The Irish standard., 1896-01-18

to sleep during services in the Quaker
] Westinghouse. tf
i In no other thing is Franklin more
/ typicaly American than in his absolute
/ confidence i'll his ability to take care Of
himself under any circumstances. In
after years he was accused of having no
pride in his numerous .honors. oh,
yes, 1 am afraid I am proud Of my hu-
mility" he replied When, in seven
months after landing in Philadelphia
| he returned to Boston on q visit he was
proud of his good clothes, his silver
watch and f25 earned in the meantime.
Thereafter he had his period of sowing
wild oats. mixed upGwith sterling inten-
lions. Faithless in love. "Erratta mum
Der. one,' he quantity remarks; given to
! reckless spending i'll London and gal
lantry; "errata number two but never
| falling below his comprehension of the
folly of it, and pulling himself out of it.
Back in Philadelphia at q, and coolly
weighing a lady's charms against her
lack Of l100 to free him from debt, and
deciding against her; marrying at last,
for no consideration, the lady whom he
had deserted. s-.
And there they were eating porridge
out of earthern bowls with pewter
spoons; he setting type half the night,
she stitching and binding books and
pamphlets, he earning a reputation for
! industry and frugality and unimpeacha-
BILE honor, independence, industry, and
the ability to live on saw dust pudding, .
needing the patronage of no man.
| Twenty years of this kind and he was
a man of wealth and leisure; ready to
devote forty remaining years to public
life without compensation. Poor Rich
ards Almanac was long before in every
baclxwoods household. science and phil
osophy, courage and holnely rules of life
| conquering the wild country: In Phila-
| de}phia the author of poor Richard
was concerned with everything; reform
ing the night watch and making the
first trained police force, organizing for
fire protection, forming bands OF militia,
paving the streets and lighting them,
| gathering the nucleus for a free library,
building All academy and O. free church,
| lighting proprietary exemption from
taxes; gathering together the few inter
ested in science for experiments, .perpet-
ually asking money for this project and
another, and getting it, but refusing to
lend his aid to ''other beggars."
/ He soon became a. great figure In the
world of learning, and would have been
one for benevolence and candor if virtue
| We're more COnSldefeQ.
Nothing disturbed his equanimity or
| checked ih sincessant energy. His declar-
alton that lightning and electricity were
the same was scoffed at and he did not
defend his theory, saying: 'It' is better
| to spend ones time iii making new
experiments than in disputing about old
ones" And in time his noncom bative-
Iess won the day. Degrees from Har-
ward and Yale gratitied him, and amused
him somewhat, FOR he did not pretend
to believe overnluch in the learning Of
colleges. HMen in Harvard and Yale are
| Prone to- be disputatious, and the men III
Edinburgh use certainly and 'undouDt-
edly' too frequently in g world where
they must run UP against so many hon
est opinions and profounder knowledge IS
After witnessing the terrible physical
| effect of a. debauch on som9brIndians he
remarked that it appeared that the good
men of the colony had found use for
| rum-it was more effective than bullets
on Indians. The reproof sank deep, as
did his letting the chaplain distribute
the rum after prayers. There was bet
ter attendance at prayers and in the end
less rum.
! Thus his shrewdness and mildness won
for him a marvellous influence. .sHave you
consulted Dr. Franklin?'' was the inva-
riable question when a new thing was to
be inaugurated, from the imposition of a
tax to the invention OF the luxury Of a
to sit in the market of Philadelphia to
ask questions and answer them and send
all men away thinking.
! After 1850, when be, was 81 years of
age, he sepnt the better part of the re-
naming years Of hisslife abroad in the
| service of his country-fiTst of the colony
of Pennsylvania, of Massachusetts, New
Jersey and Georgia.; instrumental i'll an
nexing Canada, getting the proprietaries
taxed and the stamp act repealed On his
first voyage a lighthouse saved him from
shipwreck. He wrote back: eff were
| a Roman Catholic would build chapel
toa saint: being what am [ hope to live
to see a lighthouse on our coast, and to
! bend my energies in that direction
! Appearing before a parliamentary COM
mittee and convincing the government
of it's errors in relations to the colonies.
writing political pamphlets. studying the
structure of the lamps in Vauxhall gar
dens. charming elegant ladies, lecturing
before the Royal Society and ST.. And
rew's, experimenting with musical glasses
and acting the benefactor to numerous
English relatives filed up the. time for
\
| five years. rss ~
! Nothing is more characteristic than his
hunting up these humble people, hob
nobbing with them in their cottages,
scrubbing the moss off ancestral head
! stones to read quaint Inscriptions find
| ing out the pathetic number of shillings
| that would make life more endurable to
| the old, picking out promising child
| here and there to educate or indenture
| to a good trade. And then coming back
at the end of the term to Philadelphia
! with all England crystallized into SEN
| tence:
every man in England seems to con-
slider himself a piece of the sovereign
over America thrusting himself into the
throne with the king
| 1t sank deep and spread wide. Farther
and farther the significance spread that.
England's inalterable policy was imperi-t
al. In the repeal of the stamp act the
right to tax, to reprass, to impress was
not abrogated. Forced to stay the hand
| for a time, the hand was still there and
was gloved with iron. Now who shall
say that sentence after trenchant SEN
| tence of this Sayant and man of affairs
did not draw the revolutionary spirit to
| the focus? How 5dastardly our fore
! fathers would have felt to remain inac-
! tive under the sting Of Those who would
give up essential liberty to purchase tenn
porary safety deserve neither liberty