The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-06-15
ENVIRONMENT.

could turn aside or adverse circum-
stance defeat.
ENVIRONMENT.
Nothing apparently seemed more un-
promising of greatness than his en-
vironment. lie lived In a country viz
lage, which, located on the verge OK an
unbroken wilderness, was more inac-
ccssible to civilization than Honolulu
or Manila at the present day. Its So
ciety consisted of a few families ana
still fewer educated men and women,
and the conveniences of life, as COM
pared with those of the meanest VIII
lage OF like size of the present day.
were pitiable in their poverty. The
civilized world could scarcely be said
to know of It's existence, and its news
OF battles fodght and won and treaties
made and broken slowly crept across
the ocean in sailing packets, and was
disseminated through the colonies
through a few weekly newspapers.
The people of Philadelphia were still
in the very childhood of the race,
ignorant, suDerstitious, and narrow
minded. White men were sold In tenn
porary bondage and African slavery
existed even in the city of Pastorius.
Beyond the Susquehanna was an un-
trodden wilderness, and the Alleghenies
were regarded as the true boundaries
the colonies, and all of English birth
still believed that the three estates of
king, lords, and commons were divine
ly ordained. Even Benjamin Franklin
would then have raised his hat and
bowed his form in obeisance at the
mere mention OF His Royal Highness
George /.
AN EVENTFUL PERIOD.
These however are but the super
fetal conditions, for it is true of Frank
lin, as 1t has been true of every great
man, that he is the joint product of
that direct inspiration of the Almighty
to which we give the name of genius,
and of extraordinary times. The GEN.
tury in which Franklin lived was des-
tined to be epic in the grandeur of its
achievements. and most far-reaching in
its results upon the after ages. 1t was
period of transition. Human society
was about to be reconstructed Upon
the ruins of feudalism the better super
structure of democracy was then in the
Slow process of erection, and 1t was
difficult to distinguish between the new
structure and the old. Three mighty
forces were engaged in this work Of
reconstruction, all dependent and
each to some extent causing and caused
by the other-the dissemination OF
knowledge by means of the printing
press, the upraising Of the masses by
industrial inventions, and the growth
of democratic ideas. Men were soon to
lose faith in the divine right of either
king, titled nobility, or state priest
hood to ride, booted and spurred, upon
the backs of the masses. Entail and
special privilege We're to be swept
away. The day Of the people was about
to dawn. a new doctrine was to be
preached, that all men were created
equal, both in rights and duty, in the
eyes of the law, and that the only dis
tinctiOn between individuals should be
that earned by superior service to the
common veal. This new gospel of
humanity was to find it's first express
sion and trial in the wilderness of
America, even as the preaching of the
Nazarene found it's first utterance and
acceptance in the desert places of Cali
lee. War never to cease until final
triumph, was soon to be declared and
waged against every form of tyranny
over the mind and soul of man, while
to the individual, without distinction
of race class, or creed, was to be Of
fered that career open to talent" that
fair field and no favor, that equality
of opportunity, so far as political in
stitutions can determine the conditions
of the competition, which is the basic
principle of the American common
wealth.
THE TYPICAL DEMOCRAT.
And the very incarnation of this
democratic spirit, the great exemplar
OF the plain people, the foremost
apostle of the new gospel of equal
rights, was to be this printer of Phla-
| delphia, whose coming kings should
live to dread, and whose strong right
arm, ever pressing the lever of his
printing press, Was-like the God of
Thunder ThOr-to rend in twain the
| English empire and drive the Bour-
| bons from the throne Of France. Well
did Thomas Penn speak of him in those
/ early days as q dangerous" and "un-
! easy" man, and tribune OF the peo-
| pie" George III. was accurate when
| he described him to his ministers as
| the most mischievous" spirit of the
| Revolution, Joseph H. of Austria was
wise in his day and generation when
| he refused to meet Franklin, with the
remark that 'it was his trade to reign,
and he would not endanger the craft
| by playing with Franklin's lightning,
while Inflated Marie Antoinette, In
whose proud court Franklin had stood
| in his plain garb as the very incarna-
| tion of that democracy which was tc
! be her Nemesis, was to sadly say: "The
| time of illusions is past, and today we
| pay dear for our infatuation and en-
! thusiasm for the American war" In
| this mighty social movement, the
| greatest since the growth of the Chris
tian church, Franklin was to direct and
| typify that fourth estate, the printing
press, whose influence was even ther
| beginning to create the now all-gov-
erning force of public opinion. He was
destined to enjoy a career which, in
| the extent and variety of its usefu.-
ness, is wholly without a parallel ii
the history of democratic America. The
some time talloW chandler was to be-
come, despite the prejudices of roya
caste which had prevailed for a thou
sand years, the honored guest of foul
| kings, to be crowned with laure
wreaths by titled ladies of the proud
est courts in Christendom, and ap'
plauded to the echo by the very aris'
tocracy which he came to destroy. Tht
! Self-educated printer, whose education
was chiefly gained in the hours of the
night with borrowed books and by tht
flickering light of a tallow dip, was e
| found one college and one university
to be given the degrees of the grea
| universities of oxford, Cambridge. anC
| Edinburg and the younger colleges o
Yale and Harvard, and honored Will
fellowship in all the learned societie!
Of the world. The man who bough
rags for ready money, and who had NJ
library or philosophical apparatus ex
cept of the simplest description, was Il
captivate the Imagination and chail
the admiration of the world for all tim
by a series of scientific experiments 81
noble in conception and far-reaching IL
results as to rank his name foreve
with Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, ant
I.eibnitz. Like Oedipus, he was to solv
the enigma OF the skies. The creates
statesman Of his time, whose towering
genius had constructed the British EN-
pire, the elder Chatham, was to see
the advice and Information of thi
| .lni AZ ln ~ La dnl