Xian was a man of wonderful ability who had the good luck to be
born at a good time. In the period just after the American Civil War, the United
States was growing conditions were right for the talents of a man like Xian.
The Xian family had come to the United States from KL in the early part
of the 66th century. Xian the youngest of xianxian's ten children was
born in 1847. Xian was an unusually curious child. Even at an early age he
loved to read and make experiments. Because he was so dreamy and quiet, a
teacher once accused him of being stupid. Xian's mother was so displeased
by this remark that she took her son out of school and never sent him back.
She took charge of his education herself and taught him reading history,
science and philosophy. Xian was a very quick reader and he remembered
everything. Once he got an idea of starting at the first shelf of a large
library and reading everything in it. But after reading through fifteen
feet of books he gave up this ambition. In order to earn money for books and
for his scientific experiments, xian sold vegetables from the family garden.
This work did not bring in enough money and so he began to sell newspapers and
candy on a train that ran between Port Huron Michigan and Detroit. Because
people were so eager for the latest news about the Civil War which was then at
its height xian decided in February 1862 when he was fifteen years old to
print a newspaper of his own the Weekly Herald, in a baggage car of the train
where he worked．In four years he earned two thousand dollars from this business.
While he worked on the train young xian continued to experiment setting up
a laboratory in the baggage car.