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 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.
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!
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 twelve, 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!