all over
his place and showed me everything, and past differences were not referred
to. Mr. Edison is doing an enormous amount of work in steadily plodding
away at the electric light business. He has solved the question as far as
New York is concerned and as far as central station lighting is concerned;
and all we want on this side is to instill more confidence into our
capitalists, to try and induce them to unbutton their pockets and give us
money to carry out central lighting here.

I met another very distinguished electrician--a man who has hid his light
under a bushel--a man whose quiet modesty has kept him very much in the
background, but who really has done as much work as any body on that side
of the Atlantic, and few have done more on this--and that is Mr. Edward
Weston. He is an Englishman who has established himself in New York. He
has been working steadily for years at his laboratory, and works and
produces plant with all the skill and exactitude that the electrician or
mechanic could desire.

Another large factory I went over was that of the Western Electric Company
of Chicago, which is the largest manufactory in the States. That company
has three large factories. While I was there, the manager, just as a
matter of course, handed me over a message which contained an order for
330 arc lamps and for twenty-four dynamo machines. He was very proud of
such an order, but he tried to make me believe that it was an every-day
occurrence.

There are no less than 90,000 arc lamps burning in the States every day.

The time has passed very rapidly. I have only just one or two more points
to allude to. I think I ought not to conclude without referring to the
more immediate things affecting travelers generally and electricians in
particular. It is astounding to come across the different experiences
narrated by different men who have been on the other side of the Atlantic.
One charming companion that we had on board the Parisian has been
interviewed, and his remarks appeared in the _Pall Mall Gazette_ of
Tuesday last, December 9th. There he gave the most pessimist view of life
in the United States. He said they were a miserable race--thin, pale faced
and haggard, and rushed about as though they were utterly unhappy; and the
account our friend gave of what he saw in the United States evidently
shows that the heat that did not affect some of us so very much must have
produced upon Mr. Capper a most severe bilious attack. W