f the
incident occurred yesterday, although it is now more than twenty-nine
years since that first meeting. I had been connected with Edison's
affairs in England as private secretary to his London agent for about
two years; and had been taught by Johnson to look on Edison as the
greatest electrical inventor of the day--a view of him, by-the-way,
which has been greatly strengthened as the years have rolled by. Owing
to this, and to the fact that I felt highly flattered at the appointment
as his private secretary, I was naturally prepared to accept him as a
hero. With my strict English ideas as to the class of clothes to be worn
by a prominent man, there was nothing in Edison's dress to impress me.
He wore a rather seedy black diagonal Prince Albert coat and waistcoat,
with trousers of a dark material, and a white silk handkerchief around
his neck, tied in a careless knot falling over the stiff bosom of a
white shirt somewhat the worse for wear. He had a large wide-awake
hat of the sombrero pattern then generally used in this country, and a
rough, brown overcoat, cut somewhat similarly to his Prince Albert
coat. His hair was worn quite long, and hanging carelessly over his fine
forehead. His face was at that time, as it is now, clean shaven. He was
full in face and figure, although by no means as stout as he has grown
in recent years. What struck me above everything else was the wonderful
intelligence and magnetism of his expression, and the extreme brightness
of his eyes. He was far more modest than in my youthful picture of him.
I had expected to find a man of distinction. His appearance, as a whole,
was not what you would call 'slovenly,' it is best expressed by the word
'careless.'"

Mr. Insull supplements this pen-picture by another, bearing upon the
hustle and bustle of the moment: "After a short conversation Johnson
hurried me off to meet his family, and later in the evening, about
eight o'clock, he and I returned to Edison's office; and I found myself
launched without further ceremony into Edison's business affairs.
Johnson had already explained to me that he was sailing the next
morning, March 2d, on the S.S. Arizona, and that Mr. Edison wanted to
spend the evening discussing matters in connection with his European
affairs. It was assumed, inasmuch as I had just arrived from London,
that I would be able to give more or less information on this subject.
As Johnson was to sail the next morning at five o'clock, Edis