Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Anacortes, Wash. Ter.) 1882-1887, 1883-10-06

debility, indulgence, and mental aber-
ration. My parents used to have me
up before nine o'clock in the morning,
sometimes. when l was a boy. If
they had let me take my natural rest,
where would l have been now? Keep
ing store, no doubt, and respected by
all. And what
AN ADRoIT OLD ADVENTURE
the subject of this memoir was! In
order to get chance to fly his kite
on Sunday he used to hang key on
the string and let on to be fishing for
lightning. And a guileless public
would go home chirping about the
wisdom" and the "genius" Of the
hoary Sabbath breaker. If anybody
caught him playing "mumble-peg"
by himself, after the age of sixty, he
would Immediately appear to- be
ciphering out how the grass grew
as if it was any of his business. My
grandfather knew him we'll, and he
says Franklin was always fixed
always ready. If a body, during his
old age, happened on him unexpect-
edly when he was catching flies, or
making mud pies, or sliding on a
cellar door, he would Immediately
look wise, and rip out maxim. and
walk off with his nose in the air and
his cap turned wrong side before,
trying to appear absent minded and
eccentric. He was hard lot. He
invented a stove that would smoke
your head off in four hours by the
clock One can see the almost
devilish satisfaction he took in it by
giving it his name. He was always
proud of telling how he entered
Philadelphia for the first time, with
NOTHING IN THE WORLD
but two shillings in his pocket and
four rolls of bread under his ann.
But really, when you come to ex-
anime it critically, it was nothing.
Anybody could have done it, To
the subject of this memoir belongs
the honor of recommending the army
to go back to bows and arrows in
place of bayonets and muskets. He
observed, with his customary force,
that the bayonet was very we'll under
some circumstances, but he doubted
whether it could be used with &C
curacy at long range. Benjamin
Franklin did great many notable
things for his country, and made her
young name to be honored in many
lands as the mother of such a son.
1t is not the idea of this memoir to
ignore that or cover it up. No; the
simple idea of it is to snub those
pretentious maxims of his, which he
worked up with great show of
ORIGINALITY OUT OF TRUIsMs
that had become wearisome plati
tudes as early as the dispersion from
Babel; and also to snub his stove,
and his military inspirations, his un
seemly endeavor to make himself
conspicuous when he entered Phila-
delpkia. and his flying his kite and
fooling away his time in all sorts of
such ways when he ought to have
been foraging for soap-fat, or con-
structing candles. I merely desire
to do away with somewhat of the
prevalent calamitous idea among
heads of families that Franklin ac-
quired his great genius by working
for nothing, studying by moonlight,
and getting up in the night, instead
of waiting till morning like a Chris
tian; and that this programme,
rigidly inflicted, will make Frank
lin of every fathers fool. 1t is time
these gentlemen were finding out
that these
ExECRABLE ECCENTRICITIES
of instinct and conduct are only the
evidences of genius, not the creators
of it. l wish l had been the father
of my parents long enough to make
them comprehend this truth, and
thus prepare them to let their son
have an easier time OF it. When /
was a child 1 had to boil soap, not
withstanding my father was wealthy,
and had to get up early and study
geometry at breakfast, and peddle
my own poetry. and do everything
just as Franklin did, in the solemn
hope that I would be q Franklin
some day. And here am.