Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1890-01-17
INVENTOR EDISON.
WHAT THE FAMOUS MAN EATS,
THINKS AND LIKES.
His Workshop ut LicwclIyn Park
AMau ofVery Simple Tastcs-Cnrc-
lessiy Drcsscd-Posscsso or
II Very Active Mind.

SUI KS Nc appears NJ tue aye oil fo.ty-hvc,
in the rich prime of his years and ut the
zenith of his accomplishment. SAYS a
writer i'll the New York World. TO do
it have made trip or two to the phon-
ographic laboratories, mile or so from
Orange, i'll Jersey. 1t is two years since
Edison aud the Edison interests took
Judgement mt what is known as Level
lyn Park, but now the personality of.tho
wizard is over the ncigborhood like the
legendary ''cloud by day and pillar of fire
by night"
In the surroundings of his laboratory
is an air of mystery The neighbors look
reverently ut the big brick buildings, in
respect to the Juggling and necromancy
that are taking place within.
Here i'll these great buildings of brick
is Edisons life. Here, and more and
more, his ambitions are ceutering. The
laboratories were erected for work upon
the photograph, which has been and il
the darling OF his heart. And save when
some business or social duty--of the lat
ter he acknowledges few--calls him
away, horc you may find him at almost
any hour
lie is strange figure, in his kong frock
OF checked gingham, which buttons close
at the chin and reaches to the heels. 1t
is nothing more nor less than Il mans
Mother Hubbard, which Edison pulls on
when ut work 10 protect mis- neat suit of
black broadcloth from dust and acids
and oils and edged tools. y big head,
with Struggling hair, just turning gray,
and big face that has queer some
thing more than Yankee shrcwdncss in
it, loom above tins peculiar garment with
strange effect. Edison in his working
gown is Il sight to laugh at, until you
remember that it is Edison. Still there is
nothing of the rapt genius about him to
repcl the visitor or impress him with 81
sense of his own littleness. Edison is
bluff and hearty, and his enormous
mouth grins rs easily as can be. He
speaks i'll Il loud tone aud scolds his as
sistants in brtisquc way for their idle
ness, when they know he doesn't mean
it.
The lean telegraph operator has grown
fat in these latter years, not SD much upon
high living as upon high thinking and
for lack of bodily exercise. lie has the
action and vitality of robust, healthy
man. He is broad of shoulder and dccp
of chest, but there is pallor about his
face, caused, beyond question, by pro-
lonEcd confinement within doors. His
nose is the color centre, as well MS the
gcomctrical centre Of his face, but its
mddiness is not an alcoholic growth
There never was IN eye just like Edi-
sons. 1t is of cold color, that Strict
critic might call iishy, but it is an in
quisitive eye, and all about it are the
wrinkles which nothing but years of ga-
NAL laughter can impart. Altogether, il
is face among Il thousand In repose
it is sadly solemn, like an owls. Let
somebody crack Il joke and in an instant
if you'd look at that face, you wouldn't
know il was the same Edison When he
is in his inevitable suit of black, and
adorned with little white lawn cravat,
you might take him for = rreacher if it
were not for his face. But in his smock
frock you would have hard work guess
ing what he was.
With this gingham institution tapping
ajOut his heels, the inventor goes stump
ing around from room TO room in the
great laboratory, overseeing the different
experiments that his assistants are con
Quoting. lie has the same little st0op al
the hips that plowmcn acquire, but he
walks rapidly. There are between fifty
and one hundred men there, engaged
merely in experimenting at his bidding,
and reporting the results infinitely to
him. Each experiment is conducted in
room apart, but Edison never loses
track of one. lie holds in his mind,
while bossing them all, exact rcmcm-
brance Of how far each had progressed,
what the latest results and Indications re-
ported TO him were, what his directions
and what to expect from them ut the
next visit. In the experiment room, as
elsewhere, lie is Il wonderfully observant
man. lie believes a good part of invcn-
ton consists in catching nature at her
FRANKS.
There is something mercurial in his
way of work. He flies from one thing to
another, and, his workmen say, tires
quickly of Il thing. Then it is long odds
he will order it moved out of the way
until his interest III it is refreshed by rest
"hNt "poShNS iiOhi its TIC VIII
set with feverish energy about some
thing else. But Edison is like electricity
itself. No one can tell what he will do
next. At times he will take some fads
in his head that some work must be done
nights. Then he will tell the expert
menters they are lazy lot of chaps and
it's got to stop. He will order them all
to report early in the evening, and
chances are they'll sit around all night
and do little or nothing. BY the third
night they'll do nothing at all except cat
lunch and tell funny stories, and then the
bit of energy and the scheme of night
work will have died natural deaths.
At other times the persistence with
which Edison works and keeps those
about him working is something up
paralleled save in the histories of great
wars and great newspapers. If he gets
especially interested in an eynerimenf he