I shall dwell briefly on these extraordinary experiences, on at of their possible io students of psychology and physiology and also because this period of agony was of the greatest sequeny mental development and subsequent labors. But it is indispensable to first relate the circumstances and ditions which preceded them and in which might be found their partial explanation.
From childhood I was pelled to trate attention upon myself. This caused me much suffering but, to my present view, it was a blessing in disguise for it has taught me to appreciate the iimable value of introspe in the preservation of life, as well as a means of achievement. The pressure of occupation and the incessant stream of impressions p into our scioushru all the gateways of knowledge make moderence hazardous in many ways. Most persons are so absorbed in the plation of the outside world that they are wholly oblivious to what is passing on within themselves. The premature death of millions is primarily traceable to this cause. Even among those who exercise care it is a istake to avoid imaginary, and ighe real dangers. And what is true of an individual also applies, more or less, to a people as a whole.
Abstinence was not always to my liking but I find ample reward in the agreeable experiences I am now making. Just in the hope of verting some to my precepts and vis I will recall one or two.
A short time ago I was returning to my hotel. It was a bitter cold night, the ground slippery, and no taxi to be had. Half a block behind me followed another man, evidently as anxious as myself to get under cover. Suddenly my legs went up in the air. In the same instant there was a flash in my brain, the nerves respohe muscles tracted, I swung thru 180 degrees and landed on my hands. I resumed my walk as tho nothing had happened wheranger caught up with me.
"How old are you?" he asked, surveying me critically.
"Oh, about fifty-nine," I replied. "What of it?"
"Well," said he, "I have seen a cat do this but never a man."
About a month since I wao order new eyeglasses ao an oculist who put me thru the usual tests. He looked at me incredulously as I read off with ease the smallest print at siderable distance. But when I told him that I ast sixty he gasped in astonishment.
Friends of mien remark that my suits fit me like gloves but they do not know that all my clothing is made to measurements which were taken nearly 35 years ago and never ged. During this same period my weight has not varied one pound. In this e I may tell a funny story.
One evening, in the winter of 1885, Mr. Edison, Edward H. Johnson, the President of the Edison Illuminating pany, Mr. Batchellor, Manager of the works, and myself entered a little place opposite 65 Fifth Avenue where the offices of the pany were located. Someone suggested guessis and I was io step on a scale. Ediso me all over and said: "Tesla weighs 152 lbs. to an ounce," and he guest it exactly. Stript I weighed 152 lbs. and that is still my weight. I whispered to Mr. Johnson: "How is it possible that Edison could guess my weight so closely?"
"Well," he said, l his voice. "I will tell you, fidentially, but you must not say anything. He was employed for a long time in a Chicago slaughter-house where he weighed thousands of hogs every day! That''s why."
My friend, the Hon. cey M. Depew, tells of an Englishman on whom he sprung one of his inal aes and who listened with a puzzled expr