Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1894-09-28

i
in favor Of pronouncIng this or that
book as the book Of the year. Those
who admire Mrs. Ward, for instance,
| insist that that honor should be given
/ 20 her latest novel, "Marcella" Those
/ who are fond OF the obscure but melOdi-
Gus style OF George Meredith declare
that his story, which has lately been
running in the Pau Nall Magazine,
deserves that praise. while others claim
/ that Hall Gaines The Manxman" is
/ the great book OF the year.
Il is probably safe TO say that there Is
/ no greatest book, so far as England is
/ concerned, but IL Is also safe to say that
/ II the authors who have been spending
much time and patient Investigation for
the past year or TWO In preparing life
OF Thomas A Edison have been equal TO
their opportunities then the book
/ issued from an American press
which will be the most inter
esting will be this work. II IL also
have literary charm, the capacity to pic
i ture and image Mr.. Edison as be Is, to
tell the extraordinary dramatic story OF
/ his early wears as IL may be told and to
/ set forth his ADLER achievements with
dignity aud power that will compare
/ with these things which he has done,
then no romance, no history, no oiog-
raphy written 10 these present times
can match this tale.
In his early life Edison passed
/ through experiences, some dramatic,
some humorous, which, had they been
conceived OF by the genius who wrote
/ the tales Of THE Arabian Nights,
would have beenregarded as worthy ei-
forts OF that great imagination. The first
story that has been told Of these earlier
exploits Of Edison has as yet never been
matched in Vividness of description,
picturesque style and the capacity TO
/ see the man as he really was by any or
\ the later and most innumersble sketches
of him.
1t was in 1S77-s that a report came to
one Of the newspaper Offices 10 New
/ York that a young man named Edison
/ had invented a machine which could
/ talk. Edison was then known only In
/ the world of electricity. The capital
lists OF the great telegraph company
/ knew him as an exceedingly ingenious
young man who had invented a tele-
/ phone, the rights Of which they had
/ bought OF him, and who had perfected
! that invaluable instrument for stock
I holders which is called the ticker.
The armv,of telegraph operators knew
| him as a whole Souled, paniOnabIe
| fellow, who had beaten the fastest Oper-
ator, whose manuscript looked like
/ print, and who was, as they thought, a
/ visionary. But the public did not know
/ him at all. The report Of this talking
machine came TO the ears Of brilliant
newspaper writer who has since gained
distinction in Congress, MIR. Amos J.
| Cummings, and he determined TO make
/ investigation OF the machine, caring at
| first but little for the man.
/ Mr. Cummings therefore went TO a
/ little workshop ard laboratory which
Edison had set up in place called
/ Menlo Park, not far from New Bruins
! wick, n. j., and the instant he met the
\ inventor OF the machine Cummings re-
allied that the man was greater than
/ any implement which he had devised,
\ and that a study of him would be far
\ more interesting than an investigation
! into even 50 great a mystery as ma
| chine which could reproduce the hu-
man voice.
The two men found that they were
cOmpaniOnable; that they had bad many
/ experiences 10 common, the one having
I served at the printers case in many
| States OF the Union aud the other hav-
/ ing received or sent news dispatches
/ from Memphis to Boston. In New
\ York their experiences had been in
] I'D a III
\ quaint little all night eating houses, or
/ ''beaueries, as they are collOquially
! known, and they had many friends in
| common. Cummings discovered that,
/ like all men OF real genius, Edison was
as modest and unaffected as boy and
/ had as genuine a sense OF humor as the
I most Serviceable reporter upon New
/ York paper
The inventor exhibited the phon o.
\ graph TO Cummings. persuaded him that
\ 10 was not magic but science which
made 1t possible for that whirling thing
\ to talk, aud then began to tell the story
/ OF his lie-oi how he had learned
/ telegraphy almost by Intuition; Of how
| he footed il from Memphis TO Louis
/ vile; of how be turned up in Boston
| and beat the fastest operator, who bad
/ been assigned the task OF breaking him
down by the swiftness with which he
\ sent him long news dispatches; Of how
\ he invented a machine which enabled
\ him 70 take maps In idle moments aud
| vet awake him at the signal OF some
\ distant sender; Of how he rid the Office
| by electrical device Of the countless
aud unwelcoms intruders that came
/ through the cracks of the floor and
/ wall and by way of the water pipes.
/ And many other graphic and grotesque
/ stories of his early career Edison told
\ the writer, not dreaming that they
would be produced.
They were reproduced with artistic
/ fidelity, and very long narrative APP
peared in the sun, which. while ex-
/ planning aud defending the new talking
/ machine which had been presumed be-
fore that to bss humbug, also told tie
/ romant c and humorous story Of tue hte
/ of the wizard Of MelnO Park. 1t made
| Edison famous, as his Invention had
| not. II was a description worthy OF the
| subject Thousands OF persons laughed
| over the humorous anecdotes and read
| with tremulOus lips the pathetic sug-
gestions, for there was much Of pathoS
/ In Edison's eSrlY life,
Since then EdSOn's exploits have
\ brought him the highest honOrS from
the scientific world, and kings have
decorated and titled him. He hsa made
. fortune that numbers him among
! those who possess more than 81, 600, 900,
aud these graver and more important
achievements OF his life, II they are
told as effectively as was that earlier
/ tale, ought 10 make q story with all the
/ charm and fascination OF a brilliant