ire; the curious fact that you
needed no matches to light it, and that it was under absolute control
from a distance--these and many other features came as a distinct
revelation and marvel, while promising so much additional comfort,
convenience, and beauty in the home, that inspection was almost
invariably followed by a request for installation.

The camaraderie that existed at this time was very democratic, for all
were workers in a common cause; all were enthusiastic believers in the
doctrine they proclaimed, and hoped to profit by the opening up of
the new art. Often at night, in the small hours, all would adjourn for
refreshments to a famous resort nearby, to discuss the events of to-day
and to-morrow, full of incident and excitement. The easy relationship of
the time is neatly sketched by Edison in a humorous complaint as to his
inability to keep his own cigars: "When at '65' I used to have in my
desk a box of cigars. I would go to the box four or five times to get a
cigar, but after it got circulated about the building, everybody would
come to get my cigars, so that the box would only last about a day and
a half. I was telling a gentleman one day that I could not keep a
cigar. Even if I locked them up in my desk they would break it open. He
suggested to me that he had a friend over on Eighth Avenue who made a
superior grade of cigars, and who would show them a trick. He said he
would have some of them made up with hair and old paper, and I could put
them in without a word and see the result. I thought no more about the
matter. He came in two or three months after, and said: 'How did that
cigar business work?' I didn't remember anything about it. On coming to
investigate, it appeared that the box of cigars had been delivered and
had been put in my desk, and I had smoked them all! I was too busy on
other things to notice."

It was no uncommon sight to see in the parlors in the evening John
Pierpont Morgan, Norvin Green, Grosvenor P. Lowrey, Henry Villard,
Robert L. Cutting, Edward D. Adams, J. Hood Wright, E. G. Fabbri, R.
M. Galloway, and other men prominent in city life, many of them
stock-holders and directors; all interested in doing this educational
work. Thousands of persons thus came--bankers, brokers, lawyers,
editors, and reporters, prominent business men, electricians, insurance
experts, under whose searching and intelligent inquiries the facts were
elicited, and general admiration was soon won for the s