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because he rendered the telegraph practical, after
years of disheartening hindrances; of Stephenson,
because he -wedded nations by his railroads; and
of Edison— he already ranks as one of-the world’s
few great and original inventors.

Like Garfield, like Grant, General Sherman, How-
ells, and many another prominent man, Thomas
Alva Edison comes from Ohio. Like the majority
of those who have gained renown, his life has been
a battle with poverty; one long work-day, with lit-
tle recreation, no leisure. He was born February
11, 1847, in Milan. In this small canal town there
was nothing whatever to inspire a boy with dreams
of usefulness and greatness; yes, he had one help
—a loving and ambitious mother. She had been
a conscientious schoolteacher; and for her son,
her chief desire was that he should love and. long
for knowledge. His mind-was quick, inquiring, ex-
perimental, dwelling upon detail. One evening it
is humorously related that the parents missed their
six-year-old boy. Search was made everywhere.
At last, he was found in the barn, sitting on a nest
of goose eggs, his dress-skirt spread out to keep
them warm, in the hope of hatching some goslings.
He had placed food near by, that he might remain
as long as need be at his task. He had witnessed,
it seems, the surprising results obtained by the
sitting of the mother-goose, and saw no reason
why he could not accomplish the same. To his
regret, the nest was broken up by his amazed
parents, and the young incubator quickly trans-
ferred to the house.

He had only two months at a regular school.
His father and mother were his teachers, the former

. paying him for every book he read, in order-to en-
courage him. The boy needed little stimulus, how-
ever, for he devoured every volume which came
within his reach. At ten he was deep in Gibbon’s
Rome, Hume’s Lngland, Sears’ History of the World,
the Penny Encyclopedia, and had also read several

_ books on chemistry. Especially did he enjoy read-

ing of great men and their deeds. His play was
in the direction of building plank roads, digging
caves, and exploring the banks of.the canal.

At twelve it became necessary for him to go out
into the world to earn for himself; a mere child,
he was ; but all the same hé must encounter rough-
ness and selfishness in the eager rush for money.
He obtained a place as train-boy on the Grand
Trunk Railroad in Central Michigan; selling ap-
ples, peanuts, song books and papers. With his
sunny face and his natural insight into business,
he soon succeeded to an extent that he had four
boys working under him, in the fig, vegetable ivory,
and prize candy trade.

This was not sufficient to occupy his energies,
however. He had not iost his interest in chemistry.
He found or made an opportunity to exchange some
of his papers for retorts and other simple apparatus,

and to procure a copy of Fresenius’s Jnalitative An-.

“ment on fire.

' gave great offence to a subscriber.

LITTLE BIOGRAPHIES.—HOW SUCCESS IS WON.

alysis, and then he proceeded to turn an old bag-
gage-car into a laboratory. Here he used every
spare moment in experiments, which were much to
his wonder and delight. For fear that somebody
might touch his chemicals, every bottle was labeled
“ Poison.”

Another business was soon added to our train-
boy’s list. Three hundred pounds of old type were
purchased from the Detroit Free Press, and with a
little knowledge of printing, gained by using his eyes

when buying his papers, he started a brand-new.

three-cent paper, called the Grand Trunk Herald.
This journal was twelve by sixteen inches in size,
and it was filled with railway gossip, changes and
general information all likely to be of use or inter-
est to travellers. The literary matter was contri-
buted by baggage men and brakemen. So popular
did it become,that George Stephenson, builder of the
great tubular bridge at Montreal, ordered an extra
edition for his own use. The London Zimes spoke
of it as the only journal in the world printed on a
railway train.

These enterprises came to grief in a singular
manner. The jolting of the car tumbled a bottle
of phosphorus to the floor, setting the compart-
Of course all was in confusion, at
once. The conductor rushed in, threw all the
chemicals and type out of the car, and gave the
young chemist a “thrashing.” A “sadder but a
wiser” boy, he gathered up the few scattered ma-
terials which remained and put them in the base-
ment of his father’s house at Port Huron, Mich.,
whither the family had moved. 5

In a short time, however, he was issuing another
small journal, called Zhe Paul Pry, but larger and
finer than the Herald. Soon a contributed article
The indignant
man shortly after met the editor on the margin of
the St. Clair river, and without ceremony, picked
him up and threw him in. Being a good swimmer,
Thomas safely found his way out, but with his ardor
for editorial pursuits forever dampened. During
the four years in which he was train-boy, he had
earned two thousand dollars, giving it all to his
parents. He had slept at home nights, a great
help for any boy in keeping his good habits, At
the Detroit end of the line, as often as possible, he
had- visited the library, at one time making the
laughable decision to read the thousands of vol-
umes in course, just as they ranged on the shelves,
After reading a space fifteen feet in length, which in-
cluded Newton’s Principia, Ure’s Scientific Diction-
aries, Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy, he concluded
that a man must needs live to the age of Methuselah
to read a library through, and he gave up the plan.
He now took up Les Miserables, which he has read
a dozen. times since-then, Jules Verne, and what-
ever especially pleased him—a natural rebound.

During the early part of our civil war, when he
was fifteen, he conceived the idea of telegraphing