The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-10-08
BRAVE
TOEND, KEEPS
DEATHAT BAY
Holds COurageOuSIy to Last
Strands of Rapidly
Waning Life.
SPENDS RESTLESS NIGHT
Famous Inventor, However,
Manages to Eat Fair
Breakfast.

BIZ United Press
WEST ORANGE, N. J., Oct. g.
Thomas A. Edison, whose death is
believed to be only a matter of
hours, is showing tremendous vital
ity in his quiet struggle against
ever growing weakness.
The aged inventor did not sleep
well Wednesday night, but he man
aged to eat a fair breakfast this
morning. He did not appear much
weaker.
The official bulletin, issued by his
physician, DR.. Hubert S. Howe, fol-
lows:
MIR. Edison had a restless night.
He ate a fair breakfast and does
not appear to be any weaker than
Wednesday night. His vitality Is
amazing"
Prediction Is Impossible
When DR.. Howe left the Edison
home shortly before noon he said
that outwardly there appeared to
be no change in Edison's condition,
but that he must be weaker.
The inventors case is proving one
of the most difficult to predict, he
said. Ordinarily, DR.. Howe said, he
could foretell when a patient might
slip into coma from which there is
no return. but in Edison's case his
tremendous vitality and the stub
bornnesS with which he is fighting
his illness makes prediction i'm
possible.
Edison talks very little and con-
tinued today to spend most of his
time in a light sleep. Wednesday
night he did not take his usual glass
of milk. His breakfast this morning
consisted of stewed fruit.
While Edison is nearing death,
there is none of the quiet and
with anticipated death. People and
their many activities whirl about
the quiet Edison home in wooded,
exclusive Llewellyn park.
Mrs. Edison at Beside
| EdiSon'S home is a rambling, red
brick structure set we'll back from
the park drive, with clusters of
trees at each side. Edison lies in a
roomy, upstairs bedroom overlook
ing sweep of lawn.
Nurses are in attendance day and
night. Mrs. Edison, who has bean
his most constant companion since
/ deafness made his world silent
one, is with him always, or is near
by. She is the only one able to
arouse him from the condition his
doctors describe as "lethargic."
Because of the peculiar pitch Of
her voice it can penetrate his deaf
ness where other sounds fail. Dur
ing the course of the day or night
his children tiptoe into the room,
but, fear to disturb him, they stay
downstairs for the most part.
Six telephones in the house ring
almost constantly. Henry Ford
called from Detroit. He is anxious
about the condition of his old crony.
The other. phone rings. 1t is
White House secretary. President
Hoover wants to know Edison's con-
dition.
Daily Mail Is Heavy
Another phone. 1t is the presi-
dent of some corporation or a
United States senator or an inter-
national celebrity, but it is just as
likely to be neighbor or a former
Edison servant.
Once a day, a mail truck deposits
a heavy bag at the side door It
cantains hundreds of letter that
convey the Sympathies of the great,
| the near-great and the unknown
from all parts of the world.
A secretary, assisted by an Off
cial Of the Thomas A. Edison Indus
tries, opens this mail. The official
and the secretary are on duty con-
stantly to shield the Edison family
during the emergency.
The Edison garage, a two-story
stone structure, wreathed with ivy,
is some hundred yards from the
house. damned in with dozen
cars, including two Of the ancient
electric runabouts in which Edison
was pictured so often a decade ago,
are telephones and telegraph in
struments manned by reporters and
their operators.
One thinks of the days when Edi-
son was an operator. Emergency
telephone crews scurry about, in
Stalling still more instruments.
Twenty-some odd men sit around
on running boards at a crude table
awaiting the final word from the
big house. Messenger boys run in
and out with coffee and sandwiches.
The air is blue with cigaret smoke.
One of the reporters explained:
1T isn't an ordinary man who is
dying in the big house. Therefore.
the reporters, the telephones, the
telegraph"