-present determination to conquer what is undertaken: "Along in
the latter part of the nineties, when the work on the problem of
concentrating iron ore was in progress, it became necessary when leaving
the plant at Edison to wait over at Lake Hopatcong one hour for a
connecting train. During some of these waits Mr. Edison had seen me play
billiards. At the particular time this incident happened, Mrs. Edison
and her family were away for the summer, and I was staying at the
Glenmont home on the Orange Mountains.

"One hot Saturday night, after Mr. Edison had looked over the evening
papers, he said to me: 'Do you want to play a game of billiards?'
Naturally this astonished me very much, as he is a man who cares
little or nothing for the ordinary games, with the single exception of
parcheesi, of which he is very fond. I said I would like to play, so we
went up into the billiard-room of the house. I took off the cloth, got
out the balls, picked out a cue for Mr. Edison, and when we banked for
the first shot I won and started the game. After making two or three
shots I missed, and a long carom shot was left for Mr. Edison, the cue
ball and object ball being within about twelve inches of each other, and
the other ball a distance of nearly the length of the table. Mr. Edison
attempted to make the shot, but missed it and said 'Put the balls back.'
So I put them back in the same position and he missed it the second
time. I continued at his request to put the balls back in the same
position for the next fifteen minutes, until he could make the shot
every time--then he said: 'I don't want to play any more.'"

Having taken a somewhat superficial survey of the great enterprise under
consideration; having had a cursory glance at the technical development
of the plant up to the point of its successful culmination in the making
of a marketable, commercial product as exemplified in the test at the
Crane Furnace, let us revert to that demonstration and note the events
that followed. The facts of this actual test are far more eloquent than
volumes of argument would be as a justification of Edison's assiduous
labors for over eight years, and of the expenditure of a fortune in
bringing his broad conception to a concrete possibility. In the patient
solving of tremendous problems he had toiled up the mountain-side of
success--scaling its topmost peak and obtaining a view of the boundless
prospect. But, alas! "The best laid plans o' mice and me