The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1859-03-24

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riots, scatter mobs, compose a considerable part
OF the volunteer cavalry, work with a will at
fires, make and unmake aldermen, and powerfully
affect even the choice of Mayors.
As to the load of a truck it has no precise
limits. Neither Legendre or Bowditch has given
a formula for the amount of goods that can be
conveyed on a truck. The mode of loading rs a
problem in the Equilibrium of forces the opera
ton of unloading a study in Dynamics. Ihe
truck, for the latter purpose, ranges along the
street till the axle is ON a range with the door OF
the warehouse; the leaders are unhitched from
the end of one of the shafts. 50 as to leave hall
the street open, and a word of is utter
ed by the t~ruckman, which the wheel horse UNI
derstands as perfectly as a common christian
understands his mother tongue, and which IN
English means - Quick time, backward wheel,
march, Instantly the truck, with Its load,
revolves as upon a pivot, through the arc Oh a
quadrant the tail of the truck is thus brought
round and runs far back into the warehouse the
checking block is removed, and then the Load
hogsheads of tobacco, sugar, oil or molasses,-
tierces of rice,-pipes of wine and bales of cot
ton, go down the inclined plane of the truck with
a run, like a bore at the Sand Heads, or a spring
tide in the bay of Fundy. At this precise stage
of the operation, it is prudent for all persons not
Immediately engaged in it, leisurely customers,
genteel l~oafers. and outsiders generally, who may
haprsn 10 be in the warehouse. to stand a little
on one side some difficult cases IN surgery may
be prevented by their doing So when, however
by any chance. a package containing coma Jiae
fragile and valuable articles (not a box OF old
brass and irons labelled 'sGlass, this side up, with
care but a Louis Quatorze clock or an alabaster
copy of Canova's Hebe) is confided to a faithful
truckman, he carries it a. gently as he would a
sick child. In a few moments the load Is DIS
charged the leaders again hitched on another
impressive word Of mma uttered, when
means s.ouick time, right or left wheel, (as the
case NAV be,) forward, march !" sometimes a
CHEEKY. but good-natured crack of the whip is
heard. which never touches the noble ANIMALS,
flor Il true-hearted trackman would about rs soon
beat his wife as his horse; J and the empty truck
bounds over the ringing pavement In search oil
another load. like a ricOchef shot.
The immediate object of the institution OF trucks IS
of course 10 convey merchandise, the hnai cause
(teleologically s~peakinc) is to compel the widening OF
the streets This subject accordingly occupies much
of the time and attention of the municipal govern
meut Of Boston. In all representative governments
whether of the City, the State, or the Union, IN order
to avoid uncomfortable jealousies that one part or
region is preferred to another, il is requisite, when
You undertake a public work in one place, to do the
same thing in twenty others at the same time. On
this principle IL is necessary to carry on the work OF
widening ard improving the thoroughfares (which
IL in progress of course shuts them up alto
gether, } in a half n dozen different places mt once;
the city for the time very much 10 the state
of Paris in n season of barbados. Improvements OF
this kind are generally as much for the benefit of the
AUDITORS as Of the public at large, and accordingly IN
New York and some other cities, the owners oil the
property benefited are charged with n part OF the
expense. In Boston the public treasury, Ito the dis
gust ofthe above mentioned tax-payers,) remunerates
the owner handsomely for having his property made
more valuable.
In the progress of improvements of this description,
one of the important streets leading directly from the
centre of the city of Boston TO a region containing the
examinations of four railroads, and two bridges, took
its turn to he widened. This has already been done
in q considerable portion of the street, and the opera
ton will soon extend to its entire length. 1t so hap
peDei that at the corner of this street and Hanover
street. there stood an ancient building, OF a very
ordinary appearance, upon the spot, TO winch the
father of Benjamin Franklin removed from MIX
street, shortly after Benjamin was born, and there
carried on the trade of n soap-boiler. reluctantly as
sisted for some time by the ambitious boy, already
aspiring TO higher things "At ten years DID,
Benjamin Franklin, 81 was taken from SCHOOL,
to help my father in his business, which was that OF
a tallow chandler and soap boiler; a business to
which he was not bred, but had assumed on his ar
in New England, because he found that his
dying trade, being in little request, would not main
his family. Accordingly L was employed in cut
wicks for the candles, filling the moulds for cast
candles. attending the shop going of errands, &c. L
iisliked the trade and had Rstrong inclination to go
to sea-"
The house INF which as is commonly understood
this humble trade was carried on by Josiah Franklin.
in which Benjamin d;scOntentedly assisted him
for two years, now stood in the way of widening
Union street. 1t presented a front on Hanover street
about fifteen feet, and Union street was to be
widened to just that extent; in other words 1t became
that the house in which Benjamin Franklin
is supposed TO have passed his childhood should come
away.
Watching the progress of this Improvement (for
such unquestionably il was) from Gay to day, as
came into Boston from the country, IN the summer
Of 1857, / was no, a little concerned at what seemed
to be the impending fate of the house OF Franklin.
That it must give way was certain, but the thought
occurred to me, that it might be removed to the
square, and there restored by approxima-
ton at least to its original condition and appearance.
this subject I had several confidential commune
cations with the then worthy Mayor of Boston, the
Hon. A III. Rice. lately chosen n representative III
Congress. The year, however, passed away, and
,.tbe Franklin House. stood its ground. / brought
the subject to the notice of our new Mayor the
present year 0S5S,) and to that OF the intelligent
energetic chairman of the Committe of public
Mr.. Alderman Wightman, respectfully
urging them TO consider the possibility of removing
so saving the Franklin House, an object III which
they fully synpathised with me.
Ii was found, however, on examination, that this
impossible; and even if possible, of doubtful ex-
pediency. In the first place, it IS not certain, but
the contrary is probable, that the house lately de-
molished is the one in which Franklin passed his
though built upon the spot occupied by the
dwelling and, according to the economical
practices of that day, rs far as they were available,
materials taken from il. In the next place, the
house Just removed had undergone several successive
rnodernizations. = 1t had been so eften built upon,
altered and renovated, as TO have lost all appearance
Of an ancient building both without and within. Its
identify in fact was open to doubt, nearly as much as
that Of the ship Paraius in antiquity, which had
been so often and so thoroughly repaired, that not a
Nick Of the ancient timber remained; with the differ
ence. however, that the ancient form and appearance
Of the ParaIus were scrupulously kept up; while the
old Franklin house hal been transformed into n
modern shop. Ii reminded me a little of the question,
was a good deal agitated in the metaphysical
circles of the younger classes at Harvard, in my col
DAYS, whether, after a pen-knife had first a new
blade and then a new handle, il was the same knife,
or a different one. When this question was compli-
Gated by the additional hypothesis, that the original
handle and blade had been successfully picked up
put together by the ''fortunate 6nder," it may
be easily conceived to present points. with which the
sophomore mind woull find it somewhat difficult to
grapple.
I will not undertake to say, that if what has in
neriads been taken from the Franklin