The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-22

| whole consciousness near the bosom of ma
ture He has wrested her secrets from
her. He has learned the source of her
| power. Now he has harnessed it that man
may be happier and better.
To the layman Tesla's life seems to be
| bound up in vibrations. Three or four
years ago electricians declared that three
| hundred a second was the limit Tesla an
| nounced that he was sure he could obtain
100000 vibrations a second. Already he
has secured $4,000, 0G0 and the end is far
off. These figures show the relative posi-
ton of Tesla and other electrical scientists
The daily life of this man has been the
same practically ever since he has been in
New York. He lives in the Gerlach a very
quiet family hotel, in Twenty-seventh
street, between Broadway and Sixth ave-
nue.. He starts for his laboratory before 9
o'clock in the morning, when he has not
| passed the night there. All day long he lives
| in his weird, uncanny world, reaching forth
| to capture new power, to gain fresh knowl-
| edge
No stranger ever sees him at his work.
| No one knows of his assistants. At rare in
| tervals he presents some experiments in his
| laboratory, and there is no sacrifice that
! thousands of people would not make to
! gain admission to these.
| Usually he works until o'clock, but he
may stay later. The absence of natural
! light does not trouble him. Tesla makes
sunlight in his workshop.
At exactly o'clock he enters the Wal
dorf. He is attired in irreproachable even
ing clothes In the winter time he never
wears an evening jacket, but always the
coat with tails.
PAYS SIS FOR HIS DINNER.
He walks directly to a table in the
furthest corner of the palm garden, which
| is reserved for him. He carries two or three
newspapers in his hands, and one of these
he perches before him.
No gourmet who dimes at the Waldorf can
order better dinner than Tesla. 1t is an
elaborate dinner of many courses. He drinks
fine Burgundy and fine champagne, a
quart Of one and a pint of the other His
dinner costs Tesla never less than SIS, and
seldom more 1t is practically the only meal
| he eats during the day. He never tips the
waiter or the man who takes care of his
| hat and coat less than a dollar.
| He finishes his dinner at exactly 10
o'clock and leaves the hotel, either to &c to
| his rooms to study or to return to his labo-
ratory to work through the night.
| Two or three times a week he will go to
barber shop. He demands that the towels
| and covering on the chair be changed and
| does not object to the barber using the
| common mug and brush. He insists upon
having his head rubbed for nearly half an
| hour.
These are the only occasions when Tesla
! appears in public. Perhaps two or three
| times year some one may dine with him.
! He is a bold man who will dine with Tesla
If he has amy sense at all he will realize
that he can give the scientist not the slight
| est title of information about anything that
| interests him. And he cannot understand
about what Tesla is talking for more than
| two minutes at a time. For this marvellous
mind lives in a realm weird and so awful
| that the ordinary intelligence draws back
! affrighted.
Tesla is, above all things, a serious man.
undoubtedly the most serious man in New
| York. Yet he has q keen sense of humor
| and the most beautiful manners. He is
the most genuinely modest of men, He
| knows no jealousy. He has never decried
| tho accomplishments of another, never re-
| fused credit
| When he talks you listen. You do not
| know what he is saying, but it enthralls
| you. You feel the Importance without I'M
| derstanding the meaning. He speaks the
| perfect English of highly educated for
| eigner, without accent and with precision
| He speaks six or eight languages equally
| well.
He speaks constantly about electrostatic
| force, that mighty power which he has
| chained at last. And this he has explained
| "Electrostatic force is that which gov
erns the motion Of the atoms" he said
when he was asked about it, 1T is the
force which causes them to collide and de-
cIr,rN h. = a.. s..s
| light, and which causes them to aggre-
| gate in an infinite variety of ways ac-
cording to natures fanciful designs and
| form all these wondrous structures we see
around us. 1t is, in fact, if our present
views be true, the most important force
| for us to consider in nature"
WHY HE HAS NOT MARRIED
| Tesla has never married, and it is not
| likely that he ever shall. His father and
mother are both dead. His brothers are in
his native land. Tesla is an American CIT
izen. 1t is not likely that any child shall
bear his name in this country He has
elected to devote his whole life to his work
and for this reason he is denied the love
and companionship of a good woman And
this, too, he has explained.
Il believe that writer or a musician
should marry They gain inspiration that
| leads to finer achievement.
but an inventor has so intense nature
with so much in it of wild passionate quail
| ity, that in giving himself to a. woman he
would give Up everything, and so take
everything from his chosen field. 1t is a
| pity, too; sometimes we feel so lonely"
But the inventor who succeeds has his
recompense, and this also has Tesla spoken
about.
In my student days l have known what
it was to pass forty-eight hours at a stretch
| at a gaming table, undergoing intense emo
| ton, that which most people believe is the
| strongest that can be known, but it is tame
| and insipid compared with that sublime
| moment when you see the labor of weeks
! fructify in a successful experiment that
| proves your theories"
| Many times has Nicola Tesla known that
supreme happiness. And he is likely TO
know it often again. 1t is impossible that
his life work can be finished at forty
No man has ever occupied the place that
he has, for he is not only an uncrowned
more original investigators he is a real dis
coverer of wonderful forces, and inventor
of the harness to control them, and in ad-
dtion to all these things, he is a seer as
we'll And only the ignorant have courage
to scott at him.
The English ROthschiIds.
Harper's Round Table.
The greatest financial genius of the
Rothschild family though there have been
many of great talent was Nathan Mayer,