the shape of what they had earned.  There were exceptions here and there, as there are to every rule; but the majority of these, he soon found, were more in the seeming than in the reality.  Generally speaking—­and of course to this rule there are likewise exceptions, or as the Frenchman said, “All generalizations are false, including this one”—­a man got in this world about what he worked for.

And that became, for himself, the rule of Edward Bok’s life.

CHAPTER XI

LAST YEARS IN NEW YORK

From his boyhood days (up to the present writing) Bok was a pronounced baseball “fan,” and there was, too, a baseball team among the Scribner young men of which he was a part.  This team played, each Saturday afternoon, a team from another publishing house, and for two seasons it was unbeatable.  Not only was this baseball aggregation close to the hearts of the Scribner employees, but, in an important game, the junior member of the firm played on it and the senior member was a spectator.  Frank N. Doubleday played on first base; William D. Moffat, later of Moffat, Yard & Company, and now editor of The Mentor, was behind the bat; Bok pitched; Ernest Dressel North, the present authority on rare editions of books, was in the field, as were also Ray Safford, now a director in the Scribner corporation, and Owen W. Brewer, at present a prominent figure in Chicago’s book world.  It was a happy group, all closely banded together in their business interests and in their human relations as well.

With Scribner’s Magazine now in the periodical field, Bok would be asked on his trips to the publishing houses to have an eye open for advertisements for that periodical as well.  Hence his education in the solicitation of advertisements became general, and gave him a sympathetic understanding of the problems of the advertising solicitor which was to stand him in good stead when, in his later experience, he was called upon to view the business problems of a magazine from the editor’s position.  His knowledge of the manufacture of the two magazines in his charge was likewise educative, as was the fascinating study of typography which always had, and has today, a wonderful attraction for him.

It was, however, in connection with the advertising of the general books of the house, and in his relations with their authors, that Bok found his greatest interest.  It was for him to find the best manner in which to introduce to the public the books issued by the house, and the general study of the psychology of publicity which this called for attracted Bok greatly.

Although the Scribners did not publish Mark Twain’s books, the humorist was a frequent visitor to the retail store, and occasionally he would wander back to the publishing department located at the rear of the store, which was then at 743 Broadway.