United States whose work Bok had occasion to publish were uniformly +liberal with regard to having their material edited.</p> + +<p>Colonel Roosevelt was always ready to concede improvement: "Fine," he +wrote; "the changes are much for the better. I never object to my work +being improved, where it needs it, so long as the sense is not altered."</p> + +<p>William Howard Taft wrote, after being subjected to editorial revision: +"You have done very well by my article. You have made it much more +readable by your rearrangement."</p> + +<p>Mr. Cleveland was very likely to let his interest in a subject run +counter to the space exigencies of journalism; and Bok, in one instance, +had to reduce one of his articles considerably. He explained the reason +and enclosed the revision.</p> + +<p>"I am entirely willing to have the article cut down as you suggest," +wrote the former President. "I find sufficient reason for this in the +fact that the matter you suggest for elimination has been largely +exploited lately. And in looking the matter over carefully, I am +inclined to think that the article expurgated as you suggest will gain +in unity and directness. At first, I feared it would appear a little +'bobbed' off, but you are a much better judge of that than I. ... I +leave it altogether to you."</p> + +<p>It was always interesting to Bok, as a study of mental processes, to +note how differently he and some author with whom he would talk it over +would see the method of treating some theme. He was discussing the +growing unrest among American women with Rudyard Kipling at the latter's +English home; and expressed the desire that the novelist should treat +the subject and its causes.</p> + +<p>They talked until the early hours, when it was agreed that each should +write out a plan, suggest the best treatment, and come together the next +morning. When they did so, Kipling had mapped out the scenario of a +novel; Bok had sketched out the headings of a series of analytical +articles. Neither one could see the other's viewpoint, Kipling +contending for the greater power of fiction and Bok strongly arguing for +the value of the direct essay. In this instance, the point was never +settled, for the work failed to materialize in any form!</p> + +<p>If the readers of The Ladies' Home Journal were quick to support its +editor when he presented an idea that appealed to them, they were +equally quick to tell him when he gave them something of which they did +not approve. An illustration of this occurred during the dance-craze +that preceded the Great War. In 1914, America was dance-mad, and the +character of the dances rapidly grew more and more offensive. Bok's +readers, by the hundreds, urged him to come out against the tendency.</p> + +<p>The editor looked around and found that the country's terpsichorean +idols were Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Castle; he decided that, with their +cooperation, he might, by thus going to the fountainhead, effect an +improvement through the introduction, by the Castles, of better and more +decorous new dances. Bok could see no reason why the people should not +dance, if they wanted to, so long as they kept within the bounds of +decency.</p> + +<p>He found the Castles willing and eager to co-operate, not only because of +the publicity it would mean for them, but because they were themselves +not in favor of the new mode. They had little sympathy for the +elimination of the graceful dance by the introduction of what they +called the "shuffle" or the "bunny-hug," "turkey-trot," and other +ungraceful and unworthy dances. It was decided that the Castles should, +through Bok's magazine and their own public exhibitions, revive the +gavotte, the polka, and finally the waltz. They would evolve these into +new forms and Bok would present them pictorially. A series of three +double-page presentations was decided upon, allowing for large +photographs so that the steps could be easily seen and learned from the +printed page.</p> + +<p>The magazine containing the first "lesson" was no sooner published than +protests began to come in by the hundreds. Bok had not stated his +object, and the public misconstrued his effort and purpose into an +acknowledgment that he had fallen a victim to the prevailing craze. He +explained in letters, but to no purpose. Try as he might, Bok could not +rid the pages of the savor of the cabaret. He published the three dances +as agreed, but he realized he had made a mistake, and was as much +disgusted as were his readers. Nor did he, in the slightest degree, +improve the dance situation. The public refused to try the new Castle +dances, and kept on turkey-trotting and bunny-hugging.</p> + +<p>The Ladies' Home Journal followed the Castle lessons with a series of +the most beautiful dances of Madam Pavlowa, the Russian dancer, hoping +to remove the unfavorable impression of the former series. But it was +only partially successful. Bok had made a mistake in recognizing the +craze at all; he should have ignored it, as he had so often in the past +ignored other temporary, superficial hysterics of the public. The +Journal readers knew the magazine had made a mistake and frankly said +so.</p> + +<p>Which shows that, even after having been for over twenty-five years in +the editorial chair, Edward Bok was by no means infallible in his +judgment of what the public wanted or would accept.</p> + +<p>No man is, for that matter.</p> + +<h3><a name="XXXIV" id="XXXIV"></a>XXXIV.</h3> + +<p class="heading">A War Magazine and War Activities</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">When</span>, early in 1917, events began so to shape themselves as directly to +point to the entrance of the United States into the Great War, Edward +Bok set himself to formulate a policy for The Ladies' Home Journal. He +knew that he was in an almost insurmountably difficult position. The +huge edition necessitated going to press fully six weeks in advance of +publication, and the preparation of material fully four weeks previous +to that. He could not, therefore, get much closer than ten weeks to the +date when his readers received the magazine. And he knew that events, in +war time, had a way of moving rapidly.</p> + +<p>Late in January he went to Washington, consulted those authorities who +could indicate possibilities to him better than any one else, and found, +as he had suspected, that the entry of the United States into the war +was a practical certainty; it was only a question of time.</p> + +<p>Bok went South for a month's holiday to get ready for the fray, and in +the saddle and on the golf links he formulated a policy. The newspapers +and weeklies would send innumerable correspondents to the front, and +obviously, with the necessity for going to press so far in advance, The +Journal could not compete with them. They would depict every activity in +the field. There was but one logical thing for him to do: ignore the +"front" entirely, refuse all the offers of correspondents, men and +women, who wanted to go with the armies for his magazine, and cover +fully and practically the results of the war as they would affect the +women left behind. He went carefully over the ground to see what these +would be, along what particular lines women's activities would be most +likely to go, and then went home and back to Washington.</p> + +<p>It was now March. He conferred with the President, had his fears +confirmed, and offered all the resources of his magazine to the +government. His diagnosis of the situation was verified in every detail +by the authorities whom he consulted. The Ladies' Home Journal could +best serve by keeping up the morale at home and by helping to meet the +problems that would confront the women; as the President said: "Give +help in the second line of defense."</p> + +<p>A year before, Bok had opened a separate editorial office in Washington +and had secured Dudley Harmon, the Washington correspondent for The New +York Sun, as his editor-in-charge. The purpose was to bring the women of +the country into a clearer understanding of their government and a +closer relation with it. This work had been so successful as to +necessitate a force of four offices and twenty stenographers. Bok now +placed this Washington office on a war-basis, bringing it into close +relation with every department of the government that would be connected +with the war activities. By this means, he had an editor and an +organized force on the spot, devoting full time to the preparation of +war material, with Mr. Harmon in daily conference with the department +chiefs to secure the newest developments.</p> + +<p>Bok learned that the country's first act would be to recruit for the +navy, so as to get this branch of the service into a state of +preparedness. He therefore secured Franklin D. Roosevelt, assistant +secretary of the navy, to write an article explaining to mothers why +they should let their boys volunteer for the Navy and what it would mean +to them.</p> + +<p>He made arrangements at the American Red Cross Headquarters for an +official department to begin at once in the magazine, telling women the +first steps that would be taken by the Red Cross and how they could +help. He secured former President William Howard Taft, as chairman of +the Central Committee of the Red Cross, for the editor of this +department.</p> + +<p>He cabled to Viscount Northcliffe and Ian Hay for articles showing what +the English women had done at the outbreak of the war, the mistakes they +had made, what errors the American women should avoid, the right lines +along which English women had worked and how their American sisters +could adapt these methods to transatlantic conditions.</p> + +<p>And so it happened that when the first war issue of The Journal appeared +on April 20th, only three weeks after the President's declaration, it +was the only monthly that recognized the existence of war, and its pages +had already begun to indicate practical lines along which women could +help.</p> + +<p>The President planned to bring the Y. M. C. A. into the service by +making it a war-work body, and Bok immediately made arrangements for a +page to appear each month under the editorship of John R. Mott, general +secretary of the International Y. M. C. A. Committee.</p> + +<p>The editor had been told that the question of food would come to be of +paramount importance; he knew that Herbert Hoover had been asked to +return to America as soon as he could close his work abroad, and he +cabled over to his English representative to arrange that the proposed +Food Administrator should know, at first hand, of the magazine and its +possibilities for the furtherance of the proposed Food Administration +work.</p> + +<p>The Food Administration was no sooner organized than Bok made +arrangements for an authoritative department to be conducted in his +magazine, reflecting the plans and desires of the Food Administration, +and Herbert Hoover's first public declaration as food administrator to +the women of America was published in The Ladies' Home Journal. Bok now +placed all the resources of his four-color press-work at Mr. Hoover's +disposal; and the Food Administration's domestic experts, in conjunction +with the full culinary staff of the magazine, prepared the new war +dishes and presented them appetizingly in full colors under the personal +endorsement of Mr. Hoover and the Food Administration. From six to +sixteen articles per month were now coming from Mr. Hoover's department +alone.</p> + +<p>The Department of Agriculture was laid under contribution by the +magazine for the best ideas for the raising of food from the soil in the +creation of war-gardens.</p> + +<p>Doctor Anna Howard Shaw had been appointed chairman of the National +Committee of the Women's Council of National Defence, and Bok arranged +at once with her that she should edit a department page in his magazine, +setting forth the plans of the committee and how the women of America +could co-operate therewith.</p> + +<p>The magazine had thus practically become the semiofficial mouthpiece of +all the various government war bureaus and war-work bodies. James A. +Flaherty, supreme knight of the Knights of Columbus, explained the +proposed work of that body; Commander Evangeline Booth presented the +plans of the Salvation Army, and Mrs. Robert E. Speer, president of the +National Board of the Young Women's Christian Association, reflected the +activities of her organization; while the President's daughter, Miss +Margaret Wilson, discussed her work for the opening of all schoolhouses +as community war-centres.</p> + +<p>The magazine reflected in full-color pictures the life and activities of +the boys in the American camps, and William C. Gorgas, surgeon-general +of the United States, was the spokesman in the magazine for the health +of the boys.</p> + +<p>Secretary of the Treasury McAdoo interpreted the first Liberty Loan +"drive" to the women; the President of the United States, in a special +message to women, wrote in behalf of the subsequent Loan; Bernard +Baruch, as chairman of the War Industries Board, made clear the need for +war-time thrift; the recalled ambassador to Germany, James W. Gerard, +told of the ingenious plans resorted to by German women which American +women could profitably copy; and Elizabeth, Queen of the Belgians, +explained the plight of the babies and children of Belgium, and made a +plea to the women of the magazine to help. So straight to the point did +the Queen write, and so well did she present her case that within six +months there had been sent to her, through The Ladies' Home Journal, two +hundred and forty-eight thousand cans of condensed milk, seventy-two +thousand cans of pork and beans, five thousand cans of infants' prepared +food, eighty thousand cans of beef soup, and nearly four thousand +bushels of wheat, purchased with the money donated by the magazine +readers.</p> + +<p>On the coming of the coal question, the magazine immediately reflected +the findings and recommendations of the Fuel Administration, and Doctor +H. A. Garfield, as fuel administrator, placed the material of his Bureau +at the disposal of the magazine's Washington editor.</p> + +<p>The Committee on Public Information now sought the magazine for the +issuance of a series of official announcements explanatory of matters to +women.</p> + +<p>When the "meatless" and the "wheatless" days were inaugurated, the women +of America found that the magazine had anticipated their coming; and the +issue appearing on the first of these days, as publicly announced by the +Food Administration, presented pages of substitutes in full colors.</p> + +<p>Of course, miscellaneous articles on the war there were, without number. +Before the war was ended, the magazine did send a representative to the +front in Catherine Van Dyke, who did most effective work for the +magazine in articles of a general nature. The full-page battle pictures, +painted from data furnished by those who took actual part, were +universally commended and exhausted even the largest editions that could +be printed. A source of continual astonishment was the number of copies +of the magazine found among the boys in France; it became the third in +the official War Department list of the most desired American +periodicals, evidently representing a tie between the boys and their +home folks. But all these "war" features, while appreciated and +desirable, were, after all, but a side-issue to the more practical +economic work of the magazine. It was in this service that the magazine +excelled, it was for this reason that the women at home so eagerly +bought it, and that it was impossible to supply each month the editions +called for by the extraordinary demand.</p> + +<p>Considering the difficulties to be surmounted, due to the advance +preparation of material, and considering that, at the best, most of its +advance information, even by the highest authorities, could only be in +the nature of surmise, the comprehensive manner in which The Ladies' +Home Journal covered every activity of women during the Great War, will +always remain one of the magazine's most noteworthy achievements. This +can be said without reserve here, since the credit is due to no single +person; it was the combined, careful work of its entire staff, weighing +every step before it was taken, looking as clearly into the future as +circumstances made possible, and always seeking the most authoritative +sources of information.</p> + +<p>Bok merely directed. Each month, before his magazine went to press, he +sought counsel and vision from at least one of three of the highest +sources; and upon this guidance, as authoritative as anything could be +in times of war when no human vision can actually foretell what the next +day will bring forth, he acted. The result, as one now looks back upon +it, was truly amazing; an uncanny timeliness would often color material +on publication day. Of course, much of this was due to the close +government co-operation, so generously and painstakingly given.</p> + +<p>With the establishment of the various war boards in Washington, Bok +received overtures to associate himself exclusively with them and move +to the capital. He sought the best advice and with his own instincts +pointing in the same way, he decided that he could give his fullest +service by retaining his editorial position and adding to that such +activities as his leisure allowed. He undertook several private +commissions for the United States Government, and then he was elected +vice-president of the Philadelphia Belgian Relief Commission.</p> + +<p>With the Belgian consul-general for the United States, Mr. Paul +Hagemans, as the president of the Commission, and guided by his intimate +knowledge of the Belgian people, Bok selected a committee of the ablest +buyers and merchants in the special lines of foods which he would have +to handle. The Commission raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, with +which it purchased foods and chartered ships. The quantities of food ran +into prodigious figures; Bok felt that he was feeding the world; and yet +when the holds of the ships began to take in the thousands of crates of +canned goods, the bags of peas and beans, and the endless tins of +condensed milk, it was amazing how the piled-up boxes melted from the +piers and the ship-holds yawned for more. Flour was sent in seemingly +endless hundreds of barrels.</p> + +<p>Each line of goods was bought by a specialist on the Committee at the +lowest quantity prices; and the result was that the succession of ships +leaving the port of Philadelphia was a credit to the generosity of the +people of the city and the commonwealth. The Commission delegated one of +its members to go to Belgium and personally see that the food actually +reached the needy Belgian people.</p> + +<p>In September, 1917, word was received from John R. Mott that Bok had +been appointed State chairman for the Y. M. C. A. War Work Council for +Pennsylvania; that a country-wide campaign for twenty-five million +dollars would be launched six weeks hence, and that Pennsylvania's quota +was three millions of dollars. He was to set up an organization +throughout the State, conduct the drive from Philadelphia, speak at +various centres in Pennsylvania, and secure the allocated quota. Bok +knew little or nothing about the work of the Y. M. C. A.; he accordingly +went to New York headquarters and familiarized himself with the work +being done and proposed; and then began to set up his State machinery. +The drive came off as scheduled, Pennsylvania doubled its quota, +subscribing six instead of three millions of dollars, and of this was +collected five million eight hundred and twenty-nine thousand +dollars—almost one hundred per cent.</p> + +<p>Bok, who was now put on the National War Work Council of the Y. M. C. A. +at New York, was asked to take part in the creation of the machinery +necessary for the gigantic piece of work that the organization had been +called upon by the President of the United States to do. It was a +herculean task; practically impossible with any large degree of +efficiency in view of the almost insurmountable obstacles to be +contended with. But step by step the imperfect machinery was set up, and +it began to function in the home camps. Then the overseas work was +introduced by the first troops going to France, and the difficulties +increased a hundredfold.</p> + +<p>But Bok's knowledge of the workings of the government departments at +Washington, the war boards, and the other war-work organizations soon +convinced him that the Y. M. C. A. was not the only body, asked to set +up an organization almost overnight, that was staggering under its load +and falling down as often as it was functioning.</p> + +<p>The need for Y. M. C. A. secretaries overseas and in the camps soon +became acute, and Bok was appointed chairman of the Philadelphia +Recruiting Committee. As in the case of his Belgian relief work, he at +once surrounded himself with an able committee: this time composed of +business and professional men trained in a knowledge of human nature in +the large, and of wide acquaintance in the city. Simultaneously, Bok +secured the release of one of the ablest men in the Y. M. C. A. service +in New York, Edward S. Wilkinson, who became the permanent secretary of +the Philadelphia Committee. Bok organized a separate committee composed +of automobile manufacturers to recruit for chauffeurs and mechanicians; +another separate committee recruited for physical directors, and later a +third committee recruited for women.</p> + +<p>The work was difficult because the field of selection was limited. No +men between the military ages could be recruited; the War Boards at +Washington had drawn heavily upon the best men of the city; the +slightest physical defect barred out a man, on account of the exposure +and strain of the Y. M. C. A. work; the residue was not large.</p> + +<p>It was scarcely to be wondered at that so many incompetent secretaries +had been passed and sent over to France. How could it have been +otherwise with the restricted selection? But the Philadelphia Committee +was determined, nevertheless, that its men should be of the best, and it +decided that to get a hundred men of unquestioned ability would be to do +a greater job than to send over two hundred men of indifferent quality. +The Committee felt that enough good men were still in Philadelphia and +the vicinity, if they could be pried loose from their business and home +anchorages, and that it was rather a question of incessant work than an +impossible task.</p> + +<p>Bok took large advertising spaces in the Philadelphia newspapers, asking +for men of exceptional character to go to France in the service of the +Y. M. C. A.; and members of the Committee spoke before the different +commercial bodies at their noon luncheons. The applicants now began to +come, and the Committee began its discriminating selection. Each +applicant was carefully questioned by the secretary before he appeared +before the Committee, which held sittings twice a week. Hence of over +twenty-five hundred applicants, only three hundred appeared before the +Committee, of whom two hundred and fifty-eight were passed and sent +overseas.</p> + +<p>The Committee's work was exceptionally successful; it soon proved of so +excellent a quality as to elicit a cabled request from Paris +headquarters to send more men of the Philadelphia type. The secret of +this lay in the sterling personnel of the Committee itself, and its +interpretation of the standards required; and so well did it work that +when Bok left for the front to be absent from Philadelphia for ten +weeks, his Committee, with Thomas W. Hulme, of the Pennsylvania +Railroad, acting as Chairman, did some of its best work.</p> + +<p>The after-results, according to the report of the New York headquarters, +showed that no Y. M. C. A. recruiting committee had equalled the work of +the Philadelphia committee in that its men, in point of service, had +proved one hundred per cent secretaries. With two exceptions, the entire +two hundred and fifty-eight men passed, brought back one hundred per +cent records, some of them having been placed in the most important +posts abroad and having given the most difficult service. The work of +the other Philadelphia committees, particularly that of the Women's +Committee, was equally good.</p> + +<p>To do away with the multiplicity of "drives," rapidly becoming a drain +upon the efforts of the men engaged in them, a War Chest Committee was +now formed in Philadelphia and vicinity to collect money for all the +war-work agencies. Bok was made a member of the Executive Committee, and +chairman of the Publicity Committee. In May, 1918, a campaign for twenty +millions of dollars was started; the amount was subscribed, and although +much of it had to be collected after the armistice, since the +subscriptions were in twelve monthly payments, a total of fifteen and a +half million dollars was paid in and turned over to the different +agencies.</p> + +<p>Bok, who had been appointed one of the Boy Scout commissioners in his +home district of Merion, saw the possibilities of the Boy Scouts in the +Liberty Loan and other campaigns. Working in co-operation with the other +commissioners, and the scoutmaster of the Merion Troop, Bok supported +the boys in their work in each campaign as it came along. Although there +were in the troop only nine boys, in ages ranging from twelve to +fourteen years—Bok's younger son was one of them—so effectively did +these youngsters work under the inspiration of the scoutmaster, Thomas +Dun Belfield, that they soon attracted general attention and acquired +distinction as one of the most efficient troops in the vicinity of +Philadelphia. They won nearly all the prizes offered in their vicinity, +and elicited the special approval of the Secretary of the Treasury.</p> + +<p>Although only "gleaners" in most of the campaigns—that is, working only +in the last three days after the regular committees had scoured the +neighborhood—these Merion Boy Scouts sold over one million four hundred +thousand dollars in Liberty Bonds, and raised enough money in the Y. M. +C. A. campaign to erect one of the largest huts in France for the army +boys, and a Y. M. C. A. gymnasium at the League Island Navy Yard +accommodating two thousand sailor-boys.</p> + +<p>In the summer of 1918, the eight leading war-work agencies, excepting +the Red Cross, were merged, for the purpose of one drive for funds, into +the United War Work Campaign, and Bok was made chairman for +Pennsylvania. In November a country-wide campaign was launched, the +quota for Pennsylvania being twenty millions of dollars—the largest +amount ever asked of the commonwealth. Bok organized a committee of the +representative men of Pennsylvania, and proceeded to set up the +machinery to secure the huge sum. He had no sooner done this, however, +than he had to sail for France, returning only a month before the +beginning of the campaign.</p> + +<p>But the efficient committee had done its work; upon his return Bok found +the organization complete. On the first day of the campaign, the false +rumor that an armistice had been signed made the raising of the large +amount seem almost hopeless; furthermore, owing to the influenza raging +throughout the commonwealth, no public meetings had been permitted or +held. Still, despite all these obstacles, not only was the twenty +millions subscribed but oversubscribed to the extent of nearly a million +dollars; and in face of the fact that every penny of this large total +had to be collected after the signing of the armistice, twenty millions +of dollars was paid in and turned over to the war agencies.</p> + +<p>It is indeed a question whether any single war act on the part of the +people of Pennsylvania redounds so highly to their credit as this +marvellous evidence of patriotic generosity. It was one form of +patriotism to subscribe so huge a sum while the war was on and the guns +were firing; it was quite another and a higher patriotism to subscribe +and pay such a sum after the war was over!</p> + +<p>Bok's position as State chairman of the United War Work Campaign made it +necessary for him to follow authoritatively and closely the work of each +of the eight different organizations represented in the fund. Because he +felt he had to know what the Knights of Columbus, the Salvation Army, +the Y. W. C. A., and the others were doing with the money he had been +instrumental in collecting, and for which he felt, as chairman, +responsible to the people of Pennsylvania, he learned to know their work +just as thoroughly as he knew what the Y. M. C. A. was doing.</p> + +<p>He had now seen and come into personal knowledge of the work of the Y. +M. C. A. from his Philadelphia point of vantage, with his official +connection with it at New York headquarters; he had seen the work as it +was done in the London and Paris headquarters; and he had seen the +actual work in the American camps, the English rest-camps, back of the +French lines, in the trenches, and as near the firing-line as he had +been permitted to go.</p> + +<p>He had, in short, seen the Y. M. C. A. function from every angle, but he +had also seen the work of the other organizations in England and France, +back of the lines and in the trenches. He found them all +faulty—necessarily so. Each had endeavored to create an organization +within an incredibly short space of time and in the face of adverse +circumstances. Bok saw at once that the charge that the Y. M. C. A. was +"falling down" in its work was as false as that the Salvation Army was +doing "a marvellous work" and that the K. of C. was "efficient where +others were incompetent," and that the Y. W. C. A. was "nowhere to be +seen."</p> + +<p>The Salvation Army was unquestionably doing an excellent piece of work +within a most limited area; it could not be on a wider scale, when one +considered the limited personnel it had at its command. The work of the +K. of C. was not a particle more or less efficient than the work of the +other organizations. What it did, it strove to do well, but so did the +others. The Y. W. C. A. made little claim about its work in France, +since the United States Government would not, until nearly at the close +of the war, allow women to be sent over in the uniforms of any of the +war-work organizations. But no one can gainsay for a single moment the +efficient service rendered by the Y. W. C. A. in its hostess-house work +in the American camps; that work alone would have entitled it to the +support of the American people. That of the Y. M. C. A. was on so large +a scale that naturally its inefficiency was often in proportion to its +magnitude.</p> + +<p>Bok was in France when the storm of criticism against the Y. M. C. A. +broke out, and, as State chairman for Pennsylvania, it was his duty to +meet the outcry when it came over to the United States. That the work of +the Y. M. C. A. was faulty no one can deny. Bok saw the "holes" long +before they were called to the attention of the public, but he also saw +the almost impossible task, in face of prevailing difficulties, of +caulking them up. No one who was not in France can form any conception +of the practically insurmountable obstacles against which all the +war-work organizations worked; and the larger the work the greater were +the obstacles, naturally. That the Y. M. C. A. and the other similar +agencies made mistakes is not the wonder so much as that they did not +make more. The real marvel is that they did so much efficient work. For +after we get a little farther away from the details and see the work of +these agencies in its broader aspects, when we forget the lapses—which, +after all, though irritating and regrettable, were not major—the record +as a whole will stand as a most signal piece of volunteer service.</p> + +<p>What was actually accomplished was nothing short of marvellous; and it +is this fact that must be borne in mind; not the omissions, but the +commissions. And when the American public gets that point of view—as it +will, and, for that matter, is already beginning to do—the work of the +American Y. M. C. A. will no longer suffer for its omissions, but will +amaze and gladden by its accomplishments. As an American officer of high +rank said to Bok at Chaumont headquarters: "The mind cannot take in what +the war would have been without the 'Y.'" And that, in time, will be the +universal American opinion, extended, in proportion to their work, to +all the war-work agencies and the men and women who endured, suffered, +and were killed in their service.</p> + +<h3><a name="XXXV" id="XXXV"></a>XXXV.</h3> + +<p class="heading">At the Battle-Fronts in the Great War</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">It</span> was in the summer of 1918 that Edward Bok received from the British +Government, through its department of public information, of which Lord +Beaverbrook was the minister, an invitation to join a party of thirteen +American editors to visit Great Britain and France. The British +Government, not versed in publicity methods, was anxious that selected +parties of American publicists should see, personally, what Great +Britain had done, and was doing in the war; and it had decided to ask a +few individuals to pay personal visits to its munition factories, its +great aerodromes, its Great Fleet, which then lay in the Firth of Forth, +and to the battle-fields. It was understood that no specific obligation +rested upon any member of the party to write of what he saw: he was +asked simply to observe and then, with discretion, use his observations +for his own guidance and information in future writing. In fact, each +member was explicitly told that much of what he would see could not be +revealed either personally or in print.</p> + +<p>The party embarked in August amid all the attendant secrecy of war +conditions. The steamer was known only by a number, although later it +turned out to be the White Star liner, Adriatic. Preceded by a powerful +United States cruiser, flanked by destroyers, guided overhead by +observation balloons, the Adriatic was found to be the first ship in a +convoy of sixteen other ships with thirty thousand United States troops +on board.</p> + +<p>It was a veritable Armada that steamed out of lower New York harbor on +that early August morning, headed straight into the rising sun. But it +was a voyage of unpleasant war reminders, with life-savers carried every +moment of the day, with every light out at night, with every window and +door as if hermetically sealed so that the stuffy cabins deprived of +sleep those accustomed to fresh air, with over sixty army men and +civilians on watch at night, with life-drills each day, with lessons as +to behavior in life-boats; and with a fleet of eighteen British +destroyers meeting the convoy upon its approach to the Irish Coast after +a thirteen days' voyage of constant anxiety. No one could say he +travelled across the Atlantic Ocean in war days for pleasure, and no one +did.</p> + +<p>Once ashore, the party began a series of inspections of munition plants, +ship-yards, aeroplane factories and of meetings with the different +members of the English War Cabinet. Luncheons and dinners were the order +of each day until broken by a journey to Edinburgh to see the amazing +Great Fleet, with the addition of six of the foremost fighting machines +of the United States Navy, all straining like dogs at leash, awaiting an +expected dash from the bottled-up German fleet. It was a formidable +sight, perhaps never equalled: those lines of huge, menacing, and yet +protecting fighting machines stretching down the river for miles, all +conveying the single thought of the power and extent of the British Navy +and its formidable character as a fighting unit.</p> + +<p>It was upon his return to London that Bok learned, through the +confidence of a member of the British "inner circle," the amazing news +that the war was practically over: that Bulgaria had capitulated and was +suing for peace; that two of the Central Power provinces had indicated +their strong desire that the war should end; and that the first peace +intimations had gone to the President of the United States. All +diplomatic eyes were turned toward Washington. Yet not a hint of the +impending events had reached the public. The Germans were being beaten +back, that was known; it was evident that the morale of the German army +was broken; that Foch had turned the tide toward victory; but even the +best-informed military authorities outside of the inner diplomatic +circles, predicted that the war would last until the spring of 1919, +when a final "drive" would end it. Yet, at that very moment, the end of +the war was in sight!</p> + +<p>Next Bok went to France to visit the battle-fields. It was arranged that +the party should first, under guidance of British officers, visit back +of the British lines; and then, successively, be turned over to the +American and French Governments, and visit the operations back of their +armies.</p> + +<p>It is an amusing fact that although each detail of officers delegated to +escort the party "to the front" received the most explicit instructions +from their superior officers to take the party only to the quiet sectors +where there was no fighting going on, each detail from the three +governments successively brought the party directly under shell-fire, +and each on the first day of the "inspection." It was unconsciously +done: the officers were as much amazed to find themselves under fire as +were the members of the party, except that the latter did not feel the +responsibility to an equal degree. The officers, in each case, were +plainly worried: the editors were intensely interested.</p> + +<p>They were depressing trips through miles and miles of devastated +villages and small cities. From two to three days each were spent in +front-line posts on the Amiens-Bethune, Albert-Peronne, +Bapaume-Soissons, St. Mihiel, and back of the Argonne sectors. Often, +the party was the first civilian group to enter a town evacuated only a +week before, and all the horrible evidence of bloody warfare was fresh +and plain. Bodies of German soldiers lay in the trenches where they had +fallen; wired bombs were on every hand, so that no object could be +touched that lay on the battle-fields; the streets of some of the towns +were still mined, so that no automobiles could enter; the towns were +deserted, the streets desolate. It was an appalling panorama of the most +frightful results of war.</p> + +<p>The picturesqueness and romance of the war of picture books were +missing. To stand beside an English battery of thirty guns laying a +barrage as they fired their shells to a point ten miles distant, made +one feel as if one were an actual part of real warfare, and yet far +removed from it, until the battery was located from the enemy's "sausage +observation"; then the shells from the enemy fired a return salvo, and +the better part of valor was discretion a few miles farther back.</p> + +<p>The amazing part of the "show," however, was the American doughboy. +Never was there a more cheerful, laughing, good-natured set of boys in +the world; never a more homesick, lonely, and complaining set. But good +nature predominated, and the smile was always uppermost, even when the +moment looked the blackest, the privations were worst, and the longing +for home the deepest.</p> + +<p>Bok had been talking to a boy who lived near his own home, who was on +his way to the front and "over the top" in the Argonne mess. Three days +afterward, at a hospital base where a hospital train was just +discharging its load of wounded, Bok walked among the boys as they lay +on their stretchers on the railroad platform waiting for bearers to +carry them into the huts. As he approached one stretcher, a cheery voice +called, "Hello, Mr. Bok. Here I am again."</p> + +<p>It was the boy he had left just seventy-two hours before hearty and +well.</p> + +<p>"Well, my boy, you weren't in it long, were you?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir," answered the boy; "Fritzie sure got me first thing. Hadn't +gone a hundred yards over the top. Got a cigarette?" (the invariable +question).</p> + +<p>Bok handed a cigarette to the boy, who then said: "Mind sticking it in +my mouth?" Bok did so and then offered him a light; the boy continued, +all with his wonderful smile: "If you don't mind, would you just light +it? You see, Fritzie kept both of my hooks as souvenirs."</p> + +<p>With both arms amputated, the boy could still jest and smile!</p> + +<p>It was the same boy who on his hospital cot the next day said: "Don't +you think you could do something for the chap next to me, there on my +left? He's really suffering: cried like hell all last night. It would be +a Godsend if you could get Doc to do something."</p> + +<p>A promise was given that the surgeon should be seen at once, but the boy +was asked: "How about you?"</p> + +<p>"Oh," came the cheerful answer, "I'm all right. I haven't anything to +hurt. My wounded members are gone—just plain gone. But that chap has +got something—he got the real thing!"</p> + +<p>What was the real thing according to such a boy's idea?</p> + +<p>There were beautiful stories that one heard "over there." One of the +most beautiful acts of consideration was told, later, of a lovable boy +whose throat had been practically shot away. During his convalescence he +had learned the art of making beaded bags. It kept him from talking, the +main prescription. But one day he sold the bag which he had first made +to a visitor, and with his face radiant with glee he sought the +nurse-mother to tell her all about his good fortune. Of course, nothing +but a series of the most horrible guttural sounds came from the boy: not +a word could be understood. It was his first venture into the world with +the loss of his member, and the nurse-mother could not find it in her +heart to tell the boy that not a word which he spoke was understandable. +With eyes full of tears she placed both of her hands on the boy's +shoulders and said to him: "I am so sorry, my boy. I cannot understand a +word you say to me. You evidently do not know that I am totally deaf. +Won't you write what you want to tell me?"</p> + +<p>A look of deepest compassion swept the face of the boy. To think that +one could be so afflicted, and yet so beautifully tender and always so +radiantly cheerful, he wrote her.</p> + +<p>Pathos and humor followed rapidly one upon the other "at the front" in +those gruesome days, and Bok was to have his spirits lightened somewhat +by an incident of the next day. He found himself in one of the numerous +little towns where our doughboys were billeted, some in the homes of the +peasants, others in stables, barns, outhouses, lean-tos, and what not. +These were the troops on their way to the front where the fighting in +the Argonne Forest was at that time going on. As Bok was walking with an +American officer, the latter pointed to a doughboy crossing the road, +followed by as disreputable a specimen of a pig as he had ever seen. +Catching Bok's smile, the officer said: "That's Pinney and his porker. +Where you see the one you see the other."</p> + +<p>Bok caught up with the boy, and said: "Found a friend, I see, Buddy?"</p> + +<p>"I sure have," grinned the doughboy, "and it sticks closer than a poor +relation, too."</p> + +<p>"Where did you pick it up?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, in there," said the soldier, pointing to a dilapidated barn.</p> + +<p>"Why in there?"</p> + +<p>"My home," grinned the boy.</p> + +<p>"Let me see," said Bok, and the doughboy took him in with the pig +following close behind. "Billeted here—been here six days. The pig was +here when we came, and the first night I lay down and slept, it came up +to me and stuck its snout in my face and woke me up. Kind enough, all +right, but not very comfortable: it stinks so."</p> + +<p>"Yes; it certainly does. What did you do?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I got some grub I had and gave it to eat: thought it might be +hungry, you know. I guess that sort of settled it, for the next night it +came again and stuck its snout right in my mug. I turned around, but it +just climbed over me and there it was."</p> + +<p>"Well, what did you do then? Chase it out?"</p> + +<p>"Chase it out?" said the doughboy, looking into Bok's face with the most +unaffected astonishment. "Why, mister, that's a mother-pig, that is. +She's going to have young ones in a few days. How could I chase her +out?"</p> + +<p>"You're quite right, Buddy," said Bok. "You couldn't do that."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," said the boy. "The worst of it is, what am I going to do with +her when we move up within a day or two? I can't take her along to the +front, and I hate to leave her here. Some one might treat her rough."</p> + +<p>"Captain," said Bok, hailing the officer, "you can attend to that, can't +you, when the time comes?"</p> + +<p>"I sure can, and I sure will," answered the Captain. And with a quick +salute, Pinney and his porker went off across the road!</p> + +<p>Bok was standing talking to the commandant of one of the great French +army supply depots one morning. He was a man of forty; a colonel in the +regular French army. An erect, sturdy-looking man with white hair and +mustache, and who wore the single star of a subaltern on his sleeve, +came up, saluted, delivered a message, and then asked:</p> + +<p>"Are there any more orders, sir?"</p> + +<p>"No," was the reply.</p> + +<p>He brought his heels together with a click, saluted again, and went +away.</p> + +<p>The commandant turned to Bok with a peculiar smile on his face and +asked:</p> + +<p>"Do you know who that man is?"</p> + +<p>"No," was the reply.</p> + +<p>"That is my father," was the answer.</p> + +<p>The father was then exactly seventy-two years old. He was a retired +business man when the war broke out. After two years of the heroic +struggle he decided that he couldn't keep out of it. He was too old to +fight, but after long insistence he secured a commission. By one of the +many curious coincidences of the war he was assigned to serve under his +own son.</p> + +<p>When under the most trying conditions, the Americans never lost their +sense of fun. On the staff of a prison hospital in Germany, where a +number of captured American soldiers were being treated, a German +sergeant became quite friendly with the prisoners under his care. One +day he told them that he had been ordered to active service on the +front. He felt convinced that he would be captured by the English, and +asked the Americans if they would not give him some sort of testimonial +which he could show if he were taken prisoner, so that he would not be +ill-treated.</p> + +<p>The Americans were much amused at this idea, and concocted a note of +introduction, written in English. The German sergeant knew no English +and could not understand his testimonial, but he tucked it in his +pocket, well satisfied.</p> + +<p>In due time, he was sent to the front and was captured by "the ladies +from hell," as the Germans called the Scotch kilties. He at once +presented his introduction, and his captors laughed heartily when they +read:</p> + +<p>"This is L—. He is not a bad sort of chap. Don't shoot him; torture him +slowly to death."</p> + +<p>One evening as Bok was strolling out after dinner a Red Cross nurse came +to him, explained that she had two severely wounded boys in what +remained of an old hut: that they were both from Pennsylvania, and had +expressed a great desire to see him as a resident of their State.</p> + +<p>"Neither can possibly survive the night," said the nurse.</p> + +<p>"They know that?" asked Bok.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, but like all our boys they are lying there joking with each +other."</p> + +<p>Bok was taken into what remained of a room in a badly shelled farmhouse, +and there, on two roughly constructed cots, lay the two boys. Their +faces had been bandaged so that nothing was visible except the eyes of +each boy. A candle in a bottle standing on a box gave out the only +light. But the eyes of the boys were smiling as Bok came in and sat down +on the box on which the nurse had been sitting. He talked with the boys, +got as much of their stories from them as he could, and told them such +home news as he thought might interest them.</p> + +<p>After half an hour he arose to leave, when the nurse said: "There is no +one here, Mr. Bok, to say the last words to these boys. Will you do it?" +Bok stood transfixed. In sending men over in the service of the Y. M. C. +A. he had several times told them to be ready for any act that they +might be asked to render, even the most sacred one. And here he stood +himself before that duty. He felt as if he stood stripped before his +Maker. Through the glassless window the sky lit up constantly with the +flashes of the guns, and then followed the booming of a shell as it +landed.</p> + +<p>"Yes, won't you, sir?" asked the boy on the right cot as he held out his +hand. Bok took it, and then the hand of the other boy reached out.</p> + +<p>What to say, he did not know. Then, to his surprise, he heard himself +repeating extract after extract from a book by Lyman Abbott called The +Other Room, a message to the bereaved declaring the non-existence of +death, but that we merely move from this earth to another: from one room +to another, as it were. Bok had not read the book for years, but here +was the subconscious self supplying the material for him in his moment +of greatest need. Then he remembered that just before leaving home he +had heard sung at matins, after the prayer for the President, a +beautiful song called "Passing Souls." He had asked the rector for a +copy of it; and, wondering why, he had put it in his wallet that he +carried with him. He took it out now and holding the hand of the boy at +his right, he read to them:</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For the passing souls we pray,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Saviour, meet them on their way;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Let their trust lay hold on Thee</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ere they touch eternity.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Holy counsels long forgot</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Breathe again 'mid shell and shot;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Through the mist of life's last pain</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">None shall look to Thee in vain.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To the hearts that know Thee, Lord,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thou wilt speak through flood or sword;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Just beyond the cannon's roar,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thou art on the farther shore.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For the passing souls we pray,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Saviour, meet them on the way;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thou wilt hear our yearning call,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who hast loved and died for all.</span></p> + +<p>Absolute stillness reigned in the room save for the half-suppressed sob +from the nurse and the distant booming of the cannon. As Bok finished, +he heard the boy at his right say slowly: "Saviour-meet-me-on-my-way": +with a little emphasis on the word "my." The hand in his relaxed slowly, +and then fell on the cot; and he saw that the soul of another brave +American boy had "gone West."</p> + +<p>Bok glanced at the other boy, reached for his hand, shook it, and +looking deep into his eyes, he left the little hut.</p> + +<p>He little knew where and how he was to look into those eyes again!</p> + +<p class="top5">Feeling the need of air in order to get hold of himself after one of the +most solemn moments of his visit to the front, Bok strolled out, and +soon found himself on what only a few days before had been a field of +carnage where the American boys had driven back the Germans. Walking in +the trenches and looking out, in the clear moonlight, over the field of +desolation and ruin, and thinking of the inferno that had been enacted +there only so recently, he suddenly felt his foot rest on what seemed to +be a soft object. Taking his "ever-ready" flash from his pocket, he shot +a ray at his feet, only to realize that his foot was resting on the face +of a dead German!</p> + +<p>Bok had had enough for one evening! In fact, he had had enough of war in +all its aspects; and he felt a sigh of relief when, a few days +thereafter, he boarded The Empress of Asia for home, after a ten-weeks +absence.</p> + +<p>He hoped never again to see, at first hand, what war meant!</p> + +<h3><a name="XXXVI" id="XXXVI"></a>XXXVI.</h3> + +<p class="heading">The End of Thirty Years' Editorship</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">On</span> the voyage home, Edward Bok decided that, now the war was over, he +would ask his company to release him from the editorship of The Ladies' +Home Journal. His original plan had been to retire at the end of a +quarter of a century of editorship, when in his fiftieth year. He was, +therefore, six years behind his schedule. In October, 1919, he would +reach his thirtieth anniversary as editor, and he fixed upon this as an +appropriate time for the relinquishment of his duties.</p> + +<p>He felt he had carried out the conditions under which the editorship of +the magazine had been transferred to him by Mrs. Curtis, that he had +brought them to fruition, and that any further carrying on of the +periodical by him would be of a supplementary character. He had, too, +realized his hope of helping to create a national institution of service +to the American woman, and he felt that his part in the work was done.</p> + +<p>He considered carefully where he would leave an institution which the +public had so thoroughly associated with his personality, and he felt +that at no point in its history could he so safely transfer it to other +hands. The position of the magazine in the public estimation was +unquestioned; it had never been so strong. Its circulation not only had +outstripped that of any other monthly periodical, but it was still +growing so rapidly that it was only a question of a few months when it +would reach the almost incredible mark of two million copies per month. +With its advertising patronage exceeding that of any other monthly, the +periodical had become, probably, the most valuable and profitable piece +of magazine property in the world.</p> + +<p>The time might never come again when all conditions would be equally +favorable to a change of editorship. The position of the magazine was so +thoroughly assured that its progress could hardly be affected by the +retirement of one editor, and the accession of another. There was a +competent editorial staff, the members of which had been with the +periodical from ten to thirty years each. This staff had been a very +large factor in the success of the magazine. While Bok had furnished the +initiative and supplied the directing power, a large part of the +editorial success of the magazine was due to the staff. It could carry +on the magazine without his guidance.</p> + +<p>Moreover, Bok wished to say good-bye to his public before it decided, +for some reason or other, to say good-bye to him. He had no desire to +outstay his welcome. That public had been wonderfully indulgent toward +his shortcomings, lenient with his errors, and tremendously inspiring to +his best endeavor. He would not ask too much of it. Thirty years was a +long tenure of office, one of the longest, in point of consecutively +active editorship, in the history of American magazines.</p> + +<p>He had helped to create and to put into the life of the American home a +magazine of peculiar distinction. From its beginning it had been unlike +any other periodical; it had always retained its individuality as a +magazine apart from the others. It had sought to be something more than +a mere assemblage of stories and articles. It had consistently stood for +ideals; and, save in one or two instances, it had carried through what +it undertook to achieve. It had a record of worthy accomplishment; a +more fruitful record than many imagined. It had become a national +institution such as no other magazine had ever been. It was indisputably +accepted by the public and by business interests alike as the recognized +avenue of approach to the intelligent homes of America.</p> + +<p>Edward Bok was content to leave it at this point.</p> + +<p>He explained all this in December, 1918, to the Board of Directors, and +asked that his resignation be considered. It was understood that he was +to serve out his thirty years, thus remaining with the magazine for the +best part of another year.</p> + +<p>In the material which The Journal now included in its contents, it began +to point the way to the problems which would face women during the +reconstruction period. Bok scanned the rather crowded field of thought +very carefully, and selected for discussion in the magazine such +questions as seemed to him most important for the public to understand +in order to face and solve its impending problems. The outstanding +question he saw which would immediately face men and women of the +country was the problem of Americanization. The war and its +after-effects had clearly demonstrated this to be the most vital need in +the life of the nation, not only for the foreign-born but for the +American as well.</p> + +<p>The more one studied the problem the clearer it became that the vast +majority of American-born needed a refreshing, and, in many cases, a new +conception of American ideals as much as did the foreign-born, and that +the latter could never be taught what America and its institutions stood +for until they were more clearly defined in the mind of the men and +women of American birth.</p> + +<p>Bok went to Washington, consulted with Franklin K. Lane, secretary of +the interior, of whose department the Government Bureau of +Americanization was a part. A comprehensive series of articles was +outlined; the most expert writer, Esther Everett Lape, who had several +years of actual experience in Americanization work, was selected; +Secretary Lane agreed personally to read and pass upon the material, and +to assume the responsibility for its publication.</p> + +<p>With the full and direct co-operation of the Federal Bureau of +Americanization, the material was assembled and worked up with the +result that, in the opinion of the director of the Federal Bureau, the +series proved to be the most comprehensive exposition of practical +Americanization adapted to city, town, and village, thus far published.</p> + +<p>The work on this series was one of the last acts of Edward Bok's +editorship; and it was peculiarly gratifying to him that his editorial +work should end with the exposition of that Americanization of which he +himself was a product. It seemed a fitting close to the career of a +foreign-born Americanized editor.</p> + +<p>The scope of the reconstruction articles now published, and the clarity +of vision shown in the selection of the subjects, gave a fresh impetus +to the circulation of the magazine; and now that the government's +embargo on the use of paper had been removed, the full editions of the +periodical could again be printed. The public responded instantly.</p> + +<p>The result reached phenomenal figures. The last number under Bok's full +editorial control was the issue of October, 1919. This number was +oversold with a printed edition of two million copies—a record never +before achieved by any magazine. This same issue presented another +record unattained in any single number of any periodical in the world. +It carried between its covers the amazing total of over one million +dollars in advertisements.</p> + +<p>This was the psychological point at which to stop. And Edward Bok did. +Although his official relation as editor did not terminate until +January, 1920, when the number which contained his valedictory editorial +was issued, his actual editorship ceased on September 22, 1919. On that +day he handed over the reins to his successor.</p> + +<p>As Bok was, on that day, about to leave his desk for the last time, it +was announced that a young soldier whom he "had met and befriended in +France" was waiting to see him. When the soldier walked into the office +he was to Bok only one of the many whom he had met on the other side. +But as the boy shook hands with him and said: "I guess you do not +remember me, Mr. Bok," there was something in the eyes into which he +looked that startled him. And then, in a flash, the circumstances under +which he had last seen those eyes came to him.</p> + +<p>"Good heavens, my boy, you are not one of those two boys in the little +hut that I—"</p> + +<p>"To whom you read the poem 'Passing Souls,' that evening. Yes, sir, I'm +the boy who had hold of your left hand. My bunkie, Ben, went West that +same evening, you remember."</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied the editor, "I remember; I remember only too well," and +again Bok felt the hand in his relax, drop from his own, and heard the +words: "Saviour-meet-me-on-my way."</p> + +<p>The boy's voice brought Bok back to the moment.</p> + +<p>"It's wonderful you should remember me; my face was all bound up—I +guess you couldn't see anything but my eyes."</p> + +<p>"Just the eyes, that's right," said Bok. "But they burned into me all +right, my boy."</p> + +<p>"I don't think I get you, sir," said the boy.</p> + +<p>"No, you wouldn't," Bok replied. "You couldn't, boy, not until you're +older. But, tell me, how in the world did you ever get out of it?"</p> + +<p>"Well, sir," answered the boy, with that shyness which we all have come +to know in the boys who actually did, "I guess it was a close call, all +right. But just as you left us, a hospital corps happened to come along +on its way to the back and Miss Nelson—the nurse, you remember?—she +asked them to take me along. They took me to a wonderful hospital, gave +me fine care, and then after a few weeks they sent me back to the +States, and I've been in a hospital over here ever since. Now, except +for this thickness of my voice that you notice, which Doc says will be +all right soon, I'm fit again. The government has given me a job, and I +came here on leave just to see my parents up-State, and I thought I'd +like you to know that I didn't go West after all."</p> + +<p>Fifteen minutes later, Edward Bok left his editorial office for the last +time.</p> + +<p>But as he went home his thoughts were not of his last day at the office, +nor of his last acts as editor, but of his last caller—the soldier-boy +whom he had left seemingly so surely on his way "West," and whose eyes +had burned into his memory on that fearful night a year before!</p> + +<p>Strange that this boy should have been his last visitor!</p> + +<p>As John Drinkwater, in his play, makes Abraham Lincoln say to General +Grant:</p> + +<p>"It's a queer world!"</p> + +<h3><a name="XXXVII" id="XXXVII"></a>XXXVII.</h3> + +<p class="heading">The Third Period</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> announcement of Edward Bok's retirement came as a great surprise to +his friends. Save for one here and there, who had a clearer vision, the +feeling was general that he had made a mistake. He was fifty-six, in the +prime of life, never in better health, with "success lying easily upon +him"—said one; "at the very summit of his career," said another—and +all agreed it was "queer," "strange,"—unless, they argued, he was +really ill. Even the most acute students of human affairs among his +friends wondered. It seemed incomprehensible that any man should want to +give up before he was, for some reason, compelled to do so. A man should +go on until he "dropped in the harness," they argued.</p> + +<p>Bok agreed that any man had a perfect right to work until he did "drop +in the harness." But, he argued, if he conceded this right to others, +why should they not concede to him the privilege of dropping with the +blinders off?</p> + +<p>"But," continued the argument, "a man degenerates when he retires from +active affairs." And then, instances were pointed out as notable +examples. "A year of retirement and he was through," was the picture +given of one retired man. "In two years, he was glad to come back," and +so the examples ran on. "No big man ever retired from active business +and did great work afterwards," Bok was told.</p> + +<p>"No?" he answered. "Not even Cyrus W. Field or Herbert Hoover?"</p> + +<p>And all this time Edward Bok's failure to be entirely Americanized was +brought home to his consciousness. After fifty years, he was still not +an American! He had deliberately planned, and then had carried out his +plan, to retire while he still had the mental and physical capacity to +enjoy the fruits of his years of labor! For foreign to the American way +of thinking it certainly was: the protestations and arguments of his +friends proved that to him. After all, he was still Dutch; he had held +on to the lesson which his people had learned years ago; that the people +of other European countries had learned; that the English had +discovered: that the Great Adventure of Life was something more than +material work, and that the time to go is while the going is good!</p> + +<p>For it cannot be denied that the pathetic picture we so often see is +found in American business life more frequently than in that of any +other land: men unable to let go—not only for their own good, but to +give the younger men behind them an opportunity. Not that a man should +stop work, for man was born to work, and in work he should find his +greatest refreshment. But so often it does not occur to the man in a +pivotal position to question the possibility that at sixty or seventy he +can keep steadily in touch with a generation whose ideas are controlled +by men twenty years younger. Unconsciously he hangs on beyond his +greatest usefulness and efficiency: he convinces himself that he is +indispensable to his business, while, in scores of cases, the business +would be distinctly benefited by his retirement and the consequent +coming to the front of the younger blood.</p> + +<p>Such a man in a position of importance seems often not to see that he +has it within his power to advance the fortunes of younger men by +stepping out when he has served his time, while by refusing to let go he +often works dire injustice and even disaster to his younger associates.</p> + +<p>The sad fact is that in all too many instances the average American +business man is actually afraid to let go because he realizes that out +of business he should not know what to do. For years he has so excluded +all other interests that at fifty or sixty or seventy he finds himself a +slave to his business, with positively no inner resources. Retirement +from the one thing he does know would naturally leave such a man useless +to himself and his family, and his community: worse than useless, as a +matter of fact, for he would become a burden to himself, a nuisance to +his family, and, when he would begin to write "letters" to the +newspapers, a bore to the community.</p> + +<p>It is significant that a European or English business man rarely reaches +middle age devoid of acquaintance with other matters; he always lets the +breezes from other worlds of thought blow through his ideas, with the +result that when he is ready to retire from business he has other +interests to fall back upon. Fortunately it is becoming less uncommon +for American men to retire from business and devote themselves to other +pursuits; and their number will undoubtedly increase as time goes on, +and we learn the lessons of life with a richer background. But one +cannot help feeling regretful that the custom is not growing more +rapidly.</p> + +<p>A man must unquestionably prepare years ahead for his retirement, not +alone financially, but mentally as well. Bok noticed as a curious fact +that nearly every business man who told him he had made a mistake in his +retirement, and that the proper life for a man is to stick to the game +and see it through—"hold her nozzle agin the bank" as Jim Bludso would +say—was a man with no resources outside his business. Naturally, a +retirement is a mistake in the eyes of such a man; but oh, the pathos of +such a position: that in a world of so much interest, in an age so +fascinatingly full of things worth doing, a man should have allowed +himself to become a slave to his business, and should imagine no other +man happy without the same claims!</p> + +<p>It is this lesson that the American business man has still to learn: +that no man can be wholly efficient in his life, that he is not living a +four-squared existence, if he concentrates every waking thought on his +material affairs. He has still to learn that man cannot live by bread +alone. The making of money, the accumulation of material power, is not +all there is to living. Life is something more than these, and the man +who misses this truth misses the greatest joy and satisfaction that can +come into his life-service for others.</p> + +<p>Some men argue that they can give this service and be in business, too. +But service with such men generally means drawing a check for some +worthy cause, and nothing more. Edward Bok never belittled the giving of +contributions—he solicited too much money himself for the causes in +which he was interested—but it is a poor nature that can satisfy itself +that it is serving humanity by merely signing checks. There is no form +of service more comfortable or so cheap. Real service, however, demands +that a man give himself with his check. And that the average man cannot +do if he remains in affairs.</p> + +<p>Particularly true is this to-day, when every problem of business is so +engrossing, demanding a man's full time and thought. It is the rare man +who can devote himself to business and be fresh for the service of +others afterward. No man can, with efficiency, serve two masters so +exacting as are these. Besides, if his business has seemed important +enough to demand his entire attention, are not the great uplift +questions equally worth his exclusive thought? Are they easier of +solution than the material problems?</p> + +<p>A man can live a life full-square only when he divides it into three +periods:</p> + +<p>First: that of education, acquiring the fullest and best within his +reach and power;</p> + +<p>Second: that of achievement: achieving for himself and his family, and +discharging the first duty of any man, that in case of his incapacity +those who are closest to him are provided for. But such provision does +not mean an accumulation that becomes to those he leaves behind him an +embarrassment rather than a protection. To prevent this, the next period +confronts him:</p> + +<p>Third: Service for others. That is the acid test where many a man falls +short: to know when he has enough, and to be willing not only to let +well enough alone, but to give a helping hand to the other fellow; to +recognize, in a practical way, that we are our brother's keeper; that a +brotherhood of man does exist outside after-dinner speeches. Too many +men make the mistake, when they reach the point of enough, of going on +pursuing the same old game: accumulating more money, grasping for more +power until either a nervous breakdown overtakes them and a sad +incapacity results, or they drop "in the harness," which is, of course, +only calling an early grave by another name. They cannot seem to get the +truth into their heads that as they have been helped by others so should +they now help others: as their means have come from the public, so now +they owe something in turn to that public.</p> + +<p>No man has a right to leave the world no better than he found it. He +must add something to it: either he must make its people better and +happier, or he must make the face of the world fairer to look at. And +the one really means the other.</p> + +<p>"Idealism," immediately say some. Of course, it is. But what is the +matter with idealism? What really is idealism? Do one-tenth of those who +use the phrase so glibly know its true meaning, the part it has played in +the world? The worthy interpretation of an ideal is that it embodies an +idea—a conception of the imagination. All ideas are at first ideals. +They must be. The producer brings forth an idea, but some dreamer has +dreamed it before him either in whole or in part.</p> + +<p>Where would the human race be were it not for the ideals of men? It is +idealists, in a large sense, that this old world needs to-day. Its soil +is sadly in need of new seed. Washington, in his day, was decried as an +idealist. So was Jefferson. It was commonly remarked of Lincoln that he +was a "rank idealist." Morse, Watt, Marconi, Edison—all were, at first, +adjudged idealists. We say of the League of Nations that it is ideal, +and we use the term in a derogatory sense. But that was exactly what was +said of the Constitution of the United States. "Insanely ideal" was the +term used of it.</p> + +<p>The idealist, particularly to-day when there is so great need of him, is +not to be scoffed at. It is through him and only through him that the +world will see a new and clear vision of what is right. It is he who has +the power of going out of himself—that self in which too many are +nowadays so deeply imbedded; it is he who, in seeking the ideal, will, +through his own clearer perception or that of others, transform the +ideal into the real. "Where there is no vision, the people perish."</p> + +<p>It was his remark that he retired because he wanted "to play" that +Edward Bok's friends most completely misunderstood. "Play" in their +minds meant tennis, golf, horseback, polo, travel, etc.—(curious that +scarcely one mentioned reading!). It so happens that no one enjoys some +of these play-forms more than Bok; but "God forbid," he said, "that I +should spend the rest of my days in a bunker or in the saddle. In +moderation," he added, "yes; most decidedly." But the phrase of "play" +meant more to him than all this. Play is diversion: exertion of the mind +as well as of the body. There is such a thing as mental play as well as +physical play. We ask of play that it shall rest, refresh, exhilarate. +Is there any form of mental activity that secures all these ends so +thoroughly and so directly as doing something that a man really likes to +do, doing it with all his heart, all the time conscious that he is +helping to make the world better for some one else?</p> + +<p>A man's "play" can take many forms. If his life has been barren of books +or travel, let him read or see the world. But he reaches his high estate +by either of these roads only when he reads or travels to enrich himself +in order to give out what he gets to enrich the lives of others. He owes +it to himself to get his own refreshment, his own pleasure, but he need +not make that pure self-indulgence.</p> + +<p>Other men, more active in body and mind, feel drawn to the modern arena +of the great questions that puzzle. It matters not in which direction a +man goes in these matters any more than the length of a step matters so +much as does the direction in which the step is taken. He should seek +those questions which engross his deepest interest, whether literary, +musical, artistic, civic, economic, or what not.</p> + +<p>Our cities, towns, communities of all sizes and kinds, urban and rural, +cry out for men to solve their problems. There is room and to spare for +the man of any bent. The old Romans looked forward, on coming to the age +or retirement, which was definitely fixed by rule, to a rural life, when +they hied themselves to a little home in the country, had open house for +their friends, and "kept bees." While bee-keeping is unquestionably +interesting, there are to-day other and more vital occupations awaiting +the retired American.</p> + +<p>The main thing is to secure that freedom of movement that lets a man go +where he will and do what he thinks he can do best, and prove to himself +and to others that the acquirement of the dollar is not all there is to +life. No man can realize, until on awakening some morning he feels the +exhilaration, the sense of freedom that comes from knowing he can choose +his own doings and control his own goings. Time is of more value than +money, and it is that which the man who retires feels that he possesses. +Hamilton Mabie once said, after his retirement from an active editorial +position: "I am so happy that the time has come when I elect what I +shall do," which is true; but then he added: "I have rubbed out the word +'must' from my vocabulary," which was not true. No man ever reaches that +point. Duty of some sort confronts a man in business or out of business, +and duty spells "must." But there is less "must" in the vocabulary of +the retired man; and it is this lessened quantity that gives the tang of +joy to the new day.</p> + +<p>It is a wonderful inner personal satisfaction to reach the point when a +man can say: "I have enough." His soul and character are refreshed by +it: he is made over by it. He begins a new life! he gets a sense of a +new joy; he feels, for the first time, what a priceless possession is +that thing that he never knew before, freedom. And if he seeks that +freedom at the right time, when he is at the summit of his years and +powers and at the most opportune moment in his affairs, he has that +supreme satisfaction denied to so many men, the opposite of which comes +home with such cruel force to them: that they have overstayed their +time: they have worn out their welcome.</p> + +<p>There is no satisfaction that so thoroughly satisfies as that of going +while the going is good.</p> + +<p>Still—</p> + +<p>The friends of Edward Bok may be right when they said he made a mistake +in his retirement.</p> + +<p>However—</p> + +<p>As Mr. Dooley says: "It's a good thing, sometimes, to have people size +ye up wrong, Hinnessey: it's whin they've got ye'er measure ye're in +danger."</p> + +<p>Edward Bok's friends have failed to get his measure—yet!</p> + +<p>They still have to learn what he has learned and is learning every day: +"the joy," as Charles Lamb so aptly put it upon his retirement, "of +walking about and around instead of to and fro."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>The question now naturally arises, having read this record thus far: To +what extent, with his unusual opportunities of fifty years, has the +Americanization of Edward Bok gone? How far is he, to-day, an American? +These questions, so direct and personal in their nature, are perhaps +best answered in a way more direct and personal than the method thus far +adopted in this chronicle. We will, therefore, let Edward Bok answer +these questions for himself, in closing this record of his +Americanization.</p> + +<h3><a name="XXXVIII" id="XXXVIII"></a>XXXVIII.</h3> + +<p class="heading">Where America Fell Short with Me</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">When</span> I came to the United States as a lad of six, the most needful +lesson for me, as a boy, was the necessity for thrift. I had been taught +in my home across the sea that thrift was one of the fundamentals in a +successful life. My family had come from a land (the Netherlands) noted +for its thrift; but we had been in the United States only a few days +before the realization came home strongly to my father and mother that +they had brought their children to a land of waste.</p> + +<p>Where the Dutchman saved, the American wasted. There was waste, and the +most prodigal waste, on every hand. In every street-car and on every +ferry-boat the floors and seats were littered with newspapers that had +been read and thrown away or left behind. If I went to a grocery store +to buy a peck of potatoes, and a potato rolled off the heaping measure, +the groceryman, instead of picking it up, kicked it into the gutter for +the wheels of his wagon to run over. The butcher's waste filled my +mother's soul with dismay. If I bought a scuttle of coal at the corner +grocery, the coal that missed the scuttle, instead of being shovelled up +and put back into the bin, was swept into the street. My young eyes +quickly saw this; in the evening I gathered up the coal thus swept away, +and during the course of a week I collected a scuttleful. The first time +my mother saw the garbage pail of a family almost as poor as our own, +with the wife and husband constantly complaining that they could not get +along, she could scarcely believe her eyes. A half pan of hominy of the +preceding day's breakfast lay in the pail next to a third of a loaf of +bread. In later years, when I saw, daily, a scow loaded with the garbage +of Brooklyn householders being towed through New York harbor out to sea, +it was an easy calculation that what was thrown away in a week's time +from Brooklyn homes would feed the poor of the Netherlands.</p> + +<p>At school, I quickly learned that to "save money" was to be "stingy"; as +a young man, I soon found that the American disliked the word "economy," +and on every hand as plenty grew spending grew. There was literally +nothing in American life to teach me thrift or economy; everything to +teach me to spend and to waste.</p> + +<p>I saw men who had earned good salaries in their prime, reach the years +of incapacity as dependents. I saw families on every hand either living +quite up to their means or beyond them; rarely within them. The more a +man earned, the more he—or his wife—spent. I saw fathers and mothers +and their children dressed beyond their incomes. The proportion of +families who ran into debt was far greater than those who saved. When a +panic came, the families "pulled in"; when the panic was over, they "let +out." But the end of one year found them precisely where they were at +the close of the previous year, unless they were deeper in debt.</p> + +<p>It was in this atmosphere of prodigal expenditure and culpable waste +that I was to practise thrift: a fundamental in life! And it is into +this atmosphere that the foreign-born comes now, with every inducement +to spend and no encouragement to save. For as it was in the days of my +boyhood, so it is to-day—only worse. One need only go over the +experiences of the past two years, to compare the receipts of merchants +who cater to the working-classes and the statements of savings-banks +throughout the country, to read the story of how the foreign-born are +learning the habit of criminal wastefulness as taught them by the +American.</p> + +<p>Is it any wonder, then, that in this, one of the essentials in life and +in all success, America fell short with me, as it is continuing to fall +short with every foreign-born who comes to its shores?</p> + +<p class="top5">As a Dutch boy, one of the cardinal truths taught me was that whatever +was worth doing was worth doing well: that next to honesty came +thoroughness as a factor in success. It was not enough that anything +should be done: it was not done at all if it was not done well. I came +to America to be taught exactly the opposite. The two infernal +Americanisms "That's good enough" and "That will do" were early taught +me, together with the maxim of quantity rather than quality.</p> + +<p>It was not the boy at school who could write the words in his copy-book +best who received the praise of the teacher; it was the boy who could +write the largest number of words in a given time. The acid test in +arithmetic was not the mastery of the method, but the number of minutes +required to work out an example. If a boy abbreviated the month January +to "Jan." and the word Company to "Co." he received a hundred per cent +mark, as did the boy who spelled out the words and who could not make +the teacher see that "Co." did not spell "Company."</p> + +<p>As I grew into young manhood, and went into business, I found on every +hand that quantity counted for more than quality. The emphasis was +almost always placed on how much work one could do in a day, rather than +upon how well the work was done. Thoroughness was at a discount on every +hand; production at a premium. It made no difference in what direction I +went, the result was the same: the cry was always for quantity, +quantity! And into this atmosphere of almost utter disregard for quality +I brought my ideas of Dutch thoroughness and my conviction that doing +well whatever I did was to count as a cardinal principle in life.</p> + +<p>During my years of editorship, save in one or two conspicuous instances, +I was never able to assign to an American writer, work which called for +painstaking research. In every instance, the work came back to me either +incorrect in statement, or otherwise obviously lacking in careful +preparation.</p> + +<p>One of the most successful departments I ever conducted in The Ladies' +Home Journal called for infinite reading and patient digging, with the +actual results sometimes almost negligible. I made a study of my +associates by turning the department over to one after another, and +always with the same result: absolute lack of a capacity for patient +research. As one of my editors, typically American, said to me: "It +isn't worth all the trouble that you put into it." Yet no single +department ever repaid the searcher more for his pains. Save for +assistance derived from a single person, I had to do the work myself for +all the years that the department continued. It was apparently +impossible for the American to work with sufficient patience and care to +achieve a result.</p> + +<p>We all have our pet notions as to the particular evil which is "the +curse of America," but I always think that Theodore Roosevelt came +closest to the real curse when he classed it as a lack of thoroughness.</p> + +<p>Here again, in one of the most important matters in life, did America +fall short with me; and, what is more important, she is falling short +with every foreigner that comes to her shores.</p> + +<p class="top5">In the matter of education, America fell far short in what should be the +strongest of all her institutions: the public school. A more inadequate, +incompetent method of teaching, as I look back over my seven years of +attendance at three different public schools, it is difficult to +conceive. If there is one thing that I, as a foreign-born child, should +have been carefully taught, it is the English language. The individual +effort to teach this, if effort there was, and I remember none, was +negligible. It was left for my father to teach me, or for me to dig it +out for myself. There was absolutely no indication on the part of +teacher or principal of responsibility for seeing that a foreign-born +boy should acquire the English language correctly. I was taught as if I +were American-born, and, of course, I was left dangling in the air, with +no conception of what I was trying to do.</p> + +<p>My father worked with me evening after evening; I plunged my young mind +deep into the bewildering confusions of the language—and no one +realizes the confusions of the English language as does the +foreign-born—and got what I could through these joint efforts. But I +gained nothing from the much-vaunted public-school system which the +United States had borrowed from my own country, and then had rendered +incompetent—either by a sheer disregard for the thoroughness that makes +the Dutch public schools the admiration of the world, or by too close a +regard for politics.</p> + +<p>Thus, in her most important institution to the foreign-born, America +fell short. And while I am ready to believe that the public school may +have increased in efficiency since that day, it is, indeed, a question +for the American to ponder, just how far the system is efficient for the +education of the child who comes to its school without a knowledge of +the first word in the English language. Without a detailed knowledge of +the subject, I know enough of conditions in the average public school +to-day to warrant at least the suspicion that Americans would not be +particularly proud of the system, and of what it gives for which +annually they pay millions of dollars in taxes.</p> + +<p>I am aware in making this statement that I shall be met with convincing +instances of intelligent effort being made with the foreign-born +children in special classes. No one has a higher respect for those +efforts than I have—few, other than educators, know of them better than +I do, since I did not make my five-year study of the American public +school system for naught. But I am not referring to the exceptional +instance here and there. I merely ask of the American, interested as he +is or should be in the Americanization of the strangers within his +gates, how far the public school system, as a whole, urban and rural, +adapts itself, with any true efficiency, to the foreign-born child. I +venture to color his opinion in no wise; I simply ask that he will +inquire and ascertain for himself, as he should do if he is interested +in the future welfare of his country and his institutions; for what +happens in America in the years to come depends, in large measure, on +what is happening to-day in the public schools of this country.</p> + +<p class="top5">As a Dutch boy I was taught a wholesome respect for law and for +authority. The fact was impressed upon me that laws of themselves were +futile unless the people for whom they were made respected them, and +obeyed them in spirit more even than in the letter. I came to America to +feel, on every hand, that exactly the opposite was true. Laws were +passed, but were not enforced; the spirit to enforce them was lacking in +the people. There was little respect for the law; there was scarcely any +for those appointed to enforce it.</p> + +<p>The nearest that a boy gets to the law is through the policeman. In the +Netherlands a boy is taught that a policeman is for the protection of +life and property; that he is the natural friend of every boy and man +who behaves himself. The Dutch boy and the policeman are, naturally, +friendly in their relations. I came to America to be told that a +policeman is a boy's natural enemy; that he is eager to arrest him if he +can find the slightest reason for doing so. A policeman, I was informed, +was a being to hold in fear, not in respect. He was to be avoided, not +to be made friends with. The result was that, as did all boys, I came to +regard the policeman on our beat as a distinct enemy. His presence meant +that we should "stiffen up"; his disappearance was the signal for us to +"let loose."</p> + +<p>So long as one was not caught, it did not matter. I heard mothers tell +their little children that if they did not behave themselves, the +policeman would put them into a bag and carry them off, or cut their +ears off. Of course, the policeman became to them an object of terror; +the law he represented, a cruel thing that stood for punishment. Not a +note of respect did I ever hear for the law in my boyhood days. A law +was something to be broken, to be evaded, to call down upon others as a +source of punishment, but never to be regarded in the light of a +safeguard.</p> + +<p>And as I grew into manhood, the newspapers rang on every side with +disrespect for those in authority. Under the special dispensation of the +liberty of the press, which was construed into the license of the press, +no man was too high to escape editorial vituperation if his politics did +not happen to suit the management, or if his action ran counter to what +the proprietors believed it should be. It was not criticism of his acts, +it was personal attack upon the official; whether supervisor, mayor, +governor, or president, it mattered not.</p> + +<p>It is a very unfortunate impression that this American lack of respect +for those in authority makes upon the foreign-born mind. It is difficult +for the foreigner to square up the arrest and deportation of a man who, +through an incendiary address, seeks to overthrow governmental +authority, with the ignoring of an expression of exactly the same +sentiments by the editor of his next morning's newspaper. In other +words, the man who writes is immune, but the man who reads, imbibes, and +translates the editor's words into action is immediately marked as a +culprit, and America will not harbor him. But why harbor the original +cause? Is the man who speaks with type less dangerous than he who speaks +with his mouth or with a bomb?</p> + +<p class="top5">At the most vital part of my life, when I was to become an American +citizen and exercise the right of suffrage, America fell entirely short. +It reached out not even the suggestion of a hand.</p> + +<p>When the Presidential Conventions had been held in the year I reached my +legal majority, and I knew I could vote, I endeavored to find out +whether, being foreign-born, I was entitled to the suffrage. No one +could tell me; and not until I had visited six different municipal +departments, being referred from one to another, was it explained that, +through my father's naturalization, I became, automatically, as his son, +an American citizen. I decided to read up on the platforms of the +Republican and Democratic parties, but I could not secure copies +anywhere, although a week had passed since they had been adopted in +convention.</p> + +<p>I was told the newspapers had printed them. It occurred to me there must +be many others besides myself who were anxious to secure the platforms +of the two parties in some more convenient form. With the eye of +necessity ever upon a chance to earn an honest penny, I went to a +newspaper office, cut out from its files the two platforms, had them +printed in a small pocket edition, sold one edition to the American News +Company and another to the News Company controlling the Elevated +Railroad bookstands in New York City, where they sold at ten cents each. +So great was the demand which I had only partially guessed, that within +three weeks I had sold such huge editions of the little books that I had +cleared over a thousand dollars.</p> + +<p>But it seemed to me strange that it should depend on a foreign-born +American to supply an eager public with what should have been supplied +through the agency of the political parties or through some educational +source.</p> + +<p>I now tried to find out what a vote actually meant. It must be recalled +that I was only twenty-one years old, with scant education, and with no +civic agency offering me the information I was seeking. I went to the +headquarters of each of the political parties and put my query. I was +regarded with puzzled looks.</p> + +<p>"What does it mean to vote?" asked one chairman.</p> + +<p>"Why, on Election Day you go up to the ballot-box and put your ballot +in, and that's all there is to it."</p> + +<p>But I knew very well that that was not all there was to it, and was +determined to find out the significance of the franchise. I met with +dense ignorance on every hand. I went to the Brooklyn Library, and was +frankly told by the librarian that he did not know of a book that would +tell me what I wanted to know. This was in 1884.</p> + +<p>As the campaign increased in intensity, I found myself a desired person +in the eyes of the local campaign managers, but not one of them could +tell me the significance and meaning of the privilege I was for the +first time to exercise.</p> + +<p>Finally, I spent an evening with Seth Low, and, of course, got the +desired information.</p> + +<p>But fancy the quest I had been compelled to make to acquire the simple +information that should have been placed in my hands or made readily +accessible to me. And how many foreign-born would take equal pains to +ascertain what I was determined to find out?</p> + +<p>Surely America fell short here at the moment most sacred to me: that of +my first vote!</p> + +<p>Is it any easier to-day for the foreign citizen to acquire this +information when he approaches his first vote? I wonder! Not that I do +not believe there are agencies for this purpose. You know there are, and +so do I. But how about the foreign-born? Does he know it? Is it not +perhaps like the owner of the bulldog who assured the friend calling on +him that it never attacked friends of the family? "Yes," said the +friend, "that's all right. You know and I know that I am a friend of the +family; but does the dog know?"</p> + +<p>Is it to-day made known to the foreign-born, about to exercise his +privilege of suffrage for the first time, where he can be told what that +privilege means: is the means to know made readily accessible to him: is +it, in fact, as it should be, brought to him?</p> + +<p>It was not to me; is it to him?</p> + +<p>One fundamental trouble with the present desire for Americanization is +that the American is anxious to Americanize two classes—if he is a +reformer, the foreign-born; if he is an employer, his employees. It +never occurs to him that he himself may be in need of Americanization. +He seems to take it for granted that because he is American-born, he is +an American in spirit and has a right understanding of American ideals. +But that, by no means, always follows. There are thousands of the +American-born who need Americanization just as much as do the +foreign-born. There are hundreds of American employers who know far less +of American ideals than do some of their employees. In fact, there are +those actually engaged to-day in the work of Americanization, men at the +top of the movement, who sadly need a better conception of true +Americanism.</p> + +<p>An excellent illustration of this came to my knowledge when I attended a +large Americanization Conference in Washington. One of the principal +speakers was an educator of high standing and considerable influence in +one of the most important sections of the United States. In a speech +setting forth his ideas of Americanization, he dwelt with much emphasis +and at considerable length upon instilling into the mind of the +foreign-born the highest respect for American institutions.</p> + +<p>After the Conference he asked me whether he could see me that afternoon +at my hotel; he wanted to talk about contributing to the magazine. When +he came, before approaching the object of his talk, he launched out on a +tirade against the President of the United States; the weakness of the +Cabinet, the inefficiency of the Congress, and the stupidity of the +Senate. If words could have killed, there would have not remained a +single living member of the Administration at Washington.</p> + +<p>After fifteen minutes of this, I reminded him of his speech and the +emphasis which he had placed upon the necessity of inculcating in the +foreign-born respect for American institutions.</p> + +<p>Yet this man was a power in his community, a strong influence upon +others; he believed he could Americanize others, when he himself, +according to his own statements, lacked the fundamental principle of +Americanization. What is true of this man is, in lesser or greater +degree, true of hundreds of others. Their Americanization consists of +lip-service; the real spirit, the only factor which counts in the +successful teaching of any doctrine, is absolutely missing. We certainly +cannot teach anything approaching a true Americanism until we ourselves +feel and believe and practise in our own lives what we are teaching to +others. No law, no lip-service, no effort, however well-intentioned, +will amount to anything worth while in inculcating the true American +spirit in our foreign-born citizens until we are sure that the American +spirit is understood by ourselves and is warp and woof of our own being.