The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-02-11

not necessary In fact. they are dis
advantageous. The hard path gives
one experience. One loses this if they
are helped by friends. 1t is like having
a rich father"
Mr.. Mcadowcroft Reminisces.
For once, the spirit of business that
| hovers over the laboratory in Orange
Thomas Edison is hard taskmaster
I-seemed to have been dspelled. Mr..
| Meadowcroft, "the old mans biog-
Irapher and assistant, who has worked
side by side with him for many years,
neglected the heap of papers on his
desk long enough to tell tale or two
| from his store of "reminiscences of his
beloved chief.
my mind is so filled up with bust
ness matters that it is pretty hard to
get down to spinning yarns declared
Mr.. Meadowcroft, rubbing his grizzled
mustache reflective1y-
You know, it was only out of love
for the old man that L took the time
to write the Boys Life of Edison I
showed him the Life and Inventions
of Thomas Edison, with its diagrams
and plates of his inventions, when the
first copies were ready after two years
of work, and he looked at the volumes
and said, Are folks really going to
Tread all of that?'
Gwen at the age of 49," continued
Mr.. Meadowcroft, Mr.. Edison is as
energetic IS ever and there seems to
| be no diminution of his mental ac-
| tivity. He comes down to his labora-
| tory every morning and plunges right
into the activities of the day with his
| accustomed vim. While he does not
| work late into the night at the labora-
toy as regularly as he used to, he
| works every night until eleven or
twelve o'clock at home and comes
Idown to the laboratory primed for the
days work, frequently bringing lot
of memoranda he has written to
| numerous officials and heads of de-
partments the night before. He has
| an intimate and exact knowledge of
everything that is going on in the en-
tire plant, and is in the habit of ask
| ing pointed questions as to the pro-
gress of matters, showing that he is
conversant with what has gone on the
day before. The mental activity and
intimate knowledge of affairs fire.
quently amazes our people whose eff
forts are along certain definite lines.
while his knowledge covers the entire
plant in all its varied activities.
| Besides this, when he comes down
| in the mornings he is fully posted on
| the state of the markets. His knowl-
edge of all theses things is an actual
working knowledge, marvellous in its
Icomprehensiveness.
When Edison Chats.
| Sometimes he will sit down and
chat with me for a few minutes. and
these are always interesting moments.
These chats cover a great variety of
subjects Yesterday he came to my
desk and I showed him a photograph
of himself, a snapshot which some one
thad taken of him one day when he
was in New York. We rather thought
that that photogra phi was good, but
he didn't. He said:
ct is almost impossible to get a
really good photograph of a person.
A difference of a thousandth of an
inch in lens will produce a different
expression in a persons face. IF you
VIII take this photograph and COM
ipare it with haIf-dozen others taken
at different times. you will scarcely
trealize it is the same person We got
out few photographs and compared
them and the difference, was, indeed
striking.
THE other day. continued the
Ib3ographer of Edison. "a. boy came in
with a memorandum from one of the
heads of the departments. Mr.. e Ii
son read it and then gave the boy a
verbal message. The boy went out
land Mr.. Edison turned to me with a
humorous twinkle in his eye and said
When that boy has gone fifty feet he
viii be absolutely unable to renem Der
that message correctly. There is one
boy around here who can carry a mes
another about three huz.Ired feet, and
l have only seen one lately that could
carry message all the way to the
other building down the yard. So J
very rarely send an oral message, but
L write it
Edison on Food.
Some time ago Mr. Edison was
Ichatung with me about food. He be-
leTes that most of US eat too much
and load our systems with a lot of i'm
purities which tend to produce dis
ease and shorten life. He himself, is
small eater. I have seen him many
times finish eating in what most of us
would call the middle of a meal, and
light up his cigar. If he ever has any
trouble with his stomach. he will
either stop eating altogether for two
| or three days. or else he will take
boiled milk and thin. dry toast
have known him to make his meals of
| this for three times a dav for q week
the idea being that if his -stona CHI
trouble is caused by bacili he will
not furnish any additional supply from
| the outside
zone day. when talking on the sub
ject Of food, he mentioned the fact
ished from starvation and contended
that it was thru ignorance, as at their
| feet there was an unlimited supply of
food that would have kept them alive
until they could reach supplies of reg
lular food. He referred to a peculiar
kind of moss that grows in Labrador.
which. when boiled. Yields jelly-lilze
food capable of sustaining them.
Naturally" continued Mr.. Mead