The herald., 1897-11-03

friendly poke in the ribs. You will
never be made to feel i'll at ease in his
presence, if you really have something
interesting to ask about, and If you
are good listener, you are sure to go
away filled with information on dozen
points about which you were not pre-
pared to question the wizard at all.
remember we'll calling at Edison's lab
oratory on one occasion to get an in
terview on a certain topic. He quickly
answered all my questions, after which
he talked for an hour or more on a
kindred subject of vastly greater i'm
portance than the one l asked about.
Now, Tesla is not discourteous to any
ore,-far from it; but he does not allow
you to forget for a sin-le moment that
he is an excessively busy man, and al
though he rarely withholds informa-
tion he never volunteers an extra word.
Moreover, when the questions are
asked and answered, it is ten chances
to one that he will say:
Now you are quite at liberty to pub
lish all l have said, but not as coming
from me. I am glad if 1 have been
able to serve you, but 1 do not care
to be quoted in the newspapers"
HOW THEY WORK.
There Is also a vast difference in the
two mems methods of work, and Tesla
Is undoubtedly much the more scien-
tific OF the two. He reasons out his
course as far as possible before he be-
gins a given set of experiments, and
works according to a carefully prepared
plan. This, no doubt. is largely due to
his earlier training. Tesla took up cleo
tricity as systematic study under the
direction of experts while still a boy,
and his work has been correspondingly
systematic. Edison, on the other hand
stumbled into an electrical career as a
telegraph operator, and his inventions
have almost all been made at random
so to speak-that is, they have been
the results Of experiments made sim
ply to see what could be found, and
not of Systematically directed effort
Tesla's work is like that of the skilled
marksman who deliberately takes aim
at definite target, while Edison's is
more like that of the fisherman who
puts out a net for whatever he can
catch.
But in no particular do they differ
more than in looks. Edison seems like
a typical man of business, with ten
dency to make a Joke now and then
He is plump and roly-poly in appear
ance, and his face is generally wreathed
in smiles; yet there is always look
of latent seriousness, so to speak, upon
his features. His hair is snow white
now, and when you behold him for the
first time you cannot be sure whether
he is older than he looks or looks older
than he is. His speech, like his greet
ing, is that of the western man.
Tesla is tall, angular, and nervous.
His face, though that of decidedly
younger man than Edison, has thou
sand more lines and seams, and he
never makes a joke in the American
sense of the word. OF wit of the French
or South-of- Europe sort there is plenty
in what he has to say, but genuine
American humor is as scarce with him
as provisions in the Klondike in mid
winter.
CROKER AND THE SHARKS.
They say that Richard Croker. the
gentleman who is just now running the
Tammany campaign for the mayoralty
devoid of physical fear; and they are
telling this tale to prove it:
Some years ago one of the New York
papers printed an article stating that
all the stories of sharks eating or even
biting human beings were sheer fakes
According to the writer, sharks are ac-
tually afraid of men. and would swim
away in CONSERVATION if one were sud-
denly to appear before them. 1t was
wonderful how quickly this article
brought replies, and how long the read
ers Of the paper continued to discuss
the question through its columns. OF
course, nobody settled the matter. As
Mr.. Croker, who for some occult rea-
son became intensely interested, de-
clared at the time 1t could be settled