</p> + +<p class="top5">To the American, part and parcel of his country, these particulars in +which his country falls short with the foreign-born are, perhaps, not so +evident; they may even seem not so very important. But to the +foreign-born they seem distinct lacks; they loom large; they form +serious handicaps which, in many cases, are never surmounted; they are a +menace to that Americanization which is, to-day, more than ever our +fondest dream, and which we now realize more keenly than before is our +most vital need.</p> + +<p>It is for this reason that I have put them down here as a concrete +instance of where and how America fell short in my own Americanization, +and, what is far more serious to me, where she is falling short in her +Americanization of thousands of other foreign-born.</p> + +<p>"Yet you succeeded," it will be argued.</p> + +<p>That may be; but you, on the other hand, must admit that I did not +succeed by reason of these shortcomings: it was in spite of them, by +overcoming them—a result that all might not achieve.</p> + +<h3><a name="XXXIX" id="XXXIX"></a>XXXIX.</h3> + +<p class="heading">What I Owe to America</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Whatever</span> shortcomings I may have found during my fifty-year period of +Americanization; however America may have failed to help my transition +from a foreigner into an American, I owe to her the most priceless gift +that any nation can offer, and that is opportunity.</p> + +<p>As the world stands to-day, no nation offers opportunity in the degree +that America does to the foreign-born. Russia may, in the future, as I +like to believe she will, prove a second United States of America in +this respect. She has the same limitless area; her people the same +potentialities. But, as things are to-day, the United States offers, as +does no other nation, a limitless opportunity: here a man can go as far +as his abilities will carry him. It may be that the foreign-born, as in +my own case, must hold on to some of the ideals and ideas of the land of +his birth; it may be that he must develop and mould his character by +overcoming the habits resulting from national shortcomings. But into the +best that the foreign-born can retain, America can graft such a wealth +of inspiration, so high a national idealism, so great an opportunity for +the highest endeavor, as to make him the fortunate man of the earth +to-day.</p> + +<p>He can go where he will: no traditions hamper him; no limitations are +set except those within himself. The larger the area he chooses in which +to work, the larger the vision he demonstrates, the more eager the +people are to give support to his undertakings if they are convinced +that he has their best welfare as his goal. There is no public +confidence equal to that of the American public, once it is obtained. It +is fickle, of course, as are all publics, but fickle only toward the man +who cannot maintain an achieved success.</p> + +<p>A man in America cannot complacently lean back upon victories won, as he +can in the older European countries, and depend upon the glamour of the +past to sustain him or the momentum of success to carry him. Probably +the most alert public in the world, it requires of its leaders that they +be alert. Its appetite for variety is insatiable, but its appreciation, +when given, is full-handed and whole-hearted. The American public never +holds back from the man to whom it gives; it never bestows in a +niggardly way; it gives all or nothing.</p> + +<p>What is not generally understood of the American people is their +wonderful idealism. Nothing so completely surprises the foreign-born as +the discovery of this trait in the American character. The impression is +current in European countries—perhaps less generally since the war—that +America is given over solely to a worship of the American dollar. While +between nations as between individuals, comparisons are valueless, it +may not be amiss to say, from personal knowledge, that the Dutch worship +the gulden infinitely more than do the Americans the dollar.</p> + +<p>I do not claim that the American is always conscious of this idealism; +often he is not. But let a great convulsion touching moral questions +occur, and the result always shows how close to the surface is his +idealism. And the fact that so frequently he puts over it a thick veneer +of materialism does not affect its quality. The truest approach, the +only approach in fact, to the American character is, as Viscount Bryce +has so well said, through its idealism.</p> + +<p>It is this quality which gives the truest inspiration to the +foreign-born in his endeavor to serve the people of his adopted country. +He is mentally sluggish, indeed, who does not discover that America will +make good with him if he makes good with her.</p> + +<p>But he must play fair. It is essentially the straight game that the true +American plays, and he insists that you shall play it too. Evidence +there is, of course, to the contrary in American life, experiences that +seem to give ground for the belief that the man succeeds who is not +scrupulous in playing his cards. But never is this true in the long run. +Sooner or later—sometimes, unfortunately, later than sooner—the public +discovers the trickery. In no other country in the world is the moral +conception so clear and true as in America, and no people will give a +larger and more permanent reward to the man whose effort for that public +has its roots in honor and truth.</p> + +<p>"The sky is the limit" to the foreign-born who comes to America endowed +with honest endeavor, ceaseless industry, and the ability to carry +through. In any honest endeavor, the way is wide open to the will to +succeed. Every path beckons, every vista invites, every talent is called +forth, and every efficient effort finds its due reward. In no land is +the way so clear and so free.</p> + +<p>How good an American has the process of Americanization made me? That I +cannot say. Who can say that of himself? But when I look around me at +the American-born I have come to know as my close friends, I wonder +whether, after all, the foreign-born does not make in some sense a +better American—whether he is not able to get a truer perspective; +whether his is not the deeper desire to see America greater; whether he +is not less content to let its faulty institutions be as they are; +whether in seeing faults more clearly he does not make a more decided +effort to have America reach those ideals or those fundamentals of his +own land which he feels are in his nature, and the best of which he is +anxious to graft into the character of his adopted land?</p> + +<p>It is naturally with a feeling of deep satisfaction that I remember two +Presidents of the United States considered me a sufficiently typical +American to wish to send me to my native land as the accredited minister +of my adopted country. And yet when I analyze the reasons for my choice +in both these instances, I derive a deeper satisfaction from the fact +that my strong desire to work in America for America led me to ask to be +permitted to remain here.</p> + +<p>It is this strong impulse that my Americanization has made the driving +power of my life. And I ask no greater privilege than to be allowed to +live to see my potential America become actual: the America that I like +to think of as the America of Abraham Lincoln and of Theodore +Roosevelt—not faultless, but less faulty. It is a part in trying to +shape that America, and an opportunity to work in that America when it +comes, that I ask in return for what I owe to her. A greater privilege +no man could have.</p> + +<table summary="data" +cellspacing="0" +cellpadding="5"> +<tr valign="top"><td colspan="2" align="center">Edward William Bok:<br /><a name="Biographical_Data" id="Biographical_Data"></a>Biographical Data</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1863:</td><td>Born, October 9, at Helder, Netherlands.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1870:</td><td>September 20: Arrived in the United States.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1870:</td><td>Entered public schools of Brooklyn, New York.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1873:</td><td>Obtained first position in Frost's Bakery,<br /> +Smith Street, Brooklyn, at 50 cents per week.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1876:</td><td>August 7: Entered employ of the Western<br /> +Union Telegraph Company as office-boy.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1882:</td><td>Entered employ of Henry Holt & Company as stenographer.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1884:</td><td>Entered employ of Charles Scribner's Sons as stenographer.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1884:</td><td>Became editor of The Brooklyn Magazine.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1886:</td><td>Founded The Bok Syndicate Press.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1887:</td><td>Published Henry Ward Beecher Memorial (privately printed).</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1889:</td><td>October 20: Became editor of The Ladies' Home Journal.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1890:</td><td>Published Successward: Doubleday, McClure & Company.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1894:</td><td>Published Before He Is Twenty: Fleming H. Revell Company.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1896:</td><td>October 22: Married Mary Louise Curtis.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1897:</td><td>September 7: Son born: William Curtis Bok.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1900:</td><td>Published The Young Man in Business: L. C. Page & Company.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1905:</td><td>January 25: Son born: Cary William Bok.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1906:</td><td>Published Her Brother's Letters (Anonymous): Moffat, Yard & Co.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1907:</td><td>Degree of LL.D. of Order of Augustinian Fathers conferred by<br /> +order of Pope Pius X., by the Most Reverend Diomede Falconio, D.D.,<br /> +Apostolic Delegate to the United States, at Villanova College.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1910:</td><td>Degree of LL.D. conferred, in absentia, by Hope College, Holland,<br /> +Michigan (the only Dutch college in the United States).</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1911:</td><td>Founded, with others, The Child Federation of Philadelphia.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1912:</td><td>Published: The Edward Bok Books of Self-Knowledge; five<br /> +volumes: Fleming H. Revell Company.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1913:</td><td>Founded, with others, The Merion Civic Association, at Merion,<br /> +Pennsylvania.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1915:</td><td>Published Why I Believe in Poverty: Houghton, Mifflin Company.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1916:</td><td>Published poem, God's Hand, set to music by Josef Hofmann:<br /> +Schirmer & Company.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1917:</td><td>Vice-president Philadelphia Belgian Relief Commission.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1917:</td><td>Member of National Y. M. C. A. War Work Council.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1917:</td><td>State chairman for Pennsylvania of Y. M. C. A. War Work Council.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1918:</td><td>Member of Executive Committee and chairman of Publicity Committee,<br /> +Philadelphia War Chest.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1918:</td><td>Chairman of Philadelphia Y. M. C. A. Recruiting Committee.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1918:</td><td>State chairman for Pennsylvania of United War Work Campaign.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1918:</td><td>August-November: visited the battle-fronts in France as guest of<br /> +the British Government.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1919:</td><td>September 22: Relinquished editorship of The Ladies' Home Journal,<br /> +completing thirty years of service.</td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td>1920:</td><td>September 20: Upon the 50th anniversary of arrival in the United<br /> +States, published The Americanization of Edward Bok.</td></tr> +</table> + +<h3><a name="The_Expression_of_a_Personal_Pleasure" id="The_Expression_of_a_Personal_Pleasure"></a>The Expression of a Personal Pleasure</h3> +<div class="italics"> +<p>I cannot close this record of a boy's development without an attempt to +suggest the sense of deep personal pleasure which I feel that the +imprint on the title-page of this book should be that of the publishing +house which, thirty-six years ago, I entered as stenographer. It was +there I received my start; it was there I laid the foundation of that +future career then so hidden from me. The happiest days of my young +manhood were spent in the employ of this house; I there began +friendships which have grown closer with each passing year. And one of +my deepest sources of satisfaction is, that during all the thirty-one +years which have followed my resignation from the Scribner house, it has +been my good fortune to hold the friendship, and, as I have been led to +believe, the respect of my former employers. That they should now be my +publishers demonstrates, in a striking manner, the curious turning of +the wheel of time, and gives me a sense of gratification difficult of +expression.</p></div> + +<p class="c" style="font-family:signature, serif;font-size:125%;"><b>Edward W. Bok</b></p> + +<hr class="full" /> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Americanization of Edward Bok, by +Edward William Bok + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AMERICANIZATION OF EDWARD BOK *** + +***** This file should be named 3538-h.htm or 3538-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/3/3538/ + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer and Chuck Greif + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.05/20/01*END* +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + + + + + + +The Americanization of Edward Bok +The Autobiography of a Dutch Boy Fifty Years After + +by Edward William Bok (1863-1930) + + + + +To the American woman I owe much, but to two women I owe more, + My mother and my wife. +And to them I dedicate this account of the boy to whom one gave +birth and brought to manhood and the other blessed with all a +home and family may mean. + + + +An Explanation + +This book was to have been written in 1914, when I foresaw some leisure +to write it, for I then intended to retire from active editorship. But +the war came, an entirely new set of duties commanded, and the project +was laid aside. + +Its title and the form, however, were then chosen. By the form I refer +particularly to the use of the third person. I had always felt the most +effective method of writing an autobiography, for the sake of a better +perspective, was mentally to separate the writer from his subject by +this device. + +Moreover, this method came to me very naturally in dealing with the +Edward Bok, editor and publicist, whom I have tried to describe in this +book, because, in many respects, he has had and has been a personality +apart from my private self. I have again and again found myself watching +with intense amusement and interest the Edward Bok of this book at work. +I have, in turn, applauded him and criticised him, as I do in this book. +Not that I ever considered myself bigger or broader than this Edward +Bok: simply that he was different. His tastes, his outlook, his manner +of looking at things were totally at variance with my own. In fact, my +chief difficulty during Edward Bok's directorship of The Ladies' Home +Journal was to abstain from breaking through the editor and revealing my +real self. Several times I did so, and each time I saw how different was +the effect from that when the editorial Edward Bok had been allowed +sway. Little by little I learned to subordinate myself and to let him +have full rein. + +But no relief of my life was so great to me personally as his decision +to retire from his editorship. My family and friends were surprised and +amused by my intense and obvious relief when he did so. Only to those +closest to me could I explain the reason for the sense of absolute +freedom and gratitude that I felt. + +Since that time my feelings have been an interesting study to myself. +There are no longer two personalities. The Edward Bok of whom I have +written has passed out of my being as completely as if he had never been +there, save for the records and files on my library shelves. It is easy, +therefore, for me to write of him as a personality apart: in fact, I +could not depict him from any other point of view. To write of him in +the first person, as if he were myself, is impossible, for he is not. + +The title suggests my principal reason for writing the book. Every life +has some interest and significance; mine, perhaps, a special one. Here +was a little Dutch boy unceremoniously set down in America unable to +make himself understood or even to know what persons were saying; his +education was extremely limited, practically negligible; and yet, by +some curious decree of fate, he was destined to write, for a period of +years, to the largest body of readers ever addressed by an American +editor--the circulation of the magazine he edited running into figures +previously unheard of in periodical literature. He made no pretense to +style or even to composition: his grammar was faulty, as it was natural +it should be, in a language not his own. His roots never went deep, for +the intellectual soil had not been favorable to their growth;--yet, it +must be confessed, he achieved. + +But how all this came about, how such a boy, with every disadvantage to +overcome, was able, apparently, to "make good"--this possesses an +interest and for some, perhaps, a value which, after all, is the only +reason for any book. + +EDWARD W. BOK +MERION, PENNSYLVANIA, 1920 + + + +CONTENTS + +An Explanation +An Introduction of Two Persons +I. The First Days in America +II. The First Job: Fifty Cents a Week +III. The Hunger for Self-Education +IV. A Presidential Friend and a Boston Pilgrimage +V. Going to the Theatre with Longfellow +VI. Phillips Brooks's Books and Emerson's Mental Mist +VII. A Plunge into Wall Street +VIII. Starting a Newspaper Syndicate +IX. Association with Henry Ward Beecher +X. The First "Woman's Page," "Literary Leaves," and Entering Scribner's +XI. The Chances for Success +XII. Baptism Under Fire +XIII. Publishing Incidents and Anecdotes +XIV. Last Years in New York +XV. Successful Editorship +XVI. First Years as a Woman's Editor +XVII. Eugene Field's Practical Jokes +XVIII. Building Up a Magazine +XIX. Personality Letters +XX. Meeting a Reverse or Two +XXI. A Signal Piece of Constructive Work +XXII. An Adventure in Civic and Private Art +XXIII. Theodore Roosevelt's Influence +XXIV. Theodore Roosevelt's Anonymous Editorial Work +XXV. The President and the Boy +XXVI. The Literary Back-Stairs +XXVII. Women's Clubs and Woman Suffrage +XXVIII. Going Home with Kipling, and as a Lecturer +XXIX. An Excursion into the Feminine Nature +XXX. Cleaning Up the Patent-Medicine and Other Evils +XXXI. Adventures in Civics +XXXII. A Bewildered Bok +XXXIII. How Millions of People Are Reached +XXXIV. A War Magazine and War Activities +XXXV. At the Battle-Fronts in the Great War +XXXVI. The End of Thirty Years' Editorship +XXXVII. The Third Period +XXXVIII. Where America Fell Short with Me +XXXIX. What I Owe to America +Edward William Bok: Biographical Data +The Expression of a Personal Pleasure + + + +An Introduction of Two Persons + +IN WHOSE LIVES ARE FOUND THE SOURCE AND MAINSPRING OF SOME OF THE +EFFORTS OF THE AUTHOR OF THIS BOOK IN HIS LATER YEARS + +Along an island in the North Sea, five miles from the Dutch Coast, +stretches a dangerous ledge of rocks that has proved the graveyard of +many a vessel sailing that turbulent sea. On this island once lived a +group of men who, as each vessel was wrecked, looted the vessel and +murdered those of the crew who reached shore. The government of the +Netherlands decided to exterminate the island pirates, and for the job +King William selected a young lawyer at The Hague. + +"I want you to clean up that island," was the royal order. It was a +formidable job for a young man of twenty-odd years. By royal +proclamation he was made mayor of the island, and within a year, a court +of law being established, the young attorney was appointed judge; and in +that dual capacity he "cleaned up" the island. + +The young man now decided to settle on the island, and began to look +around for a home. It was a grim place, barren of tree or living green +of any kind; it was as if a man had been exiled to Siberia. Still, +argued the young mayor, an ugly place is ugly only because it is not +beautiful. And beautiful he determined this island should be. + +One day the young mayor-judge called together his council. "We must have +trees," he said; "we can make this island a spot of beauty if we will!" +But the practical seafaring men demurred; the little money they had was +needed for matters far more urgent than trees. + +"Very well," was the mayor's decision--and little they guessed what the +words were destined to mean--"I will do it myself." And that year he +planted one hundred trees, the first the island had ever seen. + +"Too cold," said the islanders; "the severe north winds and storms will +kill them all." + +"Then I will plant more," said the unperturbed mayor. And for the fifty +years that he lived on the island he did so. He planted trees each year; +and, moreover, he had deeded to the island government land which he +turned into public squares and parks, and where each spring he set out +shrubs and plants. + +Moistened by the salt mist the trees did not wither, but grew +prodigiously. In all that expanse of turbulent sea--and only those who +have seen the North Sea in a storm know how turbulent it can be--there +was not a foot of ground on which the birds, storm-driven across the +water-waste, could rest in their flight. Hundreds of dead birds often +covered the surface of the sea. Then one day the trees had grown tall +enough to look over the sea, and, spent and driven, the first birds came +and rested in their leafy shelter. And others came and found protection, +and gave their gratitude vent in song. Within a few years so many birds +had discovered the trees in this new island home that they attracted the +attention not only of the native islanders but also of the people on the +shore five miles distant, and the island became famous as the home of +the rarest and most beautiful birds. So grateful were the birds for +their resting-place that they chose one end of the island as a special +spot for the laying of their eggs and the raising of their young, and +they fairly peopled it. It was not long before ornithologists from +various parts of the world came to "Eggland," as the farthermost point +of the island came to be known, to see the marvellous sight, not of +thousands but of hundreds of thousands of bird-eggs. + +A pair of storm-driven nightingales had now found the island and mated +there; their wonderful notes thrilled even the souls of the natives; and +as dusk fell upon the seabound strip of land the women and children +would come to "the square" and listen to the evening notes of the birds +of golden song. The two nightingales soon grew into a colony, and within +a few years so rich was the island in its nightingales that over to the +Dutch coast and throughout the land and into other countries spread the +fame of "The Island of Nightingales." + +Meantime, the young mayor-judge, grown to manhood, had kept on planting +trees each year, setting out his shrubbery and plants, until their +verdure now beautifully shaded the quaint, narrow lanes, and transformed +into cool wooded roads what once had been only barren sun-baked wastes. +Artists began to hear of the place and brought their canvases, and on +the walls of hundreds of homes throughout the world hang to-day bits of +the beautiful lanes and wooded spots of "The Island of Nightingales." +The American artist William M. Chase took his pupils there almost +annually. "In all the world to-day," he declared to his students, as +they exclaimed at the natural cool restfulness of the island, "there is +no more beautiful place." + +The trees are now majestic in their height of forty or more feet, for it +is nearly a hundred years since the young attorney went to the island +and planted the first tree; today the churchyard where he lies is a +bower of cool green, with the trees that he planted dropping their +moisture on the lichen-covered stone on his grave. + +This much did one man do. But he did more. + +After he had been on the barren island two years he went to the mainland +one day, and brought back with him a bride. It was a bleak place for a +bridal home, but the young wife had the qualities of the husband. "While +you raise your trees," she said, "I will raise our children." And within +a score of years the young bride sent thirteen happy-faced, +well-brought-up children over that island, and there was reared a home +such as is given to few. Said a man who subsequently married a daughter +of that home: "It was such a home that once you had been in it you felt +you must be of it, and that if you couldn't marry one of the daughters +you would have been glad to have married the cook." + +One day when the children had grown to man's and woman's estate the +mother called them all together and said to them, "I want to tell you +the story of your father and of this island," and she told them the +simple story that is written here. + +"And now," she said, "as you go out into the world I want each of you to +take with you the spirit of your father's work, and each in your own way +and place, to do as he has done: make you the world a bit more beautiful +and better because you have been in it. That is your mother's message to +you." + +The first son to leave the island home went with a band of hardy men to +South Africa, where they settled and became known as "the Boers." +Tirelessly they worked at the colony until towns and cities sprang up +and a new nation came into being: The Transvaal Republic. The son became +secretary of state of the new country, and to-day the United States of +South Africa bears tribute, in part, to the mother's message to "make +the world a bit more beautiful and better." + +The second son left home for the Dutch mainland, where he took charge of +a small parish; and when he had finished his work he was mourned by king +and peasant as one of the leading clergymen of his time and people. + +A third son, scorning his own safety, plunged into the boiling surf on +one of those nights of terror so common to that coast, rescued a +half-dead sailor, carried him to his father's house, and brought him +back to a life of usefulness that gave the world a record of +imperishable value. For the half-drowned sailor was Heinrich Schliemann, +the famous explorer of the dead cities of Troy. + +The first daughter now left the island nest; to her inspiration her +husband owed, at his life's close, a shelf of works in philosophy which +to-day are among the standard books of their class. + +The second daughter worked beside her husband until she brought him to +be regarded as one of the ablest preachers of his land, speaking for +more than forty years the message of man's betterment. + +To another son it was given to sit wisely in the councils of his land; +another followed the footsteps of his father. Another daughter, refusing +marriage for duty, ministered unto and made a home for one whose eyes +could see not. + +So they went out into the world, the girls and boys of that island home, +each carrying the story of their father's simple but beautiful work and +the remembrance of their mother's message. Not one from that home but +did well his or her work in the world; some greater, some smaller, but +each left behind the traces of a life well spent. + +And, as all good work is immortal, so to-day all over the world goes on +the influence of this one man and one woman, whose life on that little +Dutch island changed its barren rocks to a bower of verdure, a home for +the birds and the song of the nightingale. The grandchildren have gone +to the four corners of the globe, and are now the generation of +workers-some in the far East Indies; others in Africa; still others in +our own land of America. But each has tried, according to the talents +given, to carry out the message of that day, to tell the story of the +grandfather's work; just as it is told here by the author of this book, +who, in the efforts of his later years, has tried to carry out, so far +as opportunity has come to him, the message of his grandmother: + +"Make you the world a bit more beautiful and better because you have +been in it." + + + +I. The First Days in America + +The Leviathan of the Atlantic Ocean, in 1870, was The Queen, and when +she was warped into her dock on September 20 of that year, she +discharged, among her passengers, a family of four from the Netherlands +who were to make an experiment of Americanization. + +The father, a man bearing one of the most respected names in the +Netherlands, had acquired wealth and position for himself; unwise +investments, however, had swept away his fortune, and in preference to a +new start in his own land, he had decided to make the new beginning in +the United States, where a favorite brother-in-law had gone several +years before. But that, never a simple matter for a man who has reached +forty-two, is particularly difficult for a foreigner in a strange land. +This fact he and his wife were to find out. The wife, also carefully +reared, had been accustomed to a scale of living which she had now to +abandon. Her Americanization experiment was to compel her, for the first +time in her life, to become a housekeeper without domestic help. There +were two boys: the elder, William, was eight and a half years of age; +the younger, in nineteen days from his landing-date, was to celebrate +his seventh birthday. + +This younger boy was Edward William Bok. He had, according to the Dutch +custom, two other names, but he had decided to leave those in the +Netherlands. And the American public was, in later years, to omit for +him the "William." + +Edward's first six days in the United States were spent in New York, and +then he was taken to Brooklyn, where he was destined to live for nearly +twenty years. + +Thanks to the linguistic sense inherent in the Dutch, and to an +educational system that compels the study of languages, English was +already familiar to the father and mother. But to the two sons, who had +barely learned the beginnings of their native tongue, the English +language was as a closed book. It seemed a cruel decision of the father +to put his two boys into a public school in Brooklyn, but he argued that +if they were to become Americans, the sooner they became part of the +life of the country and learned its language for themselves, the better. +And so, without the ability to make known the slightest want or to +understand a single word, the morning after their removal to Brooklyn, +the two boys were taken by their father to a public school. + +The American public-school teacher was perhaps even less well equipped +in those days than she is to-day to meet the needs of two Dutch boys who +could not understand a word she said, and who could only wonder what it +was all about. The brothers did not even have the comfort of each +other's company, for, graded by age, they were placed in separate +classes. + +Nor was the American boy of 1870 a whit less cruel than is the American +boy of 1920; and he was none the less loath to show that cruelty. This +trait was evident at the first recess of the first day at school. At the +dismissal, the brothers naturally sought each other, only to find +themselves surrounded by a group of tormentors who were delighted to +have such promising objects for their fun. And of this opportunity they +made the most. There was no form of petty cruelty boys' minds could +devise that was not inflicted upon the two helpless strangers. Edward +seemed to look particularly inviting, and nicknaming him "Dutchy" they +devoted themselves at each noon recess and after school to inflicting +their cruelties upon him. + +Louis XIV may have been right when he said that "every new language +requires a new soul," but Edward Bok knew that while spoken languages +might differ, there is one language understood by boys the world over. +And with this language Edward decided to do some experimenting. After a +few days at school, he cast his eyes over the group of his tormentors, +picked out one who seemed to him the ringleader, and before the boy was +aware of what had happened, Edward Bok was in the full swing of his +first real experiment with Americanization. Of course the American boy +retaliated. But the boy from the Netherlands had not been born and +brought up in the muscle-building air of the Dutch dikes for nothing, +and after a few moments he found himself looking down on his tormentor +and into the eyes of a crowd of very respectful boys and giggling girls +who readily made a passageway for his brother and himself when they +indicated a desire to leave the schoolyard and go home. + +Edward now felt that his Americanization had begun; but, always +believing that a thing begun must be carried to a finish, he took, or +gave--it depends upon the point of view--two or three more lessons in +this particular phase of Americanization before he convinced these +American schoolboys that it might be best for them to call a halt upon +further excursions in torment. + +At the best, they were difficult days at school for a boy of six without +the language. But the national linguistic gift inherent in the Dutch +race came to the boy's rescue, and as the roots of the Anglo-Saxon lie +in the Frisian tongue, and thus in the language of his native country, +Edward soon found that with a change of vowel here and there the English +language was not so difficult of conquest. At all events, he set out to +master it. + +But his fatal gift of editing, although its possession was unknown to +him, began to assert itself when, just as he seemed to be getting along +fairly well, he balked at following the Spencerian style of writing in +his copybooks. Instinctively he rebelled at the flourishes which +embellished that form of handwriting. He seemed to divine somehow that +such penmanship could not be useful or practicable for after life, and +so, with that Dutch stolidity that, once fixed, knows no altering, he +refused to copy his writing lessons. Of course trouble immediately +ensued between Edward and his teacher. Finding herself against a literal +blank wall--for Edward simply refused, but had not the gift of English +with which to explain his refusal--the teacher decided to take the +matter to the male principal of the school. She explained that she had +kept Edward after school for as long as two hours to compel him to copy +his Spencerian lesson, but that the boy simply sat quiet. He was +perfectly well-behaved, she explained, but as to his lesson, he would +attempt absolutely nothing. + +It was the prevailing custom in the public schools of 1870 to punish +boys by making them hold out the palms of their hands, upon which the +principal would inflict blows with a rattan. The first time Edward was +punished in this way, his hand became so swollen he wondered at a system +of punishment which rendered him incapable of writing, particularly as +the discerning principal had chosen the boy's right hand upon which to +rain the blows. Edward was told to sit down at the principal's own desk +and copy the lesson. He sat, but he did not write. He would not for one +thing, and he could not if he would. After half an hour of purposeless +sitting, the principal ordered Edward again to stand up and hold out his +hand; and once more the rattan fell in repeated blows. Of course it did +no good, and as it was then five o'clock, and the principal had +inflicted all the punishment that the law allowed, and as he probably +wanted to go home as much as Edward did, he dismissed the sore-handed +but more-than-ever-determined Dutch boy. + +Edward went home to his father, exhibited his swollen hand, explained +the reason, and showed the penmanship lesson which he had refused to +copy. It is a singular fact that even at that age he already understood +Americanization enough to realize that to cope successfully with any +American institution, one must be constructive as well as destructive. +He went to his room, brought out a specimen of Italian handwriting which +he had seen in a newspaper, and explained to his father that this +simpler penmanship seemed to him better for practical purposes than the +curlicue fancifully embroidered Spencerian style; that if he had to +learn penmanship, why not learn the system that was of more possible use +in after life? + +Now, your Dutchman is nothing if not practical. He is very simple and +direct in his nature, and is very likely to be equally so in his mental +view. Edward's father was distinctly interested--very much amused, as he +confessed to the boy in later years--in his son's discernment of the +futility of the Spencerian style of penmanship. He agreed with the boy, +and, next morning, accompanied him to school and to the principal. The +two men were closeted together, and when they came out Edward was sent +to his classroom. For some weeks he was given no penmanship lessons, and +then a new copy-book was given him with a much simpler style. He pounced +upon it, and within a short time stood at the head of his class in +writing. + +The same instinct that was so often to lead Edward aright in his future +life, at its very beginning served him in a singularly valuable way in +directing his attention to the study of penmanship; for it was through +his legible handwriting that later, in the absence of the typewriter, he +was able to secure and satisfactorily fill three positions which were to +lead to his final success. + +Years afterward Edward had the satisfaction of seeing public-school +pupils given a choice of penmanship lessons: one along the flourish +lines and the other of a less ornate order. Of course, the boy never +associated the incident of his refusal with the change until later when +his mother explained to him that the principal of the school, of whom +the father had made a warm friend, was so impressed by the boy's simple +but correct view, that he took up the matter with the board of +education, and a choice of systems was considered and later decided +upon. + +From this it will be seen that, unconsciously, Edward Bok had started +upon his career of editing! + + + +II. The First Job: Fifty Cents a Week + +The Elder Bok did not find his "lines cast in pleasant places" in the +United States. He found himself, professionally, unable to adjust the +methods of his own land and of a lifetime to those of a new country. As +a result the fortunes of the transplanted family did not flourish, and +Edward soon saw his mother physically failing under burdens to which her +nature was not accustomed nor her hands trained. Then he and his brother +decided to relieve their mother in the housework by rising early in the +morning, building the fire, preparing breakfast, and washing the dishes +before they went to school. After school they gave up their play hours, +and swept and scrubbed, and helped their mother to prepare the evening +meal and wash the dishes afterward. It was a curious coincidence that it +should fall upon Edward thus to get a first-hand knowledge of woman's +housework which was to stand him in such practical stead in later years. + +It was not easy for the parents to see their boys thus forced to do work +which only a short while before had been done by a retinue of servants. +And the capstone of humiliation seemed to be when Edward and his +brother, after having for several mornings found no kindling wood or +coal to build the fire, decided to go out of evenings with a basket and +pick up what wood they could find in neighboring lots, and the bits of +coal spilled from the coal-bin of the grocery-store, or left on the +curbs before houses where coal had been delivered. The mother +remonstrated with the boys, although in her heart she knew that the +necessity was upon them. But Edward had been started upon his +Americanization career, and answered: "This is America, where one can do +anything if it is honest. So long as we don't steal the wood or coal, +why shouldn't we get it?" And, turning away, the saddened mother said +nothing. + +But while the doing of these homely chores was very effective in +relieving the untrained and tired mother, it added little to the family +income. Edward looked about and decided that the time had come for him, +young as he was, to begin some sort of wage-earning. But how and where? +The answer he found one afternoon when standing before the shop-window +of a baker in the neighborhood. The owner of the bakery, who had just +placed in the window a series of trays filled with buns, tarts, and +pies, came outside to look at the display. He found the hungry boy +wistfully regarding the tempting-looking wares. + +"Look pretty good, don't they?" asked the baker. + +"They would," answered the Dutch boy with his national passion for +cleanliness, "if your window were clean." + +"That's so, too," mused the baker. "Perhaps you'll clean it." + +"I will," was the laconic reply. And Edward Bok, there and then, got his +first job. He went in, found a step-ladder, and put so much Dutch energy +into the cleaning of the large show-window that the baker immediately +arranged with him to clean it every Tuesday and Friday afternoon after +school. The salary was to be fifty cents per week! + +But one day, after he had finished cleaning the window, and the baker +was busy in the rear of the store, a customer came in, and Edward +ventured to wait on her. Dexterously he wrapped up for another the +fragrant currant-buns for which his young soul--and stomach--so +hungered! The baker watched him, saw how quickly and smilingly he served +the customer, and offered Edward an extra dollar per week if he would +come in afternoons and sell behind the counter. He immediately entered +into the bargain with the understanding that, in addition to his salary +of a dollar and a half per week, he should each afternoon carry home +from the good things unsold a moderate something as a present to his +mother. The baker agreed, and Edward promised to come each afternoon +except Saturday. + +"Want to play ball, hey?" said the baker. + +"Yes, I want to play ball," replied the boy, but he was not reserving +his Saturday afternoons for games, although, boy-like, that might be his +preference. + +Edward now took on for each Saturday morning--when, of course, there was +no school--the delivery route of a weekly paper called the South +Brooklyn Advocate. He had offered to deliver the entire neighborhood +edition of the paper for one dollar, thus increasing his earning +capacity to two dollars and a half per week. + +Transportation, in those days in Brooklyn, was by horse-cars, and the +car-line on Smith Street nearest Edward's home ran to Coney Island. Just +around the corner where Edward lived the cars stopped to water the +horses on their long haul. The boy noticed that the men jumped from the +open cars in summer, ran into the cigar-store before which the +watering-trough was placed, and got a drink of water from the ice-cooler +placed near the door. But that was not so easily possible for the women, +and they, especially the children, were forced to take the long ride +without a drink. It was this that he had in mind when he reserved his +Saturday afternoon to "play ball." + +Here was an opening, and Edward decided to fill it. He bought a shining +new pail, screwed three hooks on the edge from which he hung three clean +shimmering glasses, and one Saturday afternoon when a car stopped the +boy leaped on, tactfully asked the conductor if he did not want a drink, +and then proceeded to sell his water, cooled with ice, at a cent a glass +to the passengers. A little experience showed that he exhausted a pail +with every two cars, and each pail netted him thirty cents. Of course +Sunday was a most profitable day; and after going to Sunday-school in +the morning, he did a further Sabbath service for the rest of the day by +refreshing tired mothers and thirsty children on the Coney Island +cars--at a penny a glass! + +But the profit of six dollars which Edward was now reaping in his newly +found "bonanza" on Saturday and Sunday afternoons became apparent to +other boys, and one Saturday the young ice-water boy found that he had a +competitor; then two and soon three. Edward immediately met the +challenge; he squeezed half a dozen lemons into each pail of water, +added some sugar, tripled his charge, and continued his monopoly by +selling "Lemonade, three cents a glass." Soon more passengers were +asking for lemonade than for plain drinking-water! + +One evening Edward went to a party of young people, and his latent +journalistic sense whispered to him that his young hostess might like to +see her social affair in print. He went home, wrote up the party, being +careful to include the name of every boy and girl present, and next +morning took the account to the city editor of the Brooklyn Eagle, with +the sage observation that every name mentioned in that paragraph +represented a buyer of the paper, who would like to see his or her name +in print, and that if the editor had enough of these reports he might +very advantageously strengthen the circulation of The Eagle. The editor +was not slow to see the point, and offered Edward three dollars a column +for such reports. On his way home, Edward calculated how many parties he +would have to attend a week to furnish a column, and decided that he +would organize a corps of private reporters himself. Forthwith, he saw +every girl and boy he knew, got each to promise to write for him an +account of each party he or she attended or gave, and laid great stress +on a full recital of names. Within a few weeks, Edward was turning in to +The Eagle from two to three columns a week; his pay was raised to four +dollars a column; the editor was pleased in having started a department +that no other paper carried, and the "among those present" at the +parties all bought the paper and were immensely gratified to see their +names. + +So everybody was happy, and Edward Bok, as a full-fledged reporter, had +begun his journalistic career. + +It is curious how deeply embedded in his nature, even in his earliest +years, was the inclination toward the publishing business. The word +"curious" is used here because Edward is the first journalist in the Bok +family in all the centuries through which it extends in Dutch history. +On his father's side, there was a succession of jurists. On the mother's +side, not a journalist is visible. + +Edward attended the Sunday-school of the Carroll Park Methodist +Episcopal Church, in Brooklyn, of which a Mr. Elkins was superintendent. +One day he learned that Mr. Elkins was associated with the publishing +house of Harper and Brothers. Edward had heard his father speak of +Harper's Weekly and of the great part it had played in the Civil War; +his father also brought home an occasional copy of Harper's Weekly and +of Harper's Magazine. He had seen Harper's Young People; the name of +Harper and Brothers was on some of his school-books; and he pictured in +his mind how wonderful it must be for a man to be associated with +publishers of periodicals that other people read, and books that other +folks studied. The Sunday-school superintendent henceforth became a +figure of importance in Edward's eyes; many a morning the boy hastened +from home long before the hour for school, and seated himself on the +steps of the Elkins house under the pretext of waiting for Mr. Elkins's +son to go to school, but really for the secret purpose of seeing Mr. +Elkins set forth to engage in the momentous business of making books and +periodicals. Edward would look after the superintendent's form until it +was lost to view; then, with a sigh, he would go to school, forgetting +all about the Elkins boy whom he had told the father he had come to call +for! + +One day Edward was introduced to a girl whose father, he learned, was +editor of the New York Weekly. Edward could not quite place this +periodical; he had never seen it, he had never heard of it. So he bought +a copy, and while its contents seemed strange, and its air unfamiliar in +comparison with the magazines he found in his home, still an editor was +an editor. He was certainly well worth knowing. So he sought his newly +made young lady friend, asked permission to call upon her, and to +Edward's joy was introduced to her father. It was enough for Edward to +look furtively at the editor upon his first call, and being encouraged +to come again, he promptly did so the next evening. The daughter has +long since passed away, and so it cannot hurt her feelings now to +acknowledge that for years Edward paid court to her only that he might +know her father, and have those talks with him about editorial methods +that filled him with ever-increasing ambition to tread the path that +leads to editorial tribulations. + +But what with helping his mother, tending the baker's shop in +after-school hours, serving his paper route, plying his street-car +trade, and acting as social reporter, it soon became evident to Edward +that he had not much time to prepare his school lessons. By a supreme +effort, he managed to hold his own in his class, but no more. +Instinctively, he felt that he was not getting all that he might from +his educational opportunities, yet the need for him to add to the family +income was, if anything, becoming greater. The idea of leaving school +was broached to his mother, but she rebelled. She told the boy that he +was earning something now and helping much. Perhaps the tide with the +father would turn and he would find the place to which his unquestioned +talents entitled him. Finally the father did. He associated himself with +the Western Union Telegraph Company as translator, a position for which +his easy command of languages admirably fitted him. Thus, for a time, +the strain upon the family exchequer was lessened. + +But the American spirit of initiative had entered deep into the soul of +Edward Bok. The brother had left school a year before, and found a place +as messenger in a lawyer's office; and when one evening Edward heard his +father say that the office boy in his department had left, he asked that +he be allowed to leave school, apply for the open position, and get the +rest of his education in the great world itself. It was not easy for the +parents to see the younger son leave school at so early an age, but the +earnestness of the boy prevailed. + +And so, at the age of thirteen, Edward Bok left school, and on Monday, +August 7, 1876, he became office boy in the electricians' department of +the Western Union Telegraph Company at six dollars and twenty-five cents +per week. + +And, as such things will fall out in this curiously strange world, it +happened that as Edward drew up his chair for the first time to his desk +to begin his work on that Monday morning, there had been born in Boston, +exactly twelve hours before, a girl-baby who was destined to become his +wife. Thus at the earliest possible moment after her birth, Edward Bok +started to work for her! + + + +III. The Hunger for Self-Education + +With school-days ended, the question of self-education became an +absorbing thought with Edward Bok. He had mastered a schoolboy's +English, but seven years of public-school education was hardly a basis +on which to build the work of a lifetime. He saw each day in his duties +as office boy some of the foremost men of the time. It was the period of +William H. Vanderbilt's ascendancy in Western Union control; and the +railroad millionnaire and his companions, Hamilton McK. Twombly, James +H. Banker, Samuel F. Barger, Alonzo B. Cornell, Augustus Schell, William +Orton, were objects of great interest to the young office boy. Alexander +Graham Bell and Thomas A. Edison were also constant visitors to the +department. He knew that some of these men, too, had been deprived of +the advantage of collegiate training, and yet they had risen to the top. +But how? The boy decided to read about these men and others, and find +out. He could not, however, afford the separate biographies, so he went +to the libraries to find a compendium that would authoritatively tell +him of all successful men. He found it in Appleton's Encyclopedia, and, +determining to have only the best, he saved his luncheon money, walked +instead of riding the five miles to his Brooklyn home, and, after a +period of saving, had his reward in the first purchase from his own +earnings: a set of the Encyclopedia. He now read about all the +successful men, and was encouraged to find that in many cases their +beginnings had been as modest as his own, and their opportunities of +education as limited. + +One day it occurred to him to test the accuracy of the biographies he +was reading. James A. Garfield was then spoken of for the presidency; +Edward wondered whether it was true that the man who was likely to be +President of the United States had once been a boy on the tow-path, and +with a simple directness characteristic of his Dutch training, wrote to +General Garfield, asking whether the boyhood episode was true, and +explaining why he asked. Of course any public man, no matter how large +his correspondence, is pleased to receive an earnest letter from an +information-seeking boy. General Garfield answered warmly and fully. +Edward showed the letter to his father, who told the boy that it was +valuable and he should keep it. This was a new idea. He followed it +further: if one such letter was valuable, how much more valuable would +be a hundred! If General Garfield answered him, would not other famous +men? Why not begin a collection of autograph letters? Everybody +collected something. + +Edward had collected postage-stamps, and the hobby had, incidentally, +helped him wonderfully in his study of geography. Why should not +autograph letters from famous persons be of equal service in his +struggle for self-education? Not simple autographs--they were +meaningless; but actual letters which might tell him something useful. +It never occurred to the boy that these men might not answer him. + +So he took his Encyclopedia--its trustworthiness now established in his +mind by General Garfield's letter--and began to study the lives of +successful men and women. Then, with boyish frankness, he wrote on some +mooted question in one famous person's life; he asked about the date of +some important event in another's, not given in the Encyclopedia; or he +asked one man why he did this or why some other man did that. + +Most interesting were, of course, the replies. Thus General Grant +sketched on an improvised map the exact spot where General Lee +surrendered to him; Longfellow told him how he came to write +"Excelsior"; Whittier told the story of "The Barefoot Boy"; Tennyson +wrote out a stanza or two of "The Brook," upon condition that Edward +would not again use the word "awful," which the poet said "is slang for +'very,'" and "I hate slang." + +One day the boy received a letter from the Confederate general Jubal A. +Early, giving the real reason why he burned Chambersburg. A friend +visiting Edward's father, happening to see the letter, recognized in it +a hitherto-missing bit of history, and suggested that it be published in +the New York Tribune. The letter attracted wide attention and provoked +national discussion. + +This suggested to the editor of The Tribune that Edward might have other +equally interesting letters; so he despatched a reporter to the boy's +home. This reporter was Ripley Hitchcock, who afterward became literary +adviser for the Appletons and Harpers. Of course Hitchcock at once saw a +"story" in the boy's letters, and within a few days The Tribune appeared +with a long article on its principal news page giving an account of the +Brooklyn boy's remarkable letters and how he had secured them. The +Brooklyn Eagle quickly followed with a request for an interview; the +Boston Globe followed suit; the Philadelphia Public Ledger sent its New +York correspondent; and before Edward was aware of it, newspapers in +different parts of the country were writing about "the well-known +Brooklyn autograph collector." + +Edward Bok was quick to see the value of the publicity which had so +suddenly come to him. He received letters from other autograph +collectors all over the country who sought to "exchange" with him. +References began to creep into letters from famous persons to whom he +had written, saying they had read about his wonderful collection and +were proud to be included in it. George W. Childs, of Philadelphia, +himself the possessor of probably one of the finest collections of +autograph letters in the country, asked Edward to come to Philadelphia +and bring his collection with him--which he did, on the following +Sunday, and brought it back greatly enriched. + +Several of the writers felt an interest in a boy who frankly told them +that he wanted to educate himself, and asked Edward to come and see +them. Accordingly, when they lived in New York or Brooklyn, or came to +these cities on a visit, he was quick to avail himself of their +invitations. He began to note each day in the newspapers the +"distinguished arrivals" at the New York hotels; and when any one with +whom he had corresponded arrived, Edward would, after business hours, go +up-town, pay his respects, and thank him in person for his letters. No +person was too high for Edward's boyish approach; President Garfield, +General Grant, General Sherman, President Hayes--all were called upon, +and all received the boy graciously and were interested in the problem +of his self-education. It was a veritable case of making friends on +every hand; friends who were to be of the greatest help and value to the +boy in his after-years, although he had no conception of it at the time. + +The Fifth Avenue Hotel, in those days the stopping-place of the majority +of the famous men and women visiting New York, represented to the young +boy who came to see these celebrities the very pinnacle of opulence. +Often while waiting to be received by some dignitary, he wondered how +one could acquire enough means to live at a place of such luxury. The +main dining-room, to the boy's mind, was an object of special interest. +He would purposely sneak up-stairs and sit on one of the soft sofas in +the foyer simply to see the well-dressed diners go in and come out. +Edward would speculate on whether the time would ever come when he could +dine in that wonderful room just once! + +One evening he called, after the close of business, upon General and +Mrs. Grant, whom he had met before, and who had expressed a desire to +see his collection. It can readily be imagined what a red-letter day it +made in the boy's life to have General Grant say: "It might be better +for us all to go down to dinner first and see the collection afterward." +Edward had purposely killed time between five and seven o'clock, +thinking that the general's dinner-hour, like his own, was at six. He +had allowed an hour for the general to eat his dinner, only to find that +he was still to begin it. The boy could hardly believe his ears, and +unable to find his voice, he failed to apologize for his modest suit or +his general after-business appearance. + +As in a dream he went down in the elevator with his host and hostess, +and when the party of three faced toward the dining-room entrance, so +familiar to the boy, he felt as if his legs must give way under him. +There have since been other red-letter days in Edward Bok's life, but +the moment that still stands out preeminent is that when two colored +head waiters at the dining-room entrance, whom he had so often watched, +bowed low and escorted the party to their table. At last, he was in that +sumptuous dining-hall. The entire room took on the picture of one great +eye, and that eye centred on the party of three--as, in fact, it +naturally would. But Edward felt that the eye was on him, wondering why +he should be there. + +What he ate and what he said he does not recall. General Grant, not a +voluble talker himself, gently drew the boy out, and Mrs. Grant seconded +him, until toward the close of the dinner he heard himself talking. He +remembers that he heard his voice, but what that voice said is all dim +to him. One act stamped itself on his mind. The dinner ended with a +wonderful dish of nuts and raisins, and just before the party rose from +the table Mrs. Grant asked the waiter to bring her a paper bag. Into +this she emptied the entire dish, and at the close of the evening she +gave it to Edward "to eat on the way home." It was a wonderful evening, +afterward up-stairs, General Grant smoking the inevitable cigar, and +telling stories as he read the letters of different celebrities. Over +those of Confederate generals he grew reminiscent; and when he came to a +letter from General Sherman, Edward remembers that he chuckled audibly, +reread it, and then turning to Mrs. Grant, said: "Julia, listen to this +from Sherman. Not bad." The letter he read was this: + +"Dear Mr. Bok:-- + +"I prefer not to make scraps of sentimental writing. When I write +anything I want it to be real and connected in form, as, for +instance, in your quotation from Lord Lytton's play of +'Richelieu,' 'The pen is mightier than the sword.' Lord Lytton +would never have put his signature to so naked a sentiment. +Surely I will not. + +"In the text there was a prefix or qualification: + + "Beneath the rule of men entirely great + The pen is mightier than the sword. + +"Now, this world does not often present the condition of facts +herein described. Men entirely great are very rare indeed, +and even Washington, who approached greatness as near as any +mortal, found good use for the sword and the pen, each in its +proper sphere. + +"You and I have seen the day when a great and good man ruled this +country (Lincoln) who wielded a powerful and prolific pen, and +yet had to call to his assistance a million of flaming swords. + +"No, I cannot subscribe to your sentiment, 'The pen is mightier +than the sword,' which you ask me to write, because it is not true. + +"Rather, in the providence of God, there is a time for all things; +a time when the sword may cut the Gordian knot, and set free the +principles of right and justice, bound up in the meshes of hatred, +revenge, and tyranny, that the pens of mighty men like Clay, +Webster, Crittenden, and Lincoln were unable to disentangle. + +"Wishing you all success, I am, with respect, your friend, + +"W. T. Sherman." + +Mrs. Grant had asked Edward to send her a photograph of himself, and +after one had been taken, the boy took it to the Fifth Avenue Hotel, +intending to ask the clerk to send it to her room. Instead, he met +General and Mrs. Grant just coming from the elevator, going out to +dinner. The boy told them his errand, and said he would have the +photograph sent up-stairs. + +"I am so sorry we are just going out to dinner," said Mrs. Grant, "for +the general had some excellent photographs just taken of himself, and he +signed one for you, and put it aside, intending to send it to you when +yours came." Then, turning to the general, she said: "Ulysses, send up +for it. We have a few moments." + +"I'll go and get it. I know just where it is," returned the general. +"Let me have yours," he said, turning to Edward. "I am glad to exchange +photographs with you, boy." + +To Edward's surprise, when the general returned he brought with him, not +a duplicate of the small carte-de-visite size which he had given the +general--all that he could afford--but a large, full cabinet size. + +"They make 'em too big," said the general, as he handed it to Edward. + +But the boy didn't think so! + +That evening was one that the boy was long to remember. It suddenly came +to him that he had read a few days before of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln's +arrival in New York at Doctor Holbrook's sanitarium. Thither Edward +went; and within half an hour from the time he had been talking with +General Grant he was sitting at the bedside of Mrs. Lincoln, showing her +the wonderful photograph just presented to him. Edward saw that the +widow of the great Lincoln did not mentally respond to his pleasure in +his possession. It was apparent even to the boy that mental and physical +illness had done their work with the frail frame. But he had the memory, +at least, of having got that close to the great President. + + Mrs. Abraham Lincoln, October 13th 1881 + +The eventful evening, however, was not yet over. Edward had boarded a +Broadway stage to take him to his Brooklyn home when, glancing at the +newspaper of a man sitting next to him, he saw the headline: "Jefferson +Davis arrives in New York." He read enough to see that the Confederate +President was stopping at the Metropolitan Hotel, in lower Broadway, and +as he looked out of the stage-window the sign "Metropolitan Hotel" +stared him in the face. In a moment he was out of the stage; he wrote a +little note, asked the clerk to send it to Mr. Davis, and within five +minutes was talking to the Confederate President and telling of his +remarkable evening. + +Mr. Davis was keenly interested in the coincidence and in the boy before +him. He asked about the famous collection, and promised to secure for +Edward a letter written by each member of the Confederate Cabinet. This +he subsequently did. Edward remained with Mr. Davis until ten o'clock, +and that evening brought about an interchange of letters between the +Brooklyn boy and Mr. Davis at Beauvoir, Mississippi, that lasted until +the latter passed away. + +Edward was fast absorbing a tremendous quantity of biographical +information about the most famous men and women of his time, and he was +compiling a collection of autograph letters that the newspapers had made +famous throughout the country. He was ruminating over his possessions +one day, and wondering to what practical use he could put his +collection; for while it was proving educative to a wonderful degree, it +was, after all, a hobby, and a hobby means expense. His autograph quest +cost him stationery, postage, car-fare--all outgo. But it had brought +him no income, save a rich mental revenue. And the boy and his family +needed money. He did not know, then, the value of a background. + +He was thinking along this line in a restaurant when a man sitting next +to him opened a box of cigarettes, and taking a picture out of it threw +it on the floor. Edward picked it up, thinking it might be a "prospect" +for his collection of autograph letters. It was the picture of a +well-known actress. He then recalled an advertisement announcing that +this particular brand of cigarettes contained, in each package, a +lithographed portrait of some famous actor or actress, and that if the +purchaser would collect these he would, in the end, have a valuable +album of the greatest actors and actresses of the day. Edward turned the +picture over, only to find a blank reverse side. "All very well," he +thought, "but what does a purchaser have, after all, in the end, but a +lot of pictures? Why don't they use the back of each picture, and tell +what each did: a little biography? Then it would be worth keeping." With +his passion for self-education, the idea appealed very strongly to him; +and believing firmly that there were others possessed of the same +thirst, he set out the next day, in his luncheon hour, to find out who +made the picture. + +At the office of the cigarette company he learned that the making of the +pictures was in the hands of the Knapp Lithographic Company. The +following luncheon hour, Edward sought the offices of the company, and +explained his idea to Mr. Joseph P. Knapp, now the president of the +American Lithograph Company. + +"I'll give you ten dollars apiece if you will write me a +one-hundred-word biography of one hundred famous Americans," was Mr. +Knapp's instant reply. "Send me a list, and group them, as, for +instance: presidents and vice-presidents, famous soldiers, actors, +authors, etc." + +"And thus," says Mr. Knapp, as he tells the tale today, "I gave Edward +Bok his first literary commission, and started him off on his literary +career." + +And it is true. + +But Edward soon found the Lithograph Company calling for "copy," and, +write as he might, he could not supply the biographies fast enough. He, +at last, completed the first hundred, and so instantaneous was their +success that Mr. Knapp called for a second hundred, and then for a +third. Finding that one hand was not equal to the task, Edward offered +his brother five dollars for each biography; he made the same offer to +one or two journalists whom he knew and whose accuracy he could trust; +and he was speedily convinced that merely to edit biographies written by +others, at one-half the price paid to him, was more profitable than to +write himself. + +So with five journalists working at top speed to supply the hungry +lithograph presses, Mr. Knapp was likewise responsible for Edward Bok's +first adventure as an editor. It was commercial, if you will, but it was +a commercial editing that had a distinct educational value to a large +public. + +The important point is that Edward Bok was being led more and more to +writing and to editorship. + + + +IV. A Presidential Friend and a Boston Pilgrimage + +Edward Bok had not been office boy long before he realized that if he +learned shorthand he would stand a better chance for advancement. So he +joined the Young Men's Christian Association in Brooklyn, and entered +the class in stenography. But as this class met only twice a week, +Edward, impatient to learn the art of "pothooks" as quickly as possible, +supplemented this instruction by a course given on two other evenings at +moderate cost by a Brooklyn business college. As the system taught in +both classes was the same, more rapid progress was possible, and the two +teachers were constantly surprised that he acquired the art so much more +quickly than the other students. + +Before many weeks Edward could "stenograph" fairly well, and as the +typewriter had not then come into its own, he was ready to put his +knowledge to practical use. + +An opportunity offered itself when the city editor of the Brooklyn Eagle +asked him to report two speeches at a New England Society dinner. The +speakers were to be the President of the United States, General Grant, +General Sherman, Mr. Evarts, and General Sheridan. Edward was to report +what General Grant and the President said, and was instructed to give +the President's speech verbatim. + +At the close of the dinner, the reporters came in and Edward was seated +directly in front of the President. In those days when a public dinner +included several kinds of wine, it was the custom to serve the reporters +with wine, and as the glasses were placed before Edward's plate he +realized that he had to make a decision then and there. He had, of +course, constantly seen wine on his father's table, as is the European +custom, but the boy had never tasted it. He decided he would not begin +then, when he needed a clear head. So, in order to get more room for his +note-book, he asked the waiter to remove the glasses. + +It was the first time he had ever attempted to report a public address. +General Grant's remarks were few, as usual, and as he spoke slowly, he +gave the young reporter no trouble. But alas for his stenographic +knowledge, when President Hayes began to speak! Edward worked hard, but +the President was too rapid for him; he did not get the speech, and he +noticed that the reporters for the other papers fared no better. Nothing +daunted, however, after the speechmaking, Edward resolutely sought the +President, and as the latter turned to him, he told him his plight, +explained it was his first important "assignment," and asked if he could +possibly be given a copy of the speech so that he could "beat" the other +papers. + +The President looked at him curiously for a moment, and then said: "Can +you wait a few minutes?" + +Edward assured him that he could. + +After fifteen minutes or so the President came up to where the boy was +waiting, and said abruptly: + +"Tell me, my boy, why did you have the wine-glasses removed from your +place?" + +Edward was completely taken aback at the question, but he explained his +resolution as well as he could. + +"Did you make that decision this evening?" the President asked. + +He had. + +"What is your name?" the President next inquired. + +He was told. + +"And you live, where?" + +Edward told him. + +"Suppose you write your name and address on this card for me," said the +President, reaching for one of the place-cards on the table. + +The boy did so. + +"Now, I am stopping with Mr. A. A. Low, on Columbia Heights. Is that in +the direction of your home?" + +It was. + +"Suppose you go with me, then, in my carriage," said the President, "and +I will give you my speech." + +Edward was not quite sure now whether he was on his head or his feet. + +As he drove along with the President and his host, the President asked +the boy about himself, what he was doing, etc. On arriving at Mr. Low's +house, the President went up-stairs, and in a few moments came down with +his speech in full, written in his own hand. Edward assured him he would +copy it, and return the manuscript in the morning. + +The President took out his watch. It was then after midnight. Musing a +moment, he said: "You say you are an office boy; what time must you be +at your office?" + +"Half past eight, sir." + +"Well, good night," he said, and then, as if it were a second thought: +"By the way, I can get another copy of the speech. Just turn that in as +it is, if they can read it." + +Afterward, Edward found out that, as a matter of fact, it was the +President's only copy. Though the boy did not then appreciate this act +of consideration, his instinct fortunately led him to copy the speech +and leave the original at the President's stopping-place in the morning. + +And for all his trouble, the young reporter was amply repaid by seeing +that The Eagle was the only paper which had a verbatim report of the +President's speech. + +But the day was not yet done! + +That evening, upon reaching home, what was the boy's astonishment to +find the following note: + +MY DEAR YOUNG FRIEND:-- + +I have been telling Mrs. Hayes this morning of what you told me at the +dinner last evening, and she was very much interested. She would like to +see you, and joins me in asking if you will call upon us this evening at +eight-thirty. + +Very faithfully yours, + +RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. + +Edward had not risen to the possession of a suit of evening clothes, and +distinctly felt its lack for this occasion. But, dressed in the best he +had, he set out, at eight o'clock, to call on the President of the +United States and his wife! + +He had no sooner handed his card to the butler than that dignitary, +looking at it, announced: "The President and Mrs. Hayes are waiting for +you!" The ring of those magic words still sounds in Edward's ears: "The +President and Mrs. Hayes are waiting for you!"--and he a boy of sixteen! + +Edward had not been in the room ten minutes before he was made to feel +as thoroughly at ease as if he were sitting in his own home before an +open fire with his father and mother. Skilfully the President drew from +him the story of his youthful hopes and ambitions, and before the boy +knew it he was telling the President and his wife all about his precious +Encyclopedia, his evening with General Grant, and his efforts to become +something more than an office boy. No boy had ever so gracious a +listener before; no mother could have been more tenderly motherly than +the woman who sat opposite him and seemed so honestly interested in all +that he told. Not for a moment during all those two hours was he allowed +to remember that his host and hostess were the President of the United +States and the first lady of the land! + +That evening was the first of many thus spent as the years rolled by; +unexpected little courtesies came from the White House, and later from +"Spiegel Grove"; a constant and unflagging interest followed each +undertaking on which the boy embarked. Opportunities were opened to him; +acquaintances were made possible; a letter came almost every month until +that last little note, late in 1892. + + My Dear Friend: + + I would write you more fully + if I could. You are always thoughtful + & kind. + + Thankfully your friend + Rutherford B. Hayes + + Thanks--Thanks for your steady friendship. + +The simple act of turning down his wine-glasses had won for Edward Bok +two gracious friends. + +The passion for autograph collecting was now leading Edward to read the +authors whom he read about. He had become attached to the works of the +New England group: Longfellow, Holmes, and, particularly, of Emerson. +The philosophy of the Concord sage made a peculiarly strong appeal to +the young mind, and a small copy of Emerson's essays was always in +Edward's pocket on his long stage or horse-car rides to his office and +back. + +He noticed that these New England authors rarely visited New York, or, +if they did, their presence was not heralded by the newspapers among the +"distinguished arrivals." He had a great desire personally to meet these +writers; and, having saved a little money, he decided to take his week's +summer vacation in the winter, when he knew he should be more likely to +find the people of his quest at home, and to spend his savings on a trip +to Boston. He had never been away from home, so this trip was a +momentous affair. + +He arrived in Boston on Sunday evening; and the first thing he did was +to despatch a note, by messenger, to Doctor Oliver Wendell Holmes, +announcing the important fact that he was there, and what his errand +was, and asking whether he might come up and see Doctor Holmes any time +the next day. Edward naively told him that he could come as early as +Doctor Holmes liked--by breakfast-time, he was assured, as Edward was +all alone! Doctor Holmes's amusement at this ingenuous note may be +imagined. + +Within the hour the boy brought back this answer: + + MY DEAR BOY: + + I shall certainly look for you to-morrow morning at eight + o'clock to have a piece of pie with me. That is real New + England, you know. + + Very cordially yours, + + OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES." + +Edward was there at eight o'clock. Strictly speaking, he was there at +seven-thirty, and found the author already at his desk in that room +overlooking the Charles River, which he learned in after years to know +better. + +"Well," was the cheery greeting, "you couldn't wait until eight for your +breakfast, could you? Neither could I when I was a boy. I used to have +my breakfast at seven," and then telling the boy all about his boyhood, +the cheery poet led him to the dining-room, and for the first time he +breakfasted away from home and ate pie--and that with "The Autocrat" at +his own breakfast-table! + +A cosier time no boy could have had. Just the two were there, and the +smiling face that looked out over the plates and cups gave the boy +courage to tell all that this trip was going to mean to him. + +"And you have come on just to see us, have you?" chuckled the poet. +"Now, tell me, what good do you think you will get out of it?" + +He was told what the idea was: that every successful man had something +to tell a boy, that would be likely to help him, and that Edward wanted +to see the men who had written the books that people enjoyed. Doctor +Holmes could not conceal his amusement at all this. + +When breakfast was finished, Doctor Holmes said: "Do you know that I am +a full-fledged carpenter? No? Well, I am. Come into my carpenter-shop." + +And he led the way into a front-basement room where was a complete +carpenter's outfit. + +"You know I am a doctor," he explained, "and this shop is my medicine. I +believe that every man must have a hobby that is as different from his +regular work as it is possible to be. It is not good for a man to work +all the time at one thing. So this is my hobby. This is my change. I +like to putter away at these things. Every day I try to come down here +for an hour or so. It rests me because it gives my mind a complete +change. For, whether you believe it or not," he added with his +inimitable chuckle, "to make a poem and to make a chair are two very +different things." + +"Now," he continued, "if you think you can learn something from me, +learn that and remember it when you are a man. Don't keep always at your +business, whatever it may be. It makes no difference how much you like +it. The more you like it, the more dangerous it is. When you grow up you +will understand what I mean by an 'outlet'--a hobby, that is--in your +life, and it must be so different from your regular work that it will +take your thoughts into an entirely different direction. We doctors call +it a safety-valve, and it is. I would much rather," concluded the poet, +"you would forget all that I have ever written than that you should +forget what I tell you about having a safety-valve." + +"And now do you know," smilingly said the poet, "about the Charles River +here?" as they returned to his study and stood before the large bay +window. "I love this river," he said. "Yes, I love it," he repeated; +"love it in summer or in winter." And then he was quiet for a minute or +so. + +Edward asked him which of his poems were his favorites. + +"Well," he said musingly, "I think 'The Chambered Nautilus' is my most +finished piece of work, and I suppose it is my favorite. But there are +also 'The Voiceless,' 'My Aviary,' written at this window, 'The Battle +of Bunker Hill,' and 'Dorothy Q,' written to the portrait of my +great-grandmother which you see on the wall there. All these I have a +liking for, and when I speak of the poems I like best there are two +others that ought to be included--'The Silent Melody' and 'The Last +Leaf.' I think these are among my best." + +"What is the history of 'The Chambered Nautilus'?" Edward asked. + +"It has none," came the reply, "it wrote itself. So, too, did 'The +One-Hoss Shay.' That was one of those random conceptions that gallop +through the brain, and that you catch by the bridle. I caught it and +reined it. That is all." + +Just then a maid brought in a parcel, and as Doctor Holmes opened it on +his desk he smiled over at the boy and said: + +"Well, I declare, if you haven't come just at the right time. See those +little books? Aren't they wee?" and he handed the boy a set of three +little books, six inches by four in size, beautifully bound in half +levant. They were his "Autocrat" in one volume, and his better-known +poems in two volumes. + +"This is a little fancy of mine," he said. "My publishers, to please me, +have gotten out this tiny wee set. And here," as he counted the little +sets, "they have sent me six sets. Are they not exquisite little +things?" and he fondled them with loving glee. "Lucky, too, for me that +they should happen to come now, for I have been wondering what I could +give you as a souvenir of your visit to me, and here it is, sure enough! +My publishers must have guessed you were here and my mind at the same +time. Now, if you would like it, you shall carry home one of these +little sets, and I'll just write a piece from one of my poems and your +name on the fly-leaf of each volume. You say you like that little verse: + +"'A few can touch the magic string.' + +Then I'll write those four lines in this volume." And he did. + +As each little volume went under the poet's pen Edward said, as his +heart swelled in gratitude: + +"Doctor Holmes, you are a man of the rarest sort to be so good to a +boy." + + A few can touch the magic string. + And noisy fame is proud to win them, -- + Alas for those who never sing. + But die with all their music in them! + Oliver Wendell Holmes + +The pen stopped, the poet looked out on the Charles a moment, and then, +turning to the boy with a little moisture in his eye, he said: + +"No, my boy, I am not; but it does an old man's heart good to hear you +say it. It means much to those on the down-hill side to be well thought +of by the young who are coming up." + +As he wiped his gold pen, with its swan-quill holder, and laid it down, +he said: + +"That's the pen with which I wrote 'Elsie Venner' and the 'Autocrat' +papers. I try to take care of it." + +"You say you are going from me over to see Longfellow?" he continued, as +he reached out once more for the pen. "Well, then, would you mind if I +gave you a letter for him? I have something to send him." + +Sly but kindly old gentleman! The "something" he had to send Longfellow +was Edward himself, although the boy did not see through the subterfuge +at that time. + +"And now, if you are going, I'll walk along with you if you don't mind, +for I'm going down to Park Street to thank my publishers for these +little books, and that lies along your way to the Cambridge car." + +As the two walked along Beacon Street, Doctor Holmes pointed out the +residences where lived people of interest, and when they reached the +Public Garden he said: + +"You must come over in the spring some time, and see the tulips and +croci and hyacinths here. They are so beautiful. + +"Now, here is your car," he said as he hailed a coming horse-car. +"Before you go back you must come and see me and tell me all the people +you have seen; will you? I should like to hear about them. I may not +have more books coming in, but I might have a very good-looking +photograph of a very old-looking little man," he said as his eyes +twinkled. "Give my love to Longfellow when you see him, and don't forget +to give him my letter, you know. It is about a very important matter." + +And when the boy had ridden a mile or so with his fare in his hand he +held it out to the conductor, who grinned and said: + +"That's all right. Doctor Holmes paid me your fare, and I'm going to +keep that nickel if I lose my job for it." + + + +V. Going to the Theatre with Longfellow + +When Edward Bok stood before the home of Longfellow, he realized that he +was to see the man around whose head the boy's youthful reading had cast +a sort of halo. And when he saw the head itself he had a feeling that he +could see the halo. No kindlier pair of eyes ever looked at a boy, as, +with a smile, "the white Mr. Longfellow," as Mr. Howells had called him, +held out his hand. + +"I am very glad to see you, my boy," were his first words, and with them +he won the boy. Edward smiled back at the poet, and immediately the two +were friends. + +"I have been taking a walk this beautiful morning," he said next, "and +am a little late getting at my mail. Suppose you come in and sit at my +desk with me, and we will see what the postman has brought. He brings me +so many good things, you know." + +"Now, here is a little girl," he said, as he sat down at the desk with +the boy beside him, "who wants my autograph and a 'sentiment.' What +sentiment, I wonder, shall I send her?" + +"Why not send her 'Let us, then, be up and doing'?" suggested the boy. +"That's what I should like if I were she." + +"Should you, indeed?" said Longfellow. "That is a good suggestion. Now, +suppose you recite it off to me, so that I shall not have to look it up +in my books, and I will write as you recite. But slowly; you know I am +an old man, and write slowly." + +Edward thought it strange that Longfellow himself should not know his +own great words without looking them up. But he recited the four lines, +so familiar to every schoolboy, and when the poet had finished writing +them, he said: + +"Good! I see you have a memory. Now, suppose I copy these lines once +more for the little girl, and give you this copy? Then you can say, you +know, that you dictated my own poetry to me." + +Of course Edward was delighted, and Longfellow gave him the sheet as it +is here: + + Let us, then, be up and doing, + with a heart for any fate, + Still achieving, still pursuing, + Learn to labor and to wait. + Henry W. Longfellow + +Then, as the fine head bent down to copy the lines once more, Edward +ventured to say to him: + +"I should think it would keep you busy if you did this for every one who +asked you." + +"Well," said the poet, "you see, I am not so busy a man as I was some +years ago, and I shouldn't like to disappoint a little girl; should +you?" + +As he took up his letters again, he discovered five more requests for +his autograph. At each one he reached into a drawer in his desk, took a +card, and wrote his name on it. + +"There are a good many of these every day," said Longfellow, "but I +always like to do this little favor. It is so little to do, to write +your name on a card; and if I didn't do it some boy or girl might be +looking, day by day, for the postman and be disappointed. I only wish I +could write my name better for them. You see how I break my letters? +That's because I never took pains with my writing when I was a boy. I +don't think I should get a high mark for penmanship if I were at school, +do you?" + +"I see you get letters from Europe," said the boy, as Longfellow opened +an envelope with a foreign stamp on it. + +"Yes, from all over the world," said the poet. Then, looking at the boy +quickly, he said: "Do you collect postage-stamps?" + +Edward said he did. + +"Well, I have some right here, then," and going to a drawer in a desk he +took out a bundle of letters, and cut out the postage-stamps and gave +them to the boy. + +"There's one from the Netherlands. There's where I was born," Edward +ventured to say. + +"In the Netherlands? Then you are a real Dutchman. Well! Well!" he said, +laying down his pen. "Can you read Dutch?" + +The boy said he could. + +"Then," said the poet, "you are just the boy I am looking for." And +going to a bookcase behind him he brought out a book, and handing it to +the boy, he said, his eyes laughing: "Can you read that?" + +It was an edition of Longfellow's poems in Dutch. + +"Yes, indeed," said Edward. "These are your poems in Dutch." + +"That's right," he said. "Now, this is delightful. I am so glad you +came. I received this book last week, and although I have been in the +Netherlands, I cannot speak or read Dutch. I wonder whether you would +read a poem to me and let me hear how it sounds." + +So Edward took "The Old Clock on the Stairs," and read it to him. + +The poet's face beamed with delight. "That's beautiful," he said, and +then quickly added: "I mean the language, not the poem." + +"Now," he went on, "I'll tell you what we'll do: we'll strike a bargain. +We Yankees are great for bargains, you know. If you will read me 'The +Village Blacksmith' you can sit in that chair there made out of the wood +of the old spreading chestnut-tree, and I'll take you out and show you +where the old shop stood. Is that a bargain?" + +Edward assured him it was. He sat in the chair of wood and leather, and +read to the poet several of his own poems in a language in which, when +he wrote them, he never dreamed they would ever be printed. He was very +quiet. Finally he said: "It seems so odd, so very odd, to hear something +you know so well sound so strange." + +"It's a great compliment, though, isn't it, sir?" asked the boy. + +"Ye-es," said the poet slowly. "Yes, yes," he added quickly. "It is, my +boy, a very great compliment." + +"Ah," he said, rousing himself, as a maid appeared, "that means +luncheon, or rather," he added, "it means dinner, for we have dinner in +the old New England fashion, in the middle of the day. I am all alone +today, and you must keep me company; will you? Then afterward we'll go +and take a walk, and I'll show you Cambridge. It is such a beautiful old +town, even more beautiful, I sometimes think, when the leaves are off +the trees. + +"Come," he said, "I'll take you up-stairs, and you can wash your hands +in the room where George Washington slept. And comb your hair, too, if +you want to," he added; "only it isn't the same comb that he used." + +To the boyish mind it was an historic breaking of bread, that midday +meal with Longfellow. + +"Can you say grace in Dutch?" he asked, as they sat down; and the boy +did. + +"Well," the poet declared, "I never expected to hear that at my table. I +like the sound of it." + +Then while the boy told all that he knew about the Netherlands, the poet +told the boy all about his poems. Edward said he liked "Hiawatha." + +"So do I," he said. "But I think I like 'Evangeline' better. Still," he +added, "neither one is as good as it should be. But those are the things +you see afterward so much better than you do at the time." + +It was a great event for Edward when, with the poet nodding and smiling +to every boy and man he met, and lifting his hat to every woman and +little girl, he walked through the fine old streets of Cambridge with +Longfellow. At one point of the walk they came to a theatrical +bill-board announcing an attraction that evening at the Boston Theatre. +Skilfully the old poet drew out from Edward that sometimes he went to +the theatre with his parents. As they returned to the gate of "Craigie +House" Edward said he thought he would go back to Boston. + +"And what have you on hand for this evening?" asked Longfellow. + +Edward told him he was going to his hotel to think over the day's +events. + +The poet laughed and said: + +"Now, listen to my plan. Boston is strange to you. Now we're going to +the theatre this evening, and my plan is that you come in now, have a +little supper with us, and then go with us to see the play. It is a +funny play, and a good laugh will do you more good than to sit in a +hotel all by yourself. Now, what do you think?" + +Of course the boy thought as Longfellow did, and it was a very happy boy +that evening who, in full view of the large audience in the immense +theatre, sat in that box. It was, as Longfellow had said, a play of +laughter, and just who laughed louder, the poet or the boy, neither ever +knew. + +Between the acts there came into the box a man of courtly presence, +dignified and yet gently courteous. + +"Ah! Phillips," said the poet, "how are you? You must know my young +friend here. This is Wendell Phillips, my boy. Here is a young man who +told me to-day that he was going to call on you and on Phillips Brooks +to-morrow. Now you know him before he comes to you." + +"I shall be glad to see you, my boy," said Mr. Phillips. "And so you are +going to see Phillips Brooks? Let me tell you something about Brooks. He +has a great many books in his library which are full of his marks and +comments. Now, when you go to see him you ask him to let you see some of +those books, and then, when he isn't looking, you put a couple of them +in your pocket. They would make splendid souvenirs, and he has so many +he would never miss them. You do it, and then when you come to see me +tell me all about it." + +And he and Longfellow smiled broadly. + +An hour later, when Longfellow dropped Edward at his hotel, he had not +only a wonderful day to think over but another wonderful day to look +forward to as well! + +He had breakfasted with Oliver Wendell Holmes; dined, supped, and been +to the theatre with Longfellow; and to-morrow he was to spend with +Phillips Brooks. + +Boston was a great place, Edward Bok thought, as he fell asleep. + + + +VI. Phillips Brooks's Books and Emerson's Mental Mist + +No one who called at Phillips Brooks's house was ever told that the +master of the house was out when he was in. That was a rule laid down by +Doctor Brooks: a maid was not to perjure herself for her master's +comfort or convenience. Therefore, when Edward was told that Doctor +Brooks was out, he knew he was out. The boy waited, and as he waited he +had a chance to look around the library and into the books. The rector's +faithful housekeeper said he might when he repeated what Wendell +Phillips had told him of the interest that was to be found in her +master's books. Edward did not tell her of Mr. Phillips's advice to +"borrow" a couple of books. He reserved that bit of information for the +rector of Trinity when he came in, an hour later. + +"Oh! did he?" laughingly said Doctor Brooks. "That is nice advice for a +man to give a boy. I am surprised at Wendell Phillips. He needs a little +talk: a ministerial visit. And have you followed his shameless advice?" +smilingly asked the huge man as he towered above the boy. "No? And to +think of the opportunity you had, too. Well, I am glad you had such +respect for my dumb friends. For they are my friends, each one of them," +he continued, as he looked fondly at the filled shelves. "Yes, I know +them all, and love each for its own sake. Take this little volume," and +he picked up a little volume of Shakespeare. "Why, we are the best of +friends: we have travelled miles together--all over the world, as a +matter of fact. It knows me in all my moods, and responds to each, no +matter how irritable I am. Yes, it is pretty badly marked up now, for a +fact, isn't it? Black; I never thought of that before that it doesn't +make a book look any better to the eye. But it means more to me because +of all that pencilling. + +"Now, some folks dislike my use of my books in this way. They love their +books so much that they think it nothing short of sacrilege to mark up a +book. But to me that's like having a child so prettily dressed that you +can't romp and play with it. What is the good of a book, I say, if it is +too pretty for use? I like to have my books speak to me, and then I like +to talk back to them. + +"Take my Bible, here," he continued, as he took up an old and much-worn +copy of the book. "I have a number of copies of the Great Book: one copy +I preach from; another I minister from; but this is my own personal +copy, and into it I talk and talk. See how I talk," and he opened the +Book and showed interleaved pages full of comments in his handwriting. +"There's where St. Paul and I had an argument one day. Yes, it was a +long argument, and I don't know now who won," he added smilingly. "But +then, no one ever wins in an argument, anyway; do you think so? + +"You see," went on the preacher, "I put into these books what other men +put into articles and essays for magazines and papers. I never write for +publications. I always think of my church when something comes to me to +say. There is always danger of a man spreading himself out thin if he +attempts too much, you know." + +Doctor Brooks must have caught the boy's eye, which, as he said this, +naturally surveyed his great frame, for he regarded him in an amused +way, and putting his hands on his girth, he said laughingly: "You are +thinking I would have to do a great deal to spread myself out thin, +aren't you?" + +The boy confessed he was, and the preacher laughed one of those deep +laughs of his that were so infectious. + +"But here I am talking about myself. Tell me something about yourself?" + +And when the boy told his object in coming to Boston, the rector of +Trinity Church was immensely amused. + +"Just to see us fellows! Well, and how do you like us so far?" + +And is the most comfortable way this true gentleman went on until the +boy mentioned that he must be keeping him from his work. + +"Not at all; not at all," was the quick and hearty response. "Not a +thing to do. I cleaned up all my mail before I had my breakfast this +morning. + +"These letters, you mean?" he said, as the boy pointed to some letters +on his desk unopened. "Oh, yes! Well, they must have come in a later +mail. Well, if it will make you feel any better I'll go