The Beginner's American History Part 11

[Footnote 8: Silkworm: a kind of caterpillar which spins a fine, soft thread of which silk is made.]

107. Keeping out the Spaniards; Georgia powder at Bunker Hill; General Oglethorpe in his old age.--The people of Georgia did a good work in keeping out the Spaniards, who were trying to get possession of the part of the country north of Florida. Later, like the settlers in North Carolina and South Carolina, they did their part in helping to make America independent of the rule of the king of England. When the war of the Revolution began, the king had a lot of powder stored in Savannah. The people broke into the building, rolled out the kegs, and carried them off. Part of the powder they kept for themselves, and part they seem to have sent to Ma.s.sachusetts; so that it is quite likely that the men who fought at Bunker Hill may have loaded their guns with some of the powder given them by their friends in Savannah.

In that case the king got it back, but in a somewhat different way from what he expected.

General Oglethorpe spent the last of his life in England. He lived to a very great age. Up to the last he had eyes as bright and keen as a boy's. After the Revolution was over, the king made a treaty or agreement, by which he promised to let the United States of America live in peace. General Oglethorpe was able to read that treaty without spectacles. He had lived to see the colony of Georgia which he had settled become a free and independent state.

108. Summary.--In 1733 General James Oglethorpe brought over a number of emigrants from England, and settled Savannah, Georgia.

Georgia was the thirteenth English colony; it was the last one established in this country. General Oglethorpe lived to see it become one of the United States of America.

At the beginning of 1733 how many English colonies were there in America? Who was General Oglethorpe? What did he do? Why was the new settlement called Georgia? Tell what happened to a friend of General Oglethorpe's. What did he wish to do for the poor debtors? What is said about the settlement of Savannah? What about the German emigrants and Ebenezer? What about raising silk? What good work did the people of Georgia do? What about Georgia powder in the Revolution? What is said of General Oglethorpe in old age?

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (1706-1790).

109. Growth of Philadelphia; what a young printer was doing for it.--By the year 1733, when the people of Savannah[1] were building their first log cabins, Philadelphia[2] had grown to be the largest city in this country,--though it would take more than seventy such cities to make one as great as Philadelphia now is.

Next to William Penn,[3] the person who did the most for Philadelphia was a young man who had gone from Boston to make his home among the Quakers. He lived in a small house near the market. On a board over the door he had painted his name and business; here it is:

[Ill.u.s.tration: "BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PRINTER" BUSINESS SIGN.]

[Footnote 1: See paragraph 104.]

[Footnote 2: See paragraph 99.]

[Footnote 3: See paragraph 96.]

110. Franklin's newspaper and almanac;[4] how he worked; standing before kings.--Franklin was then publis.h.i.+ng a small newspaper, called the _Pennsylvania Gazette_.[5] To-day we print newspapers by steam at the rate of two or three hundred a minute; but Franklin, standing in his s.h.i.+rtsleeves at a little press, printed his with his own hands. It was hard work, as you could see by the drops of sweat that stood on his forehead; and it was slow as well as hard. The young man not only wrote himself most of what he printed in his paper, but he often made his own ink; sometimes he even made his own type.[6]

When he got out of paper he would take a wheelbarrow, go out and buy a load, and wheel it home. To-day there are more than three hundred newspapers printed in Philadelphia; then there were only two, and Franklin's was the better of those two.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FRANKLIN AT A PRINTING PRESS.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A TYPE. (The Letter B.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FRANKLIN WHEELING A LOAD OF PAPER.]

Besides this paper he published an almanac, which thousands of people bought. In it he printed such sayings as these: "_He who would thrive[7] must rise at five_," and "_If you want a thing well done, do it yourself._" But Franklin was not contented with simply printing these sayings, for he practised them as well.

Sometimes his friends would ask him why he began work so early in the morning, and kept at it so many hours. He would laugh, and tell them that his father used to repeat to him this saying of Solomon's: "_Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men._"[8]

At that time the young printer never actually expected to stand in the presence of a king, but years later he met with five; and one of them, his friend the king of France, gave him his picture set round with diamonds.

[Footnote 4: Almanac (al'ma-nak).]

[Footnote 5: Gazette (ga-zet'): a newspaper.]

[Footnote 6: Type: the raised metal letters used in printing are made by melting lead and some other metals together and pouring the mixture into molds.]

