The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-08-11
Influence a Great Battle Had on
 His Life
FIRST INVENTION GOOD
His Second Brought a Check for s4o,- 900, Which He Could Not Cash. Box on Ears Made
 Him Deaf.

was fought the first report which reached Detroit announced that there were sixty thousand killed and wounded.
 T was a train newsboy then, and I told the telegraph operator at the Detroit station that if he would wire the main facts of the battle along the line so that announcements could be put up on the sta- tion builetion boards I would give Harp ers Weekly to him for six months free of cost.
 T used to sell about forty newspapers on the trip. This time I made up my mind that I ought to take a thousand, but when l counted my money I found l had only enough to buy four hundred
 Then 1t occurred to me that if I could get to Wilbur F. Story. the proprietor of the Detroit Free Press, I might be able to work out of my difficulty I climbed up the stairs to his office and said:
 MT Story, I have only got money enough to buy 400 papers, and I want 600 more. I thought I might get trusted for them. I'm newsboy.' I got my thous- and papers all right.
 That was great day for me. At the first station the crowd was so big that 1 thought it was an excursion crowd But hoi when the people caught sight of me they began to yell for papers I just doubled the price on the spot and charged 10 cents instead of cents copy.
 When I got to the last station I Jumped the price up to 25 cents a copy and sold all I had left. l made seventy nVe or a hundred dollars in that one trip and tell you I felt mighty good
 That called my attention to what a telegraph operator could do. thought to myself that telegraphing was simply great, and l made up my mind to be- come an operator as soon as possible.
 First Invention.
 The first serious thing I invented was machine which would count the votes in Congress in a very few moments. 1t was good machine, too, but when I took it to Washington they said to me:
 Young man, that's the last thing we want here! Filibustering and the delay in counting the vote are the only means we have of defeating bad legislation
 My next practical invention was the quadruplex telegraph. I started in to work 1t on the Atlantic and Pacific telegraph line between Rochester and New York, but there was a chump at the other end of the wire, and the demonstration ended in fizzle. It was years before the quad ruplex was adopted
 That landed me in New York without cent in my pocket went to an opera tor and managed to borrow a dollar I lived on that for week, but I had to park it a little. Oh, I didn't mind 1t, and I never did care much about eatlng anyhow.
 Then I hustled for something to do. I could have got a job as an operator at s90 a month, but I wanted chance to do something better. I happened one day into the office of gold ticker company which had about 800 subscribers.
 T was standing beside the apparatus when it gave a terrific rip roar and sud- denly stopped. In a few minutes hundreds of messenger boys blocked Up the door way and yelled for some one to fix the tiekers in their office. The man in charge of the place was simply flabergasted. so l stepped up to him and said
 T think know what's the natter
 'I simply had to remove a loose con- tact spring which had fallen between the wheels. The result was that I was en- ployed to take charge of the service at $300 a month. I almost fainted when I heard how much salary I was to get
 ''Then I joined hands with man named Callahan and we got up several improved types of stock tickers. These improve ments were success.
 ''When the day of settlement for my in- ventions approached I began to wonder how much money I would get. I was pretty raw and knew nothing about busi- ness, but hoped that I might get $5OOO.
 "I dreamed of what I could do with big money like that, of the tools and other things could buy to work out inventions; but I knew Wall street to be pretty bad place, and had general suspicion that man was apt to get beat out of his money there. So I tried to keep my hopes down; but the thought of $5OO0 kept rising in my mind.
 He Was Frightened.
 'well. one day I was sent for by the president of the Gold and Stock Telegraph company to talk about the settlement for my improvements. He was Gen. Marshall Lefferts. colonel of the Seventh regiment
 s.I tell you I was trembling all over with embarrassment, and when I got In his presence my vision of $5000 began to van ish. When he asked me how much wanted I was afraid to speak. l feared that If I mentioned s500O might get noth- ing.
 saThat was one of the most painful and exciting moments of my life. My, how I beat my brains to know what to say Finally l said:
 .Suppose you make me an offer
 
 than scared, I was paralzed.
 " How would s4O,00O do? asked General Lefferts.
 .It was all I could do to keep my face straight and my knees from giving way was afraid he would hear my heart beat.
 .sWith a great effort I said that l gussed that would be all right. He said they would have the contract ready in a lew days and I could come back and sign It. In the meantime I scarcely slept. couldn't believe 1t.
 .evvhen I went back the contract was ready and I signed it in hurry. don't know even now, what was in it. check for s4O,OOo was handed me and l went to inc hank as fast as my feet would carry me. ,,
 "It was the first time I was ever inside of a bank. I got in line and when my turn came I handed in my check. UT course I had not indorsed it.
 "The teller looked at it, then pushed IL hack to me and roared out something which could not understand, being party deaf My heart sank and my legs trem- bled handed the check back to him, hut again he pushed 1t back with the same unintellible explosion of words.
 "Trhat settled it. I went out or the ba nk feeling miserable. was the victim of another Wall street skin game. never felt worse in my life.
 1T went around to the brother or the treasurer who had drawn the check and said: I'm skinned, all right .sNhen I told him my story he burst out laughing, and when he went into the treasurer's office to explain matters there ,,os q Ioud roar of laughter at my ex-