The herald., 1897-05-17
MRS. THOMAS A. EDISON
Interesting Description Of the Great
Scientists Wife

Mrs. Thomas A. Edison is very beau
tiful woman. If one hears singularly
little about. her beauty it is undoubt-
edly because she never thinks about It
herself. 1t is all very we'll theoretically
to say that Inconsistencies enhances
beauty, and for the discerning it may:
but the most Of people are more i'm
pressed by the woman who carries J. her. .l1 /.
ton to the toilet, that is generally in
attentive to its own claims. Mrs. Edi-
sons belongs to this last type, and thus
she has a naivete that the old Italian
painters, at any rate, would have deep
ly appreciated. She looks like an Ital-
ian, for her colorihg is softly, not gilt
teringly, brunette, with a superb COM
plexion, the skin peculiarly fine in text
ure, and a rich, deep color in her cheeks.
She is perhaps the only woman within
E, hundred miles Of New ork that is fit
ted by beauty and expression to make
perfect model for a Madonna. For,
though she look young, as if she We're
in the early twenties. she has the quiet
pose OF the wife and mother. She Is
given, in a general way to talking but
little. She is as untouched by modern
restlessncss as If she were Greek wo-
man. and looks as if she could sit still
for an hour any time withCsat an effort,
and at the same time she shows that she
is perfectly alive, easily interested, and
responsive on the subjects that appeal
to her: these are, first Mr.. Edison and
her children, and, next, children and
their education in general. She studies
The subject of infant education in a
really scholarly way, and studies with
great intelligence and devotion to make
ali good ideas and discoveries in tha,
field serve her little boy and girl. Then
without the air of condescension in such
cases, she devotes much time to read
ing detective novels with Mr.. Edison.
Yes, the detective novel Is a favorite
diversion with that great brain, and the
wife of his bosom is Sc
riously attentive to his needs in this
way, and continually gathers up any
thing she can find that she thinks will
r!leet the case. She reads them with
him, whether with any other sentiment
than that of happy sense of duty full
filled 1t is impossible to discover, but
when it comes to the scientific works
that he devours as regular diet, she
gives up. Mrs. Edison is not scien-
tist; she has as little affinity for phys
lcs as other typical women, and that is
saying good deal; but strue story
If recent occurrence at the great lab
oratory would seem to show that one
might go further and say she has less
affinity fer physical science than most
women; that less knowledge of it rubs
off on her. She, with pride, was show
ng some friends about the laboratory
and trying vaguely to tell them things;
they found her more at home in cleaning
he smuts off Mr.. Edisons face than in
my other phase of laboratory work,
out still they were not prepared for her |
complete astOnishment when a workman
came along and lit a gas jet by cleo
ricity! She had never heard of such a
hing before. Now, is not that a deli
,ious story? Anyone ought to recognize
IS veracity, for it is the kind of thing
hat only real life has the happy faculty |
20 compound. Dress and society are |
he least OF Mrs. Edison's interests, but
.he usually leaves her home in Orange.
New Jersey, and, with her husband,
stays at some New York hotel for a few
weeks in the height of the season. 1t
S for music chiefly that this, migration |
S made, and operas and concerts are
he entertainments where they are Oft
nest seen.-Leslie's Weekly.