Mr.  Curtis's  single  proprietorship  of  the  magazine  had
been  changed  into  a  corporation  called  The  Curtis  Publish-
ing 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;


BUILDING  UP  A  MAGAZINE  121

large  credit  had  to  be  obtained,  and  the  banks  were  carry-
ing 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  Air.  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.
