EDWARD EVERETT HALE, clergyman and author, born in Boston in 1822, was
graduated at Harvard in 1839. While a clergyman, he is perhaps best
known to the world as a philanthropist and an author. He has written
short stories, novels, juvenile books, works of travel, essays,
biography, and history, besides giving much time to his pastoral
duties, to preaching, lecturing, and the organization of charities. He
founded the magazine "Old and New," afterward merged in "Scribner's"
(now "The Century"). Two of his short stories, "My Double, and How He
Undid Me," and "The Man Without a Country," are classics.
HENRI ADOLPHE STEPHAN OPPER, known to the world as M. DE BLOWITZ, born
at Blowitz, Bohemia, on December 28, 1825, migrated to France in 1848,
and became engaged as professor of the German language and literature
at the Lycee of Tours. Here he remained till 1860, when he left to
fill, successively, similar posts at Limoges, Poictiers, and
Marseilles. He married the daughter of a paymaster of the French
Marine. It was not till 1871 that he became a naturalized Frenchman,
and, after the French defeat by the Germans, he was a confidant and
emissary of both Gambetta and Thiers. His entrance into journalism was
as the collaborateur of Lawrence Oliphant, the special correspondent
of the "London Times" at Versailles. On Oliphant's retirement, M. de
Blowitz was promoted by the editor of the "Times," to fill his place.
The subsequent career of the great correspondent has been identified
with some of the most striking episodes in modern politics and
journalism.
DANIEL VIERGE URRABIETA, born in Madrid, 1852, became a student of
the Fine Arts Academy of Madrid in 1865. In 1869 he went to Paris
and began his career of illustrator. In 1881 he was stricken by an
attack of paralysis, which it was feared would be fatal. But for the
last four or five years he has been growing steadily better in
health, and has been able to resume his brilliant work. Although
but little known to the public at large, he ranks among the most
original and striking of modern artists, and is without doubt at the
head of the illustrators.
THOMAS ALVA EDISON, born at Alva, Ohio, February 11, 1847, had no
schooling except the attrition of life. At the age of fifteen, having
been taught telegraphy, he graduated from the life of a train newsboy
into that of an operator, and, during several years of wandering,
acquired extraordinary skill. The study of theory ran _aequo pede_ with
executive work. He quickly invented the automatic repeater to transfer
messages from one to another wire. It is needless to touch upon his
further achievements which have made his name famous in the whole
civilized world.