Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1893-08-26

order to pick up u cur Oh IreiSnt On ioS
way to jackson. This left the passen-
ger and baggage-car at the north end
of the station platform. The engine
and freight-cars backed in on the
freight-house track and pulled out the
car on to the main track, without q
brakeman, giving it gentle push to-
ward the baggage-car. The track was
very level
my son, then two and q half years
old" said Mr.. Mackenzie, ''unobservcd
by his nurse, had strayed upon the
main track and was amusing himself
throwing pebbles, when Edison, who
stood near with papers under his arm,
turned and saw the child's danger.
Throwing aside his papers, he plunged
between the cars just in time TO drag
himself and the child clear OF the ap-
preaching cars. Excepting scratches,
both escaped without injury. The act
was heroic, and our gratitude was I'M
bounded. l was just then unable,
however, to substantially reward the
young hero. Then remembered his
absorbing interest in telegraphy. Many
u time had driven him from the Office,
for his curiosity led him into all sorts
of mischief, to my annoyance. AL l
said, stop at Mount Clemens from
eleven u. IN. to four p. IN. several days
each week, and will perfect you as an
operator and get you position The
offer was eagerly accepted.
Edison soon had erected a line from
the station tank to my brother-in-law's
sleeping room over the station. The
instruments used We're made by Ed
ison's own hands at gun-shop in De.
troit. In construction and operation
they were perfect Subsequently the
boy put up a perfectly equipped work.
ing line from the station to the village
drug store-a distance of one mile. 1t
worked very well in the fine, dry
weather during which it was built, but
the first rainy day rendered it useless.
1t could hardly have been otherwise,
for nine-tenths of the line was fastened
with mere penny nails to the cedar of
a snake-stake. There were no insu-
lators of any kind, and the line was
what is known as stove-pipe annealed
wire. Excepting two paid messages
sent over this line, the whole was
financial failure.
lone day while the line was in oper-
alton AL rushed into my Office his eyes
electric sparks. Mr.. Mackenzie he
cried, L can send two messages at the
same time over a single wire.
Away with your nonsense re-
piled, and drove him out of the Office.
After the Boston trial in which Edi-
sons claim to the invention of the 'du-
plex' was contested, recalled to him
the incident.
"'Ilad had your evidence. Macken-
zie, said the inventor, in reply. it
would have saved me three hundred
thousand dollars
In three months the pupil excelled
the master, who had no hesitation in
him to the telegraph SUI
perintendent. Edison became night
operator at Stratford, Ontario.
Now began his migratory career as a
telegraph operator. Many ups and
downs were his. Often he was hungry,
cold and shelterless, for the insatia-
BILE impulse to experiment to the
neglect of his duties kept him con-
tinually out of work. One day he rev.
eled in the praises his ingenuity
evoked; the next he was dubbed 'Luny"
and turned adrift.
Perhaps his most ingenious boyhood
feat was performed during an ice jam
that broke the cable between Port
Huron in Michigan and Sarnia in Can
ada. The river ut this point is mile
and q half wide. The ice made the
river impossible, and there was no
way of repairing the cable.
Edison impulsively jumped on To-
and seized the valve control
ing the whistle. He had an idea that
the blasts Of the whistle might be
broken into long and short sounds, cor
to the dots and dashes of
telegraphy. In moment the whistle
sounded over the river: loot, toot,
toot--toot, toot.#
"Hallo-o! Sarnia! Do you get me?"
''Do you hear what say?"
No answer.
'Do you hear what say, Sarnia?"
A third, fourth and fifth time the
message went across, to receive no re-
Spouse. Finally the operator on the
other side understood. Answering
"toots" came cheerfully back, and the
was established.
Always indifferent about his dress,
with hair that stood up ''like quiz
upon the fretful porcupine," Edison's
brought him at seventeen
years of age to the Cincinnati Office of
the Western Union, where his absorb
ton in electricity and predictions OF
it's future power confirmed the sobri-
quet "Luny." which chung to him even
until his fame was established.
I'VE have the craziest chap in our