Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-02-11
Growing Old Unnecessary,
Says Edison, Is Today
Vigorous and Resourcefu Ever, He Answers Some Per-
tinent Questions in Very Interesting Manner--His
Biographer Assistant Adds Some Entertaining Remi-
niscenses and Personal Information.

| plant IN all its varied activities.
Besides this, when he comes down in
| the mornings, he is fully posted on tho inn
| portant news of the world and the state OF
/ the markets. His knowledge of all these
things IL an actual working knowledge,
marvellous i'll its compre. ensiveness.
! WHEN EDISON CHATS.
/ Sometimes he will sit down and chat
/ with me for few minutes, and these arc
/ always interesting moments. These chats
! cover great variety of subjects. Yester-
/ day he came to my desk and / showed HIM
a photograph of himself snapshot which
/ some one had taken of him one day when
! he was in New York. We rather thought
! that that photograph WIS good, but he
| didn't. He said:
1T is almost impossible TO get a really
good photograph OF person. Difference
OF q thousandth of an irch III lens will
produce different expression in a person
face. Ii YOU will take this photograph
and compare it with q half-dozen Others
takenDat different times, you will scarcely
realize it is the same person. We got out
a few photographs and compared them
and the difference, was, indeed, striking.
The other day. continued the hiog-
raphcr of Edison, "a boy came IN with
memorandum from one of The heads of the
departments. Mr. Edison read it and then
gave the boy a verbal message. The boy
went out. and Mr. Edison turned 10 me
with humorous twinkle In his eye and
said: When that boy has gone fifty feet
he viii be absolutely unable to remember
that message correctly. There is one boy
around here who can carry a message
about two hundred feet, and another about
three hundred feet, and | have only seen
one lately that could carry a message q II
the way to the other building down the
ward. So very rarely send an oral mes
sage, but | write it.
EDISON ON FooD.
'Some time ago. MIR. Edison was chat
ting with me about food. He believes that
most of us eat too much and load our
systems with lot of impurities which tend
10 produce disease and shorten life. He,
himself is a small eater. | have seen him
many times finish eating in what most of
us would call the middle ofa meal, and
light up his cigar If he ever has eny
trouble with his stomach. he will either
stop eating altogether for two or three
DAYS, or else he viii take boiled milk and
thin, dry toast ] have known him to
make his meals of this for three times
a dav for weck-the idea being that If
his stomach trouble Is caused by bacilli
he will not furnish any additional supply
from the outside.
One day, when talking on the subject
Of food, he mentioned the fact that some
explorers in Labrador perished from
starvation and contended that It was
through ignorance, As at their feet there
was an unlimited supply Of food that
would have kept them alive until they
could reach supplies of regular food He
referred to \ peculiar kind of moss that
grows in Labrador, which. when boiled
Yields a ielly-hbc food capable of sus-
tain'ng them.
"Naturally," continued Mr. Meadow
croft ''wc have visitors from all parts Of
The world, who caInc 20 sec MIR. Edison.
and whether they come from different
parts OF our own country. or from various
other countries in the world, no matter how
distant. they are usually astounded when
MIR Edison talks 10 them about their own
localities or countries Just as familiarly
.ts if he had been there in person.