The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1880-04-21
Young AIYah Edison.


stWhile at Menlo Park recently" said
Mr.. Bently, g met Mr.. Edison's father.
He is plain, matter-of-fact old gentle
man and said that he had heard of the
doings of his boy Aivah (healways calls
him AIvak), 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
that he could tell better what it
amounted to if it was up in Detroit, where
he knew people and dould get better
look at it. I asked him what kind of a
boy AIYah was, and whether he had
ever given him trouble. ~ ar
= 90 Alvah was good boy, and I can
say that ] never knew him to, tell a
fRlsehood.' sasw ~e
} a. " 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 I had q hearty laugh.
ST 81 remember, continued the odd
gentleman, that when he was twelve
years old he weighed just sixty pounds.
I would have forgotten it, but the. lit
tle scamp insisted on going with me for
some wheat and after weighing q b1shel
hsIE mp3eb0nJ the scales and he weighed
thessalne as the wheat. He was always
an. active bQys though small andYery
thin. OnceI went down to Ohio for
some goods and brought. them to San
d4sky to have them transshhipped, to
Mfehigan. FOB '--'l''il..''''''' ~. = -''ls
.sssf Alvah was with me, and after an
laadingu was looking for a IAarking pot
to mark the goods, when ne inBisteddOn
doing the marking. A gentleman
standing5by watched him and asked me
il that was my hey. On being answered
in the affirmative, hes8id " If you will
sIet me have him I'll give you thirty
dollars per- month" That was good
wages for a boy in those days, but his
mother thought ne was too little to 60
aNay'from home, and so we refused the
offer. 9Ha. 10 -Ff -+ s'
f3.'' It was not long afterward that he
got position on the railroad to sell
papers, etc, on the cars, and ran dis
lance of 200 miles each day, being at
at home at night. In the baggage car
he had rugged up a telegraph instrument
and every spare moment was spent in
pracJicing. One very cold winter night
when the wind was bowling and the
snow falling, had occasion to go to the
part of the house where heslept1 and
seeing light in his rOomyi had curiosity
enough. to look through the keyrhole,
and-fhere. Alvah sat bundled up IN a
huge 'overcoat and a handkerchief
around bis head, with a lot of bottles
he had gathered from drug Store. He
always was a queer boy, and Z. knew
there vas no use scolding him, and so
Just let hin alone, and gave him the
room to carry on his experiments.
y"' Three months from that time he
had every nook and corner Of the room
filled with shelves ontaining bottles,
stones, chemicals, etc. At last ne had
learned enough of telegraphing to
branch out for himself, and he left us
to push ahead for himself. When
came to clean up that room and emptied
out lot of stuff, which no human be-
ing could tell what it was, got over
thirty dollars for the empty bottles. He
was not fourteen years old when he
left us. Yes, Alvah was a queer boy
well" said I, MI. Edison, the
general opinion of the world is that he
is indeed very queer, but if we had
few more such queer people, science
would soon enlarge"