T H E TORCH OF REASON, SIL V E R T O N , OREGON, AUGUST 10, 1899.
2
people, as well as selling some stock or through tear of the bull dogs, difficulty in carrying the twelve in ­
in the Liberal University. I con- He said when he saw Davenport ventions in his head at once, and
eider th at it was two days well coming with the dogs, “Good God, developing each sim ultaneously.
BY P . W. G E EK .
spent, and after having a farewell Davenport, do you w ant my mo- W’hat a grand blessing th a t he is
W aehington m onum ent should visit with friend Croffut, I started ney?” “ Have you got a n y ? ” said not ham pered with superstition.
In response to the invitation of
com m and the first attention of a for P hiladelphia, where I stopped Davenport. ‘Not a cent. I hat is
visitor toour national capitol. This long enough to see Mr. Bentiy and what makes it so dam n ridiculous,’’ Mr. and Mrs. John Brisben W alker
I spent a very p leasant evening a t
massive stone structure, built on a Mr. Wilber, and visit the United Edison replied, with a laugh,
slight rise of ground, west of the States m int, where they make the
Homer said Edison wanted to see their home on the H udson, at I r ­
capitol building, extends into the money. I saw twenty million dol- me, and told me where to find him. vington. Mr. W alker is the well-
air a distance of 555 feet. From lars worth of gold and silver in one I entered at the end of a long brick known editor of the Cosm opolitan
the windows near the top one can vault, and it didn’t even make me building, and after passing through Magazine, and I was very glad to
get the finest view of the city of hungry. I saw a man rolling out several doors, and winding around learn th at both he and his wife are
Both are delightful
W ashington and the surrounding bars of gold ready to be stamped am ong a wilderness of apparatus, Secularists.
country th at it is possible to get, into ten dollar pieces.
There is with the odor of chem icals strong com pany and splendid e n te rta in ­
unless one goes up in a balloon. $700 in each bar. I wanted the enough to kill bed-bugs, I saw a ers, and they have a fine fam ily of
This is about as near an approach man to give me one of the bars for room at the extrem e end of the long boys. The Cosm opolitan stands at
as you can get to a balloon ascen- a sam ple, but he wouldn’t do it. building. I walked up to the door, the head of the great m agazines,
sion. The elevator was not run- I told him th at I was all the way and saw a man seated at a long and it is undoubtedly due to its
Mr. W alker is just dow
ning the day I visited the monu- from Oregon, but he said th a t is table, with a lot of ja rs of chem icals editor.
merit, and I had to clim b the stair- where gold grows and I d id n ’t need before him. The m an was Edison, building a factory for the construc­
wav. W hat a climb it was! It any samples. I saw one woman the prince of inventors. He was tion of autom obiles. He is very en ­
d id n ’t take as long as it did to m aking copper cents, and she had clad in a gray suit, which was thusiastic in bis new line of busi­
climb the B unker H ill m onum ent, more “cents” than any woman I literally p4astered with dirt and ness, and I have every reason to be­
for there were not so m any people ever saw before. The only thing dust. His face was full and smooth lieve th a t he will succeed in th a t as
and plenty of room to pass. I she needed to be an up-to-date shaven; hi3 hair is turning gray in 1 well as other enterprises in which
pulled off* ray coat and started to woman was more brass—she had places; his eyes have a hungry ex­ he is engaged. He is also deeply
pression, a relic, I suppose, of his interested in a correspondence
climb. The w eather was hot, and copper enough.
before I had climbed one-third of
I arrived in New Y >rk City th a t past life. You often hear of people school, which has grown to some
the way I was wet with p ersp ira­ evening too late to hear Mr. W ake­ who don’t know enough to eat m agnitude, and is doing a vast
Mr. and Mrs.
tion. By the time I had reached m an give his farewell lecture before when they are hungry, Edison am ount of good.
the half-way point, my long legs, the M anhattan Liberal Club. I am knows too much to eat when he is W alker are, of course, anxious to
instead of wearing off, seemed to be glad I didn’t get there, for 1 am hungry.
see the Liberal U niversity succeed,
The wizard m otioned for me to for they know’ it to be a step in the
twice the original length, and it afraid the people would have
was alm ost impossible for me to lift mobbed me for inducing their high enter, anu as I approached he held right direction. After we had dined
my feet from one step to another. priest to leave them to be a pro­ out his hand to welcome me. As I sum ptuously, and chatted for some
I stopped to rest and wipe th e per­ fessor in the Liberal University of grasped it he spoke, and bis voice length, I bade goodbye to the
spiration from my face, and then Oregon. Of course they will miss sounded like his head was in a b a r­ W alkers and started for the station.
