Show f my B i y E 1 A ala 1 ii y y i wa s 3 1 14 n r s ea J R 5 I 1 1 Is ii al arx rw i IM am 1 1 1 i pa p L tj 1 1 4 i i B B flak jl R m itai B E B i ii lil ica te p tt M ii kib B ig UK 1 S ct M B ha gt 1 ill fi oam xit A B i agg 3 n i 1 by ELMO SCOTT WATSON NE sunday morning la october of the year 1723 there arrived in the old quaker city of philadelphia a youthful visitor who in bis autobiography og describes his advent there as follows 1 I was la my working dress my best clothes being to come round by sea I 1 was dirty my journey my pockets were stuffed out with shirts and stockings and I 1 knew no soul nor where to look for lodging I 1 was fatigued with traveling rowing and want of rest I 1 was very hungry and my whole stock of cash consisted of a dutch dollar and about a shilling in copper the latter I 1 gave the people of the boat for my passage who at first refused it on account of my rowing but I 1 insisted a their taking it a man being sometimes more generous when he has but a little money than when he has plenty perhaps through fear of being thought to have but little then I 1 walked up the street gazing about till near the marl et house I 1 met a boy with bread I 1 had made many a meal on bread and inquiring where he got it I 1 went immediately to the bakers he directed me to in second street and asked for biscuit intending such as we had in boston fiut they it seems were not made in then I 1 asked for a loaf and was told they had such so not considering or knowing the difference of money and the greater cheapness nor the names of his bread I 1 bade him give me worth of any sort lie gave me accordingly oliree great puffy rolls I 1 was surprised at the quantity but took it and having no room in my pockets walked off with a roll under each arm and eating the other thus I 1 went up market street as far as fourth street passing by the door of mr read my future cifes father when she standing at the door saw me and thou glit I 1 made as I 1 certainly did a most awkward ridiculous appearance pe arance then I 1 turned and went down chestnut street and part of walnut street eating my roll all the way and coming round found myself again at market street wharf and being filled with one of my rolls gave the other two to a woman and her child that came down the river in the boat with us and were waiting to go far ther thus refreshed I 1 walked again up the street which by this time had many clean dressed people in it who were all walking the same any I 1 joined them and thereby was led into the great meeting bouse of the ars near the market I 1 sat down imong them and after looking around awhile and hearing nothing said I 1 fell fast asleep and continued so till the meeting broke up when one was kind enough to rouse me this was therefore the first house I 1 was in or slept in in philadelphia this tired hungry poorly clad youth was benjamin franklin and the residents of philadelphia who saw him that october morning so long aeo little realized how much their alt was to be indebted to him in the years to come and how he was to achieve world wide fame as a scientist a phi lo sopher and a statesman if benjamin franklin were to come back to philadelphia today and retrace his footsteps of more than a century ago lie would of course be armeed at the changes that have taken place but what would him most no doubt would be the sight which he would behold on the parkway facing logan circle for there lie would see a great building arising on a three acre plot of ground and it he asked home passer by what it was he would be told the franklin memorial and franklin institute museum for philadelphia Is erecting a mag monument to the man alio in the of one of the sponsors of the movement glorified common sense and tho plans call for its completion in the spring of 1032 it Is not to be nn image in marble or bronze or a monolith towering above lie altya sky line but a working lab oratory wherein the progress of the world from the first writings of man to his latest achievements in all fields of cude aror will be set forth in tan ay elble form as a stimulus to inventive genius and cultural advancement this in brief 13 to be alie monument to benjamin franklin which the poor richard club of philadelphia has been sponsoring for a long time and which Is just now taking definite form for a long time the people of philadelphia knew that plans were in the making for a living tribute to the man who had been the cites most distinguished gui shed resourceful and productive citizen at nearly every meeting of the ioor richard club in recent years there was a report of the committee on the franklin memorial cabb time they reported progress ant it was not until december 1929 that a definite announcement as to the forgot the monument was made on that date cyrus II 11 K curels philadelphia publisher and president of the memorial corporation gave a dinner attended by men prominent in civic industrial and scientific affairs at which he told of the plan to erect a great museum costing on the site opposite logan circle a tract of land conservatively valued at 3 which has been leased from the city for 09 sears at 1 a year the franklin institute which since 1825 has been working toward the development of a museum of the modern sciences like the great deutschel deutsches Deutsc hes mu seum in munich Is co operating with the franklin memorial movement isling its century old collections of books mechanical models and historic documents as the basis for the larger collection to be housed in the corn plated museum the memorial which will have a floor area of about square feet hlll be three stories in height the structure pill house many evidences of franklins greatness and exhibits of the progress of the nation in mechanical arts and sciences A faatu e of the first floor will be alie great delss planetarium showing an artificial sky the sun moon planets and fixed stars each precisely where it belongs and eacle with its proper relative brightness this floor also will contain a cham her devoted to a graphic description of underground and undersea work a great exhibition hall auditorium court of honor and exhibits showing the progress of in the devel of electrical water supplies railroad trans norta alon physics and chemistry A heroic statue of franklin ft oc cupy the center of the great rotunda the upper floors will contain astronomical observatories engineering exhibitions hibit ions industrial plants and processes models of ships and aircraft and a research library dr howard mcclenahan secretary of the franklin institute has ex what the museum will mean as an institution for the advancement of learning in these words there will be no hands olt signs around there will be no exhibits held captive in plate glass cases but rather what will be there will be in working operating form for alie in of ambitious young minds where everything will be comprehend ed quickly easily and graphically the exhibits are to be so displayed that they will encourage investigation and arouse the curiosity of youth to see what makes the wheels go round the whole museum will be no dead collection of historic juab it will be a live place of vividness and reality where spectators will do things tor themselves curiously enough benjamin franklin will himself aid in the establish ment of the museum although be has been dead nearly a century and a halt being devoted to the encouragement of youthful ambitions he did all in hta power to provide the financial backing necessary to their fulfillment one of the funds established by franklin now in the possession of the frankler lr institute consists of the greater portion of the philosophers original bequest of 1000 to the city of philadel ehla for the establishment of a loan fund to help apprentices and for other useful purposes although the apprentice system has pissed r wishes will be crys tallied through the institution which his money will help to support an in which will house activities of the kind in which franklin would have reveled and whose purpose will be to show the uses of natural science for the advancement of industry and the welfare of mankind at his dinner mr curels declared the memorial should have been erected bears ago after years he sal philadelphia is starting to give ben jaman franklin that memorial to which his great career his many achievements and his services to this city entitle him although in regard to franklin it can truly bo sala that he not only belongs to america but to the whole world the city of philadel ehla hia a particular claim to him so it Is eminently fitting that american who would honor his memory should go to the old quaker city to pay their homage at a shrine erected in hi memory for more thin three s years of his long life were connected with that city obby western union |