The Anaconda standard., 1899-01-23
EDISON AS a TRAIN DoY.
"A Great Inventors Amusing Reminiscenc,
..g" of His Youthful Days

VI his NOutnIul DAYS.
One day recently Thomas A. Edison
was sitting in his little office at Mt
Musconetcory, where his iron mine is
located He was talking to several
business acquaintances, and in the
course of the conversation one of the
men present stated that he had once
been a train boy
Were you?" said Mr.. Edison char
acteristically plunging into his new
subject Il was one, you know. What
road did you run nn?'
Grand Trunk, out of Port Huron -
Did you? Why, SO did I. But I was
before your time. 1 say, do you re-
member the peanut trick?"
Indeed, / do. Wasn't it the very
first thing they taught US before they
turned us loose? Everybody knew
that Why, 1t doubled the output. +
remember once didn't jam them tight
enough and they fell through just as
I was about to turn them into the
pocket Of countryman. Oh, wasn't
he mad? Wouldn't buy the nuts, and
cautioned every one on the car against
me. Said I was sharper, and reused
things generally
The peanut trick of the old time
train boy was executed as follows:
The tin measures which the boys used
were long and narrow. They tapered
gradually, being slightly smaller at
the top than at the bottom. In filing
the measure the boy would push it
rapidly through the peanuts in the
open basket "A few nuts would rattle
inside, but almost Immediately doz-
en- or two would jam or wedge in the
narrow mouth of the measure. When
lifted up the measure would appear
to be full; and as the trick would be
performed in full view of the purchas-
er, the latter would suspect nothing
and allow the boy to dump the con-
pocket, when, of course, all trace Of
the deception would be lost
Mr.. Edison laughed heartily at the
remembrance of the trick, and with
the incentive thus given, stories Of
train boy life flew back and forth. The
two men, for the time, became train
boys again. They forgot the triumphs
and cares of their after lives and the
rest of the company present listened
silently and enjoyably to the reminls-
cences of the days when the greatest
inventor in the world sold newspapers
and peanuts. Some of the stories told
by Edison have been published, but
the following one has never before ap-
peared in print:
Curious how these things come
back to you" said Mr. Edison. II re-
iiiShipSl a 1uLHy lUluS lHdt OCCufrtu
on one of the old three-car trains In
my day. you know, they used to ,un
trains made up of three coaches-a
baggage car, a smoking car and what
we called the ladies' car The ladies'
car was always last in the string. Well,
one day l was carrying my basket of
nuts and apples through the ladies'
carl hadn't sold a thing so far-wnen
I noticed two young fellows sitting
near the rear end of the car They
were dandies, what might be called
dudes now, but we called them stiff
f1es' in those days. They were young
Southerners UP North on a lark, as I
found out afterwards. Behind them
sat a negro valet, who had large
iron bound box beside him on the seat.
Probably he was an old family slave
He was dressed in as many colors as
an English flunky.
The young men were complaining
of the dullness of things. They stop
ped when they saw me. I came along
wabbling my basket from side to side
as asked each passenger If he want
ed to buy anything. When I reached
the Southerners, I asked them If they
wanted some. MOI replied the fellow
nearest to me. we do not, and fur
therrnore, we are not going to have
any, whereupon he grabbed the bask-
ct out of my hands and dumped the
nuts and apples out of the window.