through them, +and you can go through my books if you like. I'll trust you," he added +laughingly, as Wendell Phillips's advice occurred to him. + +"You like books, you say?" he went on, as he opened his letters. "Well, +then, you must come into my library here at any time you are in Boston, +and spend a morning reading anything I have that you like. Young men do +that, you know, and I like to have them. What's the use of good friends +if you don't share them? There's where the pleasure comes in." + +He asked the boy then about his newspaper work: how much it paid him, +and whether he felt it helped him in an educational way. The boy told +him he thought it did; that it furnished good lessons in the study of +human nature. + +"Yes," he said, "I can believe that, so long as it is good journalism." + +Edward told him that he sometimes wrote for the Sunday paper, and asked +the preacher what he thought of that. + +"Well," he said, "that is not a crime." + +The boy asked him if he, then, favored the Sunday paper more than did +some other clergymen. + +"There is always good in everything, I think," replied Phillips Brooks. +"A thing must be pretty bad that hasn't some good in it." Then he +stopped, and after a moment went on: "My idea is that the fate of Sunday +newspapers rests very much with Sunday editors. There is a Sunday +newspaper conceivable in which we should all rejoice--all, that is, who +do not hold that a Sunday newspaper is always and per se wrong. But some +cause has, in many instances, brought it about that the Sunday paper is +below, and not above, the standard of its weekday brethren. I mean it is +apt to be more gossipy, more personal, more sensational, more frivolous; +less serious and thoughtful and suggestive. Taking for granted the fact +of special leisure on the part of its readers, it is apt to appeal to +the lower and not to the higher part of them, which the Sunday leisure +has set free. Let the Sunday newspaper be worthy of the day, and the day +will not reject it. So I say its fate is in the hands of its editor. He +can give it such a character as will make all good men its champions and +friends, or he can preserve for it the suspicion and dislike in which it +stands at present." + +Edward's journalistic instinct here got into full play; and although, as +he assured his host, he had had no such thought in coming, he asked +whether Doctor Brooks would object if he tried his reportorial wings by +experimenting as to whether he could report the talk. + +"I do not like the papers to talk about me," was the answer; "but if it +will help you, go ahead and practise on me. You haven't stolen my books +when you were told to do so, and I don't think you'll steal my name." + +The boy went back to his hotel, and wrote an article much as this +account is here written, which he sent to Doctor Brooks. "Let me keep it +by me," the doctor wrote, "and I will return it to you presently." + +And he did, with his comment on the Sunday newspaper, just as it is +given here, and with this note: + + If I must go into the + newspapers at all--which + I should always vastly + prefer to avoid--no words could + have been more kind than + those of your article. You + were very good to send it + to me. I am ever + Sincerely, Your friend, + Phillips Brooks + +As he let the boy out of his house, at the end of that first meeting, he +said to him: + +"And you're going from me now to see Emerson? I don't know," he added +reflectively, "whether you will see him at his best. Still, you may. And +even if you do not, to have seen him, even as you may see him, is +better, in a way, than not to have seen him at all." + +Edward did not know what Phillips Brooks meant. But he was, sadly, to +find out the next day. + +A boy of sixteen was pretty sure of a welcome from Louisa Alcott, and +his greeting from her was spontaneous and sincere. + +"Why, you good boy," she said, "to come all the way to Concord to see +us," quite for all the world as if she were the one favored. "Now take +your coat off, and come right in by the fire." + +"Do tell me all about your visit," she continued. + +Before that cozey fire they chatted. It was pleasant to the boy to sit +there with that sweet-faced woman with those kindly eyes! After a while +she said: "Now I shall put on my coat and hat, and we shall walk over to +Emerson's house. I am almost afraid to promise that you will see him. He +sees scarcely any one now. He is feeble, and--" She did not finish the +sentence. "But we'll walk over there, at any rate." + +She spoke mostly of her father as the two walked along, and it was easy +to see that his condition was now the one thought of her life. Presently +they reached Emerson's house, and Miss Emerson welcomed them at the +door. After a brief chat Miss Alcott told of the boy's hope. Miss +Emerson shook her head. + +"Father sees no one now," she said, "and I fear it might not be a +pleasure if you did see him." + +Then Edward told her what Phillips Brooks had said. + +"Well," she said, "I'll see." + +She had scarcely left the room when Miss Alcott rose and followed her, +saying to the boy: "You shall see Mr. Emerson if it is at all possible." + +In a few minutes Miss Alcott returned, her eyes moistened, and simply +said: "Come." + +The boy followed her through two rooms, and at the threshold of the +third Miss Emerson stood, also with moistened eyes. + +"Father," she said simply, and there, at his desk, sat Emerson--the man +whose words had already won Edward Bok's boyish interest, and who was +destined to impress himself upon his life more deeply than any other +writer. + +Slowly, at the daughter's spoken word, Emerson rose with a wonderful +quiet dignity, extended his hand, and as the boy's hand rested in his, +looked him full in the eyes. + +No light of welcome came from those sad yet tender eyes. The boy closed +upon the hand in his with a loving pressure, and for a single moment the +eyelids rose, a different look came into those eyes, and Edward felt a +slight, perceptible response of the hand. But that was all! + +Quietly he motioned the boy to a chair beside the desk. Edward sat down +and was about to say something, when, instead of seating himself, +Emerson walked away to the window and stood there softly whistling and +looking out as if there were no one in the room. Edward's eyes had +followed Emerson's every footstep, when the boy was aroused by hearing a +suppressed sob, and as he looked around he saw that it came from Miss +Emerson. Slowly she walked out of the room. The boy looked at Miss +Alcott, and she put her finger to her mouth, indicating silence. He was +nonplussed. + +Edward looked toward Emerson standing in that window, and wondered what +it all meant. Presently Emerson left the window and, crossing the room, +came to his desk, bowing to the boy as he passed, and seated himself, +not speaking a word and ignoring the presence of the two persons in the +room. + +Suddenly the boy heard Miss Alcott say: "Have you read this new book by +Ruskin yet?" + +Slowly the great master of thought lifted his eyes from his desk, turned +toward the speaker, rose with stately courtesy from his chair, and, +bowing to Miss Alcott, said with great deliberation: "Did you speak to +me, madam?" + +The boy was dumfounded! Louisa Alcott, his Louisa! And he did not know +her! Suddenly the whole sad truth flashed upon the boy. Tears sprang +into Miss Alcott's eyes, and she walked to the other side of the room. +The boy did not know what to say or do, so he sat silent. With a +deliberate movement Emerson resumed his seat, and slowly his eyes roamed +over the boy sitting at the side of the desk. He felt he should say +something. + +"I thought, perhaps, Mr. Emerson," he said, "that you might be able to +favor me with a letter from Carlyle." + +At the mention of the name Carlyle his eyes lifted, and he asked: +"Carlyle, did you say, sir, Carlyle?" + +"Yes," said the boy, "Thomas Carlyle." + +"Ye-es," Emerson answered slowly. "To be sure, Carlyle. Yes, he was here +this morning. He will be here again to-morrow morning," he added +gleefully, almost like a child. + +Then suddenly: "You were saying--" + +Edward repeated his request. + +"Oh, I think so, I think so," said Emerson, to the boy's astonishment. +"Let me see. Yes, here in this drawer I have many letters from Carlyle." + +At these words Miss Alcott came from the other part of the room, her wet +eyes dancing with pleasure and her face wreathed in smiles. + +"I think we can help this young man; do you not think so, Louisa?" said +Emerson, smiling toward Miss Alcott. The whole atmosphere of the room +had changed. How different the expression of his eyes as now Emerson +looked at the boy! "And you have come all the way from New York to ask +me that!" he said smilingly as the boy told him of his trip. "Now, let +us see," he said, as he delved in a drawer full of letters. + +For a moment he groped among letters and papers, and then, softly +closing the drawer, he began that ominous low whistle once more, looked +inquiringly at each, and dropped his eyes straightway to the papers +before him on his desk. It was to be only for a few moments, then! Miss +Alcott turned away. + +The boy felt the interview could not last much longer. So, anxious to +have some personal souvenir of the meeting, he said: "Mr. Emerson, will +you be so good as to write your name in this book for me?" and he +brought out an album he had in his pocket. + +"Name?" he asked vaguely. + +"Yes, please," said the boy, "your name: Ralph Waldo Emerson." + +But the sound of the name brought no response from the eyes. + +"Please write out the name you want," he said finally, "and I will copy +it for you if I can." + +It was hard for the boy to believe his own senses. But picking up a pen +he wrote: "Ralph Waldo Emerson, Concord; November 22, 1881." + +Emerson looked at it, and said mournfully: "Thank you." Then he picked +up the pen, and writing the single letter "R" stopped, followed his +finger until it reached the "W" of Waldo, and studiously copied letter +by letter! At the word "Concord" he seemed to hesitate, as if the task +were too great, but finally copied again, letter by letter, until the +second "c" was reached. "Another 'o,'" he said, and interpolated an +extra letter in the name of the town which he had done so much to make +famous the world over. When he had finished he handed back the book, in +which there was written: + + R. Waldo Emerson + Concord + November 22, 1881 + +The boy put the book into his pocket; and as he did so Emerson's eye +caught the slip on his desk, in the boy's handwriting, and, with a smile +of absolute enlightenment, he turned and said: + +"You wish me to write my name? With pleasure. Have you a book with you?" + +Overcome with astonishment, Edward mechanically handed him the album +once more from his pocket. Quickly turning over the leaves, Emerson +picked up the pen, and pushing aside the slip, wrote without a moment's +hesitation: + + Ralph Waldo Emerson + Concord + +The boy was almost dazed at the instantaneous transformation in the man! + +Miss Alcott now grasped this moment to say: "Well, we must be going!" + +"So soon?" said Emerson, rising and smiling. Then turning to Miss Alcott +he said: "It was very kind of you, Louisa, to run over this morning and +bring your young friend." + +Then turning to the boy he said: "Thank you so much for coming to see +me. You must come over again while you are with the Alcotts. Good +morning! Isn't it a beautiful day out?" he said, and as he shook the +boy's hand there was a warm grasp in it, the fingers closed around those +of the boy, and as Edward looked into those deep eyes they twinkled and +smiled back. + +The going was all so different from the coming. The boy was grateful +that his last impression was of a moment when the eye kindled and the +hand pulsated. + +The two walked back to the Alcott home in an almost unbroken silence. +Once Edward ventured to remark: + +"You can have no idea, Miss Alcott, how grateful I am to you." + +"Well, my boy," she answered, "Phillips Brooks may be right: that it is +something to have seen him even so, than not to have seen him at all. +But to us it is so sad, so very sad. The twilight is gently closing in." + +And so it proved--just five months afterward. + +Eventful day after eventful day followed in Edward's Boston visit. The +following morning he spent with Wendell Phillips, who presented him with +letters from William Lloyd Garrison, Lucretia Mott, and other famous +persons; and then, writing a letter of introduction to Charles Francis +Adams, whom he enjoined to give the boy autograph letters from his two +presidential forbears, John Adams and John Quincy Adams, sent Edward on +his way rejoicing. Mr. Adams received the boy with equal graciousness +and liberality. Wonderful letters from the two Adamses were his when he +left. + +And then, taking the train for New York, Edward Bok went home, sitting +up all night in a day-coach for the double purpose of saving the cost of +a sleeping-berth and of having a chance to classify and clarify the +events of the most wonderful week in his life! + + + +VII. A Plunge into Wall Street + +The father of Edward Bok passed away when Edward was eighteen years of +age, and it was found that the amount of the small insurance left behind +would barely cover the funeral expenses. Hence the two boys faced the +problem of supporting the mother on their meagre income. They determined +to have but one goal: to put their mother back to that life of comfort +to which she had been brought up and was formerly accustomed. But that +was not possible on their income. It was evident that other employment +must be taken on during the evenings. + +The city editor of the Brooklyn Eagle had given Edward the assignment of +covering the news of the theatres; he was to ascertain "coming +attractions" and any other dramatic items of news interest. One Monday +evening, when a multiplicity of events crowded the reportorial corps, +Edward was delegated to "cover" the Grand Opera House, where Rose +Coghlan was to appear in a play that had already been seen in Brooklyn, +and called, therefore, for no special dramatic criticism. Yet The Eagle +wanted to cover it. It so happened that Edward had made another +appointment for that evening which he considered more important, and yet +not wishing to disappoint his editor he accepted the assignment. He had +seen Miss Coghlan in the play; so he kept his other engagement, and +without approaching the theatre he wrote a notice to the effect that +Miss Coghlan acted her part, if anything, with greater power than on her +previous Brooklyn visit, and so forth, and handed it in to his city +editor the next morning on his way to business. + +Unfortunately, however, Miss Coghlan had been taken ill just before the +raising of the curtain, and, there being no understudy, no performance +had been given and the audience dismissed. All this was duly commented +upon by the New York morning newspapers. Edward read this bit of news on +the ferry-boat, but his notice was in the hands of the city editor. + +On reaching home that evening he found a summons from The Eagle, and the +next morning he received a rebuke, and was informed that his chances +with the paper were over. The ready acknowledgment and evident regret of +the crestfallen boy, however, appealed to the editor, and before the end +of the week he called the boy to him and promised him another chance, +provided the lesson had sunk in. It had, and it left a lasting +impression. It was always a cause of profound gratitude with Edward Bok +that his first attempt at "faking" occurred so early in his journalistic +career that he could take the experience to heart and profit by it. + +One evening when Edward was attending a theatrical performance, he +noticed the restlessness of the women in the audience between the acts. +In those days it was, even more than at present, the custom for the men +to go out between the acts, leaving the women alone. Edward looked at +the programme in his hands. It was a large eleven-by-nine sheet, four +pages, badly printed, with nothing in it save the cast, a few +advertisements, and an announcement of some coming attraction. The boy +mechanically folded the programme, turned it long side up and wondered +whether a programme of this smaller size, easier to handle, with an +attractive cover and some reading-matter, would not be profitable. + +When he reached home he made up an eight-page "dummy," pasted an +attractive picture on the cover, indicated the material to go inside, +and the next morning showed it to the manager of the theatre. The +programme as issued was an item of considerable expense to the +management; Edward offered to supply his new programme without cost, +provided he was given the exclusive right, and the manager at once +accepted the offer. Edward then sought a friend, Frederic L. Colver, who +had a larger experience in publishing and advertising, with whom he +formed a partnership. Deciding that immediately upon the issuance of +their first programme the idea was likely to be taken up by the other +theatres, Edward proceeded to secure the exclusive rights to them all. +The two young publishers solicited their advertisements on the way to +and from business mornings and evenings, and shortly the first +smaller-sized theatre programme, now in use in all theatres, appeared. +The venture was successful from the start, returning a comfortable +profit each week. Such advertisements as they could not secure for cash +they accepted in trade; and this latter arrangement assisted materially +in maintaining the households of the two publishers. + +Edward's partner now introduced him into a debating society called The +Philomathean Society, made up of young men connected with Plymouth +Church, of which Henry Ward Beecher was pastor. The debates took the +form of a miniature congress, each member representing a State, and it +is a curious coincidence that Edward drew, by lot, the representation of +the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The members took these debates very +seriously; no subject was too large for them to discuss. Edward became +intensely interested in the society's doings, and it was not long before +he was elected president. + +The society derived its revenue from the dues of its members and from an +annual concert given under its auspices in Plymouth Church. When the +time for the concert under Edward's presidency came around, he decided +that the occasion should be unique so as to insure a crowded house. He +induced Mr. Beecher to preside; he got General Grant's promise to come +and speak; he secured the gratuitous services of Emma C. Thursby, Annie +Louise Cary, Clara Louise Kellogg, and Evelyn Lyon Hegeman, all of the +first rank of concert-singers of that day, with the result that the +church could not accommodate the crowd which naturally was attracted by +such a programme. + +It now entered into the minds of the two young theatre-programme +publishers to extend their publishing interests by issuing an "organ" +for their society, and the first issue of The Philomathean Review duly +appeared with Mr. Colver as its publisher and Edward Bok as editor. +Edward had now an opportunity to try his wings in an editorial capacity. +The periodical was, of course, essentially an organ of the society; but +gradually it took on a more general character, so that its circulation +might extend over a larger portion of Brooklyn. With this extension came +a further broadening of its contents, which now began to take on a +literary character, and it was not long before its two projectors +realized that the periodical had outgrown its name. It was decided--late +in 1884--to change the name to The Brooklyn Magazine. + +There was a periodical called The Plymouth Pulpit, which presented +verbatim reports of the sermons of Mr. Beecher, and Edward got the idea +of absorbing the Pulpit in the Magazine. But that required more capital +than he and his partner could command. They consulted Mr. Beecher, who, +attracted by the enterprise of the two boys, sent them with letters of +introduction to a few of his most influential parishioners, with the +result that the pair soon had a sufficient financial backing by some of +the leading men of Brooklyn, like A. A. Low, H. B. Claflin, Rufus T. +Bush, Henry W. Slocum, Seth Low, Rossiter W. Raymond, Horatio C. King, +and others. + +The young publishers could now go on. Understanding that Mr. Beecher's +sermons might give a partial and denominational tone to the magazine, +Edward arranged to publish also in its pages verbatim reports of the +sermons of the Reverend T. De Witt Talmage, whose reputation was then at +its zenith. The young editor now realized that he had a rather heavy +cargo of sermons to carry each month; accordingly, in order that his +magazine might not appear to be exclusively religious, he determined +that its literary contents should be of a high order and equal in +interest to the sermons. But this called for additional capital, and the +capital furnished was not for that purpose. + +It is here that Edward's autographic acquaintances stood him in good +stead. He went in turn to each noted person he had met, explained his +plight and stated his ambitions, with the result that very soon the +magazine and the public were surprised at the distinction of the +contributors to The Brooklyn Magazine. Each number contained a +noteworthy list of them, and when an article by the President of the +United States, then Rutherford B. Hayes, opened one of the numbers, the +public was astonished, since up to that time the unwritten rule that a +President's writings were confined to official pronouncements had +scarcely been broken. William Dean Howells, General Grant, General +Sherman, Phillips Brooks, General Sheridan, Canon Farrar, Cardinal +Gibbons, Marion Harland, Margaret Sangster--the most prominent men and +women of the day, some of whom had never written for magazines--began to +appear in the young editor's contents. Editors wondered how the +publishers could afford it, whereas, in fact, not a single name +represented an honorarium. Each contributor had come gratuitously to the +aid of the editor. + +At first, the circulation of the magazine permitted the boys to wrap the +copies themselves; and then they, with two other boys, would carry as +huge bundles as they could lift, put them late at night on the front +platform of the street-cars, and take them to the postoffice. Thus the +boys absolutely knew the growth of their circulation by the weight of +their bundles and the number of their front-platform trips each month. +Soon a baker's hand-cart was leased for an evening, and that was added +to the capacity of the front platforms. Then one eventful month it was +seen that a horse-truck would have to be employed. Within three weeks, a +double horse-truck was necessary, and three trips had to be made. + +By this time Edward Bok had become so intensely interested in the +editorial problem, and his partner in the periodical publishing part, +that they decided to sell out their theatre-programme interests and +devote themselves to the magazine and its rapidly increasing +circulation. All of Edward's editorial work had naturally to be done +outside of his business hours, in other words, in the evenings and on +Sundays; and the young editor found himself fully occupied. He now +revived the old idea of selecting a subject and having ten or twenty +writers express their views on it. It was the old symposium idea, but it +had not been presented in American journalism for a number of years. He +conceived the topic "Should America Have a Westminster Abbey?" and +induced some twenty of the foremost men and women of the day to discuss +it. When the discussion was presented in the magazine, the form being +new and the theme novel, Edward was careful to send advance sheets to +the newspapers, which treated it at length in reviews and editorials, +with marked effect upon the circulation of the magazine. + +All this time, while Edward Bok was an editor in his evenings he was, +during the day, a stenographer and clerk of the Western Union Telegraph +Company. The two occupations were hardly compatible, but each meant a +source of revenue to the boy, and he felt he must hold on to both. + +After his father passed away, the position of the boy's desk--next to +the empty desk of his father--was a cause of constant depression to him. +This was understood by the attorney for the company, Mr. Clarence Cary, +who sought the head of Edward's department, with the result that Edward +was transferred to Mr. Cary's department as the attorney's private +stenographer. + +Edward had been much attracted to Mr. Cary, and the attorney believed in +the boy, and decided to show his interest by pushing him along. He had +heard of the dual role which Edward was playing; he bought a copy of the +magazine, and was interested. Edward now worked with new zest for his +employer and friend; while in every free moment he read law, feeling +that, as almost all his forbears had been lawyers, he might perhaps be +destined for the bar. This acquaintance with the fundamental basis of +law, cursory as it was, became like a gospel to Edward Bok. In later +years, he was taught its value by repeated experience in his contact +with corporate laws, contracts, property leases, and other matters; and +he determined that, whatever the direction of activity taken by his +sons, each should spend at least a year in the study of law. + +The control of the Western Union Telegraph Company had now passed into +the hands of Jay Gould and his companions, and in the many legal matters +arising therefrom, Edward saw much, in his office, of "the little wizard +of Wall Street." One day, the financier had to dictate a contract, and, +coming into Mr. Cary's office, decided to dictate it then and there. An +hour afterward Edward delivered the copy of the contract to Mr. Gould, +and the financier was so struck by its accuracy and by the legibility of +the handwriting that afterward he almost daily "happened in" to dictate +to Mr. Cary's stenographer. Mr. Gould's private stenographer was in his +own office in lower Broadway; but on his way down-town in the morning +Mr. Gould invariably stopped at the Western Union Building, at 195 +Broadway, and the habit resulted in the installation of a private office +there. He borrowed Edward to do his stenography. The boy found himself +taking not only letters from Mr. Gould's dictation, but, what interested +him particularly, the financier's orders to buy and sell stock. + +Edward watched the effects on the stock-market of these little notes +which he wrote out and then shot through a pneumatic tube to Mr. Gould's +brokers. Naturally, the results enthralled the boy, and he told Mr. Cary +about his discoveries. This, in turn, interested Mr. Cary; Mr. Gould's +dictations were frequently given in Mr. Cary's own office, where, as his +desk was not ten feet from that of his stenographer, the attorney heard +them, and began to buy and sell according to the magnate's decisions. + +Edward had now become tremendously interested in the stock game which he +saw constantly played by the great financier; and having a little money +saved up, he concluded that he would follow in the wake of Mr. Gould's +orders. One day, he naively mentioned his desire to Mr. Gould, when the +financier seemed in a particularly favorable frame of mind; but Edward +did not succeed in drawing out the advice he hoped for. "At least," +reasoned Edward, "he knew of my intention; and if he considered it a +violation of confidence he would have said as much." + +Construing the financier's silence to mean at least not a prohibition, +Edward went to his Sunday-school teacher, who was a member of a Wall +Street brokerage firm, laid the facts before him, and asked him if he +would buy for him some Western Union stock. Edward explained, however, +that somehow he did not like the gambling idea of buying "on margin," +and preferred to purchase the stock outright. He was shown that this +would mean smaller profits; but the boy had in mind the loss of his +father's fortune, brought about largely by "stock margins," and he did +not intend to follow that example. So, prudently, under the brokerage of +his Sunday-school teacher, and guided by the tips of no less a man than +the controlling factor of stock-market finance, Edward Bok took his +first plunge in Wall Street! + +Of course the boy's buying and selling tallied precisely with the rise +and fall of Western Union stock. It could scarcely have been otherwise. +Jay Gould had the cards all in his hands; and as he bought and sold, so +Edward bought and sold. The trouble was, the combination did not end +there, as Edward might have foreseen had he been older and thus wiser. +For as Edward bought and sold, so did his Sunday-school teacher, and all +his customers who had seen the wonderful acumen of their broker in +choosing exactly the right time to buy and sell Western Union. But +Edward did not know this. + +One day a rumor became current on the Street that an agreement had been +reached by the Western Union Company and its bitter rival, the American +Union Telegraph Company, whereby the former was to absorb the latter. +Naturally, the report affected Western Union stock. But Mr. Gould denied +it in toto; said the report was not true, no such consolidation was in +view or had even been considered. Down tumbled the stock, of course. + +But it so happened that Edward knew the rumor was true, because Mr. +Gould, some time before, had personally given him the contract of +consolidation to copy. The next day a rumor to the effect that the +American Union was to absorb the Western Union appeared on the first +page of every New York newspaper. Edward knew exactly whence this rumor +emanated. He had heard it talked over. Again, Western Union stock +dropped several points. Then he noticed that Mr. Gould became a heavy +buyer. So became Edward--as heavy as he could. Jay Gould pooh-poohed the +latest rumor. The boy awaited developments. + +On Sunday afternoon, Edward's Sunday-school teacher asked the boy to +walk home with him, and on reaching the house took him into the study +and asked him whether he felt justified in putting all his savings in +Western Union just at that time when the price was tumbling so fast and +the market was so unsteady. Edward assured his teacher that he was +right, although he explained that he could not disclose the basis of his +assurance. + +Edward thought his teacher looked worried, and after a little there came +the revelation that he, seeing that Edward was buying to his limit, had +likewise done so. But the broker had bought on margin, and had his +margin wiped out by the decline in the stock caused by the rumors. He +explained to Edward that he could recoup his losses, heavy though they +were--in fact, he explained that nearly everything he possessed was +involved--if Edward's basis was sure and the stock would recover. + +Edward keenly felt the responsibility placed upon him. He could never +clearly diagnose his feelings when he saw his teacher in this new light. +The broker's "customers" had been hinted at, and the boy of eighteen +wondered how far his responsibility went, and how many persons were +involved. But the deal came out all right, for when, three days +afterward, the contract was made public, Western Union, of course, +skyrocketed, Jay Gould sold out, Edward sold out, the teacher-broker +sold out, and all the customers sold out! + +How long a string it was Edward never discovered, but he determined +there and then to end his Wall Street experience; his original amount +had multiplied; he was content to let well enough alone, and from that +day to this Edward Bok has kept out of Wall Street. He had seen enough +of its manipulations; and, although on "the inside," he decided that the +combination of his teacher and his customers was a responsibility too +great for him to carry. + +Furthermore, Edward decided to leave the Western Union. The longer he +remained, the less he liked its atmosphere. And the closer his contact +with Jay Gould the more doubtful he became of the wisdom of such an +association and perhaps its unconscious influence upon his own life in +its formative period. + +In fact, it was an experience with Mr. Gould that definitely fixed +Edward's determination. The financier decided one Saturday to leave on a +railroad inspection tour on the following Monday. It was necessary that +a special meeting of one of his railroad interests should be held before +his departure, and he fixed the meeting for Sunday at eleven-thirty at +his residence on Fifth Avenue. He asked Edward to be there to take the +notes of the meeting. + +The meeting was protracted, and at one o'clock Mr. Gould suggested an +adjournment for luncheon, the meeting to reconvene at two. Turning to +Edward, the financier said: "You may go out to luncheon and return in an +hour." So, on Sunday afternoon, with the Windsor Hotel on the opposite +corner as the only visible place to get something to eat, but where he +could not afford to go, Edward, with just fifteen cents in his pocket, +was turned out to find a luncheon place. + +He bought three apples for five cents--all that he could afford to +spend, and even this meant that he must walk home from the ferry to his +house in Brooklyn--and these he ate as he walked up and down Fifth +Avenue until his hour was over. When the meeting ended at three o'clock, +Mr. Gould said that, as he was leaving for the West early next morning, +he would like Edward to write out his notes, and have them at his house +by eight o'clock. There were over forty note-book pages of minutes. The +remainder of Edward's Sunday afternoon and evening was spent in +transcribing the notes. By rising at half past five the next morning he +reached Mr. Gould's house at a quarter to eight, handed him the minutes, +and was dismissed without so much as a word of thanks or a nod of +approval from the financier. + +Edward felt that this exceeded the limit of fair treatment by employer +of employee. He spoke of it to Mr. Cary, and asked whether he would +object if he tried to get away from such influence and secure another +position. His employer asked the boy in which direction he would like to +go, and Edward unhesitatingly suggested the publishing business. He +talked it over from every angle with his employer, and Mr. Cary not only +agreed with him that his decision was wise, but promised to find him a +position such as he had in mind. + +It was not long before Mr. Cary made good his word, and told Edward that +his friend Henry Holt, the publisher, would like to give him a trial. + +The day before he was to leave the Western Union Telegraph Company the +fact of his resignation became known to Mr. Gould. The financier told +the boy there was no reason for his leaving, and that he would +personally see to it that a substantial increase was made in his salary. +Edward explained that the salary, while of importance to him, did not +influence him so much as securing a position in a business in which he +felt he would be happier. + +"And what business is that?" asked the financier. + +"The publishing of books," replied the boy. + +"You are making a great mistake," answered the little man, fixing his +keen gray eyes on the boy. "Books are a luxury. The public spends its +largest money on necessities: on what it can't do without. It must +telegraph; it need not read. It can read in libraries. A promising boy +such as you are, with his life before him, should choose the right sort +of business, not the wrong one." + +But, as facts proved, the "little wizard of Wall Street" was wrong in +his prediction; Edward Bok was not choosing the wrong business. + +Years afterward when Edward was cruising up the Hudson with a yachting +party one Saturday afternoon, the sight of Jay Gould's mansion, upon +approaching Irvington, awakened the desire of the women on board to see +his wonderful orchid collection. Edward explained his previous +association with the financier and offered to recall himself to him, if +the party wished to take the chance of recognition. A note was written +to Mr. Gould, and sent ashore, and the answer came back that they were +welcome to visit the orchid houses. Jay Gould, in person, received the +party, and, placing it under the personal conduct of his gardener, +turned to Edward and, indicating a bench, said: "Come and sit down here +with me." + +"Well," said the financier, who was in his domestic mood, quite +different from his Wall Street aspect, "I see in the papers that you +seem to be making your way in the publishing business." + +Edward expressed surprise that the Wall Street magnate had followed his +work. + +"I have because I always felt you had it in you to make a successful +man. But not in that business," he added quickly. "You were born for the +Street. You would have made a great success there, and that is what I +had in mind for you. In the publishing business you will go just so far; +in the Street you could have gone as far as you liked. There is room +there; there is none in the publishing business. It's not too late now, +for that matter," continued the "little wizard," fastening his steel +eyes on the lad beside him! + +And Edward Bok has often speculated whither Jay Gould might have led +him. To many a young man, a suggestion from such a source would have +seemed the one to heed and follow. But Edward Bok's instinct never +failed him. He felt that his path lay far apart from that of Jay +Gould--and the farther the better! + +In 1882 Edward, with a feeling of distinct relief, left the employ of +the Western Union Telegraph Company and associated himself with the +publishing business in which he had correctly divined that his future +lay. + +His chief regret on leaving his position was in severing the close +relations, almost as of father and son, between Mr. Cary and himself. +When Edward was left alone, with the passing away of his father, +Clarence Cary had put his sheltering arm around the lonely boy, and with +the tremendous encouragement of the phrase that the boy never forgot, "I +think you have it in you, Edward, to make a successful man," he took him +under his wing. It was a turning-point in Edward Bok's life, as he felt +at the time and as he saw more clearly afterward. + +He remained in touch with his friend, however, keeping him advised of +his progress in everything he did, not only at that time, but all +through his later years. And it was given to Edward to feel the deep +satisfaction of having Mr. Cary say, before he passed away, that the boy +had more than justified the confidence reposed in him. Mr. Cary lived to +see him well on his way, until, indeed, Edward had had the proud +happiness of introducing to his benefactor the son who bore his name, +Cary William Bok. + + + +VIII. Starting a Newspaper Syndicate + +Edward felt that his daytime hours, spent in a publishing atmosphere as +stenographer with Henry Holt and Company, were more in line with his +editorial duties during the evenings. The Brooklyn Magazine was now +earning a comfortable income for its two young proprietors, and their +backers were entirely satisfied with the way it was being conducted. In +fact, one of these backers, Mr. Rufus T. Bush, associated with the +Standard Oil Company, who became especially interested, thought he saw +in the success of the two boys a possible opening for one of his sons, +who was shortly to be graduated from college. He talked to the publisher +and editor about the idea, but the boys showed by their books that while +there was a reasonable income for them, not wholly dependent on the +magazine, there was no room for a third. + +Mr. Bush now suggested that he buy the magazine for his son, alter its +name, enlarge its scope, and make of it a national periodical. +Arrangements were concluded, those who had financially backed the +venture were fully paid, and the two boys received a satisfactory amount +for their work in building up the magazine. Mr. Bush asked Edward to +suggest a name for the new periodical, and in the following month of +May, 1887, The Brooklyn Magazine became The American Magazine, with its +publication office in New York. But, though a great deal of money was +spent on the new magazine, it did not succeed. Mr. Bush sold his +interest in the periodical, which, once more changing its name, became +The Cosmopolitan Magazine. Since then it has passed through the hands of +several owners, but the name has remained the same. Before Mr. Bush sold +The American Magazine he had urged Edward to come back to it as its +editor, with promise of financial support; but the young man felt +instinctively that his return would not be wise. The magazine had been +The Cosmopolitan only a short time when the new owners, Mr. Paul J. +Slicht and Mr. E. D. Walker, also solicited the previous editor to +accept reappointment. But Edward, feeling that his baby had been +rechristened too often for him to father it again, declined the +proposition. He had not heard the last of it, however, for, by a curious +coincidence, its subsequent owner, entirely ignorant of Edward's +previous association with the magazine, invited him to connect himself +with it. Thus three times could Edward Bok have returned to the magazine +for whose creation he was responsible. + +Edward was now without editorial cares; but he had already, even before +disposing of the magazine, embarked on another line of endeavor. In +sending to a number of newspapers the advance sheets of a particularly +striking "feature" in one of his numbers of The Brooklyn Magazine, it +occurred to him that he was furnishing a good deal of valuable material +to these papers without cost. It is true his magazine was receiving the +advertising value of editorial comment; but the boy wondered whether the +newspapers would not be willing to pay for the privilege of simultaneous +publication. An inquiry or two proved that they would. Thus Edward +stumbled upon the "syndicate" plan of furnishing the same article to a +group of newspapers, one in each city, for simultaneous publication. He +looked over the ground, and found that while his idea was not a new one, +since two "syndicate" agencies already existed, the field was by no +means fully covered, and that the success of a third agency would depend +entirely upon its ability to furnish the newspapers with material +equally good or better than they received from the others. After +following the material furnished by these agencies for two or three +weeks, Edward decided that there was plenty of room for his new ideas. + +He discussed the matter with his former magazine partner, Colver, and +suggested that if they could induce Mr. Beecher to write a weekly +comment on current events for the newspapers it would make an auspicious +beginning. They decided to talk it over with the famous preacher. For to +be a "Plymouth boy"--that is, to go to the Plymouth Church Sunday-school +and to attend church there--was to know personally and become devoted to +Henry Ward Beecher. And the two were synonymous. There was no distance +between Mr. Beecher and his "Plymouth boys." Each understood the other. +The tie was that of absolute comradeship. + +"I don't believe in it, boys," said Mr. Beecher when Edward and his +friend broached the syndicate letter to him. "No one yet ever made a +cent out of my supposed literary work." + +All the more reason, was the argument, why some one should. + +Mr. Beecher smiled! How well he knew the youthful enthusiasm that rushes +in, etc. + +"Well, all right, boys! I like your pluck," he finally said. "I'll help +you if I can." + +The boys agreed to pay Mr. Beecher a weekly sum of two hundred and fifty +dollars--which he knew was considerable for them. + +When the first article had been written they took him their first check. +He looked at it quizzically, and then at the boys. Then he said simply: +"Thank you." He took a pin and pinned the check to his desk. There it +remained, much to the curiosity of the two boys. + +The following week he had written the second article and the boys gave +him another check. He pinned that up over the other. "I like to look at +them," was his only explanation, as he saw Edward's inquiring glance one +morning. + +The third check was treated the same way. When the boys handed him the +fourth, one morning, as he was pinning it up over the others, he asked: +"When do you get your money from the newspapers?" + +He was told that the bills were going out that morning for the four +letters constituting a month's service. + +"I see," he remarked. + +A fortnight passed, then one day Mr. Beecher asked: "Well, how are the +checks coming in?" + +"Very well," he was assured. + +"Suppose you let me see how much you've got in," he suggested, and the +boys brought the accounts to him. + +After looking at them he said: "That's very interesting. How much have +you in the bank?" + +He was told the balance, less the checks given to him. "But I haven't +turned them in yet," he explained. "Anyhow, you have enough in bank to +meet the checks you have given me, and a profit besides, haven't you?" + +He was assured they had. + +Then, taking his bank-book from a drawer, he unpinned the six checks on +his desk, indorsed each thus: wrote a deposit-slip, and, handing the +book to Edward, said: + + For deposit (??) in Bank + H. W. Beecher + +"Just hand that in at the bank as you go by, will you?" + +Edward was very young then, and Mr. Beecher's methods of financiering +seemed to him quite in line with current notions of the Plymouth +pastor's lack of business knowledge. But as the years rolled on the +incident appeared in a new light--a striking example of the great +preacher's wonderful considerateness. + +Edward had offered to help Mr. Beecher with his correspondence; at the +close of one afternoon, while he was with the Plymouth pastor at work, +an organ-grinder and a little girl came under the study window. A cold, +driving rain was pelting down. In a moment Mr. Beecher noticed the +girl's bare toes sticking out of her worn shoes. + +He got up, went into the hall, and called for one of his granddaughters. + +"Got any good, strong rain boots?" he asked when she appeared. + +"Why, yes, grandfather. Why?" was the answer. + +"More than one pair?" Mr. Beecher asked. + +"Yes, two or three, I think." + +"Bring me your strongest pair, will you, dear?" he asked. And as the +girl looked at him with surprise he said: "Just one of my notions." + +"Now, just bring that child into the house and put them on her feet for +me, will you?" he said when the shoes came. "I'll be able to work so +much better." + +One rainy day, as Edward was coming up from Fulton Ferry with Mr. +Beecher, they met an old woman soaked with the rain. "Here, you take +this, my good woman," said the clergyman, putting his umbrella over her +head and thrusting the handle into the astonished woman's hand. "Let's +get into this," he said to Edward simply, as he hailed a passing car. + +"There is a good deal of fraud about beggars," he remarked as he waved a +sot away from him one day; "but that doesn't apply to women and +children," he added; and he never passed such mendicants without +stopping. All the stories about their being tools in the hands of +accomplices failed to convince him. "They're women and children," he +would say, and that settled it for him. + +"What's the matter, son? Stuck?" he said once to a newsboy who was +crying with a heavy bundle of papers under his arm. + +"Come along with me, then," said Mr. Beecher, taking the boy's hand and +leading him into the newspaper office a few doors up the street. + +"This boy is stuck," he simply said to the man behind the counter. +"Guess The Eagle can stand it better than this boy; don't you think so?" + +To the grown man Mr. Beecher rarely gave charity. He believed in a +return for his alms. + +"Why don't you go to work?" he asked of a man who approached him one day +in the street. + +"Can't find any," said the man. + +"Looked hard for it?" was the next question. + +"I have," and the man looked Mr. Beecher in the eye. + +"Want some?" asked Mr. Beecher. + +"I do," said the man. + +"Come with me," said the preacher. And then to Edward, as they walked +along with the man following behind, he added: "That man is honest." + +"Let this man sweep out the church," he said to the sexton when they had +reached Plymouth Church. + +"But, Mr. Beecher," replied the sexton with wounded pride, "it doesn't +need it." + +"Don't tell him so, though," said Mr. Beecher with a merry twinkle of +the eye; and the sexton understood. + +Mr. Beecher was constantly thoughtful of a struggling young man's +welfare, even at the expense of his own material comfort. Anxious to +save him from the labor of writing out the newspaper articles, Edward, +himself employed during the daylight hours which Mr. Beecher preferred +for his original work, suggested a stenographer. The idea appealed to +Mr. Beecher, for he was very busy just then. He hesitated, but as Edward +persisted, he said: "All right; let him come to-morrow." + +The next day he said: "I asked that stenographer friend of yours not to +come again. No use of my trying to dictate. I am too old to learn new +tricks. Much easier for me to write myself." + +Shortly after that, however, Mr. Beecher dictated to Edward some +material for a book he was writing. Edward naturally wondered at this, +and asked the stenographer what had happened. + +"Nothing," he said. "Only Mr. Beecher asked me how much it would cost +you to have me come to him each week. I told him, and then he sent me +away." + +That was Henry Ward Beecher! + +Edward Bok was in the formative period between boyhood and young manhood +when impressions meant lessons, and associations meant ideals. Mr. +Beecher never disappointed. The closer one got to him, the greater he +became--in striking contrast to most public men, as Edward had already +learned. + +Then, his interests and sympathies were enormously wide. He took in so +much! One day Edward was walking past Fulton Market, in New York City, +with Mr. Beecher. + +"Never skirt a market," the latter said; "always go through it. It's the +next best thing, in the winter, to going South." + +Of course all the marketmen knew him, and they knew, too, his love for +green things. + +"What do you think of these apples, Mr. Beecher?" one marketman would +stop to ask. + +Mr. Beecher would answer heartily: "Fine! Don't see how you grow them. +All that my trees bear is a crop of scale. Still, the blossoms are +beautiful in the spring, and I like an apple-leaf. Ever examine one?" +The marketman never had. "Well, now, do, the next time you come across +an apple-tree in the spring." + +And thus he would spread abroad an interest in the beauties of nature +which were commonly passed over. + +"Wonderful man, Beecher is," said a market dealer in green goods once. +"I had handled thousands of bunches of celery in my life and never +noticed how beautiful its top leaves were until he picked up a bunch +once and told me all about it. Now I haven't the heart to cut the leaves +off when a customer asks me." + +His idea of his own vegetable-gardening at Boscobel, his Peekskill home, +was very amusing. One day Edward was having a hurried dinner, +preparatory to catching the New York train. Mr. Beecher sat beside the +boy, telling him of some things he wished done in Brooklyn. + +"No, I thank you," said Edward, as the maid offered him some potatoes. + +"Look here, young man," said Mr. Beecher, "don't pass those potatoes so +lightly. They're of my own raising--and I reckon they cost me about a +dollar a piece," he added with a twinkle in his eye. + +He was an education in so many ways! One instance taught Edward the +great danger of passionate speech that might unconsciously wound, and +the manliness of instant recognition of the error. Swayed by an +occasion, or by the responsiveness of an audience, Mr. Beecher would +sometimes say something which was not meant as it sounded. One evening, +at a great political meeting at Cooper Union, Mr. Beecher was at his +brightest and wittiest. In the course of his remarks he had occasion to +refer to ex-President Hayes; some one in the audience called out: "He +was a softy!" + +"No," was Mr. Beecher's quick response. "The country needed a poultice +at that time, and got it." + +"He's dead now, anyhow," responded the voice. + +"Not dead, my friend: he only sleepeth." + +It convulsed the audience, of course, and the reporters took it down in +their books. + +After the meeting Edward drove home with Mr. Beecher. After a while he +asked: "Well, how do you think it went?" + +Edward replied he thought it went very well, except that he did not like +the reference to ex-President Hayes. + +"What reference? What did I say?" + +Edward repeated it. + +"Did I say that?" he asked. Edward looked at him. Mr. Beecher's face was +tense. After a few moments he said: "That's generally the way with +extemporaneous remarks: they are always dangerous. The best impromptu +speeches and remarks are the carefully prepared kind," he added. + +Edward told him he regretted the reference because he knew that General +Hayes would read it in the New York papers, and he would be nonplussed +to understand it, considering the cordial relations which existed +between the two men. Mr. Beecher knew of Edward's relations with the +ex-President, and they had often talked of him together. + +Nothing more was said of the incident. When the Beecher home was reached +Mr. Beecher said: "Just come in a minute." He went straight to his desk, +and wrote and wrote. It seemed as if he would never stop. At last he +handed Edward an eight-page letter, closely written, addressed to +General Hayes. + +"Read that, and mail it, please, on your way home. Then it'll get there +just as quickly as the New York papers will." + +It was a superbly fine letter,--one of those letters which only Henry +Ward Beecher could write in his tenderest moods. And the reply which +came from Fremont, Ohio, was no less fine! + + + +IX. Association with Henry Ward Beecher + +As a letter-writer, Henry Ward Beecher was a constant wonder. He never +wrote a commonplace letter. There was always himself in it--in whatever +mood it found him. + +It was not customary for him to see all his mail. As a rule Mrs. Beecher +opened it, and attended to most of it. One evening Edward was helping +Mrs. Beecher handle an unusually large number of letters. He was reading +one when Mr. Beecher happened to come in and read what otherwise he +would not have seen: + +"Reverend Henry Ward Beecher. + +"Dear Sir: + +"I journeyed over from my New York hotel yesterday morning to hear you +preach, expecting, of course, to hear an exposition of the gospel of +Jesus Christ. Instead, I heard a political harangue, with no reason or +cohesion in it. You made an ass of yourself. + +"Very truly yours, __ __. + +"That's to the point," commented Mr. Beecher with a smile; and then +seating himself at his desk, he turned the sheet over and wrote: + +My Dear Sir:-- + +"I am sorry you should have taken so long a journey to hear Christ +preached, and then heard what you are polite enough to call a 'political +harangue.' I am sorry, too, that you think I made an ass of myself. In +this connection I have but one consolation: that you didn't make an ass +of yourself. The Lord did that." + +"Henry Ward Beecher. + +When the Reverend T. De Witt Talmage began to come into public notice in +Brooklyn, some of Mr. Beecher's overzealous followers unwisely gave the +impression that the Plymouth preacher resented sharing with another the +pulpit fame which he alone had so long unquestioningly held. Nothing, of +course, was further from Mr. Beecher's mind. As a matter of fact, the +two men were exceedingly good friends. Mr. Beecher once met Doctor +Talmage in a crowded business thoroughfare, where they got so deeply +interested in each other's talk that they sat down in some chairs +standing in front of a furniture store. A gathering throng of intensely +amused people soon brought the two men to the realization that they had +better move. Then Mr. Beecher happened to see that back of their heads +had been, respectively, two signs: one reading, "This style $3.45," the +other, "This style $4.25." + +"Well," said Mr. Beecher, as he and Doctor Talmage walked away laughing, +"I was ticketed higher than you, Talmage, anyhow." + +"You're worth more," rejoined Doctor Talmage. + +On another occasion, as the two men met they began to bandy each other. + +"Now, Talmage," said Mr. Beecher, his eyes twinkling, "let's have it +out. My people say that Plymouth holds more people than the Tabernacle, +and your folks stand up for the Tabernacle. Now which is it? What is +your estimate?" + +"Well, I should say that the Tabernacle holds about fifteen thousand +people," said Doctor Talmage with a smile. + +"Good," said Mr. Beecher, at once catching the spirit. "And I say that +Plymouth accommodates, comfortably, twenty thousand people. Now, let's +tell our respective trustees that it's settled, once for all." + +Mr. Beecher could never be induced to take note of what others said of +him. His friends, with more heart than head, often tried to persuade him +to answer some attack, but he invariably waved them off. He always saw +the ridiculous side of those attacks; never their serious import. + +At one time a fellow Brooklyn minister, a staunch Prohibitionist, +publicly reproved Mr. Beecher for being inconsistent in his temperance +views, to the extent that he preached temperance but drank beer at his +own dinner-table. This attack angered the friends of Mr. Beecher, who +tried to persuade him to answer the charge. But the Plymouth pastor +refused. "Friend -- is a good fellow," was the only comment they could +elicit. + +"But he ought to be broadened," persisted the friends. + +"Well now," said Mr. Beecher, "that isn't always possible. For +instance," he continued, as that inimitable merry twinkle came into his +eyes, "sometime ago Friend -- criticised me for something I had said. I +thought he ought not to have done so, and the next time we met I told +him so. He persisted, and I felt the only way to treat him was as I +would an unruly child. So I just took hold of him, laid him face down +over my knee, and proceeded to impress him as our fathers used to do of +old. And, do you know, I found that the Lord had not made a place on him +for me to lay my hand upon." + +And in the laughter which met this sally Mr. Beecher ended with "You +see, it isn't always possible to broaden a man." + +Mr. Beecher was rarely angry. Once, however, he came near it; yet he was +more displeased than angry. Some of his family and Edward had gone to a +notable public affair at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where a box had +been placed at Mr. Beecher's disposal. One member of the family was a +very beautiful girl who had brought a girl-friend. Both were attired in +full evening decollete costume. Mr. Beecher came in late from another +engagement. A chair had been kept vacant for him in the immediate front +of the box, since his presence had been widely advertised, and the +audience was expecting to see him. When he came in, he doffed his coat +and was about to go to the chair reserved for him, when he stopped, +stepped back, and sat down in a chair in the rear of the box. It was +evident from his face that something had displeased him. Mrs. Beecher +leaned over and asked him, but he offered no explanation. Nothing was +said. + +Edward went back to the house with Mr. Beecher; after talking awhile in +the study, the preacher, wishing to show him something, was going +up-stairs with his guest and had nearly reached the second landing when +there was the sound of a rush, the gas was quickly turned low, and two +white figures sped into one of the rooms. + +"My dears," called Mr. Beecher. + +"Yes, Mr. Beecher," came a voice from behind the door of the room in +question. + +"Come here one minute," said Mr. Beecher. + +"But we cannot," said the voice. "We are ready for bed. Wait until--" + +"No; come as you are," returned Mr. Beecher. + +"Let me go down-stairs," Edward interrupted. + +"No; you stay right here," said Mr. Beecher. + +"Why, Mr. Beecher! How can we? Isn't Edward with you?" + +"You are keeping me waiting for you," was the quiet and firm answer. + +There was a moment's hesitation. Then the door opened and the figures of +the two girls appeared. + +"Now, turn up the gas, please, as it was," said Mr. Beecher. + +"But, Mr. Beecher--" + +"You heard me?" + +Up went the light, and the two beautiful girls of the box stood in their +night-dresses. + +"Now, why did you run away?" asked Mr. Beecher. + +"Why, Mr. Beecher! How can you ask such a question?" pouted one of the +girls, looking at her dress and then at Edward. + +"Exactly," said Mr. Beecher. "Your modesty leads you to run away from +this young man because he might possibly see you under a single light in +dresses that cover your entire bodies, while that same modesty did not +prevent you all this evening from sitting beside him, under a myriad of +lights, in dresses that exposed nearly half of your bodies. That's what +I call a distinction with a difference--with the difference to the +credit neither of your intelligence nor of your modesty. There is some +modesty in the dresses you have on: there was precious little in what +you girls wore this evening. Good night." + +"You do not believe, Mr. Beecher," Edward asked later, "in decollete +dressing for girls?" + +"No, and even less for women. A girl has some excuse of youth on her +side; a woman none at all." + +A few moments later he added: + +"A proper dress for any girl or woman is one that reveals the lady, but +not her person." + +Edward asked Mrs. Beecher one day whether Mr. Beecher had ever expressed +an opinion of his sister's famous book, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and she told +this interesting story of how the famous preacher read the story: + +"When the story was first published in The National Era, in chapters, +all our family, excepting Mr. Beecher, looked impatiently for its +appearance each week. But, try as we might, we could not persuade Mr. +Beecher to read it, or let us tell him anything about it. + +"'It's folly for you to be kept in constant excitement week after week,' +he would say. 'I shall wait till the work is completed, and take it all +at one dose.' + +"After the serial ended, the book came to Mr. Beecher on the morning of +a day when he had a meeting on hand for the afternoon and a speech to +make in the evening. The book was quietly laid one side, for he always +scrupulously avoided everything that could interfere with work he was +expected to do. But the next day was a free day. Mr. Beecher rose even +earlier than usual, and as soon as he was dressed he began to read Uncle +Tom's Cabin. When breakfast was ready he took his book with him to the +table, where reading and eating went on together; but he spoke never a +word. After morning prayers, he threw himself on the sofa, forgot +everything but his book, and read uninterruptedly till dinner-time. +Though evidently intensely interested, for a long time he controlled any +marked indication of it. Before noon I knew the storm was gathering that +would conquer his self-control, as it had done with us all. He +frequently 'gave way to his pocket-handkerchief,' to use one of his old +humorous remarks, in a most vigorous manner. In return for his teasing +me for reading the work weekly, I could not refrain from saying +demurely, as I passed him once: 'You seem to have a severe cold, Henry. +How could you have taken it?' But what did I gain? Not even a +half-annoyed shake of the head, or the semblance of a smile. I might as +well have spoken to the Sphinx. + +"When reminded that the dinner-bell had rung, he rose and went to the +table, still with his book in his hand. He asked the blessing with a +tremor in his voice, which showed the intense excitement under which he +was laboring. We were alone at the table, and there was nothing to +distract his thoughts. He drank his coffee, ate but little, and returned +to his reading, with no thought of indulging in his usual nap. His +almost uncontrollable excitement revealed itself in frequent +half-suppressed sobs. + +"Mr. Beecher was a very slow reader. I was getting uneasy over the marks +of strong feeling and excitement, and longed to have him finish the +book. I could see that he entered into the whole story, every scene, as +if it were being acted right before him, and he himself were the +sufferer. He had always been a pronounced Abolitionist, and the story he +was reading roused intensely all he had felt on that subject. + +"The night came on. It was growing late, and I felt impelled to urge him +to retire. Without raising his eyes from the book, he replied: + +"'Soon; soon; you go; I'll come soon.' + +"Closing the house, I went to our room; but not to sleep. The clock +struck twelve, one, two, three; and then, to my great relief, I heard +Mr. Beecher coming up-stairs. As he entered, he threw Uncle Tom's Cabin +on the table, exclaiming: 'There; I've done it! But if Hattie Stowe ever +writes anything more like that I'll--well! She has nearly killed me.' + +"And he never picked up the book from that day." + +Any one who knew Henry Ward Beecher at all knew of his love of books. He +was, however, most prodigal in lending his books and he always forgot +the borrowers. Then when he wanted a certain volume from his library he +could not find it. He would, of course, have forgotten the borrower, but +he had a unique method of tracing the book. + +One evening the great preacher suddenly appeared at a friend's house +and, quietly entering the drawing-room without removing his overcoat, he +walked up to his friend and said: + +"Rossiter, why don't you bring back that Ruskin of mine that I lent +you?" + +The man colored to the roots of his hair. "Why, Mr. Beecher," he said, +"I'll go up-stairs and get it for you right away. I would not have kept +it so long, only you told me I might." + +At this Beecher burst into a fit of merry laughter. "Found! Found!" he +shouted, as he took off his overcoat and threw himself into a chair. + +When he could stop laughing, he said: "You know, Rossiter, that I am +always ready to lend my books to any one who will make good use of them +and bring them back, but I always forget to whom I lend them. It +happened, in this case, that I wanted that volume of Ruskin about a week +ago; but when I went to the shelf for it, it was gone. I knew I must +have lent it, but to whom I could not remember. During the past week, I +began to demand the book of every friend I met to whom I might have lent +it. Of course, every one of them protested innocence; but at last I've +struck the guilty man. I shall know, in future, how to find my missing +books. The plan works beautifully." + +One evening, after supper, Mr. Beecher said to his wife: + +"Mother, what material have we among our papers about our early Indiana +days?" + +Mr. Beecher had long been importuned to write his autobiography, and he +had decided to do it after he had finished his Life of Christ. + +Mrs. Beecher had two boxes brought into the room. + +"Suppose you look into that box, if you will," said Mr. Beecher to +Edward, "and I'll take this one, and we'll see what we can find about +that time. Mother, you supervise and see how we look on the floor." + +And Mr. Beecher sat down on the floor in front of one box, +shoemaker-fashion, while Edward, likewise on the floor, started on the +other box. + +It was a dusty job, and the little room began to be filled with +particles of dust which set Mrs. Beecher coughing. At last she said: +"I'll leave you two to finish. I have some things to do up-stairs, and +then I'll retire. Don't be too late, Henry," she said. + +It was one of those rare evenings for Mr. Beecher--absolutely free from +interruption; and, with his memory constantly taken back to his early +days, he continued in a reminiscent mood that was charmingly intimate to +the boy. + +"Found something?" he asked at one intermission when quiet had reigned +longer than usual, and he saw Edward studying a huge pile of papers. + +"No, sir," said the boy. "Only a lot of papers about a suit." + +"What suit?" asked Mr. Beecher mechanically, with his head buried in his +box. + +"I don't know, sir," Edward replied naively, little knowing what he was +reopening to the preacher. "'Tilton versus Beecher' they are marked." + +Mr. Beecher said nothing, and after the boy had fingered the papers he +chanced to look in the preacher's direction and found him watching him +intently with a curiously serious look in his face. + +"Must have been a big suit," commented the boy. "Here's another pile of +papers about it." + +Edward could not make out Mr. Beecher's steady look at him as he sat +there on the floor mechanically playing with a paper in his hand. + +"Yes," he finally said, "it was a big suit. What does it mean to you?" +he asked suddenly. + +"To me?" Edward asked. "Nothing, sir. Why?" + +Mr. Beecher said nothing for a few moments, and turned to his box to +examine some more papers. + +Then the boy asked: "Was the Beecher in this suit you, Mr. Beecher?" + +Again was turned on him that serious, questioning look. + +"Yes," he said after a bit. Then he thought again for a few moments and +said: "How old were you in 1875?" + +"Twelve," the boy replied. + +"Twelve," he repeated. "Twelve." + +He turned again to his box and Edward to his. + +"There doesn't seem to be anything more in this box," the boy said, "but +more papers in that suit," and he began to put the papers back. + +"What do you know about that 'suit,' as you call it?" asked Mr. Beecher, +stopping in his work. + +"Nothing," was the reply. "I never heard of it." + +"Never heard of it?" he repeated, and he fastened that curious look upon +Edward again. It was so compelling that it held the boy. For several +moments they looked at each other. Neither spoke. + +"That seems strange," he said, at last, as he renewed the search of his +box. "Never heard of it," he repeated almost to himself. + +Then for fully five minutes not a word was spoken. + +"But you will some day," said Mr. Beecher suddenly. + +"I will what, Mr. Beecher?" asked the boy. He had forgotten the previous +remark. + +Mr. Beecher looked at Edward and sighed. "Hear about it," he said. + +"I don't think I understand you," was the reply. + +"No, I don't think you do," he said. "I mean, you will some day hear +about that suit. And I don't know," then he hesitated, "but--but you +might as well get it straight. You say you were twelve then," he mused. +"What were you doing when you were twelve?" + +"Going to school," was the reply. + +"Yes, of course," said Mr. Beecher. "Well," he continued, turning on his +haunches so that his back rested against the box, "I am going to tell +you the story of that suit, and then you'll know it." + +Edward said nothing, and then began the recital of a story that he was +destined to remember. It was interesting then, as Mr. Beecher +progressed; but how thrice interesting that wonderful recital was to +prove as the years rolled by and the boy realized the wonderful telling +of that of all stories by Mr. Beecher himself! + +Slowly, and in that wonderfully low, mellow voice that so many knew and +loved, step by step, came the unfolding of that remarkable story. Once +or twice only did the voice halt, as when, after he had explained the +basis of the famous suit, he said: + +"Those were the charges. That is what it was all about." + +Then he looked at Edward and asked: "Do you know just what such charges +mean?" + +"I think I do," Edward replied, and the question was asked with such +feeling, and the answer was said so mechanically, that Mr. Beecher +replied simply: "Perhaps." + +"Well," he continued, "the suit was a 'long one,' as you said. For days +and weeks, yes, for months, it went on, from January to July, and those +were very full days: full of so many things that you would hardly +understand." + +And then he told the boy as much of the days in court as he thought he +would understand, and how the lawyers worked and worked, in court all +day, and up half the night, preparing for the next day. "Mostly around +that little table there," he said, pointing to a white, marble-topped +table against which the boy was leaning, and which now stands in Edward +Bok's study. + +"Finally the end came," he said, "after--well, months. To some it seemed +years," said Mr. Beecher, and his eyes looked tired. + +"Well," he continued, "the case went to the jury: the men, you know, who +had to decide. There were twelve of them." + +"Was it necessary that all twelve should think alike?" asked the boy. + +"That was what was hoped, my boy," said Mr. Beecher--"that was what was +hoped," he repeated. + +"Well, they did, didn't they?" Edward asked, as Mr. Beecher stopped. + +"Nine did," he replied. "Yes; nine did. But three didn't. Three +thought--" Mr. Beecher stopped and did not finish the sentence. "But +nine did," he repeated. "Nine to three it stood. That was the decision, +and then the judge discharged the jury," he said. + +There was naturally one question in the boyish mind to ask the man +before him--one question! Yet, instinctively, something within him made +him hesitate to ask that question. But at last his curiosity got the +better of the still, small voice of judgment. + +"And, Mr. Beecher--" the boy began. + +But Mr. Beecher knew! He knew what was at the end of the tongue, looked +clear into the boy's mind; and Edward can still see him lift that fine +head and look into his eyes, as he said, slowly and clearly: + +"And the decision of the nine was in exact accord with the facts." + +He had divined the question! + +As the two rose from the floor that night Edward looked at the clock. It +was past midnight; Mr. Beecher had talked for two hours; the boy had +spoken hardly at all. + +As the boy was going out, he turned to Mr. Beecher sitting thoughtfully +in his chair. + +"Good night, Mr. Beecher," he said. + +The Plymouth pastor pulled himself together, and with that wit that +never forsook him he looked at the clock, smiled, and answered: "Good +morning, I should say. God bless you, my boy." Then rising, he put his +arm around the boy's shoulders and walked with him to the door. + + + +X. The First "Woman's Page," "Literary Leaves," and Entering Scribner's + +Mr. Beecher's weekly newspaper "syndicate" letter was not only +successful in itself, it made liberal money for the writer and for its +two young publishers, but it served to introduce Edward Bok's proposed +agency to the newspapers under the most favorable conditions. With one +stroke, the attention of newspaper editors had been attracted, and +Edward concluded to take quick advantage of it. He organized the Bok +Syndicate Press, with offices in New York, and his brother, William J. +Bok, as partner and active manager. Edward's days were occupied, of +course, with his duties in the Holt publishing house, where he was +acquiring a first-hand knowledge of the business. + +Edward's attention was now turned, for the first time, to women and +their reading habits. He became interested in the fact that the American +woman was not a newspaper reader. He tried to find out the psychology of +this, and finally reached the conclusion, on looking over the +newspapers, that the absence of any distinctive material for women was a +factor. He talked the matter over with several prominent New York +editors, who frankly acknowledged that they would like nothing better +than to interest women, and make them readers of their papers. But they +were equally frank in confessing that they were ignorant both of what +women wanted, and, even if they knew, of where such material was to be +had. Edward at once saw that here was an open field. It was a productive +field, since, as woman was the purchasing power, it would benefit the +newspaper enormously in its advertising if it could offer a feminine +clientele. + +There was a bright letter of New York gossip published in the New York +Star, called "Bab's Babble." Edward had read it, and saw the possibility +of syndicating this item as a woman's letter from New York. He +instinctively realized that women all over the country would read it. He +sought out the author, made arrangements with her and with former +Governor Dorscheimer, owner of the paper, and the letter was sent out to +a group of papers. It was an instantaneous success, and a syndicate of +ninety newspapers was quickly organized. + +Edward followed this up by engaging Ella Wheeler Wilcox, then at the +height of her career, to write a weekly letter on women's topics. This +he syndicated in conjunction with the other letter, and the editors +invariably grouped the two letters. This, in turn, naturally led to the +idea of supplying an entire page of matter of interest to women. The +plan was proposed to a number of editors, who at once saw the +possibilities in it and promised support. The young syndicator now laid +under contribution all the famous women writers of the day; he chose the +best of the men writers to write on women's topics; and it was not long +before the syndicate was supplying a page of women's material. The +newspapers played up the innovation, and thus was introduced into the +newspaper press of the United States the "Woman's Page." + +The material supplied by the Bok Syndicate Press was of the best; the +standard was kept high; the writers were selected from among the most +popular authors of the day; and readability was the cardinal note. The +women bought the newspapers containing the new page, the advertiser +began to feel the presence of the new reader, and every newspaper that +could not get the rights for the "Bok Page," as it came to be known, +started a "Woman's Page" of it own. Naturally, the material so obtained +was of an inferior character. No single newspaper could afford what the +syndicate, with the expense divided among a hundred newspapers, could +pay. Nor had the editors of these woman's pages either a standard or a +policy. In desperation they engaged any person they could to "get a lot +of woman's stuff." It was stuff, and of the trashiest kind. So that +almost coincident with the birth of the idea began its abuse and +disintegration; the result we see in the meaningless presentations which +pass for "woman's pages" in the newspaper of to-day. + +This is true even of the woman's material in the leading newspapers, and +the reason is not difficult to find. The average editor has, as a rule, +no time to study the changing conditions of women's interests; his time +is and must be engrossed by the news and editorial pages. He usually +delegates the Sunday "specials" to some editor who, again, has little +time to study the ever-changing women's problems, particularly in these +days, and he relies upon unintelligent advice, or he places his "woman's +page" in the hands of some woman with the comfortable assurance that, +being a woman, she ought to know what interests her sex. + +But having given the subject little thought, he attaches minor +importance to the woman's "stuff," regarding it rather in the light of +something that he "must carry to catch the women"; and forthwith he +either forgets it or refuses to give the editor of his woman's page even +a reasonable allowance to spend on her material. The result is, of +course, inevitable: pages of worthless material. There is, in fact, no +part of the Sunday newspaper of to-day upon which so much good and now +expensive white paper is wasted as upon the pages marked for the home, +for women, and for children. + +Edward Bok now became convinced, from his book-publishing association, +that if the American women were not reading the newspapers, the American +public, as a whole, was not reading the number of books that it should, +considering the intelligence and wealth of the people, and the cheap +prices at which books were sold. He concluded to see whether he could +not induce the newspapers to give larger and more prominent space to the +news of the book world. + +Owing to his constant contact with authors, he was in a peculiarly +fortunate position to know their plans in advance of execution, and he +was beginning to learn the ins and outs of the book-publishing world. He +canvassed the newspapers subscribing to his syndicate features, but +found a disinclination to give space to literary news. To the average +editor, purely literary features held less of an appeal than did the +features for women. Fewer persons were interested in books, they +declared; besides, the publishing houses were not so liberal advertisers +as the department stores. The whole question rested on a commercial +basis. + +Edward believed he could convince editors of the public interest in a +newsy, readable New York literary letter, and he prevailed upon the +editor of the New York Star to allow him to supplement the book reviews +of George Parsons Lathrop in that paper by a column of literary chat +called "Literary Leaves." For a number of weeks he continued to write +this department, and confine it to the New York paper, feeling that he +needed the experience for the acquirement of a readable style, and he +wanted to be sure that he had opened a sufficient number of productive +news channels to ensure a continuous flow of readable literary +information. + +Occasionally he sent to an editor here and there what he thought was a +particularly newsy letter just "for his information, not for sale." The +editor of the Philadelphia Times was the first to discover that his +paper wanted the letter, and the Boston Journal followed suit. Then the +editor of the Cincinnati Times-Star discovered the letter in the New +York Star, and asked that it be supplied weekly with the letter. These +newspapers renamed the letter "Bok's Literary Leaves," and the feature +started on its successful career. + +Edward had been in the employ of Henry Holt and Company as clerk and +stenographer for two years when Mr. Cary sent for him and told him that +there was an opening in the publishing house of Charles Scribner's Sons, +if he wanted to make a change. Edward saw at once the larger +opportunities possible in a house of the importance of the Scribners, +and he immediately placed himself in communication with Mr. Charles +Scribner, with the result that in January, 1884, he entered the employ +of these publishers as stenographer to the two members of the firm and +to Mr. Edward L. Burlingame, literary adviser to the house. He was to +receive a salary of eighteen dollars and thirty-three cents per week, +which was then considered a fair wage for stenographic work. The +typewriter had at that time not come into use, and all letters were +written in long-hand. Once more his legible handwriting had secured for +him a position. + +Edward Bok was now twenty-one years of age. He had already done a +prodigious amount of work for a boy of his years. He was always busy. +Every spare moment of his evenings was devoted either to writing his +literary letter, to the arrangement or editing of articles for his +newspaper syndicate, to the steady acquirement of autograph letters in +which he still persisted, or to helping Mr. Beecher in his literary +work. The Plymouth pastor was particularly pleased with Edward's +successful exploitation of his pen work; and he afterward wrote: "Bok is +the only man who ever seemed to make my literary work go and get money +out of it." + +Enterprise and energy the boy unquestionably possessed, but one need +only think back even thus far in his life to see the continuous good +fortune which had followed him in the friendships he had made, and in +the men with whom his life, at its most formative period, had come into +close contact. If we are inclined to credit young Bok with an +ever-willingness to work and a certain quality of initiative, the +influences which played upon him must also be taken into account. + +Take, for example, the peculiarly fortuitous circumstances under which +he entered the Scribner publishing house. As stenographer to the two +members of the firm, Bok was immediately brought into touch with the +leading authors of the day, their works as they were discussed in the +correspondence dictated to him, and the authors' terms upon which books +were published. In fact, he was given as close an insight as it was +possible for a young man to get into the inner workings of one of the +large publishing houses in the United States, with a list peculiarly +noted for the distinction of its authors and the broad scope of its +books. + +The Scribners had the foremost theological list of all the publishing +houses; its educational list was exceptionally strong; its musical list +excelled; its fiction represented the leading writers of the day; its +general list was particularly noteworthy; and its foreign department, +importing the leading books brought out in Great Britain and Europe, was +an outstanding feature of the business. The correspondence dictated to +Bok covered, naturally, all these fields, and a more remarkable +opportunity for self-education was never offered a stenographer. + +Mr. Burlingame was known in the publishing world for his singularly keen +literary appreciation, and was accepted as one of the best judges of +good fiction. Bok entered the Scribner employ as Mr. Burlingame was +selecting the best short stories published within a decade for a set of +books to be called "Short Stories by American Authors." The +correspondence for this series was dictated to Bok, and he decided to +read after Mr. Burlingame and thus get an idea of the best fiction of +the day. So whenever his chief wrote to an author asking for permission +to include his story in the proposed series, Bok immediately hunted up +the story and read it. + +Later, when the house decided to start Scribner's Magazine, and Mr. +Burlingame was selected to be its editor, all the preliminary +correspondence was dictated to Bok through his employers, and he +received a firsthand education in the setting up of the machinery +necessary for the publication of a magazine. All this he eagerly +absorbed. + +He was again fortunate in that his desk was placed in the advertising +department of the house; and here he found, as manager, an old-time +Brooklyn boy friend with whom he had gone to school: Frank N. Doubleday, +to-day the senior partner of Doubleday, Page and Company. Bok had been +attracted to advertising through his theatre programme and Brooklyn +Magazine experience, and here was presented a chance to learn the art at +first hand and according to the best traditions. So, whenever his +stenographic work permitted, he assisted Mr. Doubleday in preparing and +placing the advertisements of the books of the house. + +Mr. Doubleday was just reviving the publication of a house-organ called +The Book Buyer, and, given a chance to help in this, Bok felt he was +getting back into the periodical field, especially since, under Mr. +Doubleday's guidance, the little monthly soon developed into a literary +magazine of very respectable size and generally bookish contents. + +The house also issued another periodical, The Presbyterian Review, a +quarterly under the editorship of a board of professors connected with +the Princeton and Union Theological Seminaries. This ponderous-looking +magazine was not composed of what one might call "light reading," and as +the price of a single copy was eighty cents, and the advertisements it +could reasonably expect were necessarily limited in number, the +periodical was rather difficult to move. Thus the whole situation at the +Scribners' was adapted to give Edward an all-round training in the +publishing business. It was an exceptional opportunity. + +He worked early and late. An increase in his salary soon told him that +he was satisfying his employers, and then, when the new Scribner's +Magazine appeared, and a little later Mr. Doubleday was delegated to +take charge of the business end of it, Bok himself was placed in charge +of the advertising department, with the publishing details of the two +periodicals on his hands. + +He suddenly found himself directing a stenographer instead of being a +stenographer himself. Evidently his apprentice days were over. He had, +in addition, the charge of sending all the editorial copies of the new +books to the press for review, and of keeping a record of those reviews. +This naturally brought to his desk the authors of the house who wished +to see how the press received their works. + +The study of the writers who were interested in following the press +notices of their books, and those who were indifferent to them became a +fascinating game to young Bok. He soon discovered that the greater the +author the less he seemed to care about his books once they were +published. Bok noticed this, particularly, in the case of Robert Louis +Stevenson, whose work had attracted him, but, although he used the most +subtle means to inveigle the author into the office to read the press +notices, he never succeeded. Stevenson never seemed to have the +slightest interest in what the press said of his books. + +One day Mr. Burlingame asked Bok to take some proofs to Stevenson at his +home; thinking it might be a propitious moment to interest the author in +the popular acclaim that followed the publication of Doctor Jekyll and +Mr. Hyde, Bok put a bunch of press notices in his pocket. He found the +author in bed, smoking his inevitable cigarette. + +As the proofs were to be brought back, Bok waited, and thus had an +opportunity for nearly two hours to see the author at work. No man ever +went over his proofs more carefully than did Stevenson; his corrections +were numerous; and sometimes for ten minutes at a time he would sit +smoking and thinking over a single sentence, which, when he had +satisfactorily shaped it in his mind, he would recast on the proof. + +Stevenson was not a prepossessing figure at these times. With his sallow +skin and his black dishevelled hair, with finger-nails which had been +allowed to grow very long, with fingers discolored by tobacco--in short, +with a general untidiness that was all his own, Stevenson, so Bok felt, +was an author whom it was better to read than to see. And yet his +kindliness and gentleness more than offset the unattractiveness of his +physical appearance. + +After one or two visits from Bok, having grown accustomed to him, +Stevenson would discuss some sentence in an article, or read some +amended paragraph out loud and ask whether Bok thought it sounded +better. To pass upon Stevenson as a stylist was, of course, hardly +within Bok's mental reach, so he kept discreetly silent when Stevenson +asked his opinion. + +In fact, Bok reasoned it out that the novelist did not really expect an +answer or an opinion, but was at such times thinking aloud. The mental +process, however, was immensely interesting, particularly when Stevenson +would ask Bok to hand him a book on words lying on an adjacent table. +"So hard to find just the right word," Stevenson would say, and Bok got +his first realization of the truth of the maxim: "Easy writing, hard +reading; hard writing, easy reading." + +On this particular occasion when Stevenson finished, Bok pulled out his +clippings, told the author how his book was being received, and was +selling, what the house was doing to advertise it, explained the +forthcoming play by Richard Mansfield, and then offered the press +notices. + +Stevenson took the bundle and held it in his hand. + +"That's very nice to tell me all you have," he said, "and I have been +greatly interested. But you have really told me all about it, haven't +you, so why should I read these notices? Hadn't I better get busy on +another paper for Mr. Burlingame for the next magazine, else he'll be +after me? You know how impatient these editors are." And he handed back +the notices. + +Bok saw it was of no use: Stevenson was interested in his work, but, +beyond a certain point, not in the world's reception of it. Bok's +estimate of the author rose immeasurably. His attitude was in such sharp +contrast to that of others who came almost daily into the office to see +what the papers said, often causing discomfiture to the young +advertising director by insisting upon taking the notices with them. But +Bok always countered this desire by reminding the author that, of +course, in that case he could not quote from these desirable notices in +his advertisements of the book. And, invariably, the notices were left +behind! + +It now fell to the lot of the young advertiser to arouse the interest of +the public in what were to be some of the most widely read and +best-known books of the day: Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. +Hyde; Frances Hodgson Burnett's Little Lord Fauntleroy; Andrew +Carnegie's Triumphant Democracy; Frank R. Stockton's The Lady, or the +Tiger? and his Rudder Grange, and a succession of other books. + +The advertising of these books keenly sharpened the publicity sense of +the developing advertising director. One book could best be advertised +by the conventional means of the display advertisement; another, like +Triumphant Democracy, was best served by sending out to the newspapers a +"broadside" of pungent extracts; public curiosity in a novel like The +Lady, or the Tiger? was, of course, whetted by the publication of +literary notes as to the real denouement the author had in mind in +writing the story. Whenever Mr. Stockton came into the office Bok pumped +him dry as to his experiences with the story, such as when, at a dinner +party, his hostess served an ice-cream lady and a tiger to the author, +and the whole company watched which he chose. + +"And which did you choose?" asked the advertising director. + +"Et tu, Brute?" Stockton smilingly replied. "Well, I'll tell you. I +asked the butler to bring me another spoon, and then, with a spoon in +each hand, I attacked both the lady and the tiger at the same time." + +Once, when Stockton was going to Boston by the night boat, every room +was taken. The ticket agent recognized the author, and promised to get +him a desirable room if the author would tell which he had had in mind, +the lady or the tiger. + +"Produce the room," answered Stockton. + +The man did. Stockton paid for it, and then said: "To tell you the +truth, my friend, I don't know." + +And that was the truth, as Mr. Stockton confessed to his friends. The +idea of the story had fascinated him; when he began it he purposed to +give it a definite ending. But when he reached the end he didn't know +himself which to produce out of the open door, the lady or the tiger, +"and so," he used to explain, "I made up my mind to leave it hanging in +the air." + +To the present generation of readers, all this reference to Stockton's +story may sound strange, but for months it was the most talked-of story +of the time, and sold into large numbers. + +One day while Mr. Stockton was in Bok's office, A. B. Frost, the +illustrator, came in. Frost had become a full-fledged farmer with one +hundred and twenty acres of Jersey land, and Stockton had a large farm +in the South which was a financial burden to him. + +"Well, Stockton," said Frost, "I have found a way at last to make a farm +stop eating up money. Perhaps it will help you." + +Stockton was busy writing, but at this bit of hopeful news he looked up, +his eyes kindled, he dropped his pen, and eagerly said: + +"Tell me." + +And looking behind him to see that the way was clear, Frost answered: + +"Pave it solid, old man." + +When the stories of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Little Lord Fauntleroy +were made into plays, Bok was given an opportunity for an entirely +different kind of publicity. Both plays were highly successful; they ran +for weeks in succession, and each evening Bok had circulars of the books +in every seat of the theatre; he had a table filled with the books in +the foyer of each theatre; and he bombarded the newspapers with stories +of Mr. Mansfield's method of making the quick change from one character +to the other in the dual role of the Stevenson play, and with anecdotes +about the boy Tommy Russell in Mrs. Burnett's play. The sale of the +books went merrily on, and kept pace with the success of the plays. And +it all sharpened the initiative of the young advertiser and developed +his sense for publicity. + +One day while waiting in the anteroom of a publishing house to see a +member of the firm, he picked up a book and began to read it. Since he +had to wait for nearly an hour, he had read a large part of the volume +when he was at last admitted to the private office. When his business +was finished, Bok asked the publisher why this book was not selling. + +"I don't know," replied the publisher. "We had great hopes for it, but +somehow or other the public has not responded to it." + +"Are you sure you are telling the public about it in the right way?" +ventured Bok. + +The Scribner advertising had by this time attracted the attention of the +publishing world, and this publisher was entirely ready to listen to a +suggestion from his youthful caller. + +"I wish we published it," said Bok. "I think I could make it a go. It's +all in the book." + +"How would you advertise it?" asked the publisher. + +Bok promised the publisher he would let him know. He carried with him a +copy of the book, wrote some advertisements for it, prepared an +attractive "broadside" of extracts, to which the book easily lent +itself, wrote some literary notes about it, and sent the whole +collection to the publisher. Every particle of "copy" which Bok had +prepared was used, the book began to sell, and within three months it +was the most discussed book of the day. + +The book was Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward". + + + +XI. The Chances for Success + +Edward Bok does not now remember whether the mental picture had been +given him, or whether he had conjured it up for himself; but he +certainly was possessed of the idea, as are so many young men entering +business, that the path which led to success was very difficult: that it +was overfilled with a jostling, bustling, panting crowd, each eager to +reach the goal; and all ready to dispute every step that a young man +should take; and that favoritism only could bring one to the top. + +After Bok had been in the world of affairs, he wondered where were these +choked avenues, these struggling masses, these competitors for every +inch of vantage. Then he gradually discovered that they did not exist. + +In the first place, he found every avenue leading to success wide open +and certainly not over-peopled. He was surprised how few there were who +really stood in a young man's way. He found that favoritism was not the +factor that he had been led to suppose. He realized it existed in a few +isolated cases, but to these every one had pointed and about these every +one had talked until, in the public mind, they had multiplied in number +and assumed a proportion that the facts did not bear out. + +Here and there a relative "played a favorite," but even with the push +and influence behind him "the lucky one," as he was termed, did not seem +to make progress, unless he had merit. It was not long before Bok +discovered that the possession of sheer merit was the only real factor +that actually counted in any of the places where he had been employed or +in others which he had watched; that business was so constructed and +conducted that nothing else, in the face of competition, could act as +current coin. And the amazing part of it all to Bok was how little merit +there was. Nothing astonished him more than the low average ability of +those with whom he worked or came into contact. + +He looked at the top, and instead of finding it overcrowded, he was +surprised at the few who had reached there; the top fairly begged for +more to climb its heights. + +For every young man, earnest, eager to serve, willing to do more than he +was paid for, he found ten trying to solve the problem of how little +they could actually do for the pay received. + +It interested Bok to listen to the talk of his fellow-workers during +luncheon hours and at all other times outside of office hours. When the +talk did turn on the business with which they were concerned, it +consisted almost entirely of wages, and he soon found that, with +scarcely an exception, every young man was terribly underpaid, and that +his employer absolutely failed to appreciate his work. It was +interesting, later, when Bok happened to get the angle of the employer, +to discover that, invariably, these same lamenting young men were those +who, from the employer's point of view, were either greatly overpaid or +so entirely worthless as to be marked for early decapitation. + +Bok felt that this constant thought of the wages earned or deserved was +putting the cart before the horse; he had schooled himself into the +belief that if he did his work well, and accomplished more than was +expected of him, the question of wages would take care of itself. But, +according to the talk on every side, it was he who had the cart before +the horse. Bok had not only tried always to fill the particular job set +for him but had made it a rule at the same time to study the position +just ahead, to see what it was like, what it demanded, and then, as the +opportunity presented itself, do a part of that job in addition to his +own. As a stenographer, he tried always to clear off the day's work +before he closed his desk. This was not always possible, but he kept it +before him as a rule to be followed rather than violated. + +One morning Bok's employer happened to come to the office earlier than +usual, to find the letters he had dictated late in the afternoon before +lying on his desk ready to be signed. + +"These are the letters I gave you late yesterday afternoon, are they +not?" asked the employer. + +"Yes, sir." + +"Must have started early this morning, didn't you?" + +"No, sir," answered Bok. "I wrote them out last evening before I left." + +"Like to get your notes written out before they get stale?