Birmingham age-herald., 1894-10-28

forth tfafeIlng rom place to place, a ,ythip cQpntriAea youth, careless Qf .ag ERgsai E 5ySs sgsiSa T E}ss ass great opportunities which were to make him famous. He experimented with telegraph keys, Tead Victor HugdI and dreamed. Once indeed he started for South America, but missed the boat when he reached New Orleans He sauntered to the four points of the compass and then drifted back home toI Port Huron. He had been graduated" says one of his admirers, from the university of the world"
 A series of inventions followed am engagement In New York which he obtained some time afterward, and finally in the centennial year of the republic he established and withdrew to the world famous laboratory at Menlo Park. His feats since that time have been the worlds wonders. Tho incandescent lamp, the dynamo, the photograph, the kinetograph, the score of other inventions which make his name a household word are rap idly growing into commonplaces. At the Paris exposition he was welcomed as the real ruler of the people, the greatest benefactor of his race. His crown was the absolute homage of a nation that was celebrating the hun- dredth anniversary of tho downfall of its monarchy. The establishment of the Orange laboratory was another step in advance. It is the greatest lab oratory, par excellence, in the world, temple of alchemy where the magi- clan turns all to gold-gold in It's truer, wider sense.
 And now we find him prophet of the hills-a Mahomet gone to noun tain-grown gray with the lapse of years but honored as few men are. The greatest compliment that was ever paid to him was rendered by simple train hand on the little one-track rail- way that winds up the hill to where he is pitting science against nature And how about this talkin' machine O his'n? Wonderful, ain't it? Gosh, he's next to the Maker, isn't he?" and he said it with all due reverence.
 ] The personality of Edison is inter- esting. You recognize that strange, unexplainable element-force-as soon as you meet him. Yet his attitude is retiring. He does not seek notoriety. Fame has come to him but it has not marred him. He is not grown out of all proportion to himself. That is evil dent at once, from his epigram on con- ceit. In disposition he is kindly, in form large. His face is mobile. His features are clear cut. The nose-the standard of character i--is large. The chin matches it in pro- portion. Time has given him ample proportions and it is gradually round- ing up the face. His eyes are a won- derful gray, dreamy,at times, but with a capacity to flash fire. His hair, once brown, has gone gray, and Q great wisp of it hangs down over his fore head. At times his countenanoe takes on the hardness of Napoleon's Again 1t is as tender as a woman's. As you approach him he will regard you with an intentpess which might tend to em- ybarrassment. Speak to him, however, and his hand will go immediately to his ear. Then you know that he is slightly deaf. He is generally clad in ia long linen duster, once white which envelops him from head to foot. He nearly always wears a dilapidated straw hat. It would be hard to deter mine which was the most disreputable the duster or the hat But they save thim many suits of clothes, for MT. Edi- son does not allow undue nicety in dress to interfere with his work. He would just as soon go to work in his chemical laboratory wearing dress suit as not. That is, he might forget to take it off.
 & His habits are simple. Though he is not averse to any of the luxuries of life, yet he can for the sake of his aims curtail this propensity for pleasure un- is one luxury be has generally denied himself, though not now so much as formerly. This is sleep. It Is tradi- tionally supposed that MT. Edison new CT goes to, bed. For years he allowed himself but five hours sleep day; but ] now he says he takes 8 varying, but larger amount. Napoleon averaged but five hours sleep per day. Edison is one of the few people who do not at times have to force sleep. He explains this by saying thRt he can always find something to do. every moment he is awake.
 ''I used to take less sleep than do now, but I am growing old and now take it easier. It runs in our family to require little sleep. My father seldom took more than five hours even when he grew old. My grandfather never went to bed at all. He used to sit in chair and sleep for four or five hours every night He lived to be one hum dred and four years old. find that people can accustom themselves to al- most any amount of sleep. If we are used to having ten hours we will be all