acted the paragraphers; they fell
upon them like hungry trout, and a perfect fusillade of paragraphs
began. This is exactly what the editor wanted; and he followed these
two series immediately by inducing the daughter of Charles Dickens to
write of "My Father as I Knew Him," and Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher, of
"Mr. Beecher as I Knew Him." Bok now felt that he had given the
newspapers enough ammunition to last for some time; and he turned his
attention to building up a more permanent basis for his magazine.

The two authors of that day who commanded more attention than any
others were William Dean Howells and Rudyard Kipling. Bok knew that
these two would give to his magazine the literary quality that it
needed, and so he laid them both under contribution. He bought Mr.
Howells's new novel, "The Coast of Bohemia," and arranged that
Kipling's new novelette upon which he was working should come to the
magazine. Neither the public nor the magazine editors had expected Bok
to break out along these more permanent lines, and magazine publishers
began to realize that a new competitor had sprung up in Philadelphia.
Bok knew they would feel this; so before he announced Mr. Howells's new
novel, he contracted with the novelist to follow this with his
autobiography. This surprised the editors of the older magazines, for
they realized that the Philadelphia editor had completely tied up the
leading novelist of the day for his next two years' output.

Meanwhile, in order that the newspapers might be well supplied with
barbs for their shafts, he published an entire number of his magazine
written by the daughters of famous men. This unique issue presented
contributions by the daughters of Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne,
President Harrison, Horace Greeley, William M. Thackeray, William Dean
Howells, General Sherman, Jefferson Davis, Mr. Gladstone, and a score
of others. This issue simply filled the paragraphers with glee. Then
once more Bok turned to articles calculated to cement the foundation
for a more permanent structure.

The material that the editor was publishing and the authors that he was
laying under contribution began to have marked effect upon the
circulation of the magazine, and it was not long before the original
figures were doubled, an edition--enormous for that day--of seven
hundred and fifty thousand copies was printed and sold each month, the
magical figure of a million was in sight, and the periodical was