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Good idea," said the employer. + +"Yes, sir," answered Bok, "and I think it is even a better idea to get a +day's work off before I take my apron off." + +"Well said," answered the employer, and the following payday Bok found +an increase in his weekly envelope. + +It is only fair, however, to add here, parenthetically, that it is +neither just nor considerate to a conscientious stenographer for an +employer to delay his dictation until the end of the day's work, when, +merely by judicious management of his affairs and time, he can give his +dictation directly after opening his morning mail. There are two sides +to every question; but sometimes the side of the stenographer is not +kept in mind by the employer. + +Bok found it a uniform rule among his fellow-workers to do exactly the +opposite to his own idea; there was an astonishing unanimity in working +by the clock; where the hour of closing was five o'clock the +preparations began five minutes before, with the hat and overcoat over +the back of the chair ready for the stroke of the hour. This concert of +action was curiously universal, no "overtime" was ever to be thought of, +and, as occasionally happened when the work did go over the hour, it was +not, to use the mildest term, done with care, neatness, or accuracy; it +was, to use a current phrase, "slammed off." Every moment beyond five +o'clock in which the worker was asked to do anything was by just so much +an imposition on the part of the employer, and so far as it could be +safely shown, this impression was gotten over to him. + +There was an entire unwillingness to let business interfere with any +anticipated pleasure or personal engagement. The office was all right +between nine and five; one had to be there to earn a living; but after +five, it was not to be thought of for one moment. The elevators which +ran on the stroke of five were never large enough to hold the throng +which besieged them. + +The talk during lunch hour rarely, if ever, turned toward business, +except as said before, when it dealt with underpaid services. In the +spring and summer it was invariably of baseball, and scores of young men +knew the batting averages of the different players and the standing of +the clubs with far greater accuracy than they knew the standing or the +discounts of the customers of their employers. In the winter the talk +was all of dancing, boxing, or plays. + +It soon became evident to Bok why scarcely five out of every hundred of +the young men whom he knew made any business progress. They were not +interested; it was a case of a day's work and a day's pay; it was not a +question of how much one could do but how little one could get away +with. The thought of how well one might do a given thing never seemed to +occur to the average mind. + +"Oh, what do you care?" was the favorite expression. "The boss won't +notice it if you break your back over his work; you won't get any more +pay." + +And there the subject was dismissed, and thoroughly dismissed, too. + +Eventually, then, Bok learned that the path that led to success was wide +open: the competition was negligible. There was no jostling. In fact, +travel on it was just a trifle lonely. One's fellow-travellers were +excellent company, but they were few! It was one of Edward Bok's +greatest surprises, but it was also one of his greatest stimulants. To +go where others could not go, or were loath to go, where at least they +were not, had a tang that savored of the freshest kind of adventure. And +the way was so simple, so much simpler, in fact, than its avoidance, +which called for so much argument, explanation, and discussion. One had +merely to do all that one could do, a little more than one was asked or +expected to do, and immediately one's head rose above the crowd and one +was in an employer's eye--where it is always so satisfying for an +employee to be! And as so few heads lifted themselves above the many, +there was never any danger that they would not be seen. + +Of course, Edward Bok had to prove to himself that his conception of +conditions was right. He felt instinctively that it was, however, and +with this stimulus he bucked the line hard. When others played, he +worked, fully convinced that his play-time would come later. Where +others shirked, he assumed. Where others lagged, he accelerated his +pace. Where others were indifferent to things around them, he observed +and put away the results for possible use later. He did not make of +himself a pack-horse; what he undertook he did from interest in it, and +that made it a pleasure to him when to others it was a burden. He +instinctively reasoned it out that an unpleasant task is never +accomplished by stepping aside from it, but that, unerringly, it will +return later to be met and done. + +Obstacles, to Edward Bok, soon became merely difficulties to be +overcome, and he trusted to his instinct to show him the best way to +overcome them. He soon learned that the hardest kind of work was back of +every success; that nothing in the world of business just happened, but +that everything was brought about, and only in one way--by a willingness +of spirit and a determination to carry through. He soon exploded for +himself the misleading and comfortable theory of luck: the only lucky +people, he found, were those who worked hard. To them, luck came in the +shape of what they had earned. There were exceptions here and there, as +there are to every rule; but the majority of these, he soon found, were +more in the seeming than in the reality. Generally speaking--and of +course to this rule there are likewise exceptions, or as the Frenchman +said, "All generalizations are false, including this one"--a man got in +this world about what he worked for. + +And that became, for himself, the rule of Edward Bok's life. + + + +XII. Baptism Under Fire + +The personnel of the Scribner house was very youthful from the members +of the firm clear down the line. It was veritably a house of young men. + +The story is told of a Boston publisher, sedate and fairly elderly, who +came to the Scribner house to transact business with several of its +departments. One of his errands concerning itself with advertising, he +was introduced to Bok, who was then twenty-four. Looking the youth over, +he transacted his business as well as he felt it could be transacted +with a manager of such tender years, and then sought the head of the +educational department: this brought him to another young man of +twenty-four. + +With his yearnings for some one more advanced in years full upon him, +the visitor now inquired for the business manager of the new magazine, +only to find a man of twenty-six. His next introduction was to the head +of the out-of-town business department, who was twenty-seven. + +At this point the Boston man asked to see Mr. Scribner. This disclosed +to him Mr. Arthur H. Scribner, the junior partner, who owned to +twenty-eight summers. Mustering courage to ask faintly for Mr. Charles +Scribner himself, he finally brought up in that gentleman's office only +to meet a man just turning thirty-three! + +"This is a young-looking crowd," said Mr. Scribner one day, looking over +his young men. And his eye rested on Bok. "Particularly you, Bok. +Doubleday looks his years better than you do, for at least he has a +moustache." Then, contemplatively: "You raise a moustache, Bok, and I'll +raise your salary." + +This appealed to Bok very strongly, and within a month he pointed out +the result to his employer. "Stand in the light here," said Mr. +Scribner. "Well, yes," he concluded dubiously, "it's there--something at +least. All right; I'll keep my part of the bargain." + +He did. But the next day he was nonplussed to see that the moustache had +disappeared from the lip of his youthful advertising manager. "Couldn't +quite stand it, Mr. Scribner," was the explanation. "Besides, you didn't +say I should keep it: you merely said to raise it." + +But the increase did not follow the moustache. To Bok's great relief, it +stuck! + +This youthful personnel, while it made for esprit de corps, had also its +disadvantages. One day as Bok was going out to lunch, he found a +small-statured man, rather plainly dressed, wandering around the retail +department, hoping for a salesman to wait on him. The young salesman on +duty, full of inexperience, had a ready smile and quick service ever +ready for "carriage trade," as he called it; but this particular +customer had come afoot, and this, together with his plainness of dress, +did not impress the young salesman. His attention was called to the +wandering customer, and it was suggested that he find out what was +wanted. When Bok returned from lunch, the young salesman, who, with a +beaming smile, had just most ceremoniously bowed the plainly dressed +little customer out of the street-door, said: "You certainly struck it +rich that time when you suggested my waiting on that little man! Such an +order! Been here ever since. Did you know who it was?" + +"No," returned Bok. "Who was it?" + +"Andrew Carnegie," beamed the salesman. + +Another youthful clerk in the Scribner retail bookstore, unconscious of +the customer's identity, waited one day on the wife of Mark Twain. + +Mrs. Clemens asked the young salesman for a copy of Taine's Ancient +Regime. + +"Beg pardon," said the clerk, "what book did you say?" + +Mrs. Clemens repeated the author and title of the book. + +Going to the rear of the store, the clerk soon returned, only to +inquire: "May I ask you to repeat the name of the author?" + +"Taine, T-a-i-n-e," replied Mrs. Clemens. + +Then did the youthfulness of the salesman assert itself. Assuming an air +of superior knowledge, and looking at the customer with an air of +sympathy, he corrected Mrs. Clemens: + +"Pardon me, madam, but you have the name a trifle wrong. You mean +Twain-not Taine." + +With so many young men of the same age, there was a natural sense of +team-work and a spirit of comradeship that made for successful +co-operation. This spirit extended outside of business hours. At +luncheon there was a Scribner table in a neighboring restaurant, and +evenings saw the Scribner department heads mingling as friends. It was a +group of young men who understood and liked each other, with the natural +result that business went easier and better because of it. + +But Bok did not have much time for evening enjoyment, since his outside +interests had grown and prospered and they kept him busy. His syndicate +was regularly supplying over a hundred newspapers: his literary letter +had become an established feature in thirty different newspapers. + +Of course, his opportunities for making this letter interesting were +unusual. Owing to his Scribner connection, however, he had taken his +name from the letter and signed that of his brother. He had, also, +constantly to discriminate between the information that he could publish +without violation of confidence and that which he felt he was not at +liberty to print. This gave him excellent experience; for the most vital +of all essentials in the journalist is the ability unerringly to decide +what to print and what to regard as confidential. + +Of course, the best things that came to him he could not print. Whenever +there was a question, he gave the benefit of the doubt to the +confidential relation in which his position placed him with authors; and +his Dutch caution, although it deprived him of many a toothsome morsel +for his letter, soon became known to his confreres, and was a large +asset when, as an editor, he had to follow the golden rule of editorship +that teaches one to keep the ears open but the mouth shut. + +This Alpha and Omega of all the commandments in the editorial creed some +editors learn by sorrowful experience. Bok was, again, fortunate in +learning it under the most friendly auspices. He continued to work +without sparing himself, but his star remained in the ascendency. Just +how far a man's own efforts and standards keep a friendly star centred +over his head is a question. But Edward Bok has always felt that he was +materially helped by fortuitous conditions not of his own creation or +choice. + +He was now to receive his first public baptism of fire. He had published +a symposium, through his newspaper syndicate, discussing the question, +"Should Clergymen Smoke?" He had induced all the prominent clergymen in +the country to contribute their views, and so distinguished was the list +that the article created widespread attention. + +One of the contributors was the Reverend Richard S. Storrs, D.D., one of +the most distinguished of Brooklyn's coterie of clergy of that day. A +few days after the publication of the article, Bok was astounded to read +in the Brooklyn Eagle a sensational article, with large headlines, in +which Doctor Storrs repudiated his contribution to the symposium, +declared that he had never written or signed such a statement, and +accused Edward Bok of forgery. + +Coming from a man of Doctor Storrs's prominence, the accusation was, of +course, a serious one. Bok realized this at once. He foresaw the damage +it might work to the reputation of a young man trying to climb the +ladder of success, and wondered why Doctor Storrs had seen fit to accuse +him in this public manner instead of calling upon him for a personal +explanation. He thought perhaps he might find such a letter from Doctor +Storrs when he reached home, but instead he met a small corps of +reporters from the Brooklyn and New York newspapers. He told them +frankly that no one was more surprised at the accusation than he, but +that the original contributions were in the New York office of the +syndicate, and he could not corroborate his word until he had looked +into the papers and found Doctor Storrs's contribution. + +That evening Bok got at the papers in the case, and found out that, +technically, Doctor Storrs was right: he had not written or signed such +a statement. The compiler of the symposium, the editor of one of New +York's leading evening papers whom Bok had employed, had found Doctor +Storrs's declaration in favor of a clergyman's use of tobacco in an +address made some time before, had extracted it and incorporated it into +the symposium. It was, therefore, Doctor Storrs's opinion on the +subject, but not written for the occasion for which it was used. Bok +felt that his editor had led him into an indiscretion. Yet the +sentiments were those of the writer whose name was attached to them, so +that the act was not one of forgery. The editor explained that he had +sent the extract to Doctor Storrs, who had not returned it, and he had +taken silence to mean consent to the use of the material. + +Bok decided to say nothing until he heard from Doctor Storrs personally, +and so told the newspapers. But the clergyman did not stop his attack. +Of course, the newspapers egged him on and extracted from him the +further accusation that Bok's silence proved his guilt. Bok now took the +case to Mr. Beecher, and asked his advice. + +"Well, Edward, you are right and you are wrong," said Mr. Beecher. "And +so is Storrs, of course. It is beneath him to do what he has done. +Storrs and I are not good friends, as you know, and so I cannot go to +him and ask him the reason of his disclaimer. Otherwise I would. Of +course, he may have forgotten his remarks: that is always possible in a +busy man's life. He may not have received the letter enclosing them. +That is likewise possible. But I have a feeling that Storrs has some +reason for wishing to repudiate his views on this subject just at this +time. What it is I do not, of course, know, but his vehemence makes me +think so. I think I should let him have his rein. Keep you quiet. It may +damage you a little here and there, but in the end it won't harm you. In +the main point, you are right. You are not a forger. The sentiments are +his and he uttered them, and he should stand by them. He threatens to +bring you into court, I see from to-day's paper. Wait until he does so." + +Bok, chancing to meet Doctor Talmage, told him Mr. Beecher's advice, and +he endorsed it. "Remember, boy," said Doctor Talmage, "silence is never +so golden as when you are under fire. I know, for I have been there, as +you know, more than once. Keep quiet; and always believe this: that +there is a great deal of common sense abroad in the world, and a man is +always safe in trusting it to do him justice." + +They were not pleasant and easy days for Bok, for Doctor Storrs kept up +the din for several days. Bok waited for the word to appear in court. +But this never came, and the matter soon died down and out. And, +although Bok met the clergyman several times afterward in the years that +followed, no reference was ever made by him to the incident. + +But Edward Bok had learned a valuable lesson of silence under fire--an +experience that was to stand him in good stead when he was again +publicly attacked not long afterward. + +This occurred in connection with a notable anniversary celebration in +honor of Henry Ward Beecher, in which the entire city of Brooklyn was to +participate. It was to mark a mile-stone in Mr. Beecher's ministry and +in his pastorate of Plymouth Church. Bok planned a worldwide tribute to +the famed clergyman: he would get the most distinguished men and women +of this and other countries to express their esteem for the Plymouth +pastor in written congratulations, and he would bind these into a volume +for presentation to Mr. Beecher on the occasion. He consulted members of +the Beecher family, and, with their acquiescence, began to assemble the +material. He was in the midst of the work when Henry Ward Beecher passed +away. Bok felt that the tributes already received were too wonderful to +be lost to the world, and, after again consulting Mrs. Beecher and her +children, he determined to finish the collection and publish it as a +memorial for private distribution. After a prodigious correspondence, +the work was at last completed; and in June, 1887, the volume was +published, in a limited edition of five hundred copies. Bok distributed +copies of the volume to the members of Mr. Beecher's family, he had +orders from Mr. Beecher's friends, one hundred copies were offered to +the American public and one hundred copies were issued in an English +edition. + +With such a figure to whom to do honor, the contributors, of course, +included the foremost men and women of the time. Grover Cleveland was +then President of the United States, and his tribute was a notable one. +Mr. Gladstone, the Duke of Argyll, Pasteur, Canon Farrar, Bartholdi, +Salvini, and a score of others represented English and European opinion. +Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Greenleaf Whittier, T. De Witt Talmage, +Robert G. Ingersoll, Charles Dudley Warner, General Sherman, Julia Ward +Howe, Andrew Carnegie, Edwin Booth, Rutherford B. Hayes--there was +scarcely a leader of thought and of action of that day unrepresented. +The edition was, of course, quickly exhausted; and when to-day a copy +occasionally appears at an auction sale, it is sold at a high price. + +The newspapers gave very large space to the distinguished memorial, and +this fact angered a journalist, Joseph Howard, Junior, a man at one time +close to Mr. Beecher, who had befriended him. Howard had planned to be +the first in the field with a hastily prepared biography of the great +preacher, and he felt that Bok had forestalled him. Forthwith, he +launched a vicious attack on the compiler of the memorial, accusing him +of "making money out of Henry Ward Beecher's dead body" and of +"seriously offending the family of Mr. Beecher, who had had no say in +the memorial, which was therefore without authority, and hence extremely +distasteful to all." + +Howard had convinced a number of editors of the justice of his position, +and so he secured a wide publication for his attack. For the second +time, Edward Bok was under fire, and remembering his action on the +previous occasion, he again remained silent, and again the argument was +put forth that his silence implied guilt. But Mrs. Beecher and members +of the Beecher family did not observe silence, and quickly proved that +not only had Bok compiled the memorial as a labor of love and had lost +money on it, but that he had the full consent of the family in its +preparation. + +When, shortly afterward, Howard's hastily compiled "biography" of Mr. +Beecher appeared, a reporter asked Mrs. Beecher whether she and her +family had found it accurate. + +"Accurate, my child," said Mrs. Beecher. "Why, it is so accurate in its +absolute falsity that neither I nor the boys can find one fact or date +given correctly, although we have studied it for two days. Even the year +of Mr. Beecher's birth is wrong, and that is the smallest error!" + +Edward Bok little dreamed that these two experiences with public +criticism were to serve him as a foretaste of future attacks when he +would get the benefit of hundreds of pencils especially sharpened for +him. + + + +XIII. Publishing Incidents and Anecdotes + +One evening some literary men were dining together previous to going to +a private house where a number of authors were to give readings from +their books. At the table the talk turned on the carelessness with which +the public reads books. Richard Harding Davis, one of the party, +contended that the public read more carefully than the others believed. +It was just at the time when Du Maurier's Trilby was in every one's +hands. + +"Don't you believe it," said one of the diners. "I'll warrant you could +take a portion of some well-known story to-night and palm it off on most +of your listeners as new stuff." + +"Done," said Davis. "Come along, and I'll prove you wrong." + +The reading was to be at the house of John Kendrick Bangs at Yonkers. +When Davis's "turn" in the programme came, he announced that he would +read a portion from an unpublished story written by himself. Immediately +there was a flutter in the audience, particularly among the younger +element. + +Pulling a roll of manuscript out of his pocket, Davis began: + +"It was a fine, sunny, showery day in April. The big studio window--" + +He got no farther. Almost the entire audience broke into a shout of +laughter and applause. Davis had read thirteen of the opening words of +Trilby. + +All publishing houses employ "readers" outside of those in their own +offices for the reading of manuscripts on special subjects. One of these +"outside readers" was given a manuscript for criticism. He took it home +and began its reading. He had finished only a hundred pages or so when, +by a curious coincidence, the card of the author of the manuscript was +brought to the "reader." The men were close friends. + +Hastily gathering up the manuscript, the critic shoved the work into a +drawer of his desk, and asked that his friend be shown in. + +The evening was passed in conversation; as the visitor rose to leave, +his host, rising also and seating himself on his desk, asked: + +"What have you been doing lately? Haven't seen much of you." + +"No," said the friend. "It may interest you to know that I have been +turning to literary work, and have just completed what I consider to be +an important book." + +"Really?" commented the "reader." + +"Yes," went on his friend. "I submitted it a few days ago to one of the +big publishing houses. But, great Scott, you can never tell what these +publishers will do with a thing of that sort. They give their +manuscripts to all kinds of fools to read. I suppose, by this time, some +idiot, who doesn't know a thing of the subject about which I have +written, is sitting on my manuscript." + +Mechanically, the "reader" looked at the desk upon which he was sitting, +thought of the manuscript lying in the drawer directly under him, and +said: + +"Yes, that may be. Quite likely, in fact." + +Of no novel was the secret of the authorship ever so well kept as was +that of The Breadwinners, which, published anonymously in 1883, was the +talk of literary circles for a long time, and speculation as to its +authorship was renewed in the newspapers for years afterward. Bok wanted +very much to find out the author's name so that he could announce it in +his literary letter. He had his suspicions, but they were not well +founded until an amusing little incident occurred which curiously +revealed the secret to him. + +Bok was waiting to see one of the members of a publishing firm when a +well-known English publisher, visiting in America, was being escorted +out of the office, the conversation continuing as the two gentlemen +walked through the outer rooms. "My chief reason," said the English +publisher, as he stopped at the end of the outer office where Bok was +sitting, "for hesitating at all about taking an English set of plates of +the novel you speak of is because it is of anonymous authorship, a +custom of writing which has grown out of all decent proportions in your +country since the issue of that stupid book, The Breadwinners." + +As these last words were spoken, a man seated at a desk directly behind +the speaker looked up, smiled, and resumed reading a document which he +had dropped in to sign. A smile also spread over the countenance of the +American publisher as he furtively glanced over the shoulder of the +English visitor and caught the eye of the smiling man at the desk. + +Bok saw the little comedy, realized at once that he had discovered the +author of The Breadwinners, and stated to the publisher that he intended +to use the incident in his literary letter. But it proved to be one of +those heart-rending instances of a delicious morsel of news that must be +withheld from the journalist's use. The publisher acknowledged that Bok +had happened upon the true authorship, but placed him upon his honor to +make no use of the incident. And Bok learned again the vital +journalistic lesson that there are a great many things in the world that +the journalist knows and yet cannot write about. He would have been +years in advance of the announcement finally made that John Hay wrote +the novel. + +At another time, while waiting, Bok had an experience which, while +interesting, was saddening instead of amusing. He was sitting in Mark +Twain's sitting-room in his home in Hartford waiting for the humorist to +return from a walk. Suddenly sounds of devotional singing came in +through the open window from the direction of the outer conservatory. +The singing was low, yet the sad tremor in the voice seemed to give it +special carrying power. + +"You have quite a devotional servant," Bok said to a maid who was +dusting the room. + +"Oh, that is not a servant who is singing, sir," was the answer. "You +can step to this window and see for yourself." + +Bok did so, and there, sitting alone on one of the rustic benches in the +flower-house, was a small, elderly woman. Keeping time with the first +finger of her right hand, as if with a baton, she was slightly swaying +her frail body as she sang, softly yet sweetly, Charles Wesley's hymn, +"Jesus, Lover of My Soul," and Sarah Flower Adams's "Nearer, My God, to +Thee." + +But the singer was not a servant. It was Harriet Beecher Stowe! + +On another visit to Hartford, shortly afterward, Bok was just turning +into Forrest Street when a little old woman came shambling along toward +him, unconscious, apparently, of people or surroundings. In her hand she +carried a small tree-switch. Bok did not notice her until just as he had +passed her he heard her calling to him: "Young man, young man." Bok +retraced his steps, and then the old lady said: "Young man, you have +been leaning against something white," and taking her tree-switch she +whipped some wall dust from the sleeve of Bok's coat. It was not until +that moment that Bok recognized in his self-appointed "brush" no less a +personage than Harriet Beecher Stowe. + +"This is Mrs. Stowe, is it not?" he asked, after tendering his thanks to +her. + +Those blue eyes looked strangely into his as she answered: + +"That is my name, young man. I live on this street. Are you going to +have me arrested for stopping you?" with which she gathered up her +skirts and quickly ran away, looking furtively over her shoulder at the +amazed young man, sorrowfully watching the running figure! + +Speaking of Mrs. Stowe brings to mind an unscrupulous and yet ingenious +trick just about this time played by a young man attached to one of the +New York publishing houses. One evening at dinner this chap happened to +be in a bookish company when the talk turned to the enthusiasm of the +Southern negro for an illustrated Bible. The young publishing clerk +listened intently, and next day he went to a Bible publishing house in +New York which issued a Bible gorgeous with pictures and entered into an +arrangement with the proprietors whereby he should have the Southern +territory. He resigned his position, and within a week he was in the +South. He made arrangements with an artist friend to make a change in +each copy of the Bible which he contracted for. The angels pictured +therein were white in color. He had these made black, so he could show +that there were black angels as well as white ones. The Bibles cost him +just eighty cents apiece. He went about the South and offered the Bibles +to the astonished and open-mouthed negroes for eight dollars each, two +dollars and a half down and the rest in monthly payments. His sales were +enormous. Then he went his rounds all over again and offered to close +out the remaining five dollars and a half due him by a final payment of +two dollars and a half each. In nearly every case the bait was +swallowed, and on each Bible he thus cleared four dollars and twenty +cents net! + +Running the elevator in the building where a prominent publishing firm +had its office was a negro of more than ordinary intelligence. The firm +had just published a subscription book on mechanical engineering, a +chapter of which was devoted to the construction and operation of +passenger elevators. One of the agents selling the book thought he might +find a customer in Washington. + +"Wash," said the book-agent, "you ought to buy a copy of this book, do +you know it?" + +"No, boss, don't want no books. Don't git no time fo' readin' books," +drawled Wash. "It teks all mah time to run dis elevator." + +"But this book will help you to run your elevator. See here: there's a +whole chapter here on elevators," persisted the canvasser. + +"Don't want no help to run dis elevator," said the darky. "Dis elevator +runs all right now." + +"But," said the canvasser, "this will help you to run it better. You +will know twice as much when you get through." + +"No, boss, no, dat's just it," returned Wash. "Don't want to learn +nothing, boss," he said. "Why, boss, I know more now than I git paid +for." + +There was one New York newspaper that prided itself on its huge +circulation, and its advertising canvassers were particularly insistent +in securing the advertisements of publishers. Of course, the real +purpose of the paper was to secure a certain standing for itself, which +it lacked, rather than to be of any service to the publishers. + +By dint of perseverance, its agents finally secured from one of the +ten-cent magazines, then so numerous, a large advertisement of a special +number, and in order to test the drawing power of the newspaper as a +medium, there was inserted a line in large black type: + +"SEND TEN CENTS FOR A NUMBER." + +But the compositor felt that magazine literature should be even cheaper +than it was, and to that thought in his mind his fingers responded, so +that when the advertisement appeared, this particular bold-type line +read: + +"SEND TEN CENTS FOR A YEAR." + +This wonderful offer appealed with singular force to the class of +readers of this particular paper, and they decided to take advantage of +it. The advertisement appeared on Sunday, and Monday's first mail +brought the magazine over eight hundred letters with ten cents enclosed +"for a year's subscription as per your advertisement in yesterday's --." +The magazine management consulted its lawyer, who advised the publisher +to make the newspaper pay the extra ninety cents on each subscription, +and, although this demand was at first refused, the proprietors of the +daily finally yielded. At the end of the first week eight thousand and +fifty-five letters with ten cents enclosed had reached the magazine, and +finally the total was a few over twelve thousand! + + + +XIV. Last Years in New York + +Edward Bok's lines were now to follow those of advertising for several +years. He was responsible for securing the advertisements for The Book +Buyer and The Presbyterian Review. While the former was, frankly, a +house-organ, its editorial contents had so broadened as to make the +periodical of general interest to book-lovers, and with the subscribers +constituting the valuable list of Scribner book-buyers, other publishers +were eager to fish in the Scribner pond. + +With The Presbyterian Review, the condition was different. A magazine +issued quarterly naturally lacks the continuity desired by the +advertiser; the scope of the magazine was limited, and so was the +circulation. It was a difficult magazine to "sell" to the advertiser, +and Bok's salesmanship was taxed to the utmost. Although all that the +publishers asked was that the expense of getting out the periodical be +met, with its two hundred and odd pages even this was difficult. It was +not an attractive proposition. + +The most interesting feature of the magazine to Bok appeared to be the +method of editing. It was ostensibly edited by a board, but, +practically, by Professor Francis L. Patton, D.D., of Princeton +Theological Seminary (afterward president of Princeton University), and +Doctor Charles A. Briggs, of Union Theological Seminary. The views of +these two theologians differed rather widely, and when, upon several +occasions, they met in Bok's office, on bringing in their different +articles to go into the magazine, lively discussions ensued. Bok did not +often get the drift of these discussions, but he was intensely +interested in listening to the diverse views of the two theologians. + +One day the question of heresy came up between the two men, and during a +pause in the discussion, Bok, looking for light, turned to Doctor Briggs +and asked: "Doctor, what really is heresy?" + +Doctor Briggs, taken off his guard for a moment, looked blankly at his +young questioner, and repeated: "What is heresy?" + +"Yes," repeated Bok, "just what is heresy, Doctor?" + +"That's right," interjected Doctor Patton, with a twinkle in his eyes, +"what is heresy, Briggs?" + +"Would you be willing to write it down for me?" asked Bok, fearful that +he should not remember Doctor Briggs's definition even if he were told. + +And Doctor Briggs wrote: + +"Heresy is anything in doctrine or practice that departs from the mind +of the Church as officially defined. + +Charles A. Briggs. + +"Let me see," asked Doctor Patton, and when he read it, he muttered: +"Humph, pretty broad, pretty broad." + +"Well," answered the nettled Doctor Briggs, "perhaps you can give a less +broad definition, Patton." + +"No, no," answered the Princeton theologian, as the slightest wink came +from the eye nearest Bok, "I wouldn't attempt it for a moment. Too much +for me." + +On another occasion, as the two were busy in their discussion of some +article to be inserted in the magazine, Bok listening with all his +might, Doctor Patton, suddenly turning to the young listener, asked, in +the midst of the argument: "Whom are the Giants going to play this +afternoon, Bok?" + +Doctor Briggs's face was a study. For a moment the drift of the question +was an enigma to him: then realizing that an important theological +discussion had been interrupted by a trivial baseball question, he +gathered up his papers and stamped violently out of the office. Doctor +Patton made no comment, but, with a smile, he asked Bok: "Johnnie Ward +going to play to-day, do you know? Thought I might ask Mr. Scribner if +you could go up to the game this afternoon." + +It is unnecessary to say to which of the two men Bok was the more +attracted, and when it came, each quarter, to figuring how many articles +could go into the Review without exceeding the cost limit fixed by the +house, it was always a puzzle to Doctor Briggs why the majority of the +articles left out were invariably those that he had brought in, while +many of those which Doctor Patton handed in somehow found their place, +upon the final assembling, among the contents. + +"Your articles are so long," Bok would explain. + +"Long?" Doctor Briggs would echo. "You don't measure theological +discussions by the yardstick, young man." + +"Perhaps not," the young assembler would maintain. + +But we have to do some measuring here by the composition-stick, just the +same." + +And the Union Seminary theologian was never able successfully, to vault +that hurdle! + +From his boyhood days (up to the present writing) Bok was a pronounced +baseball "fan," and so Doctor Patton appealed to a warm place in the +young man's heart when he asked him the questions about the New York +baseball team. There was, too, a baseball team among the Scribner young +men of which Bok was a part. This team played, each Saturday afternoon, +a team from another publishing house, and for two seasons it was +unbeatable. Not only was this baseball aggregation close to the hearts +of the Scribner employees, but, in an important game, the junior member +of the firm played on it and the senior member was a spectator. Frank N. +Doubleday played on first base; William D. Moffat, later of Moffat, Yard +& Company, and now editor of The Mentor, was behind the bat; Bok +pitched; Ernest Dressel North, the present authority on rare editions of +books, was in the field, as were also Ray Safford, now a director in the +Scribner corporation, and Owen W. Brewer, at present a prominent figure +in Chicago's book world. It was a happy group, all closely banded +together in their business interests and in their human relations as +well. + +With Scribner's Magazine now in the periodical field, Bok would be asked +on his trips to the publishing houses to have an eye open for +advertisements for that periodical as well. Hence his education in the +solicitation of advertisements became general, and gave him a +sympathetic understanding of the problems of the advertising solicitor +which was to stand him in good stead when, in his later experience, he +was called upon to view the business problems of a magazine from the +editor's position. His knowledge of the manufacture of the two magazines +in his charge was likewise educative, as was the fascinating study of +typography which always had, and has today, a wonderful attraction for +him. + +It was, however, in connection with the advertising of the general books +of the house, and in his relations with their authors, that Bok found +his greatest interest. It was for him to find the best manner in which +to introduce to the public the books issued by the house, and the +general study of the psychology of publicity which this called for +attracted Bok greatly. + +Bok was now asked to advertise a novel published by the Scribners which, +when it was issued, and for years afterward, was pointed to as a proof +of the notion that a famous name was all that was necessary to ensure +the acceptance of a manuscript by even a leading publishing house. The +facts in the case were that this manuscript was handed in one morning by +a friend of the house with the remark that he submitted it at the +suggestion of the author, who did not desire that his identity should be +known until after the manuscript had been read and passed upon by the +house. It was explained that the writer was not a famous author; in +fact, he had never written anything before; this was his first book of +any sort; he merely wanted to "try his wings." The manuscript was read +in due time by the Scribner readers, and the mutual friend was advised +that the house would be glad to publish the novel, and was ready to +execute and send a contract to the author if the firm knew in whose name +the agreement should be made. Then came the first intimation of the +identity of the author: the friend wrote that if the publishers would +look in the right-hand corner of the first page of the manuscript they +would find there the author's name. Search finally revealed an asterisk. +The author of the novel (Valentino) was William Waldorf Astor. + +Although the Scribners did not publish Mark Twain's books, the humorist +was a frequent visitor to the retail store, and occasionally he would +wander back to the publishing department located at the rear of the +store, which was then at 743 Broadway. + +Smoking was not permitted in the Scribner offices, and, of course, Mark +Twain was always smoking. He generally smoked a granulated tobacco which +he kept in a long check bag made of silk and rubber. When he sauntered +to the back of the Scribner store, he would generally knock the residue +from the bowl of the pipe, take out the stem, place it in his vest +pocket, like a pencil, and drop the bowl into the bag containing the +granulated tobacco. When he wanted to smoke again (which was usually +five minutes later) he would fish out the bowl, now automatically filled +with tobacco, insert the stem, and strike a light. One afternoon as he +wandered into Bok's office, he was just putting his pipe away. The pipe, +of the corncob variety, was very aged and black. Bok asked him whether +it was the only pipe he had. + +"Oh, no," Mark answered, "I have several. But they're all like this. I +never smoke a new corncob pipe. A new pipe irritates the throat. No +corncob pipe is fit for anything until it has been used at least a +fortnight." + +"How do you break in a pipe, then?" asked Bok. + +"That's the trick," answered Mark Twain. "I get a cheap man--a man who +doesn't amount to much, anyhow: who would be as well, or better, +dead--and pay him a dollar to break in the pipe for me. I get him to +smoke the pipe for a couple of weeks, then put in a new stem, and +continue operations as long as the pipe holds together." + +Bok's newspaper syndicate work had brought him into contact with Fanny +Davenport, then at the zenith of her career as an actress. Miss +Davenport, or Mrs. Melbourne McDowell as she was in private life, had +never written for print; but Bok, seeing that she had something to say +about her art and the ability to say it, induced her to write for the +newspapers through his syndicate. The actress was overjoyed to have +revealed to her a hitherto unsuspected gift; Bok published her articles +successfully, and gave her a publicity that her press agent had never +dreamed of. Miss Davenport became interested in the young publisher, and +after watching the methods which he employed in successfully publishing +her writings, decided to try to obtain his services as her assistant +manager. She broached the subject, offered him a five years' contract +for forty weeks' service, with a minimum of fifteen weeks each year to +spend in or near New York, at a salary, for the first year, of three +thousand dollars, increasing annually until the fifth year, when he was +to receive sixty-four hundred dollars. + +Bok was attracted to the work: he had never seen the United States, was +anxious to do so, and looked upon the chance as a good opportunity. Miss +Davenport had the contract made out, executed it, and then, in high +glee, Bok took it home to show it to his mother. He had reckoned without +question upon her approval, only to meet with an immediate and decided +negative to the proposition as a whole, general and specific. She argued +that the theatrical business was not for him; and she saw ahead and +pointed out so strongly the mistake he was making that he sought Miss +Davenport the next day and told her of his mother's stand. The actress +suggested that she see the mother; she did, that day, and she came away +from the interview a wiser if a sadder woman. Miss Davenport frankly +told Bok that with such an instinctive objection as his mother seemed to +have, he was right to follow her advice and the contract was not to be +thought of. + +It is difficult to say whether this was or was not for Bok the +turning-point which comes in the life of every young man. Where the +venture into theatrical life would have led him no one can, of course, +say. One thing is certain: Bok's instinct and reason both failed him in +this instance. He believes now that had his venture into the theatrical +field been temporary or permanent, the experiment, either way, would +have been disastrous. + +Looking back and viewing the theatrical profession even as it was in +that day (of a much higher order than now), he is convinced he would +never have been happy in it. He might have found this out in a year or +more, after the novelty of travelling had worn off, and asked release +from his contract; in that case he would have broken his line of +progress in the publishing business. From whatever viewpoint he has +looked back upon this, which he now believes to have been the crisis in +his life, he is convinced that his mother's instinct saved him from a +grievous mistake. + +The Scribner house, in its foreign-book department, had imported some +copies of Bourrienne's Life of Napoleon, and a set had found its way to +Bok's desk for advertising purposes. He took the books home to glance +them over, found himself interested, and sat up half the night to read +them. Then he took the set to the editor of the New York Star, and +suggested that such a book warranted a special review, and offered to +leave the work for the literary editor. + +"You have read the books?" asked the editor. + +"Every word," returned Bok. + +"Then, why don't you write the review?" suggested the editor. + +This was a new thought to Bok. "Never wrote a review," he said. + +"Try it," answered the editor. "Write a column." + +"A column wouldn't scratch the surface of this book," suggested the +embryo reviewer. + +"Well, give it what it is worth," returned the editor. + +Bok did. He wrote a page of the paper. + +"Too much, too much," said the editor. "Heavens, man, we've got to get +some news into this paper." + +"Very well," returned the reviewer. "Read it, and cut it where you like. +That's the way I see the book." + +And next Sunday the review appeared, word for word, as Bok had written +it. His first review had successfully passed! + +But Bok was really happiest in that part of his work which concerned +itself with the writing of advertisements. The science of advertisement +writing, which meant to him the capacity to say much in little space, +appealed strongly. He found himself more honestly attracted to this than +to the writing of his literary letter, his editorials, or his book +reviewing, of which he was now doing a good deal. He determined to +follow where his bent led; he studied the mechanics of unusual +advertisements wherever he saw them; he eagerly sought a knowledge of +typography and its best handling in an advertisement, and of the value +and relation of illustrations to text. He perceived that his work along +these lines seemed to give satisfaction to his employers, since they +placed more of it in his hands to do; and he sought in every way to +become proficient in the art. + +To publishers whose advertisements he secured for the periodicals in his +charge, he made suggestions for the improvement of their announcements, +and found his suggestions accepted. He early saw the value of white +space as one of the most effective factors in advertising; but this was +a difficult argument, he soon found, to convey successfully to others. A +white space in an advertisement was to the average publisher something +to fill up; Bok saw in it something to cherish for its effectiveness. +But he never got very far with his idea: he could not convince (perhaps +because he failed to express his ideas convincingly) his advertisers of +what he felt and believed so strongly. + +An occasion came in which he was permitted to prove his contention. The +Scribners had published Andrew Carnegie's volume, Triumphant Democracy, +and the author desired that some special advertising should be done in +addition to that allowed by the appropriation made by the house. To +Bok's grateful ears came the injunction from the steel magnate: "Use +plenty of white space." In conjunction with Mr. Doubleday, Bok prepared +and issued this extra advertising, and for once, at least, the wisdom of +using white space was demonstrated. But it was only a flash in the pan. +Publishers were unwilling to pay for "unused space," as they termed it. +Each book was a separate unit, others argued: it was not like +advertising one article continuously in which money could be invested; +and only a limited amount could be spent on a book which ran its course, +even at its best, in a very short time. + +And, rightly or wrongly, book advertising has continued much along the +same lines until the present day. In fact, in no department of +manufacturing or selling activity has there been so little progress +during the past fifty years as in bringing books to the notice of the +public. In all other lines, the producer has brought his wares to the +public, making it easier and still easier for it to obtain his goods, +while the public, if it wants a book, must still seek the book instead +of being sought by it. + +That there is a tremendous unsupplied book demand in this country there +is no doubt: the wider distribution and easier access given to +periodicals prove this point. Now and then there has been tried an +unsupported or not well-thought-out plan for bringing books to a public +not now reading them, but there seems little or no understanding of the +fact that there lies an uncultivated field of tremendous promise to the +publisher who will strike out on a new line and market his books, so +that the public will not have to ferret out a book-store or wind through +the maze of a department store. The American reading public is not the +book-reading public that it should be or could be made to be; but the +habit must be made easy for it to acquire. Books must be placed where +the public can readily get at them. It will not, of its own volition, +seek them. It did not do so with magazines; it will not do so with +books. + +In the meanwhile, Bok's literary letter had prospered until it was now +published in some forty-five newspapers. One of these was the +Philadelphia Times. In that paper, each week, the letter had been read +by Mr. Cyrus H. K. Curtis, the owner and publisher of The Ladies' Home +Journal. Mr. Curtis had decided that he needed an editor for his +magazine, in order to relieve his wife, who was then editing it, and he +fixed upon the writer of Literary Leaves as his man. He came to New +York, consulted Will Carleton, the poet, and found that while the letter +was signed by William J. Bok, it was actually written by his brother who +was with the Scribners. So he sought Bok out there. + +The publishing house had been advertising in the Philadelphia magazine, +so that the visit of Mr. Curtis was not an occasion for surprise. Mr. +Curtis told Bok he had read his literary letter in the Philadelphia +Times, and suggested that perhaps he might write a similar department +for The Ladies' Home Journal. Bok saw no reason why he should not, and +told Mr. Curtis so, and promised to send over a trial installment. The +Philadelphia publisher then deftly went on, explained editorial +conditions in his magazine, and, recognizing the ethics of the occasion +by not offering Bok another position while he was already occupying one, +asked him if he knew the man for the place. + +"Are you talking at me or through me?" asked Bok. + +"Both," replied Mr. Curtis. + +This was in April of 1889. + +Bok promised Mr. Curtis he would look over the field, and meanwhile he +sent over to Philadelphia the promised trial "literary gossip" +installment. It pleased Mr. Curtis, who suggested a monthly department, +to which Bok consented. He also turned over in his mind the wisdom of +interrupting his line of progress with the Scribners, and in New York, +and began to contemplate the possibilities in Philadelphia and the work +there. + +He gathered a collection of domestic magazines then published, and +looked them over to see what was already in the field. Then he began to +study himself, his capacity for the work, and the possibility of finding +it congenial. He realized that it was absolutely foreign to his Scribner +work: that it meant a radical departure. But his work with his newspaper +syndicate naturally occurred to him, and he studied it with a view of +its adaptation to the field of the Philadelphia magazine. + +His next step was to take into his confidence two or three friends whose +judgment he trusted and discuss the possible change. Without an +exception, they advised against it. The periodical had no standing, they +argued; Bok would be out of sympathy with its general atmosphere after +his Scribner environment; he was now in the direct line of progress in +New York publishing houses; and, to cap the climax, they each argued in +turn, he would be buried in Philadelphia: New York was the centre, etc., +etc. + +More than any other single argument, this last point destroyed Bok's +faith in the judgment of his friends. He had had experience enough to +realize that a man could not be buried in any city, provided he had the +ability to stand out from his fellow-men. He knew from his biographical +reading that cream will rise to the surface anywhere, in Philadelphia as +well as in New York: it all depended on whether the cream was there: it +was up to the man. Had he within him that peculiar, subtle something +that, for the want of a better phrase, we call the editorial instinct? +That was all there was to it, and that decision had to be his and his +alone! + +A business trip for the Scribners now calling him West, Bok decided to +stop at Philadelphia, have a talk with Mr. Curtis, and look over his +business plant. He did this, and found Mr. Curtis even more desirous +than before to have him consider the position. Bok's instinct was +strongly in favor of an acceptance. A natural impulse moved him, without +reasoning, to action. Reasoning led only to a cautious mental state, and +caution is a strong factor in the Dutch character. The longer he pursued +a conscious process of reasoning, the farther he got from the position. +But the instinct remained strong. + +On his way back from the West, he stopped in Philadelphia again to +consult his friend, George W. Childs; and here he found the only person +who was ready to encourage him to make the change. + +Bok now laid the matter before his mother, in whose feminine instinct he +had supreme confidence. With her, he met with instant discouragement. +But in subsequent talks he found that her opposition was based not upon +the possibilities inherent in the position, but on a mother's natural +disinclination to be separated from one of her sons. In the case of +Fanny Davenport's offer the mother's instinct was strong against the +proposition itself. But in the present instance it was the mother's love +that was speaking; not her instinct or judgment. + +Bok now consulted his business associates, and, to a man, they +discouraged the step, but almost invariably upon the argument that it +was suicidal to leave New York. He had now a glimpse of the truth that +there is no man so provincially narrow as the untravelled New Yorker who +believes in his heart that the sun rises in the East River and sets in +the North River. + +He realized more keenly than ever before that the decision rested with +him alone. On September 1, 1889, Bok wrote to Mr. Curtis, accepting the +position in Philadelphia; and on October 13 following he left the +Scribners, where he had been so fortunate and so happy, and, after a +week's vacation, followed where his instinct so strongly led, but where +his reason wavered. + +On October 20, 1889, Edward Bok became the editor of The Ladies' Home +Journal. + + + +XV. Successful Editorship + +There is a popular notion that the editor of a woman's magazine should +be a woman. At first thought, perhaps, this sounds logical. But it is a +curious fact that by far the larger number of periodicals for women, the +world over, are edited by men; and where, as in some cases, a woman is +the proclaimed editor, the direction of the editorial policy is +generally in the hands of a man, or group of men, in the background. Why +this is so has never been explained, any more than why the majority of +women's dressmakers are men; why music, with its larger appeal to women, +has been and is still being composed, largely, by men, and why its +greatest instrumental performers are likewise men; and why the church, +with its larger membership of women, still has, as it always has had, +men for its greatest preachers. + +In fact, we may well ponder whether the full editorial authority and +direction of a modern magazine, either essentially feminine in its +appeal or not, can safely be entrusted to a woman when one considers how +largely executive is the nature of such a position, and how thoroughly +sensitive the modern editor must be to the hundred and one practical +business matters which today enter into and form so large a part of the +editorial duties. We may question whether women have as yet had +sufficient experience in the world of business to cope successfully with +the material questions of a pivotal editorial position. Then, again, it +is absolutely essential in the conduct of a magazine with a feminine or +home appeal to have on the editorial staff women who are experts in +their line; and the truth is that women will work infinitely better +under the direction of a man than of a woman. + +It would seem from the present outlook that, for some time, at least, +the so-called woman's magazine of large purpose and wide vision is very +likely to be edited by a man. It is a question, however, whether the day +of the woman's magazine, as we have known it, is not passing. Already +the day has gone for the woman's magazine built on the old lines which +now seem so grotesque and feeble in the light of modern growth. The +interests of women and of men are being brought closer with the years, +and it will not be long before they will entirely merge. This means a +constantly diminishing necessity for the distinctly feminine magazine. + +Naturally, there will always be a field in the essentially feminine +pursuits which have no place in the life of a man, but these are rapidly +being cared for by books, gratuitously distributed, issued by the +manufacturers of distinctly feminine and domestic wares; for such +publications the best talent is being employed, and the results are +placed within easy access of women, by means of newspaper advertisement, +the store-counter, or the mails. These will sooner or later--and much +sooner than later--supplant the practical portions of the woman's +magazine, leaving only the general contents, which are equally +interesting to men and to women. Hence the field for the magazine with +the essentially feminine appeal is contracting rather than broadening, +and it is likely to contract much more rapidly in the future. + +The field was altogether different when Edward Bok entered it in 1889. +It was not only wide open, but fairly crying out to be filled. The day +of Godey's Lady's Book had passed; Peterson's Magazine was breathing its +last; and the home or women's magazines that had attempted to take their +place were sorry affairs. It was this consciousness of a void ready to +be filled that made the Philadelphia experiment so attractive to the +embryo editor. He looked over the field and reasoned that if such +magazines as did exist could be fairly successful, if women were ready +to buy such, how much greater response would there be to a magazine of +higher standards, of larger initiative--a magazine that would be an +authoritative clearing-house for all the problems confronting women in +the home, that brought itself closely into contact with those problems +and tried to solve them in an entertaining and efficient way; and yet a +magazine of uplift and inspiration: a magazine, in other words, that +would give light and leading in the woman's world. + +The method of editorial expression in the magazines of 1889 was also +distinctly vague and prohibitively impersonal. The public knew the name +of scarcely a single editor of a magazine: there was no personality that +stood out in the mind: the accepted editorial expression was the +indefinite "we"; no one ventured to use the first person singular and +talk intimately to the reader. Edward Bok's biographical reading had +taught him that the American public loved a personality: that it was +always ready to recognize and follow a leader, provided, of course, that +the qualities of leadership were demonstrated. He felt the time had +come--the reference here and elsewhere is always to the realm of popular +magazine literature appealing to a very wide audience--for the editor of +some magazine to project his personality through the printed page and to +convince the public that he was not an oracle removed from the people, +but a real human being who could talk and not merely write on paper. + +He saw, too, that the average popular magazine of 1889 failed of large +success because it wrote down to the public--a grievous mistake that so +many editors have made and still make. No one wants to be told, either +directly or indirectly, that he knows less than he does, or even that he +knows as little as he does: every one is benefited by the opposite +implication, and the public will always follow the leader who +comprehends this bit of psychology. There is always a happy medium +between shooting over the public's head and shooting too far under it. +And it is because of the latter aim that we find the modern popular +magazine the worthless thing that, in so many instances, it is to-day. + +It is the rare editor who rightly gauges his public psychology. Perhaps +that is why, in the enormous growth of the modern magazine, there have +been produced so few successful editors. The average editor is obsessed +with the idea of "giving the public what it wants," whereas, in fact, +the public, while it knows what it wants when it sees it, cannot clearly +express its wants, and never wants the thing that it does ask for, +although it thinks it does at the time. But woe to the editor and his +periodical if he heeds that siren voice! + +The editor has, therefore, no means of finding it out aforehand by +putting his ear to the ground. Only by the simplest rules of psychology +can he edit rightly so that he may lead, and to the average editor of +to-day, it is to be feared, psychology is a closed book. His mind is all +too often focussed on the circulation and advertising, and all too +little on the intangibles that will bring to his periodical the results +essential in these respects. + +The editor is the pivot of a magazine. On him everything turns. If his +gauge of the public is correct, readers will come: they cannot help +coming to the man who has something to say himself, or who presents +writers who have. And if the reader comes, the advertiser must come. He +must go where his largest market is: where the buyers are. The +advertiser, instead of being the most difficult factor in a magazine +proposition, as is so often mistakenly thought, is, in reality, the +simplest. He has no choice but to advertise in the successful +periodical. He must come along. The editor need never worry about him. +If the advertiser shuns the periodical's pages, the fault is rarely that +of the advertiser: the editor can generally look for the reason nearer +home. + +One of Edward Bok's first acts as editor was to offer a series of prizes +for the best answers to three questions he put to his readers: what in +the magazine did they like least and why; what did they like best and +why; and what omitted feature or department would they like to see +installed? Thousands of answers came, and these the editor personally +read carefully and classified. Then he gave his readers' suggestions +back to them in articles and departments, but never on the level +suggested by them. He gave them the subjects they asked for, but +invariably on a slightly higher plane; and each year he raised the +standard a notch. He always kept "a huckleberry or two" ahead of his +readers. His psychology was simple: come down to the level which the +public sets and it will leave you at the moment you do it. It always +expects of its leaders that they shall keep a notch above or a step +ahead. The American public always wants something a little better than +it asks for, and the successful man, in catering to it, is he who +follows this golden rule. + + + +XVI. First Years as a Woman's Editor + +Edward Bok has often been referred to as the one "who made The Ladies' +Home Journal out of nothing," who "built it from the ground up," or, in +similar terms, implying that when he became its editor in 1889 the +magazine was practically non-existent. This is far from the fact. The +magazine was begun in 1883, and had been edited by Mrs. Cyrus H. K. +Curtis, for six years, under her maiden name of Louisa Knapp, before Bok +undertook its editorship. Mrs. Curtis had laid a solid foundation of +principle and policy for the magazine: it had achieved a circulation of +440,000 copies a month when she transferred the editorship, and it had +already acquired such a standing in the periodical world as to attract +the advertisements of Charles Scribner's Sons, which Mr. Doubleday, and +later Bok himself, gave to the Philadelphia magazine--advertising which +was never given lightly, or without the most careful investigation of +the worth of the circulation of a periodical. + +What every magazine publisher knows as the most troublous years in the +establishment of a periodical, the first half-dozen years of its +existence, had already been weathered by the editor and publisher. The +wife as editor and the husband as publisher had combined to lay a solid +basis upon which Bok had only to build: his task was simply to rear a +structure upon the foundation already laid. It is to the vision and to +the genius of the first editor of The Ladies' Home Journal that the +unprecedented success of the magazine is primarily due. It was the +purpose and the policy of making a magazine of authoritative service for +the womanhood of America, a service which would visualize for womanhood +its highest domestic estate, that had won success for the periodical +from its inception. It is difficult to believe, in the multiplicity of +similar magazines to-day, that such a purpose was new; that The Ladies' +Home Journal was a path-finder; but the convincing proof is found in the +fact that all the later magazines of this class have followed in the +wake of the periodical conceived by Mrs. Curtis, and have ever since +been its imitators. + +When Edward Bok succeeded Mrs. Curtis, he immediately encountered +another popular misconception of a woman's magazine--the conviction that +if a man is the editor of a periodical with a distinctly feminine +appeal, he must, as the term goes, "understand women." If Bok had +believed this to be true, he would never have assumed the position. How +deeply rooted is this belief was brought home to him on every hand when +his decision to accept the Philadelphia position was announced. His +mother, knowing her son better than did any one else, looked at him with +amazement. She could not believe that he was serious in his decision to +cater to women's needs when he knew so little about them. His friends, +too, were intensely amused, and took no pains to hide their amusement +from him. They knew him to be the very opposite of "a lady's man," and +when they were not convulsed with hilarity they were incredulous and +marvelled. + +No man, perhaps, could have been chosen for the position who had a less +intimate knowledge of women. Bok had no sister, no women confidantes: he +had lived with and for his mother. She was the only woman he really knew +or who really knew him. His boyhood days had been too full of poverty +and struggle to permit him to mingle with the opposite sex. And it is a +curious fact that Edward Bok's instinctive attitude toward women was +that of avoidance. He did not dislike women, but it could not be said +that he liked them. They had never interested him. Of women, therefore, +he knew little; of their needs less. Nor had he the slightest desire, +even as an editor, to know them better, or to seek to understand them. +Even at that age, he knew that, as a man, he could not, no matter what +effort he might make, and he let it go at that. + +What he saw in the position was not the need to know women; he could +employ women for that purpose. He perceived clearly that the editor of a +magazine was largely an executive: his was principally the work of +direction; of studying currents and movements, watching their formation, +their tendency, their efficacy if advocated or translated into +actuality; and then selecting from the horizon those that were for the +best interests of the home. For a home was something Edward Bok did +understand. He had always lived in one; had struggled to keep it +together, and he knew every inch of the hard road that makes for +domestic permanence amid adverse financial conditions. And at the home +he aimed rather than at the woman in it. + +It was upon his instinct that he intended to rely rather than upon any +knowledge of woman. His first act in the editorial chair of The Ladies' +Home Journal showed him to be right in this diagnosis of himself, for +the incident proved not only how correct was his instinct, but how +woefully lacking he was in any knowledge of the feminine nature. + +He had divined the fact that in thousands of cases the American mother +was not the confidante of her daughter, and reasoned if an inviting +human personality could be created on the printed page that would supply +this lamentable lack of American family life, girls would flock to such +a figure. But all depended on the confidence which the written word +could inspire. He tried several writers, but in each case the particular +touch that he sought for was lacking. It seemed so simple to him, and +yet he could not translate it to others. Then, in desperation, he wrote +an installment of such a department as he had in mind himself, intending +to show it to a writer he had in view, thus giving her a visual +demonstration. He took it to the office the next morning, intending to +have it copied, but the manuscript accidentally attached itself to +another intended for the composing-room, and it was not until the +superintendent of the composing-room during the day said to him, "I +didn't know Miss Ashmead wrote," that Bok knew where his manuscript had +gone. + +Miss Ashmead?" asked the puzzled editor. + +Yes, Miss Ashmead in your department," was the answer. + +The whereabouts of the manuscript was then disclosed, and the editor +called for its return. He had called the department "Side Talks with +Girls" by Ruth Ashmead. + +"My girls all hope this is going into the magazine," said the +superintendent when he returned the manuscript. + +"Why?" asked the editor. + +"Well, they say it's the best stuff for girls they have ever read. +They'd love to know Miss Ashmead better." + +Here was exactly what the editor wanted, but he was the author! He +changed the name to Ruth Ashmore, and decided to let the manuscript go +into the magazine. He reasoned that he would then have a month in which +to see the writer he had in mind, and he would show her the proof. But a +month filled itself with other duties, and before the editor was aware +of it, the composition-room wanted "copy" for the second installment of +"Side Talks with Girls." Once more the editor furnished the copy! + +Within two weeks after the second article had been written, the magazine +containing the first installment of the new department appeared, and the +next day two hundred letters were received for "Ruth Ashmore," with the +mail-clerk asking where they should be sent. "Leave them with me, +please," replied the editor. On the following day the mail-clerk handed +him five hundred more. + +The editor now took two letters from the top and opened them. He never +opened the third! That evening he took the bundle home, and told his +mother of his predicament. She read the letters and looked at her son. +"You have no right to read these," she said. The son readily agreed. + +His instinct had correctly interpreted the need, but he never dreamed +how far the feminine nature would reveal itself on paper. + +The next morning the editor, with his letters, took the train for New +York and sought his friend, Mrs. Isabel A. Mallon, the "Bab" of his +popular syndicate letter. + +"Have you read this department?" he asked, pointing to the page in the +magazine. + +"I have," answered Mrs. Mallon. "Very well done, too, it is. Who is +'Ruth Ashmore'?' + +"You are," answered Edward Bok. And while it took considerable +persuasion, from that time on Mrs. Mallon became Ruth Ashmore, the most +ridiculed writer in the magazine world, and yet the most helpful editor +that ever conducted a department in periodical literature. For sixteen +years she conducted the department, until she passed away, her last act +being to dictate a letter to a correspondent. In those sixteen years she +had received one hundred and fifty-eight thousand letters: she kept +three stenographers busy, and the number of girls who to-day bless the +name of Ruth Ashmore is legion. + +But the newspaper humorists who insisted that Ruth Ashmore was none +other than Edward Bok never knew the partial truth of their joke! + +The editor soon supplemented this department with one dealing with the +spiritual needs of the mature woman. "The King's Daughters" was then an +organization at the summit of its usefulness, with Margaret Bottome its +president. Edward Bok had heard Mrs. Bottome speak, had met her +personally, and decided that she was the editor for the department he +had in mind. + +"I want it written in an intimate way as if there were only two persons +in the world, you and the person reading. I want heart to speak to +heart. We will make that the title," said the editor, and unconsciously +he thus created the title that has since become familiar wherever +English is spoken: "Heart to Heart Talks." The title gave the department +an instantaneous hearing; the material in it carried out its spirit, and +soon Mrs. Bottome's department rivaled, in popularity, the page by Ruth +Ashmore. + +These two departments more than anything else, and the irresistible +picture of a man editing a woman's magazine, brought forth an era of +newspaper paragraphing and a flood of so-called "humorous" references to +the magazine and editor. It became the vogue to poke fun at both. The +humorous papers took it up, the cartoonists helped it along, and actors +introduced the name of the magazine on the stage in plays and skits. +Never did a periodical receive such an amount of gratuitous advertising. +Much of the wit was absolutely without malice: some of it was written by +Edward Bok's best friends, who volunteered to "let up" would he but +raise a finger. + +But he did not raise the finger. No one enjoyed the "paragraphs" more +heartily when the wit was good, and in that case, if the writer was +unknown to him, he sought him out and induced him to write for him. In +this way, George Fitch was found on the Peoria, Illinois, Transcript and +introduced to his larger public in the magazine and book world through +The Ladies' Home Journal, whose editor he believed he had "most +unmercifully roasted";--but he had done it so cleverly that the editor +at once saw his possibilities. + +When all his friends begged Bok to begin proceedings against the New +York Evening Sun because of the libellous (?) articles written about him +by "The Woman About Town," the editor admired the style rather than the +contents, made her acquaintance, and secured her as a regular writer: +she contributed to the magazine some of the best things published in its +pages. But she did not abate her opinions of Bok and his magazine in her +articles in the newspaper, and Bok did not ask it of her: he felt that +she had a right to her opinions--those he was not buying; but he was +eager to buy her direct style in treating subjects he knew no other +woman could so effectively handle. + +And with his own limited knowledge of the sex, he needed, and none knew +it better than did he, the ablest women he could obtain to help him +realize his ideals. Their personal opinions of him did not matter so +long as he could command their best work. Sooner or later, when his +purposes were better understood, they might alter those opinions. For +that he could afford to wait. But he could not wait to get their work. + +By this time the editor had come to see that the power of a magazine +might lie more securely behind the printed page than in it. He had begun +to accustom his readers to writing to his editors upon all conceivable +problems. + +This he decided to encourage. He employed an expert in each line of +feminine endeavor, upon the distinct understanding that the most +scrupulous attention should be given to her correspondence: that every +letter, no matter how inconsequential, should be answered quickly, +fully, and courteously, with the questioner always encouraged to come +again if any problem of whatever nature came to her. He told his editors +that ignorance on any question was a misfortune, not a crime; and he +wished their correspondence treated in the most courteous and helpful +spirit. + +Step by step, the editor built up this service behind the magazine until +he had a staff of thirty-five editors on the monthly pay-roll; in each +issue, he proclaimed the willingness of these editors to answer +immediately any questions by mail, he encouraged and cajoled his readers +to form the habit of looking upon his magazine as a great clearing-house +of information. Before long, the letters streamed in by the tens of +thousands during a year. The editor still encouraged, and the total ran +into the hundreds of thousands, until during the last year, before the +service was finally stopped by the Great War of 1917-18, the yearly +correspondence totalled nearly a million letters. + +The work of some of these editors never reached the printed page, and +yet was vastly more important than any published matter could possibly +be. Out of the work of Ruth Ashmore, for instance, there grew a class of +cases of the most confidential nature. These cases, distributed all over +the country, called for special investigation and personal contact. Bok +selected Mrs. Lyman Abbott for this piece of delicate work, and, through +the wide acquaintance of her husband, she was enabled to reach, +personally, every case in every locality, and bring personal help to +bear on it. These cases mounted into the hundreds, and the good +accomplished through this quiet channel cannot be overestimated. + +The lack of opportunity for an education in Bok's own life led him to +cast about for some plan whereby an education might be obtained without +expense by any one who desired. He finally hit upon the simple plan of +substituting free scholarships for the premiums then so frequently +offered by periodicals for subscriptions secured. Free musical education +at the leading conservatories was first offered to any girl who would +secure a certain number of subscriptions to The Ladies' Home Journal, +the complete offer being a year's free tuition, with free room, free +board, free piano in her own room, and all travelling expenses paid. The +plan was an immediate success: the solicitation of a subscription by a +girl desirous of educating herself made an irresistible appeal. + +This plan was soon extended, so as to include all the girls' colleges, +and finally all the men's colleges, so that a free education might be +possible at any educational institution. So comprehensive it became that +to the close of 1919, one thousand four hundred and fifty-five free +scholarships had been awarded. The plan has now been in operation long +enough to have produced some of the leading singers and instrumental +artists of the day, whose names are familiar to all, as well as +instructors in colleges and scores of teachers; and to have sent several +score of men into conspicuous positions in the business and professional +world. + +Edward Bok has always felt that but for his own inability to secure an +education, and his consequent desire for self-improvement, the +realization of the need in others might not have been so strongly felt +by him, and that his plan whereby thousands of others were benefited +might never have been realized. + +The editor's correspondence was revealing, among other deficiencies, the +wide-spread unpreparedness of the average American girl for motherhood, +and her desperate ignorance when a new life was given her. On the theory +that with the realization of a vital need there is always the person to +meet it, Bok consulted the authorities of the Babies' Hospital of New +York, and found Doctor Emmet Holt's house physician, Doctor Emelyn L. +Coolidge. To the authorities in the world of babies, Bok's discovery +was, of course, a known and serious fact. + +Doctor Coolidge proposed that the magazine create a department of +questions and answers devoted to the problems of young mothers. This was +done, and from the publication of the first issue the questions began to +come in. Within five years the department had grown to such proportions +that Doctor Coolidge proposed a plan whereby mothers might be +instructed, by mail, in the rearing of babies--in their general care, +their feeding, and the complete hygiene of the nursery. + +Bok had already learned, in his editorial experience, carefully to weigh +a woman's instinct against a man's judgment, but the idea of raising +babies by mail floored him. He reasoned, however, that a woman, and more +particularly one who had been in a babies' hospital for years, knew more +about babies than he could possibly know. He consulted baby-specialists +in New York and Philadelphia, and, with one accord, they declared the +plan not only absolutely impracticable but positively dangerous. Bok's +confidence in woman's instinct, however, persisted, and he asked Doctor +Coolidge to map out a plan. + +This called for the services of two physicians: Miss Marianna Wheeler, +for many years superintendent of the Babies' Hospital, was to look after +the prospective mother before the baby's birth; and Doctor Coolidge, +when the baby was born, would immediately send to the young mother a +printed list of comprehensive questions, which, when answered, would be +immediately followed by a full set of directions as to the care of the +child, including carefully prepared food formule. At the end of the +first month, another set of questions was to be forwarded for answer by +the mother, and this monthly service was to be continued until the child +reached the age of two years. The contact with the mother would then +become intermittent, dependent upon the condition of mother and child. +All the directions and formule were to be used only under the direction +of the mother's attendant physician, so that the fullest cooperation +might be established between the physician on the case and the advisory +department of the magazine. + +Despite advice to the contrary, Bok decided, after consulting a number +of mothers, to establish the system. It was understood that the greatest +care was to be exercised: the most expert advice, if needed, was to be +sought and given, and the thousands of cases at the Babies' Hospital +were to be laid under contribution. + +There was then begun a magazine department which was to be classed among +the most clear-cut pieces of successful work achieved by The Ladies' +Home Journal. + +Step by step, the new departure won its way, and was welcomed eagerly by +thousands of young mothers. It was not long before the warmest +commendation from physicians all over the country was received. +Promptness of response and thoroughness of diagnosis were, of course, +the keynotes of the service: where the cases were urgent, the special +delivery post and, later, the night-letter telegraph service were used. + +The plan is now in its eleventh year of successful operation. Some idea +of the enormous extent of its service can be gathered from the amazing +figures that, at the close of the tenth year, show over forty thousand +prospective mothers have been advised, while the number of babies +actually "raised" by Doctor Coolidge approaches eighty thousand. Fully +ninety-five of every hundred of these babies registered have remained +under the monthly letter-care of Doctor Coolidge until their first year, +when the mothers receive a diet list which has proved so effective for +future guidance that many mothers cease to report regularly. Eighty-five +out of every hundred babies have remained in the registry until their +graduation at the age of two. Over eight large sets of library drawers +are required for the records of the babies always under the supervision +of the registry. + +Scores of physicians who vigorously opposed the work at the start have +amended their opinions and now not only give their enthusiastic +endorsement, but have adopted Doctor Coolidge's food formule for their +private and hospital cases. + +It was this comprehensive personal service, built up back of the +magazine from the start, that gave the periodical so firm and unique a +hold on its clientele. It was not the printed word that was its chief +power: scores of editors who have tried to study and diagnose the appeal +of the magazine from the printed page, have remained baffled at the +remarkable confidence elicited from its readers. They never looked back +of the magazine, and therefore failed to discover its secret. Bok went +through three financial panics with the magazine, and while other +periodicals severely suffered from diminished circulation at such times, +The Ladies' Home Journal always held its own. Thousands of women had +been directly helped by the magazine; it had not remained an inanimate +printed thing, but had become a vital need in the personal lives of its +readers. + +So intimate had become this relation, so efficient was the service +rendered, that its readers could not be pried loose from it; where women +were willing and ready, when the domestic pinch came, to let go of other +reading matter, they explained to their husbands or fathers that The +Ladies' Home Journal was a necessity--they did not feel that they could +do without it. The very quality for which the magazine had been held up +to ridicule by the unknowing and unthinking had become, with hundreds of +thousands of women, its source of power and the bulwark of its success. + +Bok was beginning to realize the vision which had lured him from New +York: that of putting into the field of American magazines a periodical +that should become such a clearing-house as virtually to make it an +institution. + +He felt that, for the present at least, he had sufficiently established +the personal contact with his readers through the more intimate +departments, and decided to devote his efforts to the literary features +of the magazine. + + + +XVII. Eugene Field's Practical Jokes + +Eugene Field was one of Edward Bok's close friends and also his despair, +as was likely to be the case with those who were intimate with the +Western poet. One day Field said to Bok: "I am going to make you the +most widely paragraphed man in America." The editor passed the remark +over, but he was to recall it often as his friend set out to make his +boast good. + +The fact that Bok was unmarried and the editor of a woman's magazine +appealed strongly to Field's sense of humor. He knew the editor's +opposition to patent medicines, and so he decided to join the two facts +in a paragraph, put on the wire at Chicago, to the effect that the +editor was engaged to be married to Miss Lavinia Pinkham, the +granddaughter of Mrs. Lydia Pinkham, of patent-medicine fame. The +paragraph carefully described Miss Pinkham, the school where she had +been educated, her talents, her wealth, etc. Field was wise enough to +put the paragraph not in his own column in the Chicago News, lest it be +considered in the light of one of his practical jokes, but on the news +page of the paper, and he had it put on the Associated Press wire. + +He followed this up a few days later with a paragraph announcing Bok's +arrival at a Boston hotel. Then came a paragraph saying that Miss +Pinkham was sailing for Paris to buy her trousseau. The paragraphs were +worded in the most matter-of-fact manner, and completely fooled the +newspapers, even those of Boston. Field was delighted at the success of +his joke, and the fact that Bok was in despair over the letters that +poured in upon him added to Field's delight. + +He now asked Bok to come to Chicago. "I want you to know some of my +cronies," he wrote. "Julia [his wife] is away, so we will shift for +ourselves." Bok arrived in Chicago one Sunday afternoon, and was to dine +at Field's house that evening. He found a jolly company: James Whitcomb +Riley, Sol Smith Russell the actor, Opie Read, and a number of Chicago's +literary men. + +When seven o'clock came, some one suggested to Field that something to +eat might not be amiss. + +"Shortly," answered the poet. "Wife is out; cook is new, and dinner will +be a little late. Be patient." But at eight o'clock there was still no +dinner. Riley began to grow suspicious and slipped down-stairs. He found +no one in the kitchen and the range cold. He came back and reported. +"Nonsense," said Field. "It can't be." All went down-stairs to find out +the truth. "Let's get supper ourselves," suggested Russell. Then it was +discovered that not a morsel of food was to be found in the +refrigerator, closet, or cellar. "That's a joke on us," said Field. +"Julia has left us without a crumb to eat. + +It was then nine o'clock. Riley and Bok held a council of war and +decided to slip out and buy some food, only to find that the front, +basement, and back doors were locked and the keys missing! Field was +very sober. "Thorough woman, that wife of mine," he commented. But his +friends knew better. + +Finally, the Hoosier poet and the Philadelphia editor crawled through +one of the basement windows and started on a foraging expedition. Of +course, Field lived in a residential section where there were few +stores, and on Sunday these were closed. There was nothing to do but to +board a down-town car. Finally they found a delicatessen shop open, and +the two hungry men amazed the proprietor by nearly buying out his stock. + +It was after ten o'clock when Riley and Bok got back to the house with +their load of provisions to find every door locked, every curtain drawn, +and the bolt sprung on every window. Only the cellar grating remained, +and through this the two dropped their bundles and themselves, and +appeared in the dining-room, dirty and dishevelled, to find the party at +table enjoying a supper which Field had carefully hidden and brought out +when they had left the house. + +Riley, cold and hungry, and before this time the victim of Field's +practical jokes, was not in a merry humor and began to recite +paraphrases of Field's poems. Field retorted by paraphrasing Riley's +poems, and mimicking the marked characteristics of Riley's speech. This +started Sol Smith Russell, who mimicked both. The fun grew fast and +furious, the entire company now took part, Mrs. Field's dresses were +laid under contribution, and Field, Russell, and Riley gave an impromptu +play. And it was upon this scene that Mrs. Field, after a continuous +ringing of the door-bell and nearly battering down the door, appeared at +seven o'clock the next morning! + +It was fortunate that Eugene Field had a patient wife; she needed every +ounce of patience that she could command. And no one realized this more +keenly than did her husband. He once told of a dream he had which +illustrated the endurance of his wife. + +"I thought," said Field, "that I had died and gone to heaven. I had some +difficulty in getting past St. Peter, who regarded me with doubt and +suspicion, and examined my records closely, but finally permitted me to +enter the pearly gates. As I walked up the street of the heavenly city, +I saw a venerable old man with long gray hair and flowing beard. His +benignant face encouraged me to address him. 'I have just arrived and I +am entirely unacquainted,' I said. 