Page:McClure's Magazine v9 n3 to v10 no2.djvu/470

92

of the bank. Seashore or bank sand has, in the coarse of centuries, lost its edges, because the particles have constantly rubbed against one another. Broken rock sand, however, is very sharp, and for cement and lime-work is very desirable. And in many other directions it is also valuable, and the demand promises an aid in cheapening the production of the ore.

"I want to say," says Mr. Mallory, "and I know whereof I speak, for I have been with him night and day for several years, that ninety-nine per cent, of the credit of all the invention and new work of this establishment is due personally to Mr. Edison. I have heard it stated that Mr. Edison is an organizer who uses the brains of other men. Nothing could be further from the truth than this. If this place was preserved as a monument for him, his memory would be placed upon no false pedestal. I have seen him by night and by day, in all weathers, and under all conditions, and I have found him always the same, the personification of concentration of purpose, and with a long-distance judgment at his beck and call which, however strained it may seem at the time, we have all learned to respect as being sure to prove right in the end. And what has been said of his personal magnetism has not been overstated. I doubt if there is another man living for whom his men would do as much. I suppose it is the power of example. We have here many men who have left well-kept homes to come up into the backwoods and toil day and night mainly out of loyalty to Mr. Edison. The fact that the 'old man' does it seems to be sufficient reason for them to do it; for what is good enough for the 'old man' is good enough for them. This, at least, is the spirit that prevails."

That this is the spirit which pervades the community can be easily seen by anyone who visits the place. Up on the hilltop, in the shanties of Summerville, dwell laborers of the poorer class. Far over on the other side of the mine stands the "White House." It is a little dwelling in which Edison lives with his chief men. At intermediate spots stand the shanties in which live the work- men of intermediate class. But from all of these dwellings comes a reverence for the master which is quite as strong and healthy in one place as in the other. As he moves among them all, none of them can have a true conception of the great things he is constantly planning, but they all know it is for their good and for the good of the world at large. No man has done more than Edison to benefit his generation. He essentially is the man of his time. Other men may do great things in the time to come, but whatever these things may be, they can never create more radical changes in the conduct of human life than have Edison's inventions. His old duster and his older straw hat can be seen flitting hither and thither about the