The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1875-10-09
2Hiscellaneous.
Il WOnoG11'S WOrh.

Right womanly, by the strictest construction
has been the long service of Lady Franklin 3
her work has been performed in silence, and
has been but the modest expression of the long
patience of wife's devotion; yet her labors
must ever link her name with deeds of heroic
adventure amidst scenes of direst danger.
noble name was given into her keeping
new honors have been shed upon it by her
dauntless courage, and it rests upon her tomb
with added glory. In times long past, our
Saxon ancestors proudly took the name oil
Franklin as title, which told Of the strong
endeavor and bold achievement by which they
had worked out their own Embarrassment
In later days, in America, we have ever held
our franklin as the brave successor in the same
great work, teaching his fellow. men the value
of industry, perseverance, and independence
AS if 10 support the same name and the anne
virtues through the ages, the maritime adven
ture OF England has been more recently illus
trated by the heroism Of Sir John, while the
womanly virtues of his wife have continued
his labors, and carried his fame in.o new
half-century of time.
Sir John Franklin had won high houors in
an extensive and varied service in The Brit
ish navy before he made his first venture
into the polar seas in the 1918, in search of a
northeast passage by Spitzbergen. The lead
ing vessel of the expedition was so seriously
injured by the ice that it was forced to return
to England, and Franklin, notwithstanding his
request to be allowed to proceed in his own YES
sci, was compelled to accompany her home.
Abandoning the old plan of encountering the
huge ice fields of the north Atlantic, Franklin
approved strongly Of seeking the long-sought
northwest passage and avoiding the terrors o.
Baffin's Bay, striking westward overland from
Hudson's Bay, and thence tracing the Copper
nine River to its mouth in the polar seas. -
This was attempted by government expedi-
ton under his command, which, although fail
ing in its prime object of reaching Behring's
Strait along the shores of a northern sea, gave
additional proof that the deed might be 80 &C.
.omplished, and the northwest passage al
ength achieved. A narrative of these adven.
lures was published by Franklin on his return
20 England; and he pursued his scheme by
proposing to simplify and shorten his route by
making another attempt from the Mackenzie
River.
| This new expedition was also led by him in
1925, and was completely successful in estab
fishing the existence Of waterway along the
northern coast of the continent of America, al
though a barrier of ice prevented him from
reaching Behring's Strait.
/ On the return from this triumphant explor-
alton, be was welcomed by the plaudits OF thu
scientific world, and adorned with the medals
and titles with which it distinguishes its nobil
ity, while the rank Of knighthood was added tt
his other dignities.
1t was in this flush of popularity that HI
married, and his second wife, Jane Griffin, who
| by her earnest sympathy with his projects, ant
intelligent comprehension OF his designs, a
we'll as her wifely devotion, has been since 81
united to him in fame, that the biography o
the one must necessarily involve that of thu
other. An appointment to the Mediterranean
subsequently provided an honorable retreat il
which Franklin could recruit from the terrible
sufferings endured during his Artic explora
tions, and he was afterwards made governor o
Tasmania.
In this new position his wife ably aided hin
in the numerous benevolent and educationa
projects, which so endeared him to the peopl
by the liberal and unsectarian spirit in which
they were executed. An act, most distinctly
| her own, which directly tended to the publ
good, was the complete determination of a spe
cies of poisonous serpents, which she accom-
pished by bounty from her own purse upol
every serpent destroyed.
| That the memory of their good deeds still
| lived in the land was touchingly proven lont
afterwards, when from distant Tasmania cam
| to Lady Franklin gift of seventeen hundre'
pounds to aid her in the quest for her lost hus
| band.
! The northern tales of the weird enchant
rnents of the snowy wilds have been fulfilled
again and again. Some mystic spirit amid tn
| ice hills seems to ever becken the wanderers
return, for, despite all the terrOrs of cold, ia
tigue, and hunger, the explorer plunges bac
into the fearful regions of darkness and OF dan
ger. So it was with Sir John Franklin, and a
soon as his duty was ended in the east, b
yearned to fulfill his uncompleted task, an
| realize his fond vison of a channel of open wa
| ter washing the shores of northern America
To pass through Baffin's Bay into Lancaste
Sound, and thus assure his own discovery b.
tracing the channel from the east, had been hi