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