The Washington critic. (Washington City, D.C.) 1890-1890, 1890-02-16

The Early Life of the Now World
Famous Inventor

EDISON As = NEWSBOY.
The Early Life of the Now World
Famous Inventor.
"At the beginning of the civil war"
said Mr.. Edison, II was Shaving late aud
early at selling papers, but, to tell the
truth, | was not making fortune.
worked on So small margin that |
had to be mighty careful not to over
load myself with papers that | couldn't
sell On the other hand. | could not
afford to carry so few that | should find
myself sold out long before the end of
the trip. To enable myself to hit the
happy mean, ! formed plan which
TUNED out admirably made a friend
of one of the compositcrs in the Free
Press office and persuaded him to show
me every day galley proof of the
most important news article, From
study of its headlines | soon learned to
gauge the value of the days news and its
selling capacity, so that | could form
tolerably correct estimate of the
number Of papers ! should need. As
rule, / could dispose of about 200; but
If here was any special news from the
seat of war the sale ran up to 800 or
over. Well, one day my compositor
brought me a proof slip, of which
nearly the whole was taken up with a
gigantic display head. 1t was the first
report of the battle of Pittsburg Land
ing-afterward called Shiloh, you
know-and it gave the number of killed
and wounded as 0,000 men.
II grasped the situation at once
Here was chance for enormous sales,
if only the people along the line could
know what had happened if only they
could see the proof slips | was then
reading Suddenly an idea occurred to
me. / rushed off to the telegraph
operator and gravely made proposi-
ton to him, which he received just as
gravely. He, on his part, was to wire
to each of the principal stations on our
route, asking the station-mastert to chalk
upon the black bulletin -bOard-used for
announcing the time of arrival and de.
parture of trains-the news Of the
great battle, with its accompanying
slaughter. This he was to do at once,
while | agreed in return, to supply
him free, gratis, for nothing a
Ha1p6r'S Weekly, Harper Monthly"
and daily evening paper during the
next six months from date.
This bargain struck, began to be-
think me how / was to get enough
papers to make the grand coup | in
tended. / had very little cash, and, l
feared, less credit. went to the super
intendent of the delivery department
and proffered modest request for 1 900
copies of the Free Press on trust. But
/ was not much surprised when my re-
quest was curtly and gruffly refused.
In those days, though, was pretty
cheeky boy, and | felt desperate, for L
saw small fortune in prospect if my
telegraph operator had kept his word
point on which / was still trife
| doubtful. Nerving myself for great
| stroke, / marched upstairs into the
Office of Wilbur F. Storey himself, and
asked TO see him. A few minuates later
| | was shown to him. | told him who /
was, and that wanted 1900 copies of
the paper on credit. The tall, thin,
dark eyed, ascetic.looking man stared
at me for q moment, and then scratched
few words on slip of paper. Take
get what you want And so | did.
Then ] felt happier than / have ever
felt since.
II took my 1900 papers, got three
boys to help me fold them, and
mounted the train, all agog to find out
whether the telegraph operator had kept
his word At the town where our first
stop was made usually sold two papers.
As the train swung into that station,
looked ahead and thought there must
be riot going on. A big crowd filled
the platform, and as the train drew up,
| began to realize that they wanted my
papers. Before we left I had sold a
hundred ortwo at five cents apiece. AT
the next station the place was fairly
black with people. | raised the ante,
and sold 300 papers at ten cents each.
So it went on until Port Huron was
reached.
"Then I transferred my remaining
stock TO the wagon, which always
waited for me there, hired small boy
to sit on the pile of papers In the back
of the wagon, so as to discount any pill
feriDg, and sold out every paper / had
at quarter Of dollar or more pei
copy. | remember passed q church
full of worshipers, and stopped to vel
out my papers. In ten seconds thert
was not soul left in the meeting. AL
Of them, including the parson, wert
clustered around me bidding agains
each other for copies of the precious
paper.
"You can understand why it strucl
me then that the telegraph must bt
about the best thing going, for it wa
the telegraphic notices on the bulletin
boards that had done the trick. de
termined at once to become telegraph
operator. But if 1t hadn't been 70
Wilbur +. Storey l should never hav
fully appreciated the wonders of elec
trical science. "--Halper'S Magazine.
"The Cup That Cheers"
Nothing can be more refreshing, inyigo