Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-04-16

lullJ uedleus NbdIly tub WnOlS lIOnt hdS
been cut out TO make room for two monstrous-
~ disproportioned show-windows. And this
house, so full, as | have just said Of %associa-
tons, is fuller yet Of bonneis Yes, by the
head of the Prophet, of 6Onneis! II is a bon
net warehouse, and from the inordinate win
dows, aforesaid, bonnets of all hues and
shapes ogle you with sidelong glances, or
else stare you openly out of countenance,
while mountain-piles of band-boXes tower TO
the ceiling of the upper story, eloquent like
Faith, Of things unseen. Heaven forbid that
| should say anything in derogation of bon
nets, any more than of the fair heads that
wear them, but | would that they had anoth-
er Repository.
It was my good f rune TO 90 over the
house before it had undergone this metamor-
phosis. 1t was occupied, in part at least.
some eight or ten years ago, by a colored
man, Of The name Of Stewart, a dealer in Old
clothes, who thought Of buying the premises
and wanted my advice about it. / gladly
awaited myself Of the opportunity to view
them. The interior Of the house was then,
| should judge, in the SAINT condition that it
was when the worthy old soap-boiler and
that sturdy rebel, Gin youth as in age,) his
world-renowned son lived there. There were
the very rooms in which the child-Franklin
fNJNN NV wy 'uiic up dHu uOWn hHlCn
he romped, the very window-seats on which
he stood to look out into the street. The
shop on the street was unquestionably the
place where he used to cut wicks for the cai-
dies, and fill the moulds, and wait upon the
customers l pleased myself with imagining
when room 1t was in which his father sal,
patrlarch-like, at his table, surrounded bv his
thirteen children, all of whom "grew nm 10
years OF maturity and were married." And
you may be sure ! did not fail 10 take a peep
into the cellar where Poor Richard, in his
l%nlanille economy of time, proposed TO his
father that he should say grace over the whole
barrel OF beef they were putting down, in ihs
lump, instead Of over each piece in detail as
1t came TO the table Ia proposition which
inclined the good brother of the Old South
Church 10 fear that his youngest hope was
given over 10 a reprobate mind, and was but
little better than,one Of the wicked.
And would have given a trillc 10 know
which Of the chambers it was that was Frank
Inns own, where he educated himself, as it
were, by stealth-where he used to read
- Bunyan's works, in separate little vo-
lumes,'-and Barton's Historical Collec-
TONS" small c%bapman's books, and cheap /;
forty volumes In all,"-and Plutarch's Lives
NOT TO mention "a book of De Foes called
IN Essay on Projects," and DIR. Mather's,
called I'm Essay 10 do Good" and where, too,
MS lamp, Tor more probably his candles
end,) was oft seen at midnight's hour" as
he sat up the greatest part of the night, de-
vouring the books which his friend, Tie book
sellers apprentice, used TO lend him over
night, out OF the shop, to be returned the next
morning. How the rogue must have enioyed
them Seldom have literary pleasures been
with such a gusto as by that hungry
When say "rogue," | use the term met
aPhyslcaliy, and not literally. | mean mo
scandal about Queen Elizabeth" nor do | al
Iuoe 10 any OF the gossips of sixty years since.
shall never forget the shock given 10
my early prejudices, and the endorsement
all my preconceived ideas a, hearing. when
| was a boy, a very celebrated gentleman,
distinguished in the field and in the cabinet,
whose public life was mostly of the last CEN
.nry, say In a careless manner, as ii it were
me ultest trulsm in the world he was utter
n.y. WHY, madam, you know franklin
an old rascal " He added some speei-
l%catlons, which do not now remember, but
he amount was, he had fedthered his nest
we'll at the public expense. franklin was
10 saint in his private life, and he never pre-
ended to be one but | believe it is now
pretty we'll understood that he was :. indif-
erent honest" as Hamlet says, in his pub
lc lie, and that Prince Posterity has dis
missed The charges preferred by some of his
contemporaries against his political honesty.
IL VIII not be many years before this mon
lment OF the most celebrated man that Bos-
on, not TO say America, ever produced, will
'e demolished, and the place that knows it
VII know 1t no more, unless something be
lone to save it. 1t will be a burning shame
N a I'm Sow, - "
wealth and its pretensions to liberality, and
is afiectation for reverence for its great men,
% snfier the most historical of its houses 10
destroyed, when the rise in real estate in
hat neighborhood shall seal lis doom. 1t is
shame that 1t has been left so long to take
he chances of business 1t should have
'een bought years ago, and placed in the
lands OF the Historical Society, or some 9TH
n permanent body, in trust, to be preserved
.orever in its original condition. Itis not too
ate to restore it to something like its first es-
ate, and to save it from utter destruction.-
If it be not done, it will be a source of shame
md sorrow when it be too late.
The house in which franklin was bonn has
'een destroyed within this century, to the in,
mite dlscredit of the rich men of, the - Lit
erary Emporium of the New World "-as
he great Kean christened it, when it was in
he height Of its delirium in the "Kean Fe-
That house stood in Milk street, a lit
lie below the Old South Church, on the 9TH
n side of the way, and the spot is marked by
+" Furniture Warehouse" five stories high,
which forms a fitting pendant to the Bonnet
Warehouse in Hanover street. The printing
'ilice of James Franklin, where Franklin,
served his apprenticeship, where he used TO
INT his anonymous communications under
he door, where he used to study when the.
est were gone to dinner, and where he used
to get a fiogging from his brother.
4" perhaps | was too saucy and provok-
n.y." as he candidly, and with great proba-
'ility, says of himself.) James printing.
was in Queen (now Court) street, near,