St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-03-24
EDISON AS A NEWsBoY.
The Early Life ofthe World-Fa-
nous Inventor.

The Early Life of the WOrld-Fa.
nous Inventor.
Harper's Magazine.
Eat the beginning of the civil war;"
said Mir. Edison, II was Shaving late and
early at selling papers; put, to tell the
truth, l was not making fortune. 1
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, l could not
afford to carry so few that I should find
myself sold out long before the end of
the trip. 10 enable myself to hit the
happy mean l 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 galley proof of the
most important news article. From a
study of its headlines | soon learned
to gauge the value of the days news
and its selling capacity, so that l could
form tolerably correct estimate of the
number of papers l should need. AS
rule, could dispose of about 200; but it
there was any special news from the
seat OF war the sale ran up to 300 or
over. Well, one day my composition
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 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,
II only the people along the line could
know what had happened; II only they
could see the proof slips l was then
reading! Suddenly an idea occurred to
me. l rushed off to the telegraph oper-
atOr 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, ask
ing the station master to chalk upon
the black Northumberland for
announcing the time of arrival and depart
ure 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 a Harper's Weekly,
a Harper'S Monthly and daily evening
paper during the next six months from
date.
This bargain struck. began to be-
think me how l was to get enough
papers to make the grand coup intend
ed. had very little cash, and, l
feared, less credit. l went to the super
intendent of the delivery department
and proffered modest request for 1000
L was not much surprised when my re-
quest was CURLY and gruffy refused.
In those days, though, | was a pretty
cheeky boy, and l 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 a great
stroke, marched up stairs 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 I wanted 1,500 copies of the
paper on credit. The tall, thin, dark
eyed, ascetic-looking man starded 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 l did. Then
l felt happier than l have ever felt
since.
took my 1,5OO papers. got three boys
TO help me fold them, and mounted the
train, all agog to find out whether the
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 | 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 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 a dol
lar OF more per copy. l remember l
passed a 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 Geographic notices on the bulletin
boards that have done the trick. l de-
termined at once to become a telegraph
operator. But if it hadn't been for
Wilbur F. Storey should never have
fully appreciated the wonders of cleo
trical science"