Alva's Hammer

If he goes through with this, the dam has burst.
I'm done with him. Of all the tricks he's pulled,
this is the lowest, cheapest, cruellest.  Worst.
Yes, Edison.  He can't be serious,
can he? To execute an elephant?

He's out there, grinning like a Barbary ape.
Where two or more newspapermen are gathered,
Alva loses all his self-control.
He'll be there now, perspiring, shouting, lathered,
excited to his flinty, vulgar soul.

I'm William Joseph Hammer. Who are you?
A quarter-century I've spent with him,
but now the scales have fallen from my eyes.
The man's a pirate and a charlatan.
Inventor?  Him?
                              Well, since I'm stranded here
in shabby Coney Island in the rain,
ignored and slighted, spited yet again,
I'll tell you. Edison did not invent
the light bulb - that's what he employed me for.
Besides, I'll name a dozen scientists
who'd made a working lamp some years before.

What is he good at? He's a patent-mill!
He takes out patents like a dentist, teeth
(except that dentists never put their name
on what they've pulled). The man has got no shame.
The team has all the talent, he the grin:
we think the thoughts, and Alva cashes in.

I think he's met his match in Westinghouse.
The so-called war of currents. Who will win?
America will buy one set of goods,
and where this country leads, the others go.
To get his system in American homes,
He'd stab his grandma.
   Hence this all-time low.
He's worse than Czolgosz.  At the very least,
the latter had nobility, although
misguided.  Alva has no other cause
beyond himself. Those motion picture-things
are here for Alva's glory. When the blow
extinguishes that poor beast's life, you'll know
whose self-promoting hand was on the tiller.
Saint Thomas Alva Edison's a killer.

Author's Note

(1) Alva’s Hammer: Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) was far from being the ingenious lone inventor of public imagination. An aggressive marketer and publicist, he employed a team of scientists (whom he drove ruthlessly hard). When his team came up with inventions, Edison patented them in his own name.
(2) To execute an elephant?: As a publicity stunt, on the authority of nobody but himself, in January 1903 Edison arranged the death by electrocution of a female circus elephant named Topsy. He justified this killing by claiming that Topsy had taken a human life, but in reality Edison wanted the massive publicity which the stunt would attract in order to sell his Direct Current electricity distribution system.
(3) William Joseph Hammer: Employee of Edison, and the true genius behind the cheap, easily-manufactured electric lamp which made Edison a millionaire. We imagine that Hammer has been dragged along to Coney Island for the execution of Topsy and, left idling by his master, has finally reached the point where he can tolerate Edison no more.
(4) Who are you?: Hammer finds himself unburdening his soul to a stranger. We never learn who the other man is.
(5) Inventor? Him?: The other man has said something like, “But he is a great inventor, surely?”, provoking Hammer to offer this contemptuous reply.
(6) Westinghouse: George Westinghouse (1846-1914), American pioneer of electricity distribution, and fierce rival of Edison. The two moguls fought the War of Currents in the 1880s and 90s, each striving to establish his product as the national system of the United States.
(7) Czolgosz: Sixteen months before this event in Coney Island, Leon Czolgosc had assassinated US President William McKinley in another part of New York State.
(8) Motion picture-things: Though moving-image photography was in its very infancy, Edison arranged for the electrocution of Topsy to be filmed. For anyone who can bear to watch it, the death of the poor animal can be viewed online at (a) Wikipedia (article: Topsy (elephant), or (b) Youtube (item: Electrocuting an Elephant).

Reviews

[Terrence Chang]

Insane writing Arezzo. What an insight you have given me to read. I really appreciated your writings

[Arezzo]

A huge thank you. (I'm assuming that "insane" is a compliment!)

[Terrence Chang]

YES definitely it is a complement. You have written it well

[Arezzo]

Muchas gracias

[Terrence Chang]

Bienvenido Arezzo