man. When I discovered my
mistake--the Prince of Wales being a mere stripling--I was so
disappointed that I couldn't help mentioning the fact. Then several of
us American boys expressed our belief that a prince wasn't much after
all! One boy got well whipped for this and there was a free-for-all
fight. The Canucks attacked the Yankee boys and, as they greatly
outnumbered us, we were all badly licked and I got a black eye. This
always prejudiced me against that kind of ceremonial and folly.'"

CHAPTER VII

THE MAKING OF AN INVENTOR

"It was during the time young Edison was employed at Port Huron," the
radio continued, "that the cable under River St. Clair between that city
and Port Sarnia was severed by an ice jam. The river at that point is
three quarters of a mile wide. Navigation was suspended and the ice had
broken up so that the stream could not be crossed on foot nor could the
broken cable lying in the bed of the river be mended.

"The ingenious young telegrapher suggested signaling Sarnia by giving,
with the whistle of a locomotive, the dot-and-dash letters of the Morse
telegraph code. Or course, this strange whistling caused considerable
wonderment on the Canada side until a shrewd operator recognized the
long-and-short telegraph letters, and communication was at once
established--important messages being transmitted by steam whistles--a
gigantic system of broadcasting. This was a simple way out of a sublime
difficulty involving the affairs of two great peoples.

"But the too-enterprising operator had started so much trouble for
himself that he decided to find employment where his mind would not be
distracted from his job or tempted away from working out his chemical
and electrical experiments. Because of these he preferred the position
of night operator. His telegraph work was really a side line.

"On these accounts he found a job as night operator at Stratford
Junction, Canada West, as Ontario was then called. He was only sixteen
but his salary of twenty-five dollars a month seemed very small after
making ten or twelve dollars a day as 'candy butcher.' But on account of
the chances it gave him for experimenting, he resigned himself to the
smallness of his pay. The treatment he had received at the hands of that
train conductor had convinced him that he could not follow his bent
while working all day on the railroad.

"Mr. Edison likes to tell of the prevailing ignorance of the science of
telegr