'May I ask your name?' + +"'My name,' he replied, 'is Job.' + +"'Indeed,' I exclaimed, 'are you that Job whom we were taught to revere +as the most patient being in the world?' + +"'The same,' he said, with a shadow of hesitation; 'I did have quite a +reputation for patience once, but I hear that there is a woman now on +earth, in Chicago, who has suffered more than I ever did, and she has +endured it with great resignation.' + +"'Why,' said I, 'that is curious. I am just from earth, and from +Chicago, and I do not remember to have heard of her case. What is her +name?' + +"'Mrs. Eugene Field,' was the reply. + +"Just then I awoke," ended Field. + +The success of Field's paragraph engaging Bok to Miss Pinkham stimulated +the poet to greater effort. Bok had gone to Europe; Field, having found +out the date of his probable return, just about when the steamer was +due, printed an interview with the editor "at quarantine" which sounded +so plausible that even the men in Bok's office in Philadelphia were +fooled and prepared for his arrival. The interview recounted, in detail, +the changes in women's fashions in Paris, and so plausible had Field +made it, based upon information obtained at Marshall Field's, that even +the fashion papers copied it. + +All this delighted Field beyond measure. Bok begged him to desist; but +Field answered by printing an item to the effect that there was the +highest authority for denying "the reports industriously circulated some +time ago to the effect that Mr. Bok was engaged to be married to a New +England young lady, whereas, as a matter of fact, it is no violation of +friendly confidence that makes it possible to announce that the +Philadelphia editor is engaged to Mrs. Frank Leslie, of New York." + +It so happened that Field put this new paragraph on the wire just about +the time that Bok's actual engagement was announced. Field was now +deeply contrite, and sincerely promised Bok and his fiancee to reform. +"I'm through, you mooning, spooning calf, you," he wrote Bok, and his +friend believed him, only to receive a telegram the next day from Mrs. +Field warning him that "Gene is planning a series of telephonic +conversations with you and Miss Curtis at college that I think should +not be printed." Bok knew it was of no use trying to curb Field's +industry, and so he wired the editor of the Chicago News for his +cooperation. Field, now checked, asked Bok and his fiancee and the +parents of both to come to Chicago, be his guests for the World's Fair, +and "let me make amends." + +It was a happy visit. Field was all kindness, and, of course, the entire +party was charmed by his personality. But the boy in him could not be +repressed. He had kept it down all through the visit. "No, not a +joke-cross my heart," he would say, and then he invited the party to +lunch with him on their way to the train when they were leaving for +home. "But we shall be in our travelling clothes, not dressed for a +luncheon," protested the women. It was an unfortunate protest, for it +gave Field an idea! "Oh," he assured them, "just a goodbye luncheon at +the club; just you folks and Julia and me." They believed him, only to +find upon their arrival at the club an assembly of over sixty guests at +one of the most elaborate luncheons ever served in Chicago, with each +woman guest carefully enjoined by Field, in his invitation, to "put on +her prettiest and most elaborate costume in order to dress up the +table!" + +One day Field came to Philadelphia to give a reading in Camden in +conjunction with George W. Cable. It chanced that his friend, Francis +Wilson, was opening that same evening in Philadelphia in a new comic +opera which Field had not seen. He immediately refused to give his +reading, and insisted upon going to the theatre. The combined efforts of +his manager, Wilson, Mr. Cable, and his friends finally persuaded him to +keep his engagement and join in a double-box party later at the theatre. +To make sure that he would keep his lecture appointment, Bok decided to +go to Camden with him. Field and Cable were to appear alternately. + +Field went on for his first number; and when he came off, he turned to +Bok and said: "No use, Bok, I'm a sick man. I must go home. Cable can +see this through," and despite every protestation Field bundled himself +into his overcoat and made for his carriage. "Sick, Bok, really sick," +he muttered as they rode along. Then seeing a fruit-stand he said: "Buy +me a bag of oranges, like a good fellow. They'll do me good. + +When Philadelphia was reached, he suggested: "Do you know I think it +would do me good to go and see Frank in the new play? Tell the driver to +go to the theatre like a good boy." Of course, that had been his intent +all along! When the theatre was reached he insisted upon taking the +oranges with him. "They'll steal 'em if you leave 'em there," he said. + +Field lost all traces of his supposed illness the moment he reached the +box. Francis Wilson was on the stage with Marie Jansen. "Isn't it +beautiful?" said Field, and directing the attention of the party to the +players, he reached under his chair for the bag of oranges, took one +out, and was about to throw it at Wilson when Bok caught his arm, took +the orange away from him, and grabbed the bag. Field never forgave Bok +for this act of watchfulness. "Treason," he hissed--"going back on a +friend." + +The one object of Field's ambition was to achieve the distinction of so +"fussing" Francis Wilson that he would be compelled to ring down the +curtain. He had tried every conceivable trick: had walked on the stage +in one of Wilson's scenes; had started a quarrel with an usher in the +audience--everything that ingenuity could conceive he had practised on +his friend. Bok had known this penchant of Field's, and when he insisted +on taking the bag of oranges into the theatre, Field's purpose was +evident! + +One day Bok received a wire from Field: "City of New Orleans purposing +give me largest public reception on sixth ever given an author. Event of +unusual quality. Mayor and city officials peculiarly desirous of having +you introduce me to vast audience they propose to have. Hate to ask you +to travel so far, but would be great favor to me. Wire answer." Bok +wired back his willingness to travel to New Orleans and oblige his +friend. It occurred to Bok, however, to write to a friend in New Orleans +and ask the particulars. Of course, there was never any thought of Field +going to New Orleans or of any reception. Bok waited for further +advices, and a long letter followed from Field giving him a glowing +picture of the reception planned. Bok sent a message to his New Orleans +friend to be telegraphed from New Orleans on the sixth: "Find whole +thing to be a fake. Nice job to put over on me. Bok." Field was +overjoyed at the apparent success of his joke and gleefully told his +Chicago friends all about it--until he found out that the joke had been +on him. "Durned dirty, I call it," he wrote Bok. + +It was a lively friendship that Eugene Field gave to Edward Bok, full of +anxieties and of continuous forebodings, but it was worth all that it +cost in mental perturbation. No rarer friend ever lived: in his serious +moments he gave one a quality of unforgetable friendship that remains a +precious memory. But his desire for practical jokes was uncontrollable: +it meant being constantly on one's guard, and even then the pranks could +not always be thwarted! + + + +XVIII. Building Up a Magazine + +The newspaper paragraphers were now having a delightful time with Edward +Bok and his woman's magazine, and he was having a delightful time with +them. The editor's publicity sense made him realize how valuable for his +purposes was all this free advertising. The paragraphers believed, in +their hearts, that they were annoying the young editor; they tried to +draw his fire through their articles. But he kept quiet, put his tongue +in his cheek, and determined to give them some choice morsels for their +wit. + +He conceived the idea of making familiar to the public the women who +were back of the successful men of the day. He felt sure that his +readers wanted to know about these women. But to attract his newspaper +friends he labelled the series, "Unknown Wives of Well-Known Men" and +"Clever Daughters of Clever Men." + +The alliterative titles at once attracted the paragraphers; they fell +upon them like hungry trout, and a perfect fusillade of paragraphs +began. This is exactly what the editor wanted; and he followed these two +series immediately by inducing the daughter of Charles Dickens to write +of "My Father as I Knew Him," and Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher, of "Mr. +Beecher as I Knew Him." Bok now felt that he had given the newspapers +enough ammunition to last for some time; and he turned his attention to +building up a more permanent basis for his magazine. + +The two authors of that day who commanded more attention than any others +were William Dean Howells and Rudyard Kipling. Bok knew that these two +would give to his magazine the literary quality that it needed, and so +he laid them both under contribution. He bought Mr. Howells's new novel, +"The Coast of Bohemia," and arranged that Kipling's new novelette upon +which he was working should come to the magazine. Neither the public nor +the magazine editors had expected Bok to break out along these more +permanent lines, and magazine publishers began to realize that a new +competitor had sprung up in Philadelphia. Bok knew they would feel this; +so before he announced Mr. Howells's new novel, he contracted with the +novelist to follow this with his autobiography. This surprised the +editors of the older magazines, for they realized that the Philadelphia +editor had completely tied up the leading novelist of the day for his +next two years' output. + +Meanwhile, in order that the newspapers might be well supplied with +barbs for their shafts, he published an entire number of his magazine +written by famous daughters of famous men. This unique issue presented +contributions by the daughters of Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, +President Harrison, Horace Greeley, William M. Thackeray, William Dean +Howells, General Sherman, Julia Ward Howe, Jefferson Davis, Mr. +Gladstone, and a score of others. This issue simply filled the +paragraphers with glee. Then once more Bok turned to material calculated +to cement the foundation for a more permanent structure. + +He noted, early in its progress, the gathering strength of the drift +toward woman suffrage, and realized that the American woman was not +prepared, in her knowledge of her country, to exercise the privilege of +the ballot. Bok determined to supply the deficiency to his readers, and +concluded to put under contract the President of the United States, +Benjamin Harrison, the moment he left office, to write a series of +articles explaining the United States. No man knew this subject better +than the President; none could write better; and none would attract such +general attention to his magazine, reasoned Bok. He sought the +President, talked it over with him, and found him favorable to the idea. +But the President was in doubt at that time whether he would be a +candidate for another term, and frankly told Bok that he would be taking +too much risk to wait for him. He suggested that the editor try to +prevail upon his then secretary of state, James G. Blaine, to undertake +the series, and offered to see Mr. Blaine and induce him to a favorable +consideration. Bok acquiesced, and a few days afterward received from +Mr. Blaine a request to come to Washington. + +Bok had had a previous experience with Mr. Blaine which had impressed +him to an unusual degree. Many years before, he had called upon him at +his hotel in New York, seeking his autograph, had been received, and as +the statesman was writing his signature he said: "Your name is a +familiar one to me. I have had correspondence with an Edward Bok who is +secretary of state for the Transvaal Republic. Are you related to him?" + +Bok explained that this was his uncle, and that he was named for him. + +Years afterward Bok happened to be at a public meeting where Mr. Blaine +was speaking, and the statesman, seeing him, immediately called him by +name. Bok knew of the reputed marvels of Mr. Blaine's memory, but this +proof of it amazed him. + +"It is simply inconceivable, Mr. Blaine," said Bok, "that you should +remember my name after all these years." + +"Not at all, my boy," returned Mr. Blaine. "Memorizing is simply +association. You associate a fact or an incident with a name and you +remember the name. It never leaves you. The moment I saw you I +remembered you told me that your uncle was secretary of state for the +Transvaal. That at once brought your name to me. You see how simple a +trick it is." + +But Bok did not see, since remembering the incident was to him an even +greater feat of memory than recalling the name. It was a case of having +to remember two things instead of one. + +At all events, Bok was no stranger to James G. Blaine when he called +upon him at his Lafayette Place home in Washington. + +"You've gone ahead in the world some since I last saw you," was the +statesman's greeting. "It seems to go with the name." + +This naturally broke the ice for the editor at once. + +"Let's go to my library where we can talk quietly. What train are you +making back to Philadelphia, by the way?" + +"The four, if I can," replied Bok. + +"Excuse me a moment," returned Mr. Blaine, and when he came back to the +room, he said: "Now let's talk over this interesting proposition that +the President has told me about." + +The two discussed the matter and completed arrangements whereby Mr. +Blaine was to undertake the work. Toward the latter end of the talk, Bok +had covertly--as he thought--looked at his watch to keep track of his +train. + +"It's all right about that train," came from Mr. Blaine, with his back +toward Bok, writing some data of the talk at his desk. "You'll make it +all right." + +Bok wondered how he should, as it then lacked only seventeen minutes of +four. But as Mr. Blaine reached the front door, he said to the editor: +"My carriage is waiting at the curb to take you to the station, and the +coachman has your seat in the parlor car." + +And with this knightly courtesy, Mr. Blaine shook hands with Bok, who +was never again to see him, nor was the contract ever to be fulfilled. +For early in 1893 Mr. Blaine passed away without having begun the work. + +Again Bok turned to the President, and explained to him that, for some +reason or other, the way seemed to point to him to write the articles +himself. By that time President Harrison had decided that he would not +succeed himself. Accordingly he entered into an agreement with the +editor to begin to write the articles immediately upon his retirement +from office. And the day after Inauguration Day every newspaper +contained an Associated Press despatch announcing the former President's +contract with The Ladies' Home Journal. + +Shortly afterward, Benjamin Harrison's articles on "This Country of +Ours" successfully appeared in the magazine. + +During Bok's negotiations with President Harrison in connection with his +series of articles, he was called to the White House for a conference. +It was midsummer. Mrs. Harrison was away at the seashore, and the +President was taking advantage of her absence by working far into the +night. + +The President, his secretary, and Bok sat down to dinner. + +The Marine Band was giving its weekly concert on the green, and after +dinner the President suggested that Bok and he adjourn to the "back lot" +and enjoy the music. + +"You have a coat?" asked the President. + +"No, thank you," Bok answered. "I don't need one." + +"Not in other places, perhaps," he said, "but here you do. The dampness +comes up from the Potomac at nightfall, and it's just as well to be +careful. It's Mrs. Harrison's dictum," he added smiling. "Halford, send +up for one of my light coats, will you, please?" + +Bok remarked, as he put on the President's coat, that this was probably +about as near as he should ever get to the presidency. + +"Well, it's a question whether you want to get nearer to it," answered +the President. He looked very white and tired in the moonlight. + +"Still," Bok said with a smile, "some folks seem to like it well enough +to wish to get it a second time." + +"True," he answered, "but that's what pride will do for a man. Try one +of these cigars." + +A cigar! Bok had been taking his tobacco in smaller doses with paper +around them. He had never smoked a cigar. Still, one cannot very well +refuse a presidential cigar! + +"Thank you," Bok said as he took one from the President's case. He +looked at the cigar and remembered all he had read of Benjamin +Harrison's black cigars. This one was black--inky black--and big. + +"Allow me," he heard the President suddenly say, as he handed him a +blazing match. There was no escape. The aroma was delicious, but--Two or +three whiffs of that cigar, and Bok decided the best thing to do was to +let it go out. He did. + +"I have allowed you to talk so much," said the President after a while, +"that you haven't had a chance to smoke. Allow me," and another match +crackled into flame. + +"Thank you," the editor said, as once more he lighted the cigar, and the +fumes went clear up into the farthest corner of his brain. + +"Take a fresh cigar," said the President after a while. "That doesn't +seem to burn well. You will get one like that once in a while, although +I am careful about my cigars." + +"No, thanks, Mr. President," Bok said hurriedly. "It's I, not the +cigar." + +"Well, prove it to me with another," was the quick rejoinder, as he held +out his case, and in another minute a match again crackled. "There is +only one thing worse than a bad smoke, and that is an office-seeker," +chuckled the President. + +Bok couldn't prove that the cigars were bad, naturally. So smoke that +cigar he did, to the bitter end, and it was bitter! In fifteen minutes +his head and stomach were each whirling around, and no more welcome +words had Bok ever heard than when the President said: "Well, suppose we +go in. Halford and I have a day's work ahead of us yet." + +The President went to work. + +Bok went to bed. He could not get there quick enough, and he +didn't--that is, not before he had experienced that same sensation of +which Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote: he never could understand, he said, +why young authors found so much trouble in getting into the magazines, +for his first trip to Europe was not a day old before, without even the +slightest desire or wish on his part, he became a contributor to the +Atlantic! + +The next day, and for days after, Bok smelled, tasted, and felt that +presidential cigar! + +A few weeks afterward, Bok was talking after dinner with the President +at a hotel in New York, when once more the cigar-case came out and was +handed to Bok. + +"No, thank you, Mr. President," was the instant reply, as visions of his +night in the White House came back to him. "I am like the man from the +West who was willing to try anything once." + +And he told the President the story of the White House cigar. + +The editor decided to follow General Harrison's discussion of American +affairs by giving his readers a glimpse of foreign politics, and he +fixed upon Mr. Gladstone as the one figure abroad to write for him. He +sailed for England, visited Hawarden Castle, and proposed to Mr. +Gladstone that he should write a series of twelve autobiographical +articles which later could be expanded into a book. + +Bok offered fifteen thousand dollars for the twelve articles--a goodly +price in those days--and he saw that the idea and the terms attracted +the English statesman. But he also saw that the statesman was not quite +ready. He decided, therefore, to leave the matter with him, and keep the +avenue of approach favorably open by inducing Mrs. Gladstone to write +for him. Bok knew that Mrs. Gladstone had helped her husband in his +literary work, that she was a woman who had lived a full-rounded life, +and after a day's visit and persuasion, with Mr. Gladstone as an amused +looker-on, the editor closed a contract with Mrs. Gladstone for a series +of reminiscent articles "From a Mother's Life." + +Some time after Bok had sent the check to Mrs. Gladstone, he received a +letter from Mr. Gladstone expressing the opinion that his wife must have +written with a golden pen, considering the size of the honorarium. +"But," he added, "she is so impressed with this as the first money she +has ever earned by her pen that she is reluctant to part with the check. +The result is that she has not offered it for deposit, and has decided +to frame it. Considering the condition of our exchequer, I have tried to +explain to her, and so have my son and daughter, that if she were to +present the check for payment and allow it to pass through the bank, the +check would come back to you and that I am sure your company would +return it to her as a souvenir of the momentous occasion. Our arguments +are of no avail, however, and it occurred to me that an assurance from +you might make the check more useful than it is at present!" + +Bok saw with this disposition that, as he had hoped, the avenue of +favorable approach to Mr. Gladstone had been kept open. The next summer +Bok again visited Hawarden, where he found the statesman absorbed in +writing a life of Bishop Butler, from which it was difficult for him to +turn away. He explained that it would take at least a year or two to +finish this work. Bok saw, of course, his advantage, and closed a +contract with the English statesman whereby he was to write the twelve +autobiographical articles immediately upon his completion of the work +then under his hand. + +Here again, however, as in the case of Mr. Blaine, the contract was +never fulfilled, for Mr. Gladstone passed away before he could free his +mind and begin on the work. + +The vicissitudes of an editor's life were certainly beginning to +demonstrate themselves to Edward Bok. + +The material that the editor was publishing and the authors that he was +laying under contribution began to have marked effect upon the +circulation of the magazine, and it was not long before the original +figures were doubled, an edition--enormous for that day--of seven +hundred and fifty thousand copies was printed and sold each month, the +magical figure of a million was in sight, and the periodical was rapidly +taking its place as one of the largest successes of the day. + +Mr. Curtis's single proprietorship of the magazine had been changed into +a corporation called The Curtis Publishing Company, with a capital of +five hundred thousand dollars, with Mr. Curtis as president, and Bok as +vice-president. + +The magazine had by no means an easy road to travel financially. The +doubling of the subscription price to one dollar per year had materially +checked the income for the time being; the huge advertising bills, +sometimes exceeding three hundred thousand dollars a year, were +difficult to pay; large credit had to be obtained, and the banks were +carrying a considerable quantity of Mr. Curtis's notes. But Mr. Curtis +never wavered in his faith in his proposition and his editor. In the +first he invested all he had and could borrow, and to the latter he gave +his undivided support. The two men worked together rather as father and +son--as, curiously enough, they were to be later--than as employer and +employee. To Bok, the daily experience of seeing Mr. Curtis finance his +proposition in sums that made the publishing world of that day gasp with +sceptical astonishment was a wonderful opportunity, of which the editor +took full advantage so as to learn the intricacies of a world which up +to that time he had known only in a limited way. + +What attracted Bok immensely to Mr. Curtis's methods was their perfect +simplicity and directness. He believed absolutely in the final outcome +of his proposition: where others saw mist and failure ahead, he saw +clear weather and the port of success. Never did he waver: never did he +deflect from his course. He knew no path save the direct one that led +straight to success, and, through his eyes, he made Bok see it with +equal clarity until Bok wondered why others could not see it. But they +could not. Cyrus Curtis would never be able, they said, to come out from +under the load he had piled up. Where they differed from Mr. Curtis was +in their lack of vision: they could not see what he saw! + +It has been said that Mr. Curtis banished patent-medicine advertisements +from his magazine only when he could afford to do so. That is not true, +as a simple incident will show. In the early days, he and Bok were +opening the mail one Friday full of anxiety because the pay-roll was due +that evening, and there was not enough money in the bank to meet it. +From one of the letters dropped a certified check for five figures for a +contract equal to five pages in the magazine. It was a welcome sight, +for it meant an easy meeting of the pay-roll for that week and two +succeeding weeks. But the check was from a manufacturing patent-medicine +company. Without a moment's hesitation, Mr. Curtis slipped it back into +the envelope, saying: "Of course, that we can't take." He returned the +check, never gave the matter a second thought, and went out and borrowed +more money to meet his pay-roll! + +With all respect to American publishers, there are very few who could +have done this--or indeed, would do it to-day, under similar +conditions--particularly in that day when it was the custom for all +magazines to accept patent-medicine advertising; The Ladies' Home +Journal was practically the only publication of standing in the United +States refusing that class of business! + +Bok now saw advertising done on a large scale by a man who believed in +plenty of white space surrounding the announcement in the advertisement. +He paid Mr. Howells $10,000 for his autobiography, and Mr. Curtis spent +$50,000 in advertising it. "It is not expense," he would explain to Bok, +"it is investment. We are investing in a trade-mark. It will all come +back in time." And when the first $100,000 did not come back as Mr. +Curtis figured, he would send another $100,000 after it, and then both +came back. + +Bok's experience in advertisement writing was now to stand him in +excellent stead. He wrote all the advertisements and from that day to +the day of his retirement, practically every advertisement of the +magazine was written by him. + +Mr. Curtis believed that the editor should write the advertisements of a +magazine's articles. "You are the one who knows them, what is in them +and your purpose," he said to Bok, who keenly enjoyed this advertisement +writing. He put less and less in his advertisements. Mr. Curtis made +them larger and larger in the space which they occupied in the media +used. In this way The Ladies' Home Journal advertisements became +distinctive for their use of white space, and as the advertising world +began to say: "You can't miss them." Only one feature was advertised at +one time, but the "feature" was always carefully selected for its wide +popular appeal, and then Mr. Curtis spared no expense to advertise it +abundantly. As much as $400,000 was spent in one year in advertising +only a few features--a gigantic sum in those days, approached by no +other periodical. But Mr. Curtis believed in showing the advertising +world that he was willing to take his own medicine. + +Naturally, such a campaign of publicity announcing the most popular +attractions offered by any magazine of the day had but one effect: the +circulation leaped forward by bounds, and the advertising columns of the +magazine rapidly filled up. + +The success of The Ladies' Home Journal began to look like an assured +fact, even to the most sceptical. + +As a matter of fact, it was only at its beginning, as both publisher +and editor knew. But they desired to fill the particular field of the +magazine so quickly and fully that there would be small room for +competition. The woman's magazine field was to belong to them! + + + +XIX. Personality Letters + +Edward Bok was always interested in the manner in which personality was +expressed in letters. For this reason he adopted, as a boy, the method +of collecting not mere autographs, but letters characteristic of their +writers which should give interesting insight into the most famous men +and women of the day. He secured what were really personality letters. + +One of these writers was Mark Twain. The humorist was not kindly +disposed toward autograph collectors, and the fact that in this case the +collector aimed to raise the standard of the hobby did not appease him. +Still, it brought forth a characteristic letter: + +"I hope I shall not offend you; I shall certainly say nothing with the +intention to offend you. I must explain myself, however, and I will do +it as kindly as I can. What you ask me to do, I am asked to do as often +as one-half dozen times a week. Three hundred letters a year! One's +impulse is to freely consent, but one's time and necessary occupations +will not permit it. There is no way but to decline in all cases, making +no exceptions, and I wish to call your attention to a thing which has +probably not occurred to you, and that is this: that no man takes +pleasure in exercising his trade as a pastime. Writing is my trade, and +I exercise it only when I am obliged to. You might make your request of +a doctor, or a builder, or a sculptor, and there would be no impropriety +in it, but if you asked either of those for a specimen of his trade, his +handiwork, he would be justified in rising to a point of order. It would +never be fair to ask a doctor for one of his corpses to remember him by. + +"MARK TWAIN". + +At another time, after an interesting talk with Mark Twain, Bok wrote an +account of the interview, with the humorist's permission. Desirous that +the published account should be in every respect accurate, the +manuscript was forwarded to Mark Twain for his approval. This resulted +in the following interesting letter: + +"MY DEAR MR. BOK: + +"No, no--it is like most interviews, pure twaddle, and valueless. + +"For several quite plain and simple reasons, an 'interview' must, as a +rule, be an absurdity. And chiefly for this reason: it is an attempt to +use a boat on land, or a wagon on water, to speak figuratively. Spoken +speech is one thing, written speech is quite another. Print is a proper +vehicle for the latter, but it isn't for the former. The moment 'talk' +is put into print you recognize that it is not what it was when you +heard it; you perceive that an immense something has disappeared from +it. That is its soul. You have nothing but a dead carcass left on your +hands. Color, play of feature, the varying modulations of voice, the +laugh, the smile, the informing inflections, everything that gave that +body warmth, grace, friendliness, and charm, and commended it to your +affection, or at least to your tolerance, is gone, and nothing is left, +but a pallid, stiff and repulsive cadaver. + +"Such is 'talk,' almost invariably, as you see it lying in state in an +'interview.' The interviewer seldom tries to tell one how a thing was +said; he merely puts in the naked remark, and stops there. When one +writes for print, his methods are very different. He follows forms which +have but little resemblance to conversation, but they make the reader +understand what the writer is trying to convey. And when the writer is +making a story, and finds it necessary to report some of the talk of his +characters, observe how cautiously and anxiously he goes at that risky +and difficult thing: + +"'If he had dared to say that thing in my presence,' said Alfred, taking +a mock heroic attitude, and casting an arch glance upon the company, +'blood would have flowed.' + +"'If he had dared to say that thing in my presence,' said Hawkwood, with +that in his eye which caused more than one heart in that guilty +assemblage to quake, 'blood would have flowed.' + +"'If he had dared to say that thing in my presence,' said the paltry +blusterer, with valor on his tongue and pallor on his lips, 'blood would +have flowed.' + +"So painfully aware is the novelist that naked talk in print conveys no +meaning, that he loads, and often overloads, almost every utterance of +his characters with explanations and interpretations. It is a loud +confession that print is a poor vehicle for 'talk,' it is a recognition +that uninterpreted talk in print would result in confusion to the +reader, not instruction. + +"Now, in your interview you have certainly been most accurate, you have +set down the sentences I uttered as I said them. But you have not a word +of explanation; what my manner was at several points is not indicated. +Therefore, no reader can possibly know where I was in earnest and where +I was joking; or whether I was joking altogether or in earnest +altogether. Such a report of a conversation has no value. It can convey +many meanings to the reader, but never the right one. To add +interpretations which would convey the right meaning is a something +which would require--what? An art so high and fine and difficult that no +possessor of it would ever be allowed to waste it on interviews. + +"No; spare the reader and spare me; leave the whole interview out; it is +rubbish. I wouldn't talk in my sleep if I couldn't talk better than +that. + +"If you wish to print anything, print this letter; it may have some +value, for it may explain to a reader here and there why it is that in +interviews as a rule men seem to talk like anybody but themselves. + +"Sincerely yours, + +"MARK TWAIN." + +The Harpers had asked Bok to write a book descriptive of his +autograph-letter collection, and he had consented. The propitious +moment, however, never came in his busy life. One day he mentioned the +fact to Doctor Oliver Wendell Holmes and the poet said: "Let me write +the introduction for it." Bok, of course, eagerly accepted, and within a +few days he received the following, which, with the book, never reached +publication: + +"How many autograph writers have had occasion to say with the Scotch +trespasser climbing his neighbor's wall, when asked where he was going +Bok again!' + +"Edward Bok has persevered like the widow in scripture, and the most +obdurate subjects of his quest have found it for their interest to give +in, lest by his continual coming he should weary them. We forgive him; +almost admire him for his pertinacity; only let him have no imitators. +The tax he has levied must not be imposed a second time. + +"An autograph of a distinguished personage means more to an imaginative +person than a prosaic looker-on dreams of. Along these lines ran the +consciousness and the guiding will of Napoleon, or Washington, of Milton +or Goethe. + +"His breath warmed the sheet of paper which you have before you. The +microscope will show you the trail of flattened particles left by the +tesselated epidermis of his hand as it swept along the manuscript. Nay, +if we had but the right developing fluid to flow over it, the surface of +the sheet would offer you his photograph as the light pictured it at the +instant of writing. + +"Look at Mr. Bok's collection with such thoughts, ...and you will cease +to wonder at his pertinacity and applaud the conquests of his +enthusiasm. + +"Oliver Wendell Holmes." + +Whenever biographers of the New England school of writers have come to +write of John Greenleaf Whittier, they have been puzzled as to the +scanty number of letters and private papers left by the poet. This +letter, written to Bok, in comment upon a report that the poet had +burned all his letters, is illuminating: + +"Dear Friend: + +"The report concerning the burning of my letters is only true so far as +this: some years ago I destroyed a large collection of letters I had +received not from any regard to my own reputation, but from the fear +that to leave them liable to publicity might be injurious or unpleasant +to the writers or their friends. They covered much of the anti-slavery +period and the War of the Rebellion, and many of them I knew were +strictly private and confidential. I was not able at the time to look +over the MS. and thought it safest to make a bonfire of it all. I have +always regarded a private and confidential letter as sacred and its +publicity in any shape a shameful breach of trust, unless authorized by +the writer. I only wish my own letters to thousands of correspondents +may be as carefully disposed of. + +"You may use this letter as you think wise and best. + +"Very truly thy friend, + +"John G. Whittier." + +Once in a while a bit of untold history crept into a letter sent to Bok; +as for example in the letter, referred to in a previous chapter from +General Jubal A. Early, the Confederate general, in which he gave an +explanation, never before fully given, of his reasons for the burning of +Chambersburg, Pennsylvania: + +"The town of Chambersburg was burned on the same day on which the demand +on it was made by McCausland and refused. It was ascertained that a +force of the enemy's cavalry was approaching, and there was no time for +delay. Moreover, the refusal was peremptory, and there was no reason for +delay unless the demand was a mere idle threat. + +"I had no knowledge of what amount of money there might be in +Chambersburg. I knew that it was a town of some twelve thousand +inhabitants. The town of Frederick, in Maryland, which was a much +smaller town than Chambersburg, had in June very promptly responded to +my demand on it for $200,000, some of the inhabitants, who were friendly +to me, expressing a regret that I had not made it $500,000. There were +one or more National Banks at Chambersburg, and the town ought to have +been able to raise the sum I demanded. I never heard that the refusal +was based on the inability to pay such a sum, and there was no offer to +pay any sum. The value of the houses destroyed by Hunter, with their +contents, was fully $100,000 in gold, and at the time I made the demand +the price of gold in greenbacks had very nearly reached $3.00 and was +going up rapidly. Hence it was that I required the $500,000 in +greenbacks, if the gold was not paid, to provide against any further +depreciation of the paper money. + +"I would have been fully justified by the laws of retaliation in war in +burning the town without giving the inhabitants the opportunity of +redeeming it. + +"J. A. Early." + +Bok wrote to Eugene Field, once, asking him why in all his verse he had +never written any love-songs, and suggesting that the story of Jacob and +Rachel would have made a theme for a beautiful love-poem. Field's reply +is interesting and characteristic, and throws a light on an omission in +his works at which many have wondered: + +"Dear Bok: + +"I'll see what I can do with the suggestion as to Jacob and Rachel. +Several have asked me why I have never written any love-songs. That is +hard to answer. I presume it is because I married so young. I was +married at twenty-three, and did not begin to write until I was +twenty-nine. Most of my lullabies are, in a sense, love-songs; so is 'To +a Usurper,' 'A Valentine,' 'The Little Bit of a Woman,' 'Lovers' Lane,' +etc., but not the kind commonly called love-songs. I am sending you +herewith my first love-song, and even into it has crept a cadence that +makes it a love-song of maturity rather than of youth. I do not know +that you will care to have it, but it will interest you as the first.... + +"Ever sincerely yours, + +"Eugene Field." + +During the last years of his life, Bok tried to interest Benjamin +Harrison, former President of the United States, in golf, since his +physician had ordered "moderate outdoor exercise." Bok offered to equip +him with the necessary clubs and balls. When he received the balls, the +ex-president wrote: + +"Thanks. But does not a bottle of liniment go with each ball?" + +When William Howard Taft became President of the United States, the +impression was given out that journalists would not be so welcome at the +White House as they had been during the administration of President +Roosevelt. Mr. Taft, writing to Bok about another matter, asked why he +had not called and talked it over while in Washington. Bok explained the +impression that was current; whereupon came the answer, swift and +definite! + +"There are no personae non gratae at the White House. I long ago learned +the waste of time in maintaining such a class." + +There was in circulation during Henry Ward Beecher's lifetime a story, +which is still revived every now and then, that on a hot Sunday morning +in early summer, he began his sermon in Plymouth Church by declaring +that "It is too damned hot to preach." Bok wrote to the great preacher, +asked him the truth of this report, and received this definite denial: + +"My Dear Friend: + +"No, I never did begin a sermon with the remark that "it is d--d hot," +etc. It is a story a hundred years old, revamped every few years to suit +some new man. When I am dead and gone, it will be told to the rising +generation respecting some other man, and then, as now, there will be +fools who will swear that they heard it! + +"Henry Ward Beecher." + +When Bok's father passed away, he left, among his effects, a large +number of Confederate bonds. Bok wrote to Jefferson Davis, asking if +they had any value, and received this characteristic answer: + +"I regret my inability to give an opinion. The theory of the Confederate +Government, like that of the United States, was to separate the sword +from the purse. Therefore, the Confederate States Treasury was under the +control not of the Chief Executive, but of the Congress and the +Secretary of the Treasury. This may explain my want of special +information in regard to the Confederate States Bonds. Generally, I may +state that the Confederate Government cannot have preserved a fund for +the redemption of its Bonds other than the cotton subscribed by our +citizens for that purpose. At the termination of the War, the United +States Government, claiming to be the successor of the Confederate +Government, seized all its property which could be found, both at home +and abroad. I have not heard of any purpose to apply these assets to the +payment of the liabilities of the Confederacy, and, therefore, have been +at a loss to account for the demand which has lately been made for the +Confederate Bonds. + +"Jefferson Davis." + +Always the soul of courtesy itself, and most obliging in granting the +numerous requests which came to him for his autograph, William Dean +Howells finally turned; and Bok always considered himself fortunate that +the novelist announced his decision to him in the following +characteristic letter: + +"The requests for my autograph have of late become so burdensome that I +am obliged either to refuse all or to make some sort of limitation. +Every author must have an uneasy fear that his signature is 'collected' +at times like postage-stamps, and at times 'traded' among the collectors +for other signatures. That would not matter so much if the applicants +were always able to spell his name, or were apparently acquainted with +his work or interested in it. + +"I propose, therefore, to give my name hereafter only to such askers as +can furnish me proof by intelligent comment upon it that they have read +some book of mine. If they can inclose a bookseller's certificate that +they have bought the book, their case will be very much strengthened; +but I do not insist upon this. In all instances a card and a stamped and +directed envelope must be inclosed. I will never 'add a sentiment' +except in the case of applicants who can give me proof that they have +read all my books, now some thirty or forty in number. + +"W. D. Howells." + +It need hardly be added that Mr. Howells's good nature prevented his +adherence to his rule! + +Rudyard Kipling is another whose letters fairly vibrate with +personality; few men can write more interestingly, or, incidentally, +considering his microscopic handwriting, say more on a letter page. + +Bok was telling Kipling one day about the scrapple so dear to the heart +of the Philadelphian as a breakfast dish. The author had never heard of +it or tasted it, and wished for a sample. So, upon his return home, Bok +had a Philadelphia market-man send some of the Philadelphia-made +article, packed in ice, to Kipling in his English home. There were +several pounds of it and Kipling wrote: + +"By the way, that scrapple--which by token is a dish for the +Gods--arrived in perfect condition, and I ate it all, or as much as I +could get hold of. I am extremely grateful for it. It's all nonsense +about pig being unwholesome. There isn't a Mary-ache in a barrel of +scrapple." + +Then later came this afterthought: + +"A noble dish is that scrapple, but don't eat three slices and go to +work straight on top of 'em. That's the way to dyspepsia! + +"P. S. I wish to goodness you'd give another look at England before +long. It's quite a country; really it is. Old, too, I believe." + +It was Kipling who suggested that Bok should name his Merion home +"Swastika." Bok asked what the author knew about the mystic sign: + +"There is a huge book (I've forgotten the name, but the Smithsonian will +know)," he wrote back, "about the Swastika (pronounced Swas-ti-ka to +rhyme with 'car's ticker'), in literature, art, religion, dogma, etc. I +believe there are two sorts of Swastikas, one [figure] and one [figure]; +one is bad, the other is good, but which is which I know not for sure. +The Hindu trader opens his yearly account-books with a Swastika as 'an +auspicious beginning,' and all the races of the earth have used it. It's +an inexhaustible subject, and some man in the Smithsonian ought to be +full of it. Anyhow, the sign on the door or the hearth should protect +you against fire and water and thieves. + +"By this time should have reached you a Swastika door-knocker, which I +hope may fit in with the new house and the new name. It was made by a +village-smith; and you will see that it has my initials, to which I hope +you will add yours, that the story may be complete. + +"We are settled out here in Cape Town, eating strawberries in January +and complaining of the heat, which for the last two days has been a +little more than we pampered folk are used to; say 70° at night. But +what a lovely land it is, and how superb are the hydrangeas! Figure to +yourself four acres of 'em, all in bloom on the hillside near our home!" + +Bok had visited the Panama Canal before its completion and had talked +with the men, high and low, working on it, asking them how they felt +about President Roosevelt's action in "digging the Canal first and +talking about it afterwards." He wrote the result of his talks to +Colonel Roosevelt, and received this reply: + +"I shall always keep your letter, for I shall want my children and +grandchildren to see it after I am gone. I feel just as you do about the +Canal. It is the greatest contribution I was able to make to my country; +and while I do not believe my countrymen appreciate this at the moment, +I am extremely pleased to know that the men on the Canal do, for they +are the men who have done and are doing the great job. I am awfully +pleased that you feel the way you do. + +"Theodore Roosevelt." + +In 1887, General William Tecumseh Sherman was much talked about as a +candidate for the presidency, until his famous declaration came out: "I +will not run if nominated, and will not serve if elected." During the +weeks of talk, however, much was said of General Sherman's religious +views, some contending that he was a Roman Catholic; others that he was +a Protestant. + +Bok wrote to General Sherman and asked him. His answer was direct: + +"My family is strongly Roman Catholic, but I am not. Until I ask some +favor the public has no claim to question me further." + +When Mrs. Sherman passed away, Doctor T. DeWitt Talmage wrote General +Sherman a note of condolence, and what is perhaps one of the fullest +expositions of his religious faith to which he ever gave expression came +from him in a most remarkable letter, which Doctor Talmage gave to Bok. + +"New York, December 12, 1886. + +"My Dear Friend: + +"Your most tender epistle from Mansfield, Ohio, of December 9 brought +here last night by your son awakens in my brain a flood of memories. +Mrs. Sherman was by nature and inheritance an Irish Catholic. Her +grandfather, Hugh Boyle, was a highly educated classical scholar, whom I +remember well,--married the half sister of the mother of James G. Blaine +at Brownsville, Pa., settled in our native town Lancaster, Fairfield +County, Ohio, and became the Clerk of the County Court. He had two +daughters, Maria and Susan. Maria became the wife of Thomas Ewing, about +1819, and was the mother of my wife, Ellen Boyle Ewing. She was so +staunch to what she believed the true Faith that I am sure that though +she loved her children better than herself, she would have seen them die +with less pang, than to depart from the "Faith." Mr. Ewing was a great +big man, an intellectual giant, and looked down on religion as something +domestic, something consoling which ought to be encouraged; and to him +it made little difference whether the religion was Methodist, +Presbyterian, Baptist, or Catholic, provided the acts were 'half as +good' as their professions. + +"In 1829 my father, a Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, died at +Lebanon away from home, leaving his widow, Mary Hoyt of Norwalk, Conn. +(sister to Charles and James Hoyt of Brooklyn) with a frame house in +Lancaster, an income of $200 a year and eleven as hungry, rough, and +uncouth children as ever existed on earth. But father had been kind, +generous, manly with a big heart; and when it ceased to beat friends +turned up--Our Uncle Stoddard took Charles, the oldest; W. I. married +the next, Elisabeth (still living); Amelia was soon married to a +merchant in Mansfield, McCorab; I, the third son, was adopted by Thomas +Ewing, a neighbor, and John fell to his namesake in Mt. Vernon, a +merchant. + +"Surely 'Man proposes and God disposes.' I could fill a hundred pages, +but will not bore you. A half century has passed and you, a Protestant +minister, write me a kind, affectionate letter about my Catholic wife +from Mansfield, one of my family homes, where my mother, Mary Hoyt, +died, and where our Grandmother, Betsey Stoddard, lies buried. Oh, what +a flood of memories come up at the name of Betsey Stoddard,--daughter of +the Revd. Mr. Stoddard, who preached three times every Sunday, and as +often in between as he could cajole a congregation at ancient Woodbury, +Conn.,--who came down from Mansfield to Lancaster, three days' hard +journey to regulate the family of her son Judge Sherman, whose gentle +wife was as afraid of Grandma as any of us boys. She never spared the +rod or broom, but she had more square solid sense to the yard than any +woman I ever saw. From her Charles, John, and I inherit what little +sense we possess. + +"Lancaster, Fairfield County, was our paternal home, Mansfield that of +Grandmother Stoddard and her daughter, Betsey Parker. There Charles and +John settled, and when in 1846 I went to California Mother also went +there, and there died in 1851. + +"When a boy, once a year I had to drive my mother in an old 'dandy +wagon' on her annual visit. The distance was 75 miles, further than +Omaha is from San Francisco. We always took three days and stopped at +every house to gossip with the woman folks, and dispense medicines and +syrups to the sick, for in those days all had the chills or ague. If I +could I would not awaken Grandmother Betsey Stoddard because she would +be horrified at the backsliding of the servants of Christ,--but oh! how +I would like to take my mother, Mary Hoyt, in a railroad car out to +California, to Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, among the vineyards of +grapes, the groves of oranges, lemons and pomegranates. How clearly +recurs to me the memory of her exclamation when I told her I had been +ordered around Cape Horn to California. Her idea was about as definite +as mine or yours as to, Where is Stanley? but she saw me return with +some nuggets to make her life more comfortable. + +"She was a strong Presbyterian to the end, but she loved my Ellen, and +the love was mutual. All my children have inherited their mother's +faith, and she would have given anything if I would have simply said +Amen; but it is simply impossible. + +"But I am sure that you know that the God who created the minnow, and +who has moulded the rose and carnation, given each its sweet fragrance, +will provide for those mortal men who strive to do right in the world +which he himself has stocked with birds, animals, and men;--at all +events, I will trust Him with absolute confidence. + +"With great respect and affection, + +"Yours truly, + +"W. T. Sherman." + + + +XX. Meeting a Reverse or Two + +With the hitherto unreached magazine circulation of a million copies a +month in sight, Edward Bok decided to give a broader scope to the +periodical. He was determined to lay under contribution not only the +most famous writers of the day, but also to seek out those well-known +persons who usually did not contribute to the magazines; always keeping +in mind the popular appeal of his material, but likewise aiming +constantly to widen its scope and gradually to lift its standard. + +Sailing again for England, he sought and secured the acquaintance of +Rudyard Kipling, whose alert mind was at once keenly interested in what +Bok was trying to do. He was willing to co-operate, with the result that +Bok secured the author's new story, William the Conqueror. When Bok read +the manuscript, he was delighted; he had for some time been reading +Kipling's work with enthusiasm, and he saw at once that here was one of +the author's best tales. + +At that time, Frances E. Willard had brought her agitation for +temperance prominently before the public, and Bok had promised to aid +her by eliminating from his magazine, so far as possible, all scenes +which represented alcoholic drinking. It was not an iron-clad rule, but, +both from the principle fixed for his own life and in the interest of +the thousands of young people who read his magazine, he believed it +would be better to minimize all incidents portraying alcoholic drinking +or drunkenness. Kipling's story depicted several such scenes; so when +Bok sent the proofs he suggested that if Kipling could moderate some of +these scenes, it would be more in line with the policy of the magazine. +Bok did not make a special point of the matter, leaving it to Kipling's +judgment to decide how far he could make such changes and preserve the +atmosphere of his story. + +From this incident arose the widely published story that Bok cabled +Kipling, asking permission to omit a certain drinking reference, and +substitute something else, whereupon Kipling cabled back: "Substitute +Mellin's Food." As a matter of fact (although it is a pity to kill such +a clever story), no such cable was ever sent and no such reply ever +received. As Kipling himself wrote to Bok: "No, I said nothing about +Mellin's Food. I wish I had." An American author in London happened to +hear of the correspondence between the editor and the author, it +appealed to his sense of humor, and the published story was the result. +If it mattered, it is possible that Brander Matthews could accurately +reveal the originator of the much-published yarn. + +From Kipling's house Bok went to Tunbridge Wells to visit Mary Anderson, +the one-time popular American actress, who had married Antonio de +Navarro and retired from the stage. A goodly number of editors had tried +to induce the retired actress to write, just as a number of managers had +tried to induce her to return to the stage. All had failed. But Bok +never accepted the failure of others as a final decision for himself; +and after two or three visits, he persuaded Madame de Navarro to write +her reminiscences, which he published with marked success in the +magazine. + +The editor was very desirous of securing something for his magazine that +would delight children, and he hit upon the idea of trying to induce +Lewis Carroll to write another Alice in Wonderland series. He was told +by English friends that this would be difficult, since the author led a +secluded life at Oxford and hardly ever admitted any one into his +confidence. But Bok wanted to beard the lion in his den, and an Oxford +graduate volunteered to introduce him to an Oxford don through whom, if +it were at all possible, he could reach the author. The journey to +Oxford was made, and Bok was introduced to the don, who turned out to be +no less a person than the original possessor of the highly colored +vocabulary of the "White Rabbit" of the Alice stories. + +"Impossible," immediately declared the don. "You couldn't persuade +Dodgson to consider it." Bok, however, persisted, and it so happened +that the don liked what he called "American perseverance." + +"Well, come along," he said. "We'll beard the lion in his den, as you +say, and see what happens. You know, of course, that it is the Reverend +Charles L. Dodgson that we are going to see, and I must introduce you to +that person, not to Lewis Carroll. He is a tutor in mathematics here, as +you doubtless know; lives a rigidly secluded life; dislikes strangers; +makes no friends; and yet withal is one of the most delightful men in +the world if he wants to be." + +But as it happened upon this special occasion when Bok was introduced to +him in his chambers in Tom Quad, Mr. Dodgson did not "want to be" +delightful. There was no doubt that back of the studied reserve was a +kindly, charming, gracious gentleman, but Bok's profession had been +mentioned and the author was on rigid guard. + +When Bok explained that one of the special reasons for his journey from +America this summer was to see him, the Oxford mathematician +sufficiently softened to ask the editor to sit down. + +Bok then broached his mission. + +"You are quite in error, Mr. Bok," was the Dodgson comment. "You are not +speaking to the person you think you are addressing." + +For a moment Bok was taken aback. Then he decided to go right to the +point. + +"Do I understand, Mr. Dodgson, that you are not 'Lewis Carroll'; that +you did not write Alice in Wonderland?" + +For an answer the tutor rose, went into another room, and returned with +a book which he handed to Bok. "This is my book," he said simply. It was +entitled An Elementary Treatise on Determinants, by C. L. Dodgson. When +he looked up, Bok found the author's eyes riveted on him. + +"Yes," said Bok. "I know, Mr. Dodgson. If I remember correctly, this is +the same book of which you sent a copy to Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, +when she wrote to you for a personal copy of your Alice." + +Dodgson made no comment. The face was absolutely without expression save +a kindly compassion intended to convey to the editor that he was making +a terrible mistake. + +"As I said to you in the beginning, Mr. Bok, you are in error. You are +not speaking to 'Lewis Carroll.'" And then: "Is this the first time you +have visited Oxford?" + +Bok said it was; and there followed the most delightful two hours with +the Oxford mathematician and the Oxford don, walking about and into the +wonderful college buildings, and afterward the three had a bite of lunch +together. But all efforts to return to "Lewis Carroll" were futile. +While saying good-by to his host, Bok remarked: + +"I can't help expressing my disappointment, Mr. Dodgson, in my quest in +behalf of the thousands of American children who love you and who would +so gladly welcome 'Lewis Carroll' back." + +The mention of children and their love for him momentarily had its +effect. For an instant a different light came into the eyes, and Bok +instinctively realized Dodgson was about to say something. But he +checked himself. Bok had almost caught him off his guard. + +"I am sorry," he finally said at the parting at the door, "that you +should be disappointed, for the sake of the children as well as for your +own sake. I only regret that I cannot remove the disappointment." + +And as the trio walked to the station, the don said: "That is his +attitude toward all, even toward me. He is not 'Lewis Carroll' to any +one; is extremely sensitive on the point, and will not acknowledge his +identity. That is why he lives so much to himself. He is in daily dread +that some one will mention Alice in his presence. Curious, but there it +is." + +Edward Bok's next quest was to be even more disappointing; he was never +even to reach the presence of the person he sought. This was Florence +Nightingale, the Crimean nurse. Bok was desirous of securing her own +story of her experiences, but on every hand he found an unwillingness +even to take him to her house. "No use," said everybody. "She won't see +any one. Hates publicity and all that sort of thing, and shuns the +public." Nevertheless, the editor journeyed to the famous nurse's home +on South Street, in the West End of London, only to be told that "Miss +Nightingale never receives strangers." + +"But I am not a stranger," insisted the editor. "I am one of her friends +from America. Please take my card to her." + +This mollified the faithful secretary, but the word instantly came back +that Miss Nightingale was not receiving any one that day. Bok wrote her +a letter asking for an appointment, which was never answered. Then he +wrote another, took it personally to the house, and awaited an answer, +only to receive the message that "Miss Nightingale says there is no +answer to the letter." + +Bok had with such remarkable uniformity secured whatever he sought, that +these experiences were new to him. Frankly, they puzzled him. He was not +easily baffled, but baffled he now was, and that twice in succession. +Turn as he might, he could find no way in which to reopen an approach to +either the Oxford tutor or the Crimean nurse. They were plainly too much +for him, and he had to acknowledge his defeat. The experience was good +for him; he did not realize this at the time, nor did he enjoy the +sensation of not getting what he wanted. Nevertheless, a reverse or two +was due. Not that his success was having any undesirable effect upon +him; his Dutch common sense saved him from any such calamity. But at +thirty years of age it is not good for any one, no matter how well +balanced, to have things come his way too fast and too consistently. And +here were breaks. He could not have everything he wanted, and it was +just as well that he should find that out. + +In his next quest he found himself again opposed by his London friends. +Unable to secure a new Alice in Wonderland for his child readers, he +determined to give them Kate Greenaway. But here he had selected another +recluse. Everybody discouraged him. The artist never saw visitors, he +was told, and she particularly shunned editors and publishers. Her own +publishers confessed that Miss Greenaway was inaccessible to them. "We +conduct all our business with her by correspondence. I have never seen +her personally myself," said a member of the firm. + +Bok inwardly decided that two failures in two days were sufficient, and +he made up his mind that there should not be a third. He took a bus for +the long ride to Hampstead Heath, where the illustrator lived, and +finally stood before a picturesque Queen Anne house that one would have +recognized at once, with its lower story of red brick, its upper part +covered with red tiles, its windows of every size and shape, as the +inspiration of Kate Greenaway's pictures. As it turned out later, Miss +Greenaway's sister opened the door and told the visitor that Miss +Greenaway was not at home. + +"But, pardon me, has not Miss Greenaway returned? Is not that she?" +asked Bok, as he indicated a figure just coming down the stairs. And as +the sister turned to see, Bok stepped into the hall. At least he was +inside! Bok had never seen a photograph of Miss Greenaway, he did not +know that the figure coming downstairs was the artist; but his instinct +had led him right, and good fortune was with him. + +He now introduced himself to Kate Greenaway, and explained that one of +his objects in coming to London was to see her on behalf of thousands of +American children. Naturally there was nothing for the illustrator to do +but to welcome her visitor. She took him into the garden, where he saw +at once that he was seated under the apple-tree of Miss Greenaway's +pictures. It was in full bloom, a veritable picture of spring +loveliness. Bok's love for nature pleased the artist and when he +recognized the cat that sauntered up, he could see that he was making +headway. But when he explained his profession and stated his errand, the +atmosphere instantly changed. Miss Greenaway conveyed the unmistakable +impression that she had been trapped, and Bok realized at once that he +had a long and difficult road ahead. + +Still, negotiate it he must and he did! And after luncheon in the +garden, with the cat in his lap, Miss Greenaway perceptibly thawed out, +and when the editor left late that afternoon he had the promise of the +artist that she would do her first magazine work for him. That promise +was kept monthly, and for nearly two years her articles appeared, with +satisfaction to Miss Greenaway and with great success to the magazine. + +The next opposition to Bok's plans arose from the soreness generated by +the absence of copyright laws between the United States and Great +Britain and Europe. The editor, who had been publishing a series of +musical compositions, solicited the aid of Sir Arthur Sullivan. But it +so happened that Sir Arthur's most famous composition, "The Lost Chord," +had been taken without leave by American music publishers, and sold by +the hundreds of thousands with the composer left out on pay-day. Sir +Arthur held forth on this injustice, and said further that no accurate +copy of "The Lost Chord" had, so far as he knew, ever been printed in +the United States. Bok saw his chance, and also an opportunity for a +little Americanization. + +"Very well, Sir Arthur," suggested Bok; "with your consent, I will +rectify both the inaccuracy and the injustice. Write out a correct +version of 'The Lost Chord'; I will give it to nearly a million readers, +and so render obsolete the incorrect copies; and I shall be only too +happy to pay you the first honorarium for an American publication of the +song. You can add to the copy the statement that this is the first +American honorarium you have ever received, and so shame the American +publishers for their dishonesty." + +This argument appealed strongly to the composer, who made a correct +transcript of his famous song, and published it with the following note: + +"This is the first and only copy of "The Lost Chord" which has ever been +sent by me to an American publisher. I believe all the reprints in +America are more or less incorrect. I have pleasure in sending this copy +to my friend, Mr. Edward W. Bok, for publication in The Ladies' Home +Journal for which he gives me an honorarium, the only one I have ever +received from an American publisher for this song. + +"Arthur Sullivan." + +At least, thought Bok, he had healed one man's soreness toward America. +But the next day he encountered another. On his way to Paris, he stopped +at Amiens to see Jules Verne. Here he found special difficulty in that +the aged author could not speak English, and Bok knew only a few words +of casual French. Finally a neighbor's servant who knew a handful of +English words was commandeered, and a halting three-cornered +conversation was begun. + +Bok found two grievances here: the author was incensed at the American +public because it had insisted on classing his books as juveniles, and +accepting them as stories of adventure, whereas he desired them to be +recognized as prophetic stories based on scientific facts--an insistence +which, as all the world knows, has since been justified. Bok explained, +however, that the popular acceptance of the author's books as stories of +adventure was by no means confined to America; that even in his own +country the same was true. But Jules Verne came back with the rejoinder +that if the French were a pack of fools, that was no reason why the +Americans should also be. + +The argument weighed somewhat with the author, however, for he then +changed the conversation, and pointed out how he had been robbed by +American publishers who had stolen his books. So Bok was once more face +to face with the old non-copyright conditions; and although he explained +the existence then of a new protective law, the old man was not +mollified. He did not take kindly to Bok's suggestion for new work, and +closed the talk, extremely difficult to all three, by declaring that his +writing days were over. + +But Bok was by no means through with non-copyright echoes, for he was +destined next day to take part in an even stormier interview on the same +subject with Alexander Dumas fils. Bok had been publishing a series of +articles in which authors had told how they had been led to write their +most famous books, and he wanted Dumas to tell "How I Came to Write +'Camille.'" + +To act as translator this time, Bok took a trusted friend with him, +whose services he found were needed, as Dumas was absolutely without +knowledge of English. No sooner was the editor's request made known to +him than the storm broke. Dumas, hotly excited, denounced the Americans +as robbers who had deprived him of his rightful returns on his book and +play, and ended by declaring that he would trust no American editor or +publisher. + +The mutual friend explained the new copyright conditions and declared +that Bok intended to treat the author honorably. But Dumas was not to be +mollified. He launched forth upon a new arraignment of the Americans; +dishonesty was bred in their bones! and they were robbers by instinct. +All of this distinctly nettled Bok's Americanism. The interpreting +friend finally suggested that the article should be written while Bok +was in Paris; that he should be notified when the manuscript was ready, +that he should then appear with the actual money in hand in French +notes; and that Dumas should give Bok the manuscript when Bok handed +Dumas the money. + +"After I count it," said Dumas. + +This was the last straw! + +"Pray ask him," Bok suggested to the interpreter, "what assurance I have +that he will deliver the manuscript to me after he has the money." The +friend protested against translating this thrust, but Bok insisted, and +Dumas, not knowing what was coming, insisted that the message be given +him. When it was, the man was a study; he became livid with rage. + +"But," persisted Bok, "say to Monsieur Dumas that I have the same +privilege of distrusting him as he apparently has of distrusting me." + +And Bok can still see the violent gesticulations of the storming French +author, his face burning with passionate anger, as the two left him. + +Edward Bok now sincerely hoped that his encounters with the absence of a +law that has been met were at an end! + +Rosa Bonheur, the painter of "The Horse Fair," had been represented to +Bok as another recluse who was as inaccessible as Kate Greenaway. He had +known of the painter's intimate relations with the ex-Empress Eugenie, +and desired to get these reminiscences. Everybody dissuaded him; but +again taking a French friend he made the journey to Fontainebleau, where +the artist lived in a chateau in the little village of By. + +A group of dogs, great, magnificent tawny creatures, welcomed the two +visitors to the chateau; and the most powerful door that Bok had ever +seen, as securely bolted as that of a cell, told of the inaccessibility +of the mistress of the house. Two blue-frocked peasants explained how +impossible it was for any one to see their mistress, so Bok asked +permission to come in and write her a note. + +This was granted; and then, as in the case of Kate Greenaway, Rosa +Bonheur herself walked into the hall, in a velvet jacket, dressed, as +she always was, in man's attire. A delightful smile lighted the strong +face, surmounted by a shock of gray hair, cut short at the back; and +from the moment of her first welcome there was no doubt of her +cordiality to the few who were fortunate enough to work their way into +her presence. It was a wonderful afternoon, spent in the painter's +studio in the upper part of the chateau; and Bok carried away with him +the promise of Rosa Bonheur to write the story of her life for +publication in the magazine. + +On his return to London the editor found that Charles Dana Gibson had +settled down there for a time. Bok had always wanted Gibson to depict +the characters of Dickens; and he felt that this was the opportunity, +while the artist was in London and could get the atmosphere for his +work. Gibson was as keen for the idea as was Bok, and so the two +arranged the series which was subsequently published. + +On his way to his steamer to sail for home, Bok visited "Ian Maclaren," +whose Bonnie Brier Bush stories were then in great vogue, and not only +contracted for Doctor Watson's stories of the immediate future, but +arranged with him for a series of articles which, for two years +thereafter, was published in the magazine. + +The editor now sailed for home, content with his assembly of foreign +"features." + +On the steamer, Bok heard of the recent discovery of some unpublished +letters by Louisa May Alcott, written to five girls, and before +returning to Philadelphia, he went to Boston, got into touch with the +executors of the will of Miss Alcott, brought the letters back with him +to read, and upon reaching Philadelphia, wired his acceptance of them +for publication. + +But the traveller was not at once to enjoy his home. After only a day in +Philadelphia he took a train for Indianapolis. Here lived the most +thoroughly American writer of the day, in Bok's estimation: James +Whitcomb Riley. An arrangement, perfected before his European visit, had +secured to Bok practically exclusive rights to all the output of his +Chicago friend Eugene Field, and he felt that Riley's work would +admirably complement that of Field. This Bok explained to Riley, who +readily fell in with the idea, and the editor returned to Philadelphia +with a contract to see Riley's next dozen poems. A little later Field +passed away. His last poem, "The Dream Ship," and his posthumous story +"The Werewolf" appeared in The Ladies' Home Journal. + +A second series of articles was also arranged for with Mr. Harrison, in +which he was to depict, in a personal way, the life of a President of +the United States, the domestic life of the White House, and the +financial arrangements made by the government for the care of the chief +executive and his family. The first series of articles by the former +President had been very successful; Bok felt that they had accomplished +much in making his women readers familiar with their country and the +machinery of its government. After this, which had been undeniably solid +reading, Bok reasoned that the supplementary articles, in lighter vein, +would serve as a sort of dessert. And so it proved. + +Bok now devoted his attention to strengthening the fiction in his +magazine. He sought Mark Twain, and bought his two new stories; he +secured from Bret Harte a tale which he had just finished; and then ran +the gamut of the best fiction writers of the day, and secured their best +output. Marion Crawford, Conan Doyle, Sarah Orne Jewett, John Kendrick +Bangs, Kate Douglas Wiggin, Hamlin Garland, Mrs. Burton Harrison, +Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Mary E. Wilkins, Jerome K. Jerome, Anthony +Hope, Joel Chandler Harris, and others followed in rapid succession. + +He next turned for a moment to his religious department, decided that it +needed a freshening of interest, and secured Dwight L. Moody, whose +evangelical work was then so prominently in the public eye, to conduct +"Mr. Moody's Bible Class" in the magazine--practically a study of the +stated Bible lesson of the month with explanation in Moody's simple and +effective style. + +The authors for whom the Journal was now publishing attracted the +attention of all the writers of the day, and the supply of good material +became too great for its capacity. Bok studied the mechanical makeup, +and felt that by some method he must find more room in the front +portion. He had allotted the first third of the magazine to the general +literary contents and the latter two-thirds to departmental features. +Toward the close of the number, the departments narrowed down from full +pages to single columns with advertisements on each side. + +One day Bok was handling a story by Rudyard Kipling which had overrun +the space allowed for it in the front. The story had come late, and the +rest of the front portion of the magazine had gone to press. The editor +was in a quandary what to do with the two remaining columns of the +Kipling tale. There were only two pages open, and these were at the +back. He remade those pages, and continued the story from pages 6 and 7 +to pages 38 and 39. + +At once Bok saw that this was an instance where "necessity was the +mother of invention." He realized that if he could run some of his front +material over to the back he would relieve the pressure at the front, +present a more varied contents there, and make his advertisements more +valuable by putting them next to the most expensive material in the +magazine. + +In the next issue he combined some of his smaller departments in the +back; and thus, in 1896, he inaugurated the method of "running over into +the back" which has now become a recognized principle in the make-up of +magazines of larger size. At first, Bok's readers objected, but he +explained why he did it; that they were the benefiters by the plan; and, +so far as readers can be satisfied with what is, at best, an awkward +method of presentation, they were content. Today the practice is +undoubtedly followed to excess, some magazines carrying as much as +eighty and ninety columns over from the front to the back; from such +abuse it will, of course, free itself either by a return to the original +method of make-up or by the adoption of some other less-irritating plan. + +In his reading about the America of the past, Bok had been impressed by +the unusual amount of interesting personal material that constituted +what is termed unwritten history--original events of tremendous personal +appeal in which great personalities figured but which had not sufficient +historical importance to have been included in American history. Bok +determined to please his older readers by harking back to the past and +at the same time acquainting the younger generation with the picturesque +events which had preceded their time. + +He also believed that if he could "dress up" the past, he could arrest +the attention of a generation which was too likely to boast of its +interest only in the present and the future. He took a course of reading +and consulted with Mr. Charles A. Dana, editor of the New York Sun, who +had become interested in his work and had written him several voluntary +letters of commendation. Mr. Dana gave material help in the selection of +subjects and writers; and was intensely amused and interested by the +manner in which his youthful confrere "dressed up" the titles of what +might otherwise have looked like commonplace articles. + +"I know," said Bok to the elder editor, "it smacks a little of the +sensational, Mr. Dana, but the purpose I have in mind of showing the +young people of to-day that some great things happened before they came +on the stage seems to me to make it worth while." + +Mr. Dana agreed with this view, supplemented every effort of the +Philadelphia editor in several subsequent talks, and in 1897 The Ladies' +Home Journal began one of the most popular series it ever published. It +was called "Great Personal Events," and the picturesque titles explained +them. He first pictured the enthusiastic evening "When Jenny Lind Sang +in Castle Garden," and, as Bok added to pique curiosity, "when people +paid $20 to sit in rowboats to hear the Swedish nightingale." + +This was followed by an account of the astonishing episode "When Henry +Ward Beecher Sold Slaves in Plymouth Pulpit"; the picturesque journey +"When Louis Kossuth Rode Up Broadway"; the triumphant tour "When General +Grant Went Round the World"; the forgotten story of "When an Actress Was +the Lady of the White House"; the sensational striking of the gold vein +in 1849, "When Mackay Struck the Great Bonanza"; the hitherto +little-known instance "When Louis Philippe Taught School in +Philadelphia"; and even the lesser-known fact of the residence of the +brother of Napoleon Bonaparte in America, "When the King of Spain Lived +on the Banks of the Schuylkill"; while the story of "When John Wesley +Preached in Georgia" surprised nearly every Methodist, as so few had +known that the founder of their church had ever visited America. Each +month picturesque event followed graphic happening, and never was +unwritten history more readily read by the young, or the memories of the +older folk more catered to than in this series which won new friends for +the magazine on every hand. + + + +XXI. A Signal Piece of Constructive Work + +The influence of his grandfather and the injunction of his grandmother +to her sons that each "should make the world a better or a more +beautiful place to live in" now began to be manifest in the grandson. +Edward Bok was unconscious that it was this influence. What directly led +him to the signal piece of construction in which he engaged was the +wretched architecture of small houses. As he travelled through the +United States he was appalled by it. Where the houses were not +positively ugly, they were, to him, repellently ornate. Money was wasted +on useless turrets, filigree work, or machine-made ornamentation. Bok +found out that these small householders never employed an architect, but +that the houses were put up by builders from their own plans. + +Bok felt a keen desire to take hold of the small American house and make +it architecturally better. He foresaw, however, that the subject would +finally include small gardening and interior decoration. He feared that +the subject would become too large for the magazine, which was already +feeling the pressure of the material which he was securing. He +suggested, therefore, to Mr. Curtis that they purchase a little magazine +published in Buffalo, N. Y., called Country Life, and develop it into a +first-class periodical devoted to the general subject of a better +American architecture, gardening, and interior decoration, with special +application to the small house. The magazine was purchased, and while +Bok was collecting his material for a number of issues ahead, he edited +and issued, for copyright purposes, a four-page magazine. + +An opportunity now came to Mr. Curtis to purchase The Saturday Evening +Post, a Philadelphia weekly of honored prestige, founded by Benjamin +Franklin. It was apparent at once that the company could not embark upon +the development of two magazines at the same time, and as a larger field +was seen for The Saturday Evening Post, it was decided to leave Country +Life in abeyance for the present. + +Mr. Frank Doubleday, having left the Scribners and started a +publishing-house of his own, asked Bok to transfer to him the copyright +and good will of Country Life--seeing that there was little chance for +The Curtis Publishing Company to undertake its publication. Mr. Curtis +was willing, but he knew that Bok had set his heart on the new magazine +and left it for him to decide. The editor realized, as the Doubleday +Company could take up the magazine at once, the unfairness of holding +indefinitely the field against them by the publication of a mere +copyright periodical. And so, with a feeling as if he were giving up his +child to another father, Bok arranged that The Curtis Publishing Company +should transfer to the Doubleday, Page Company all rights to the title +and periodical of which the present beautiful publication Country Life +is the outgrowth. + +Bok now turned to The Ladies' Home Journal as his medium for making the +small-house architecture of America better. He realized the limitation +of space, but decided to do the best he could under the circumstances. +He believed he might serve thousands of his readers if he could make it +possible for them to secure, at moderate cost, plans for well-designed +houses by the leading domestic architects in the country. He consulted a +number of architects, only to find them unalterably opposed to the idea. +They disliked the publicity of magazine presentation; prices differed +too much in various parts of the country; and they did not care to risk +the criticism of their contemporaries. It was "cheapening" their +profession! + +Bok saw that he should have to blaze the way and demonstrate the +futility of these arguments. At last he persuaded one architect to +co-operate with him, and in 1895 began the publication of a series of +houses which could be built, approximately, for from one thousand five +hundred dollars to five thousand dollars. The idea attracted attention +at once, and the architect-author was swamped with letters and inquiries +regarding his plans. + +This proved Bok's instinct to be correct as to the public willingness to +accept such designs; upon this proof he succeeded in winning over two +additional architects to make plans. He offered his readers full +building specifications and plans to scale of the houses with estimates +from four builders in different parts of the United States for five +dollars a set. The plans and specifications were so complete in every +detail that any builder could build the house from them. + +A storm of criticism now arose from architects and builders all over the +country, the architects claiming that Bok was taking "the bread out of +their mouths" by the sale of plans, and local builders vigorously +questioned the accuracy of the estimates. But Bok knew he was right and +persevered. + +Slowly but surely he won the approval of the leading architects, who saw +that he was appealing to a class of house-builders who could not afford +to pay an architect's fee, and that, with his wide circulation, he might +become an influence for better architecture through these small houses. +The sets of plans and specifications sold by the thousands. It was not +long before the magazine was able to present small-house plans by the +foremost architects of the country, whose services the average +householder could otherwise never have dreamed of securing. + +Bok not only saw an opportunity to better the exterior of the small +houses, but he determined that each plan published should provide for +two essentials: every servant's room should have two windows to insure +cross-ventilation, and contain twice the number of cubic feet usually +given to such rooms; and in place of the American parlor, which he +considered a useless room, should be substituted either a living-room or +a library. He did not point to these improvements; every plan simply +presented the larger servant's room and did not present a parlor. It is +a singular fact that of the tens of thousands of plans sold, not a +purchaser ever noticed the absence of a parlor except one woman in +Brookline, Mass., who, in erecting a group of twenty-five "Journal +houses," discovered after she had built ten that not one contained a +parlor! + +"Ladies' Home Journal houses" were now going up in communities all over +the country, and Bok determined to prove that they could be erected for +the prices given. Accordingly, he published a prize offer of generous +amount for the best set of exterior and interior photographs of a house +built after a Journal plan within the published price. Five other and +smaller prizes were also offered. A legally attested builder's +declaration was to accompany each set of photographs. The sets +immediately began to come in, until over five thousand had been +received. Bok selected the best of these, awarded the prizes, and began +the presentation of the houses actually built after the published plans. + +Of course this publication gave fresh impetus to the whole scheme; +prospective house-builders pointed their builders to the proof given, +and additional thousands of sets of plans were sold. The little houses +became better and better in architecture as the series went on, and +occasionally a plan for a house costing as high as ten thousand dollars +was given. + +For nearly twenty-five years Bok continued to publish pictures of houses +and plans. Entire colonies of "Ladies' Home Journal houses" have sprung +up, and building promoters have built complete suburban developments +with them. How many of these homes have been erected it is, of course, +impossible to say; the number certainly runs into the thousands. + +It was one of the most constructive and far-reaching pieces of work that +Bok did during his editorial career--a fact now recognized by all +architects. Shortly before Stanford White passed away, he wrote: "I +firmly believe that Edward Bok has more completely influenced American +domestic architecture for the better than any man in this generation. +When he began, I was short-sighted enough to discourage him, and refused +to cooperate with him. If Bok came to me now, I would not only make +plans for him, but I would waive any fee for them in retribution for my +early mistake." + +Bok then turned to the subject of the garden for the small house, and +the development of the grounds around the homes which he had been +instrumental in putting on the earth. He encountered no opposition here. +The publication of small gardens for small houses finally ran into +hundreds of pages, the magazine supplying planting plans and full +directions as to when and how to plant-this time without cost. + +Next the editor decided to see what he could do for the better and +simpler furnishing of the small American home. Here was a field almost +limitless in possible improvement, but he wanted to approach it in a new +way. The best method baffled him until one day he met a woman friend who +told him that she was on her way to a funeral at a friend's home. + +"I didn't know you were so well acquainted with Mrs. S--," said Bok. + +"I wasn't, as a matter of fact," replied the woman. "I'll be perfectly +frank; I am going to the funeral just to see how Mrs. S--'s house is +furnished. She was always thought to have great taste, you know, and, +whether you know it or not, a woman is always keen to look into another +woman's home." + +Bok realized that he had found the method of presentation for his +interior-furnishing plan if he could secure photographs of the most +carefully furnished homes in America. He immediately employed the best +available expert, and within six months there came to him an assorted +collection of over a thousand photographs of well-furnished rooms. The +best were selected, and a series of photographic pages called "Inside of +100 Homes" was begun. The editor's woman friend had correctly pointed +the way to him, for this series won for his magazine the enviable +distinction of being the first magazine of standing to reach the then +marvellous record of a circulation of one million copies a month. The +editions containing the series were sold out as fast as they could be +printed. + +The editor followed this up with another successful series, again +pictorial. He realized that to explain good taste in furnishing by text +was almost impossible. So he started a series of all-picture pages +called "Good Taste and Bad Taste." He presented a chair that was bad in +lines and either useless or uncomfortable to sit in, and explained where +and why it was bad; and then put a good chair next to it, and explained +where and why it was good. + +The lesson to the eye was simply and directly effective; the pictures +told their story as no printed word could have done, and furniture +manufacturers and dealers all over the country, feeling the pressure +from their customers, began to put on the market the tables, chairs, +divans, bedsteads, and dressing-tables which the magazine was portraying +as examples of good taste. It was amazing that, within five years, the +physical appearance of domestic furniture in the stores completely +changed. + +The next undertaking was a systematic plan for improving the pictures on +the walls of the American home. Bok was employing the best artists of +the day: Edwin A. Abbey, Howard Pyle, Charles Dana Gibson, W. L. Taylor, +Albert Lynch, Will H. Low, W. T. Smedley, Irving R. Wiles, and others. +As his magazine was rolled to go through the mails, the pictures +naturally suffered; Bok therefore decided to print a special edition of +each important picture that he published, an edition on plate-paper, +without text, and offered to his readers at ten cents a copy. Within a +year he had sold nearly one hundred thousand copies, such pictures as W. +L. Taylor's "The Hanging of the Crane" and "Home-Keeping Hearts" being +particularly popular. + +Pictures were difficult to advertise successfully; it was before the +full-color press had become practicable for rapid magazine work; and +even the large-page black-and-white reproductions which Bok could give +in his magazine did not, of course, show the beauty of the original +paintings, the majority of which were in full color. He accordingly made +arrangements with art publishers to print his pictures in their original +colors; then he determined to give the public an opportunity to see what +the pictures themselves looked like. + +He asked his art editor to select the two hundred and fifty best +pictures and frame them. Then he engaged the art gallery of the +Philadelphia Art Club, and advertised an exhibition of the original +paintings. No admission was charged. The gallery was put into gala +attire, and the pictures were well hung. The exhibition, which was +continued for two weeks, was visited by over fifteen thousand persons. + +His success here induced Bok to take the collection to New York. The +galleries of the American Art Association were offered him, but he +decided to rent the ballroom of the Hotel Waldorf. The hotel was then +new; it was the talk not only of the town but of the country, while the +ballroom had been pictured far and wide. It would have a publicity +value. He could secure the room for only four days, but he determined to +make the most of the short time. The exhibition was well advertised; a +"private view" was given the evening before the opening day, and when, +at nine o'clock the following morning, the doors of the exhibition were +thrown open, over a thousand persons were waiting in line. + +The hotel authorities had to resort to a special cordon of police to +handle the crowds, and within four days over seventeen thousand persons +had seen the pictures. On the last evening it was after midnight before +the doors could be closed to the waiting-line. Boston was next visited, +and there, at the Art Club Gallery, the previous successes were +repeated. Within two weeks over twenty-eight thousand persons visited +the exhibition. + +Other cities now clamored for a sight of the pictures, and it was +finally decided to end the exhibitions by a visit to Chicago. The +success here exceeded that in any of the other cities. The banquet-hall +of the Auditorium Hotel had been engaged; over two thousand persons were +continually in a waiting-line outside, and within a week nearly thirty +thousand persons pushed and jostled themselves into the gallery. Over +eight thousand persons in all had viewed the pictures in the four +cities. + +The exhibition was immediately followed by the publication of a +portfolio of the ten pictures that had proved the greatest favorites. +These were printed on plate-paper and the portfolio was offered by Bok +to his readers for one dollar. The first thousand sets were exhausted +within a fortnight. A second thousand were printed, and these were +quickly sold out. + +Bok's next enterprise was to get his pictures into the homes of the +country on a larger scale; he determined to work through the churches. +He selected the fifty best pictures, made them into a set and offered +first a hundred sets to selected schools, which were at once taken. Then +he offered two hundred and fifty sets to churches to sell at their +fairs. The managers were to promise to erect a Ladies' Home Journal +booth (which Bok knew, of course, would be most effective advertising), +and the pictures were to sell at twenty-five and fifty cents each, with +some at a dollar each. The set was offered to the churches for five +dollars: the actual cost of reproduction and expressage. On the day +after the publication of the magazine containing the offer, enough +telegraphic orders were received to absorb the entire edition. A second +edition was immediately printed; and finally ten editions, four thousand +sets in all, were absorbed before the demand was filled. By this method, +two hundred thousand pictures had been introduced into American homes, +and over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in money had been raised +by the churches as their portion. + +But all this was simply to lead up to the realization of Bok's cherished +dream: the reproduction, in enormous numbers, of the greatest pictures +in the world in their original colors. The plan, however, was not for +the moment feasible: the cost of the four-color process was at that time +prohibitive, and Bok had to abandon it. But he never lost sight of it. +He knew the hour would come when he could carry it out, and he bided his +time. + +It was not until years later that his opportunity came, when he +immediately made up his mind to seize it. The magazine had installed a +battery of four-color presses; the color-work in the periodical was +attracting universal attention, and after all stages of experimentation +had been passed, Bok decided to make his dream a reality. He sought the +co-operation of the owners of the greatest private art galleries in the +country: J. Pierpont Morgan, Henry C. Frick, Joseph E. Widener, George +W. Elkins, John G. Johnson, Charles P. Taft, Mrs. John L. Gardner, +Charles L. Freer, Mrs. Havemeyer, and the owners of the Benjamin Altman +Collection, and sought permission to reproduce their greatest paintings. + +Although each felt doubtful of the ability of any process adequately to +reproduce their masterpieces, the owners heartily co-operated with Bok. +But Bok's co-editors discouraged his plan, since it would involve +endless labor, the exclusive services of a corps of photographers and +engravers, and the employment of the most careful pressmen available in +the United States. The editor realized that the obstacles were numerous +and that the expense would be enormous; but he felt sure that the +American public was ready for his idea. And early in 1912 he announced +his series and began its publication. + +The most wonderful Rembrandt, Velasquez, Turner, Hobbema, Van Dyck, +Raphael, Frans Hals, Romney, Gainsborough, Whistler, Corot, Mauve, +Vermeer, Fragonard, Botticelli, and Titian reproductions followed in +such rapid succession as fairly to daze the magazine readers. Four +pictures were given in each number, and the faithfulness of the +reproductions astonished even their owners. The success of the series +was beyond Bok's own best hopes. He was printing and selling one and +three-quarter million copies of each issue of his magazine; and before +he was through he had presented to American homes throughout the breadth +of the country over seventy million reproductions of forty separate +master-pieces of art. + +The dream of years had come true. + +Bok had begun with the exterior of the small American house and made an +impression upon it; he had brought the love of flowers into the hearts +of thousands of small householders who had never thought they could have +an artistic garden within a small area; he had changed the lines of +furniture, and he had put better art on the walls of these homes. He had +conceived a full-rounded scheme, and he had carried it out. + +It was a peculiar satisfaction to Bok that Theodore Roosevelt once +summed up this piece of work in these words: "Bok is the only man I ever +heard of who changed, for the better, the architecture of an entire +nation, and he did it so quickly and yet so effectively that we didn't +know it was begun before it was finished. That is a mighty big job for +one man to have done." + + + +XXII. An Adventure in Civic and Private Art + +Edward Bok now turned his attention to those influences of a more public +nature which he felt could contribute to elevate the standard of public +taste. + +He was surprised, on talking with furnishers of homes, to learn to what +extent women whose husbands had recently acquired means would refer to +certain styles of decoration and hangings which they had seen in the +Pullman parlor-cars. He had never seriously regarded the influence of +the furnishing of these cars upon the travelling public; now he realized +that, in a decorative sense, they were a distinct factor and a very +unfortunate one. + +For in those days, twenty years ago, the decoration of the Pullman +parlor-car was atrocious. Colors were in riotous discord; every foot of +wood-panelling was carved and ornamented, nothing being left of the +grain of even the most beautiful woods; gilt was recklessly laid on +everywhere regardless of its fitness or relation. The hangings in the +cars were not only in bad taste, but distinctly unsanitary; the heaviest +velvets and showiest plushes were used; mirrors with bronzed and +redplushed frames were the order of the day; cord portières, +lambrequins, and tasselled fringes were still in vogue in these cars. It +was a veritable riot of the worst conceivable ideas; and it was this +standard that these women of the new-money class were accepting and +introducing into their homes! + +Bok wrote an editorial calling attention to these facts. The Pullman +Company paid no attention to it, but the railroad journals did. With one +accord they seized the cudgel which Bok had raised, and a series of +hammerings began. The Pullman conductors began to report to their +division chiefs that the passengers were criticising the cars, and the +company at last woke up. It issued a cynical rejoinder; whereupon Bok +wrote another editorial, and the railroad journals once more joined in +the chorus. + +The president of a large Western railroad wrote to Bok that he agreed +absolutely with his position, and asked whether he had any definite +suggestions to offer for the improvement of some new cars which they +were about to order. Bok engaged two of the best architects and +decorators in the country, and submitted the results to the officials of +the railroad company, who approved of them heartily. The Pullman Company +did not take very kindly, however, to suggestions thus brought to them. +But a current had been started; the attention of the travelling public +had been drawn for the first time to the wretched decoration of the +cars; and public sentiment was beginning to be vocal. + +The first change came when a new dining-car on the Chicago, Burlington +and Quincy Railroad suddenly appeared. It was an artistically treated +Flemish-oak-panelled car with longitudinal beams and cross-beams, giving +the impression of a ceiling-beamed room. Between the "beams" was a quiet +tone of deep yellow. The sides of the car were wainscoting of plain +surface done in a Flemish stain rubbed down to a dull finish. The grain +of the wood was allowed to serve as decoration; there was no carving. +The whole tone of the car was that of the rich color of the sunflower. +The effect upon the travelling public was instantaneous. Every passenger +commented favorably on the car. + +The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad now followed suit by +introducing a new Pullman chair-car. The hideous and germ-laden plush or +velvet curtains were gone, and leather hangings of a rich tone took +their place. All the grill-work of a bygone age was missing; likewise +the rope curtains. The woods were left to show the grain; no carving was +visible anywhere. The car was a relief to the eye, beautiful and simple, +and easy to keep clean. Again the public observed, and expressed its +pleasure. + +The Pullman people now saw the drift, and wisely reorganized their +decorative department. Only those who remember the Pullman parlor-car of +twenty years ago can realize how long a step it is from the atrociously +decorated, unsanitary vehicle of that day to the simple car of to-day. + +It was only a step from the Pullman car to the landscape outside, and +Bok next decided to see what he could do toward eliminating the hideous +bill-board advertisements which defaced the landscape along the lines of +the principal roads. He found a willing ally in this idea in Mr. J. +Horace McFarland, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, one of the most skilful +photographers in the country, and the president of The American Civic +Association. McFarland and Bok worked together; they took innumerable +photographs, and began to publish them, calling public attention to the +intrusion upon the public eye. + +Page after page appeared in the magazine, and after a few months these +roused public discussion as to legal control of this class of +advertising. Bok meanwhile called the attention of women's clubs and +other civic organizations to the question, and urged that they clean +their towns of the obnoxious bill-boards. Legislative measures +regulating the size, character, and location of bill-boards were +introduced in various States, a tax on each bill-board was suggested in +other States, and the agitation began to bear fruit. + +Bok now called upon his readers in general to help by offering a series +of prizes totalling several thousands of dollars for two photographs, +one showing a fence, barn, or outbuilding painted with an advertisement +or having a bill-board attached to it, or a field with a bill-board in +it, and a second photograph of the same spot showing the advertisement +removed, with an accompanying affidavit of the owner of the property, +legally attested, asserting that the advertisement had been permanently +removed. Hundreds of photographs poured in, scores of prizes were +awarded, the results were published, and requests came in for a second +series of prizes, which were duly awarded. + +While Bok did not solve the problem of bill-board advertising, and while +in some parts of the country it is a more flagrant nuisance to-day than +ever before, he had started the first serious agitation against +bill-board advertising of bad design, detrimental, from its location, to +landscape beauty. He succeeded in getting rid of a huge bill-board which +had been placed at the most picturesque spot at Niagara Falls; and +hearing of "the largest advertisement sign in the world" to be placed on +the rim of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, he notified the advertisers +that a photograph of the sign, if it was erected, would be immediately +published in the magazine and the attention of the women of America +called to the defacement of one of the most impressive and beautiful +scenes in the world. The article to be advertised was a household +commodity, purchased by women; and the owners realized that the proposed +advertisement would not be to the benefit of their product. The sign was +abandoned. + +Of course the advertisers whose signs were shown in the magazine +immediately threatened the withdrawal of their accounts from The Ladies' +Home Journal, and the proposed advertiser at the Grand Canyon, whose +business was conspicuous in each number of the magazine, became actively +threatening. But Bok contended that the one proposition had absolutely +no relation to the other, and that if concerns advertised in the +magazine simply on the basis of his editorial policy toward bill-board +advertising, it was, to say the least, not a sound basis for +advertising. No advertising account was ever actually withdrawn. + +In their travels about, Mr. McFarland and Bok began to note the +disreputably untidy spots which various municipalities allowed in the +closest proximity to the centre of their business life, in the most +desirable residential sections, and often adjacent to the most important +municipal buildings and parks. It was decided to select a dozen cities, +pick out the most flagrant instances of spots which were not only an +eyesore and a disgrace from a municipal standpoint, but a menace to +health and meant a depreciation of real-estate value. + +Lynn, Massachusetts, was the initial city chosen, a number of +photographs were taken, and the first of a series of "Dirty Cities" was +begun in the magazine. The effect was instantaneous. The people of Lynn +rose in protest, and the municipal authorities threatened suit against +the magazine; the local newspapers were virulent in their attacks. +Without warning, they argued, Bok had held up their city to disgrace +before the entire country; the attack was unwarranted; in bad taste; +every citizen in Lynn should thereafter cease to buy the magazine, and +so the criticisms ran. In answer Bok merely pointed to the photographs; +to the fact that the camera could not lie, and that if he had +misrepresented conditions he was ready to make amends. + +Of course the facts could not be gainsaid; local pride was aroused, and +as a result not only were the advertised "dirty spots" cleaned up, but +the municipal authorities went out and hunted around for other spots in +the city, not knowing what other photographs Bok might have had taken. + +Trenton, New Jersey, was the next example, and the same storm of public +resentment broke loose--with exactly the same beneficial results in the +end to the city. Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, was the third one of +America's "dirty cities." Here public anger rose particularly high, the +magazine practically being barred from the news-stands. But again the +result was to the lasting benefit of the community. + +Memphis, Tennessee, came next, but here a different spirit was met. +Although some resentment was expressed, the general feeling was that a +service had been rendered the city, and that the only wise and practical +solution was for the city to meet the situation. The result here was a +group of municipal buildings costing millions of dollars, photographs of +which The Ladies' Home Journal subsequently published with gratification +to itself and to the people of Memphis. + +Cities throughout the country now began to look around to see whether +they had dirty spots within their limits, not knowing when the McFarland +photographers might visit them. Bok received letters from various +municipalities calling his attention to the fact that they were +cognizant of spots in their cities and were cleaning up, and asking +that, if he had photographs of these spots, they should not be +published. + +It happened that in two such instances Bok had already prepared sets of +photographs for publication. These he sent to the mayors of the +respective cities, stating that if they would return them with an +additional set showing the spots cleaned up there would be no occasion +for their publication. In both cases this was done. Atlanta, Georgia; +New Haven, Connecticut; Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and finally Bok's own +city of Philadelphia were duly chronicled in the magazine; local storms +broke and calmed down-with the spots in every instance improved. + +It was an interesting experiment in photographic civics. The pity of it +is that more has not been done along this and similar lines. + +The time now came when Bok could demonstrate the willingness of his own +publishing company to do what it could to elevate the public taste in +art. With the increasing circulation of The Ladies' Home Journal and of +The Saturday Evening Post the business of the company had grown to such +dimensions that in 1908 plans for a new building were started. For +purposes of air and light the vicinity of Independence Square was +selected. Mr. Curtis purchased an entire city block facing the square, +and the present huge but beautiful publication building was conceived. + +Bok strongly believed that good art should find a place in public +buildings where large numbers of persons might find easy access to it. +The proximity of the proposed new structure to historic Independence +Hall and the adjacent buildings would make it a focal point for visitors +from all parts of the country and the world. The opportunity presented +itself to put good art, within the comprehension of a large public, into +the new building, and Bok asked permission of Mr. Curtis to introduce a +strong note of mural decoration. The idea commended itself to Mr. Curtis +as adding an attraction to the building and a contribution to public +art. + +The great public dining-room, seating over seven hundred persons, on the +top floor of the building, affording unusual lighting facilities, was +first selected; and Maxfield Parrish was engaged to paint a series of +seventeen panels to fill the large spaces between the windows and an +unusually large wall space at the end of the room. Parrish contracted to +give up all other work and devote himself to the commission which +attracted him greatly. + +For over a year he made sketches, and finally the theme was decided +upon: a bevy of youths and maidens in gala costume, on their way through +gardens and along terraces to a great fete, with pierrots and dancers +and musicians on the main wall space. It was to be a picture of happy +youth and sunny gladness. Five years after the conception of the idea +the final panel was finished and installed in the dining-room, where the +series has since been admired by the thirty to fifty thousand visitors +who come to the Curtis Building each year from foreign lands and from +every State in America. No other scheme of mural decoration was ever +planned on so large a scale for a commercial building, or so +successfully carried out. + +The great wall space of over one thousand square feet, unobstructed by a +single column, in the main foyer of the building was decided upon as the +place for the pivotal note to be struck by some mural artist. After +looking carefully over the field, Bok finally decided upon Edwin A. +Abbey. He took a steamer and visited Abbey in his English home. The +artist was working on his canvases for the State capitol at Harrisburg, +and it was agreed that the commission for the Curtis Building was to +follow the completion of the State work. + +"What subject have you in mind?" asked Abbey. + +"None," replied Bok. "That is left entirely to you." + +The artist and his wife looked at each other in bewilderment. + +"Rather unusual," commented Abbey. "You have nothing in mind at all?" + +"Nothing, except to get the best piece of work you have ever done," was +the assurance. + +Poor Abbey! His life had been made so tortuous by suggestions, ideas, +yes, demands made upon him in the work of the Harrisburg panels upon +which he was engaged, that a commission in which he was to have free +scope, his brush full leeway, with no one making suggestions but himself +and Mrs. Abbey, seemed like a dream. When he explained this, Bok assured +him that was exactly what he was offering him: a piece of work, the +subject to be his own selection, with the assurance of absolute liberty +to carry out his own ideas. Never was an artist more elated. + +"Then, I'll give you the best piece of work of my life," said Abbey. + +"Perhaps there is some subject which you have long wished to paint +rather than any other," asked Bok, "that might fit our purpose +admirably?" + +There was: a theme that he had started as a fresco for Mrs. Abbey's +bedroom. But it would not answer this purpose at all, although he +confessed he would rather paint it than any subject in the realm of all +literature and art. + +"And the subject?" asked Bok. + +"The Grove of Academe," replied Abbey, and the eyes of the artist and +his wife were riveted on the editor. + +"With Plato and his disciples?" asked Bok. + +"The same," said Abbey. "But you see it wouldn't fit." + +"Wouldn't fit?" echoed Bok. "Why, it's the very thing." + +Abbey and his wife were now like two happy children. Mrs. Abbey fetched +the sketches which her husband had begun years ago, and when Bok saw +them he was delighted. He realized at once that conditions and choice +would conspire to produce Abbey's greatest piece of mural work. + +The arrangements were quickly settled; the Curtis architect had +accompanied Bok to explain the architectural possibilities to Abbey, and +when the artist bade good-by to the two at the railroad station, his +last words were: + +"Bok, you are going to get the best Abbey in the world." + +And Mrs. Abbey echoed the prophecy! + +But Fate intervened. On the day after Abbey had stretched his great +canvas in Sargent's studio in London, expecting to begin his work the +following week, he suddenly passed away, and what would, in all +likelihood, have been Edwin Abbey's mural masterpiece was lost to the +world. + +Assured of Mrs. Abbey's willingness to have another artist take the +theme of the Grove of Academe and carry it out as a mural decoration, +Bok turned to Howard Pyle. He knew Pyle had made a study of Plato, and +believed that, with his knowledge and love of the work of the Athenian +philosopher, a good decoration would result. Pyle was then in Italy; Bok +telephoned the painter's home in Wilmington, Delaware, to get his +address, only to be told that an hour earlier word had been received by +the family that Pyle had been fatally stricken the day before. + +Once more Bok went over the field of mural art and decided this time +that he would go far afield, and present his idea to Boutet de Monvel, +the French decorative artist. Bok had been much impressed with some +decorative work by De Monvel which had just been exhibited in New York. +By letter he laid the proposition in detail before the artist, asked for +a subject, and stipulated that if the details could be arranged the +artist should visit the building and see the place and surroundings for +himself. After a lengthy correspondence, and sketches submitted and +corrected, a plan for what promised to be a most unusual and +artistically decorative panel was arrived at. + +The date for M. de Monvel's visit to Philadelphia was fixed, a final +letter from the artist reached Bok on a Monday morning, in which a few +remaining details were satisfactorily cleared up, and a cable was sent +assuring De Monvel of the entire satisfaction of the company with his +final sketches and arrangements. The following morning Bok picked up his +newspaper to read that Boutet de Monvel had suddenly passed away in +Paris the previous evening! + +Bok, thoroughly bewildered, began to feel as if some fatal star hung +over his cherished decoration. Three times in succession he had met the +same decree of fate. + +He consulted six of the leading mural decorators in America, asking +whether they would consent, not in competition, to submit each a +finished full-color sketch of the subject which he believed fitted for +the place in mind; they could take the Grove of Academe or not, as they +chose; the subject was to be of their own selection. Each artist was to +receive a generous fee for his sketch, whether accepted or rejected. In +due time, the six sketches were received; impartial judges were +selected, no names were attached to the sketches, several conferences +were held, and all the sketches were rejected! + +Bok was still exactly where he started, while the building was nearly +complete, with no mural for the large place so insistently demanding it. + +He now recalled a marvellous stage-curtain entirely of glass mosaic +executed by Louis C. Tiffany, of New York, for the Municipal Theatre at +Mexico City. The work had attracted universal attention at its +exhibition, art critics and connoisseurs had praised it unstintingly, +and Bok decided to experiment in that direction. + +Just as the ancient Egyptians and Persians had used glazed brick and +tile, set in cement, as their form of wall decoration, so Mr. Tiffany +had used favrile glass, set in cement. The luminosity was marvellous; +the effect of light upon the glass was unbelievably beautiful, and the +colorings obtained were a joy to the senses. + +Here was not only a new method in wall decoration, but one that was +entirely practicable. Glass would not craze like tiles or mosaic; it +would not crinkle as will canvas; it needed no varnish. It would retain +its color, freshness, and beauty, and water would readily cleanse it +from dust. + +He sought Mr. Tiffany, who was enthusiastic over the idea of making an +example of his mosaic glass of such dimensions which should remain in +this country, and gladly offered to co-operate. But, try as he might, +Bok could not secure an adequate sketch for Mr. Tiffany to carry out. +Then he recalled that one day while at Maxfield Parrish's summer home in +New Hampshire the artist had told him of a dream garden which he would +like to construct, not on canvas but in reality. Bok suggested to +Parrish that he come to New York. He asked him if he could put his dream +garden on canvas. The artist thought he could; in fact, was greatly +attracted to the idea; but he knew nothing of mosaic work, and was not +particularly attracted by the idea of having his work rendered in that +medium. + +Bok took Parrish to Mr. Tiffany's studio; the two artists talked +together, the glass-worker showed the canvas-painter his work, with the +result that the two became enthusiastic to co-operate in trying the +experiment. Parrish agreed to make a sketch for Mr. Tiffany's approval, +and within six months, after a number of conferences and an equal number +of sketches, they were ready to begin the work. Bok only hoped that this +time both artists would outlive their commissions! + +It was a huge picture to be done in glass mosaic. The space to be filled +called for over a million pieces of glass, and for a year the services +of thirty of the most skilled artisans would be required. The work had +to be done from a series of bromide photographs enlarged to a size +hitherto unattempted. But at last the decoration was completed; the +finished art piece was placed on exhibition in New York and over seven +thousand persons came to see it. The leading art critics pronounced the +result to be the most amazing instance of the tone capacity of +glass-work ever achieved. It was a veritable wonder-piece, far exceeding +the utmost expression of paint and canvas. + +For six months a group of skilled artisans worked to take the picture +apart in New York, transport it and set it into its place in +Philadelphia. But at last it was in place: the wonder-picture in glass +of which painters have declared that "mere words are only aggravating in +describing this amazing picture." Since that day over one hundred +thousand visitors to the building have sat in admiration before it. + +The Grove of Academe was to become a Dream Garden, but it was only after +six years of incessant effort, with obstacles and interventions almost +insurmountable, that the dream became true. + + + +XXIII. Theodore Roosevelt's Influence + +When the virile figure of Theodore Roosevelt swung down the national +highway, Bok was one of thousands of young men who felt strongly the +attraction of his personality. Colonel Roosevelt was only five years the +senior of the editor; he spoke, therefore, as one of his own years. The +energy with which he said and did things appealed to Bok. He made +Americanism something more real, more stirring than Bok had ever felt +it; he explained national questions in a way that caught Bok's fancy and +came within his comprehension. Bok's lines had been cast with many of +the great men of the day, but he felt that there was something +distinctive about the personality of this man: his method of doing +things and his way of saying things. Bok observed everything Colonel +Roosevelt did and read everything he wrote. + +The editor now sought an opportunity to know personally the man whom he +admired. It came at a dinner at the University Club, and Colonel +Roosevelt suggested that they meet there the following day for a +"talk-fest." For three hours the two talked together. The fact that +Colonel Roosevelt was of Dutch ancestry interested Bok; that Bok was +actually of Dutch birth made a strong appeal to the colonel. With his +tremendous breadth of interests, Roosevelt, Bok found, had followed him +quite closely in his work, and was familiar with "its high points," as +he called them. "We must work for the same ends," said the colonel, "you +in your way, I in mine. But our lines are bound to cross. You and I can +each become good Americans by giving our best to make America better. +With the Dutch stock there is in both of us, there's no limit to what we +can do. Let's go to it." Naturally that talk left the two firm friends. + +Bok felt somehow that he had been given a new draft of Americanism: the +word took on a new meaning for him; it stood for something different, +something deeper and finer than before. And every subsequent talk with +Roosevelt deepened the feeling and stirred Bok's deepest ambitions. "Go +to it, you Dutchman," Roosevelt would say, and Bok would go to it. A +talk with Roosevelt always left him feeling as if mountains were the +easiest things in the world to move. + +One of Theodore Roosevelt's arguments which made a deep impression upon +Bok was that no man had a right to devote his entire life to the making +of money. "You are in a peculiar position," said the man of Oyster Bay +one day to Bok; "you are in that happy position where you can make money +and do good at the same time. A man wields a tremendous power for good +or for evil who is welcomed into a million homes and read with +confidence. That's fine, and is all right so far as it goes, and in your +case it goes very far. Still, there remains more for you to do. The +public has built up for you a personality: now give that personality to +whatever interests you in contact with your immediate fellowmen: +something in your neighborhood, your city, or your State. With one hand +work and write to your national audience: let no fads sway you. Hew +close to the line. But, with the other hand, swing into the life +immediately around you. Think it over." + +Bok did think it over. He was now realizing the dream of his life for +which he had worked: his means were sufficient to give his mother every +comfort; to install her in the most comfortable surroundings wherever +she chose to live; to make it possible for her to spend the winters in +the United States and the summers in the Netherlands, and thus to keep +in touch with her family and friends in both countries. He had for years +toiled unceasingly to reach this point: he felt he had now achieved at +least one goal. + +He had now turned instinctively to the making of a home for himself. +After an engagement of four years he had been married, on October 22, +1896, to Mary Louise Curtis, the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Cyrus H. K. +Curtis; two sons had been born to them; he had built and was occupying a +house at Merion, Pennsylvania, a suburb six miles from the Philadelphia +City Hall. When she was in this country his mother lived with him, and +also his brother, and, with a strong belief in life insurance, he had +seen to it that his family was provided for in case of personal +incapacity or of his demise. In other words, he felt that he had put his +own house in order; he had carried out what he felt is every man's duty: +to be, first of all, a careful and adequate provider for his family. He +was now at the point where he could begin to work for another goal, the +goal that he felt so few American men saw: the point in his life where +he could retire from the call of duty and follow the call of +inclination. + +At the age of forty he tried to look ahead and plan out his life as far +as he could. Barring unforeseen obstacles, he determined to retire from +active business when he reached his fiftieth year, and give the +remainder of his life over to those interests and influences which he +assumed now as part of his life, and which, at fifty, should seem to him +best worth while. He realized that in order to do this he must do two +things: he must husband his financial resources and he must begin to +accumulate a mental reserve. + +The wide public acceptance of the periodical which he edited naturally +brought a share of financial success to him. He had experienced poverty, +and as he subsequently wrote, in an article called "Why I Believe in +Poverty," he was deeply grateful for his experience. He had known what +it was to be poor; he had seen others dear to him suffer for the bare +necessities; there was, in fact, not a single step on that hard road +that he had not travelled. He could, therefore, sympathize with the +fullest understanding with those similarly situated, could help as one +who knew from practice and not from theory. He realized what a +marvellous blessing poverty can be; but as a condition to experience, to +derive from it poignant lessons, and then to get out of; not as a +condition to stay in. + +Of course many said to Bok when he wrote the article in which he +expressed these beliefs: "That's all very well; easy enough to say, but +how can you get out of it?" Bok realized that he could not definitely +show any one the way. No one had shown him. No two persons can find the +same way out. Bok determined to lift himself out of poverty because his +mother was not born in it, did not belong in it, and could not stand it. +That gave him the first essential: a purpose. Then he backed up the +purpose with effort and an ever-ready willingness to work, and to work +at anything that came his way, no matter what it was, so long as it +meant "the way out." He did not pick and choose; he took what came, and +did it in the best way he knew how; and when he did not like what he was +doing he still did it as well as he could while he was doing it, but +always with an eye single to the purpose not to do it any longer than +was strictly necessary. He used every rung in the ladder as a rung to +the one above. He always gave more than his particular position or +salary asked for. He never worked by the clock; always by the job; and +saw that it was well done regardless of the time it took to do it. This +meant effort, of course, untiring, ceaseless, unsparing; and it meant +work, hard as nails. + +He was particularly careful never to live up to his income; and as his +income increased he increased not the percentage of expenditure but the +percentage of saving. Thrift was, of course, inborn with him as a +Dutchman, but the necessity for it as a prime factor in life was burned +into him by his experience with poverty. But he interpreted thrift not +as a trait of niggardliness, but as Theodore Roosevelt interpreted it: +common sense applied to spending. + +At forty, therefore, he felt he had learned the first essential to +carrying out his idea of retirement at fifty. + +The second essential--varied interests outside of his business upon +which he could rely on relinquishing his duties--he had not cultivated. +He had quite naturally, in line with his belief that concentration means +success, immersed himself in his business to the exclusion of almost +everything else. He felt that he could now spare a certain percentage of +his time to follow Theodore Roosevelt's ideas and let the breezes of +other worlds blow over him. In that way he could do as Roosevelt +suggested and as Bok now firmly believed was right: he could develop +himself along broader lines, albeit the lines of his daily work were +broadening in and of themselves, and he could so develop a new set of +inner resources upon which he could draw when the time came to +relinquish his editorial position. + +He saw, on every side, the pathetic figures of men who could not let go +after their greatest usefulness was past; of other men who dropped +before they realized their arrival at the end of the road; and, most +pathetic of all, of men who having retired, but because of lack of inner +resources did not know what to do with themselves, had become a trial to +themselves, their families, and their communities. + +Bok decided that, given health and mental freshness, he would say +good-by to his public before his public might decide to say good-by to +him. So, at forty, he candidly faced the facts of life and began to +prepare himself for his retirement at fifty under circumstances that +would be of his own making and not those of others. + +And thereby Edward Bok proved that he was still, by instinct, a +Dutchman, and had not in his thirty-four years of residence in the +United States become so thoroughly Americanized as he believed. + +However, it was an American, albeit of Dutch extraction, one whom he +believed to be the greatest American in his own day, who had set him +thinking and shown him the way. + + + +XXIV. Theodore Roosevelt's Anonymous Editorial Work + +While Theodore Roosevelt was President of the United States, Bok was +sitting one evening talking with him, when suddenly Mr. Roosevelt turned +to him and said with his usual emphasis: "Bok, I envy you your power +with your public." + +The editor was frankly puzzled. + +"That is a strange remark from the President of the United States," he +replied. + +"You may think so," was the rejoinder. "But listen. When do I get the +ear of the public? In its busiest moments. My messages are printed in +the newspapers and read hurriedly, mostly by men in trolleys or +railroad-cars. Women hardly ever read them, I should judge. Now you are +read in the evening by the fireside or under the lamp, when the day's +work is over and the mind is at rest from other things and receptive to +what you offer. Don't you see where you have it on me?" + +This diagnosis was keenly interesting, and while the President talked +during the balance of the evening, Bok was thinking. Finally, he said: +"Mr. President, I should like to share my power with you." + +"How?" asked Mr. Roosevelt. + +"You recognize that women do not read your messages; and yet no +President's messages ever discussed more ethical questions that women +should know about and get straight in their minds. As it is, some of +your ideas are not at all understood by them; your strenuous-life +theory, for instance, your factory-law ideas, and particularly your +race-suicide arguments. Men don't fully understand them, for that +matter; women certainly do not." + +"I am aware of all that," said the President. "What is your plan to +remedy it?" + +"Have a department in my magazine, and explain your ideas," suggested +Bok. + +"Haven't time for another thing. You know that," snapped back the +President. "Wish I had." + +"Not to write it, perhaps, yourself," returned Bok. + +"But why couldn't you find time to do this: select the writer here in +Washington in whose accuracy you have the most implicit faith; let him +talk with you for one hour each month on one of those subjects; let him +write out your views, and submit the manuscript to you; and we will have +a department stating exactly how the material is obtained and how far it +represents your own work. In that way, with only an hour's work each +month, you can get your views, correctly stated, before this vast +audience when it is not in trolleys or railroadcars." + +"But I haven't the hour," answered Roosevelt, impressed, however, as Bok +saw. "I have only half an hour, when I am awake, when I am really idle, +and that is when I am being shaved." + +"Well," calmly suggested the editor, "why not two of those half-hours a +month, or perhaps one?" + +"What?" answered the President, sitting upright, his teeth flashing but +his smile broadening. "You Dutchman, you'd make me work while I'm +getting shaved, too?" + +"Well," was the answer, "isn't the result worth the effort?" + +"Bok, you are absolutely relentless," said the President. "But you're +right. The result would be worth the effort. What writer have you in +mind? You seem to have thought this thing through." + +"How about O'Brien? You think well of him?" + +(Robert L. O'Brien, now editor of the Boston Herald, was then Washington +correspondent for the Boston Transcript and thoroughly in the +President's confidence.) + +"Fine," said the President. "I trust O'Brien implicitly. All right, if +you can get O'Brien to add it on, I'll try it." + +And so the "shaving interviews" were begun; and early in 1906 there +appeared in The Ladies' Home Journal a department called "The +President," with the subtitle: "A Department in which will be presented +the attitude of the President on those national questions which affect +the vital interests of the home, by a writer intimately acquainted and +in close touch with him." + +O'Brien talked with Mr. Roosevelt once a month, wrote out the results, +the President went over the proofs carefully, and the department was +conducted with great success for a year. + +But Theodore Roosevelt was again to be the editor of a department in The +Ladies' Home Journal; this time to be written by himself under the +strictest possible anonymity, so closely adhered to that, until this +revelation, only five persons have known the authorship. + +Feeling that it would be an interesting experiment to see how far +Theodore Roosevelt's ideas could stand unsupported by the authority of +his vibrant personality, Bok suggested the plan to the colonel. It was +just after he had returned from his South American trip. He was +immediately interested. + +"But how can we keep the authorship really anonymous?" he asked. + +"Easily enough," answered Bok, "if you're willing to do the work. Our +letters about it must be written in long hand addressed to each other's +homes; you must write your manuscript in your own hand; I will copy it +in mine, and it will go to the printer in that way. I will personally +send you the proofs; you mark your corrections in pencil, and I will +copy them in ink; the company will pay me for each article, and I will +send you my personal check each month. By this means, the identity of +the author will be concealed." + +Colonel Roosevelt was never averse to hard work if it was necessary to +achieve a result that he felt was worth while. + +"All right," wrote the colonel finally. "I'll try--with you!--the +experiment for a year: 12 articles... I don't know that I can give your +readers satisfaction, but I shall try my very best. I am very glad to be +associated with you, anyway. At first I doubted the wisdom of the plan, +merely because I doubted whether I could give you just that you wished. +I never know what an audience wants: I know what it ought to want: and +sometimes I can give it, or make it accept what I think it needs--and +sometimes I cannot. But the more I thought over your proposal, the more +I liked it... Whether the wine will be good enough to attract without +any bush I don't know; and besides, in such cases the fault is not in +the wine, but in the fact that the consumers decline to have their +attention attracted unless there is a bush!" + +In the latter part of 1916 an anonymous department called "Men" was +begun in the magazine. + +The physical work was great. The colonel punctiliously held to the +conditions, and wrote manuscript and letters with his own hand, and Bok +carried out his part of the agreement. Nor was this simple, for Colonel +Roosevelt's manuscript--particularly when, as in this case, it was +written on yellow paper with a soft pencil and generously +interlined--was anything but legible. Month after month the two men +worked each at his own task. To throw the public off the scent, during +the conduct of the department, an article or two by Colonel Roosevelt +was published in another part of the magazine under his own name, and in +the department itself the anonymous author would occasionally quote +himself. + +It was natural that the appearance of a department devoted to men in a +woman's magazine should attract immediate attention. The department took +up the various interests of a man's life, such as real efficiency; his +duties as an employer and his usefulness to his employees; the +employee's attitude toward his employer; the relations of men and women; +a father's relations to his sons and daughters; a man's duty to his +community; the public-school system; a man's relation to his church, and +kindred topics. + +The anonymity of the articles soon took on interest from the +positiveness of the opinions discussed; but so thoroughly had Colonel +Roosevelt covered his tracks that, although he wrote in his usual style, +in not a single instance was his name connected with the department. +Lyman Abbott was the favorite "guess" at first; then after various other +public men had been suggested, the newspapers finally decided upon +former President Eliot of Harvard University as the writer. + +All this intensely interested and amused Colonel Roosevelt and he fairly +itched with the desire to write a series of criticisms of his own +articles to Doctor Eliot. Bok, however, persuaded the colonel not to +spend more physical effort than he was already doing on the articles; +for, in addition, he was notating answers on the numerous letters +received, and those Bok answered "on behalf of the author." + +For a year, the department continued. During all that time the secret of +the authorship was known to only one man, besides the colonel and Bok, +and their respective wives! + +When the colonel sent his last article in the series to Bok, he wrote: + +"Now that the work is over, I wish most cordially to thank you, my dear +fellow, for your unvarying courtesy and kindness. I have not been +satisfied with my work. This is the first time I ever tried to write +precisely to order, and I am not one of those gifted men who can do so +to advantage. Generally I find that the 3,000 words is not the right +length and that I wish to use 2,000 or 4,000! And in consequence feel as +if I had either padded or mutilated the article. And I am not always +able to feel that every month I have something worth saying on a given +subject. + +"But I hope that you have not been too much disappointed." + +Bok had not been, and neither had his public! + +In the meanwhile, Bok had arranged with Colonel Roosevelt for his +reading and advising upon manuscripts of special significance for the +magazine. In this work, Colonel Roosevelt showed his customary +promptness and thoroughness. A manuscript, no matter how long it might +be, was in his hands scarcely forty-eight hours, more generally +twenty-four, before it was read, a report thereon written, and the +article on its way back. His reports were always comprehensive and +invariably interesting. There was none of the cut-and-dried flavor of +the opinion of the average "reader"; he always put himself into the +report, and, of course, that meant a warm personal touch. If he could +not encourage the publication of a manuscript, his reasons were always +fully given, and invariably without personal bias. + +On one occasion Bok sent him a manuscript which he was sure was, in its +views, at variance with the colonel's beliefs. The colonel, he knew, +felt strongly on the subject, and Bok wondered what would be his +criticism. The report came back promptly. He reviewed the article +carefully and ended: "Of course, this is all at variance with my own +views. I believe thoroughly and completely that this writer is all +wrong. And yet, from his side of the case, I am free to say that he +makes out the best case I have read anywhere. I think a magazine should +present both sides of all questions; and if you want to present this +side, I should strongly recommend that you do so with this article." + + Sagamore Hill. April 26th 1916 + + This is a really noteworth story--a + profoundly touching story--of the Americanizing + of an immigrant girl, who between babyhood + and young womanhood leaps over a space + which in all outward and humanizing essentials + is far more important than the distance + painfully traversed by her forefathers during + the preceding thousand years. When we tend to + grow disheartened over some of the developments + of our American civilization, it is well + worth while seeing what this same + civilization holds for starved and noble + souls who have elsewhere been denied what + here we hold to be, as a matter of course, rights + free to all--altho we do not, as we should do, + make these rights accessible to all who are + willing with resolute earnestness to strive for them. + I most cordially commend this story. + + Theodore Roosevelt + + One of Theodore Roosevelt's "Reports" as a reader of + special manuscripts" + +Not long after, Bok decided to induce Colonel Roosevelt to embark upon +an entirely new activity, and negotiations were begun (alas, too late! +for it was in the autumn of 1918), which, owing to their tentative +character, were never made public. Bok told Colonel Roosevelt that he +wanted to invest twenty-five thousand dollars a year in American +boyhood--the boyhood that he felt twenty years hence would be the +manhood of America, and that would actually solve the problems with +which we were now grappling. + +Although, all too apparently, he was not in his usual vigorous health, +Colonel Roosevelt was alert in a moment. + +"Fine!" he said, with his teeth gleaming. "Couldn't invest better +anywhere. How are you going to do it?" + +"By asking you to assume the active headship of the National Boy Scouts +of America, and paying you that amount each year as a fixed salary." + +The colonel looked steadily ahead for a moment, without a word, and then +with the old Roosevelt smile wreathing his face and his teeth fairly +gleaming, he turned to his "tempter," as he called him, and said: + +"Do you know that was very well put? Yes, sir, very well put." + +"Yes?" answered Bok. "Glad you think so. But how about your acceptance +of the idea?" + +"That's another matter; quite another matter. How about the organization +itself? There are men in it that don't approve of me at all, you know," +he said. + +Bok explained that the organization knew nothing of his offer; that it +was entirely unofficial. It was purely a personal thought. He believed +the Boy Scouts of America needed a leader; that the colonel was the one +man in the United States fitted by every natural quality to be that +leader; that the Scouts would rally around him, and that, at his call, +instead of four hundred thousand Scouts, as there were then, the +organization would grow into a million and more. Bok further explained +that he believed his connection with the national organization was +sufficient, if Colonel Roosevelt would favorably consider such a +leadership, to warrant him in presenting it to the national officers; +and he was inclined to believe they would welcome the opportunity. He +could not assure the colonel of this! He had no authority for saying +they would; but was Colonel Roosevelt receptive to the idea? + +At first, the colonel could not see it. But he went over the ground as +thoroughly as a half-hour talk permitted; and finally the opportunity +for doing a piece of constructive work that might prove second to none +that he had ever done, made its appeal. + +"You mean for me to be the active head?" asked the colonel. + +"Could you be anything else, colonel?" answered Bok. + +"Quite so," said the colonel. "That's about right. Do you know," he +pondered, "I think Edie (Mrs. Roosevelt) might like me to do something +like that. She would figure it would keep me out of mischief in 1920," +and the colonel's smile spread over his face. + +"Bok," he at last concluded, "do you know, after all, I think you've +said something! Let's think it over. Let's see how I get along with this +trouble of mine. I am not sure, you know, how far I can go in the +future. Not at all sure, you know--not at all. That last trip of mine to +South America was a bit too much. Shouldn't have done it, you know. I +know it now. Well, as I say, let's both think it over and through; I +will, gladly and most carefully. There's much in what you say; it's a +great chance; I'd love doing it. By Jove! it would be wonderful to rally +a million boys for real Americanism, as you say. It looms up as I think +it over. Suppose we let it simmer for a month or two." + +And so it was left--for "a month or two." It was to be +forever--unfortunately. Edward Bok has always felt that the most +worth-while idea that ever came to him had, for some reason he never +could understand, come too late. He felt, as he will always feel, that +the boys of America had lost a national leader that might have led +them--where would have been the limit? + + + +XXV. The President and the Boy + +One of the incidents connected with Edward Bok that Theodore Roosevelt +never forgot was when Bok's eldest boy chose the colonel as a Christmas +present. And no incident better portrays the wonderful character of the +colonel than did his remarkable response to the compliment. + +A vicious attack of double pneumonia had left the heart of the boy very +weak--and Christmas was close by! So the father said: + +"It's a quiet Christmas for you this year, boy. Suppose you do this: +think of the one thing in the world that you would rather have than +anything else and I'll give you that, and that will have to be your +Christmas." + +"I know now," came the instant reply. + +"But the world is a big place, and there are lots of things in it, you +know." + +"I know that," said the boy, "but this is something I have wanted for a +long time, and would rather have than anything else in the world." And +he looked as if he meant it. + +"Well, out with it, then, if you're so sure." + +And to the father's astonished ears came this request: + +"Take me to Washington as soon as my heart is all right, introduce me to +President Roosevelt, and let me shake hands with him." + +"All right," said the father, after recovering from his surprise. "I'll +see whether I can fix it." And that morning a letter went to the +President saying that he had been chosen as a Christmas present. +Naturally, any man would have felt pleased, no matter how high his +station, and for Theodore Roosevelt, father of boys, the message had a +special appeal. + +The letter had no sooner reached Washington than back came an answer, +addressed not to the father but to the boy! It read: + +"The White House, Washington. + +"November 13th, 1907. + +"Dear Curtis: + +"Your father has just written me, and I want him to bring you on and +shake hands with me as soon as you are well enough to travel. Then I am +going to give you, myself, a copy of the book containing my hunting +trips since I have been President; unless you will wait until the new +edition, which contains two more chapters, is out. If so, I will send it +to you, as this new edition probably won't be ready when you come on +here. + +"Give my warm regards to your father and mother. + +"Sincerely yours, + +"Theodore Roosevelt." + +Here was joy serene! But the boy's heart had acted queerly for a few +days, and so the father wrote, thanked the President, and said that as +soon as the heart moderated a bit the letter would be given the boy. It +was a rare bit of consideration that now followed. No sooner had the +father's letter reached the White House than an answer came back by +first post--this time with a special-delivery stamp on it. It was +Theodore Roosevelt, the father, who wrote this time; his mind and time +filled with affairs of state, and yet full of tender thoughtfulness for +a little boy: + +"Dear Mr. Bok:-- + +"I have your letter of the 16th instant. I hope the little fellow will +soon be all right. Instead of giving him my letter, give him a message +from me based on the letter, if that will be better for him. Tell Mrs. +Bok how deeply Mrs. Roosevelt and I sympathize with her. We know just +how she feels. + +"Sincerely yours, + +"Theodore Roosevelt." + +"That's pretty fine consideration," said the father. He got the letter +during a business conference and he read it aloud to the group of +business men. Some there were in that group who keenly differed with the +President on national issues, but they were all fathers, and two of the +sturdiest turned and walked to the window as they said: "Yes, that is +fine!" + +Then came the boy's pleasure when he was handed the letter; the next few +days were spent inditing an answer to "my friend, the President." At +last the momentous epistle seemed satisfactory, and off to the busy +presidential desk went the boyish note, full of thanks and assurances +that he would come just as soon as he could, and that Mr. Roosevelt must +not get impatient! + +The "soon as he could" time, however, did not come as quickly as all had +hoped!--a little heart pumped for days full of oxygen and accelerated by +hypodermic injections is slow to mend. But the President's framed +letter, hanging on the spot on the wall first seen in the morning, was a +daily consolation. + +Then, in March, although four months after the promise--and it would not +have been strange, in his busy life, for the President to have forgotten +or at least overlooked it--on the very day that the book was published +came a special "large-paper" copy of The Outdoor Pastimes of an American +Hunter, and on the fly-leaf there greeted the boy, in the President's +own hand: + +"To Master Curtis Bok, + +"With the best wishes of his friend, + +"Theodore Roosevelt. + +"March 11, 1908." + +The boy's cup was now full, and so said his letter to the President. And +the President wrote back to the father: "I am really immensely amused +and interested, and shall be mighty glad to see the little fellow." + +In the spring, on a beautiful May day, came the great moment. The mother +had to go along, the boy insisted, to see the great event, and so the +trio found themselves shaking the hand of the President's secretary at +the White House. + +"Oh, the President is looking for you, all right," he said to the boy, +and then the next moment the three were in a large room. Mr. Roosevelt, +with beaming face, was already striding across the room, and with a +"Well, well, and so this is my friend Curtis!" the two stood looking +into each other's faces, each fairly wreathed in smiles, and each +industriously shaking the hand of the other. + +"Yes, Mr. President, I'm mighty glad to see you!" said the boy. + +"I am glad to see you, Curtis," returned Mr. Roosevelt. + +Then there came a white rose from the presidential desk for the mother, +but after that father and mother might as well have faded away. Nobody +existed save the President and the boy. The anteroom was full; in the +Cabinet-room a delegation waited to be addressed. But affairs of state +were at a complete standstill as, with boyish zeal, the President became +oblivious to all but the boy before him. + +"Now, Curtis, I've got some pictures here of bears that a friend of mine +has just shot. Look at that whopper, fifteen hundred pounds--that's as +much as a horse weighs, you know. Now, my friend shot him"--and it was a +toss-up who was the more keenly interested, the real boy or the man-boy, +as picture after picture came out and bear adventure crowded upon the +heels of bear adventure. + +"Gee, he's a corker, all right!" came from the boy at one point, and +then, from the President: "That's right, he is a corker. Now you see his +head here"--and then both were off again. + +The private secretary came in at this point and whispered in the +President's ear. + +"I know, I know. I'll see him later. Say that I am very busy now." And +the face beamed with smiles. + +"Now, Mr. President--" began the father. + +"No, sir; no, sir; not at all. Affairs can wait. This is a long-standing +engagement between Curtis and me, and that must come first. Isn't that +so, Curtis?" + +Of course the boy agreed. + +Suddenly the boy looked around the room and said: + +"Where's your gun, Mr. President? Got it here?" + +"No," laughingly came from the President, "but I'll tell you"--and then +the two heads were together again. + +A moment for breath-taking came, and the boy said: + +"Aren't you ever afraid of being shot?" + +"You mean while I am hunting?" + +"Oh, no. I mean as President." + +"No," replied the smiling President. "I'll tell you, Curtis; I'm too +busy to think about that. I have too many things to do to bother about +anything of that sort. When I was in battle I was always too anxious to +get to the front to think about the shots. And here--well, here I'm too +busy too. Never think about it. But I'll tell you, Curtis, there are +some men down there," pointing out of the window in the direction of the +capitol, "called the Congress, and if they would only give me the four +battleships I want, I'd be perfectly willing to have any one take a +crack at me." Then, for the first time recognizing the existence of the +parents, the President said: "And I don't know but if they did pick me +off I'd be pretty well ahead of the game." + +Just in that moment only did the boy-knowing President get a single inch +above the boy-interest. It was astonishing to see the natural accuracy +with which the man gauged the boy-level. + +"Now, how would you like to see a bear, Curtis?" came next. "I know +where there's a beauty, twelve hundred pounds." + +"Must be some bear!" interjected the boy. + +"That's what it is," put in the President. "Regular cinnamon-brown +type"--and then off went the talk to the big bear at the Washington +"Zoo" where the President was to send the boy. + +Then, after a little: "Now, Curtis, see those men over there in that +room. They've travelled from all parts of the country to come here at my +invitation, and I've got to make a little speech to them, and I'll do +that while you go off to see the bear." + +And then the hand came forth to say good-by. The boy put his in it, each +looked into the other's face, and on neither was there a place big +enough to put a ten-cent piece that was not wreathed in smiles. "He +certainly is all right," said the boy to the father, looking wistfully +after the President. + +Almost to the other room had the President gone when he, too, +instinctively looked back to find the boy following him with his eyes. +He stopped, wheeled around, and then the two instinctively sought each +other again. The President came back, the boy went forward. This time +each held out both hands, and as each looked once more into the other's +eyes a world of complete understanding was in both faces, and every +looker-on smiled with them. + +"Good-by, Curtis," came at last from the President. + +"Good-by, Mr. President," came from the boy. + +Then, with another pump-handly shake and with a "Gee, but he's great, +all right!" the boy went out to see the cinnamon-bear at the "Zoo," and +to live it all over in the days to come. + +Two boy-hearts had met, although one of them belonged to the President +of the United States. + + + +XXVI. The Literary Back-Stairs + +His complete absorption in the magazine work now compelled Bok to close +his newspaper syndicate in New York and end the writing of his weekly +newspaper literary letter. He decided, however, to transfer to the pages +of his magazine his idea of making the American public more conversant +with books and authors. Accordingly, he engaged Robert Bridges (the +present editor of Scribner's Magazine) to write a series of +conversational book-talks under his nom de plume of "Droch." Later, this +was supplemented by the engagement of Hamilton W. Mabie, who for years +reviewed the newest books. + +In almost every issue of the magazine there appeared also an article +addressed to the literary novice. Bok was eager, of course, to attract +the new authors to the magazine; but, particularly, he had in mind the +correction of the popular notion, then so prevalent (less so to-day, +fortunately, but still existent), that only the manuscripts of famous +authors were given favorable reading in editorial offices; that in these +offices there really existed a clique, and that unless the writer knew +the literary back-stairs he had a slim chance to enter and be heard. + +In the minds of these misinformed writers, these back-stairs are gained +by "knowing the editor" or through "having some influence with him." +These writers have conclusively settled two points in their own minds: +first, that an editor is antagonistic to the struggling writer; and, +second, that a manuscript sent in the ordinary manner to an editor never +reaches him. Hence, some "influence" is necessary, and they set about to +secure it. + +Now, the truth is, of course, that there are no "literary back-stairs" +to the editorial office of the modern magazine. There cannot be. The +making of a modern magazine is a business proposition; the editor is +there to make it pay. He can do this only if he is of service to his +readers, and that depends on his ability to obtain a class of material +essentially the best of its kind and varied in its character. + +The "best," while it means good writing, means also that it shall say +something. The most desired writer in the magazine office is the man who +has something to say, and knows how to say it. Variety requires that +there shall be many of these writers, and it is the editor's business to +ferret them out. It stands to reason, therefore, that there can be no +such thing as a "clique"; limitation by the editor of his list of +authors would mean being limited to the style of the few and the +thoughts of a handful. And with a public that easily tires even of the +best where it continually comes from one source, such an editorial +policy would be suicidal. + +Hence, if the editor is more keenly alert for one thing than for +another, it is for the new writer. The frequency of the new note in his +magazine is his salvation; for just in proportion as he can introduce +that new note is his success with his readers. A successful magazine is +exactly like a successful store: it must keep its wares constantly fresh +and varied to attract the eye and hold the patronage of its customers. + +With an editor ever alive to the new message, the new note, the fresh +way of saying a thing, the new angle on a current subject, whether in +article or story--since fiction is really to-day only a reflection of +modern thought--the foolish notion that an editor must be approached +through "influence," by a letter of introduction from some friend or +other author, falls of itself. There is no more powerful lever to open +the modern magazine door than a postage-stamp on an envelope containing +a manuscript that says something. No influence is needed to bring that +manuscript to the editor's desk or to his attention. That he will +receive it the sender need not for a moment doubt; his mail is too +closely scanned for that very envelope. + +The most successful authors have "broken into" the magazines very often +without even a letter accompanying their first manuscript. The name and +address in the right-hand corner of the first page; some "return" stamps +in the left corner, and all that the editor requires is there. The +author need tell nothing about the manuscript; if what the editor wants +is in it he will find it. An editor can stand a tremendous amount of +letting alone. If young authors could be made to realize how simple is +the process of "breaking into" the modern magazine, which apparently +gives them such needless heartburn, they would save themselves infinite +pains, time, and worry. + +Despite all the rubbish written to the contrary, manuscripts sent to the +magazines of to-day are, in every case, read, and frequently more +carefully read than the author imagines. Editors know that, from the +standpoint of good business alone, it is unwise to return a manuscript +unread. Literary talent has been found in many instances where it was +least expected. + +This does not mean that every manuscript received by a magazine is read +from first page to last. There is no reason why it should be, any more +than that all of a bad egg should be eaten to prove that it is bad. The +title alone sometimes decides the fate of a manuscript. If the subject +discussed is entirely foreign to the aims of the magazine, it is simply +a case of misapplication on the author's part; and it would be a waste +of time for the editor to read something which he knows from its subject +he cannot use. + +This, of course, applies more to articles than to other forms of +literary work, although unsuitability in a poem is naturally as quickly +detected. Stories, no matter how unpromising they may appear at the +beginning, are generally read through, since gold in a piece of fiction +has often been found almost at the close. This careful attention to +manuscripts in editorial offices is fixed by rules, and an author's +indorsement or a friend's judgment never affects the custom. + +At no time does the fallacy hold in a magazine office that "a big name +counts for everything and an unknown name for nothing." There can be no +denial of the fact that where a name of repute is attached to a +meritorious story or article the combination is ideal. But as between an +indifferent story and a well-known name and a good story with an unknown +name the editor may be depended upon to accept the latter. Editors are +very careful nowadays to avoid the public impatience that invariably +follows upon publishing material simply on account of the name attached +to it. Nothing so quickly injures the reputation of a magazine in the +estimation of its readers. If a person, taking up a magazine, reads a +story attracted by a famous name, and the story disappoints, the editor +has a doubly disappointed reader on his hands: a reader whose high +expectations from the name have not been realized and who is +disappointed with the story. + +It is a well-known fact among successful magazine editors that their +most striking successes have been made by material to which unknown +names were attached, where the material was fresh, the approach new, the +note different. That is what builds up a magazine; the reader learns to +have confidence in what he finds in the periodical, whether it bears a +famous name or not. + +Nor must the young author believe that the best work in modern magazine +literature "is dashed off at white heat." What is dashed off reads +dashed off, and one does not come across it in the well-edited magazine, +because it is never accepted. Good writing is laborious writing, the +result of revision upon revision. The work of masters such as Robert +Louis Stevenson and Rudyard Kipling represents never less than eight or +ten revisions, and often a far greater number. It was Stevenson who once +said to Edward Bok, after a laborious correction of certain proofs: "My +boy, I could be a healthy man, I think, if I did something else than +writing. But to write, as I try to write, takes every ounce of my +vitality." Just as the best "impromptu" speeches are those most +carefully prepared, so do the simplest articles and stories represent +the hardest kind of work; the simpler the method seems and the easier +the article reads, the harder, it is safe to say, was the work put into +it. + +But the author must also know when to let his material alone. In his +excessive regard for style even so great a master as Robert Louis +Stevenson robbed his work of much of the spontaneity and natural charm +found, for example, in his Vailima Letters. The main thing is for a +writer to say what he has to say in the best way, natural to himself, in +which he can say it, and then let it alone--always remembering that, +provided he has made himself clear, the message itself is of greater +import than the manner in which it is said. Up to a certain point only +is a piece of literary work an artistic endeavor. A readable, lucid +style is far preferable to what is called a "literary style"--a foolish +phrase, since it often means nothing except a complicated method of +expression which confuses rather than clarifies thought. What the public +wants in its literature is human nature, and that human nature simply +and forcibly expressed. This is fundamental, and this is why true +literature has no fashion and knows no change, despite the cries of the +modern weaklings who affect weird forms. The clarity of Shakespeare is +the clarity of to-day and will be that of to-morrow. + + + +XXVII. Women's Clubs and Woman Suffrage + +Edward Bok was now jumping from one sizzling frying-pan into another. He +had become vitally interested in the growth of women's clubs as a power +for good, and began to follow their work and study their methods. He +attended meetings; he had his editors attend others and give him +reports; he collected and read the year-books of scores of clubs, and he +secured and read a number of the papers that had been presented by +members at these meetings. He saw at once that what might prove a +wonderful power in the civic life of the nation was being misdirected +into gatherings of pseudo-culture, where papers ill-digested and mostly +copied from books were read and superficially discussed. + +Apparently the average club thought nothing of disposing of the works of +the Victorian poets in one afternoon; the Italian Renaissance was "fully +treated and most ably discussed," according to one programme, at a +single meeting; Rembrandt and his school were likewise disposed of in +one afternoon, and German literature was "adequately treated" at one +session "in able papers." + +Bok gathered a mass of this material, and then paid his respects to it +in the magazine. He recited his evidence and then expressed his opinion +of it. He realized that his arraignment of the clubs would cost the +magazine hundreds of friends; but, convinced of the great power of the +woman's club with its activities rightly directed, he concluded that he +could afford to risk incurring displeasure if he might point the way to +more effective work. The one was worth the other. + +The displeasure was not slow in making itself manifest. It came to +maturity overnight, as it were, and expressed itself in no uncertain +terms. Every club flew to arms, and Bok was intensely interested to note +that the clubs whose work he had taken as "horrible examples," although +he had not mentioned their names, were the most strenuous in their +denials of the methods outlined in the magazine, and that the members of +those clubs were particularly heated in their attacks upon him. + +He soon found that he had stirred up quite as active a hornet's nest as +he had anticipated. Letters by the hundred poured in attacking and +reviling him. In nearly every case the writers fell back upon personal +abuse, ignoring his arguments altogether. He became the subject of +heated debates at club meetings, at conventions, in the public press; +and soon long petitions demanding his removal as editor began to come to +Mr. Curtis. These petitions were signed by hundreds of names. Bok read +them with absorbed interest, and bided his time for action. Meanwhile he +continued his articles of criticism in the magazine, and these, of +course, added fuel to the conflagration. + +Former President Cleveland now came to Bok's side, and in an article in +the magazine went even further than Bok had ever thought of going in his +criticism of women's clubs. This article deflected the criticism from +Bok momentarily, and Mr. Cleveland received a grilling to which his +experiences in the White House were "as child's play," as he expressed +it. The two men, the editor and the former President, were now bracketed +as copartners in crime in the eyes of the club-women, and nothing too +harsh could be found to say or write of either. + +Meanwhile Bok had been watching the petitions for his removal which kept +coming in. He was looking for an opening, and soon found it. One of the +most prominent women's clubs sent a protest condemning his attitude and +advising him by resolutions, which were enclosed, that unless he ceased +his attacks, the members of the -- Woman's Club had resolved "to +unitedly and unanimously boycott The Ladies' Home Journal and had +already put the plan into effect with the current issue." + +Bok immediately engaged counsel in the city where the club was situated, +and instructed his lawyer to begin proceedings, for violation of the +Sherman Act, against the president and the secretary of the club, and +three other members; counsel to take particular pains to choose, if +possible, the wives of three lawyers. + +Within forty-eight hours Bok heard from the husbands of the five wives, +who pointed out to him that the women had acted in entire ignorance of +the law, and suggested a reconsideration of his action. Bok replied by +quoting from the petition which set forth that it was signed "by the +most intelligent women of -- who were thoroughly versed in civic and +national affairs"; and if this were true, Bok argued, it naturally +followed that they must have been cognizant of a legislative measure so +well known and so widely discussed as the Sherman Act. He was basing his +action, he said, merely on their declaration. + +Bok could easily picture to himself the chagrin and wrath of the women, +with the husbands laughing up their sleeves at the turn of affairs. "My +wife never could see the humor in the situation," said one of these +husbands to Bok, when he met him years later. Bok capitulated, and then +apparently with great reluctance, only when the club sent him an +official withdrawal of the protest and an apology for "its +ill-considered action." It was years after that one of the members of +the club, upon meeting Bok, said to him: "Your action did not increase +the club's love for you, but you taught it a much-needed lesson which it +never forgot." + +Up to this time, Bok had purposely been destructive in his criticism. +Now, he pointed out a constructive plan whereby the woman's club could +make itself a power in every community. He advocated less of the +cultural and more of the civic interest, and urged that the clubs study +the numerous questions dealing with the life of their communities. This +seems strange, in view of the enormous amount of civic work done by +women's clubs to-day. But at that time, when the woman's club movement +was unformed, these civic matters found but a small part in the majority +of programmes; in a number of cases none at all. + +Of course, the clubs refused to accept or even to consider his +suggestions; they were quite competent to decide for themselves the +particular subjects for their meetings, they argued; they did not care +to be tutored or guided, particularly by Bok. They were much too angry +with him even to admit that his suggestions were practical and in order. +But he knew, of course, that they would adopt them of their own +volition--under cover, perhaps, but that made no difference, so long as +the end was accomplished. One club after another, during the following +years, changed its programme, and soon the supposed cultural interest +had yielded first place to the needful civic questions. + +For years, however, the club-women of America did not forgive Bok. They +refused to buy or countenance his magazine, and periodically they +attacked it or made light of it. But he knew he had made his point, and +was content to leave it to time to heal the wounds. This came years +afterward, when Mrs. Pennypacker became president of the General +Federation of Women's Clubs and Mrs. Rudolph Blankenburg, +vice-president. + +Those two far-seeing women and Bok arranged that an official department +of the Federation should find a place in The Ladies' Home Journal, with +Mrs. Pennypacker as editor and Mrs. Blankenburg, who lived in +Philadelphia, as the resident consulting editor. The idea was arranged +agreeably to all three; the Federation officially endorsed its +president's suggestion, and for several years the department was one of +the most successful in the magazine. + +The breach had been healed; two powerful forces were working together, +as they should, for the mutual good of the American woman. No relations +could have been pleasanter than those between the editor-in-chief of the +magazine and the two departmental editors. The report was purposely set +afloat that Bok had withdrawn from his position of antagonism (?) toward +women's clubs, and this gave great satisfaction to thousands of women +club-members and made everybody happy! + +At this time the question of suffrage for women was fast becoming a +prominent issue, and naturally Bok was asked to take a stand on the +question in his magazine. No man sat at a larger gateway to learn the +sentiments of numbers of women on any subject. He read his vast +correspondence carefully. He consulted women of every grade of +intelligence and in every station in life. Then he caused a straw-vote +to be taken among a selected list of thousands of his subscribers in +large cities and in small towns. The result of all these inquiries was +most emphatic and clear: by far the overwhelming majority of the women +approached either were opposed to the ballot or were indifferent to it. +Those who desired to try the experiment were negligible in number. So +far as the sentiment of any wide public can be secured on any given +topic, this seemed to be the dominant opinion. + +Bok then instituted a systematic investigation of conditions in those +states where women had voted for years; but he could not see, from a +thoughtful study of his investigations, that much had been accomplished. +The results certainly did not measure up to the prophecies constantly +advanced by the advocates of a nation-wide equal suffrage. + +The editor now carefully looked into the speeches of the suffragists, +examined the platform of the National body in favor of woman suffrage, +and talked at length with such leaders in the movement as Susan B. +Anthony, Julia Ward Howe, Anna Howard Shaw, and Jane Addams. + +All this time Bok had kept his own mind open. He was ready to have the +magazine, for whose editorial policy he was responsible, advocate that +side of the issue which seemed for the best interests of the American +woman. + +The arguments that a woman should not have a vote because she was a +woman; that it would interfere with her work in the home; that it would +make her more masculine; that it would take her out of her own home; +that it was a blow at domesticity and an actual menace to the home life +of America--these did not weight with him. There was only one question +for him to settle: Was the ballot something which, in its demonstrated +value or in its potentiality, would serve the best interests of American +womanhood? + +After all his investigations of both sides of the question, Bok decided +upon a negative answer. He felt that American women were not ready to +exercise the privilege intelligently and that their mental attitude was +against it. + +Forthwith he said so in his magazine. And the storm broke. The +denunciations brought down upon him by his attitude toward woman's clubs +was as nothing compared to what was now let loose. The attacks were +bitter. His arguments were ignored; and the suffragists evidently +decided to concentrate their criticisms upon the youthful years of the +editor. They regarded this as a most vulnerable point of attack, and +reams of paper were used to prove that the opinion of a man so young in +years and so necessarily unformed in his judgment was of no value. + +Unfortunately, the suffragists did not know, when they advanced this +argument, that it would be overthrown by the endorsement of Bok's point +of view by such men and women of years and ripe judgment as Doctor +Eliot, then president of Harvard University, former President Cleveland, +Lyman Abbott, Margaret Deland, and others. When articles by these +opponents to suffrage appeared, the argument of youth hardly held good; +and the attacks of the suffragists were quickly shifted to the ground of +"narrow-mindedness and old-fashioned fogyism." + +The article by former President Cleveland particularly stirred the ire +of the attacking suffragists, and Miss Anthony hurled a broadside at the +former President in a newspaper interview. Unfortunately for her best +judgment, and the strength of her argument, the attack became intensely +personal; and of course, nullified its force. But it irritated Mr. +Cleveland, who called Bok to his Princeton home and read him a draft of +a proposed answer for publication in Bok's magazine. + +Those who knew Mr. Cleveland were well aware of the force that he could +put into his pen when he chose, and in this proposed article he +certainly chose! It would have made very unpleasant reading for Miss +Anthony in particular, as well as for her friends. Bok argued strongly +against the article. He reminded Mr. Cleveland that it would be +undignified to make such an answer; that it was always an unpopular +thing to attack a woman in public, especially a woman who was old and +ill; that she would again strive for the last word; that there would be +no point to the controversy and nothing gained by it. He pleaded with +Mr. Cleveland to meet Miss Anthony's attack by a dignified silence. + +These arguments happily prevailed. In reality, Mr. Cleveland was not +keen to attack Miss Anthony or any other woman; such a thought was +foreign to his nature. He summed up his feeling to Bok when he tore up +the draft of his article and smilingly said: "Well, I've got if off my +chest, that is the main thing. I wanted to get it out of my system, and +talking it over has driven it out. It is better in the fire," and he +threw the torn paper into the open grate. + +As events turned out, it was indeed fortunate that the matter had been +so decided; for the article would have appeared in the number of Bok's +magazine published on the day that Miss Anthony passed away. It would +have been a most unfortunate moment, to say the least, for the +appearance of an attack such as Mr. Cleveland had in mind. + +This incident, like so many instances that might be adduced, points with +singular force to the value of that editorial discrimination which the +editor often makes between what is wise or unwise for him to publish. +Bok realized that had he encouraged Mr. Cleveland to publish the +article, he could have exhausted any edition he might have chosen to +print. Times without number, editors make such decisions directly +against what would be of temporary advantage to their publications. The +public never hears of these incidents. + +More often than not the editor hears "stories" that, if printed, would +be a "scoop" which would cause his publication to be talked about from +one end of the country to the other. The public does not give credit to +the editor, particularly of the modern newspaper, for the high code of +honor which constantly actuates him in his work. The prevailing notion +is that an editor prints all that he knows, and much that he does not +know. Outside of those in the inner government circles, no group of men, +during the Great War, had more information of a confidential nature +constantly given or brought to them, and more zealously guarded it, than +the editors of the newspapers of America. Among no other set of +professional men is the code of honor so high; and woe betide the +journalist who, in the eyes of his fellow-workers, violates, even in the +slightest degree, that code of editorial ethics. Public men know how +true is this statement; the public at large, however, has not the first +conception of it. If it had, it would have a much higher opinion of its +periodicals and newspapers. + +At this juncture, Rudyard Kipling unconsciously came into the very +centre of the suffragists' maelstrom of attack when he sent Bok his +famous poem: "The Female of the Species." The suffragists at once took +the argument in the poem as personal to themselves, and now Kipling got +the full benefit of their vitriolic abuse. Bok sent a handful of these +criticisms to Kipling, who was very gleeful about them. "I owe you a +good laugh over the clippings," he wrote. "They were delightful. But +what a quantity of spare time some people in this world have to burn!" + +It was a merry time; and the longer it continued the more heated were +the attacks. The suffragists now had a number of targets, and they took +each in turn and proceeded to riddle it. That Bok was publishing +articles explaining both sides of the question, presenting arguments by +the leading suffragists as well as known anti-suffragists, did not +matter in the least. These were either conveniently overlooked, or, when +referred to at all, were considered in the light of "sops" to the +offended women. + +At last Bok reached the stage where he had exhausted all the arguments +worth printing, on both sides of the question, and soon the storm calmed +down. + +It was always a matter of gratification to him that the woman who had +most bitterly assailed him during the suffrage controversy, Anna Howard +Shaw, became in later years one of his stanchest friends, and was an +editor on his pay-roll. When the United States entered the Great War, +Bok saw that Doctor Shaw had undertaken a gigantic task in promising, as +chairman, to direct the activities of the National Council for Women. He +went to see her in Washington, and offered his help and that of the +magazine. Doctor Shaw, kindliest of women in her nature, at once +accepted the offer; Bok placed the entire resources of the magazine and +of its Washington editorial force at her disposal; and all through +America's participation in the war, she successfully conducted a monthly +department in The Ladies' Home Journal. + +"Such help," she wrote at the close, "as you and your associates have +extended me and my co-workers; such unstinted co-operation and such +practical guidance I never should have dreamed possible. You made your +magazine a living force in our work; we do not see now how we would have +done without it. You came into our activities at the psychological +moment, when we most needed what you could give us, and none could have +given with more open hands and fuller hearts." + +So the contending forces in a bitter word-war came together and worked +together, and a mutual regard sprang up between the woman and the man +who had once so radically differed. + + + +XXVIII. Going Home with Kipling, and as a Lecturer + +It was in June, 1899, when Rudyard Kipling, after the loss of his +daughter and his own almost fatal illness from pneumonia in America, +sailed for his English home on the White Star liner, Teutonic. The party +consisted of Kipling, his wife, his father J. Lockwood Kipling, Mr. and +Mrs. Frank N. Doubleday, and Bok. It was only at the last moment that +Bok decided to join the party, and the steamer having its full +complement of passengers, he could only secure one of the officers' +large rooms on the upper deck. Owing to the sensitive condition of +Kipling's lungs, it was not wise for him to be out on deck except in the +most favorable weather. The atmosphere of the smoking-room was +forbidding, and as the rooms of the rest of the party were below deck, +it was decided to make Bok's convenient room the headquarters of the +party. Here they assembled for the best part of each day; the talk +ranged over literary and publishing matters of mutual interest, and +Kipling promptly labelled the room "The Hatchery,"--from the plans and +schemes that were hatched during these discussions. + +It was decided on the first day out that the party, too active-minded to +remain inert for any length of time, should publish a daily newspaper to +be written on large sheets of paper and to be read each evening to the +group. It was called The Teuton Tonic; Mr. Doubleday was appointed +publisher and advertising manager; Mr. Lockwood Kipling was made art +editor to embellish the news; Rudyard Kipling was the star reporter, and +Bok was editor. + +Kipling, just released from his long confinement, like a boy out of +school, was the life of the party--and when, one day, he found a woman +aboard reading a copy of The Ladies' Home Journal his joy knew no +bounds; he turned in the most inimitable "copy" to the Tonic, describing +the woman's feelings as she read the different departments in the +magazine. Of course, Bok, as editor of the Tonic, promptly pigeon-holed +the reporter's "copy"; then relented, and, in a fine spirit of +large-mindedness, "printed" Kipling's peans of rapture over Bok's +subscriber. The preparation of the paper was a daily joy: it kept the +different members busy, and each evening the copy was handed to "the +large circle of readers"--the two women of the party--to read aloud. At +the end of the sixth day, it was voted to "suspend publication," and the +daily of six issues was unanimously bequeathed to the little daughter of +Mr. Lockwood de Forest, a close friend of the Kipling family--a choice +bit of Kiplingania. + +One day it was decided by the party that Bok should be taught the game +of poker, and Kipling at once offered to be the instructor! He wrote out +a list of the "hands" for Bok's guidance, which was placed in the centre +of the table, and the party, augmented by the women, gathered to see the +game. + +A baby had been born that evening in the steerage, and it was decided to +inaugurate a small "jack-pot" for the benefit of the mother. All went +well until about the fourth hand, when Bok began to bid higher than had +been originally planned. Kipling questioned the beginner's knowledge of +the game and his tactics, but Bok retorted it was his money that he was +putting into the pot and that no one was compelled to follow his bets if +he did not choose to do so. Finally, the jack-pot assumed altogether too +large dimensions for the party, Kipling "called" and Bok, true to the +old idea of "beginner's luck" in cards, laid down a royal flush! This +was too much, and poker, with Bok in it, was taboo from that moment. +Kipling's version of this card-playing does not agree in all particulars +with the version here written. "Bok learned the game of poker," Kipling +says; "had the deck stacked on him, and on hearing that there was a +woman aboard who read The Ladies' Home Journal insisted on playing after +that with the cabin-door carefully shut." But Kipling's art as a +reporter for The Tonic was not as reliable as the art of his more +careful book work. + +Bok derived special pleasure on this trip from his acquaintance with +Father Kipling, as the party called him. Rudyard Kipling's respect for +his father was the tribute of a loyal son to a wonderful father. + +"What annoys me," said Kipling, speaking of his father one day, "is when +the pater comes to America to have him referred to in the newspapers as +'the father of Rudyard Kipling.' It is in India where they get the +relation correct: there I am always 'the son of Lockwood Kipling.'" + +Father Kipling was, in every sense, a choice spirit: gentle, kindly, and +of a most remarkably even temperament. His knowledge of art, his wide +reading, his extensive travel, and an interest in every phase of the +world's doings, made him a rare conversationalist, when inclined to +talk, and an encyclopedia of knowledge as extensive as it was accurate. +It was very easy to grow fond of Father Kipling, and he won Bok's +affection as few men ever did. + +Father Kipling's conversation was remarkable in that he was exceedingly +careful of language and wasted few words. + +One day Kipling and Bok were engaged in a discussion of the Boer +problem, which was then pressing. Father Kipling sat by listening, but +made no comment on the divergent views, since, Kipling holding the +English side of the question and Bok the Dutch side, it followed that +they could not agree. Finally Father Kipling arose and said: "Well, I +will take a stroll and see if I can't listen to the water and get all +this din out of my ears." + +Both men felt gently but firmly rebuked and the discussion was never +again taken up. + +Bok tried on one occasion to ascertain how the father regarded the son's +work. + +"You should feel pretty proud of your son," remarked Bok. + +"A good sort," was the simple reply. + +"I mean, rather, of his work. How does that strike you?" asked Bok. + +"Which work?" + +"His work as a whole," explained Bok. + +"Creditable," was the succinct answer. + +"No more than that?" asked Bok. + +"Can there be more?" came from the father. + +"Well," said Bok, "the judgment seems a little tame as applied to one +who is generally regarded as a genius." + +"By whom?" + +"The critics, for instance," replied Bok. + +"There are no such," came the answer. + +"No such what, Mr. Kipling?" asked Bok. + +"Critics." + +"No critics?" + +"No," and for the first time the pipe was removed for a moment. "A +critic is one who only exists as such in his own imagination." + +"But surely you must consider that Rud has done some great work?" +persisted Bok. + +"Creditable," came once more. + +"You think him capable of great work, do you not?" asked Bok. For a +moment there was silence. Then: + +"He has a certain grasp of the human instinct. That, some day, I think, +will lead him to write a great work." + +There was the secret: the constant holding up to the son, apparently, of +something still to be accomplished; of a goal to be reached; of a higher +standard to be attained. Rudyard Kipling was never in danger of +unintelligent laudation from his safest and most intelligent reader. + +During the years which intervened until his passing away, Bok sought to +keep in touch with Father Kipling, and received the most wonderful +letters from him. One day he enclosed in a letter a drawing which he had +made showing Sakia Muni sitting under the bo-tree with two of his +disciples, a young man and a young woman, gathered at his feet. It was a +piece of exquisite drawing. "I like to think of you and your work in +this way," wrote Mr. Kipling, "and so I sketched it for you." Bok had +the sketch enlarged, engaged John La Farge to translate it into glass, +and inserted it in a window in the living-room of his home at Merion. + +After Father Kipling had passed away, the express brought to Bok one day +a beautiful plaque of red clay, showing the elephant's head, the lotus, +and the swastika, which the father had made for the son. It was the +original model of the insignia which, as a watermark, is used in the +pages of Kipling's books and on the cover of the subscription edition. + +"I am sending with this for your acceptance," wrote Kipling to Bok, "as +some little memory of my father to whom you were so kind, the original +of one of the plaques that he used to make for me. I thought it being +the swastika would be appropriate for your swastika. May it bring you +even more good fortune." + +To those who knew Lockwood Kipling, it is easier to understand the +genius and the kindliness of the son. For the sake of the public's +knowledge, it is a distinct loss that there is not a better +understanding of the real sweetness of character of the son. The +public's only idea of the great writer is naturally one derived from +writers who do not understand him, or from reporters whom he refused to +see, while Kipling's own slogan is expressed in his own words: "I have +always managed to keep clear of 'personal' things as much as possible." + + If + + If you can keep your head when all about you + Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, + If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, + But make allowance for their doubting too; + If you can wait and not grow tired by waiting + Or, being lied about don't deal in lies, + Or, being hated, don't give way to hating, + And yet don't look too good or talk too wise; + + If you can dream and not make dreams your master, + If you can think and not make thoughts your aim, + If you can meet with triumph and disaster, + And treat those two imposters just the same; + If you can stand to hear the truth you've spoken + Twisted by Knaves to make a trap for fools, + Or watch the work you've given your life to broken, + And stoop and build it up with worn-out tools; + + If you can make one pile of all your winnings + And risk it at one game of pitch-and-toss, + And lose, and start again from your beginnings + And never breath a word about your loss, + If you can force you heart and nerve and sinew + To serve your turn long after they are gone, + And so hold on, though there is nothing in you + Except the will that says to them, "Hold on!" + + If you can talk to crowds and keep your virtue, + And walk with Kings nor lose the common touch, + If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, + If all men count with you, but none too much; + If you can fill the unforgiving minute + With sixty seconds worth of distance run, + Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it + And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son! + + Copied out from memory by Rudyard Kipling. + Batemons: Sept. 1913 + for E.W. Bok on his 50th Birthday + +It was on Bok's fiftieth birthday that Kipling sent him a copy of "If." +Bok had greatly admired this poem, but knowing Kipling's distaste for +writing out his own work, he had resisted the strong desire to ask him +for a copy of it. It is significant of the author's remarkable memory +that he wrote it, as he said, "from memory," years after its +publication, and yet a comparison of the copy with the printed form, +corrected by Kipling, fails to discover the difference of a single word. + +The lecture bureaus now desired that Edward Bok should go on the +platform. Bok had never appeared in the role of a lecturer, but he +reasoned that through the medium of the rostrum he might come in closer +contact with the American public, meet his readers personally, and +secure some first-hand constructive criticism of his work. This last he +was always encouraging. It was a naive conception of a lecture tour, but +Bok believed it and he contracted for a tour beginning at Richmond, +Virginia, and continuing through the South and Southwest as far as Saint +Joseph, Missouri, and then back home by way of the Middle West. + +Large audiences greeted him wherever he went, but he had not gone far on +his tour when he realized that he was not getting what he thought he +would. There was much entertaining and lionizing, but nothing to help +him in his work by pointing out to him where he could better it. He +shrank from the pitiless publicity that was inevitable; he became more +and more self-conscious when during the first five minutes on the stage +he felt the hundreds of opera-glasses levelled at him, and he and Mrs. +Bok, who accompanied him, had not a moment to themselves from early +morning to midnight. Yet his large correspondence was following him from +the office, and the inevitable invitations in each city had at least to +be acknowledged. Bok realized he had miscalculated the benefits of a +lecture tour to his work, and began hopefully to wish for the ending of +the circuit. + +One afternoon as he was returning with his manager from a large +reception, the "impresario" said to him: "I don't like these receptions. +They hurt the house." + +"The house?" echoed Bok. + +"Yes, the attendance." + +"But you told me the house for this evening was sold out?" said the +lecturer. + +"That is true enough. House, and even the stage. Not a seat unsold. But +hundreds just come to see you and not to hear your lecture, and this +exposure of a lecturer at so crowded a reception as this, before the +talk, satisfies the people without their buying a ticket. My rule is +that a lecturer should not be seen in public before his lecture, and I +wish you would let me enforce the rule with you. It wears you out, +anyway, and no receptions until afterward will give you more time for +yourself and save your vitality for the talk." + +Bok was entirely acquiescent. He had no personal taste for the continued +round of functions, but he had accepted it as part of the game. + +The idea from this talk that impressed Bok, however, with particular +force, was that the people who crowded his houses came to see him and +not to hear his lecture. Personal curiosity, in other words. This was a +new thought. He had been too busy to think of his personality; now he +realized a different angle to the situation. And, much to his manager's +astonishment, two days afterwards Bok refused to sign an agreement for +another tour later in the year. He had had enough of exhibiting himself +as a curiosity. He continued his tour; but before its conclusion fell +ill--a misfortune with a pleasant side to it, for three of his +engagements had to be cancelled. + +The Saint Joseph engagement could not be cancelled. The house had been +oversold; it was for the benefit of a local charity which besought Bok +by wire after wire to keep a postponed date. He agreed, and he went. He +realized that he was not well, but he did not realize the extent of his +mental and physical exhaustion until he came out on the platform and +faced the crowded auditorium. Barely sufficient space had been left for +him and for the speaker's desk; the people on the stage were close to +him, and he felt distinctly uncomfortable. + +Then, to his consternation, it suddenly dawned upon him that his tired +mind had played a serious trick on him. He did not remember a line of +his lecture; he could not even recall how it began! He arose, after his +introduction, in a bath of cold perspiration. The applause gave him a +moment to recover himself, but not a word came to his mind. He sparred +for time by some informal prefatory remarks expressing regret at his +illness and that he had been compelled to disappoint his audience a few +days before, and then he stood helpless! In sheer desperation he looked +at Mrs. Bok sitting in the stage box, who, divining her husband's +plight, motioned to the inside pocket of his coat. He put his hand there +and pulled out a copy of his lecture which she had placed there! The +whole tragic comedy had happened so quickly that the audience was +absolutely unaware of what had occurred, and Bok went on and practically +read his lecture. But it was not a successful evening for his audience +or for himself, and the one was doubtless as glad when it was over as +the other. + +When he reached home, he was convinced that he had had enough of +lecturing! He had to make a second short tour, however, for which he had +contracted with another manager before embarking on the first. This tour +took him to Indianapolis, and after the lecture, James Whitcomb Riley +gave him a supper. There were some thirty men in the party; the affair +was an exceedingly happy one; the happiest that Bok had attended. He +said this to Riley on the way to the hotel. + +"Usually," said Bok, "men, for some reason or other, hold aloof from me +on these lecture tours. They stand at a distance and eye me, and I see +wonder on their faces rather than a desire to mix." + +"You've noticed that, then?" smilingly asked the poet. + +"Yes, and I can't quite get it. At home, my friends are men. Why should +it be different in other cities?" + +"I'll tell you," said Riley. "Five or six of the men you met to-night +were loath to come. When I pinned them down to their reason, it was I +thought: they regard you as an effeminate being, a sissy." + +"Good heavens!" interrupted Bok. + +"Fact," said Riley, "and you can't wonder at it nor blame them. You have +been most industriously paragraphed, in countless jests, about your +penchant for pink teas, your expert knowledge of tatting, crocheting, +and all that sort of stuff. Look what Eugene Field has done in that +direction. These paragraphs have, doubtless, been good advertising for +your magazine, and, in a way, for you. But, on the other hand, they have +given a false impression of you. Men have taken these paragraphs +seriously and they think of you as the man pictured in them. It's a +fact; I know. It's all right after they meet you and get your measure. +The joke then is on them. Four of the men I fairly dragged to the dinner +this evening said this to me just before I left. That is one reason why +I advise you to keep on lecturing. Get around and show yourself, and +correct this universal impression. Not that you can't stand when men +think of you, but it's unpleasant." + +It was unpleasant, but Bok decided that the solution as found in +lecturing was worse than the misconception. From that day to this he +never lectured again. + +But the public conception of himself, especially that of men, awakened +his interest and amusement. Some of his friends on the press were still +busy with their paragraphs, and he promptly called a halt and asked them +to desist. "Enough was as good as a feast," he told them, and explained +why. + +One day Bok got a distinctly amusing line on himself from a chance +stranger. He was riding from Washington to Philadelphia in the smoking +compartment, when the newsboy stuck his head in the door and yelled: +"Ladies' Home Journal, out to-day." He had heard this many times before; +but on this particular day, upon hearing the title of his own magazine +yelled almost in his ears, he gave an involuntary start. + +Opposite to him sat a most companionable young fellow, who, noticing +Bok's start, leaned over and with a smile said: "I know, I know