re
interested in the Chicago Edison Company, now one of the largest of the
systems in the world. Speaking of telling stories, I once got telling
a man stories at the Harrison lamp factory, in the yard, as he was
leaving. It was winter, and he was all in furs. I had nothing on to
protect me against the cold. I told him one story after the other--six
of them. Then I got pleurisy, and had to be shipped to Florida for
cure."

The organization of the Edison Electric Light Company went back to 1878;
but up to the time of leasing 65 Fifth Avenue it had not been engaged
in actual business. It had merely enjoyed the delights of anxious
anticipation, and the perilous pleasure of backing Edison's experiments.
Now active exploitation was required. Dr. Norvin Green, the well-known
President of the Western Union Telegraph Company, was president also of
the Edison Company, but the pressing nature of his regular duties
left him no leisure for such close responsible management as was now
required. Early in 1881 Mr. Grosvenor P. Lowrey, after consultation with
Mr. Edison, prevailed upon Major S. B. Eaton, the leading member of
a very prominent law firm in New York, to accept the position of
vice-president and general manager of the company, in which, as also in
some of the subsidiary Edison companies, and as president, he continued
actively and energetically for nearly four years, a critical, formative
period in which the solidity of the foundation laid is attested by the
magnitude and splendor of the superstructure.

The fact that Edison conferred at this point with Mr. Lowrey should,
perhaps, be explained in justice to the distinguished lawyer, who for so
many years was the close friend of the inventor, and the chief counsel
in all the tremendous litigation that followed the effort to enforce and
validate the Edison patents. As in England Mr. Edison was fortunate in
securing the legal assistance of Sir Richard Webster, afterward Lord
Chief Justice of England, so in America it counted greatly in his favor
to enjoy the advocacy of such a man as Lowrey, prominent among the
famous leaders of the New York bar. Born in Massachusetts, Mr. Lowrey,
in his earlier days of straitened circumstances, was accustomed to
defray some portion of his educational expenses by teaching music in the
Berkshire villages, and by a curious coincidence one of his pupils
was F. L. Pope, later Edison's partner for a time. Lowrey went West to
"Bleeding Kansas" wit