The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1889-11-16
FRANKLIN IN FRANCE.
Was Ever Ambassador Before or Since
Receiyed with Such Honor.

Received with Such Honor.
In October, 1776, Franklin then in his
seventieth year, accompanied by his two
grandsons, set sail in the American pri-
vateer Reprisal to accomplish mission
which was to be the crowning achieve
ment of his life. Although the ocean
was covered with English cruisers, the
Reprisal successfully avoided all dan
gers, though often very hotly chased,
and two months later dropped in Quiber-
on Bay. A few days later Franklin
landed at Auray, and went on to Nantes.
There he was received with every mani
festation of esteem. "The arrival of
DIR. Franklin, at Nantes" writes lieu
tenant of police to the French minister,
sis creating great sensation" 'I am
made extremely welcome" Franklin
writes, "where America has many
friends"
But if his entry into Nantes was graf
| flying his entry into Paris was a tri-
umph. Citizens and merchants, mobiles
and churchmen, statesmen and writer's,
women of rank and men of fashion well
coined him with honors they would not
have paid to kings. All We'd with each
other in paying him attentions most del
icate and sincere. Turgot, now free
from the cares of state, and Vergennes,
the first minister called upon him and
welcomed him to France. Men whose
names are now historic, Button, the nat
uralist and Caban.s, the physician;
D'Alembert, the philosopher and La
Rochefoucauld, the cynic, the Abbo
Raynol and Malesherbes, gathered about
him. These men knew him as the first
of philosophers and of diplomatists,
while the populace followed him in
crowds wherever he went, pointing him
out as 'Poor Richard" whose maxims
surely paved the way to wealth and hap
piness. His writings were translated,
and some of them became text books in
the schools. Painters only too gladly
welcomed him to their studios, and his
portrait was seen in every window. His
bust was set up in the royal library, and
medallions of him were worn at court.
His jests and bon mots were repeated
from mouth to mouth, and one of his eX-
pressions, "Ca ira"-it will go, or, it will
come out right-spoken in respect to our
then situation, afterward became mem
orable revolutionary cry in France.
To the people he appeared the repre-
sentative of the rights of man. Their
hats, coats, canes and snuff-boxes were
all a Ia Franklin. Wherever he appear
ed in Paris his wigless head, his spec
tacles, his walling-stick and his fur
cap proclaimed whom he was, and a
crowd was sure to follow at his heels.
To sit at table with him was an honor
as great as to sit with royalty. Poets
magnified him in song, women praised
him in wretched rhymes, while noble
danes outrivaled each other in seeking
his conversation. He was the rage,
Gle grand Franklin" the cynosure of
every eye. He met the aged Voltaire
and kissed him, which threw the ac-
ademicians into delirium of ecstacy.
Franklin portraits and Franklin stoves
were in every house, and his name was
on every tongue. Such was the number
of portraits published of him that one
of his great-grandsons in Philadelphia,
some years ago, collected $50 of them,
few of which were duplicates. To be
inscribed under one of his portraits,
Turgot wrote the famous line: "Eripuit
cGlo fulnen, Sceptrumque tyrannts." "He
snatched the lightning from heaven and
the scepter from tyrants. ."-Chicago
Herald.