East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1908-02-11

Orange, n. j., Feb. 11.-Thomas
electricity, today observed his 6lst
birthday. Although he has achieved
financial independence through his
hundreds of inventions, the aged
wizard is still busily engaged on
many projects. which will be of the
greatest benefit to humanity. OF late
he has spent a considerable portion
of his time in Investigating the possi-
bilities latent In concrete as a house
building material, and has perfected
machinery whereby such houses may
be nodded quickly and in an econom-
ical manner. Several other ideas are
revolving in the fertile brain of the
wizard and If his life is spared for
another decade IL is likely that he
will again startle the world with some
revolutionary product of his genius.
Mr. Edison was born at Milan, o..
February IL, 1S47. He began his bus
mess career at the age of IL as a
newsboy. When still a youth he be-
engaged in this occupation that he
became interested in the marvels of
electricity and commenced the career
as an inventor which has made his
name famous throughout the world.
The wizard attributes his long life
and the preservation of the activity
of his mental processes to the regu-
larity of his habits. He retir6s at
midnight and arises at $50, eats but
little and works almost necessarily
in his laboratory from in the morn
ing until in the evening. Recently
the wizard formulated some regula-
tions for a long and useful life that
may be of value to some of his fell
low Americans:
LET me impress one all important
thing upon your mind-that is, that
you observe most rigidly the rule Of
hygiene regarding careful and mod
crate eating. Fully so per cent Of
the illness of mankind comes from
eating improper food or too much
food. People are inclined to over in
dulge themselves in this respect
when they are spending their holi-
days. have always been light eat
er, and fully appreciate the fact that
the sole purpose of food is to pre-
serve the chemical energies and the
human machine going.
Where there is no drain on the
Af
will do. Even the italian laborers
are able to preserve their muscular
tissue on a small amount Of bread
and cheese, and they certainly work
hard. ;1 FsfA
"Then why is it necessary for the
business man to eat great quantities
of food when there is no drain on his
system? Elaborate dinners are a
curse. Many business men eat enough
food to supply a regiment They are
clogging up their boilers by doing so
and will live to regret it.
Another important rule to observe
is this: Get out of bed as soon as you
open your eyes in the morning. Don't
lie in bed and wait to see If you can
not go to sleep again. That is fool
ish thing to do. Jump out Of bed
and do something, anything. Be ac-
tive and alert, get your blood in cir
culation, leap right into the activities
of life the first thing and you will
soon see that your brain works bet
ter.
"There is absolutely no reason why
we should sleep, except that our pre-
historic ancestors got into the habit
of sleeping, and we have never brok-
en- ourselves of it, There is no need
of sleep now. We can turn the dark
ness Of night into the light of day by
our electric lights, so why should
people sleep? / believe that If we
had perpetual sunlight we would, in
few generations, get over this bad
habit Of sleeping.
"Sleep dulls the intellect. If peo-
pie would not sleep so long we would
develop into a stronger and more In
tellectual race. 1t is we'll known that
the ant, one of the most intelligent Of
insects. does not Sleep"