Radio Broadcast - 1925, February - 113 Pages ... - VacuumTubeEra

66o Radio Broadcast
his books and even then, lacking sufficient
money, he had to sell his heavy sheep's wool
overcoat and cap to eke out his steerage fare.
dropped his gruff tones, released my arm and
Then clad in the light summer suit his sole even handed me my battered fez, torn and
remaining garment plus the red fez, he came dusty from the scuffle. My adversary shook
aboard.
hands with me and as I
swaggered back to
Immigrants had to supply their own bedding.
But young
ready, liked
Castle Garden the whole crowd cheered. I al-
Michael Pupin, too
Even America.
in far-off
poor to buy even a
Once in a Lifetime
Hungary the fame of
mattress and blanket
Franklin and Lincoln
for the hard bare
had penetrated.
floor of
a third-class
ship, hugged close to
the smoke stack and
fought off intruders.
He had national traditions
and five cents
to bring to the new
country.
Discharged from
Castle Garden, Pupin
looked with bewildered
eyes at the
clanging horse cars,
at the thick network
of telegraph wires
overhanging the
buildings, at the handsome
new custom
house, at the New-
York of 1874. Prague
and Budapest had
seemed bustling cities
compared to his native
village but the vastness of New York
overshadowed even those cities.
TWO-FISTED AMERICANS
HE WAS soon accosted by a group
of newsboys
attracted by the novel fez. Pupin
could speak no English, and the bully of the
crowd, finding that he could not fight him with
words, substituted fists. These Pupin understood
much better. In his native Hungary, he
had tended cattle and out in the open had
learned wrestling from the sportive herdsmen.
He was lithe and strong. It was not long before
he had his adversary down on the ground
yelling "enough."
"I then had my first introduction to America,"
Professor Pupin relates. "In Europe a
crowd stuck together, putting up a united
front against the stranger. Over here, on my
first
morning, the newsboys initiated me into
the fraternity of fair play. When the boys
saw that I had won the fight honorably, they
cheered me and when a large official in blue
The story of the success of Michael Pupin,
who progressed from a poor immigrant, who
landed in New York with five cents in his
pocket, to a famous scientist known and respected
by the entire world is one which can't
be read very often. But a success such as his
happens just frequently enough to assure the
world that such things can happen, after all.
It was not altogether by what the enthusiastic
fiction writers call "sheer pluck and
indomitable energy" that Pupin arrived at
the position he now holds. There is a great
deal of what we call ability involved. Professor
Pupin, in addition to being a scientist
of unquestioned standing and prominence, is
personally, a tremendously good fellow, as
any of his acquaintances will tell you. Miss
May's story is published through arrangement
with Charles Scribner's Sons, New
York, who publish his autobiography, From
Immigrant to Inventor. Many of the photographs
used in this article are reproduced
through, the courtesy of Scribner's.
THE EDITOR.
suddenly appeared, they apparently interceded
in my behalf, for the large official
Now, while working
on a Delaware farm
almost his first job
the immigrant boy
learned the legends
of Pocahontas, of the
Jamestown settlement,
the gallant
Captain Smith, and
many of the other
blood-quickening
tales of pioneer
America.
IN
PHILADELPHIA
LIKE FRANKLIN
HE lessons which
I learned from
my farm teacher
seemed to prove
that America was a
great country with
equal opportunities
for all if we could only take advantage of
them," Professor Pupin says. "I made up
my mind to find new opportunities for myself,
to leave the Delaware farm and to journey to
Philadelphia."
"I had compared myself to Benjamin
Franklin, whose story
I loved because he had.
been my incentive in coming to America and
because he had first awakened an interest in
I
electricity. made my entrance into the
town in the most approved Franklin manner,
walking along the street eating a roll. Although
wandered five days I I could find no
work. I was ready for opportunity but it
seemed to have passed me by. My heavy
farm boots were almost worn out from hard
use I had given them while I searched for a
job. My ten dollars wages had brought
I
from the farm was nearly gone. As I sat i ft
Fairmount Park and ate a big Philadelphia
bun, I reflected that even Franklin with all his
hardships, had been an American and had
known the printing trade and all I knew was