The Arizona sentinel., 1886-05-08
AHEAD OF EDISON.


 tedated the Wizard.
 '.Edison may think he has this busi- ness of telegraphing from moving train down fne," said the candy butcher, ''but I can go him one better. have been sending messages from a moving train for two years, and stopped only three months ago. That ain't all, either; I send my autograph by wire, and boxes of candy, fruit, nov els, and hull lot O such things. Edi- is way behind the times"
 "You're lying"
 horned spoon that am telling the truth, s'elp me. You doubt me? Of course. All great inventors have been greeted in this cold world by sneers and incredulity. That has been the fortune of all of us great men. But we get there just the same You want to hear how I did it? We'll, I'll tell you. About two years ago I went gone on a girl who lived down in the country in a house located about half mile from the track in little valley. There was no station there, and I didn't get to see her very often, except at a distance-a wave of handkerchief, or some thing like that-and this wasn't satisfactory, as you may imagine. My train never passed that way unless I had a yearning that there would be an ac- cident or something that would cause us to lay over two or three days. I used to think seriously about throwing my self off the rear car and getting hurt, so I could be carried to her dads house and by her fair hands and loving ten derness nursed slowly back to the strength and health of avigorous young manhood, as the story books have it. But didn't throw myself off the train, not just then. Might have done it but for an idea. An idea came to me from out of the clouds, I guess. It was a regular inspiration. It broke all over me like bad egg, which a granger threw at me once down the road in re- venge for cheating him out of a nickel. It took possession of me from my brain to my heart. wasn't long getting to work on it, either. The very next Sun day 1 stopped at the nearest station, hired livery horse and carriage, and drove out to my g1rrs house. Under the seat in the carriage l had big roll of telegraph wire which the lnemen had left out in the storm. told the girl of my little scheme, and she became enthusiastic over it. Between the house and the railroad, half-mile away, was a piece of woods coming clear up to the track. Here we were walking, and I took along my roll of wire and some tools which she sneaked out of her dads shop. We worked like beavers all the after noon, and by night had a wire stretched from the track down the hillside to an arbor in the garden by the house. From that on I sent her message every time I passed. Some days l sent her books, oranges, boxes of candy, every thing like that. How? Just as easy as fall, ing off log. I had stretched the wire from the top of whistle post close by the side of the trark, and in my kit 1 kept a lot of little wire fixin's which l made myself. They fit the wire nicely, and to 'em I could tie letters, light packages and such things, and then all i had to do was to watch for the whistle post, hoop in hand, and, on reaching the post, slip the hoop on the wire while the train was running forty miles an hour. Down the hillside the letter glided with great rapidity, and at the other end of the line she was waiting on the arbor bench for my message. Great scheme, isn't it?'
 .'Yes; but how did you come to stop on it?''
 "Why, bout three months ago mar ried the girl. You wouldn't expect a man to go to all that trouble in order to keep up communication with his own wife, would youP'-CbicGgo Herald.