pulled me through all right. My idea of Wall Street
banking has been very poor since that time. Merchant banking seems to be
different."

As a general thing, Edison has had no trouble in raising money when he
needed it, the reason being that people have faith in him as soon
as they come to know him. A little incident bears on this point. "In
operating the Schenectady works Mr. Insull and I had a terrible burden.
We had enormous orders and little money, and had great difficulty to
meet our payrolls and buy supplies. At one time we had so many orders on
hand we wanted $200,000 worth of copper, and didn't have a cent to buy
it. We went down to the Ansonia Brass and Copper Company, and told Mr.
Cowles just how we stood. He said: 'I will see what I can do. Will you
let my bookkeeper look at your books?' We said: 'Come right up and look
them over.' He sent his man up and found we had the orders and were all
right, although we didn't have the money. He said: 'I will let you have
the copper.' And for years he trusted us for all the copper we wanted,
even if we didn't have the money to pay for it."

It is not generally known that Edison, in addition to being a newsboy
and a contributor to the technical press, has also been a backer and
an "angel" for various publications. This is perhaps the right place at
which to refer to the matter, as it belongs in the list of his financial
or commercial enterprises. Edison sums up this chapter of his life very
pithily. "I was interested, as a telegrapher, in journalism, and started
the Telegraph Journal, and got out about a dozen numbers when it was
taken over by W. J. Johnston, who afterward founded the Electrical World
on it as an offshoot from the Operator. I also started Science, and ran
it for a year and a half. It cost me too much money to maintain, and I
sold it to Gardiner Hubbard, the father-in-law of Alexander Graham
Bell. He carried it along for years." Both these papers are still
in prosperous existence, particularly the Electrical World, as the
recognized exponent of electrical development in America, where now
the public spends as much annually for electricity as it does for daily
bread.

From all that has been said above it will be understood that Edison's
real and remarkable capacity for business does not lie in ability to
"take care of himself," nor in the direction of routine office practice,
nor even in ordinary administrative affairs. In short, he would and does
regar