himself, while chatting, with making all kinds of fancy bits of
penmanship, twisting his signature into circles and squares, but always
writing straight lines--so straight they could not be ruled truer. Many
a night it is a question of getting Edison to bed, for he would much
rather probe a problem than eat or sleep; but at whatever hour the
visitor retires or gets up, he is sure to find the master of the house
on hand, serene and reposeful, and just as brisk at dawn as when he
allowed the conversation to break up at midnight. The ordinary routine
of daily family life is of course often interrupted by receptions and
parties, visits to the billiard-room, the entertainment of visitors, the
departure to and return from college, at vacation periods, of the young
people, and matters relating to the many social and philanthropic causes
in which Mrs. Edison is actively interested; but, as a matter of fact,
Edison's round of toil and relaxation is singularly uniform and free
from agitation, and that is the way he would rather have it.

Edison at sixty-three has a fine physique, and being free from serious
ailments of any kind, should carry on the traditions of his long-lived
ancestors as to a vigorous old age. His hair has whitened, but is still
thick and abundant, and though he uses glasses for certain work, his
gray-blue eyes are as keen and bright and deeply lustrous as ever, with
the direct, searching look in them that they have ever worn. He
stands five feet nine and one-half inches high, weighs one hundred and
seventy-five pounds, and has not varied as to weight in a quarter of a
century, although as a young man he was slim to gauntness. He is very
abstemious, hardly ever touching alcohol, caring little for meat, but
fond of fruit, and never averse to a strong cup of coffee or a good
cigar. He takes extremely little exercise, although his good color and
quickness of step would suggest to those who do not know better that he
is in the best of training, and one who lives in the open air.

His simplicity as to clothes has already been described. One would be
startled to see him with a bright tie, a loud checked suit, or a fancy
waistcoat, and yet there is a curious sense of fastidiousness about
the plain things he delights in. Perhaps he is not wholly responsible
personally for this state of affairs. In conversation Edison is direct,
courteous, ready to discuss a topic with anybody worth talking to, and,
in spite of his sor