climbed on and on u n til I finally him , but they will not lose him en­ rel, th at is on account of his deaf­ It was «lark and storm y so the son
reached the lop platform , with five tirely, for in the Liberal University ness. “ W ell,” said he, “ I am read­ David went with me as far as the
hundred feet, besides my own, be­ his work will extend throughout ing the bible.” “ Yes,” I replied, Cosmopolitan building, and was
tween me and the ground. The all the land. He is sim ply chang­ “ the bible of n atu re is a splendid kind enough to show me the p rin t­
wind was blowing a gale at th a t ing to a more congeni I locality to book if one understands bow to ing plant. They do all the work
high altitude, and I stopped in front enlarge bis field of labor. This read it.” “ The best dam n bible in under one roof, except m aking the
of one of the windows to cool off. change will be applauded by all the world,” said Edison, en th u sias­ paper. They have a lovely build­
The keeper gave me his field-glass true lovers of hum an progress.
tically; “ its laws are perfect and ing, and em ploy an arm y of people.
so th a t I could get a good view of
I spent another two weeks with grand, and all the prayers in the
I waited at the station for the
the scene below me. Directly to my headquarters at Hom er Daven­ world c a n ’t change them . There is m idnight train for H udson, when I
the east extends the long park p o rt’s house in East Orange, and intelligence and law in this world, climbed aboard and rode until d a y ­
toward the capitol building a mile had a fine time.
One m orning and there may be suprem e intelli­ light, when the conductor said he
away. In the center of the park Homer took me in the buggy, be­ gence and law, but so far as the re­ w ouldn’t take me any further w ith­
are the Sm ithsonian Institute and hind his fine Arabian steed, and ligion of the day is concerned it is out ex tra pay. I d id n ’t want to go
the National Museum. W alking to we rode up to Llewellyn Park, all a dam ned fake.” Mr. Edison is any further then anyw ay, so I
the north window I looked down where the laboratory and factory of a pleasant talker, and his swearing stepped off the train and put in my
upon the W hite House, the large the great Edison are located. After is not harsh, it is sim ply am using, j time writing and viewing the H u d ­
buildings of the W ar, T reasury, In ­ considerable ringing of an electric I explained in a few words what we son at.d the C atskill in the distance
terior and Peusion departm ents, bell at the gate of the high fence are doing in Oregou, and he said he until the in h ab itan ts of Hudson had
and the city with its beautiful surrounding his laboratory, we were was very glad to hear such glorious finished their breakfast.
I then
streets, avenues, and parks.
In adm itted. I held the horse, while news, and asked me for some litera­ sought out the home of Mr. Gei­
the distance are the hills covered D avenport went with his three bull ture, which I gladly gave him. I ger, my Infidel frieud. Mr Geig<r
with trees and suburban residences. terriers in search of the wizard. did not wish to detain the world’s is an in inventor, and like other in ­
I rotn the windows in the west I The dogs didn’t have to do any great benefactor from his work, so ventors he usually suffers encroach­
gazed out upon Georgetown, lying tracking; Homer knew about where after a few m om ents chat and tx- m ents on his rights from u n p rin ­
along the bank of the 1 otomac, to find his friend, and the dogs change of ideas, I hade my friend cipled m anufacturers.
He is the
which Hows to the south-east.
In sim ply followed through force of goodbye and soon joined Homer man who covers the bullet with a
the distance is the Naval Observa- habit. In a short time Homer aud and the «logs, where I found them copper jacket, which gives it great
tory.
From the south, one can the dogs returned, and found the with the mob still around the horse, power of penetration. Mr. Geiger
look out across the Potom ac into horse surrounded by a mob, and a
Mr. Edison is indeed a wonderful is a reader of the Torch of Reason,
\ irginia, and see the N ational face at every window of the large m an. He spends twelve hours a and expressed his desire and in ten ­
Cem etery in the distance, with the building. 1'he mob was not there day in his laboratory, and it is tion to help the Liberal U niversity,
old Lee m ansion, all beautiful and to harm me. The workmen had hard to get him to stop long enough in which he is enthusiastically in ­
white, standing among the trees, all quit work to see the finest horse to eat. He sleeps only four hours terested.
Directly in front of you the loute of in America, while we were visiting a day, and has been known to work
I did not have long to stay in
the Potomac can be followed as it th e greatest inventor in the world, i sixty hours w ithout sleep. At pre­
this delightful place as the train
tu rn s toward the south, with Alex- Homer and Edison are great friends, sent, I believe he is superintending soon went to New York City, and
an d ria and Mt. \e r n o n in the dis- and Homer had gone to inform the the construction of twelve different
th ith er I went to finish up my bus­
tance.
inventor th at a western Infidel inventions. All day long he walks iness preparatory to my return to
< i not stay half long enough wanted to see him. I don’t know from one departm ent to another,
Silverton. I arrived in New York
in W ashington, but I saw some whether he consented through a where the various m achines are
a little after noon, and called on
beautiful sights and some splendid friendly feeling for a fellow heathen ¡building.
He seems to have no the editor of the P opular Science
Abroad.