St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1880-01-24
Young Alvah Edison,
Philadelphia Bulletin.


"While at Menlo Park recently" sale
Mr.. Bently, Il met Edison's father
He is plain, matter-of fact old gen
tleman, and said that he had heard O
the doings of his boy Alvah Che alway:
calls him Alvah), and thought he
would come from his home in Michigar
and see what It was all about. Whc1
he saw the brilliant lights burning h,
remarked that he could tell better What
it amounted to if he was I'D in Detroit
where lie knew people and could get &
better look at it. | asked him what
kind of boy .Alyah was, and whether
he had ever given him trouble,
| Avian was Il good boy, and I can
say that | never knew him to tell a
falsehood."
| edison looked up at his father and
said: But you must remember, father
| have been away from home for some
| time at which both the old gentleman
and had hearty laugh.
SIS | remember continued the old
gentleman, that wI:ena he was twelve
years old he weighed just sixty pounds.
would have forgotten it, but the lit
tie scamp insisted on going with me for
some wheat, and after wei Ching 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 | went
down to ONO for some goods and
brought them to Sandusky to have them
transhipped to Michigan.
"'Alvah was with me, and after un-
loading | was looking for Il marking 20!
to mark the goods, when he insisted on
dong the marking. a gentleman stall
ding by watched him and asked me if
that was my boy. On being answered
= the affirmative he said: If you will
let me have him I'll give you thirty dol
lars per month"; That was good wages
Tor boy III those days, but his mother
Thought he was to young to leave 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 Il dis
lance of 200 miles each day, being b ne
ut night. In the baggage car he had lls-
Sed up telegraph instrument, and
every spare moment was spent in prac-
uclnS. One very cold winter night,
when the wind was bowling and the
snow was falling, | had occasion to 90
to that part of the house where he slept.
and seeing a light in his room, had
curiosity enough to look through the
MY loiC, uHu tHtIC Altau SAT UunuI9u
up IN huge overcOat and a handker-
chief around his head, witt, a lot OF bot
ties he had gathered from drug store
He always was a queer boy, and | knew
there was no use scolding him, and so
just let him alone and gave him the
room to carry Oh his experiments.
"'Ihree months from that time he
had every nook and corner of the room
filled with shelves containing bottles.
stones, chemicals, etc. At last he had
learned enough of telegraphing to
branch out for himself, and he left us
to push ahead for himself. When Il
came to clean up that room and emptied
out d lot OF stuff, which no human being
could tell hat it was, got over thirty
dollars for the empty bottles. He was
not fourteen years old when he left US.
Yes, Alvah was queer boy
"We!l, said |, "NIr. Edison, the gen
eral opinion of the world is that lie is
indeed very queer, but if we had few
more such queer people, science would
soon enlarge"