ation was hardly a basis on
which to build the work of a lifetime. He saw each day in his duties
as office boy some of the foremost men of the time. It was the period
of William H. Vanderbilt's ascendancy in Western Union control; and the
railroad millionnaire and his companions were objects of great interest
to the young office boy. Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Edison
were also constant visitors to the department. He knew that some of
these men, too, had been deprived of the advantage of collegiate
training, and yet they had risen to the top. But how? The boy decided
to read about these men and others, and find out. He could not,
however, afford the separate biographies, so he went to the libraries
to find a compendium that would authoritatively tell him of all
successful men. He found it in Appleton's _Encyclopaedia_, and,
determining to have only the best, he saved his luncheon money, walked
instead of riding the five miles to his Brooklyn home, and, after a
period of saving, had his reward in the first purchase from his own
earnings: a set of the _Encyclopaedia_. He now read about all the
successful men, and was encouraged to find that in many cases their
beginnings had been as modest as his own, and their opportunities of
education as limited.

One day it occurred to him to test the accuracy of the biographies he
was reading. James A. Garfield was then spoken of for the presidency;
Edward wondered whether it was true that the man who was likely to be
President of the United States had once been a boy on the tow-path, and
with a simple directness characteristic of his Dutch training, wrote to
General Garfield, asking whether the boyhood episode was true, and
explaining why he asked. Of course any public man, no matter how large
his correspondence, is pleased to receive an earnest letter from an
information-seeking boy. General Garfield answered warmly and fully.
Edward showed the letter to his father, who told the boy that it was
valuable and he should keep it. This was a new idea. He followed it
further; if one such letter was valuable, how much more valuable would
be a hundred! If General Garfield answered him, would not other famous
men? Why not begin a collection of autograph letters? Everybody
collected something.

Edward had collected postage-stamps, and the hobby had, incidentally,
helped him wonderfully in his study of geography. Why should not
autograph letters from famous persons