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Page 12
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 _Encyclopaedia_--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
_Encyclopaedia_; 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.
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