end of pleasure and comfort to the world. You cannot go into a
city in the United States that is not fitted with electric
lights--_Edison_ lights. When you hear a phonograph, remember it is an
Edison invention; when you go sight-seeing in a new city, the guide of
the motor carriages will shout the names of places to you through a
megaphone,--another Edison idea. He has patents on fourteen hundred
ideas. No wonder he has had to keep busy! There is no telling how many
more patents his brain will win, for he is only sixty-seven, and that is
young in the Edison family. Thomas's great-grandfather lived to be a
hundred and four, and his grandfather lived to be a hundred and two. And
he himself is just as busy to-day as he was when he drove every one but
his mother nearly crazy with his questions. Only to-day he stays in his
workshop, getting answers to them.

He never loses his interest in telegraph matters; many of his inventions
have been along that line. In fun, he called his first girl and boy
"Dot" and "Dash." And in that fine home in New Jersey, hanging near the
funny little newspaper, is a picture of Thomas Edison when he sold
newspapers on the train and sent telegraph news about the great Civil
War to all the stations along the way. The picture shows a bright, merry
face. America's greatest inventor still laughs like a boy and takes a
day off now and then for music, fishing, and reading. But he is the
busiest man living.

* * * * *

Transcriber's note:

The following changes have been made to the text:

Page 60: "often she forget to eat" changed to "often she forgot to eat".

Page 141: "electrics or steam train" changed to "electric or steam
train".

Page 206: "forhead" changed to "forehead".

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHILD'S BOOK OF AMERICAN
BIOGRAPHY***

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