The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1896-11-07
NIKOLA TESLA,
THE ROMANTIC BOYHOOD OF
TIE GREAT ELECTRICIAN.

Ills Juvenile Days We're Spent In
Bleak, Half-Civilized Montene-
gro, His Native Land Tho
Future of Electricity.
TN all probability Nikola Tesla
knows as much, if not more,
about electricity than any other
{ man living. Ho stands at the
head of those who, within the last
twenty years, have done more to forge
the bonds that have made the mystic
current tho useful slave of human
kind. And yet Nikola Tesla's boy.
hood was mostly passed in region
where the people are hardly more than
half civilized in their ways; a region
over which Moslem and Christian have
waged bloody combat for centuries; q
region OF rugged, bleak mountains
and narrow valleys and impetuous,
rushing torrents. This region is known
as Montenegro. It is Q narrow strip
OF country that lies between Austria
end Turkey, and it takes it's name
from its own sombre mountains.
Nikola Was born in the little village
OF Smiljan, province Of Lika. less than
forty years ago. His father was q
clergyman of the Greek Church, to
which most Christians in Montenegro
belong, and oil through the boys early
years his most numerous acguaintauces
must have been among tho rough
peasants of the reighborhood, some OF
whom we've poor beyond description,
and many Of whom were so ignorant
that they could not even read.
But it must not be understood that
MI those who dwell IL Montenegro are
ignorant and 7lncultured. Among
their leaders are many who are highly
cultivated. Tesla's father being r
priest, he was, of course, an educated
man., and it was probably because no
Saw that his son could not do his best
in Montenegro that the boy was sent
away from home at thirteen.
When only little boy NikoIa was
very fond Of study. Not altogether
the study CT books, but largely of
things, Tor, like all healthy boys, he
was interested in all that he saw about
him. His early notion was that it was
pity that man should have to climb
the hills with which his home was sur.
rounded, since birds could fly where
ever they wished to go, and with such
small apparent effort. So, when only
a1ittle chap of twelve, heset about max.
ing flying machine, using ri old
umbrella for the foundation. I'm.
doubtedly he. had the same general
ideas that were later adopted by Herr
Lillienthal, the German who was killed
the other day in one Of his expert.
ments, for, like Lillienthal, young
Tesla's plan was to start his flight by
jumping from the top OF 8 hill. His
interest in flying died out, however,
when he fell and was SO badly hurt
that he had to stay in bed for six
weeks.
1t was while he was laid I'D by this
accident that he began TO study msth.
enletics and mastered arithmetic. BE
had an idea then that all problems in
the science OF numbers could be solved
by the proper use of the number three
and its ''powers," but whether he
proved bis theory he has never told.
Iie had then been seven years in
school, having spent three years in the
Real Schulz at Smiljan and four in the
public school at Gospic, to which his
father had removed. Gospic was q
larger place than S,niljap, though only
8 very small town, but there were
many more things there to interest
him than there had been at Smiljan.
His father decided, however, that
the educational advantages of Gospic
were not sufficient for his son, and so
the lad was sent to live with his aunt
in Carlsbad, Crotia, where he was to
finish his schooling. It was while on
bis way to Ca.lstadt that the lad saw
q steam engine for the first time, and
it filled him with the greatest delight.
1t was then, too, that he determined
not to be clergyman like his father,
as the latter wished, but to devote
himself to science; and he studied so
hard at Carlstadt that he was able to
finish q four years course in three
years time and to graduate in 1879,
when he was only sixteen years old.
Then there was an epidemic OF
cholera, and because of this he re.
turned to his fathers home at Gospic.
But the disease sought him out, and
when he recovered he was so weak
that for two years he remained Of
home and rested from his studies.
It was while he was ut home then,
that he managed to get his father tt
agree to q scientific career. When the
boy wcs eighteen he was sent to Gratz,
in Austria, to study for professorshil
in mathematics and physics. At Gratz
he saw, for the first time, a Gramme
electrical machine, though he had pre-
viously made some boyish experiments