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Bok, Edward William, 1863-1930

"A Dutch Boy Fifty Years After"

"
Edward Bok's friends have failed to get his measure,--yet!
They still have to learn what he has learned and is learning every day:
"the joy," as Charles Lamb so aptly put it upon his retirement, "of
walking about and around instead of to and fro."
* * * * *
The question now naturally arises, having read this record thus far: To
what extent, with his unusual opportunities of fifty years, has the
Americanization of Edward Bok gone? How far is he, to-day, an
American? These questions, so direct and personal in their nature, are
perhaps best answered in a way more direct and personal than the method
thus far adopted in this chronicle. We will, therefore, let Edward Bok
answer these questions for himself, in closing this record of his
Americanization.


CHAPTER XXI
WHERE AMERICA FELL SHORT WITH ME
When I came to the United States as a lad of six, the most needful
lesson for me, as a boy, was the necessity for thrift. I had been
taught in my home across the sea that thrift was one of the
fundamentals in a successful life.


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