just how +you feel. That's the way I feel whenever I hear the name of that damned +magazine. Here, boy," he called to the retreating magazine-carrier, +"give me a copy of that Ladies' Home Disturber: I might as well buy it +here as in the station." + +Then to Bok: "Honest, if I don't bring home that sheet on the day it is +out, the wife is in a funk. She runs her home by it literally. Same with +you?" + +"The same," answered Bok. "As a matter of fact, in our family, we live +by it, on it, and from it." + +Bok's neighbor, of course, couldn't get the real point of this, but he +thought he had it. + +"Exactly," he replied. "So do we. That fellow Bok certainly has the +women buffaloed for good. Ever see him?" + +"Oh, yes," answered Bok. + +"Live in Philadelphia?" + +"Yes." + +"There's where the thing is published, all right. What does Bok look +like?" + +"Oh," answered Bok carelessly, "just like, well, like all of us. In +fact, he looks something like me." + +"Does he, now?" echoed the man. "Shouldn't think it would make you very +proud!" + +And, the train pulling in at Baltimore, Bok's genial neighbor sent him a +hearty good-bye and ran out with the much-maligned magazine under his +arm! + +He had an occasion or two now to find out what women thought of him! + +He was leaving the publication building one evening after office hours +when just as he opened the front door, a woman approached. Bok explained +that the building was closed. + +"Well, I am sorry," said the woman in a dejected tone, "for I don't +think I can manage to come again." + +"Is there anything I can do?" asked Bok. "I am employed here." + +"No-o," said the woman. "I came to see Mr. Curtis on a personal matter." + +"I shall see him this evening," suggested Bok, "and can give him a +message for you if you like." + +"Well, I don't know if you can. I came to complain to him about Mr. +Bok," announced the woman. + +"Oh, well," answered Bok, with a slight start at the matter-of-fact +announcement, "that is serious; quite serious. If you will explain your +complaint, I will surely see that it gets to Mr. Curtis." + +Bok's interest grew. + +"Well, you see," said the woman, "it is this way. I live in a +three-family flat. Here is my name and card," and a card came out of a +bag. "I subscribe to The Ladies' Home Journal. It is delivered at my +house each month by Mr. Bok. Now I have told that man three times over +that when he delivers the magazine, he must ring the bell twice. But he +just persists in ringing once and then that cat who lives on the first +floor gets my magazine, reads it, and keeps it sometimes for three days +before I get it! Now, I want Mr. Curtis to tell Mr. Bok that he must do +as I ask and ring the bell twice. Can you give him that message for me? +There's no use talking to Mr. Bok; I've done that, as I say." + +And Bok solemnly assured his subscriber that he would! + +Bok's secretary told him one day that there was in the outer office the +most irate woman he had ever tried to handle; that he had tried for half +an hour to appease her, but it was of no use. She threatened to remain +until Bok admitted her, and see him she would, and tell him exactly what +she thought of him. The secretary looked as if he had been through a +struggle. "It's hopeless," he said. "Will you see her?" + +"Certainly," said Bok. "Show her in." + +The moment the woman came in, she began a perfect torrent of abuse. Bok +could not piece out, try as he might, what it was all about. But he did +gather from the explosion that the woman considered him a hypocrite who +wrote one thing and did another; that he was really a thief, stealing a +woman's money, and so forth. There was no chance of a word for fully +fifteen minutes and then, when she was almost breathless, Bok managed to +ask if his caller would kindly tell him just what he had done. + +Another torrent of incoherent abuse came forth, but after a while it +became apparent that the woman's complaint was that she had sent a +dollar for a subscription to The Ladies' Home Journal; had never had a +copy of the magazine, had complained, and been told there was no record +of the money being received. And as she had sent her subscription to Bok +personally, he had purloined the dollar! + +It was fully half an hour before Bok could explain to the irate woman +that he never remembered receiving a letter from her; that +subscriptions, even when personally addressed to him, did not come to +his desk, etc.; that if she would leave her name and address he would +have the matter investigated. Absolutely unconvinced that anything would +be done, and unaltered in her opinion about Bok, the woman finally left. + +Two days later a card was handed in to the editor with a note asking him +to see for a moment the husband of his irate caller. When the man came +in, he looked sheepish and amused in turn, and finally said: + +"I hardly know what to say, because I don't know what my wife said to +you. But if what she said to me is any index of her talk with you, I +want to apologize for her most profoundly. She isn't well, and we shall +both have to let it go at that. As for her subscription, you, of course, +never received it, for, with difficulty, I finally extracted the fact +from her that she pinned a dollar bill to a postal card and dropped it +in a street postal box. And she doesn't yet see that she has done +anything extraordinary, or that she had a faith in Uncle Sam that I call +sublime." + +The Journal had been calling the attention of its readers to the +defacement of the landscape by billboard advertisers. One day on his way +to New York he found himself sitting in a sleeping-car section opposite +a woman and her daughter. + +The mother was looking at the landscape when suddenly she commented: + +"There are some of those ugly advertising signs that Mr. Bok says are +such a defacement to the landscape. I never noticed them before, but he +is right, and I am going to write and tell him so." + +"Oh, mamma, don't," said the girl. "That man is pampered enough by +women. Don't make him worse. Ethel says he is now the vainest man in +America." + +Bok's eyes must have twinkled, and just then the mother looked at him, +caught his eye; she gave a little gasp, and Bok saw that she had +telepathically discovered him! + +He smiled, raised his hat, presented his card to the mother, and said: +"Excuse me, but I do want to defend myself from that last statement, if +I may. I couldn't help overhearing it." + +The mother, a woman of the world, read the name on the card quickly and +smiled, but the daughter's face was a study as she leaned over and +glanced at the card. She turned scarlet and then white. + +"Now, do tell me," asked Bok of the daughter, "who 'Ethel' is, so that I +may try at least to prove that I am not what she thinks." + +The daughter was completely flustered. For the rest of the journey, +however, the talk was informal; the girl became more at ease, and Bok +ended by dining with the mother and daughter at their hotel that +evening. + +But he never found out "Ethel's" other name! + +There were curiously amusing sides to a man's editorship of a woman's +magazine! + + + +XXIX. An Excursion into the Feminine Nature + +The strangling hold which the Paris couturiers had secured on the +American woman in their absolute dictation as to her fashions in dress, +had interested Edward Bok for some time. As he studied the question, he +was constantly amazed at the audacity with which these French +dressmakers and milliners, often themselves of little taste and scant +morals, cracked the whip, and the docility with which the American woman +blindly and unintelligently danced to their measure. The deeper he went +into the matter, too, the more deceit and misrepresentation did he find +in the situation. It was inconceivable that the American woman should +submit to what was being imposed upon her if she knew the facts. He +determined that she should. The process of Americanization going on +within him decided him to expose the Paris conditions and advocate and +present American-designed fashions for women. + +The Journal engaged the best-informed woman in Paris frankly to lay open +the situation to the American women; she proved that the designs sent +over by the so-called Paris arbiters of fashion were never worn by the +Frenchwoman of birth and good taste; that they were especially designed +and specifically intended for "the bizarre American trade," as one +polite Frenchman called it; and that the only women in Paris who wore +these grotesque and often immoderate styles were of the demimonde. + +This article was the opening gun of the campaign, and this was quickly +followed by a second equally convincing--both articles being written +from the inside of the gilded circles of the couturiers' shops. Madame +Sarah Bernhardt was visiting the United States at the time, and Bok +induced the great actress to verify the statements printed. She went +farther and expressed amazement at the readiness with which the American +woman had been duped; and indicated her horror on seeing American women +of refined sensibilities and position dressed in the gowns of the +declasse street-women of Paris. The somewhat sensational nature of the +articles attracted the attention of the American newspapers, which +copied and commented on them; the gist of them was cabled over to Paris, +and, of course, the Paris couturiers denied the charges. But their +denials were in general terms; and no convincing proof of the falsity of +the charges was furnished. The French couturier simply resorted to a +shrug of the shoulder and a laugh, implying that the accusations were +beneath his notice. + +Bok now followed the French models of dresses and millinery to the +United States, and soon found that for every genuine Parisian model sold +in the large cities at least ten were copies, made in New York shops, +but with the labels of the French dressmakers and milliners sewed on +them. He followed the labels to their source, and discovered a firm one +of whose specialties was the making of these labels bearing the names of +the leading French designers. They were manufactured by the gross, and +sold in bundles to the retailers. Bok secured a list of the buyers of +these labels and found that they represented some of the leading +merchants throughout the country. All these facts he published. The +retailers now sprang up in arms and denied the charges, but again the +denials were in general terms. Bok had the facts and they knew it. These +facts were too specific and too convincing to be controverted. + +The editor had now presented a complete case before the women of America +as to the character of the Paris-designed fashions and the manner in +which women were being hoodwinked in buying imitations. + +Meanwhile, he had engaged the most expert designers in the world of +women's dress and commissioned them to create American designs. He sent +one of his editors to the West to get first-hand motifs from Indian +costumes and adapt them as decorative themes for dress embroideries. +Three designers searched the Metropolitan Museum for new and artistic +ideas, and he induced his company to install a battery of four-color +presses in order that the designs might be given in all the beauty of +their original colors. For months designers and artists worked; he had +the designs passed upon by a board of judges composed of New York women +who knew good clothes, and then he began their publication. + +The editor of The New York Times asked Bok to conduct for that newspaper +a prize contest for the best American-designed dresses and hats, and +edit a special supplement presenting them in full colors, the prizes to +be awarded by a jury of six of the leading New York women best versed in +matters of dress. Hundreds of designs were submitted, the best were +selected, and the supplement issued under the most successful auspices. + +In his own magazine, Bok published pages of American-designed fashions: +their presence in the magazine was advertised far and wide; conventions +of dressmakers were called to consider the salability of +domestic-designed fashions; and a campaign with the slogan "American +Fashions for American Women" was soon in full swing. + +But there it ended. The women looked the designs over with interest, as +they did all designs of new clothes, and paid no further attention to +them. The very fact that they were of American design prejudiced the +women against them. America never had designed good clothes, they +argued: she never would. Argument availed naught. The Paris germ was +deep-rooted in the feminine mind of America: the women acknowledged that +they were, perhaps, being hoodwinked by spurious French dresses and +hats; that the case presented by Bok seemed convincing enough, but the +temptation to throw a coat over a sofa or a chair to expose a Parisian +label to the eyes of some other woman was too great; there was always a +gambling chance that her particular gown, coat, or hat was an actual +Paris creation. + +Bok called upon the American woman to come out from under the yoke of +the French couturiers, show her patriotism, and encourage American +design. But it was of no use. He talked with women on every hand; his +mail was full of letters commending him for his stand; but as for actual +results, there were none. One of his most intelligent woman-friends +finally summed up the situation for him: + +"You can rail against the Paris domination all you like; you can expose +it for the fraud that it is, and we know that it is; but it is all to no +purpose, take my word. When it comes to the question of her personal +adornment, a woman employs no reason; she knows no logic. She knows that +the adornment of her body is all that she has to match the other woman +and outdo her, and to attract the male, and nothing that you can say +will influence her a particle. I know this all seems incomprehensible to +you as a man, but that is the feminine nature. You are trying to fight +something that is unfightable." + +"Has the American woman no instinct of patriotism, then?" asked Bok. + +"Not the least," was the answer, "when it comes to her adornment. What +Paris says, she will do, blindly and unintelligently if you will, but +she will do it. She will sacrifice her patriotism; she will even justify +a possible disregard of the decencies. Look at the present Parisian +styles. They are absolutely indecent. Women know it, but they follow +them just the same, and they will. It is all very unpleasant to say +this, but it is the truth and you will find it out. Your effort, fine as +it is, will bear no fruit." + +Wherever Bok went, women upon whose judgment he felt he could rely, told +him, in effect, the same thing. They were all regretful, in some cases +ashamed of their sex, universally apologetic; but one and all declared +that such is "the feminine nature," and Bok would only have his trouble +for nothing. + +And so it proved. For a period, the retail shops were more careful in +the number of genuine French models of gowns and hats which they +exhibited, and the label firm confessed that its trade had fallen off. +But this was only temporary. Within a year after The Journal stopped the +campaign, baffled and beaten, the trade in French labels was greater +than ever, hundreds of French models were sold that had never crossed +the ocean, the American woman was being hoodwinked on every hand, and +the reign of the French couturier was once more supreme. + +There was no disguising the fact that the case was hopeless, and Bok +recognized and accepted the inevitable. He had, at least, the +satisfaction of having made an intelligent effort to awaken the American +woman to her unintelligent submission. But she refused to be awakened. +She preferred to be a tool: to be made a fool of. + +Bok's probe into the feminine nature had been keenly disappointing. He +had earnestly tried to serve the American woman, and he had failed. But +he was destined to receive a still greater and deeper disappointment on +his next excursion into the feminine nature, although, this time, he was +to win. + +During his investigations into women's fashions, he had unearthed the +origin of the fashionable aigrette, the most desired of all the +feathered possessions of womankind. He had been told of the cruel +torture of the mother-heron, who produced the beautiful aigrette only in +her period of maternity and who was cruelly slaughtered, usually left to +die slowly rather than killed, leaving her whole nest of baby-birds to +starve while they awaited the return of the mother-bird. + +Bok was shown the most heart-rending photographs portraying the butchery +of the mother and the starvation of her little ones. He collected all +the photographs that he could secure, had the most graphic text written +to them, and began their publication. He felt certain that the mere +publication of the frightfully convincing photographs would be enough to +arouse the mother-instinct in every woman and stop the wearing of the +so-highly prized feather. But for the second time in his attempt to +reform the feminine nature he reckoned beside the mark. + +He published a succession of pages showing the frightful cost at which +the aigrette was secured. There was no challenging the actual facts as +shown by the photographic lens: the slaughter of the mother-bird, and +the starving baby-birds; and the importers of the feather wisely +remained quiet, not attempting to answer Bok's accusations. Letters +poured in upon the editor from Audubon Society workers; from lovers of +birds, and from women filled with the humanitarian instinct. But Bok +knew that the answer was not with those few: the solution lay with the +larger circle of American womanhood from which he did not hear. + +He waited for results. They came. But they were not those for which he +had striven. After four months of his campaign, he learned from the +inside of the importing-houses which dealt in the largest stocks of +aigrettes in the United States that the demand for the feather had more +than quadrupled! Bok was dumbfounded! He made inquiries in certain +channels from which he knew he could secure the most reliable +information, and after all the importers had been interviewed, the +conviction was unescapable that just in proportion as Bok had dwelt upon +the desirability of the aigrette as the hallmark of wealth and fashion, +upon its expense, and the fact that women regarded it as the last word +in feminine adornment, he had by so much made these facts familiar to +thousands of women who had never before known of them, and had created +the desire to own one of the precious feathers. + +Bok could not and would not accept these conclusions. It seemed to him +incredible that women would go so far as this in the question of +personal adornment. He caused the increased sales to be traced from +wholesaler to retailer, and from retailer to customer, and was amazed at +the character and standing of the latter. He had a number of those +buyers who lived in adjacent cities, privately approached and +interviewed, and ascertained that, save in two instances, they were all +his readers, had seen the gruesome pictures he had presented, and then +had deliberately purchased the coveted aigrette. + +Personally again he sought the most intelligent of his woman-friends, +talked with scores of others, and found himself facing the same trait in +feminine nature which he had encountered in his advocacy of American +fashions. But this time it seemed to Bok that the facts he had presented +went so much deeper. + +"It will be hard for you to believe," said one of his most trusted +woman-friends. "I grant your arguments: there is no gainsaying them. But +you are fighting the same thing again that you do not understand: the +feminine nature that craves outer adornment will secure it at any cost, +even at the cost of suffering." + +"Yes," argued Bok. "But if there is one thing above everything else that +we believe a woman feels and understands, it is the mother-instinct. Do +you mean to tell me that it means nothing to her that these birds are +killed in their period of motherhood, and that a whole nest of starving +baby-birds is the price of every aigrette?" + +"I won't say that this does not weigh with a woman. It does, naturally. +But when it comes to her possession of an ornament of beauty, as +beautiful as the aigrette, it weighs with her, but it doesn't tip the +scale against her possession of it. I am sorry to have to say this to +you, but it is a fact. A woman will regret that the mother-bird must be +tortured and her babies starve, but she will have the aigrette. She +simply trains herself to forget the origin. + +"Take my own case. You will doubtless be shocked when I tell you that I +was perfectly aware of the conditions under which the aigrette is +obtained before you began your exposure of the method. But did it +prevent my purchase of one? Not at all. Why? Because I am a woman: I +realize that no head ornament will set off my hair so well as an +aigrette. Say I am cruel if you like. I wish the heron-mother didn't +have to be killed or the babies starve, but, Mr. Bok, I must have my +beautiful aigrette!" + +Bok was frankly astounded: he had certainly probed deep this time into +the feminine nature. With every desire and instinct to disbelieve the +facts, the deeper his inquiries went, the stronger the evidence rolled +up: there was no gainsaying it; no sense in a further disbelief of it. + +But Bok was determined that this time he would not fail. His sense of +justice and protection to the mother-bird and her young was now fully +aroused. He resolved that he would, by compulsion, bring about what he +had failed to do by persuasion. He would make it impossible for women to +be untrue to their most sacred instinct. He sought legal talent, had a +bill drawn up making it a misdemeanor to import, sell, purchase, or wear +an aigrette. Armed with this measure, and the photographs and articles +which he had published, he sought and obtained the interest and promise +of support of the most influential legislators in several States. He +felt a sense of pride in his own sex that he had no trouble in winning +the immediate interest of every legislator with whom he talked. + +Where he had failed with women, he was succeeding with men! The +outrageous butchery of the birds and the circumstances under which they +were tortured appealed with direct force to the sporting instinct in +every man, and aroused him. Bok explained to each that he need expect no +support for such a measure from women save from the members of the +Audubon Societies, and a few humanitarian women and bird-lovers. Women, +as a whole, he argued from his experiences, while they would not go so +far as openly to oppose such a measure, for fear of public comment, +would do nothing to further its passage, for in their hearts they +preferred failure to success for the legislation. They had frankly told +him so: he was not speaking from theory. + +In one State after another Bok got into touch with legislators. He +counselled, in each case, a quiet passage for the measure instead of one +that would draw public attention to it. + +Meanwhile, a strong initiative had come from the Audubon Societies +throughout the country, and from the National Association of Audubon +Societies, at New York. This latter society also caused to be introduced +bills of its own to the same and in various legislatures, and here Bok +had a valuable ally. It was a curious fact that the Audubon officials +encountered their strongest resistance in Bok's own State: Pennsylvania. +But Bok's personal acquaintance with legislators in his Keystone State +helped here materially. + +The demand for the aigrette constantly increased and rose to hitherto +unknown figures. In one State where Bok's measure was pending before the +legislature, he heard of the coming of an unusually large shipment of +aigrettes to meet this increased demand. He wired the legislator in +charge of the measure apprising him of this fact, of what he intended to +do, and urging speed in securing the passage of the bill. Then he caused +the shipment to be seized at the dock on the ground of illegal +importation. + +The importing firm at once secured an injunction restraining the +seizure. Bok replied by serving a writ setting the injunction aside. The +lawyers of the importers got busy, of course, but meanwhile the +legislator had taken advantage of a special evening session, had the +bill passed, and induced the governor to sign it, the act taking effect +at once. + +This was exactly what Bok had been playing for. The aigrettes were now +useless; they could not be reshipped to another State, they could not be +offered for sale. The suit was dropped, and Bok had the satisfaction of +seeing the entire shipment, valued at $160,000, destroyed. He had not +saved the lives of the mother-birds, but, at least, he had prevented +hundreds of American women from wearing the hallmark of torture. + +State after State now passed an aigrette-prohibition law until fourteen +of the principal States, including practically all the large cities, +fell into line. + +Later, the National Association of Audubon Societies had introduced into +the United States Congress and passed a bill prohibiting the importation +of bird-feathers into the country, thus bringing a Federal law into +existence. + +Bok had won his fight, it is true, but he derived little satisfaction +from the character of his victory. His ideal of womanhood had received a +severe jolt. Women had revealed their worst side to him, and he did not +like the picture. He had appealed to what he had been led to believe was +the most sacred instinct in a woman's nature. He received no response. +Moreover, he saw the deeper love for personal vanity and finery +absolutely dominate the mother-instinct. He was conscious that something +had toppled off its pedestal which could never be replaced. + +He was aware that his mother's words, when he accepted his editorial +position, were coming terribly true: "I am sorry you are going to take +this position. It will cost you the high ideal you have always held of +your mother's sex. But a nature, as is the feminine nature, wholly +swayed inwardly by emotion, and outwardly influenced by an insatiate +love for personal adornment, will never stand the analysis you will give +it." + +He realized that he was paying a high price for his success. Such +experiences as these--and, unfortunately, they were only two of +several--were doubtless in his mind when, upon his retirement, the +newspapers clamored for his opinions of women. "No, thank you," he said +to one and all, "not a word." + +He did not give his reasons. + +He never will. + + + +XXX. Cleaning Up the Patent-Medicine and Other Evils + +In 1892 The Ladies' Home Journal announced that it would thereafter +accept no advertisements of patent medicines for its pages. It was a +pioneer stroke. During the following two years, seven other newspapers +and periodicals followed suit. The American people were slaves to +self-medication, and the patent-medicine makers had it all their own +way. There was little or no legal regulation as to the ingredients in +their nostrums; the mails were wide open to their circulars, and the +pages of even the most reputable periodicals welcomed their +advertisements. The patent-medicine business in the United States ran +into the hundreds of millions of dollars annually. The business is still +large; then it was enormous. + +Into this army of deceit and spurious medicines, The Ladies' Home +Journal fired the first gun. Neither the public nor the patent-medicine +people paid much attention to the first attacks. But as they grew, and +the evidence multiplied, the public began to comment and the nostrum +makers began to get uneasy. + +The magazine attacked the evil from every angle. It aroused the public +by showing the actual contents of some of their pet medicines, or the +absolute worthlessness of them. The Editor got the Women's Christian +Temperance Union into action against the periodicals for publishing +advertisements of medicines containing as high as forty per cent +alcohol. He showed that the most confidential letters written by women +with private ailments were opened by young clerks of both sexes, laughed +at and gossiped over, and that afterward their names and addresses, +which they had been told were held in the strictest confidence, were +sold to other lines of business for five cents each. He held the +religious press up to the scorn of church members for accepting +advertisements which the publishers knew and which he proved to be not +only fraudulent, but actually harmful. He called the United States Post +Office authorities to account for accepting and distributing obscene +circular matter. + +He cut an advertisement out of a newspaper which ended with the +statement: + +"Mrs. Pinkham, in her laboratory at Lynn, Massachusetts, is able to do +more for the ailing women of America than the family physician. Any +woman, therefore, is responsible for her own suffering who will not take +the trouble to write to Mrs. Pinkham for advice." + +Next to this advertisement representing Mrs. Lydia Pinkham as "in her +laboratory," Bok simply placed the photograph of Mrs. Pinkham's +tombstone in Pine Grove Cemetery, at Lynn, showing that Mrs. Pinkham had +passed away twenty-two years before! + +It was one of the most effective pieces of copy that the magazine used +in the campaign. It told its story with absolute simplicity, but with +deadly force. + +The proprietors of "Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup" had strenuously +denied the presence of morphine in their preparation. Bok simply bought +a bottle of the syrup in London, where, under the English Pharmacy Act, +the authorities compelled the proprietors of the syrup to affix the +following declaration on each bottle: "This preparation, containing, +among other valuable ingredients, a small amount of morphine is, in +accordance with the Pharmacy Act, hereby labelled 'Poison!'" The +magazine published a photograph of the label, and it told its own +convincing story. It is only fair to say that the makers of this remedy +now publish their formula. + +Bok now slipped a cog in his machinery. He published a list of +twenty-seven medicines, by name, and told what they contained. One +preparation, he said, contained alcohol, opium, and digitalis. He +believed he had been extremely careful in this list. He had consulted +the highest medical authorities, physicians, and chemists. But in the +instance of the one preparation referred to above he was wrong. + +The analysis had been furnished by the secretary of the State Board of +Health of Massachusetts; a recognized expert, who had taken it from the +analysis of a famous German chemist. It was in nearly every standard +medical authority, and was accepted by the best medical authorities. Bok +accepted these authorities as final. Nevertheless, the analysis and the +experts were wrong. A suit for two hundred thousand dollars was brought +by the patent-medicine company against The Curtis Publishing Company, +and, of course, it was decided in favor of the former. But so strong a +public sentiment had been created against the whole business of patent +medicines by this time that the jury gave a verdict of only sixteen +thousand dollars, with costs, against the magazine. + +Undaunted, Bok kept on. He now engaged Mark Sullivan, then a young +lawyer in downtown New York, induced him to give up his practice, and +bring his legal mind to bear upon the problem. It was the beginning of +Sullivan's subsequent journalistic career, and he justified Bok's +confidence in him. He exposed the testimonials to patent medicines from +senators and congressmen then so widely published, showed how they were +obtained by a journalist in Washington who made a business of it. He +charged seventy-five dollars for a senator's testimonial, forty dollars +for that of a congressman, and accepted no contract for less than five +thousand dollars. + +Sullivan next exposed the disgraceful violation of the confidence of +women by these nostrum vendors in selling their most confidential +letters to any one who would buy them. Sullivan himself bought thousands +of these letters and names, and then wrote about them in the magazine. +One prominent firm indignantly denied the charge, asserting that +whatever others might have done, their names were always held sacred. In +answer to this declaration Sullivan published an advertisement of this +righteous concern offering fifty thousand of their names for sale. + +Bok had now kept up the fight for over two years, and the results were +apparent on every hand. Reputable newspapers and magazines were closing +their pages to the advertisements of patent medicines; legislation was +appearing in several States; the public had been awakened to the fraud +practised upon it, and a Federal Pure Food and Drug Act was beginning to +be talked about. + +Single-handed, The Ladies' Home Journal kept up the fight until Mark +Sullivan produced an unusually strong article, but too legalistic for +the magazine. He called the attention of Norman Hapgood, then editor of +Collier's Weekly, to it, who accepted it at once, and, with Bok's +permission, engaged Sullivan, who later succeeded Hapgood as editor of +Collier's. Robert J. Collier now brought Samuel Hopkins Adams to Bok's +attention and asked the latter if he should object if Collier's Weekly +joined him in his fight. The Philadelphia editor naturally welcomed the +help of the weekly, and Adams began his wonderfully effective campaign. + +The weekly and the monthly now pounded away together; other periodicals +and newspapers, seeing success ahead, and desiring to be part of it and +share the glory, came into the conflict, and it was not long before so +strong a public sentiment had been created as to bring about the passage +of the United States Food and Drug Act, and the patent-medicine business +of the United States had received a blow from which it has never +recovered. To-day the pages of every newspaper and periodical of +recognized standing are closed to the advertisements of patent +medicines; the Drug Act regulates the ingredients, and post office +officials scan the literature sent through the United States mails. + +There are distinct indications that the time has come once more to scan +the patent-medicine horizon carefully, but the conditions existing in +1920 are radically different from those prevailing in 1904. + +One day when Bok was at luncheon with Doctor Lyman Abbott, the latter +expressed the wish that Bok would take up the subject of venereal +disease as he had the patent-medicine question. + +"Not our question," answered Bok. + +"It is most decidedly your question," was the reply. + +Bok cherished the highest regard for Doctor Abbott's opinion and +judgment, and this positive declaration amazed him. + +"Read up on the subject," counselled Doctor Abbott, "and you will find +that the evil has its direct roots in the home with the parents. You +will agree with me before you go very far that it is your question." + +Bok began to read on the unsavory subject. It was exceedingly unpleasant +reading, but for two years Bok persisted, only to find that Doctor +Abbott was right. The root of the evil lay in the reticence of parents +with children as to the mystery of life; boys and girls were going out +into the world blind-folded as to any knowledge of their physical +selves; "the bloom must not be rubbed off the peach," was the belief of +thousands of parents, and the results were appalling. Bok pursued his +investigations from books direct into the "Homes of Refuge," "Doors of +Hope," and similar institutions, and unearthed a condition, the direct +results of the false modesty of parents, that was almost unbelievable. + +Bok had now all his facts, but realized that for his magazine, of all +magazines, to take up this subject would be like a bolt from the blue in +tens of thousands of homes. But this very fact, the unquestioned +position of the magazine, the remarkable respect which its readers had +for it, and the confidence with which parents placed the periodical on +their home tables--all this was, after all, Bok thought, the more reason +why he should take up the matter and thresh it out. He consulted with +friends, who advised against it; his editors were all opposed to the +introduction of the unsavory subject into the magazine. + +"But it isn't unsavory," argued Bok. "That is just it. We have made it +so by making it mysterious, by surrounding it with silence, by making it +a forbidden topic. It is the most beautiful story in life." + +Mr. Curtis, alone, encouraged his editor. Was he sure he was right? If +he was, why not go ahead? Bok called his attention to the fact that a +heavy loss in circulation was a foregone conclusion; he could calculate +upon one hundred thousand subscribers, at least, stopping the magazine. +"It is a question of right," answered the publisher, "not of +circulation." + +And so, in 1906, with the subject absolutely prohibited in every +periodical and newspaper of standing, never discussed at a public +gathering save at medical meetings, Bok published his first editorial. + +The readers of his magazine fairly gasped; they were dumb with +astonishment! The Ladies' Home Journal, of all magazines, to discuss +such a subject! When they had recovered from their astonishment, the +parents began to write letters, and one morning Bok was confronted with +a large waste-basket full brought in by his two office boys. + +"Protests," laconically explained one of his editors. "More than that, +the majority threaten to stop their subscription unless you stop." + +"All right, that proves I am right," answered Bok. "Write to each one +and say that what I have written is nothing as compared in frankness to +what is coming, and that we shall be glad to refund the unfulfilled part +of their subscriptions." + +Day after day, thousands of letters came in. The next issue contained +another editorial, stronger than the first. Bok explained that he would +not tell the actual story of the beginning of life in the magazine--that +was the prerogative of the parents, and he had no notion of taking it +away from either; but that he meant to insist upon putting their duty +squarely up to them, that he realized it was a long fight, hence the +articles to come would be many and continued; and that those of his +readers who did not believe in his policy had better stop the magazine +at once. But he reminded them that no solution of any question was ever +reached by running away from it. This question had to be faced some +time, and now was as good a time as any. + +Thousands of subscriptions were stopped; advertisements gave notice that +they would cancel their accounts; the greatest pressure was placed upon +Mr. Curtis to order his editor to cease, and Bok had the grim experience +of seeing his magazine, hitherto proclaimed all over the land as a model +advocate of the virtues, refused admittance into thousands of homes, and +saw his own friends tear the offending pages out of the periodical +before it was allowed to find a place on their home-tables. + +But The Journal kept steadily on. Number after number contained some +article on the subject, and finally such men and women as Jane Addams, +Cardinal Gibbons, Margaret Deland, Henry van Dyke, President Eliot, the +Bishop of London, braved the public storm, came to Bok's aid, and wrote +articles for his magazine heartily backing up his lonely fight. + +The public, seeing this array of distinguished opinion expressing +itself, began to wonder "whether there might not be something in what +Bok was saying, after all." At the end of eighteen months, inquiries +began to take the place of protests; and Bok knew then that the fight +was won. He employed two experts, one man and one woman, to answer the +inquiries, and he had published a series of little books, each written +by a different author on a different aspect of the question. + +This series was known as The Edward Bok Books. They sold for twenty-five +cents each, without profit to either editor or publisher. The series +sold into the tens of thousands. Information was, therefore, to be had, +in authoritative form, enabling every parent to tell the story to his or +her child. Bok now insisted that every parent should do this, and +announced that he intended to keep at the subject until the parents did. +He explained that the magazine had lost about seventy-five thousand +subscribers, and that it might just as well lose some more; but that the +insistence should go on. + +Slowly but surely the subject became a debatable one. Where, when Bok +began, the leading prophylactic society in New York could not secure +five speaking dates for its single lecturer during a session, it was now +put to it to find open dates for over ten speakers. Mothers' clubs, +women's clubs, and organizations of all kinds clamored for authoritative +talks; here and there a much-veiled article apologetically crept into +print, and occasionally a progressive school board or educational +institution experimented with a talk or two. + +The Ladies' Home Journal published a full-page editorial declaring that +seventy of every one hundred special surgical operations on women were +directly or indirectly the result of one cause; that sixty of every one +hundred new-born blinded babies were blinded soon after birth from this +same cause; and that every man knew what this cause was! + +Letters from men now began to pour in by the hundreds. With an oath on +nearly every line, they told him that their wives, daughters, sisters, +or mothers had demanded to know this cause, and that they had to tell +them. Bok answered these heated men and told them that was exactly why +the Journal had published the editorial, and that in the next issue +there would be another for those women who might have missed his first. +He insisted that the time had come when women should learn the truth, +and that, so far as it lay in his power, he intended to see that they +did know. + +The tide of public opinion at last turned toward The Ladies' Home +Journal and its campaign. Women began to realize that it had a case; +that it was working for their best interests and for those of their +children, and they decided that the question might as well be faced. Bok +now felt that his part in the work was done. He had started something +well on its way; the common sense of the public must do the rest. He had +taken the question of natural life, and stripped it of its false mystery +in the minds of hundreds of thousands of young people; had started their +inquiring minds; had shown parents the way; had made a forbidden topic a +debatable subject, discussed in open gatherings, by the press, an +increasing number of books, and in schools and colleges. He dropped the +subject, only to take up one that was more or less akin to it. + +That was the public drinking-cup. Here was a distinct menace that actual +examples and figures showed was spreading the most loathsome diseases +among innocent children. In 1908, he opened up the subject by ruthlessly +publishing photographs that were unpleasantly but tremendously +convincing. He had now secured the confidence of his vast public, who +listened attentively to him when he spoke on an unpleasant topic; and +having learned from experience that he would simply keep on until he got +results, his readers decided that this time they would act quickly. So +quick a result was hardly ever achieved in any campaign. Within six +months legislation all over the country was introduced or enacted +prohibiting the common drinking-cup in any public gathering-place, park, +store, or theatre, and substituting the individual paper cup. Almost +over night, the germ-laden common drinking-cup, which had so widely +spread disease, disappeared; and in a number of States, the common +towel, upon Bok's insistence, met the same fate. Within a year, one of +the worst menaces to American life had been wiped out by public +sentiment. + +Bok was now done with health measures for a while, and determined to see +what he could do with two or three civic questions that he felt needed +attention. + + + +XXXI. Adventures in Civics + +The electric power companies at Niagara Falls were beginning to draw so +much water from above the great Horseshoe Falls as to bring into +speculation the question of how soon America's greatest scenic asset +would be a coal-pile with a thin trickle of water crawling down its vast +cliffs. Already companies had been given legal permission to utilize +one-quarter of the whole flow, and additional companies were asking for +further grants. Permission for forty per cent of the whole volume of +water had been granted. J. Horace McFarland, as President of the +American Civic Association, called Bok's attention to the matter, and +urged him to agitate it through his magazine so that restrictive +legislation might be secured. + +Bok went to Washington, conferred with President Roosevelt, and found +him cognizant of the matter in all its aspects. + +"I can do nothing," said the President, "unless there is an awakened +public sentiment that compels action. Give me that, and I'll either put +the subject in my next message to Congress or send a special message. +I'm from Missouri on this point," continued the President. "Show me that +the American people want their Falls preserved, and I'll do the rest. +But I've got to be shown." Bok assured the President he could +demonstrate this to him. + +The next number of his magazine presented a graphic picture of the +Horseshoe Falls as they were and the same Falls as they would be if more +water was allowed to be taken for power: a barren coal-pile with a tiny +rivulet of water trickling down its sides. The editorial asked whether +the American women were going to allow this? If not, each, if an +American, should write to the President, and, if a Canadian, to Earl +Grey, then Governor-General of Canada. Very soon after the magazine had +reached its subscribers' hands, the letters began to reach the White +House; not by dozens, as the President's secretary wrote to Bok, but by +the hundreds and then by the thousands. "Is there any way to turn this +spigot off?" telegraphed the President's secretary. "We are really being +inundated." + +Bok went to Washington and was shown the huge pile of letters. + +"All right," said the President. "That's all I want. You've proved it to +me that there is a public sentiment." + +The clerks at Rideau Hall, at Ottawa, did not know what had happened one +morning when the mail quadrupled in size and thousands of protests came +to Earl Grey. He wired the President, the President exchanged views with +the governor-general, and the great international campaign to save +Niagara Falls had begun. The American Civic Association and scores of +other civic and patriotic bodies had joined in the clamor. + +The attorney-general and the secretary of state were instructed by the +President to look into the legal and diplomatic aspects of the question, +and in his next message to Congress President Roosevelt uttered a +clarion call to that body to restrict the power-grabbing companies. + +The Ladies' Home Journal urged its readers to write to their congressmen +and they did by the thousands. Every congressman and senator was +overwhelmed. As one senator said: "I have never seen such an avalanche. +But thanks to The Ladies' Home Journal, I have received these hundreds +of letters from my constituents; they have told me what they want done, +and they are mostly from those of my people whose wishes I am bound to +respect." + +The power companies, of course, promptly sent their attorneys and +lobbyists to Washington; but the public sentiment aroused was too strong +to be disregarded, and on June 29, 1906, the President signed the Burton +Bill restricting the use of the water of Niagara Falls. + +The matter was then referred to the secretary of war, William Howard +Taft, to grant the use of such volume of water as would preserve the +beauty of the Falls. McFarland and Bok wanted to be sure that Secretary +Taft felt the support of public opinion, for his policy was to be +conservative, and tremendous pressure was being brought upon him from +every side to permit a more liberal use of water. Bok turned to his +readers and asked them to write to Secretary Taft and assure him of the +support of the American women in his attitude of conservatism. + +The flood of letters that descended upon the secretary almost taxed even +his genial nature; and when Mr. McFarland, as the editorial +representative of The Ladies' Home Journal, arose to speak at the public +hearing in Washington, the secretary said: "I can assure you that you +don't have to say very much. Your case has already been pleaded for you +by, I should say at the most conservative estimate, at least one hundred +thousand women. Why, I have had letters from even my wife and my +mother." + +Secretary Taft adhered to his conservative policy, Sir Wilfred Laurier, +premier of Canada, met the overtures of Secretary of State Root, a new +international document was drawn up, and Niagara Falls had been saved to +the American people. + +In 1905 and in previous years the casualties resulting from fireworks on +the Fourth of July averaged from five to six thousand each year. The +humorous weekly Life and The Chicago Tribune had been for some time +agitating a restricted use of fireworks on the national fete day, but +nevertheless the list of casualties kept creeping to higher figures. Bok +decided to help by arousing the parents of America, in whose hands, +after all, lay the remedy. He began a series of articles in the +magazine, showing what had happened over a period of years, the +criminality of allowing so many young lives to be snuffed out, and +suggested how parents could help by prohibiting the deadly firecrackers +and cannon, and how organizations could assist by influencing the +passing of city ordinances. Each recurring January, The Journal returned +to the subject, looking forward to the coming Fourth. It was a +deep-rooted custom to eradicate, and powerful influences, in the form of +thousands of small storekeepers, were at work upon local officials to +pay no heed to the agitation. Gradually public opinion changed. The +newspapers joined in the cry; women's organizations insisted upon action +from local municipal bodies. + +Finally, the civic spirit in Cleveland, Ohio, forced the passage of a +city ordinance prohibiting the sale or use of fireworks on the Fourth. +The following year when Cleveland reported no casualties as compared to +an ugly list for the previous. Fourth, a distinct impression was made +upon other cities. Gradually, other municipalities took action, and year +by year the list of Fourth of July casualties grew perceptibly shorter. +New York City was now induced to join the list of prohibitive cities, by +a personal appeal made to its mayor by Bok, and on the succeeding Fourth +of July the city authorities, on behalf of the people of New York City, +conferred a gold medal upon Edward Bok for his services in connection +with the birth of the new Fourth in that city. + +There still remains much to be done in cities as yet unawakened; but a +comparison of the list of casualties of 1920 with that of 1905 proves +the growth in enlightened public sentiment in fifteen years to have been +steadily increasing. It is an instance not of Bok taking the +initiative--that had already been taken--but of throwing the whole force +of the magazine with those working in the field to help. It is the +American woman who is primarily responsible for the safe and sane +Fourth, so far as it already exists in this country to-day, and it is +the American woman who can make it universal. + +Mrs. Pennypacker, as president of The Federation of Women's Clubs, now +brought to Bok's attention the conditions under which the average rural +school-teacher lived; the suffering often entailed on her in having to +walk miles to the schoolhouse in wintry weather; the discomfort she had +to put up with in the farm-houses where she was compelled to live, with +the natural result, under those conditions, that it was almost +impossible to secure the services of capable teachers, or to have good +teaching even where efficient teachers were obtained. + +Mrs. Pennypacker suggested that Bok undertake the creation of a public +sentiment for a residence for the teacher in connection with the +schoolhouse. The parson was given a parsonage; why not the teacher a +"teacherage"? The Journal co-operated with Mrs. Pennypacker and she +began the agitation of the subject in the magazine. She also spoke on +the subject wherever she went, and induced women's clubs all over the +country to join the magazine in its advocacy of the "teacherage." + +By personal effort, several "teacherages" were established in connection +with new schoolhouses; photographs of these were published and sent +personally to school-boards all over the country; the members of women's +clubs saw to it that the articles were brought to the attention of +members of their local school-boards; and the now-generally accepted +idea that a "teacherage" must accompany a new schoolhouse was well on +its way to national recognition. + +It only remains now for communities to install a visiting nurse in each +of these "teacherages" so that the teacher need not live in solitary +isolation, and that the health of the children at school can be looked +after at first hand. Then the nurse shall be at the call of every small +American community--particularly to be available in cases of childbirth, +since in these thinly settled districts it is too often impossible to +obtain the services of a physician, with the result of a high percentage +of fatalities to mothers that should not be tolerated by a wealthy and +progressive people. No American mother, at childbirth, should be denied +the assistance of professional skill, no matter how far she may live +from a physician. And here is where a visiting nurse in every community +can become an institution of inestimable value. + +Just about this time a group of Philadelphia physicians, headed by +Doctor Samuel McClintock Hamill, which had formed itself into a hygienic +committee for babies, waited upon Bok to ask him to join them in the +creation of a permanent organization devoted to the welfare of babies +and children. Bok found that he was dealing with a company of +representative physicians, and helped to organize "The Child +Federation," an organization "to do good on a business basis." + +It was to go to the heart of the problem of the baby in the congested +districts of Philadelphia, and do a piece of intensive work in the ward +having the highest infant mortality, establishing the first health +centre in the United States actively managed by competent physicians and +nurses. This centre was to demonstrate to the city authorities that the +fearful mortality among babies, particularly in summer, could be +reduced. + +Meanwhile, there was created a "Baby Saving Show," a set of graphic +pictures conveying to the eye methods of sanitation and other too often +disregarded essentials of the wise care and feeding of babies; and this +travelled, like a theatrical attraction, to different parts of the city. +"Little Mothers' Leagues" were organized to teach the little girl of ten +or twelve, so often left in charge of a family of children when the +mother is at work during the day, and demonstrations were given in +various parts of the city. + +The Child Federation now undertook one activity after the other. Under +its auspices, the first municipal Christmas tree ever erected in +Philadelphia was shown in the historic Independence Square, and with two +bands of music giving concerts every day from Christmas to New Year's +Day, attracted over two hundred thousand persons. A pavilion was erected +in City Hall Square, the most central spot in the city, and the "Baby +Saving Show" was permanently placed there and visited by over one +hundred thousand visitors from every part of the country on their way to +and from the Pennsylvania Station at Broad Street. + +A searching investigation of the Day Nurseries of Philadelphia--probably +one of the most admirable pieces of research work ever made in a +city--changed the methods in vogue and became a standard guide for +similar institutions throughout the country. So successful were the +Little Mothers' Leagues that they were introduced into the public +schools of Philadelphia, and are to-day a regular part of the +curriculum. The Health Centre, its success being proved, was taken over +by the city Board of Health, and three others were established. + +To-day The Child Federation is recognized as one of the most practically +conducted child welfare agencies in Philadelphia, and its methods have +been followed by similar organizations all over the country. It is now +rapidly becoming the central medium through which the other agencies in +Philadelphia are working, thus avoiding the duplication of infant +welfare work in the city. Broadening its scope, it is not unlikely to +become one of the greatest indirect influences in the welfare work of +Philadelphia and the vicinity, through which other organizations will be +able to work. + +Bok's interest and knowledge in civic matters had now peculiarly +prepared him for a personal adventure into community work. Merion, where +he lived, was one of the most beautiful of the many suburbs that +surround the Quaker City; but, like hundreds of similar communities, +there had been developed in it no civic interest. Some of the most +successful business men of Philadelphia lived in Merion; they had +beautiful estates, which they maintained without regard to expense, but +also without regard to the community as a whole. They were busy men; +they came home tired after a day in the city; they considered themselves +good citizens if they kept their own places sightly, but the idea of +devoting their evenings to the problems of their community had never +occurred to them before the evening when two of Bok's neighbors called +to ask his help in forming a civic association. + +A canvass of the sentiment of the neighborhood revealed the unanimous +opinion that the experiment, if attempted, would be a failure,--an +attitude not by any means confined to the residents of Merion! Bok +decided to test it out; he called together twenty of his neighbors, put +the suggestion before them and asked for two thousand dollars as a +start, so that a paid secretary might be engaged, since the men +themselves were too busy to attend to the details of the work. The +amount was immediately subscribed, and in 1913 The Merion Civic +Association applied for a charter and began its existence. + +The leading men in the community were elected as a Board of Directors, +and a salaried secretary was engaged to carry out the directions of the +Board. The association adopted the motto: "To be nation right, and State +right, we must first be community right." Three objectives were selected +with which to attract community interest and membership: safety to life, +in the form of proper police protection; safety to property, in the form +of adequate hydrant and fire-engine service; and safety to health, in +careful supervision of the water and milk used in the community. + +"The three S's," as they were called, brought an immediate response. +They were practical in their appeal, and members began to come in. The +police force was increased from one officer at night and none in the +day, to three at night and two during the day, and to this the +Association added two special night officers of its own. Private +detectives were intermittently brought in to "check up" and see that the +service was vigilant. A fire hydrant was placed within seven hundred +feet of every house, with the insurance rates reduced from twelve and +one-half to thirty per cent; the services of three fire-engine companies +was arranged for. Fire-gongs were introduced into the community to guard +against danger from interruption of telephone service. The water supply +was chemically analyzed each month and the milk supply carefully +scrutinized. One hundred and fifty new electric-light posts specially +designed, and pronounced by experts as the most beautiful and practical +road lamps ever introduced into any community, were erected, making +Merion the best-lighted community in its vicinity. + +At every corner was erected an artistically designed cast-iron road +sign; instead of the unsightly wooden ones, cast-iron automobile +warnings were placed at every dangerous spot; community bulletin-boards, +preventing the display of notices on trees and poles, were placed at the +railroad station; litter-cans were distributed over the entire +community; a new railroad station and postoffice were secured; the +station grounds were laid out as a garden by a landscape architect; new +roads of permanent construction, from curb to curb, were laid down; +uniform tree-planting along the roads was introduced; bird-houses were +made and sold, so as to attract bird-life to the community; toll-gates +were abolished along the two main arteries of travel; the removal of all +telegraph and telephone poles was begun; an efficient Boy Scout troop +was organized, and an American Legion post; the automobile speed limit +was reduced from twenty-four to fifteen miles as a protection to +children; roads were regularly swept, cleaned, and oiled, and uniform +sidewalks advocated and secured. + +Within seven years so efficiently had the Association functioned that +its work attracted attention far beyond its own confines and that of +Philadelphia, and caused Theodore Roosevelt voluntarily to select it as +a subject for a special magazine article in which he declared it to +"stand as a model in civic matters." To-day it may be conservatively +said of The Merion Civic Association that it is pointed out as one of +the most successful suburban civic efforts in the country; as Doctor +Lyman Abbott said in The Outlook, it has made "Merion a model suburb, +which may standardize ideal suburban life, certainly for Philadelphia, +possibly for the United States." + +When the armistice was signed in November, 1918, the Association +immediately canvassed the neighborhood to erect a suitable Tribute +House, as a memorial to the eighty-three Merion boys who had gone into +the Great War: a public building which would comprise a community +centre, with an American Legion Post room, a Boy Scout house, an +auditorium, and a meeting-place for the civic activities of Merion. A +subscription was raised, and plans were already drawn for the Tribute +House, when Mr. Eldridge R. Johnson, president of the Victor Talking +Machine Company, one of the strong supporters of The Merion Civic +Association, presented his entire estate of twelve acres, the finest in +Merion, to the community, and agreed to build a Tribute House at his own +expense. The grounds represented a gift of two hundred thousand dollars, +and the building a gift of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This +building, now about to be erected, will be one of the most beautiful and +complete community centres in the United States. + +Perhaps no other suburban civic effort proves the efficiency of +community co-operation so well as does the seven years' work of The +Merion Civic Association. It is a practical demonstration of what a +community can do for itself by concerted action. It preached, from the +very start, the gospel of united service; it translated into actual +practice the doctrine of being one's brother's keeper, and it taught the +invaluable habit of collective action. The Association has no legal +powers; it rules solely by persuasion; it accomplishes by the power of +combination; by a spirit of the community for the community. + +When The Merion Civic Association was conceived, the spirit of local +pride was seemingly not present in the community. As a matter of fact, +it was there as it is in practically every neighborhood; it was simply +dormant; it had to be awakened, and its value brought vividly to the +community consciousness. + + + +XXXII. A Bewildered Bok + +One of the misfortunes of Edward Bok's training, which he realized more +clearly as time went on, was that music had little or no place in his +life. His mother did not play; and aside from the fact that his father +and mother were patrons of the opera during their residence in The +Netherlands, the musical atmosphere was lacking in his home. He realized +how welcome an outlet music might be in his now busy life. So what he +lacked himself and realized as a distinct omission in his own life he +decided to make possible for others. + +The Ladies' Home Journal began to strike a definite musical note. It +first caught the eye and ear of its public by presenting the popular new +marches by John Philip Sousa; and when the comic opera of "Robin Hood" +became the favorite of the day, it secured all the new compositions by +Reginald de Koven. Following these, it introduced its readers to new +compositions by Sir Arthur Sullivan, Tosti, Moscowski, Richard Strauss, +Paderewski, Josef Hofmann, Edouard Strauss, and Mascagni. Bok induced +Josef Hofmann to give a series of piano lessons in his magazine, and +Madame Marchesi a series of vocal lessons. The Journal introduced its +readers to all the great instrumental and vocal artists of the day +through articles; it offered prizes for the best piano and vocal +compositions; it had the leading critics of New York, Boston, and +Chicago write articles explanatory of orchestral music and how to listen +to music. + +Bok was early attracted by the abilities of Josef Hofmann. In 1898, he +met the pianist, who was then twenty-two years old. Of his musical +ability Bok could not judge, but he was much impressed by his unusual +mentality, and soon both learned and felt that Hofmann's art was deeply +and firmly rooted. Hofmann had a wider knowledge of affairs than other +musicians whom Bok had met; he had not narrowed his interests to his own +art. He was striving to achieve a position in his art, and, finding that +he had literary ability, Bok asked him to write a reminiscent article on +his famous master, Rubinstein. + +This was followed by other articles; the publication of his new mazurka; +still further articles; and then, in 1907, Bok offered him a regular +department in the magazine and a salaried editorship on his staff. + +Bok's musical friends and the music critics tried to convince the editor +that Hofmann's art lay not so deep as Bok imagined; that he had been a +child prodigy, and would end where all child prodigies invariably +end--opinions which make curious reading now in view of Hofmann's +commanding position in the world of music. But while Bok lacked musical +knowledge, his instinct led him to adhere to his belief in Hofmann; and +for twelve years, until Bok's retirement as editor, the pianist was a +regular contributor to the magazine. His success was, of course, +unquestioned. He answered hundreds of questions sent him by his readers, +and these answers furnished such valuable advice for piano students that +two volumes were made in book form and are to-day used by piano teachers +and students as authoritative guides. + +Meanwhile, Bok's marriage had brought music directly into his domestic +circle. Mrs. Bok loved music, was a pianist herself, and sought to +acquaint her husband with what his former training had omitted. Hofmann +and Bok had become strong friends outside of the editorial relation, and +the pianist frequently visited the Bok home. But it was some time, even +with these influences surrounding him, before music began to play any +real part in Bok's own life. + +He attended the opera occasionally; more or less under protest, because +of its length, and because his mind was too practical for the indirect +operatic form. He could not remain patient at a recital; the effort to +listen to one performer for an hour and a half was too severe a tax upon +his restless nature. The Philadelphia Orchestra gave a symphony concert +each Saturday evening, and Bok dreaded the coming of that evening in +each week for fear of being taken to hear music which he was convinced +was "over his head." + +Like many men of his practical nature, he had made up his mind on this +point without ever having heard such a concert. The word "symphony" was +enough; it conveyed to him a form of the highest music quite beyond his +comprehension. Then, too, in the back of his mind there was the feeling +that, while he was perfectly willing to offer the best that the musical +world afforded in his magazine, his readers were primarily women, and +the appeal of music, after all, he felt was largely, if not wholly, to +the feminine nature. It was very satisfying to him to hear his wife play +in the evening; but when it came to public concerts, they were not for +his masculine nature. In other words, Bok shared the all too common +masculine notion that music is for women and has little place in the +lives of men. + +One day Josef Hofmann gave Bok an entirely new point of view. The artist +was rehearsing in Philadelphia for an appearance with the orchestra, and +the pianist was telling Bok and his wife of the desire of Leopold +Stokowski, who had recently become conductor of the Philadelphia +Orchestra, to eliminate encores from his symphonic programmes; he wanted +to begin the experiment with Hofmann's appearance that week. This was a +novel thought to Bok: why eliminate encores from any concert? If he +liked the way any performer played, he had always done his share to +secure an encore. Why should not the public have an encore if it desired +it, and why should a conductor or a performer object? Hofmann explained +to him the entity of a symphonic programme; that it was made up with one +composition in relation to the others as a sympathetic unit, and that an +encore was an intrusion, disturbing the harmony of the whole. + +"I wish you would let Stokowski come out and explain to you what he is +trying to do," said Hofmann. "He knows what he wants, and he is right in +his efforts; but he doesn't know how to educate the public. There is +where you could help him." + +But Bok had no desire to meet Stokowski. He mentally pictured the +conductor: long hair; feet never touching the earth; temperament galore; +he knew them! And he had no wish to introduce the type into his home +life. + +Mrs. Bok, however, ably seconded Josef Hofmann, and endeavored to +dissipate Bok's preconceived notion, with the result that Stokowksi came +to the Bok home. + +Bok was not slow to see that Stokowski was quite the reverse of his +mental picture, and became intensely interested in the youthful +conductor's practical way of looking at things. It was agreed that the +encore "bull" was to be taken by the horns that week; that no matter +what the ovation to Hofmann might be, however the public might clamor, +no encore was to be forthcoming; and Bok was to give the public an +explanation during the following week. The next concert was to present +Mischa Elman, and his co-operation was assured so that continuity of +effort might be counted upon. + +In order to have first-hand information, Bok attended the concert that +Saturday evening. The symphony, Dvorak's "New World Symphony," amazed +Bok by its beauty; he was more astonished that he could so easily grasp +any music in symphonic form. He was equally surprised at the simple +beauty of the other numbers on the programme, and wondered not a little +at his own perfectly absorbed attention during Hofmann's playing of a +rather long concerto. + +The pianist's performance was so beautiful that the audience was +uproarious in its approval; it had calculated, of course, upon an +encore, and recalled the pianist again and again until he had appeared +and bowed his thanks several times. But there was no encore; the stage +hands appeared and moved the piano to one side, and the audience +relapsed into unsatisfied and rather bewildered silence. + +Then followed Bok's publicity work in the newspapers, beginning the next +day, exonerating Hofmann and explaining the situation. The following +week, with Mischa Elman as soloist, the audience once more tried to have +its way and its cherished encore, but again none was forthcoming. Once +more the newspapers explained; the battle was won, and the no-encore +rule has prevailed at the Philadelphia Orchestra concerts from that day +to this, with the public entirely resigned to the idea and satisfied +with the reason therefor. + +But the bewildered Bok could not make out exactly what had happened to +his preconceived notion about symphonic music. He attended the following +Saturday evening concert; listened to a Brahms symphony that pleased him +even more than had "The New World," and when, two weeks later, he heard +the Tschaikowski "Pathetique" and later the "Unfinished" symphony, by +Schubert, and a Beethoven symphony, attracted by each in turn, he +realized that his prejudice against the whole question of symphonic +music had been both wrongly conceived and baseless. + +He now began to see the possibility of a whole world of beauty which up +to that time had been closed to him, and he made up his mind that he +would enter it. Somehow or other, he found the appeal of music did not +confine itself to women; it seemed to have a message for men. Then, too, +instead of dreading the approach of Saturday evenings, he was looking +forward to them, and invariably so arranged his engagements that they +might not interfere with his attendance at the orchestra concerts. + +After a busy week, he discovered that nothing he had ever experienced +served to quiet him so much as these end-of-the-week concerts. They were +not too long, an hour and a half at the utmost; and, above all, except +now and then, when the conductor would take a flight into the world of +Bach, he found he followed him with at least a moderate degree of +intelligence; certainly with personal pleasure and inner satisfaction. + +Bok concluded he would not read the articles he had published on the +meaning of the different "sections" of a symphony orchestra, or the +books issued on that subject. He would try to solve the mechanism of an +orchestra for himself, and ascertain as he went along the relation that +each portion bore to the other. When, therefore, in 1913, the president +of the Philadelphia Orchestra Association asked him to become a member +of its Board of Directors, his acceptance was a natural step in the +gradual development of his interest in orchestral music. + +The public support given to orchestras now greatly interested Bok. He +was surprised to find that every symphony orchestra had a yearly +deficit. This he immediately attributed to faulty management; but on +investigating the whole question he learned that a symphony orchestra +could not possibly operate, at a profit or even on a self-sustaining +basis, because of its weekly change of programme, the incessant +rehearsals required, and the limited number of times it could actually +play within a contracted season. An annual deficit was inevitable. + +He found that the Philadelphia Orchestra had a small but faithful group +of guarantors who each year made good the deficit in addition to paying +for its concert seats. This did not seem to Bok a sound business plan; +it made of the orchestra a necessarily exclusive organization, +maintained by a few; and it gave out this impression to the general +public, which felt that it did not "belong," whereas the true relation +of public and orchestra was that of mutual dependence. Other orchestras, +he found, as, for example, the Boston Symphony and the New York +Philharmonic had their deficits met by one individual patron in each +case. This, to Bok's mind, was an even worse system, since it entirely +excluded the public, making the orchestra dependent on the continued +interest and life of a single man. + +In 1916 Bok sought Mr. Alexander Van Rensselaer, the president of the +Philadelphia Orchestra Association, and proposed that he, himself, +should guarantee the deficit of the orchestra for five years, provided +that during that period an endowment fund should be raised, contributed +by a large number of subscribers, and sufficient in amount to meet, from +its interest, the annual deficit. It was agreed that the donor should +remain in strict anonymity, an understanding which has been adhered to +until the present writing. + +The offer from the "anonymous donor," presented by the president, was +accepted by the Orchestra Association. A subscription to an endowment +fund was shortly afterward begun; and the amount had been brought to +eight hundred thousand dollars when the Great War interrupted any +further additions. In the autumn of 1919, however, a city-wide campaign +for an addition of one million dollars to the endowment fund was +launched. The amount was not only secured, but over-subscribed. Thus, +instead of a guarantee fund, contributed by thirteen hundred +subscribers, with the necessity for annual collection, an endowment fund +of one million eight hundred thousand dollars, contributed by fourteen +thousand subscribers, has been secured; and the Philadelphia Orchestra +has been promoted from a privately maintained organization to a public +institution in which fourteen thousand residents of Philadelphia feel a +proprietary interest. It has become in fact, as well as in name, "our +orchestra." + + + +XXXIII. How Millions of People Are Reached + +The success of The Ladies' Home Journal went steadily forward. The +circulation had passed the previously unheard-of figure for a monthly +magazine of a million and a half copies per month; it had now touched a +million and three-quarters. + +And not only was the figure so high, but the circulation itself was +absolutely free from "water." The public could not obtain the magazine +through what are known as clubbing-rates, since no subscriber was +permitted to include any other magazine with it; years ago it had +abandoned the practice of offering premiums or consideration of any kind +to induce subscriptions; and the newsdealers were not allowed to return +unsold copies of the periodical. Hence every copy was either purchased +by the public at the full price at a newsstand, or subscribed for at its +stated subscription price. It was, in short, an authoritative +circulation. And on every hand the question was being asked: "How is it +done? How is such a high circulation obtained?" + +Bok's invariable answer was that he gave his readers the very best of +the class of reading that he believed would interest them, and that he +spared neither effort nor expense to obtain it for them. When Mr. +Howells once asked him how he classified his audience, Bok replied: "We +appeal to the intelligent American woman rather than to the intellectual +type." And he gave her the best he could obtain. As he knew her to be +fond of the personal type of literature, he gave her in succession Jane +Addams's story of "My Fifteen Years at Hull House," and the remarkable +narration of Helen Keller's "Story of My Life"; he invited Henry Van +Dyke, who had never been in the Holy Land, to go there, camp out in a +tent, and then write a series of sketches, "Out of Doors in the Holy +Land"; he induced Lyman Abbott to tell the story of "My Fifty Years as a +Minister." He asked Gene Stratton Porter to tell of her bird-experiences +in the series: "What I Have Done with Birds"; he persuaded Dean Hodges +to turn from his work of training young clergymen at the Episcopal +Seminary, at Cambridge, and write one of the most successful series of +Bible stories for children ever printed; and then he supplemented this +feature for children by publishing Rudyard Kipling's "Just So" stories +and his "Puck of Pook's Hill." He induced F. Hopkinson Smith to tell the +best stories he had ever heard in his wide travels in "The Man in the +Arm Chair"; he got Kate Douglas Wiggin to tell a country church +experience of hers in "The Old Peabody Pew"; and Jean Webster her +knowledge of almshouse life in "Daddy Long Legs." + +The readers of The Ladies' Home Journal realized that it searched the +whole field of endeavor in literature and art to secure what would +interest them, and they responded with their support. + +Another of Bok's methods in editing was to do the common thing in an +uncommon way. He had the faculty of putting old wine in new bottles and +the public liked it. His ideas were not new; he knew there were no new +ideas, but he presented his ideas in such a way that they seemed new. It +is a significant fact, too, that a large public will respond more +quickly to an idea than it will to a name. + +This The Ladies' Home Journal proved again and again. Its most +pronounced successes, from the point of view of circulation, were those +in which the idea was the sole and central appeal. For instance, when it +gave American women an opportunity to look into a hundred homes and see +how they were furnished, it added a hundred thousand copies to the +circulation. There was nothing new in publishing pictures of rooms and, +had it merely done this, it is questionable whether success would have +followed the effort. It was the way in which it was done. The note +struck entered into the feminine desire, reflected it, piqued curiosity, +and won success. + +Again, when The Journal decided to show good taste and bad taste in +furniture, in comparative pictures, another hundred thousand circulation +came to it. There was certainly nothing new in the comparative idea; but +applied to a question of taste, which could not be explained so clearly +in words, it seemed new. + +Had it simply presented masterpieces of art as such, the series might +have attracted little attention. But when it announced that these +masterpieces had always been kept in private galleries, and seen only by +the favored few; that the public had never been allowed to get any +closer to them than to read of the fabulous prices paid by their +millionaire owners; and that now the magazine would open the doors of +those exclusive galleries and let the public in--public curiosity was at +once piqued, and over one hundred and fifty thousand persons who had +never before bought the magazine were added to the list. + +In not one of these instances, nor in the case of other successful +series, did the appeal to the public depend upon the names of +contributors; there were none: it was the idea which the public liked +and to which it responded. + +The editorial Edward Bok enjoyed this hugely; the real Edward Bok did +not. The one was bottled up in the other. It was a case of absolute +self-effacement. The man behind the editor knew that if he followed his +own personal tastes and expressed them in his magazine, a limited +audience would be his instead of the enormous clientele that he was now +reaching. It was the man behind the editor who had sought expression in +the idea of Country Life, the magazine which his company sold to +Doubleday, Page & Company, and which he would personally have enjoyed +editing. + +It was in 1913 that the real Edward Bok, bottled up for twenty-five +years, again came to the surface. The majority stockholders of The +Century Magazine wanted to dispose of their interest in the periodical. +Overtures were made to The Curtis Publishing Company, but its hands were +full, and the matter was presented for Bok's personal consideration. The +idea interested him, as he saw in The Century a chance for his +self-expression. He entered into negotiations, looked carefully into the +property itself and over the field which such a magazine might fill, +decided to buy it, and install an active editor while he, as a close +adviser, served as the propelling power. + +Bok figured out that there was room for one of the trio of what was, and +still is, called the standard-sized magazines, namely Scribner's, +Harper's, and The Century. He believed, as he does to-day, that any one +of these magazines could be so edited as to preserve all its traditions +and yet be so ingrafted with the new progressive, modern spirit as to +dominate the field and constitute itself the leader in that particular +group. He believed that there was a field which would produce a +circulation in the neighborhood of a quarter of a million copies a month +for one of those magazines, so that it would be considered not, as now, +one of three, but the one. + +What Bok saw in the possibilities of the standard illustrated magazine +has been excellently carried out by Mr. Ellery Sedgwick in The Atlantic +Monthly; every tradition has been respected, and yet the new progressive +note introduced has given it a position and a circulation never before +attained by a non-illustrated magazine of the highest class. + +As Bok studied the field, his confidence in the proposition, as he saw +it, grew. For his own amusement, he made up some six issues of The +Century as he visualized it, and saw that the articles he had included +were all obtainable. He selected a business manager and publisher who +would relieve him of the manufacturing problems; but before the contract +was actually closed Bok, naturally, wanted to consult Mr. Curtis, who +was just returning from abroad, as to this proposed sharing of his +editor. + +For one man to edit two magazines inevitably meant a distribution of +effort, and this Mr. Curtis counselled against. He did not believe that +any man could successfully serve two masters; it would also mean a +division of public association; it might result in Bok's physical +undoing, as already he was overworked. Mr. Curtis's arguments, of +course, prevailed; the negotiations were immediately called off, and for +the second time--for some wise reason, undoubtedly--the real Edward Bok +was subdued. He went back into the bottle! + +A cardinal point in Edward Bok's code of editing was not to commit his +magazine to unwritten material, or to accept and print articles or +stories simply because they were the work of well-known persons. And as +his acquaintance with authors multiplied, he found that the greater the +man the more willing he was that his work should stand or fall on its +merit, and that the editor should retain his prerogative of +declination--if he deemed it wise to exercise it. + +Rudyard Kipling was, and is, a notable example of this broad and just +policy. His work is never imposed upon an editor; it is invariably +submitted, in its completed form, for acceptance or declination. "Wait +until it's done," said Kipling once to Bok as he outlined a story to him +which the editor liked, "and see whether you want it. You can't tell +until then." (What a difference from the type of author who insists that +an editor must take his or her story before a line is written!) + +"I told Watt to send you," he writes to Bok, "the first four of my child +stories (you see I hadn't forgotten my promise), and they may serve to +amuse you for a while personally, even if you don't use them for +publication. Frankly, I don't myself see how they can be used for the L. +H. J.; but they're part of a scheme of mine for trying to give children +not a notion of history, but a notion of the time sense which is at the +bottom of all knowledge of history; and history, rightly understood, +means the love of one's fellow-men and the land one lives in." + +James Whitcomb Riley was another who believed that an editor should have +the privilege of saying "No" if he so elected. When Riley was writing a +series of poems for Bok, the latter, not liking a poem which the Hoosier +poet sent him, returned it to him. He wondered how Riley would receive a +declination--naturally a rare experience. But his immediate answer +settled the question: + +"Thanks equally for your treatment of both poems, [he wrote], the one +accepted and the other returned. Maintain your own opinions and respect, +and my vigorous esteem for you shall remain 'deep-rooted in the fruitful +soil.' No occasion for apology whatever. In my opinion, you are wrong; +in your opinion, you are right; therefore, you are right,--at least +righter than wronger. It is seldom that I drop other work for logic, but +when I do, as my grandfather was wont to sturdily remark, 'it is to some +purpose, I can promise you.' + +"Am goin' to try mighty hard to send you the dialect work you've so long +wanted; in few weeks at furthest. 