ut in Lowrey's savoir faire,
ready wit and humor, chivalry of devotion, graceful eloquence, and
admirable equipoise of judgment were all the qualities that the occasion
demanded and that met the exigencies.

We are indebted to Mr. Insull for a graphic sketch of Edison at this
period, and of the conditions under which work was done and progress was
made: "I do not think I had any understanding with Edison when I first
went with him as to my duties. I did whatever he told me, and looked
after all kinds of affairs, from buying his clothes to financing his
business. I used to open the correspondence and answer it all, sometimes
signing Edison's name with my initial, and sometimes signing my own
name. If the latter course was pursued, and I was addressing a stranger,
I would sign as Edison's private secretary. I held his power of
attorney, and signed his checks. It was seldom that Edison signed
a letter or check at this time. If he wanted personally to send a
communication to anybody, if it was one of his close associates, it
would probably be a pencil memorandum signed 'Edison.' I was a shorthand
writer, but seldom took down from Edison's dictation, unless it was on
some technical subject that I did not understand. I would go over
the correspondence with Edison, sometimes making a marginal note in
shorthand, and sometimes Edison would make his own notes on letters, and
I would be expected to clean up the correspondence with Edison's laconic
comments as a guide as to the character of answer to make. It was a very
common thing for Edison to write the words 'Yes' or 'No,' and this would
be all I had on which to base my answer. Edison marginalized documents
extensively. He had a wonderful ability in pointing out the weak points
of an agreement or a balance-sheet, all the while protesting he was no
lawyer or accountant; and his views were expressed in very few words,
but in a characteristic and emphatic manner.

"The first few months I was with Edison he spent most of the time in the
office at 65 Fifth Avenue. Then there was a great deal of trouble with
the life of the lamps there, and he disappeared from the office and
spent his time largely at Menlo Park. At another time there was a great
deal of trouble with some of the details of construction of the dynamos,
and Edison spent a lot of time at Goerck Street, which had been rapidly
equipped with the idea of turning out bi-polar dynamo-electric machines,
direct-connected to the