The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-07-08

The Boks were aristocratic Dutch.
men for a long time. The great-grand-
father of Edward Box was chief ad-
miral of Hollands navy, and his
grandfather was Chief Justice of Hol-
lands Supreme Court. His father was
a minister to William the Third
whose daughter, Wilhelmina, is now
queen Of the Netherlands. But the
Books lost their money, and William
the minister, came to America with
his wife and two boys. Edward Boz
left school when a lad and went to
work. l asked about his first employ
ment.
1--WE were very poor" he said. land
| used to gather wood in the vacant
lots for our fire. / helped my mothe,
wash dishes. and do other household
duties. But the first money | earned
was i'm selling water. Persons in New
York then went to Coney Island in
street cars. which ran through Brook
Ign. | carried a bucket of ice water or
my arm, and when the cars stopped ]
sold it to the passengers for a penny
glass. Then | put q lemon in my
bucket. and got 2 cents a glass. | add
ed little more sugar and lemon juice
and raised the price to cents. That j.
where l learned that the pubic wiz al
ways pay the best price for the best
than 1-cont water, and made more
money.
I'm winter when no one went
to Coney Island carried q
newspaper route on Saturday,
and worked in a bakery clean
ing windows, waiting on the
counter, and running crrands, for 30
cents a week. When. / was thirteen
years old left school forever, going tc
the Western Union Telegraph Com
pany as an office boy. At night [ stud
led stenography. l got into Henry
Ward Beecher's church. and into ona
Of his literary societies. We printed
little paper for the society, and took
1T up and developed it into the Brook
iYn Magazine. My brother helped ne
We published Mr.. Beechers sermons
in full, and then made arrangements
for the sermons of DR.. Talmagc. Gu
riously enough, some of the best writ
ers of the day became our cOntrihI-
tors / was nineteen years old, and IN
the meantime had been employed by
the telegraph company as stenogra-
pher. A man conspicuous in the Stand
ard Oil Company wanted to buy our
magazine for his son. and as it was NOT
profitable. we sold it. This man told
ME that magazines and oil could be
carried along on the same trade prin-
ciples-that the methods employed to
produce a gallon of refined oil would
print and sell single copy of a mag
azine. l told him if that was his belief
he would lose lot of money.
Did he p
He did. l left the telegraph COM
pany and went to Henry Holt q Co.
the publishers, also as a stenOgrapher.
Heaven alone knows what else i did
in my own time. ! started syndicate
and supplied newspapers with first
class matter of interest to the female
sex, obtaining what ] called forty ar
ticles by forty famous women. Some
of them were foreigners. | kept out of
the cookery and needlework. NO man
should attempt to NEEDLE with such
things. | might say that | am the IA
ther of the woman's page IN the news
papers, but I am not proud or the re-
lationship. 1 was fond of the BABY, but
1 detest it now that it has grown up.
From Hollis" Mr.. Box said, i went
to Charles Scribner's Sons with whom
remained until 1 was employed by
Mr.. Curtis
"At $4,000 a year it is said ?"