The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1880-01-29
YOUNG ALVAH EDISON.
The Wizard of Menlo Park as a Bow.
From the Philadelphia Bulletin.l


from the Philadelphia Bulletinl
while at Menlo Park" said Mr..
Bentley, Il met Edison's father. He
is plain, matter of-fact old gentleman,
and said that he had heard of the do,ngs
of his boy Alvah Che always calls him
Alvah), and thought he would come
from his home in Michigan and see
what it was all about. When he saw
the brilliant lights burning he remarked
thathe could tell better what it amounted
to If it was up in Detroit, where he
knew people and could get better
look at it. | asked him what kind of
boy Alvah was, and whether he had ever
given him trouble. 81 EH.f
'Alvah was good boy, and I can
say that never knew him tell false
hood
Edison looked up at his father and
said But you must remember, father,
L have been away from home for some
time at which both the old gentleman
and had a hearty laugh.
| / remember continued the old
gentleman, that, when he was IL years
old, he weighed just sixty pounds. I
would have forgotten it. but the little
scamp insisted on going with me for
some wheat, and, after weighing bush
Ell, he jumped on the scales and he
weighed the same as the wheat. He
was always an active boy, though small
and very thin. Once I went down to
Ohio for some goods and brought them
to Sandusky to have them transhipped
to Michigan. Alvah was with me, and,
after unloading, I was looking for a
marking-pot to mark the goods, when
he insisted Oh doing the marking. A
gentleman standing by watched him
and asked me if that was my boy. On
being answered in the affirmative, he
said: Ii you'll let me have him I'll
give you $50 per month"; That was
good wages for a boy in those days,
but his mother thought he was too little
to go away from home. and so we refused
the offer .
1t was not long afterward that he
got position on the railroad to sell
papers, ETC., on the cars, and ran dist
ance of 200 miles each day, being home
at night. In the baggage car he had
rugged up a telegraph instrument, and
every spare moment was spent in prac-
ticing. One very cold winter night,
when the wind was bowling and the
snow falling, I had occasion to go to the
part of the house where he slept, and,
seeing light in his room, had curiosity
enough to look through the keyhole,
and there Alvah sat bundled up In a
huge overcoat and handkerchief
around his head, with lot of bottles
he had gathered from drug store. He
always was queer boy, and I knew
there was no use scolding him, and so
just let him alone and gave him the
room to carry on his experiments
Three months from that time he had
every nook and corner of the room filed
with shelves containing bottles, stones
chemicals, etc. At last he had learned
enough telegraphing to branch out fol
himself, and he left us to push ahead
for himself. When I came to clean ur
that room and emptied out lot of stuff
which no human being could tell wha1
it was, [ got over $50 for the empty
bottles. He was not IA years old when
he left us. Yes, Alvah was queer
boy
"'Well,' said I, Mr.. Edison, the gen.
eral opinion Of the world is that he is
indeed very queer, but if we had few
more such queer people, science would
soon enlarge"