came from. We told her we
had the plant in the cellar, and when she learned we had a boiler there
she said she would not occupy the house. She would not live over a
boiler. We had to take the whole installation out. The houses afterward
went onto the New York Edison system."

The art was, however, very crude and raw, and as there were no artisans
in existence as mechanics or electricians who had any knowledge of the
practice, there was inconceivable difficulty in getting such isolated
plants installed, as well as wiring the buildings in the district to be
covered by the first central station in New York. A night school was,
therefore, founded at Fifth Avenue, and was put in charge of Mr. E. H.
Johnson, fresh from his successes in England. The most available men for
the purpose were, of course, those who had been accustomed to wiring
for the simpler electrical systems then in vogue--telephones,
district-messenger calls, burglar alarms, house annunciators, etc., and
a number of these "wiremen" were engaged and instructed patiently in
the rudiments of the new art by means of a blackboard and oral lessons.
Students from the technical schools and colleges were also eager
recruits, for here was something that promised a career, and one that
was especially alluring to youth because of its novelty. These beginners
were also instructed in general engineering problems under the guidance
of Mr. C. L. Clarke, who was brought in from the Menlo Park laboratory
to assume charge of the engineering part of the company's affairs.
Many of these pioneer students and workmen became afterward large and
successful contractors, or have filled positions of distinction
as managers and superintendents of central stations. Possibly the
electrical industry may not now attract as much adventurous genius as it
did then, for automobiles, aeronautics, and other new arts have come
to the front in a quarter of a century to enlist the enthusiasm of a
younger generation of mercurial spirits; but it is certain that at the
period of which we write, Edison himself, still under thirty-five, was
the centre of an extraordinary group of men, full of effervescing and
aspiring talent, to which he gave glorious opportunity.

A very novel literary feature of the work was the issuance of a bulletin
devoted entirely to the Edison lighting propaganda. Nowadays the
"house organ," as it is called, has become a very hackneyed feature
of industrial development, confusing i