The Washington herald., 1907-03-10

Edison had a poorer chance for his
white alley than any other Of the eight.
and the story OF his rough and tumble
training for the battle of real life has
been oftenest told.
As train news butcher" when a mere
child he had TO help support his family.
and he lost all hope of ever getting any
schooling before ne was twelve. He did
have little leisure, though, and he spent
a good deal of It in the Detroit Public Ii
brary where he planned at the tender
age Of eight OF ten. to read all the books
In the place, SO as 20 know all there was
| to be known. Puzzled as 70 how best TO
begin, be decided, after profound thought,
TO start with the biggest books, on the
bottom shelves, and read up" TO the
smaller books, on the top shelves. going
/ through each case Of books consecutively.
How far he got has not been recorded, but
he actually made a beginning under bis
unique plan.
/ The boy had to learn 10 be businesslike
early. His profit on each paper was small
/ and the number Of unsOld papers he could
lreturn was limited II he bought too
many, the surplus papers ate up his
profits: II too few. the profits dwiniled
/ His normal sales were 200 copies on the
run from Detroit to Port Huron. After a
while he got some one I'm the Office Of the
Detroit Free Press 20 give him an advance
galley proof of the biggest news in the
paper every day and made his order ac-
Icordingly. This was in civil war times
/ One morning nearly the whole galley was
filed by an immense scare head giving de-
/ tails of the engagement now known rs the
battle Of Shiloh. I'm which the killed and
wounded were said 20 be 5000
The boy saw that the sales would be big
| II only the people along the run knew in
/ advance OF the big news. lie told tele-
/ graph operator that he would give him
"dead-head" Harper's Weekly, Harper's
/ Monthly. and a daily paper for six months
/ II he would wire a brief summary ahead
and ask the station masters 10 chalk II up
on the blackboard bulletins. lie had only
. enough money TO buy 500 papers, but he
/ wheedled the owner Of the paper into
trusting him for a thousand more.
Edison was afraid the operator wouldn {
do his part but he did and the boy sold
/ all the papers at from cents 10 half a
dollar apiece. He has said that this Incl
dent filed him with admiration FOR the
telegraph and inspired him TO learn TO tap
the key. It was the most valuable lesson
he learned ia the years he was hustliag
for himself instead Of going 10 school II
led 10 his beating the sch0ol-trained stu
dents % electrical science on their own
ground and fastened by many years the
electrical evolution which has overtaken
the world since then.
The Romance OF SeIf-educatiOn.
Edison was a telegrapher in the field be-
fore the war was over. and he had his an
Of the sort Of romance that comes 10
every man who has TO get his own educa-
ton as ne goes along
It wouldn't be easy TO find many men Of
note who encountered more romance In
their formative years than Edison. but
both James J. Hi and Samuel L.
! Clemens had their share Hnrs fortune
seeking journeys into the outer world
from his remote Canadian home, under
taken when he was in his teens. 10 St
Paul by way OF the Erie Canal. the Great
Lakes. Chicago. and the Mississippi River.
would furnish a most thrilling story r. be
would tell it and al adequate pen could be
found to write IT,
That journey and his years as mud
clerk" Ju the levee filled the years he
might have devoted 10 prep. school; the
years Immediately following answered 70
his college course His graduation came
when De began TO rejuvenate the streak
OF rust known as the St Paul and Pacific
Railroad which he expanded into the
Great Northern Of to-day stretching
from the Great Lakes to the Pacific. and
whose charter il IS now sought 10 invai.-
date.
Hill had more actual school days than
Edison. and possibly no more than
HoweIIs Like the latter. the big railroad
man studied languages by himself when
only mere boy, and his enormously wide
reading all through his life has made him
one of the best-infoTmed men of promi-
|nence In the world to-day
7 Clemens. like Hill got much Of his early
education on the Mississippi. but as a
pilot, not as d mud clerk. Ii was the
saunders call. mark twain when the
water was found to be two fathoms deep.
that give him his pen name. But Clemens
left the river much earlier than Hill. and
Clemens experiences between the river
and the Pacific came before his "gradu1-
Jion,' when he began his career as
humorist, and not after il. as Hflrs did
in the years he was extending his railroad
and building up the far Northwest
Per Cent OF COIIeCians Increasing.
The percentage OF coilegians among
those who are reaching eminence to-day
IS much larger than among the contem-
pOraries of Hill and Ryan. Of Allison and
HOwelIs. Of Clemens and Carnegie Yet
many Of these collcge-bred men have had
TO fight their own way through coHege
+. and university. as did John Finley. now
New York, and Jacob G. Schurman. now
president Of Cornell Finley was West
ern farmers son. and the morning Of the
day on which he took one Of his most
. important examinations was devoted tC
blowing out corn" he walked eight
miles to take the exam, and eigh
miles back home after he had taken and
passed it. He earned his way through
college and spent the years of his course
in the hardest kind of study.
Schurman was farmers son in Nova
Scotia, and his struggle for college train
ing was terrific at first. but rendered
easier after q while by his taking a bis
money prize, which he was able TO use IN
paying his way through his postgraduate
course.
Most of the members Of the President.
Cabinet as it stands, are college men
, but Secretary Wilson. the oldest, anC
Cortelyou, the youngest. are not Tht
man in the highest place, Elihu Root
Secretary of State. had all the advan-
tages of college training, but he had t
struggle as hard to fit himself for th6
/. part he wanted TO play in life as any OF
; the other leaders mentioned His great.
est fight was not IN getting through col
Iege. though since his father was pro
fessor AT Hamilton. where he studied
but while he was studying law in New
York. He was so poor then that he haC
to live upon little more than nothing &