was rumored that a battle had been fought the newspapers sold 'like hot cakes.' Any other boy would have been satisfied if he could supply as many papers a

at fund of humor. Though his life seemed to be 'all work and no play,' he took great pleasure in his work. In the course of his daily routine at Detroit, he could hard

le for his train. In this shrewd way the train-boy was better off than 'he who runs may read,' for he had read, and could shout while running: 'All about the big battle!' So he sold his papers in short order. He had learned to estimate ahead how many papers

tion in Detroit, he told the operator all about it. Edison h

p on the blackboard out on the station platform that there has been a big battle, w

that Edison boy tore back

rrow!' This was more than three times as many as he ha

'big' man from out of town. Young Edison was forced to break in, but the editor noticed how anxious and business-like he was. When th

this. Wish yo

once. He hired another 'newsie' to help him down to the stat

up I put my head out and thought I saw an excursion party. The people caught sight of me and commenced to shout. Then

tform was crowded with a howling mob, and I realized that they were after news of Shiloh, so I raised

s situated out of town. I had paid a big Dutch boy to haul several loads of sand to that point, and the engineers knew I was going to jump so they slowed down a bit. Still, I

knew what they were after, so I stopped in front of a church where a prayer-meeting was

came rushing out. The way the coin materialized made me thin

are not so common on trains nowadays, except in the West and South, but formerly they were even more of an institution than the water cooler or the old-fash