The Americanization of Edward Bok

t Days i

into her dock on September 20 of that year, she discharged, among her passengers, a f

brother-in-law had gone several years before. But that, never a simple matter for a man who has reached forty-two, is particularly difficult for a foreigner in a strange land. This fact he and his wife were to find out. The wife, also carefully reared, had been accustomed to a scale of living which she had n

tom, two other names, but he had decided to leave those in the Netherlands.

ent in New York, and then he was taken to Brooklyn,

ongue, the English language was as a closed book. It seemed a cruel decision of the father to put his two boys into a public school in Brooklyn, but he argued that if they were to become Americans, the sooner they became part of the life of the countr

eds of two Dutch boys who could not understand a word she said, and who could only wonder what it was all about. The b

turally sought each other, only to find themselves surrounded by a group of tormentors who were delighted to have such promising objects for their fun. And of this opportunity they made the most. There was no form of petty cruelty boys' minds

the group of his tormentors, picked out one who seemed to him the ringleader, and before the boy was aware of what had happened, Edward Bok was in the full swing of his first real experiment with Americanization. Of course the American boy retaliated. But the boy from the Netherlands had not been born and brought up in

e took, or gave-it depends upon the point of view-two or three more lessons in this particular phase of Americanization bef

came to the boy's rescue, and as the roots of the Anglo-Saxon lie in the Frisian tongue, and thus in the language of his native country, Edward s

manship could not be useful or practicable for after life, and so, with that Dutch stolidity that, once fixed, knows no altering, he refused to copy his writing lessons. Of course trouble immediately ensued between Edward and his teacher. Finding herself against a literal blank wall-for Edward simply refused, but had not the gift of English with which to

cularly as the discerning principal had chosen the boy's right hand upon which to rain the blows. Edward was told to sit down at the principal's own desk and copy the lesson. He sat, but he did not write. He would not for one thing, and he could not if he would. After half an hour of purposeless sitting, the principal ordered Edward again to

alize that to cope successfully with any American institution, one must be constructive as well as destructive. He went to his room, brought out a specimen of Italian handwriting which he had seen in a newspaper, and explained to his fathe

ater years-in his son's discernment of the futility of the Spencerian style of penmanship. He agreed with the boy, and, next morning, accompanied him to school and to the principal. The two men were closeted together, and when they came ou

aluable way in directing his attention to the study of penmanship; for it was through his legible handwriting that later, in the

urse, the boy never associated the incident of his refusal with the change until later when his mother explained to him that the principal of the school, of whom the father had made a w

unconsciously, Edward Bok had st