Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1906-12-22
Franklin's Homely Deeds.

You often hear loud praises of Frank
Inns statecraft; how he cleared the no
lltical horizon of the new country and
gave it a steady footing among the older
H. .ionS.
peg you now to look at his work for
ms own town and for his neighbors. He
was not loud nor anarchistic as the
young radical reformer is apt to he inst
now lie went about, sane. quiet, tact
W. merely setting things TO rights
Dig things and little. If he thought the
people OF this village-the people of this
country-the people of the world, to
whom the gates of the continent were
now open-were to find peace and a full
lie here, big things and little must be
set to rights at once. There was a
lolheiE everyday quality in the man
Ihat matched everyday needs. He had
peel, Tor some time, for example Sc
cretly graphing with the lightning. He
pfaced himself, conquered it, yokpd it,
and then, without word of triumph,
quietly explained to his neighbors how to
put pointed rods on their roofs to save
thelr houses from burning down That
was all. He never asked for gratitude
or applause. One old historian tells MS
that Benz. Franklin has put chime
OF niue bells on the walls of his house
SO that they catch the lightning and
ring during a storm So lie had some
times during the night from the heavens
above nm an echo of the applause
which his neighborS begrudged!
Every day he was busy going about.
putting germs of comfort aud strength
INTO the new community. One day he
goes INTO poor woman's house half of
winch Is lce-c0ld because she is able to
keep up but one fire. He promptly in
vents stove which has Il front on two
sldes ana shows double glowing faces to
nj
the familiar Franklin Stove" 1t is
used all over the continent today.
Or. he strolls along Dock street wharf
one morning and stumbles over a heap
OF filthy remnants of baskets in which
roots had been brought from Amster-
dam. No eye but Franklin's would have
seen the single green Sprout on one of
the wythes. But he sees it. carefully
cuts it away and carrying it to his neigh
Dor. Mrs. Norris, asks leave 30 plant il
III her garden, where the good lady her.
self tends and watches it, From that bit
OF live stalk have grown ali the basket
willows in this country, and an enor-
nous industry.
Another day, it is an old broom which
shows him a hint of lfe-a single green
seed among its dusty straws He plants
the seed, after a year or two succeeds
IN growing a crop of corn and the old
chronicler Watson boosted, even in his
DAY, tnat there are twelve millions of
brooms now made in this country from
that one seedp'-How many hundred
millions in our day?
The other apprentices and clerks who
were this young printers comrades were
hungry for education, but had only two
or three books apiece. Let u.s." he pro-
posed, put them all together on the
mantel shelf i'll Rob Graces room in
Pewter Platter alley, and use them in
common" A month or two later. the
idea having grown in his busy brain, he
called on thirty-eight prominent men of
the town to subscribe forty shillings
each for the purchase of books for this
collection.
This was the first circulating library
in the world, and the origin of all the
others.
No need of his neghbors was too small
to escape his keen eye and eager help.
Fires in those days were common in the
town; he introduced leathern buckets
and it was he who invented the system
of arranging double lines of men and
women-the men passing the full buck
cts ana the women the empty ones. A
simple matter. But so many simple
matters like this-good for the salvation
of bodies and sOuls-have waited as long
as that egg did on Columbus for the
breaking.
Franklin organized bands of firemen
later, and brought engines into regular
use.
The great Pennsylvania hospital OF,
Pine street was founded by Franklin.
1t was The first public hospital in the
United States-Fr0m Rebeccs Harding
Davis The Everyday Franklin j.. De-
cember ST. Nicholas.