The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1847-09-22

There few places yet left in Boston, of universal in
Union Streets with gilt bali protruding from It's corner d
stories, with small windows close together, and
ceedlns snail panes OF glass IN them the walls o. dng'
teresng welnurtured minds throughout the civilized
world Read the name upon The ball. and you Wi, &c, an
that is the very roof under which Benjamin Franklin grew
up He was nor born there; but his father removed there
when he was but six months old so that all his
of home must have been connected with those walls The
side of the house on Union remains as was in the
days of boyhood but that on Hanover street has
been shamefuIy enreaed Nearly the whole front has
been cut out TO make room for two monstrousy dspopor
toned showwindows And this house, full have
Just said OF associations, iner yet bonnets Yes by
the head OF the prophet of boanets 1t is bonnet ware
house, and from the nodnate windows aforesaid bonnets
Of all hues and shapes oge you with tdeong gances
else stare you openly out of countenance, while mountain
piles OF bandboxes tower TO the ceiling OF the upper story
eloquent like Faith, of things unseen. Heaven forbid that
should say anything in derogaton OF bo"nets any more
than of the fair heads that them but would that
they had another repository.
my good fortune go the house before it had
undergone this metanorphosis. 1t occupied in part
least eight years ago, by coored oil
the OF Stewart dealer in old clothes who thought OF
buying the premises, and wanted my advice about IT,
gladly awaited myself the opportunity view them The
interior of the house then should judge, in the
condition that II was when the worthy old soaPboer and
that sturdy rebel lin youth age his world famous
lived there. There the very in which the child
Franklin Played the very stairs up and down which he
romped the very window which he stood to look
into the street The shop the unqnes
ably the place where he used to cut wicks for the Candles
and fill the monld and wait upon the customers pleased
myself with imagining which room it in which
his father sat- patriarch like AT his table, surrounded by
his thirteen children, all OF whom grew up OF
maturity and Were married. And you may be sure did
not fail to take peep into the cellar where poor Richard
in his ntane OF time, proposed TO his father that
he should grace the whole barrel OF beef they
putting down. the lump, instead of over each piece in
detail it the table. proposition which in
cned the good brother OF the Old South Church fear tina.
his youngest hope was given over to repooae nnd and
was but littlc better than one OF the wicked
And would have given trite to know which of the
chambers it was that Franklins own where he edu.
Gated HIMSELF il were, by stealth Where he used 10
.Bartons Historical Collections chapmans books,
and cheap forty volumes in al"-and Pluarchs Lives,
not to mention a book of De Foes. called A. Essay on
Projects" and "Dr Mahers called 4n Essayto do Good"
and where, too, his lamp (o probably his candies
end) "oit at midnight hour, he sat up the
greatest part of the night devouring the books which his
FRIEND the booksellers apprentice used to lend him
night, of the shop, to be returned the morning
How the rogue must have enjoyed them. Seldom have
literary pleasures been ellshcd with such guso by that
hungry boy.
1t will be many years before this Of the
produced, will be demolished and the place that
knows will know unless something be done TO
it, 1t will be burning shame and a lasting disgrace
Boston, with all its wealth. and its preensions 10 bera
y and its aectaton of reverence tor its great sui
the rise of real in that neghborhood shall seal its
doom 1t shame that it has been lett SO long to take the
chances of business 1t should have been bought years
ago. and placed in the hands of the Historical Society,
other permanent body, in trust, to be preserved for
something like its first estate, and it from
distraction II 1t be not done II VIII be source OF shame
and sorrow when it is too late.
The house in which Franklin born has been de-
slroyed within this century That house stood in Milk
street. li'te below the Old South Church. on the other
side the way; and the spot Is marked by furniture
warehouse" five stories high which forms fitting pend
ant to the bonnet warehouse in Hanover street The PRINT
ing Office of James Franklin, where Franklin served his
apprenticeship where he used put his anonymous
muncatons under the door, where he used study when
the rest were gone to dinner and where he used sometimes
TO get logging from his brother, was in Queen (now
Corp nearly opposite the courthouse the
OF Franklin avenue which, it | mslaken, derives
its name from This curious circumstance.