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Page 10
"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 the children, who 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.
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