The evening times., 1899-07-11
The Son of am Inventor,

The Son of am Inventor.
Some people are disposed to find fault
with recent declaration of Thomas A.
! Ediscn jr This young man says that he
/ is going TO be an inventor like his father,
and adds that he thinks he may be capable
of continuing work which his father may
not live TO finish, and that he has been
reared in the laboratory and therefore
would naturally enter his fathers profess
sion. Commenting on this, the New York
/ Journal calls young Edison fool son.
and "thankless child for thinking that
he can ever carry on his fathers work,
and concludes with this cutting remark:
II is a pity that the American system of edu-
eating children produced such an extraordinary
growth OF worthlessness among the sons OF able
men,
The central idea of this outburst will be
undiscoverable by the average person,
and it is not certain that the reader of
extraordinary perspicacity will fare much
better. 1t is not necessary to infer from
| young Edison's remarks that he thinks he
Will be as great man as his father or
greater; he simply expresses the opinion
| in the same line Of work Invention is
profession like any other, and all inventors
are not genuses. An inventor who is mere
/ ly clever may have son who is a genius,
and vice versa. and il might very well
happen that should the elder Edison die
with some great idea blocked out but not
| completed in all its details the son,
through familiarity with his fathers gen.
eTal method of work, would be able to
complete the task 1t might not be as
perfectly adapted 10 the needs of human
ity as if the originator of the idea had
lived 10 carry il cut, but it would be bet
ter than nothing at all II is not necessary
10 argue from such a statement as this
that the youth in question is intolerab!y
conceited, or that he intends to compete
with his father.
The son ia great genius is genera ly
/ at very decided disadvantage in many
ways. Familiar from babyhood with the
nature and methods of his father he must
himself be possessed of a very strong char
acter not TO be influenced more or less by
/ that fathers personality. II has been said
that the genius of Thackeray, Dickens, and
Carlyle was fatal 10 their younger contem-
came disciple of one or the other, and
all originality was smothered at birth.
| Imagine, then, the effect of close contact
with one OF these magnetic personalities
through series of years, Is it 10 be wol
/ dered at that the son of a great original
thinker is not grandly original?
There are some professions, however in
! which for various reasons this disadval-
1 tage is lessened. That of acting is a no.
! table instance. The dramatic genius often
runs through several generations OF a
family, sometimes latent in one generation
and reappearing III the next. The Booth
FAMILY is well-known instance OF It's
There have been five generations OF JEFF
fersons on the stage. This profession diff
fers from that of the author in TWO or
three important ways. If the son of a
/ Booth or Garrick could, in the prime of
manhood, exactly reproduce his father in
appearance, gesture and intonation, he
would probably be as great a man as his
father. Ii the son OF Shakespeare or
Dickens repeated his fathers work, no.
body would care for him at all. He would
have TO originate plays or novels of a new
type TO prove himself a genius. The son
of Tennyson could not write in the same
measures used by his father, because that
would prove him an imitator. The actor
may initiate "a great predecessor as much
as he pleases.