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.From the romantic point of view, Tesla as a young man wasnot unattractive.He was too tall and slender to pose asthe physical Adonis, but his other qualifications more thancompensated for this possible defect.He was handsome offace, had a magnetic personality, but was quiet, almostshy; he was soft spoken, well educated and wore clotheswell in spite of inadequate funds with which to keep up awardrobe.However, he avoided romantic encounters, or anysituations that would lead up to them, just as assiduouslyas other young men sought them.He would not permit histhoughts to wander into romantic channels, and withthoughts successfully controlled, action control became aproblem of vanishing magnitude.He did not develop anantagonism to women; he solved the problem, instead, byidealizing them.A typical instance of how he avoided romance is furnishedby an incident that occurred in Paris when he returned tothat city to give a lecture on his alternating-currentsystem after he had become world famous.His wonderfuldiscoveries were the principal topic of conversation of theday, and he was the cynosure of all eyes wherever he went.The situation was entirely pleasant to Tesla.Less than tenyears before, the executives the Continental EdisonCompany, in that city, had not alone rejected the262 alternating-current system he had offered them but hadcheated him of his just earnings.Now he was returning tothat city after receiving recognition and wealth in theUnited States and fame throughout the world.He was inParis as a returned hero and the world was at his feet.As he sat in an outdoor cafe; with a young male friend,amidst a chattering, fashionably dressed crowd, a graceful,gorgeously gowned young woman, with a stylishly coiffuredcrown of red hair, whom he instantly recognized as SarahBernhardt, the famous French actress--the "divine Sarah"--swung close to his table and when a few feet away veryauspiciously dropped a tiny lace handkerchief.Tesla was on his feet in an instant.He recovered thehandkerchief, and with his hat in his other hand, bowinglow from the waist, he handed the wisp of lace to thebeautiful tragedienne, saying: "Mademoiselle, yourhandkerchief." Without even an upward glance at hergraciously smiling face, he returned to his chair andresumed his conversation about his experiments on a worldwireless system of power transmission.When a newspaper reporter once asked Tesla why he had notmarried, his reply, as contained in the published interviewwas:I have planned to devote my whole life to my work and forthat reason I am denied the love and companionship of agood woman; and more, too.I believe that a writer or a musician should marry.Theygain inspiration that leads to finer achievement.But an inventor has so intense a nature, with so much in itof wild, passionate quality that, in giving himself to awoman, he would give up everything, and so take everythingfrom his chosen field: It is a pity, too; sometimes we feelso lonely.In my student days I have known what it was to pass forty-eight hours at a stretch at a gaming table, undergoingintense emotion, that which most people believe is thestrongest that can be known, but it is tame and insipidcompared with that sublime moment when you see the labor ofweeks fructify in a successful experiment that proves yourtheories.263 "Many times has Nikola Tesla known that supreme happiness,"said the interviewer, "and he is likely to know it oftenagain.It is impossible that his life work can be finishedat forty.It would seem that his powers are only reachingtheir maturity."Tesla was not unappreciative of the activities of the manywomen who showed a sincere interest in his welfare, and whotried to make life tolerable and pleasant for an obviouslynone-too-well-adjusted scientist projected into a socialworld from which he would have been only too willing toescape.He spoke glowingly of the first Mrs.ClarenceMackay (e Duer), Mrs.Jordan L.Mott, and of the beauty ofLady Ribblesdale (the former Mrs.John Jacob Astor)
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