The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-11-03
BY WILLIS ]. BALLINGER
As Told by Edlson's Lifelong Friend, Will
liam Joseph Hammer.

(CopyriRht. 1891. NEA Service. Incl
Thomas A. Edison was little in
clined to reminisce Of his youth.
That period had been decidedly
adventurous and, during it, he
had manifested a trait that was
to stand out in the inventor all his
Ife-that Of poking into anything
and everything that aroused his Gu
riosity.
But sometimes he spoke briefly
Of his childhood to his assistants.
"You know" he once said, when
I was in school, the teacher thought
I was added. But my mother didn't.
And I don't believe 1 could have
gotten a better teacher than she
was"
At another date he mentioned an
interesting incident Of his boyhood.
Il was once an editor he said.
THAT little sheet 1 used to set up
in a baggage a has endeared the
press to me I was struggling hard
er then than I have since"
An Editor at IL
Edison referred to the little
journal he created in the baggage
car of the train that piled between
Port Huron and Detroit.
At that period he was a little over
IL. He had obtained a small press
once used to print menus.
Installing it in the baggage car he
inaugurated the Weekly Herald. 1t
cost 8 cents an issue or 8 cents for a
months subscription and, at times,
the subscription list was more than
400.
In this paper he put the local
news. BY keeping in touch con-
stantly with telegraph operators
along the route, he obtained news
items which, if they reached the
Detroit journals at all, reached them
long after Edison had put them into
type while the train was speeding
from point to point.
Was Tremendous Reader
on this train Edison's regular job
was to sell the big papers. But he
managed to work in his own little
paper to a decided financial advan-
tage.
Edison's relations to the press
we're not infrequently those of the
grand donor. In his latter days,
when he had won the sobriquet of
the wizard" his footsteps we're
logged by newspaper men.
Anything from Edison was good
copy. His advice and opinion was
solicited on everything imaginable
even on recipes.
Edison was a tremendous read
CT. On one occasion he said:
"If I only had the time I would
like to do nothing better than to
read through a library"
Edison actually attempted this
in his early days. At that time, a
fledgling of 10, he had tackled a
certain shelf of a library and had
proceeded some ten feet when his
mother detected his objective and
quietly but firmly put her foot down
on such a record-breaking absorb
ton of knowledge.
Read at Furious Pace
In the days of Menlo Park he was
at his height as an inventor. Ger
tainly he was buster then than at
any other time.
Here Edison had little time for
reading. He was coping with his
greatest inventions. But in his lat
ter days his reading opportunities
increased, and what had been al
ways a strong bent in Edison now
developed into an ardent passion.
His laboratory at West Orange
was cluttered up with books marked
and remarked; scientific journals
read and reread. In the last two
decades of his life Edison read at a
furious pace.
In spite of all the honors that
poured in on him during these last
twenty years Edison remained to
the very end so modest as to be
bathing. He seemed to shrink from
public laudation.
Got Degree in Loco Remote"
When New York university con
ferred upon him an honorary de-
gree, Edison received the degree
over the phone. On that occasion
Or. Finley announced to the dis
appointed audience that Edison
would not receive his degree lin
~absentia," but lin loco remote"
Tn 1899 there was an exhibition of