for two days. On one occasion we got outside Sandy Hook on the banks and
anchored. A breeze came up, the sea became rough, and a large number of
the men were sick. There was straw in the bottom of the boat, which we
all slept on. Most of the men adjourned to this straw very sick. Those
who were not got a piece of rancid salt pork from the skipper, and cut a
large, thick slice out of it. This was put on the end of a fish-hook
and drawn across the men's faces. The smell was terrific, and the effect
added to the hilarity of the excursion.

"I went down once with my father and two assistants for a little fishing
inside Sandy Hook. For some reason or other the fishing was very poor.
We anchored, and I started in to fish. After fishing for several hours
there was not a single bite. The others wanted to pull up anchor, but
I fished two days and two nights without a bite, until they pulled up
anchor and went away. I would not give up. I was going to catch that
fish if it took a week."

This is general. Let us quote one or two piquant personal observations
of a more specific nature as to the odd characters Edison drew around
him in his experimenting. "Down at Menlo Park a man came in one day and
wanted a job. He was a sailor. I hadn't any particular work to give him,
but I had a number of small induction coils, and to give him something
to do I told him to fix them up and sell them among his sailor friends.
They were fixed up, and he went over to New York and sold them all. He
was an extraordinary fellow. His name was Adams. One day I asked him how
long it was since he had been to sea, and he replied two or three years.
I asked him how he had made a living in the mean time, before he came
to Menlo Park. He said he made a pretty good living by going around to
different clinics and getting $10 at each clinic, because of having the
worst case of heart-disease on record. I told him if that was the case
he would have to be very careful around the laboratory. I had him there
to help in experimenting, and the heart-disease did not seem to bother
him at all.

"It appeared that he had once been a slaver; and altogether he was a
tough character. Having no other man I could spare at that time, I sent
him over with my carbon transmitter telephone to exhibit it in England.
It was exhibited before the Post-Office authorities. Professor Hughes
spent an afternoon in examining the apparatus, and in about a month came
out with his microphone,