Part 3 (1/2)
”I a out to dinner,” said Mrs Grant, ”for the general had soned one for you, and put it aside, intending to send it to you when yours caeneral, she said: ”Ulysses, send up for it We have a few et it I know just where it is,” returned the general
”Let lad to exchange photographs with you, boy”
To Edward's surprise, when the general returned he brought with him, not a duplicate of the seneral--all that he could afford--but a large, full cabinet size
”They eneral, 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 Edent; and within half an hour fro with General Grant he was sitting at the bedside of Mrs Lincoln, showing her the wonderful photograph just presented to hireat 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 ith the frail fraot that close to the great President
The eventful evening, however, was not yet over Edward had boarded a Broadway stage to take hi at the newspaper of anext 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- the sign ”Metropolitan Hotel”
stared hie; he wrote a little note, asked the clerk to send it to Mr Davis, and within fiveof his re
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 re brought about an interchange of letters between the Brooklyn boy and Mr Davis at Beauvoir, Mississippi, that lasted until the latter passed away
Edas fast absorbing a treraphical information about thea collection of autograph letters that the newspapers hadover 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 e, car-fare--all outgo But it had brought him no income, save a rich mental revenue And the boy and his faround
He was thinking along this line in a restaurant when aa picture out of it threw it on the floor Edward picked it up, thinking it raph letters It was the picture of a well-known actress He then recalled an advertisearettes 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 albureatest 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 hi firmly that there were others possessed of the same thirst, he set out the next day, in his luncheon hour, to find out who arette co of the pictures was in the hands of the Knapp Lithographic Coht the offices of the company, and explained his idea to Mr Joseph P Knapp, now the president of the Aive you ten dollars apiece if you rite raphy of one hundred famous Americans,” was Mr
Knapp's instant reply ”Send roup 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 Coht, 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 raphies written by others, at one-half the price paid to him, was more profitable than to write hi 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 co that had a distinct educational value to a large public
The i ledand to editorshi+p
CHAPTER 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 advance 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, supples at e As the systeress was possible, and the two teachers were constantly surprised that he acquired the art so much more quickly than the other students
Before raph” fairly well, and as the typewriter had not then coe to practical use
An opportunity offered itself when the city editor of the _Brooklyn Eagle_ asked hiland Society dinner The speakers were to be President Hayes, General Grant, General Sherman, Mr Evarts, and General Sheridan Edas to report what General Grant and the President said, and was instructed to give the President's speech verbatim