Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1885-09-18
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
A Noted Boston Man Who Was @
Printer.
How Ben Starte and Got On in Life. How
he Ran a Newspaper, Studied Light
ming and Shocked the King OF
Great Britain.
[Dul I'VE. In Boston GIobe.1

[Bill Sye. In Boston GIobe.l
Benjamin Franklin, form .riy OF B 1ston,
cams very near being an only child. I
seventeen children had not come to bless
the home of Benjamin's parents they
would havS been chiIdless. Thiuk OF get
ting mp in the morning and picking out
ycur shoes and stockings from among
seventeen pairs of them. Imagine your
self child, gentle reader, in a family
where you would be called upon every
morning to select your own cud of spruce
gum from collection of seventeen sim
liar cuds stuck on the window sill. And
yet T. Franklin never murmu-ed or re-
p n ID. he desired to go 10 sea, and to
avoid this he was appr enticsd to his
brother James, who was a pr. inter. 1t is
said that Franklin at once took hold of
the great Archimedeln lever and jerked it
early and late in the interests of freedom.
1t is claimed that Franklin a. this timo
invented the deadly weapon known as the
printers towel. He found that a common
crash towel could be saturated with glue,
molnsSes, antim5ny, concentrated lys AMI
roller composition, AMI that after a few
years OF time and parsp ration it could
harden so that the Constant Reader" or
''Vcritas" could be stabbed with 1t and
die soon.
Many believe that Fcanklin's other
scientific experiments were productive
of more lasting benefit to mankind than
this. but do not agree with them.
This paper was called the Ne,o England
COurdRt. 1t was editel jointly by James
aud Benjamin Franklin, and was started
to supply a long-fel5 want Benjamin
edited the paper part of the time and
James a part of the time. The idea OF
having two editors was MT for the pur-
pose of giving variety or volume to the
editorial page, but it was necessary for
one to run the paper while the other was
in Jail. In those lays you couldn't sass
the King, and then when the King came in
the Office next day and stopped his paper
and took out his ad., you uldn't put it off
on sour informant" aud go right along
with the paper. You had TO go to jail,
while your subscribers wondered why
their paper did not como, and the paste
soured in thu tin dipper in the sanctum
and the circus passed Ly on tn, other
side.
How many of US to-day, fellow Jour-
while tas lava festival aud the Kangaroo
came and went? Who of all our company
would 90 to prison cell for the c1use of
freedom while a double-column ad. o.
sixteen aggregated c.rcussos and eleven
Congresses of ferocious beasts, ficrcs aud
fragrant ron their native lar, went by
as?
At the age OF seven e9n, Boa got dis
gusted with his brother, AMI welt- to
Philadelphia aud New York, where he
got a chance to sub" for few weeks
aud then got n re ,ular ''sit." Franklin
was good printer, aud finally got TO be
a foremGn lie mads an excellent fore
man, sittiag by the no II IN the compos-
in room AMI splitting Oh the s'one, while
he cussed The make ~ and pre- 8 work of
other papers. Then he would 20 inso the
editorial roo ms and scare the eliIo 10
death with q Wild shrek for IN I'd copy.
He knew just how to conduct himself as
foreman so that peo, 10 would thlnx he
owned the Ia -.e-.
In 1879, at the are OF twenty -four,
Franklin marri ii and established tie
P,HnSy'U mia Gtzet,e. He was then re-
gardsd as a great man. and most every
one to K his paper. Franklin grew t. be n
great journalist, and spelled hard words
with great hdency. lie never tried 20 be
a humoris- in any OF his newspaper work.
and everybody respected him.
Along about 11l5 hs Legan to study the
cons ruction aud habits of Lightning, anl
inserted a 10 al in his paper, in which he
said that he would be obliged to
any of his readers who might no.
tice any new or odd specimens
of lightning. il they wou d send
them in to tho Gazette Office by express
for exam nation. Every time there was
thunder storm, Ftaukl la would tell the
foreman to edit the pap,r, AMI ormed
with string and an old fruit jar, b
would go out on the hills and get enough
lightning for a mess.
In 1913 Franklin was made Postmaster
General of the Colonies. He made a good
Postmaster General, and people say tn are
were less mistakes in distributin, their
mail than there h Is ever been siaca If
man mail-d q letter in those days, old
Ben Frank in saw that it went where il
was addressed.
Franklin frequently went over to El-
gland in these days, partly on business
and partly TO shock the King. He useI e.
delight in going to the castle with his
bryeches tucked into his boots, fgura.
lively speaking, and attract "a good deal
of attention. L. looked odd to the En-
glish, OF course, to zee him come into the
royal presence and, leaning his wet UNI
brella up against the throne, ask the
King: "How's trade?' Franklin never
put on any frilIs, but he was never afraid
of a crowned head. He used to say, fre-
quently, that to him King was no more
than seven spot.
He did his best to prevent the Revou-
tionary war, but he couldn't do it Pat
rick Henry had said the war was inev
liable and given it permission to come,
and it came. He also went to Paris and
got acquainted with a few crowned
heads there. They thought a good deal
of him in Paris and offered him a corner
lot IL he would build aud start a paper.
They also promised him the county print
ing, but he said no, he would have to go
to America or his vie might get uneasy
about 1t.
Franklin wrote 'Poor Richards Alma
nae" in 17S2-S7, and it was republished in
E igland- BENZ ,min Franklin had but one
soz and his name was Willi1m.
|
suicide with a Cannon.
Pail Mall Gazette.l