The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1889-10-12
ED1soN's RETURN.
He Tells OF the .SSondrous sights He
Saw in Paris-His Experience
with Dinners.

/ New YORK ,Oct.7.-Ass already stated,
Thomas A. Edison arrived yesterday
by the French steamship La Cham
psgne from his eight weeks' visit 10
Europe. He brings back With him the
highest honors that Ffance and Italy
can confer upon an American citizen.
81 went over to see the Exposition"
said he last night to a reporter at his
home In Llewellyn Park, NJ. sit
was big show. couldn't begin 10
see 1t ali. Acres on acres of things to
look at. OF course what wanted to
see most was the machinery and elec-
trical exhibits. 1t would take man
weeks just to cover the grounds Ia
those two departments"
"What were your i'm pressions OF the
electrical exhibits ?"
| 81 saw very little that was new.
| There does not seem to have been very
much progress made In electricity since
the time of the electrical exhibition
several years ago. One of the best
things there was an electrical loom,
invented by q. Freuchman. bad
twenty-five monographs there, aud
81, 900 people heard them every day.
They were all free. It was the first
time the phonogrsph had been seen In
Europe, with the exception of the ex-
hibition before the Academy of Sell
ences. We had them talking in .
dozen languages.
"The showing made by the United
States was very poor. Even the little
South American republics beat us all
hollow. had one-fith of the Ameri-
can space in Machinery Hall with my
things alone.
.sThe E.ffel Tower is a wonderful
thing. I was given dinner BY the
French Society of Civil Engineers on
the first landing. NJ. Eif1el was there,
too. After we were done we drank
our coffee in his private room on top
of the highest landing, TO which the
public is not admitted. Seventy five
of US did not fill the room. Eifel has
a piano there. Gounod, the composer
of sFaust,' played and sang, and did 1t
splendidiy, too, despite his more than
eighty years."
uYou were rendered many dinners
while abroad ?''
"Dinners, well should say 80. 1t
was dinners, dinners, dinners all the
time. got to be worse than Cham.
cey Depew. They did not get me 10
make any speecnes though. Once I
got Depew to make q speech for me,
and I got Reid, our minister there,
three or four times. could never get
used TO so many big dinners. At noon
would sit down to what they call q
sdeje,Mer.' That would last until 81
O'Clock, ard few hours later would
come big dinner. 1t was terrible. 1
looked down from the Eiffsl Tower on
the biggest dinner ever saw, given to
the mayors of France by the munich
pality of Paris. saw $500 people
eating at one time. I ate one Ameri-
can dinner while abroad, given by
Hoey and lots OF other Americans were
invited. We had mince pie, Boston
baked beans and peanuts. John Hoey
had brought over some watermelons,
which we ate. Before I went to Lon.
don l got a telegram from the Lord
Mayor that he would give me dfn-
ner at the Mansion House, but l
couldn't make it in time. But I did
have lunch with him there"
"What cities did you visit besides
Paris ?"
"I went TO Cologne, Berlin, Metz,
Heidelberg, Brussels and London. AT
Heidelberg I met great many Of the
scientific men Of Germany. men that I
heard Of for years, but had never seen.
| A monster meeting was held, over
which the Grand Duke of Baden pre-
sided. exhibited the phonograph to
IL, 900 people, and they all heard it
deliver speech In good German"
"Did they not make you q duke or
count or something over there?"
ono, not quite so bad as that. I am
still an American citizen, and wear
the same size hat as when I started.
When 1 first exhibited the old phono.
graph over there France made me a
chevalier Of the Legion Of Honor. At
the time OF the electrical exhibition
they advanced me grade, making me
an officer. This summer they raised
the ante again, and made noe COM
maudeur, believe they call 1t. Al all
events, it is the highest decoration Of
the Legion OF Honor. Over in France
they think q great deal of these deco
rations. The Minister of Foreign Az
fairs gave me this one through Mr..
Reid, sending a nice letter with it. AT
Mr.. Reid's house they tried to get the
ribbon and cross around my neck, but
I would not have it there. While l was
in Europe + also had the phonograph
exhibited before Queen Marguerite al
Venice and the King at Rome, and
he, too, conferred on me the highest