The very quality for which the magazine had been held up to ridicule by the unknowing and unthinking had become, with hundreds of thousands of women, its source of power and the bulwark of its success.
Bok was beginning to realize the vision which had lured him from New York: that of putting into the field of American magazines a periodical that should become such a clearing-house as virtually to make it an institution.
He felt that, for the present at least, he had sufficiently established the personal contact with his readers through the more intimate departments, and decided to devote his efforts to the literary features of the magazine.
The newspaper paragraphers were now having a delightful time with Edward Bok and his woman's magazine, and he was having a delightful time with them.

The editor's publicity sense made him realize how valuable for his purposes was all this free advertising.

The paragraphers believed, in their hearts, that they were annoying the young editor; they tried to draw his fire through their articles.

But he kept quiet, put his tongue in his cheek, and determined to give them some choice morsels for their wit.
He conceived the idea of making familiar to the public the women who were back of the successful men of the day.

He felt sure that his readers wanted to know about these women.