Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 January 1880 — YOUNG ALVAH EDISON. [ARTICLE]

YOUNG ALVAH EDISON.

The Wizard or Menlo l ark as a Boy. [From Hie Philadelphia BuUet'n ] “ WhilewAt Menlo Park,” said Mr. Bentley, “I met Edison’s father. He is a plain, matter-of-fact old gentleman, and said that he had* heard of the doings of his boy Alvah (he always calls him Alvah), and thought he would come from his home in Michigan and see what it was all about. When he saw the brilliant lights burning he remarked that he could tell better what it amounted to if it was up in Detroit, where he knew people and could get a better look at it. I asked him what kind of a boy Alvah was, and whether he had ever given him trouble. “ ‘Alvah was a good boy, and I can say that I never knew him tell a falsehood.’

“ Edison looked up at his father and said: ‘But you must remember, father, I have been away from home for some time,’ at which both the old gentleman and I had a hearty laugh. “‘ I remember,’ continued the old gentleman, * that, when he was 12 years old, he weighed just sixty pounds. I would have forgotten it, but tho little scamp insisted on going with me for some wheat, and, after weighing a bushel, he jumped on the scales and he weighed the same as the wheat. He was always an active boy, though small and very thin. Once I went down to Ohio for some goods and brought them to Sandusky to have them transhipped to Michigan. Alvah was with mo, and, after unloading, I was looking for a marking-pot to mark tho goods, when he insisted on doing the marking. A gentleman standing by watched him and asked me if that was my boy. On being answered in the affirmative, lie said: ‘lf you’ll let me have him I’ll give you S3O per month.’ That was good wages for a boy in those days, but bis mother thought he was too little to go away from home, and so wc refused the offer.

“ ‘lt was not long afterward that he got a position on the railroad to sell papers, etc , on the cars, and ran a distance of 200 miles each day, being home at night. In the baggage c.ir he had rigged up a telegraph instrument, and every spare moment was spent in practicing. One very cold winter night, when tho wind was howling and the snow falling, I had occasion to go to the part of the house where he slept, and, seeing a light in his room, had curiosity enough to look through the keyhole, aud there Alvah sat bundled up in a huge overcoat and a handkerchief around his head, with a lot of b ttles he had gathered from a drug store. He always was a queer boy, and I knew there was no use scolding him, and so just let him alone and gave him the room to carry on his experiments. Three months from that time he had every nook and corner of the room filled with shelves containing bottles, stones, chemicals, etc. At last he had learned enough telegraphing to branch out for himself, and he left us to push ahead for himself. When I came to clean up that room and emptied out a lot of stuff which no human being could tell what it was, I got over S3O for the empty bottles. He was not 14 years old when he left us. Yes, Alvah was a queer boy.’ “ ‘Well,’ said I, ‘Mr. Edison, the general opiniqnj of the world is that he is indeed very queer, but if we had a few more such queer people, science would soon enlarge.’ ”