Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-07-16
EDISON AFTER DOLLAR RS.
Why the Great Inventor Desires to Accu-
muIate Fortune.

by the Great Inventor Desires to Accu-
muIate Fortune.
Il saw Edison one day remarked an
acquaintance, ION the eve of perhaps his
most important certainly his most re-
munerative-discovery, riding In the cars
to visit a great foundry IN Connecticut.
He wore long linen buster of antique de-
sign, straw hat which was partly frayed
at the edges, and he sat squeezed by the
generous bulk Of Prof. George A. Barker
of the University Of Pennsylvania, into a
corner of one the amen seats of the railroad
car. He was then not only the most
famous man on that train, but one Of the
most famous Americans the world over;
and he had ali the simplicity of greatness.
And on the following day, when he stood
In front of great dynamo, the wind carry
ing his linen buster at an angie of nearly
As degrees from his legs, and convenient
morsel of his favorite fne-cut revealing 1t
self by frequent approximations, he was
really il. the presence of immensely and
solving one OF the riddles Of the ages;
For it was there that he got his first hint
of the divesibility of the electric-lighting
current, and it was at that moment that
the Edison electric light was created in
his brain.
He had not learned, as he afterward did
learn, that next to his own intellect the
most powerful influence which he could
have in the solution of the problems he
undertook to solve was the possession of
only with the money which he earned but
with his ideas. 1t was not until he be-
came associated with certain capitalists
-lN ,o<r,r1Cl l,ic 5nfallopi with on1
his lack of money sense with something
like amazament tinged with contempt,
that Edison learned the lesson of the value
Of money.
When he got his lesson he had it tho
roughly. Abandoned all the countless no
lions which foatpd to his brain unless be
saw in them a money value; he measured
his contemplated invention not by the sat-
isfactions which they would give him or
the fame which he wcu Id attain but their
value as business commodities. He en-
ployed, iust as a bank would. competent
talent to handle his accounts and cash, and
in the course of two or three years he
found himself not embarrassed for ready
cash. as he had frequently been before; not
obliged to scurry about here and there to
raise money, which was an abhorrent &C.
CupdGIOu W Hill, uuG d Cd titftiISb, dSSOCltlt
of capitalists. a man esteemed in financial
circles not only as a wizard with wonders
at his beck, but man with bank &C.
count, capable of undertaking great f.
nancial operations. He learned, too, to
curb his exuberant and enthusiastic ma
ture, and he puts on mask of severity
and coldness difficult at ali times for him
to maintain, but which he found absolute
ly essential for his protection. With his
intimates he was boy again and he tells
them frequently that when he gets through
feeling like a boy and wanting to act with
the simplicity and heartiness and frank
ness of boy he wants to go.
Edison's wealth is almost impossible to
estimate. 1t is very large, and he is &C
cumulating now rapidly. The snowfall!
has got to a prodigious Size, and it is con
stantly rolling. As he is only A years of
! age, the chances are before he reaches old
age he will become enc of the enormously
wealthy men of he country.