Four Great Americans: Washington, Franklin, Webster, Lincoln Part 13

He also invented the iron fireplace, which is called the Franklin stove, and is still used where wood is plentiful and cheap.

After an absence of ten years, he paid a visit to his old home in Boston. Everybody was glad to see him now,--even his brother James, the printer.

When he returned to Philadelphia, he was elected clerk of the colonial a.s.sembly.

Not long after that, he was chosen to be postmaster of the city. But his duties in this capacity did not require very much labor in those times.

He did not handle as much mail in a whole year as pa.s.ses now through the Philadelphia post-office in a single hour.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.]

XII.--FRANKLIN'S RULES OF LIFE.

Here are some of the rules of life which Franklin made for himself when he was a very young man:

1. To live very frugally till he had paid all that he owed.

2. To speak the truth at all times; to be sincere in word and action.

3. To apply himself earnestly to whatever business he took in hand; and to shun all foolish projects for becoming suddenly rich. "For industry and patience," he said, "are the surest means of plenty."

4. To speak ill of no man whatever, not even in a matter of truth; but to speak all the good he knew of everybody.

When he was twenty-six years old, he published the first number of an almanac called _Poor Richard's Almanac_.

This almanac was full of wise and witty sayings, and everybody soon began to talk about it.

Every year, for twenty-five years, a new number of _Poor Richard's Almanac_ was printed. It was sold in all parts of the country. People who had no other books would buy and read _Poor Richard's Almanac_. The library of many a farmer consisted of only the family Bible with one or more numbers of this famous almanac. Here are a few of Poor Richard's sayings:

"A word to the wise is enough."

"G.o.d helps them that help themselves."

"Early to bed and early to rise, Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."

"There are no gains without pains."

"Plow deep while sluggards sleep, And you shall have corn to sell and to keep."

"One to-day is worth two to-morrows."

"Little strokes fell great oaks."

"Keep thy shop and thy shop will keep thee."

"The sleeping fox catches no poultry."

"Diligence is the mother of good luck."

"Constant dropping wears away stones."

"A small leak will sink a great s.h.i.+p."

"Who dainties love shall beggars prove."

"Creditors have better memories than debtors."

"Many a little makes a mickle."

"Fools make feasts and wise men eat them."

"Many have been ruined by buying good pennyworths."

"Rather go to bed supperless than rise in debt."

"For age and want save while you may; No morning sun lasts the whole day."

It is pleasant to know that Franklin observed the rules of life which he made. And his wife, Deborah, was as busy and as frugal as himself.

They kept no idle servants. Their furniture was of the cheapest sort.

Their food was plain and simple.

Franklin's breakfast, for many years, was only bread and milk; and he ate it out of a twopenny earthen bowl with a pewter spoon.

But at last, when he was called one morning to breakfast, he found his milk in a china bowl; and by the side of the bowl there was a silver spoon.

His wife had bought them for him as a surprise. She said that she thought her husband deserved a silver spoon and china bowl as well as any of his neighbors.

XIII.--FRANKLIN'S SERVICES TO THE COLONIES.

And so, as you have seen, Benjamin Franklin became in time one of the foremost men in our country.

In 1753, when he was forty-five years old, he was made deputy postmaster-general for America.

He was to have a salary of about $3,000 a year, and was to pay his own a.s.sistants.

People were astonished when he proposed to have the mail carried regularly once every week between New York and Boston.

Letters starting from Philadelphia on Monday morning would reach Boston the next Sat.u.r.day night. This was thought to be a wonderful and almost impossible feat. But nowadays, letters leaving Philadelphia at midnight are read at the breakfast table in Boston the next morning.

At that time there were not seventy post-offices in the whole country.

There are now more than seventy thousand.

Benjamin Franklin held the office of deputy postmaster-general for the American colonies for twenty-one years.

In 1754 there was a meeting of the leading men of all the colonies at Albany. There were fears of a war with the French and Indians of Canada, and the colonies had sent these men to plan some means of defence.

Benjamin Franklin was one of the men from Pennsylvania at this meeting.

He presented a plan for the union of the colonies, and it was adopted.

But our English rulers said it was too democratic, and refused to let it go into operation.

This scheme of Franklin's set the people of the colonies to thinking.

Why should the colonies not unite? Why should they not help one another, and thus form one great country?

And so, we may truthfully say that it was Benjamin Franklin who first put into men's minds the idea of the great Union which we now call the United States of America.

The people of the colonies were not happy under the rule of the English. One by one, laws were made which they looked upon as oppressive and burdensome. These laws were not intended to benefit the American people, but were designed to enrich the merchants and politicians of England.

In 1757 the people of Pennsylvania, Ma.s.sachusetts, Maryland, and Georgia, decided to send some one to England to pet.i.tion against these oppressions.