St. Paul daily globe., 1890-03-24
EDISON AS A NEwsBoY.
The Early Life of the World-Fa.
nous Inventor.

nous Inventor.
Harper's Magazine.
"At the beginning Of the civil war;"
said Mr.. Edison, II was Shaving late and
early at selling papers; put, to tell the
truth, was not making fortune. l
worked on so small margin that had
TO be mighty careful not to overload
myself with papers that 1 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
turned out admirably. made friend
OF one of the compositors IN the Free
Press office and persuaded him to show
me every day a galley proof of the
most important news article. From a
to gauge the value of the days news
and its selling capacity, so that l could
form tOlerabiy correct estimate of the
number of papers l 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 gigantic
display head. 1t was the first report Of
the battle OF PittSburg Landing-after-
ward called Shiloh, you knOw-and it
gave the number of killed and wounded
as 10000 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 l was then
reading! Suddenly an idea occurred to
me. rushed off to the telegraph Oper-
ator and gravely made 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, ask
ing the station master to chalk upon
the black bulletin-board-used for
announcing the time of arrival and depart
ure OF trains-the news of the great
battle with it's accompanying slaughter.
This he was to do at once, while |
agreed, in return, to supply him free,
gratis, for nothing,' a Harper's Weekly,
a Harper's Monthly and daily evening
paper during the next six months from
date.
This bargain struck, l began to be-
think me how l was to get enough
papers to make the grand coup intend
ed. l had very little cash, and, l
feared, less credit. / went to the super
lntendent of the delivery department
and proffered modest request for 1000
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, l was pretty
cheeky boy, and | felt desperate, for l
saw small fortune in prospect if my
telegraph operator had kept his word
a point on (Which [ was still trifle
doubtful. Nerving myself for great
stroke, marched up stairs into the Office
of Wilbur f. Storey himself and asked to
see him. A few minutes later / was
shown in to him. | told him who was,
paper on credit. The tall, thin, dark
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
l felt happier than l have ever felt
since.
l 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 l
looked ahead and thought there must
be riot going on. A big crowd filled
the platform, and as the train drew up
l began to realize that they wanted my
papers. Before we left | had 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 a 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 l had at a quarter of dol
lar OF 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, bid
ding 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 telegraphic notices on the bulletin
boards that have done the trick. de-
termined at once to become telegraph
operator. But if it hadn't been for
Wilbur f. Storey l should never have
fully appreciated the wonders of elec-
trical science"