Show LITERARY GEMS franklin book reveals keen colonial mind by ELIZABETH C JAMES B ENJAMIN DENJAMIN FRANKLIN was born aj in boston in 1 1706 of immigrant parents 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 months of manual labor were necessary before he was financially able to buy passage home at forty two he sold his shop for pounds and lived the rest of his life on the income from this sum statesmanship be elizabeth came his chief in james terest in life his influence in the american cause during colonial and revolutionary strife was extensive necessitating personal corre correspondence spond i with m men en of the 13 states and with englishmen it if there is a secret tor for the great success of franklin it might be sifted to the one word attitude in the first place he enjoyed life but not in a dilatory manner he appreciated and valued life and took advantage of every new situation that came to him yet he did not strain after new opportunities franklin believed 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 his education was without the help of teachers and schools to learn to write well he re read ad the spectator papers and tried to im in irate addisone Addi sons style ile he and collins his friend wrote letters on current topics and criticized each other in order to learn to speak to a group of people and to think on his feet he organized the junto a club of young men who had the same desire this club was the laboratory tor for zelf expression many incidents are included in his autobiography that reveal a keen analysis of people one story relates gelatis how he won the friendship of an enemy he wanted to overcome 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 read it and in a week returned it with an expression of appreciation he was applying the fact that a person who does you a favor likes you for you have made him feel that he is kind 1 I believe habit franklin needed tactfulness very badly for he was positive by nature he observed that university fr m men en had bad 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 conversationalist ve alist he applied this formula to the business of getting subscriptions script ions tor for the first public library in this country that of philadelphia and instead of saying 1 I haye have an idea that I 1 think will benefit the city he said some men m en book book lovers of the city have decided that this plan is a good one aal ami there was no personal viradel 01 toward the idea or toward hunse public spirited citizen the contribution to progress made by franklin are too many to name but he is given credit for establishing the first fire department the first public library the university of pennsylvania and the i S saturday d 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 revolution ar y period franklin is the only one who signed all four of these documents the declaration of independence the treaty of alliance with france the treaty of peace with england and the constitution C bell syndicate WN service |