Mr. Curtis's single proprietorship of the magazine had been changed into
a corporation called The Curtis Publishing Company, with a capital of
five hundred thousand dollars, with Mr. Curtis as president, and Bok as
vice-president.
The magazine had by no means an easy road to travel financially. The
doubling of the subscription price to one dollar per year had materially
checked the income for the time being; the huge advertising bills,
sometimes exceeding three hundred thousand dollars a year, were
difficult to pay; large credit had to be obtained, and the banks were
carrying a considerable quantity of Mr. Curtis's notes. But Mr. Curtis
never wavered in his faith in his proposition and his editor. In the
first he invested all he had and could borrow, and to the latter he gave
his undivided support. The two men worked together rather as father and
son--as, curiously enough, they were to be later--than as employer and
employee. To Bok, the daily experience of seeing Mr. Curtis finance his
proposition in sums that made the publishing world of that day gasp with
sceptical astonishment was a wonderful opportunity, of which the editor
took full advantage so as to learn the intricacies of a world which up
to that time he had known only in a limited way.
What attracted Bok immensely to Mr. Curtis's methods was their perfect
simplicity and directness. He believed absolutely in the final outcome
of his proposition: where others saw mist and failure ahead, he saw
clear weather and the port of success.
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