His mother, an
educated woman of Scotch extraction, taught him at home after the
schoolmaster reported that he was "addled." His desire for money
to spend on chemicals for a laboratory which he had fitted up in
the cellar led to his first venture in business. "By a great
amount of persistence," he says, "I got permission to go on the
local train as newsboy. The local train from Port Huron to
Detroit, a distance of sixty-three miles, left at 7 A.M. and
arrived again at 9.30 P.M. After being on the train for several
months I started two stores in Port Huron--one for periodicals,
and the other for vegetables, butter, and berries in the season.
They were attended by two boys who shared in the profits."
Moreover, young Edison bought produce from the farmers' wives
along the line which he sold at a profit. He had several newsboys
working for him on other trains; he spent hours in the Public
Library in Detroit; he fitted up a laboratory in an unused
compartment of one of the coaches, and then bought a small
printing press which he installed in the car and began to issue a
newspaper which he printed on the train. All before he was
fifteen years old.
But one day Edison's career as a traveling newsboy came to a
sudden end. He was at work in his moving laboratory when a lurch
of the train jarred a stick of burning phosphorus to the floor
and set the car on fire.
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