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B
 F
.
Possibly there never has lived a man who has excited more comment than
has the subject of this narrative, who was born in Boston, January 17th,
1706. His father was a soap boiler and tallow chandler, and he was the
fifteenth in a family of seventeen children.
Young Benjamin was expected by his parents to become a minister of the
Gospel, and for this purpose was placed in school at the age of eight, but the
reduced circumstances of his father compelled his return home two years
later, and he began the work of cutting wicks in his father's establishment.
Afterwards he was bound to his brother James, who was a printer, where he
worked hard all day, and often spent half the night in reading.
The secret of his great success can be readily perceived, when we know
that his favorite books were Mather's "Essays to Do Good," and DeFoe's
"Essays of Projects," and many others of a like nature: instead of the
modern "Three Fingered Jack," "Calamity Jane," "The Queen of the Plains,"
or the more 'refined' of to-day's juvenile reading.
When he was about sixteen he wrote, in a disguised hand, an article for his
brother's paper. This article was published anonymously, and excited great
curiosity. Other articles followed, at length the identity of the author was
discovered, and for some unknown reason the elder brother was offended.
From that hour Benjamin resolved to leave Boston, as his brother's
influence was used to his disadvantage in that city.
Embarking, he worked his passage to New York, where he arrived at the
age of seventeen, almost penniless, and without recommendations. Failing
to obtain work here he continued on to Philadelphia, where he arrived,
disappointed but not discouraged. He now had but one dollar, and a few
copper coins, in the world. Being hungry, he bought some bread, and with
one roll under either arm, and eating the third, he passed up the street on

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which his destined wife lived, and she beheld him as he presented this
ridiculous appearance. Obtaining employment, he secured board and
lodging with Mr. Reed, afterward his father-in-law.
Being induced to think of going into business for himself, through
promises of financial help from influential parties, he sailed to London for
the purpose of buying the necessary requisites for a printing office. Not
until his arrival in that great city, London, did he learn of the groundlessness
of his hope for aid from the expected quarter. In a strange land, friendless
and alone, without money to pay his return passage, such was his
predicament; yet he lost not his courage, but obtained employment as a
printer, writing his betrothed that he should likely never return to America.
His stay in London lasted, however, but about eighteen months, during
which time he succeeded in reforming some of his beer-drinking
companions.
In 1826 he returned to America as a dry-goods clerk, but the death of his
employer fortunately turned his attention once more to his especial calling,
and he soon after formed a partnership with a Mr. Meredith. This was in
1728. Miss Reed, during his stay abroad, had been induced to marry another
man who proved to be a scoundrel; leaving her to escape punishment for
debt, and, it is alleged, with an indictment for bigamy hanging over his
head. Franklin attributed much of this misfortune to himself, and resolved
to repair the injury so far as lay within his power. Accordingly he married
her in 1830. This proved a most happy union. His business connection with
Mr. Meridith being dissolved, he purchased the miserably conducted sheet
of Mr. Keimer, his former employer, and under Franklin's management it
became a somewhat influential journal of opinion.
It was through this channel that those homely sayings, with such rich
meanings, first appeared in print. His great intelligence, industry and
ingenuity in devising reforms, and the establishment of the first circulating
library, soon won for him the esteem of the entire country. 1732 is
memorable as the year in which appeared his almanac in which was
published the sayings of the world-famous 'Poor Richard.' This almanac
abounded with aphorisms and quaint sayings, the influence of which tended

