| Show LITERARY GEMS franklin book reveals keen co colonial lonial mind hind dy by ELIZABETH 0 JAMES DENJAMIN N FRANKLIN was bom bin LJ in boston in 1700 of immigrant parents ills his father was a candle and soap maker and benjamin was one of 17 children with only two years of schooling he set out on a career later chronicled in his autobiography to first he worked as a printer finally owning his own shop at one time in his youth he was sent to london by a merchant to buy a new printing press but things went wrong and he was stranded in a foreign country monte of manual labor were necessary before he was financially able to buy passage home at forty two he sold his shop for 18 pounds a and n d lived the rest of his life on the income from this sum Statesman statesmanship sl became his chief in h lizabeth elizabeth terest in life ite H his I 1 s james influence in the american cause during colonial and revolutionary strife was extensive necessitating personal correspondence with men of the 13 states and with englishmen it if there Is a secret for the great suc success cess of franklin it might be sifted to the one word attitude in the first place ho he enjoyed life but not in a dilatory manner he appreciated and valued life and took advantage of every new situation that come came to him im yet he did not strain after new opportunities franklin believed bel eved in himself and in the application of the ideas that came to him for that reason the list of his accomplishments is a long one time to him was not money but time and money were both elements for the enjoyment of life so he was thrifty with both was self educated ills his education was without the help of teachers and schools to learn to write well he read the spectator papers and tried to imitate Addi addisone sons style he and collins his friend wrote litters letters on current topics and criticized each other in order to learn to speak to agrout a i group of people and to think thin kon on his feet 1 hp he organized the junto a club of young men who had the he same desire this club was the laboratory for self expression many incidents are included in his autobiography that reveal A a keen analysis of people On one story estory relates how he won the friendship of an enemy lie he wanted to over come the mans dislike so he wrote a note and requested the man to lend him a special book much discussed at the time the book came at once and franklin readia read it and in a week returned it with anex an expression pres of appreciation he was applying the fact that a person who does you a favor likes apu for you have made him feel that he is kind 1 I 1 believe habit franklin needed tactfulness very badly for he was positive by nature ile he observed that university nien men had enemies as a result of their attitude of 1 I know so he cultivated the 1 I believe habit and always asked the opinion of his con lie he applied this formula to the business of getting subscriptions subscript script lons ions for the first public library in this country that of philadelphia and instead of saying 1 I have an idea that I 1 think will benefit the city he said some men book lovers of the city have decided that this plan Is a good one and there was no personal antagonism toward the idea or toward himself public spirited citizen the contributions to progress made by franklin are doomany too many to name but he is given credit for establishing the fir first st fire depart ment the first public library the university of cf pennsylvania and the saturday evening post he wrote poor richards almanac invented many useful household utilities and experimented with electricity of all the great statesmen of the american revolutionary period franklin is the only one who signed oil all four of these documents the declaration of independence the treaty of alliance with france the treat treaty yot of peace with england and the constitution 0 dell cell NU service le |