'Patience and shuffle the cards.' + +"I am really, just now, stark and bare of one commonsence idea. In the +writing line, I was never so involved before and see no end to the +ink-(an humorous voluntary provocative, I trust of much +merriment)-creasing pressure of it all. + +"Even the hope of waking to find myself famous is denied me, since I +haven't time in which to fall asleep. Therefore, very drowsily and +yawningly indeed, I am your + +"James Whitcomb Riley." + +Neither did the President of the United States consider himself above a +possible declination of his material if it seemed advisable to the +editor. In 1916 Woodrow Wilson wrote to Bok: + +"Sometime ago you kindly intimated to me that you would like to publish +an article from me. At first, it seemed impossible for me to undertake +anything of the kind, but I have found a little interval in which I have +written something on Mexico which I hope you will think worthy of +publication. If not, will you return it to me?" + +The President, too, acted as an intermediary in turning authors in Bok's +direction, when the way opened. In a letter written not on the official +White House letterhead, but on his personal "up-stairs" stationery, as +it is called, he asks: + +"Will you do me the favor of reading the enclosed to see if it is worthy +of your acceptance for the Journal, or whether you think it indicates +that the writer, with a few directions and suggestions, might be useful +to you? + +"It was written by --. She is a woman of great refinement, of a very +unusually broad social experience, and of many exceptional gifts, who +thoroughly knows what she is writing about, whether she has yet +discovered the best way to set it forth or not. She is one of the most +gifted and resourceful hostesses I have known, but has now fallen upon +hard times. + +"Among other things that she really knows, she really does thoroughly +know old furniture and all kinds of china worth knowing. + +"Pardon me if I have been guilty of an indiscretion in sending this +direct to you. I am throwing myself upon your indulgence in my desire to +help a splendid woman. + +"She has a great collection of recipes which housekeepers would like to +have. Does a serial cook-book sound like nonsense?" + +A further point in his editing which Bok always kept in view was his +rule that the editor must always be given the privilege of revising or +editing a manuscript. Bok's invariable rule was, of course, to submit +his editing for approval, but here again the bigger the personality back +of the material, the more willing the author was to have his manuscript +"blue pencilled," if he were convinced that the deletions or +condensations improved or at least did not detract from his arguments. +It was the small author who ever resented the touch of the editorial +pencil upon his precious effusions. + +As a matter of fact there are few authors who cannot be edited with +advantage, and it would be infinitely better for our reading if this +truth was applied to some of the literature of to-day. + +Bok had once under his hand a story by Mark Twain, which he believed +contained passages that should be deleted. They represented a goodly +portion of the manuscript. They were, however, taken out, and the result +submitted to the humorist. The answer was curious. Twain evidently saw +that Bok was right, for he wrote: "Of course, I want every single line +and word of it left out," and then added: "Do me the favor to call the +next time you are again in Hartford. I want to say things which--well, I +want to argue with you." Bok never knew what those "things" were, for at +the next meeting they were not referred to. + +It is, perhaps, a curious coincidence that all the Presidents of the +United States whose work Bok had occasion to publish were uniformly +liberal with regard to having their material edited. + +Colonel Roosevelt was always ready to concede improvement: "Fine," he +wrote; "the changes are much for the better. I never object to my work +being improved, where it needs it, so long as the sense is not altered." + +William Howard Taft wrote, after being subjected to editorial revision: +"You have done very well by my article. You have made it much more +readable by your rearrangement." + +Mr. Cleveland was very likely to let his interest in a subject run +counter to the space exigencies of journalism; and Bok, in one instance, +had to reduce one of his articles considerably. He explained the reason +and enclosed the revision. + +"I am entirely willing to have the article cut down as you suggest," +wrote the former President. "I find sufficient reason for this in the +fact that the matter you suggest for elimination has been largely +exploited lately. And in looking the matter over carefully, I am +inclined to think that the article expurgated as you suggest will gain +in unity and directness. At first, I feared it would appear a little +'bobbed' off, but you are a much better judge of that than I. ... I +leave it altogether to you." + +It was always interesting to Bok, as a study of mental processes, to +note how differently he and some author with whom he would talk it over +would see the method of treating some theme. He was discussing the +growing unrest among American women with Rudyard Kipling at the latter's +English home; and expressed the desire that the novelist should treat +the subject and its causes. + +They talked until the early hours, when it was agreed that each should +write out a plan, suggest the best treatment, and come together the next +morning. When they did so, Kipling had mapped out the scenario of a +novel; Bok had sketched out the headings of a series of analytical +articles. Neither one could see the other's viewpoint, Kipling +contending for the greater power of fiction and Bok strongly arguing for +the value of the direct essay. In this instance, the point was never +settled, for the work failed to materialize in any form! + +If the readers of The Ladies' Home Journal were quick to support its +editor when he presented an idea that appealed to them, they were +equally quick to tell him when he gave them something of which they did +not approve. An illustration of this occurred during the dance-craze +that preceded the Great War. In 1914, America was dance-mad, and the +character of the dances rapidly grew more and more offensive. Bok's +readers, by the hundreds, urged him to come out against the tendency. + +The editor looked around and found that the country's terpsichorean +idols were Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Castle; he decided that, with their +cooperation, he might, by thus going to the fountainhead, effect an +improvement through the introduction, by the Castles, of better and more +decorous new dances. Bok could see no reason why the people should not +dance, if they wanted to, so long as they kept within the bounds of +decency. + +He found the Castles willing and eager to cooperate, not only because of +the publicity it would mean for them, but because they were themselves +not in favor of the new mode. They had little sympathy for the +elimination of the graceful dance by the introduction of what they +called the "shuffle" or the "bunny-hug," "turkey-trot," and other +ungraceful and unworthy dances. It was decided that the Castles should, +through Bok's magazine and their own public exhibitions, revive the +gavotte, the polka, and finally the waltz. They would evolve these into +new forms and Bok would present them pictorially. A series of three +double-page presentations was decided upon, allowing for large +photographs so that the steps could be easily seen and learned from the +printed page. + +The magazine containing the first "lesson" was no sooner published than +protests began to come in by the hundreds. Bok had not stated his +object, and the public misconstrued his effort and purpose into an +acknowledgment that he had fallen a victim to the prevailing craze. He +explained in letters, but to no purpose. Try as he might, Bok could not +rid the pages of the savor of the cabaret. He published the three dances +as agreed, but he realized he had made a mistake, and was as much +disgusted as were his readers. Nor did he, in the slightest degree, +improve the dance situation. The public refused to try the new Castle +dances, and kept on turkey-trotting and bunny-hugging. + +The Ladies' Home Journal followed the Castle lessons with a series of +the most beautiful dances of Madam Pavlowa, the Russian dancer, hoping +to remove the unfavorable impression of the former series. But it was +only partially successful. Bok had made a mistake in recognizing the +craze at all; he should have ignored it, as he had so often in the past +ignored other temporary, superficial hysterics of the public. The +Journal readers knew the magazine had made a mistake and frankly said +so. + +Which shows that, even after having been for over twenty-five years in +the editorial chair, Edward Bok was by no means infallible in his +judgment of what the public wanted or would accept. + +No man is, for that matter. + + + +XXXIV. A War Magazine and War Activities + +When, early in 1917, events began so to shape themselves as directly to +point to the entrance of the United States into the Great War, Edward +Bok set himself to formulate a policy for The Ladies' Home Journal. He +knew that he was in an almost insurmountably difficult position. The +huge edition necessitated going to press fully six weeks in advance of +publication, and the preparation of material fully four weeks previous +to that. He could not, therefore, get much closer than ten weeks to the +date when his readers received the magazine. And he knew that events, in +war time, had a way of moving rapidly. + +Late in January he went to Washington, consulted those authorities who +could indicate possibilities to him better than any one else, and found, +as he had suspected, that the entry of the United States into the war +was a practical certainty; it was only a question of time. + +Bok went South for a month's holiday to get ready for the fray, and in +the saddle and on the golf links he formulated a policy. The newspapers +and weeklies would send innumerable correspondents to the front, and +obviously, with the necessity for going to press so far in advance, The +Journal could not compete with them. They would depict every activity in +the field. There was but one logical thing for him to do: ignore the +"front" entirely, refuse all the offers of correspondents, men and +women, who wanted to go with the armies for his magazine, and cover +fully and practically the results of the war as they would affect the +women left behind. He went carefully over the ground to see what these +would be, along what particular lines women's activities would be most +likely to go, and then went home and back to Washington. + +It was now March. He conferred with the President, had his fears +confirmed, and offered all the resources of his magazine to the +government. His diagnosis of the situation was verified in every detail +by the authorities whom he consulted. The Ladies' Home Journal could +best serve by keeping up the morale at home and by helping to meet the +problems that would confront the women; as the President said: "Give +help in the second line of defense." + +A year before, Bok had opened a separate editorial office in Washington +and had secured Dudley Harmon, the Washington correspondent for The New +York Sun, as his editor-in-charge. The purpose was to bring the women of +the country into a clearer understanding of their government and a +closer relation with it. This work had been so successful as to +necessitate a force of four offices and twenty stenographers. Bok now +placed this Washington office on a war-basis, bringing it into close +relation with every department of the government that would be connected +with the war activities. By this means, he had an editor and an +organized force on the spot, devoting full time to the preparation of +war material, with Mr. Harmon in daily conference with the department +chiefs to secure the newest developments. + +Bok learned that the country's first act would be to recruit for the +navy, so as to get this branch of the service into a state of +preparedness. He therefore secured Franklin D. Roosevelt, assistant +secretary of the navy, to write an article explaining to mothers why +they should let their boys volunteer for the Navy and what it would mean +to them. + +He made arrangements at the American Red Cross Headquarters for an +official department to begin at once in the magazine, telling women the +first steps that would be taken by the Red Cross and how they could +help. He secured former President William Howard Taft, as chairman of +the Central Committee of the Red Cross, for the editor of this +department. + +He cabled to Viscount Northcliffe and Ian Hay for articles showing what +the English women had done at the outbreak of the war, the mistakes they +had made, what errors the American women should avoid, the right lines +along which English women had worked and how their American sisters +could adapt these methods to transatlantic conditions. + +And so it happened that when the first war issue of The Journal appeared +on April 20th, only three weeks after the President's declaration, it +was the only monthly that recognized the existence of war, and its pages +had already begun to indicate practical lines along which women could +help. + +The President planned to bring the Y. M. C. A. into the service by +making it a war-work body, and Bok immediately made arrangements for a +page to appear each month under the editorship of John R. Mott, general +secretary of the International Y. M. C. A. Committee. + +The editor had been told that the question of food would come to be of +paramount importance; he knew that Herbert Hoover had been asked to +return to America as soon as he could close his work abroad, and he +cabled over to his English representative to arrange that the proposed +Food Administrator should know, at first hand, of the magazine and its +possibilities for the furtherance of the proposed Food Administration +work. + +The Food Administration was no sooner organized than Bok made +arrangements for an authoritative department to be conducted in his +magazine, reflecting the plans and desires of the Food Administration, +and Herbert Hoover's first public declaration as food administrator to +the women of America was published in The Ladies' Home Journal. Bok now +placed all the resources of his four-color press-work at Mr. Hoover's +disposal; and the Food Administration's domestic experts, in conjunction +with the full culinary staff of the magazine, prepared the new war +dishes and presented them appetizingly in full colors under the personal +endorsement of Mr. Hoover and the Food Administration. From six to +sixteen articles per month were now coming from Mr. Hoover's department +alone. + +The Department of Agriculture was laid under contribution by the +magazine for the best ideas for the raising of food from the soil in the +creation of war-gardens. + +Doctor Anna Howard Shaw had been appointed chairman of the National +Committee of the Women's Council of National Defence, and Bok arranged +at once with her that she should edit a department page in his magazine, +setting forth the plans of the committee and how the women of America +could co-operate therewith. + +The magazine had thus practically become the semiofficial mouthpiece of +all the various government war bureaus and war-work bodies. James A. +Flaherty, supreme knight of the Knights of Columbus, explained the +proposed work of that body; Commander Evangeline Booth presented the +plans of the Salvation Army, and Mrs. Robert E. Speer, president of the +National Board of the Young Women's Christian Association, reflected the +activities of her organization; while the President's daughter, Miss +Margaret Wilson, discussed her work for the opening of all schoolhouses +as community war-centres. + +The magazine reflected in full-color pictures the life and activities of +the boys in the American camps, and William C. Gorgas, surgeon-general +of the United States, was the spokesman in the magazine for the health +of the boys. + +Secretary of the Treasury McAdoo interpreted the first Liberty Loan +"drive" to the women; the President of the United States, in a special +message to women, wrote in behalf of the subsequent Loan; Bernard +Baruch, as chairman of the War Industries Board, made clear the need for +war-time thrift; the recalled ambassador to Germany, James W. Gerard, +told of the ingenious plans resorted to by German women which American +women could profitably copy; and Elizabeth, Queen of the Belgians, +explained the plight of the babies and children of Belgium, and made a +plea to the women of the magazine to help. So straight to the point did +the Queen write, and so well did she present her case that within six +months there had been sent to her, through The Ladies' Home Journal, two +hundred and forty-eight thousand cans of condensed milk, seventy-two +thousand cans of pork and beans, five thousand cans of infants' prepared +food, eighty thousand cans of beef soup, and nearly four thousand +bushels of wheat, purchased with the money donated by the magazine +readers. + +On the coming of the coal question, the magazine immediately reflected +the findings and recommendations of the Fuel Administration, and Doctor +H. A. Garfield, as fuel administrator, placed the material of his Bureau +at the disposal of the magazine's Washington editor. + +The Committee on Public Information now sought the magazine for the +issuance of a series of official announcements explanatory of matters to +women. + +When the "meatless" and the "wheatless" days were inaugurated, the women +of America found that the magazine had anticipated their coming; and the +issue appearing on the first of these days, as publicly announced by the +Food Administration, presented pages of substitutes in full colors. + +Of course, miscellaneous articles on the war there were, without number. +Before the war was ended, the magazine did send a representative to the +front in Catherine Van Dyke, who did most effective work for the +magazine in articles of a general nature. The fullpage battle pictures, +painted from data furnished by those who took actual part, were +universally commended and exhausted even the largest editions that could +be printed. A source of continual astonishment was the number of copies +of the magazine found among the boys in France; it became the third in +the official War Department list of the most desired American +periodicals, evidently representing a tie between the boys and their +home folks. But all these "war" features, while appreciated and +desirable, were, after all, but a side-issue to the more practical +economic work of the magazine. It was in this service that the magazine +excelled, it was for this reason that the women at home so eagerly +bought it, and that it was impossible to supply each month the editions +called for by the extraordinary demand. + +Considering the difficulties to be surmounted, due to the advance +preparation of material, and considering that, at the best, most of its +advance information, even by the highest authorities, could only be in +the nature of surmise, the comprehensive manner in which The Ladies' +Home Journal covered every activity of women during the Great War, will +always remain one of the magazine's most noteworthy achievements. This +can be said without reserve here, since the credit is due to no single +person; it was the combined, careful work of its entire staff, weighing +every step before it was taken, looking as clearly into the future as +circumstances made possible, and always seeking the most authoritative +sources of information. + +Bok merely directed. Each month, before his magazine went to press, he +sought counsel and vision from at least one of three of the highest +sources; and upon this guidance, as authoritative as anything could be +in times of war when no human vision can actually foretell what the next +day will bring forth, he acted. The result, as one now looks back upon +it, was truly amazing; an uncanny timeliness would often color material +on publication day. Of course, much of this was due to the close +government co-operation, so generously and painstakingly given. + +With the establishment of the various war boards in Washington, Bok +received overtures to associate himself exclusively with them and move +to the capital. He sought the best advice and with his own instincts +pointing in the same way, he decided that he could give his fullest +service by retaining his editorial position and adding to that such +activities as his leisure allowed. He undertook several private +commissions for the United States Government, and then he was elected +vice-president of the Philadelphia Belgian Relief Commission. + +With the Belgian consul-general for the United States, Mr. Paul +Hagemans, as the president of the Commission, and guided by his intimate +knowledge of the Belgian people, Bok selected a committee of the ablest +buyers and merchants in the special lines of foods which he would have +to handle. The Commission raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, with +which it purchased foods and chartered ships. The quantities of food ran +into prodigious figures; Bok felt that he was feeding the world; and yet +when the holds of the ships began to take in the thousands of crates of +canned goods, the bags of peas and beans, and the endless tins of +condensed milk, it was amazing how the piled-up boxes melted from the +piers and the ship-holds yawned for more. Flour was sent in seemingly +endless hundreds of barrels. + +Each line of goods was bought by a specialist on the Committee at the +lowest quantity prices; and the result was that the succession of ships +leaving the port of Philadelphia was a credit to the generosity of the +people of the city and the commonwealth. The Commission delegated one of +its members to go to Belgium and personally see that the food actually +reached the needy Belgian people. + +In September, 1917, word was received from John R. Mott that Bok had +been appointed State chairman for the Y. M. C. A. War Work Council for +Pennsylvania; that a country-wide campaign for twenty-five million +dollars would be launched six weeks hence, and that Pennsylvania's quota +was three millions of dollars. He was to set up an organization +throughout the State, conduct the drive from Philadelphia, speak at +various centres in Pennsylvania, and secure the allocated quota. Bok +knew little or nothing about the work of the Y. M. C. A.; he accordingly +went to New York headquarters and familiarized himself with the work +being done and proposed; and then began to set up his State machinery. +The drive came off as scheduled, Pennsylvania doubled its quota, +subscribing six instead of three millions of dollars, and of this was +collected five million eight hundred and twenty-nine thousand +dollars--almost one hundred per cent. + +Bok, who was now put on the National War Work Council of the Y. M. C. A. +at New York, was asked to take part in the creation of the machinery +necessary for the gigantic piece of work that the organization had been +called upon by the President of the United States to do. It was a +herculean task; practically impossible with any large degree of +efficiency in view of the almost insurmountable obstacles to be +contended with. But step by step the imperfect machinery was set up, and +it began to function in the home camps. Then the overseas work was +introduced by the first troops going to France, and the difficulties +increased a hundredfold. + +But Bok's knowledge of the workings of the government departments at +Washington, the war boards, and the other war-work organizations soon +convinced him that the Y. M. C. A. was not the only body, asked to set +up an organization almost overnight, that was staggering under its load +and falling down as often as it was functioning. + +The need for Y. M. C. A. secretaries overseas and in the camps soon +became acute, and Bok was appointed chairman of the Philadelphia +Recruiting Committee. As in the case of his Belgian relief work, he at +once surrounded himself with an able committee: this time composed of +business and professional men trained in a knowledge of human nature in +the large, and of wide acquaintance in the city. Simultaneously, Bok +secured the release of one of the ablest men in the Y. M. C. A. service +in New York, Edward S. Wilkinson, who became the permanent secretary of +the Philadelphia Committee. Bok organized a separate committee composed +of automobile manufacturers to recruit for chauffeurs and mechanicians; +another separate committee recruited for physical directors, and later a +third committee recruited for women. + +The work was difficult because the field of selection was limited. No +men between the military ages could be recruited; the War Boards at +Washington had drawn heavily upon the best men of the city; the +slightest physical defect barred out a man, on account of the exposure +and strain of the Y. M. C. A. work; the residue was not large. + +It was scarcely to be wondered at that so many incompetent secretaries +had been passed and sent over to France. How could it have been +otherwise with the restricted selection? But the Philadelphia Committee +was determined, nevertheless, that its men should be of the best, and it +decided that to get a hundred men of unquestioned ability would be to do +a greater job than to send over two hundred men of indifferent quality. +The Committee felt that enough good men were still in Philadelphia and +the vicinity, if they could be pried loose from their business and home +anchorages, and that it was rather a question of incessant work than an +impossible task. + +Bok took large advertising spaces in the Philadelphia newspapers, asking +for men of exceptional character to go to France in the service of the +Y. M. C. A.; and members of the Committee spoke before the different +commercial bodies at their noon luncheons. The applicants now began to +come, and the Committee began its discriminating selection. Each +applicant was carefully questioned by the secretary before he appeared +before the Committee, which held sittings twice a week. Hence of over +twenty-five hundred applicants, only three hundred appeared before the +Committee, of whom two hundred and fifty-eight were passed and sent +overseas. + +The Committee's work was exceptionally successful; it soon proved of so +excellent a quality as to elicit a cabled request from Paris +headquarters to send more men of the Philadelphia type. The secret of +this lay in the sterling personnel of the Committee itself, and its +interpretation of the standards required; and so well did it work that +when Bok left for the front to be absent from Philadelphia for ten +weeks, his Committee, with Thomas W. Hulme, of the Pennsylvania +Railroad, acting as Chairman, did some of its best work. + +The after-results, according to the report of the New York headquarters, +showed that no Y. M. C. A. recruiting committee had equalled the work of +the Philadelphia committee in that its men, in point of service, had +proved one hundred per cent secretaries. With two exceptions, the entire +two hundred and fifty-eight men passed, brought back one hundred per +cent records, some of them having been placed in the most important +posts abroad and having given the most difficult service. The work of +the other Philadelphia committees, particularly that of the Women's +Committee, was equally good. + +To do away with the multiplicity of "drives," rapidly becoming a drain +upon the efforts of the men engaged in them, a War Chest Committee was +now formed in Philadelphia and vicinity to collect money for all the +war-work agencies. Bok was made a member of the Executive Committee, and +chairman of the Publicity Committee. In May, 1918, a campaign for twenty +millions of dollars was started; the amount was subscribed, and although +much of it had to be collected after the armistice, since the +subscriptions were in twelve monthly payments, a total of fifteen and a +half million dollars was paid in and turned over to the different +agencies. + +Bok, who had been appointed one of the Boy Scout commissioners in his +home district of Merion, saw the possibilities of the Boy Scouts in the +Liberty Loan and other campaigns. Working in co-operation with the other +commissioners, and the scoutmaster of the Merion Troop, Bok supported +the boys in their work in each campaign as it came along. Although there +were in the troop only nine boys, in ages ranging from twelve to +fourteen years--Bok's younger son was one of them--so effectively did +these youngsters work under the inspiration of the scoutmaster, Thomas +Dun Belfield, that they soon attracted general attention and acquired +distinction as one of the most efficient troops in the vicinity of +Philadelphia. They won nearly all the prizes offered in their vicinity, +and elicited the special approval of the Secretary of the Treasury. + +Although only "gleaners" in most of the campaigns--that is, working only +in the last three days after the regular committees had scoured the +neighborhood--these Merion Boy Scouts sold over one million four hundred +thousand dollars in Liberty Bonds, and raised enough money in the Y. M. +C. A. campaign to erect one of the largest huts in France for the army +boys, and a Y. M. C. A. gymnasium at the League Island Navy Yard +accommodating two thousand sailor-boys. + +In the summer of 1918, the eight leading war-work agencies, excepting +the Red Cross, were merged, for the purpose of one drive for funds, into +the United War Work Campaign, and Bok was made chairman for +Pennsylvania. In November a country-wide campaign was launched, the +quota for Pennsylvania being twenty millions of dollars--the largest +amount ever asked of the commonwealth. Bok organized a committee of the +representative men of Pennsylvania, and proceeded to set up the +machinery to secure the huge sum. He had no sooner done this, however, +than he had to sail for France, returning only a month before the +beginning of the campaign. + +But the efficient committee had done its work; upon his return Bok found +the organization complete. On the first day of the campaign, the false +rumor that an armistice had been signed made the raising of the large +amount seem almost hopeless; furthermore, owing to the influenza raging +throughout the commonwealth, no public meetings had been permitted or +held. Still, despite all these obstacles, not only was the twenty +millions subscribed but oversubscribed to the extent of nearly a million +dollars; and in face of the fact that every penny of this large total +had to be collected after the signing of the armistice, twenty millions +of dollars was paid in and turned over to the war agencies. + +It is indeed a question whether any single war act on the part of the +people of Pennsylvania redounds so highly to their credit as this +marvellous evidence of patriotic generosity. It was one form of +patriotism to subscribe so huge a sum while the war was on and the guns +were firing; it was quite another and a higher patriotism to subscribe +and pay such a sum after the war was over! + +Bok's position as State chairman of the United War Work Campaign made it +necessary for him to follow authoritatively and closely the work of each +of the eight different organizations represented in the fund. Because he +felt he had to know what the Knights of Columbus, the Salvation Army, +the Y. W. C. A., and the others were doing with the money he had been +instrumental in collecting, and for which he felt, as chairman, +responsible to the people of Pennsylvania, he learned to know their work +just as thoroughly as he knew what the Y. M. C. A. was doing. + +He had now seen and come into personal knowledge of the work of the Y. +M. C. A. from his Philadelphia point of vantage, with his official +connection with it at New York headquarters; he had seen the work as it +was done in the London and Paris headquarters; and he had seen the +actual work in the American camps, the English rest-camps, back of the +French lines, in the trenches, and as near the firing-line as he had +been permitted to go. + +He had, in short, seen the Y. M. C. A. function from every angle, but he +had also seen the work of the other organizations in England and France, +back of the lines and in the trenches. He found them all +faulty--necessarily so. Each had endeavored to create an organization +within an incredibly short space of time and in the face of adverse +circumstances. Bok saw at once that the charge that the Y. M. C. A. was +"falling down" in its work was as false as that the Salvation Army was +doing "a marvellous work" and that the K. of C. was "efficient where +others were incompetent," and that the Y. W. C. A. was "nowhere to be +seen." + +The Salvation Army was unquestionably doing an excellent piece of work +within a most limited area; it could not be on a wider scale, when one +considered the limited personnel it had at its command. The work of the +K. of C. was not a particle more or less efficient than the work of the +other organizations. What it did, it strove to do well, but so did the +others. The Y. W. C. A. made little claim about its work in France, +since the United States Government would not, until nearly at the close +of the war, allow women to be sent over in the uniforms of any of the +war-work organizations. But no one can gainsay for a single moment the +efficient service rendered by the Y. W. C. A. in its hostess-house work +in the American camps; that work alone would have entitled it to the +support of the American people. That of the Y. M. C. A. was on so large +a scale that naturally its inefficiency was often in proportion to its +magnitude. + +Bok was in France when the storm of criticism against the Y. M. C. A. +broke out, and, as State chairman for Pennsylvania, it was his duty to +meet the outcry when it came over to the United States. That the work of +the Y. M. C. A. was faulty no one can deny. Bok saw the "holes" long +before they were called to the attention of the public, but he also saw +the almost impossible task, in face of prevailing difficulties, of +caulking them up. No one who was not in France can form any conception +of the practically insurmountable obstacles against which all the +war-work organizations worked; and the larger the work the greater were +the obstacles, naturally. That the Y. M. C. A. and the other similar +agencies made mistakes is not the wonder so much as that they did not +make more. The real marvel is that they did so much efficient work. For +after we get a little farther away from the details and see the work of +these agencies in its broader aspects, when we forget the lapses--which, +after all, though irritating and regrettable, were not major--the record +as a whole will stand as a most signal piece of volunteer service. + +What was actually accomplished was nothing short of marvellous; and it +is this fact that must be borne in mind; not the omissions, but the +commissions. And when the American public gets that point of view--as it +will, and, for that matter, is already beginning to do--the work of the +American Y. M. C. A. will no longer suffer for its omissions, but will +amaze and gladden by its accomplishments. As an American officer of high +rank said to Bok at Chaumont headquarters: "The mind cannot take in what +the war would have been without the 'Y.'" And that, in time, will be the +universal American opinion, extended, in proportion to their work, to +all the war-work agencies and the men and women who endured, suffered, +and were killed in their service. + + + +XXXV. At the Battle-Fronts in the Great War + +It was in the summer of 1918 that Edward Bok received from the British +Government, through its department of public information, of which Lord +Beaverbrook was the minister, an invitation to join a party of thirteen +American editors to visit Great Britain and France. The British +Government, not versed in publicity methods, was anxious that selected +parties of American publicists should see, personally, what Great +Britain had done, and was doing in the war; and it had decided to ask a +few individuals to pay personal visits to its munition factories, its +great aerodromes, its Great Fleet, which then lay in the Firth of Forth, +and to the battle-fields. It was understood that no specific obligation +rested upon any member of the party to write of what he saw: he was +asked simply to observe and then, with discretion, use his observations +for his own guidance and information in future writing. In fact, each +member was explicitly told that much of what he would see could not be +revealed either personally or in print. + +The party embarked in August amid all the attendant secrecy of war +conditions. The steamer was known only by a number, although later it +turned out to be the White Star liner, Adriatic. Preceded by a powerful +United States cruiser, flanked by destroyers, guided overhead by +observation balloons, the Adriatic was found to be the first ship in a +convoy of sixteen other ships with thirty thousand United States troops +on board. + +It was a veritable Armada that steamed out of lower New York harbor on +that early August morning, headed straight into the rising sun. But it +was a voyage of unpleasant war reminders, with life-savers carried every +moment of the day, with every light out at night, with every window and +door as if hermetically sealed so that the stuffy cabins deprived of +sleep those accustomed to fresh air, with over sixty army men and +civilians on watch at night, with life-drills each day, with lessons as +to behavior in life-boats; and with a fleet of eighteen British +destroyers meeting the convoy upon its approach to the Irish Coast after +a thirteen days' voyage of constant anxiety. No one could say he +travelled across the Atlantic Ocean in war days for pleasure, and no one +did. + +Once ashore, the party began a series of inspections of munition plants, +ship-yards, aeroplane factories and of meetings with the different +members of the English War Cabinet. Luncheons and dinners were the order +of each day until broken by a journey to Edinburgh to see the amazing +Great Fleet, with the addition of six of the foremost fighting machines +of the United States Navy, all straining like dogs at leash, awaiting an +expected dash from the bottled-up German fleet. It was a formidable +sight, perhaps never equalled: those lines of huge, menacing, and yet +protecting fighting machines stretching down the river for miles, all +conveying the single thought of the power and extent of the British Navy +and its formidable character as a fighting unit. + +It was upon his return to London that Bok learned, through the +confidence of a member of the British "inner circle," the amazing news +that the war was practically over: that Bulgaria had capitulated and was +suing for peace; that two of the Central Power provinces had indicated +their strong desire that the war should end; and that the first peace +intimations had gone to the President of the United States. All +diplomatic eyes were turned toward Washington. Yet not a hint of the +impending events had reached the public. The Germans were being beaten +back, that was known; it was evident that the morale of the German army +was broken; that Foch had turned the tide toward victory; but even the +best-informed military authorities outside of the inner diplomatic +circles, predicted that the war would last until the spring of 1919, +when a final "drive" would end it. Yet, at that very moment, the end of +the war was in sight! + +Next Bok went to France to visit the battle-fields. It was arranged that +the party should first, under guidance of British officers, visit back +of the British lines; and then, successively, be turned over to the +American and French Governments, and visit the operations back of their +armies. + +It is an amusing fact that although each detail of officers delegated to +escort the party "to the front" received the most explicit instructions +from their superior officers to take the party only to the quiet sectors +where there was no fighting going on, each detail from the three +governments successively brought the party directly under shell-fire, +and each on the first day of the "inspection." It was unconsciously +done: the officers were as much amazed to find themselves under fire as +were the members of the party, except that the latter did not feel the +responsibility to an equal degree. The officers, in each case, were +plainly worried: the editors were intensely interested. + +They were depressing trips through miles and miles of devastated +villages and small cities. From two to three days each were spent in +front-line posts on the Amiens-Bethune, Albert-Peronne, +Bapaume-Soissons, St. Mihiel, and back of the Argonne sectors. Often, +the party was the first civilian group to enter a town evacuated only a +week before, and all the horrible evidence of bloody warfare was fresh +and plain. Bodies of German soldiers lay in the trenches where they had +fallen; wired bombs were on every hand, so that no object could be +touched that lay on the battle-fields; the streets of some of the towns +were still mined, so that no automobiles could enter; the towns were +deserted, the streets desolate. It was an appalling panorama of the most +frightful results of war. + +The picturesqueness and romance of the war of picture books were +missing. To stand beside an English battery of thirty guns laying a +barrage as they fired their shells to a point ten miles distant, made +one feel as if one were an actual part of real warfare, and yet far +removed from it, until the battery was located from the enemy's "sausage +observation"; then the shells from the enemy fired a return salvo, and +the better part of valor was discretion a few miles farther back. + +The amazing part of the "show," however, was the American doughboy. +Never was there a more cheerful, laughing, good-natured set of boys in +the world; never a more homesick, lonely, and complaining set. But good +nature predominated, and the smile was always uppermost, even when the +moment looked the blackest, the privations were worst, and the longing +for home the deepest. + +Bok had been talking to a boy who lived near his own home, who was on +his way to the front and "over the top" in the Argonne mess. Three days +afterward, at a hospital base where a hospital train was just +discharging its load of wounded, Bok walked among the boys as they lay +on their stretchers on the railroad platform waiting for bearers to +carry them into the huts. As he approached one stretcher, a cheery voice +called, "Hello, Mr. Bok. Here I am again." + +It was the boy he had left just seventy-two hours before hearty and +well. + +"Well, my boy, you weren't in it long, were you?" + +"No, sir," answered the boy; "Fritzie sure got me first thing. Hadn't +gone a hundred yards over the top. Got a cigarette?" (the invariable +question). + +Bok handed a cigarette to the boy, who then said: "Mind sticking it in +my mouth?" Bok did so and then offered him a light; the boy continued, +all with his wonderful smile: "If you don't mind, would you just light +it? You see, Fritzie kept both of my hooks as souvenirs." + +With both arms amputated, the boy could still jest and smile! + +It was the same boy who on his hospital cot the next day said: "Don't +you think you could do something for the chap next to me, there on my +left? He's really suffering: cried like hell all last night. It would be +a Godsend if you could get Doc to do something." + +A promise was given that the surgeon should be seen at once, but the boy +was asked: "How about you?" + +"Oh," came the cheerful answer, "I'm all right. I haven't anything to +hurt. My wounded members are gone--just plain gone. But that chap has +got something--he got the real thing!" + +What was the real thing according to such a boy's idea? + +There were beautiful stories that one heard "over there." One of the +most beautiful acts of consideration was told, later, of a lovable boy +whose throat had been practically shot away. During his convalescence he +had learned the art of making beaded bags. It kept him from talking, the +main prescription. But one day he sold the bag which he had first made +to a visitor, and with his face radiant with glee he sought the +nurse-mother to tell her all about his good fortune. Of course, nothing +but a series of the most horrible guttural sounds came from the boy: not +a word could be understood. It was his first venture into the world with +the loss of his member, and the nurse-mother could not find it in her +heart to tell the boy that not a word which he spoke was understandable. +With eyes full of tears she placed both of her hands on the boy's +shoulders and said to him: "I am so sorry, my boy. I cannot understand a +word you say to me. You evidently do not know that I am totally deaf. +Won't you write what you want to tell me?" + +A look of deepest compassion swept the face of the boy. To think that +one could be so afflicted, and yet so beautifully tender and always so +radiantly cheerful, he wrote her. + +Pathos and humor followed rapidly one upon the other "at the front" in +those gruesome days, and Bok was to have his spirits lightened somewhat +by an incident of the next day. He found himself in one of the numerous +little towns where our doughboys were billeted, some in the homes of the +peasants, others in stables, barns, outhouses, lean-tos, and what not. +These were the troops on their way to the front where the fighting in +the Argonne Forest was at that time going on. As Bok was walking with an +American officer, the latter pointed to a doughboy crossing the road, +followed by as disreputable a specimen of a pig as he had ever seen. +Catching Bok's smile, the officer said: "That's Pinney and his porker. +Where you see the one you see the other." + +Bok caught up with the boy, and said: "Found a friend, I see, Buddy?" + +"I sure have," grinned the doughboy, "and it sticks closer than a poor +relation, too." + +"Where did you pick it up?" + +"Oh, in there," said the soldier, pointing to a dilapidated barn. + +"Why in there?" + +"My home," grinned the boy. + +"Let me see," said Bok, and the doughboy took him in with the pig +following close behind. "Billeted here--been here six days. The pig was +here when we came, and the first night I lay down and slept, it came up +to me and stuck its snout in my face and woke me up. Kind enough, all +right, but not very comfortable: it stinks so." + +"Yes; it certainly does. What did you do?" + +"Oh, I got some grub I had and gave it to eat: thought it might be +hungry, you know. I guess that sort of settled it, for the next night it +came again and stuck its snout right in my mug. I turned around, but it +just climbed over me and there it was." + +"Well, what did you do then? Chase it out?" + +"Chase it out?" said the doughboy, looking into Bok's face with the most +unaffected astonishment. "Why, mister, that's a mother-pig, that is. +She's going to have young ones in a few days. How could I chase her +out?" + +"You're quite right, Buddy," said Bok. "You couldn't do that." + +"Oh, no," said the boy. "The worst of it is, what am I going to do with +her when we move up within a day or two? I can't take her along to the +front, and I hate to leave her here. Some one might treat her rough." + +"Captain," said Bok, hailing the officer, "you can attend to that, can't +you, when the time comes?" + +"I sure can, and I sure will," answered the Captain. And with a quick +salute, Pinney and his porker went off across the road! + +Bok was standing talking to the commandant of one of the great French +army supply depots one morning. He was a man of forty; a colonel in the +regular French army. An erect, sturdy-looking man with white hair and +mustache, and who wore the single star of a subaltern on his sleeve, +came up, saluted, delivered a message, and then asked: + +"Are there any more orders, sir?" + +"No," was the reply. + +He brought his heels together with a click, saluted again, and went +away. + +The commandant turned to Bok with a peculiar smile on his face and +asked: + +"Do you know who that man is?" + +"No," was the reply. + +"That is my father," was the answer. + +The father was then exactly seventy-two years old. He was a retired +business man when the war broke out. After two years of the heroic +struggle he decided that he couldn't keep out of it. He was too old to +fight, but after long insistence he secured a commission. By one of the +many curious coincidences of the war he was assigned to serve under his +own son. + +When under the most trying conditions, the Americans never lost their +sense of fun. On the staff of a prison hospital in Germany, where a +number of captured American soldiers were being treated, a German +sergeant became quite friendly with the prisoners under his care. One +day he told them that he had been ordered to active service on the +front. He felt convinced that he would be captured by the English, and +asked the Americans if they would not give him some sort of testimonial +which he could show if he were taken prisoner, so that he would not be +ill-treated. + +The Americans were much amused at this idea, and concocted a note of +introduction, written in English. The German sergeant knew no English +and could not understand his testimonial, but he tucked it in his +pocket, well satisfied. + +In due time, he was sent to the front and was captured by "the ladies +from hell," as the Germans called the Scotch kilties. He at once +presented his introduction, and his captors laughed heartily when they +read: + +"This is L--. He is not a bad sort of chap. Don't shoot him; torture him +slowly to death." + +One evening as Bok was strolling out after dinner a Red Cross nurse came +to him, explained that she had two severely wounded boys in what +remained of an old hut: that they were both from Pennsylvania, and had +expressed a great desire to see him as a resident of their State. + +"Neither can possibly survive the night," said the nurse. + +"They know that?" asked Bok. + +"Oh, yes, but like all our boys they are lying there joking with each +other." + +Bok was taken into what remained of a room in a badly shelled farmhouse, +and there, on two roughly constructed cots, lay the two boys. Their +faces had been bandaged so that nothing was visible except the eyes of +each boy. A candle in a bottle standing on a box gave out the only +light. But the eyes of the boys were smiling as Bok came in and sat down +on the box on which the nurse had been sitting. He talked with the boys, +got as much of their stories from them as he could, and told them such +home news as he thought might interest them. + +After half an hour he arose to leave, when the nurse said: "There is no +one here, Mr. Bok, to say the last words to these boys. Will you do it?" +Bok stood transfixed. In sending men over in the service of the Y. M. C. +A. he had several times told them to be ready for any act that they +might be asked to render, even the most sacred one. And here he stood +himself before that duty. He felt as if he stood stripped before his +Maker. Through the glassless window the sky lit up constantly with the +flashes of the guns, and then followed the booming of a shell as it +landed. + +"Yes, won't you, sir?" asked the boy on the right cot as he held out his +hand. Bok took it, and then the hand of the other boy reached out. + +What to say, he did not know. Then, to his surprise, he heard himself +repeating extract after extract from a book by Lyman Abbott called The +Other Room, a message to the bereaved declaring the non-existence of +death, but that we merely move from this earth to another: from one room +to another, as it were. Bok had not read the book for years, but here +was the subconscious self supplying the material for him in his moment +of greatest need. Then he remembered that just before leaving home he +had heard sung at matins, after the prayer for the President, a +beautiful song called "Passing Souls." He had asked the rector for a +copy of it; and, wondering why, he had put it in his wallet that he +carried with him. He took it out now and holding the hand of the boy at +his right, he read to them: + + For the passing souls we pray, + Saviour, meet them on their way; + Let their trust lay hold on Thee + Ere they touch eternity. + + Holy counsels long forgot + Breathe again 'mid shell and shot; + Through the mist of life's last pain + None shall look to Thee in vain. + + To the hearts that know Thee, Lord, + Thou wilt speak through flood or sword; + Just beyond the cannon's roar, + Thou art on the farther shore. + + For the passing souls we pray, + Saviour, meet them on the way; + Thou wilt hear our yearning call, + Who hast loved and died for all. + +Absolute stillness reigned in the room save for the half-suppressed sob +from the nurse and the distant booming of the cannon. As Bok finished, +he heard the boy at his right say slowly: "Saviour-meet-me-on-my-way": +with a little emphasis on the word "my." The hand in his relaxed slowly, +and then fell on the cot; and he saw that the soul of another brave +American boy had "gone West." + +Bok glanced at the other boy, reached for his hand, shook it, and +looking deep into his eyes, he left the little hut. + +He little knew where and how he was to look into those eyes again! + +Feeling the need of air in order to get hold of himself after one of the +most solemn moments of his visit to the front, Bok strolled out, and +soon found himself on what only a few days before had been a field of +carnage where the American boys had driven back the Germans. Walking in +the trenches and looking out, in the clear moonlight, over the field of +desolation and ruin, and thinking of the inferno that had been enacted +there only so recently, he suddenly felt his foot rest on what seemed to +be a soft object. Taking his "ever-ready" flash from his pocket, he shot +a ray at his feet, only to realize that his foot was resting on the face +of a dead German! + +Bok had had enough for one evening! In fact, he had had enough of war in +all its aspects; and he felt a sigh of relief when, a few days +thereafter, he boarded The Empress of Asia for home, after a ten-weeks +absence. + +He hoped never again to see, at first hand, what war meant! + + + +XXXVI. The End of Thirty Years' Editorship + +On the voyage home, Edward Bok decided that, now the war was over, he +would ask his company to release him from the editorship of The Ladies' +Home Journal. His original plan had been to retire at the end of a +quarter of a century of editorship, when in his fiftieth year. He was, +therefore, six years behind his schedule. In October, 1919, he would +reach his thirtieth anniversary as editor, and he fixed upon this as an +appropriate time for the relinquishment of his duties. + +He felt he had carried out the conditions under which the editorship of +the magazine had been transferred to him by Mrs. Curtis, that he had +brought them to fruition, and that any further carrying on of the +periodical by him would be of a supplementary character. He had, too, +realized his hope of helping to create a national institution of service +to the American woman, and he felt that his part in the work was done. + +He considered carefully where he would leave an institution which the +public had so thoroughly associated with his personality, and he felt +that at no point in its history could he so safely transfer it to other +hands. The position of the magazine in the public estimation was +unquestioned; it had never been so strong. Its circulation not only had +outstripped that of any other monthly periodical, but it was still +growing so rapidly that it was only a question of a few months when it +would reach the almost incredible mark of two million copies per month. +With its advertising patronage exceeding that of any other monthly, the +periodical had become, probably, the most valuable and profitable piece +of magazine property in the world. + +The time might never come again when all conditions would be equally +favorable to a change of editorship. The position of the magazine was so +thoroughly assured that its progress could hardly be affected by the +retirement of one editor, and the accession of another. There was a +competent editorial staff, the members of which had been with the +periodical from ten to thirty years each. This staff had been a very +large factor in the success of the magazine. While Bok had furnished the +initiative and supplied the directing power, a large part of the +editorial success of the magazine was due to the staff. It could carry +on the magazine without his guidance. + +Moreover, Bok wished to say good-bye to his public before it decided, +for some reason or other, to say good-bye to him. He had no desire to +outstay his welcome. That public had been wonderfully indulgent toward +his shortcomings, lenient with his errors, and tremendously inspiring to +his best endeavor. He would not ask too much of it. Thirty years was a +long tenure of office, one of the longest, in point of consecutively +active editorship, in the history of American magazines. + +He had helped to create and to put into the life of the American home a +magazine of peculiar distinction. From its beginning it had been unlike +any other periodical; it had always retained its individuality as a +magazine apart from the others. It had sought to be something more than +a mere assemblage of stories and articles. It had consistently stood for +ideals; and, save in one or two instances, it had carried through what +it undertook to achieve. It had a record of worthy accomplishment; a +more fruitful record than many imagined. It had become a national +institution such as no other magazine had ever been. It was indisputably +accepted by the public and by business interests alike as the recognized +avenue of approach to the intelligent homes of America. + +Edward Bok was content to leave it at this point. + +He explained all this in December, 1918, to the Board of Directors, and +asked that his resignation be considered. It was understood that he was +to serve out his thirty years, thus remaining with the magazine for the +best part of another year. + +In the material which The Journal now included in its contents, it began +to point the way to the problems which would face women during the +reconstruction period. Bok scanned the rather crowded field of thought +very carefully, and selected for discussion in the magazine such +questions as seemed to him most important for the public to understand +in order to face and solve its impending problems. The outstanding +question he saw which would immediately face men and women of the +country was the problem of Americanization. The war and its +after-effects had clearly demonstrated this to be the most vital need in +the life of the nation, not only for the foreign-born but for the +American as well. + +The more one studied the problem the clearer it became that the vast +majority of American-born needed a refreshing, and, in many cases, a new +conception of American ideals as much as did the foreign-born, and that +the latter could never be taught what America and its institutions stood +for until they were more clearly defined in the mind of the men and +women of American birth. + +Bok went to Washington, consulted with Franklin K. Lane, secretary of +the interior, of whose department the Government Bureau of +Americanization was a part. A comprehensive series of articles was +outlined; the most expert writer, Esther Everett Lape, who had several +years of actual experience in Americanization work, was selected; +Secretary Lane agreed personally to read and pass upon the material, and +to assume the responsibility for its publication. + +With the full and direct co-operation of the Federal Bureau of +Americanization, the material was assembled and worked up with the +result that, in the opinion of the director of the Federal Bureau, the +series proved to be the most comprehensive exposition of practical +Americanization adapted to city, town, and village, thus far published. + +The work on this series was one of the last acts of Edward Bok's +editorship; and it was peculiarly gratifying to him that his editorial +work should end with the exposition of that Americanization of which he +himself was a product. It seemed a fitting close to the career of a +foreign-born Americanized editor. + +The scope of the reconstruction articles now published, and the clarity +of vision shown in the selection of the subjects, gave a fresh impetus +to the circulation of the magazine; and now that the government's +embargo on the use of paper had been removed, the full editions of the +periodical could again be printed. The public responded instantly. + +The result reached phenomenal figures. The last number under Bok's full +editorial control was the issue of October, 1919. This number was +oversold with a printed edition of two million copies--a record never +before achieved by any magazine. This same issue presented another +record unattained in any single number of any periodical in the world. +It carried between its covers the amazing total of over one million +dollars in advertisements. + +This was the psychological point at which to stop. And Edward Bok did. +Although his official relation as editor did not terminate until +January, 1920, when the number which contained his valedictory editorial +was issued, his actual editorship ceased on September 22, 1919. On that +day he handed over the reins to his successor. + +As Bok was, on that day, about to leave his desk for the last time, it +was announced that a young soldier whom he "had met and befriended in +France" was waiting to see him. When the soldier walked into the office +he was to Bok only one of the many whom he had met on the other side. +But as the boy shook hands with him and said: "I guess you do not +remember me, Mr. Bok," there was something in the eyes into which he +looked that startled him. And then, in a flash, the circumstances under +which he had last seen those eyes came to him. + +"Good heavens, my boy, you are not one of those two boys in the little +hut that I--" + +"To whom you read the poem 'Passing Souls,' that evening. Yes, sir, I'm +the boy who had hold of your left hand. My bunkie, Ben, went West that +same evening, you remember." + +"Yes," replied the editor, "I remember; I remember only too well," and +again Bok felt the hand in his relax, drop from his own, and heard the +words: "Saviour-meet-me-on-my way." + +The boy's voice brought Bok back to the moment. + +"It's wonderful you should remember me; my face was all bound up--I +guess you couldn't see anything but my eyes." + +"Just the eyes, that's right," said Bok. "But they burned into me all +right, my boy." + +"I don't think I get you, sir," said the boy. + +"No, you wouldn't," Bok replied. "You couldn't, boy, not until you're +older. But, tell me, how in the world did you ever get out of it?" + +"Well, sir," answered the boy, with that shyness which we all have come +to know in the boys who actually did, "I guess it was a close call, all +right. But just as you left us, a hospital corps happened to come along +on its way to the back and Miss Nelson--the nurse, you remember?--she +asked them to take me along. They took me to a wonderful hospital, gave +me fine care, and then after a few weeks they sent me back to the +States, and I've been in a hospital over here ever since. Now, except +for this thickness of my voice that you notice, which Doc says will be +all right soon, I'm fit again. The government has given me a job, and I +came here on leave just to see my parents up-State, and I thought I'd +like you to know that I didn't go West after all." + +Fifteen minutes later, Edward Bok left his editorial office for the last +time. + +But as he went home his thoughts were not of his last day at the office, +nor of his last acts as editor, but of his last caller-the soldier-boy +whom he had left seemingly so surely on his way "West," and whose eyes +had burned into his memory on that fearful night a year before! + +Strange that this boy should have been his last visitor! + +As John Drinkwater, in his play, makes Abraham Lincoln say to General +Grant: + +"It's a queer world!" + + + +XXXVII. The Third Period + +The announcement of Edward Bok's retirement came as a great surprise to +his friends. Save for one here and there, who had a clearer vision, the +feeling was general that he had made a mistake. He was fifty-six, in the +prime of life, never in better health, with "success lying easily upon +him"--said one; "at the very summit of his career," said another--and +all agreed it was "queer," "strange,"--unless, they argued, he was +really ill. Even the most acute students of human affairs among his +friends wondered. It seemed incomprehensible that any man should want to +give up before he was, for some reason, compelled to do so. A man should +go on until he "dropped in the harness," they argued. + +Bok agreed that any man had a perfect right to work until he did "drop +in the harness." But, he argued, if he conceded this right to others, +why should they not concede to him the privilege of dropping with the +blinders off? + +"But," continued the argument, "a man degenerates when he retires from +active affairs." And then, instances were pointed out as notable +examples. "A year of retirement and he was through," was the picture +given of one retired man. "In two years, he was glad to come back," and +so the examples ran on. "No big man ever retired from active business +and did great work afterwards," Bok was told. + +"No?" he answered. "Not even Cyrus W. Field or Herbert Hoover?" + +And all this time Edward Bok's failure to be entirely Americanized was +brought home to his consciousness. After fifty years, he was still not +an American! He had deliberately planned, and then had carried out his +plan, to retire while he still had the mental and physical capacity to +enjoy the fruits of his years of labor! For foreign to the American way +of thinking it certainly was: the protestations and arguments of his +friends proved that to him. After all, he was still Dutch; he had held +on to the lesson which his people had learned years ago; that the people +of other European countries had learned; that the English had +discovered: that the Great Adventure of Life was something more than +material work, and that the time to go is while the going is good! + +For it cannot be denied that the pathetic picture we so often see is +found in American business life more frequently than in that of any +other land: men unable to let go--not only for their own good, but to +give the younger men behind them an opportunity. Not that a man should +stop work, for man was born to work, and in work he should find his +greatest refreshment. But so often it does not occur to the man in a +pivotal position to question the possibility that at sixty or seventy he +can keep steadily in touch with a generation whose ideas are controlled +by men twenty years younger. Unconsciously he hangs on beyond his +greatest usefulness and efficiency: he convinces himself that he is +indispensable to his business, while, in scores of cases, the business +would be distinctly benefited by his retirement and the consequent +coming to the front of the younger blood. + +Such a man in a position of importance seems often not to see that he +has it within his power to advance the fortunes of younger men by +stepping out when he has served his time, while by refusing to let go he +often works dire injustice and even disaster to his younger associates. + +The sad fact is that in all too many instances the average American +business man is actually afraid to let go because he realizes that out +of business he should not know what to do. For years he has so excluded +all other interests that at fifty or sixty or seventy he finds himself a +slave to his business, with positively no inner resources. Retirement +from the one thing he does know would naturally leave such a man useless +to himself and his family, and his community: worse than useless, as a +matter of fact, for he would become a burden to himself, a nuisance to +his family, and, when he would begin to write "letters" to the +newspapers, a bore to the community. + +It is significant that a European or English business man rarely reaches +middle age devoid of acquaintance with other matters; he always lets the +breezes from other worlds of thought blow through his ideas, with the +result that when he is ready to retire from business he has other +interests to fall back upon. Fortunately it is becoming less uncommon +for American men to retire from business and devote themselves to other +pursuits; and their number will undoubtedly increase as time goes on, +and we learn the lessons of life with a richer background. But one +cannot help feeling regretful that the custom is not growing more +rapidly. + +A man must unquestionably prepare years ahead for his retirement, not +alone financially, but mentally as well. Bok noticed as a curious fact +that nearly every business man who told him he had made a mistake in his +retirement, and that the proper life for a man is to stick to the game +and see it through--"hold her nozzle agin the bank" as Jim Bludso would +say--was a man with no resources outside his business. Naturally, a +retirement is a mistake in the eyes of such a man; but oh, the pathos of +such a position: that in a world of so much interest, in an age so +fascinatingly full of things worth doing, a man should have allowed +himself to become a slave to his business, and should imagine no other +man happy without the same claims! + +It is this lesson that the American business man has still to learn: +that no man can be wholly efficient in his life, that he is not living a +four-squared existence, if he concentrates every waking thought on his +material affairs. He has still to learn that man cannot live by bread +alone. The making of money, the accumulation of material power, is not +all there is to living. Life is something more than these, and the man +who misses this truth misses the greatest joy and satisfaction that can +come into his life-service for others. + +Some men argue that they can give this service and be in business, too. +But service with such men generally means drawing a check for some +worthy cause, and nothing more. Edward Bok never belittled the giving of +contributions--he solicited too much money himself for the causes in +which he was interested--but it is a poor nature that can satisfy itself +that it is serving humanity by merely signing checks. There is no form +of service more comfortable or so cheap. Real service, however, demands +that a man give himself with his check. And that the average man cannot +do if he remains in affairs. + +Particularly true is this to-day, when every problem of business is so +engrossing, demanding a man's full time and thought. It is the rare man +who can devote himself to business and be fresh for the service of +others afterward. No man can, with efficiency, serve two masters so +exacting as are these. Besides, if his business has seemed important +enough to demand his entire attention, are not the great uplift +questions equally worth his exclusive thought? Are they easier of +solution than the material problems? + +A man can live a life full-square only when he divides it into three +periods: + +First: that of education, acquiring the fullest and best within his +reach and power; + +Second: that of achievement: achieving for himself and his family, and +discharging the first duty of any man, that in case of his incapacity +those who are closest to him are provided for. But such provision does +not mean an accumulation that becomes to those he leaves behind him an +embarrassment rather than a protection. To prevent this, the next period +confronts him: + +Third: Service for others. That is the acid test where many a man falls +short: to know when he has enough, and to be willing not only to let +well enough alone, but to give a helping hand to the other fellow; to +recognize, in a practical way, that we are our brother's keeper; that a +brotherhood of man does exist outside after-dinner speeches. Too many +men make the mistake, when they reach the point of enough, of going on +pursuing the same old game: accumulating more money, grasping for more +power until either a nervous breakdown overtakes them and a sad +incapacity results, or they drop "in the harness," which is, of course, +only calling an early grave by another name. They cannot seem to get the +truth into their heads that as they have been helped by others so should +they now help others: as their means have come from the public, so now +they owe something in turn to that public. + +No man has a right to leave the world no better than he found it. He +must add something to it: either he must make its people better and +happier, or he must make the face of the world fairer to look at. And +the one really means the other. + +"Idealism," immediately say some. Of course, it is. But what is the +matter with idealism? What really is idealism? Do one-tenth of those who +use the phrase so glibly know it true meaning, the part it has played in +the world? The worthy interpretation of an ideal is that it embodies an +idea--a conception of the imagination. All ideas are at first ideals. +They must be. The producer brings forth an idea, but some dreamer has +dreamed it before him either in whole or in part. + +Where would the human race be were it not for the ideals of men? It is +idealists, in a large sense, that this old world needs to-day. Its soil +is sadly in need of new seed. Washington, in his day, was decried as an +idealist. So was Jefferson. It was commonly remarked of Lincoln that he +was a "rank idealist." Morse, Watt, Marconi, Edison--all were, at first, +adjudged idealists. We say of the League of Nations that it is ideal, +and we use the term in a derogatory sense. But that was exactly what was +said of the Constitution of the United States. "Insanely ideal" was the +term used of it. + +The idealist, particularly to-day when there is so great need of him, is +not to be scoffed at. It is through him and only through him that the +world will see a new and clear vision of what is right. It is he who has +the power of going out of himself--that self in which too many are +nowadays so deeply imbedded; it is he who, in seeking the ideal, will, +through his own clearer perception or that of others, transform the +ideal into the real. "Where there is no vision, the people perish." + +It was his remark that he retired because he wanted "to play" that +Edward Bok's friends most completely misunderstood. "Play" in their +minds meant tennis, golf, horseback, polo, travel, etc.--(curious that +scarcely one mentioned reading!). It so happens that no one enjoys some +of these play-forms more than Bok; but "God forbid," he said, "that I +should spend the rest of my days in a bunker or in the saddle. In +moderation," he added, "yes; most decidedly." But the phrase of "play" +meant more to him than all this. Play is diversion: exertion of the mind +as well as of the body. There is such a thing as mental play as well as +physical play. We ask of play that it shall rest, refresh, exhilarate. +Is there any form of mental activity that secures all these ends so +thoroughly and so directly as doing something that a man really likes to +do, doing it with all his heart, all the time conscious that he is +helping to make the world better for some one else? + +A man's "play" can take many forms. If his life has been barren of books +or travel, let him read or see the world. But he reaches his high estate +by either of these roads only when he reads or travels to enrich himself +in order to give out what he gets to enrich the lives of others. He owes +it to himself to get his own refreshment, his own pleasure, but he need +not make that pure self-indulgence. + +Other men, more active in body and mind, feel drawn to the modern arena +of the great questions that puzzle. It matters not in which direction a +man goes in these matters any more than the length of a step matters so +much as does the direction in which the step is taken. He should seek +those questions which engross his deepest interest, whether literary, +musical, artistic, civic, economic, or what not. + +Our cities, towns, communities of all sizes and kinds, urban and rural, +cry out for men to solve their problems. There is room and to spare for +the man of any bent. The old Romans looked forward, on coming to the age +or retirement, which was definitely fixed by rule, to a rural life, when +they hied themselves to a little home in the country, had open house for +their friends, and "kept bees." While bee-keeping is unquestionably +interesting, there are to-day other and more vital occupations awaiting +the retired American. + +The main thing is to secure that freedom of movement that lets a man go +where he will and do what he thinks he can do best, and prove to himself +and to others that the acquirement of the dollar is not all there is to +life. No man can realize, until on awakening some morning he feels the +exhilaration, the sense of freedom that comes from knowing he can choose +his own doings and control his own goings. Time is of more value than +money, and it is that which the man who retires feels that he possesses. +Hamilton Mabie once said, after his retirement from an active editorial +position: "I am so happy that the time has come when I elect what I +shall do," which is true; but then he added: "I have rubbed out the word +'must' from my vocabulary," which was not true. No man ever reaches that +point. Duty of some sort confronts a man in business or out of business, +and duty spells "must." But there is less "must" in the vocabulary of +the retired man; and it is this lessened quantity that gives the tang of +joy to the new day. + +It is a wonderful inner personal satisfaction to reach the point when a +man can say: "I have enough." His soul and character are refreshed by +it: he is made over by it. He begins a new life! he gets a sense of a +new joy; he feels, for the first time, what a priceless possession is +that thing that he never knew before, freedom. And if he seeks that +freedom at the right time, when he is at the summit of his years and +powers and at the most opportune moment in his affairs, he has that +supreme satisfaction denied to so many men, the opposite of which comes +home with such cruel force to them: that they have overstayed their +time: they have worn out their welcome. + +There is no satisfaction that so thoroughly satisfies as that of going +while the going is good. + +Still-- + +The friends of Edward Bok may be right when they said he made a mistake +in his retirement. + +However-- + +As Mr. Dooley says: "It's a good thing, sometimes, to have people size +ye up wrong, Hinnessey: it's whin they've got ye'er measure ye're in +danger." + +Edward Bok's friends have failed to get his measure--yet! + +They still have to learn what he has learned and is learning every day: +"the joy," as Charles Lamb so aptly put it upon his retirement, "of +walking about and around instead of to and fro." + +The question now naturally arises, having read this record thus far: To +what extent, with his unusual opportunities of fifty years, has the +Americanization of Edward Bok gone? How far is he, to-day, an American? +These questions, so direct and personal in their nature, are perhaps +best answered in a way more direct and personal than the method thus far +adopted in this chronicle. We will, therefore, let Edward Bok answer +these questions for himself, in closing this record of his +Americanization. + + + +XXXVIII. Where America Fell Short with Me + +When I came to the United States as a lad of six, the most needful +lesson for me, as a boy, was the necessity for thrift. I had been taught +in my home across the sea that thrift was one of the fundamentals in a +successful life. My family had come from a land (the Netherlands) noted +for its thrift; but we had been in the United States only a few days +before the realization came home strongly to my father and mother that +they had brought their children to a land of waste. + +Where the Dutchman saved, the American wasted. There was waste, and the +most prodigal waste, on every hand. In every street-car and on every +ferry-boat the floors and seats were littered with newspapers that had +been read and thrown away or left behind. If I went to a grocery store +to buy a peck of potatoes, and a potato rolled off the heaping measure, +the groceryman, instead of picking it up, kicked it into the gutter for +the wheels of his wagon to run over. The butcher's waste filled my +mother's soul with dismay. If I bought a scuttle of coal at the corner +grocery, the coal that missed the scuttle, instead of being shovelled up +and put back into the bin, was swept into the street. My young eyes +quickly saw this; in the evening I gathered up the coal thus swept away, +and during the course of a week I collected a scuttleful. The first time +my mother saw the garbage pail of a family almost as poor as our own, +with the wife and husband constantly complaining that they could not get +along, she could scarcely believe her eyes. A half pan of hominy of the +preceding day's breakfast lay in the pail next to a third of a loaf of +bread. In later years, when I saw, daily, a scow loaded with the garbage +of Brooklyn householders being towed through New York harbor out to sea, +it was an easy calculation that what was thrown away in a week's time +from Brooklyn homes would feed the poor of the Netherlands. + +At school, I quickly learned that to "save money" was to be "stingy"; as +a young man, I soon found that the American disliked the word "economy," +and on every hand as plenty grew spending grew. There was literally +nothing in American life to teach me thrift or economy; everything to +teach me to spend and to waste. + +I saw men who had earned good salaries in their prime, reach the years +of incapacity as dependents. I saw families on every hand either living +quite up to their means or beyond them; rarely within them. The more a +man earned, the more he--or his wife--spent. I saw fathers and mothers +and their children dressed beyond their incomes. The proportion of +families who ran into debt was far greater than those who saved. When a +panic came, the families "pulled in"; when the panic was over, they "let +out." But the end of one year found them precisely where they were at +the close of the previous year, unless they were deeper in debt. + +It was in this atmosphere of prodigal expenditure and culpable waste +that I was to practise thrift: a fundamental in life! And it is into +this atmosphere that the foreign-born comes now, with every inducement +to spend and no encouragement to save. For as it was in the days of my +boyhood, so it is to-day--only worse. One need only go over the +experiences of the past two years, to compare the receipts of merchants +who cater to the working-classes and the statements of savingsbanks +throughout the country, to read the story of how the foreign-born are +learning the habit of criminal wastefulness as taught them by the +American. + +Is it any wonder, then, that in this, one of the essentials in life and +in all success, America fell short with me, as it is continuing to fall +short with every foreign-born who comes to its shores? + +As a Dutch boy, one of the cardinal truths taught me was that whatever +was worth doing was worth doing well: that next to honesty came +thoroughness as a factor in success. It was not enough that anything +should be done: it was not done at all if it was not done well. I came +to America to be taught exactly the opposite. The two infernal +Americanisms "That's good enough" and "That will do" were early taught +me, together with the maxim of quantity rather than quality. + +It was not the boy at school who could write the words in his copy-book +best who received the praise of the teacher; it was the boy who could +write the largest number of words in a given time. The acid test in +arithmetic was not the mastery of the method, but the number of minutes +required to work out an example. If a boy abbreviated the month January +to "Jan."and the word Company to "Co." he received a hundred per cent +mark, as did the boy who spelled out the words and who could not make +the teacher see that "Co." did not spell "Company." + +As I grew into young manhood, and went into business, I found on every +hand that quantity counted for more than quality. The emphasis was +almost always placed on how much work one could do in a day, rather than +upon how well the work was done. Thoroughness was at a discount on every +hand; production at a premium. It made no difference in what direction I +went, the result was the same: the cry was always for quantity, +quantity! And into this atmosphere of almost utter disregard for quality +I brought my ideas of Dutch thoroughness and my conviction that doing +well whatever I did was to count as a cardinal principle in life. + +During my years of editorship, save in one or two conspicuous instances, +I was never able to assign to an American writer, work which called for +painstaking research. In every instance, the work came back to me either +incorrect in statement, or otherwise obviously lacking in careful +preparation. + +One of the most successful departments I ever conducted in The Ladies' +Home Journal called for infinite reading and patient digging, with the +actual results sometimes almost negligible. I made a study of my +associates by turning the department over to one after another, and +always with the same result: absolute lack of a capacity for patient +research. As one of my editors, typically American, said to me: "It +isn't worth all the trouble that you put into it." Yet no single +department ever repaid the searcher more for his pains. Save for +assistance derived from a single person, I had to do the work myself for +all the years that the department continued. It was apparently +impossible for the American to work with sufficient patience and care to +achieve a result. + +We all have our pet notions as to the particular evil which is "the +curse of America," but I always think that Theodore Roosevelt came +closest to the real curse when he classed it as a lack of thoroughness. + +Here again, in one of the most important matters in life, did America +fall short with me; and, what is more important, she is falling short +with every foreigner that comes to her shores. + +In the matter of education, America fell far short in what should be the +strongest of all her institutions: the public school. A more inadequate, +incompetent method of teaching, as I look back over my seven years of +attendance at three different public schools, it is difficult to +conceive. If there is one thing that I, as a foreign-born child, should +have been carefully taught, it is the English language. The individual +effort to teach this, if effort there was, and I remember none, was +negligible. It was left for my father to teach me, or for me to dig it +out for myself. There was absolutely no indication on the part of +teacher or principal of responsibility for seeing that a foreign-born +boy should acquire the English language correctly. I was taught as if I +were American-born, and, of course, I was left dangling in the air, with +no conception of what I was trying to do. + +My father worked with me evening after evening; I plunged my young mind +deep into the bewildering confusions of the language--and no one +realizes the confusions of the English language as does the +foreign-born--and got what I could through these joint efforts. But I +gained nothing from the much-vaunted public-school system which the +United States had borrowed from my own country, and then had rendered +incompetent-either by a sheer disregard for the thoroughness that makes +the Dutch public schools the admiration of the world, or by too close a +regard for politics. + +Thus, in her most important institution to the foreign-born, America +fell short. And while I am ready to believe that the public school may +have increased in efficiency since that day, it is, indeed, a question +for the American to ponder, just how far the system is efficient for the +education of the child who comes to its school without a knowledge of +the first word in the English language. Without a detailed knowledge of +the subject, I know enough of conditions in the average public school +to-day to warrant at least the suspicion that Americans would not be +particularly proud of the system, and of what it gives for which +annually they pay millions of dollars in taxes. + +I am aware in making this statement that I shall be met with convincing +instances of intelligent effort being made with the foreign-born +children in special classes. No one has a higher respect for those +efforts than I have--few, other than educators, know of them better than +I do, since I did not make my five-year study of the American public +school system for naught. But I am not referring to the exceptional +instance here and there. I merely ask of the American, interested as he +is or should be in the Americanization of the strangers within his +gates, how far the public school system, as a whole, urban and rural, +adapts itself, with any true efficiency, to the foreign-born child. I +venture to color his opinion in no wise; I simply ask that he will +inquire and ascertain for himself, as he should do if he is interested +in the future welfare of his country and his institutions; for what +happens in America in the years to come depends, in large measure, on +what is happening to-day in the public schools of this country. + +As a Dutch boy I was taught a wholesome respect for law and for +authority. The fact was impressed upon me that laws of themselves were +futile unless the people for whom they were made respected them, and +obeyed them in spirit more even than in the letter. I came to America to +feel, on every hand, that exactly the opposite was true. Laws were +passed, but were not enforced; the spirit to enforce them was lacking in +the people. There was little respect for the law; there was scarcely any +for those appointed to enforce it. + +The nearest that a boy gets to the law is through the policeman. In the +Netherlands a boy is taught that a policeman is for the protection of +life and property; that he is the natural friend of every boy and man +who behaves himself. The Dutch boy and the policeman are, naturally, +friendly in their relations. I came to America to be told that a +policeman is a boy's natural enemy; that he is eager to arrest him if he +can find the slightest reason for doing so. A policeman, I was informed, +was a being to hold in fear, not in respect. He was to be avoided, not +to be made friends with. The result was that, as did all boys, I came to +regard the policeman on our beat as a distinct enemy. His presence meant +that we should "stiffen up"; his disappearance was the signal for us to +"let loose." + +So long as one was not caught, it did not matter. I heard mothers tell +their little children that if they did not behave themselves, the +policeman would put them into a bag and carry them off, or cut their +ears off. Of course, the policeman became to them an object of terror; +the law he represented, a cruel thing that stood for punishment. Not a +note of respect did I ever hear for the law in my boyhood days. A law +was something to be broken, to be evaded, to call down upon others as a +source of punishment, but never to be regarded in the light of a +safeguard. + +And as I grew into manhood, the newspapers rang on every side with +disrespect for those in authority. Under the special dispensation of the +liberty of the press, which was construed into the license of the press, +no man was too high to escape editorial vituperation if his politics did +not happen to suit the management, or if his action ran counter to what +the proprietors believed it should be. It was not criticism of his acts, +it was personal attack upon the official; whether supervisor, mayor, +governor, or president, it mattered not. + +It is a very unfortunate impression that this American lack of respect +for those in authority makes upon the foreign-born mind. It is difficult +for the foreigner to square up the arrest and deportation of a man who, +through an incendiary address, seeks to overthrow governmental +authority, with the ignoring of an expression of exactly the same +sentiments by the editor of his next morning's newspaper. In other +words, the man who writes is immune, but the man who reads, imbibes, and +translates the editor's words into action is immediately marked as a +culprit, and America will not harbor him. But why harbor the original +cause? Is the man who speaks with type less dangerous than he who speaks +with his mouth or with a bomb? + +At the most vital part of my life, when I was to become an American +citizen and exercise the right of suffrage, America fell entirely short. +It reached out not even the suggestion of a hand. + +When the Presidential Conventions had been held in the year I reached my +legal majority, and I knew I could vote, I endeavored to find out +whether, being foreign-born, I was entitled to the suffrage. No one +could tell me; and not until I had visited six different municipal +departments, being referred from one to another, was it explained that, +through my father's naturalization, I became, automatically, as his son, +an American citizen. I decided to read up on the platforms of the +Republican and Democratic parties, but I could not secure copies +anywhere, although a week had passed since they had been adopted in +convention. + +I was told the newspapers had printed them. It occurred to me there must +be many others besides myself who were anxious to secure the platforms +of the two parties in some more convenient form. With the eye of +necessity ever upon a chance to earn an honest penny, I went to a +newspaper office, cut out from its files the two platforms, had them +printed in a small pocket edition, sold one edition to the American News +Company and another to the News Company controlling the Elevated +Railroad bookstands in New York City, where they sold at ten cents each. +So great was the demand which I had only partially guessed, that within +three weeks I had sold such huge editions of the little books that I had +cleared over a thousand dollars. + +But it seemed to me strange that it should depend on a foreign-born +American to supply an eager public with what should have been supplied +through the agency of the political parties or through some educational +source. + +I now tried to find out what a vote actually meant. It must be recalled +that I was only twenty-one years old, with scant education, and with no +civic agency offering me the information I was seeking. I went to the +headquarters of each of the political parties and put my query. I was +regarded with puzzled looks. + +"What does it mean to vote?" asked one chairman. + +"Why, on Election Day you go up to the ballot-box and put your ballot +in, and that's all there is to it." + +But I knew very well that that was not all there was to it, and was +determined to find out the significance of the franchise. I met with +dense ignorance on every hand. I went to the Brooklyn Library, and was +frankly told by the librarian that he did not know of a book that would +tell me what I wanted to know. This was in 1884. + +As the campaign increased in intensity, I found myself a desired person +in the eyes of the local campaign managers, but not one of them could +tell me the significance and meaning of the privilege I was for the +first time to exercise. + +Finally, I spent an evening with Seth Low, and, of course, got the +desired information. + +But fancy the quest I had been compelled to make to acquire the simple +information that should have been placed in my hands or made readily +accessible to me. And how many foreign-born would take equal pains to +ascertain what I was determined to find out? + +Surely America fell short here at the moment most sacred to me: that of +my first vote! + +Is it any easier to-day for the foreign citizen to acquire this +information when he approaches his first vote? I wonder! Not that I do +not believe there are agencies for this purpose. You know there are, and +so do I. But how about the foreign-born? Does he know it? Is it not +perhaps like the owner of the bulldog who assured the friend calling on +him that it never attacked friends of the family? "Yes," said the +friend, "that's all right. You know and I know that I am a friend of the +family; but does the dog know?" + +Is it to-day made known to the foreign-born, about to exercise his +privilege of suffrage for the first time, where he can be told what that +privilege means: is the means to know made readily accessible to him: is +it, in fact, as it should be, brought to him? + +It was not to me; is it to him? + +One fundamental trouble with the present desire for Americanization is +that the American is anxious to Americanize two classes--if he is a +reformer, the foreign-born; if he is an employer, his employees. It +never occurs to him that he himself may be in need of Americanization. +He seems to take it for granted that because he is American-born, he is +an American in spirit and has a right understanding of American ideals. +But that, by no means, always follows. There are thousands of the +American-born who need Americanization just as much as do the +foreign-born. There are hundreds of American employers who know far less +of American ideals than do some of their employees. In fact, there are +those actually engaged to-day in the work of Americanization, men at the +top of the movement, who sadly need a better conception of true +Americanism. + +An excellent illustration of this came to my knowledge when I attended a +large Americanization Conference in Washington. One of the principal +speakers was an educator of high standing and considerable influence in +one of the most important sections of the United States. In a speech +setting forth his ideas of Americanization, he dwelt with much emphasis +and at considerable length upon instilling into the mind of the +foreign-born the highest respect for American institutions. + +After the Conference he asked me whether he could see me that afternoon +at my hotel; he wanted to talk about contributing to the magazine. When +he came, before approaching the object of his talk, he launched out on a +tirade against the President of the United States; the weakness of the +Cabinet, the inefficiency of the Congress, and the stupidity of the +Senate. If words could have killed, there would have not remained a +single living member of the Administration at Washington. + +After fifteen minutes of this, I reminded him of his speech and the +emphasis which he had placed upon the necessity of inculcating in the +foreign-born respect for American institutions. + +Yet this man was a power in his community, a strong influence upon +others; he believed he could Americanize others, when he himself, +according to his own statements, lacked the fundamental principle of +Americanization. What is true of this man is, in lesser or greater +degree, true of hundreds of others. Their Americanization consists of +lip-service; the real spirit, the only factor which counts in the +successful teaching of any doctrine, is absolutely missing. We certainly +cannot teach anything approaching a true Americanism until we ourselves +feel and believe and practise in our own lives what we are teaching to +others. No law, no lip-service, no effort, however well-intentioned, +will amount to anything worth while in inculcating the true American +spirit in our foreign-born citizens until we are sure that the American +spirit is understood by ourselves and is warp and woof of our own being. + +To the American, part and parcel of his country, these particulars in +which his country falls short with the foreign-born are, perhaps, not so +evident; they may even seem not so very important. But to the +foreign-born they seem distinct lacks; they loom large; they form +serious handicaps which, in many cases, are never surmounted; they are a +menace to that Americanization which is, to-day, more than ever our +fondest dream, and which we now realize more keenly than before is our +most vital need. + +It is for this reason that I have put them down here as a concrete +instance of where and how America fell short in my own Americanization, +and, what is far more serious to me, where she is falling short in her +Americanization of thousands of other foreign-born. + +"Yet you succeeded," it will be argued. + +That may be; but you, on the other hand, must admit that I did not +succeed by reason of these shortcomings: it was in spite of them, by +overcoming them--a result that all might not achieve. + + + +XXXIX. What I Owe to America + +Whatever shortcomings I may have found during my fifty-year period of +Americanization; however America may have failed to help my transition +from a foreigner into an American, I owe to her the most priceless gift +that any nation can offer, and that is opportunity. + +As the world stands to-day, no nation offers opportunity in the degree +that America does to the foreign-born. Russia may, in the future, as I +like to believe she will, prove a second United States of America in +this respect. She has the same limitless area; her people the same +potentialities. But, as things are to-day, the United States offers, as +does no other nation, a limitless opportunity: here a man can go as far +as his abilities will carry him. It may be that the foreign-born, as in +my own case, must hold on to some of the ideals and ideas of the land of +his birth; it may be that he must develop and mould his character by +overcoming the habits resulting from national shortcomings. But into the +best that the foreign-born can retain, America can graft such a wealth +of inspiration, so high a national idealism, so great an opportunity for +the highest endeavor, as to make him the fortunate man of the earth +to-day. + +He can go where he will: no traditions hamper him; no limitations are +set except those within himself. The larger the area he chooses in which +to work, the larger the vision he demonstrates, the more eager the +people are to give support to his undertakings if they are convinced +that he has their best welfare as his goal. There is no public +confidence equal to that of the American public, once it is obtained. It +is fickle, of course, as are all publics, but fickle only toward the man +who cannot maintain an achieved success. + +A man in America cannot complacently lean back upon victories won, as he +can in the older European countries, and depend upon the glamour of the +past to sustain him or the momentum of success to carry him. Probably +the most alert public in the world, it requires of its leaders that they +be alert. Its appetite for variety is insatiable, but its appreciation, +when given, is fullhanded and whole-hearted. The American public never +holds back from the man to whom it gives; it never bestows in a +niggardly way; it gives all or nothing. + +What is not generally understood of the American people is their +wonderful idealism. Nothing so completely surprises the foreign-born as +the discovery of this trait in the American character. The impression is +current in European countries-perhaps less generally since the war--that +America is given over solely to a worship of the American dollar. While +between nations as between individuals, comparisons are valueless, it +may not be amiss to say, from personal knowledge, that the Dutch worship +the gulden infinitely more than do the Americans the dollar. + +I do not claim that the American is always conscious of this idealism; +often he is not. But let a great convulsion touching moral questions +occur, and the result always shows how close to the surface is his +idealism. And the fact that so frequently he puts over it a thick veneer +of materialism does not affect its quality. The truest approach, the +only approach in fact, to the American character is, as Viscount Bryce +has so well said, through its idealism. + +It is this quality which gives the truest inspiration to the +foreign-born in his endeavor to serve the people of his adopted country. +He is mentally sluggish, indeed, who does not discover that America will +make good with him if he makes good with her. + +But he must play fair. It is essentially the straight game that the true +American plays, and he insists that you shall play it too. Evidence +there is, of course, to the contrary in American life, experiences that +seem to give ground for the belief that the man succeeds who is not +scrupulous in playing his cards. But never is this true in the long run. +Sooner or later--sometimes, unfortunately, later than sooner--the public +discovers the trickery. In no other country in the world is the moral +conception so clear and true as in America, and no people will give a +larger and more permanent reward to the man whose effort for that public +has its roots in honor and truth. + +"The sky is the limit" to the foreign-born who comes to America endowed +with honest endeavor, ceaseless industry, and the ability to carry +through. In any honest endeavor, the way is wide open to the will to +succeed. Every path beckons, every vista invites, every talent is called +forth, and every efficient effort finds its due reward. In no land is +the way so clear and so free. + +How good an American has the process of Americanization made me? That I +cannot say. Who can say that of himself? But when I look around me at +the American-born I have come to know as my close friends, I wonder +whether, after all, the foreign-born does not make in some sense a +better American--whether he is not able to get a truer perspective; +whether his is not the deeper desire to see America greater; whether he +is not less content to let its faulty institutions be as they are; +whether in seeing faults more clearly he does not make a more decided +effort to have America reach those ideals or those fundamentals of his +own land which he feels are in his nature, and the best of which he is +anxious to graft into the character of his adopted land? + +It is naturally with a feeling of deep satisfaction that I remember two +Presidents of the United States considered me a sufficiently typical +American to wish to send me to my native land as the accredited minister +of my adopted country. And yet when I analyze the reasons for my choice +in both these instances, I derive a deeper satisfaction from the fact +that my strong desire to work in America for America led me to ask to be +permitted to remain here. + +It is this strong impulse that my Americanization has made the driving +power of my life. And I ask no greater privilege than to be allowed to +live to see my potential America become actual: the America that I like +to think of as the America of Abraham Lincoln and of Theodore +Roosevelt--not faultless, but less faulty. It is a part in trying to +shape that America, and an opportunity to work in that America when it +comes, that I ask in return for what I owe to her. A greater privilege +no man could have. + + + + Edward William Bok: Biographical Data + + 1863: Born, October 9, at Helder, Netherlands. + 1870: September 20: Arrived in the United States. + 1870: Entered public schools of Brooklyn, New York. + 1873: Obtained first position in Frost's Bakery, + Smith Street, Brooklyn, at 50 cents per week. + 1876: August 7: Entered employ of the Western + Union Telegraph Company as office-boy. + 1882: Entered employ of Henry Holt & Company as stenographer. + 1884: Entered employ of Charles Scribner's Sons as stenographer. + 1884: Became editor of The Brooklyn Magazine. + 1886: Founded The Bok Syndicate Press. + 1887: Published Henry Ward Beecher Memorial (privately printed). + 1889: October 20: Became editor of The Ladies' Home Journal. + 1890: Published Successward: Doubleday, McClure & Company. + 1894: Published Before He Is Twenty: Fleming H. Revell Company. + 1896: October 22: Married Mary Louise Curtis. + 1897: September 7: Son born: William Curtis Bok. + 1900: Published The Young Man in Business: L. C. Page & Company. + 1905: January 25: Son born: Cary William Bok. + 1906: Published Her Brother's Letters (Anonymous): Moffat, Yard & Co. + 1907: Degree of LL.D. of Order of Augustinian Fathers conferred by + order of Pope Pius X., by the Most Reverend Diomede Falconio, D.D., + Apostolic Delegate to the United States, at Villanova College. + 1910: Degree of LL.D. conferred, in absentia, by Hope College, Holland, + Michigan (the only Dutch college in the United States). + 1911: Founded, with others, The Child Federation of Philadelphia. + 1912: Published: The Edward Bok Books of Self-Knowledge; five + volumes: Fleming H. Revell Company. + 1913: Founded, with others, The Merion Civic Association, at Merion, + Pennsylvania. + 1915: Published Why I Believe in Poverty: Houghton, Mifflin Company. + 1916: Published poem, God's Hand, set to music by Josef Hofmann: + Schirmer & Company. + 1917: Vice-president Philadelphia Belgian Relief Commission. + 1917: Member of National Y. M. C. A. War Work Council. + 1917: State chairman for Pennsylvania of Y. M. C. A. War Work Council. + 1918: Member of Executive Committee and chairman of Publicity Committee, + Philadelphia War Chest. + 1918: Chairman of Philadelphia Y. M. C. A. Recruiting Committee. + 1918: State chairman for Pennsylvania of United War Work Campaign. + 1918: August-November: visited the battle-fronts in France as guest of + the British Government. + 1919: September 22: Relinquished editorship of The Ladies' Home Journal, + completing thirty years of service. + 1920: September 20: Upon the 50th anniversary of arrival in the United + States, published The Americanization of Edward Bok. + + + +The Expression of a Personal Pleasure + +I cannot close this record of a boy's development without an attempt to +suggest the sense of deep personal pleasure which I feel that the +imprint on the title-page of this book should be that of the publishing +house which, thirty-six years ago, I entered as stenographer. It was +there I received my start; it was there I laid the foundation of that +future career then so hidden from me. The happiest days of my young +manhood were spent in the employ of this house; I there began +friendships which have grown closer with each passing year. And one of +my deepest sources of satisfaction is, that during all the thirty-one +years which have followed my resignation from the Scribner house, it has +been my good fortune to hold the friendship, and, as I have been led to +believe, the respect of my former employers. That they should now be my +publishers demonstrates, in a striking manner, the curious turning of +the wheel of time, and gives me a sense of gratification difficult of +expression. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Americanization of Edward Bok, by Edward Bok + diff --git a/3538.zip b/3538.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..decc880 --- /dev/null +++ b/3538.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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