The Portland daily press., 1886-02-19
ECCENTRIC EDISON.
Talk with the Man who Roomed with
Him in Boston.
rCincinnati ENQUIRER. I


Said an old telegraph operator yesterday,
speaking of Edison's late invention by which
telegraph messages can be sent from moving
trains: ''Well, the ups and downs of this
world are peculiar. | was once Edison's
roommate.
"What! and where, pray"
In Boston, in 1869, he and l were both op-
orators in the Western Union, on State
street. | well recollect the day he first struck
town. He looked like anything but tele-
graph operator. He would be taken for a
tramp His clothes were old and worn, the
bottoms of his pants were frayed and his
boots were down at the heel and out at the
toes. He wore an old SLOUGH felt hat; the
rim was torn and Topped down over his ear,
giving him decidedly don't-care-a-cuss ap-
pearance."
"How did the Office come to hire him? ?"
'sWell, he came in one day and asked for
job. The manager wanted an operator, and
after putting some questions to him as to his
ability and where he had worked, ne was
hired. His appearance was decidedly against
him, yet he was put on the New York wire,
which was one Of the hardest wires in the
office. The New York man was one OF the
fastest senders in the country, and they
nXeU III uD OH dUObutE WIG W give uiln q
roast On came words thicker and faster,
but the new man held his own. The New
York operator sent for an hour or so at a
lively rate, then he stopped and said, Are
you there?' Edison responded, /, |, and
New York opened up again and sent faster
than ever. This continued for a couple of
hours, and Edison kept on at work. Then
the New York office asked, who is there?'
He replied, e.
who is 4.
Well Ell you are the best man ever tack
led
laughing in their sleeve, thinking, of course,
how the New York men would warm Ed
sons Jacket but it was not long before 1t
soon got out that he was one OF the best OPP
orators in the country. There was another
remarkable thing about the man. His copy
was like copper-plate 1t was like type, let
tiers all disconnected, a full, bold, round
hand"
Elbow long did he stay there?"
"a year or So and during all this time he
was experimenting with electrical apparatus
About the first thing that he worked on was
a combination repeater for use on the House
printing telegraph system. This was put In
operation between Boston and Philadelphia,
but not receiving much announcement from
the telegraph officials, he abandoned it,
Finally he made the acquaintance of some
one who owned an electric wire manufacto-
ry and he allowed him to experiment In his
place. He spent all he earned on old BOOKS
that he picked up at the various junk shops
and book stalls with which Boston abounds
Why. he kept a corner of the room chock-
full, piled up four feet high, then he would
box them up and send them to his father in
Port Huron, Mich. He bought Chinese
books, in fact anything that no one else
would touch, then he'd buy it. He was
great admirer of Victor Hugo, so much so
that the boys nick-named him Victor Hugo,
and he went by that name as long as he was
| there. He even went so far as to initiate
his style of composition, those disjointed
snappish sentences. He wrote an essay for
a friend of his who was then located at Plas-
ter Cove, Nova Scotia, entitled 1.-The Prog
ress of Science" 1t was full of all the tech
meal terms and big words the dictionary
contained. She fellow read the essay and it
paralyzed the Nova Scotians. 1t broke up
the society.
''What were his habitsp'
''Some very peculiar ones. Why, he never
slept. He lay awake nights thinking OF
things, and would jump out of bed, strike
light and, being'a fine draughtsman, would
sit up till morning drawing diagrams OF some
piece of machinery that he had been think
ing Of He was the most eccentric person
ever saw about his dress. have seen him
with his coat out at the elbows, pants worn
at the bottom no collar, boots the worse for
wear, go into fashionable establishment on
Washington street and buy a 81 silk hat
He had no sort of idea of the value OF money.
He was regular in nothing, not even IN his
eating. If he was busy he would go all day
without touching bite, then he'd german
die like glutton."