Bok, Edward William, 1863-1930; Dutch Americans -- Biography; Ladies' Home Journal; Periodical editors -- United States -- Biography
"I am so sorry we are just going out to dinner," said Mrs. Grant, "for
the general had some excellent photographs just taken of himself, and
he signed one for you, and put it aside, intending to send it to you
when yours came." Then, turning to the general, she said: "Ulysses,
send up for it. We have a few moments."
"I'll go and get it. I know just where it is," returned the general.
"Let me have yours," he said, turning to Edward. "I am glad to
exchange photographs with you, boy."
To Edward's surprise, when the general returned he brought with him,
not a duplicate of the small _carte-de-visite_ size which he had given
the general--all that he could afford--but a large, full cabinet size.
"They make 'em too big," said the general, as he handed it to Edward.
But the boy didn't think so!
That evening was one that the boy was long to remember. It suddenly
came to him that he had read a few days before of Mrs. Abraham
Lincoln's arrival in New York at Doctor Holbrook's sanitarium. Thither
Edward went; and within half an hour from the time he had been talking
with General Grant he was sitting at the bedside of Mrs. Lincoln,
showing her the wonderful photograph just presented to him. Edward saw
that the widow of the great Lincoln did not mentally respond to his
pleasure in his possession. It was apparent even to the boy that
mental and physical illness had done their work with the frail frame.
But he had the memory, at least, of having got that close to the great
President.
The eventful evening, however, was not yet over. Edward had boarded a
Broadway stage to take him to his Brooklyn home when, glancing at the
newspaper of a man sitting next to him, he saw the headline: "Jefferson
Davis arrives in New York." He read enough to see that the Confederate
President was stopping at the Metropolitan Hotel, in lower Broadway,
and as he looked out of the stage-window the sign "Metropolitan Hotel"
stared him in the face. In a moment he was out of the stage; he wrote
a little note, asked the clerk to send it to Mr. Davis, and within five
minutes was talking to the Confederate President and telling of his
remarkable evening.
Mr. Davis was keenly interested in the coincidence and in the boy
before him. He asked about the famous collection, and promised to
secure for Edward a letter written by each member of the Confederate
Cabinet. This he subsequently did. Edward remained with Mr. Davis
until ten o'clock, and that evening brought about an interchange of
letters between the Brooklyn boy and Mr. Davis at Beauvoir,
Mississippi, that lasted until the latter passed away.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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