Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-05-09
EDISON AS A NEWSBOY.
How He First Appreciated Electricity and
incidentally Made Stake.

How He Fist Appreciated Electricity and
incidentally Made Stake.
The following is one Of the ''Talks with
Edison" which George Parsons Lathrop re-
ports in harper's Magazine. cat the be-
ginning of the civil war;" said Mr.. Edison,
81 was Shaving late and early at selling
papers; but, to tell the truth, was not max
ing a 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, l could not afford to-
carry SO few that l should find myself sold
out long before the end of the trip To en-
able myself to hit the happy mean, formed
plan which turned out admirably. l made
a friend of one of the compositors in The
Free Press office, and persuaded him to show
me every day galley proof of the most
important news article. From study of it's
headlines soon learned to gauge the value
of the days news and its selling capacity, so
that 1 could form a tolerably correct esti-
mate of the number of papers 1 should need
As rule, could dispose of about 200; but
if there was any special news from the seat
of war, the sale ran up to 800 or over. Well
one day my compositor brought me 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 $4,000 men!
II grasped the situation at once. Here was
a chance for enormous sales, if only the people.
along the line could know what had hap
pened if only they could see the proof slip L
was then reading! Suddenly an idea occurred
to me. brushed off to the telegraph operator
and gravely made a proposition 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 master to:
chalk upon the black bulletin board-used
for announcing the times 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 l agreed, in return,
to supply him free, gratis, for nothing
Harper's Weekly, a Harper's Monthly, and
daily evening paper during the next six
months from that date.
'sThis bargain struck, l began to bethink
me how was to get enough papers to make
the grand coup I intended. I had very little
cash, and, 1 feared, still less credit. went
to the superintendent of the delivery depart
ment and proffered modest request for 1000
copies of The Free Press on trust But was
not much surprised when my request was
CURLY and gruffly refused. In those days,
though, was pretty cheeky boy, and | felt
desperate, for saw small fortune in pros
pect if my telegraph operator had kept his
word-a point on which | was still trife
doubtful. Nerving myself for great stroke,
l marched upstairs into the Office of Wilbur
F. Storey himself, and asked to see him. A
few minutes later l was shown in to him. |
told him who | was and that wanted 1,5OO
copies of the paper on credit The tall, thin,
dark eyed, ascetic looking man stared at me
for moment, and then scratched few
words on slip of paper. Take that down
stairs, said he, and you will 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. big crowd filled
the platform, and as the train drew up !
began to realize that they wanted my papers.
Before we left had sold hundred or two
at five cents apiece At the next station the
place was fairly black with people, l raised
the ante, and sold 800 papers at ten cents
each. So it went on until Port Huron was
reached. Then | 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 pilfering, and sold out every
paper had at a quarter of dollar or more
per copy. remember passed church full
of worshipers, and stopped to yell out my
news. In ten seconds there was not soul
left in meeting All of them, including the
parson, were clustered around me, bidding
against each other for copies of the precious
paper.
"You can understand why it struck me
then that the telegraph must be about the
best thing going, for it was the Geographic
notices on the bulletin boards that had done
the trick. | determined at once to become a
telegraph operator. But if it hadn't been for
Wilbur F. Storey should never have fully ap-
preciated the wonders of electrical sciencen