In a moment he was out of the stage; he wrote a little note, asked the clerk to send it to Mr.Davis, and within five minutes was talking to the Confederate President and telling of his remarkable evening.
Mr.Davis was keenly interested in the coincidence and in the boy before him.

He asked about the famous collection, and promised to secure for Edward a letter written by each member of the Confederate Cabinet.

This he subsequently did.

Edward remained with Mr.Davis until ten o'clock, and that evening brought about an interchange of letters between the Brooklyn boy and Mr.Davis at Beauvoir, Mississippi, that lasted until the latter passed away.
Edward was fast absorbing a tremendous quantity of biographical information about the most famous men and women of his time, and he was compiling a collection of autograph letters that the newspapers had made famous throughout the country.

He was ruminating over his possessions one day, and wondering to what practical use he could put his collection; for while it was proving educative to a wonderful degree, it was, after all, a hobby, and a hobby means expense.