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mightily to economy, and it was translated into foreign languages, in fact
was the most popular almanac ever printed.
After ten years' absence he returned to his native city, Boston, and his
noble instincts were shown, as he consolingly promised his dying brother
that he would care for his nephew, his brother's son. Returning to
Philadelphia he became postmaster of that city, established a fire
department, becomes a member of the Assembly, to which office he is
elected ten consecutive years.
Although he was not an orator, no man wielded more influence over the
legislative department than did Franklin. As is well-known, he invented the
celebrated Franklin Stove, which proved so economical, and for which he
refused a patent. For years he entertained the theory that galvanic
electricity, and that which produced lightning and thunder were identical;
but it was not until 1752 that he demonstrated the truth by an original but
ingenious contrivance attached to a kite, and to Franklin we owe the honor
of inventing the lightning rod, but not its abuse which has caused such
widespread animosity to that valuable instrument of self-preservation.
These discoveries made the name of Franklin respected throughout the
scientific world. Forever after this period, during his life, he was connected
with national affairs. At one time he was offered a commission as General
in the Provincial Army, but distrusting his military qualifications he
unequivocally declined. Sir Humphrey Davy said: "Franklin seeks rather to
make philosophy a useful inmate and servant in the common habitations of
man, than to preserve her merely as an object for admiration in temples and
palaces." While it is said of him by some that he always had a keen eye to
his own interests all are forced to add he ever had a benevolent concern for
the public welfare.
The burdens bearing so heavily upon the colonies: Pennsylvania,
Maryland, Georgia, and Massachusetts, appointed Franklin as their agent to
the mother-country. Arriving in London in 1757, despite his mission,
honors awaited him at every turn. There he associated with the greatest men
of his time, and the universities of Edinburgh and Oxford honored him with
the title of L.L.D. and the poor journeyman printer of a few years before,

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associated with princes and kings. At the end of five years he returned to
America, and in 1762 received the official thanks of the Assembly. Two
years later he was again sent to England, and he opposed the obnoxious
stamp act, and where he carried himself with decorum and great ability
before the entire nobility. Upon his return to America he was made a
member of the Assembly the day he landed, where he exerted his whole
influence for a Declaration of Independence, and soon after had the
pleasure of signing such a document.
In 1776 Congress sent him to France, where he became one of the greatest
diplomats this country has ever known. During his voyage over he made
observations relative to the Gulf Stream, and the chart he drew of it nearly
one hundred years ago, still forms the basis of maps on the subject. As is
well known, to Franklin more than all others, are we indebted for the kindly
interference by France in our behalf, whose efforts, though ineffective in the
field, helped the revolutionary cause wonderfully in gaining prestige. At the
close of the war Franklin was one of the commissioners in framing that
treaty which recognized American independence. His simple winning ways
won for him admiration in any court of embroidery and lace, while his
world-wide reputation as a philosopher and statesman won for him a circle
of acquaintances of the most varied character. On the 17th of April, 1790,
this great statesman died, and fully 20,000 people followed him to the tomb.
The inscription he had designed read:
"The body of Benjamin Franklin, printer; Like the cover of an old book—
Its contents torn out, and script of its lettering and gilding: Lies here food
for worms."
Yet the work itself shall not be lost. For it will, as he believed, appear once
more, in a new and more beautiful edition, corrected and amended by the
Author. Truly, America has been rich in great men, of which Franklin was
not the least. Dr. Franklin, in his will, left his native town of Boston, the
sum of one thousand pounds, to be lent to the young married artificers upon
good security and under odd conditions. If the plan should be carried out as
successfully as he expected, he reckoned that this sum would amount in one
hundred years to one hundred and thirty-one thousand pounds. It was his
wish, and so expressed in his will that one hundred thousand pounds should

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be spent upon public works, "which may then be judged of most general
utility to the inhabitants; such as fortifications, bridges, aqueducts, public
buildings, baths, pavements, or whatever makes living in the town more
convenient to its people, and renders it more agreeable to strangers
resorting thither for health or temporary residence." It was also his wish that
the remaining thirty-one thousand pounds should again be put upon interest
for another hundred years, at the end of which time the whole amount was
to be divided between the city and the State. The bequest at the end of the
first one hundred years may not attain the exact figure he calculated, but it
is sure to be a large sum. At the present time it is more than one hundred
and seventy-five thousand dollars, and it has many years yet to run.

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