or was in a quandary what to do with the two remaining columns of
the Kipling tale. There were only two pages open, and these were at
the back. He remade those pages, and continued the story from pages 6
and 7 to pages 38 and 39.

At once Bok saw that this was an instance where "necessity was the
mother of invention." He realized that if he could run some of his
front material over to the back he would relieve the pressure at the
front, present a more varied contents there, and make his
advertisements more valuable by putting them next to the most expensive
material in the magazine.

In the next issue he combined some of his smaller departments in the
back; and thus, in 1896, he inaugurated the method of "running over
into the back" which has now become a recognized principle in the
make-up of magazines of larger size. At first, Bok's readers objected,
but he explained why he did it; that they were the benefiters by the
plan; and, so far as readers can be satisfied with what is, at best, an
awkward method of presentation, they were content. To-day the practice
is undoubtedly followed to excess, some magazines carrying as much as
eighty and ninety columns over from the front to the back; from such
abuse it will, of course, free itself either by a return to the
original method of make-up or by the adoption of some other less
irritating plan.

In his reading about the America of the past, Bok had been impressed by
the unusual amount of interesting personal material that constituted
what is termed unwritten history--original events of tremendous
personal appeal in which great personalities figured but which had not
sufficient historical importance to have been included in American
history. Bok determined to please his older readers by harking back to
the past and at the same time acquainting the younger generation with
the picturesque events which had preceded their time.

He also believed that if he could "dress up" the past, he could arrest
the attention of a generation which was too likely to boast of its
interest only in the present and the future. He took a course of
reading and consulted with Mr. Charles A. Dana, editor of the _New York
Sun_, who had become interested in his work and had written him several
voluntary letters of commendation. Mr. Dana gave material help in the
selection of subjects and writers; and was intensely amused and
interested by the manner in which his youthful confrere "dressed up"