The Social Side Of Edison -13

The Social Side Of Edison -13

 For over a score of years, dating from his marriage to Miss Miller, Edison's happy and

perfect domestic life has been spent at Glenmont, a beautiful property acquired at that

time in Llewellyn Park, on the higher slopes of Orange Mountain, New Jersey, within

easy walking distance of the laboratory at the foot of the hill in West Orange. As noted

already, the latter part of each winter is spent at Fort Myers, Florida, where Edison has,

on the banks of the Calahoutchie River, a plantation home that is in many ways a

miniature copy of the home and laboratory up North. Glenmont is a rather elaborate and

florid building in Queen Anne English style, of brick, stone, and wooden beams showing

on the exterior, with an abundance of gables and balconies. It is set in an environment of

woods and sweeps of lawn, flanked by unusually large conservatories, and always bright

in summer with glowing flower beds. It would be difficult to imagine Edison in a stiffly

formal house, and this big, cozy, three-story, rambling mansion has an easy freedom

about it, without and within, quite in keeping with the genius of the inventor, but

revealing at every turn traces of feminine taste and culture. The ground floor, consisting

chiefly of broad drawing-rooms, parlors, and dining-hall, is chiefly noteworthy for the

"den," or lounging-room, at the end of the main axis, where the family and friends are

likely to be found in the evening hours, unless the party has withdrawn for more intimate

social intercourse to the interesting and fascinating private library on the floor above. The

lounging-room on the ground floor is more or less of an Edison museum, for it is littered

with souvenirs from great people, and with mementos of travel, all related to some event

or episode. A large cabinet contains awards, decorations, and medals presented to Edison,

accumulating in the course of a long career, some of which may be seen in the illustration

opposite. Near by may be noticed a bronze replica of the Edison gold medal which was

founded in the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the first award of which was

made to Elihu Thomson during the present year (1910). There are statues of serpentine

marble, gifts of the late Tsar of Russia, whose admiration is also represented by a

gorgeous inlaid and enamelled cigar-case.

There are typical bronze vases from the Society of Engineers of Japan, and a striking

desk-set of writing apparatus from Krupp, all the pieces being made out of tiny but

massive guns and shells of Krupp steel. In addition to such bric-a-brac and bibelots of all

kinds are many pictures and photographs, including the original sketches of the reception

given to Edison in 1889 by the Paris Figaro, and a letter from Madame Carnot, placing

the Presidential opera-box at the disposal of Mr. and Mrs. Edison. One of the most

conspicuous features of the room is a phonograph equipment on which the latest and best

productions by the greatest singers and musicians can always be heard, but which Edison

himself is everlastingly experimenting with, under the incurable delusion that this

domestic retreat is but an extension of his laboratory.

The big library--semi-boudoir--up-stairs is also very expressive of the home life of

Edison, but again typical of his nature and disposition, for it is difficult to overlay his

many technical books and scientific periodicals with a sufficiently thick crust of popular

magazines or current literature to prevent their outcropping into evidence. In like manner

the chat and conversation here, however lightly it may begin, turns invariably to large

questions and deep problems, especially in the fields of discovery and invention; and

Edison, in an easy-chair, will sit through the long evenings till one or two in the morning,

pulling meditatively at his eyebrows, quoting something he has just read pertinent to the

discussion, hearing and telling new stories with gusto, offering all kinds of ingenious

suggestions, and without fail getting hold of pads and sheets of paper on which to make

illustrative sketches. He is wonderfully handy with the pencil, and will sometimes amuse

himself, while chatting, with making all kinds of fancy bits of penmanship, twisting his

signature into circles and squares, but always writing straight lines--so straight they could

not be ruled truer. Many a night it is a question of getting Edison to bed, for he would

much rather probe a problem than eat or sleep; but at whatever hour the visitor retires or

gets up, he is sure to find the master of the house on hand, serene and reposeful, and just

as brisk at dawn as when he allowed the conversation to break up at midnight. The

ordinary routine of daily family life is of course often interrupted by receptions and

parties, visits to the billiard-room, the entertainment of visitors, the departure to and

return from college, at vacation periods, of the young people, and matters relating to the

many social and philanthropic causes in which Mrs. Edison is actively interested; but, as

a matter of fact, Edison's round of toil and relaxation is singularly uniform and free from

agitation, and that is the way he would rather have it.