LIFE OF FRANKLIN.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 4455, 7 November 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

LIFE OF FRANKLIN.

Benjamin Franklin, formerly of Boston, camo very near being an only oluld. If seventeen children had not come to bless tho home of Benjamin's parents thoy -would have been childless. Think of getting up iv the morning and picking out your shoes and stockings f irom among seventeen pairs of them. Imagine yourself a child, gontlo reader, in a family whero you would bo called upon overy morning to select your own end of spruce gum from a collection of soveiiteon similar cuds stuck on the window sill. And yot B. Franklin nevor murmured or repined. Ho desired to go to sea, and to avoid tills he was apprenticed to his brother James, who was a printer. It is said that Franklin at once took hold of tho groat Archimedean lbver, aud jerked it early and late in tho interests of freedom. It is claimed that Franklin at this timo invented tho deadly weapon known as tho printer's towel. Ho found that a common crash towol could bo saturated with glue, molasses, antimony, concentrated lyo and roller composition, and that after a few 3'ears of time and perspiration it could harden so that tho " Constant Roador '* or "Veritas" could bo stabbed with it and die soon.

Many behove that Franklin's other scientific experiments woro productive of more lasting benefit to mankind than this, but I do not agree with them.

This paper wiis called tho New England Courant. It wns oditcd jointly by James nnd Benjamin Franklin, and was started to supply a long folt want. Benjamin oditod the paper a part of the time and James a part of tho timo. Tho idea of having l two editors was not for tho purpose of giving variety or volume to tho editorial page, but it was necossary for one to run the jjaper while tho other was in jail. In thoso days you couldn't sass tho king ; and then when tho king camo in tho oflico next day and stopped his paper and took out his ad.,' you couldn't put it off oh " our informant" and go right along with the paper. You had to go to jail, while your subscribers wondered why their paper d! 4 ipt come, and the paste soured in tho tin dipper in tho sanctum and tho circus passed by on tho other side,

How many of us to-day, fellow journalists, would bo willing to stay in jail whilo tho lawn festival and tho kangaroo came and wont ? Who of all our oompany would go to n prison coll for tho eauso of froedoom whilo a double column ad. of sixtoen aggregated circuses and cloven congrosses of ferocious boasts, fierce and fragrant from their nativo lair, went by us ? At tho ago of seventeon Ben got disgusted with his brother and went to Philadelphia and New York, whero ho got a chance to "sub" for a few weeks and then got a regular " sit." Eranklin was a good printer, and finally got to bo a foreman. Ho mado an oxcollont foroman—sitting by tho hour in the composing room and spitting on tho stono, while he cussed tho mako-up i nnd press work of tho other paperfi. Then ho would go into tho editorial rooms and give a wild shriek for more copy. Ho knew just how to conduct himself as a foreman, so that strangers would think he owned tho paper. In 1730, nt tho ago of twenty-four, Benjamin murriod und established the Pennsylvania Gazette. Ho was then regarded as a great man, and most evoryono took his pnpor. Franklin grow to bo a great journalist, and spollod, bard words with groat fluency. Ho nover tried to bo a humorist in any of his newspaper work, and everybody respected him.

Along about 1710 ho began to study the construction and habits of lightning, aud inserted a local in his paper iv which lie said that he would bo obliged to his readers

who might notice any new or odd specimen of lightning if they would send them in to the Gazette offico by express for examination. Every time thero was a thunder storm Franklin would tell the foreman to edit the paper, and armed with a string aud an old fruit jar, ho would go out on the hills and get enough'- lightning for a mess. In 1753 Franklin: was mado pistmastergeneral of tho. colonies. He mado a good 'postmaster-general, and peoplo say thoro t were less mistakes in distributing their mail than thero has ever been since. If a man mailed a letter in thoso days, old Ben Franklin saw that it wont where it was addressed.

Franklin frequently wont over to England in thosn days—partly ou business and partly to shock tho kiug. Ho used to delight going to tho oastle with ; his breeches tucked into his boots, figuratively speaking, and attracted a good deal of attention. It looked odd to tho English, of courso, to sco him como to tho royal presence and, leaning his wet umbrella up against tho throne, ask the king, " How's trade P" Franklin never put on any frills, but ho was not afraid of a crowned head. He used to say frequently that to him a king was no more than a soven spot. He did his bost to prevent the Revolutionary war, but ho couldn't do it. Patrick Henry had said the war was inevitable and given it permission to como, and it came. Ho also wont to Paris and got acquainted with a few crowned heads there. They thought a good deal of him in Paris, and offered hini a comer lot if ho would build thoro and start a paper. They also promised him tho county printing, but ho said no ; ho would have to go back to America, or his wife might get uneasy about him. Franklin wrote "Poorßichard's Almanac" in 1732-57, and it wns republished in England. Benjamin Franklin had but ono son, and his name wns William. William was nn illegitimate son, and though ho lived to be quite an old man, he never got ovor it entirely, but continued to be an illegitimate son all his life. Everybody urged him to do diffcrontly, but he steadily refused to do so.—Bill Nyo.