[Footnote 7: Thrive: to get on in business, to prosper.]

[Footnote 8: See Prov. xxii. 29.]

111. Franklin's boyhood; making tallow candles; he is apprenticed[9]

to his brother; how he managed to save money to buy books.--Franklin's father was a poor man with a large family. He lived in Boston, and made soap and candles. Benjamin went to school two years; then, when he was ten years old, his father set him to work in his factory, and he never went to school again. He was now kept busy filling the candle-molds with melted grease, cutting off the ends of the wicks, and running errands. But the boy did not like this kind of work; and, as he was very fond of books, his father put him in a printing-office. This office was carried on by James Franklin, one of Benjamin's brothers.

James Franklin paid a small sum of money each week for Benjamin's board; but the boy told him that if he would let him have half the money to use as he liked, he would board himself. James was glad to do this. Benjamin then gave up eating meat, and, while the others went out to dinner, he would stay in the printing-office and eat a boiled potato, or perhaps a handful of raisins. In this way, he saved up a number of coppers every week; and when he got enough laid by, he would buy a book.

But James Franklin was not only a mean man, but a hot-tempered one; and when he got angry with his young apprentice,[10] he would beat and knock him about. At length the lad, who was now seventeen, made up his mind that he would run away, and go to New York.

[Footnote 9: Apprenticed: bound by a written agreement to learn a trade of a master, who is bound by the same agreement to teach the trade.]

[Footnote 10: Apprentice: one who is apprenticed to a master to learn a trade. See footnote 9.]

112. Young Franklin runs away; he goes to New York, and then to Philadelphia.--Young Franklin sold some of his books, and with the money paid his pa.s.sage to New York by a sailing-vessel--for in those days there were no steamboats or railroads in America. When he got to New York, he could not find work, so he decided to go on to Philadelphia.

He started to walk across New Jersey to Burlington, on the Delaware River, a distance of about fifty miles; there he hoped to get a sail-boat going down the river to Philadelphia. Shortly after he set out, it began to rain hard, and the lad was soon wet to the skin and splashed all over with red mud; but he kept on until noon, then took a rest, and on the third day he reached Burlington and got pa.s.sage down the river.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FRANKLIN WALKING IN THE RAIN.]

113. Franklin's Sunday walk in Philadelphia; the rolls; Miss Read; the Quaker meeting-house.--Franklin landed in Philadelphia on Sunday morning (1723). He was tired and hungry; he had but a single dollar in the world. As he walked along, he saw a bake-shop open.

He went in and bought three great, puffy rolls for a penny[11] each.

Then he started up Market Street, where he was one day to have his newspaper office. He had a roll like a small loaf of bread tucked under each arm, and he was eating the other as though it tasted good to him. As he pa.s.sed a house, he noticed a nice-looking young woman at the door. She seemed to want to laugh; and well she might, for Franklin appeared like a youthful tramp who had been robbing a baker's shop. The young woman was Miss Deborah[12] Read. A number of years later Franklin married her. He always said that he could not have got a better wife.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map of Franklin's route from Boston to Philadelphia.]

Franklin kept on in his walk until he came to the Delaware. He took a hearty drink of river water to settle his breakfast, and then gave away the two rolls he had under his arm to a poor woman with a child.

On his way back from the river he followed a number of people to a Quaker meeting-house. At the meeting no one spoke. Franklin was tired out, and, not having any preacher to keep him awake, he soon fell asleep, and slept till the meeting was over. He says, "This was the first house I was in, or slept in, in Philadelphia."

[Footnote 11: Penny: an English coin worth two cents.]

[Footnote 12: Deborah (Deb'o-rah).]

114. Franklin finds work; he goes back to Boston on a visit; he learns to stoop.--The next day the young man found some work in a printing-office. Six months afterward he decided to go back to Boston to see his friends. He started on his journey with a good suit of clothes, a silver watch, and a well-filled purse.

While in Boston, Franklin went to call on a minister who had written a little book[13] which he had been very fond of reading. As he was coming away from the minister's house, he had to go through a low pa.s.sage-way under a large beam. "Stoop! Stoop!" cried out the gentleman; but Franklin did not understand him, and so hit his head a sharp knock against the beam. "Ah," said his friend, as he saw him rubbing his head, "you are young, and have the world before you; _stoop_ as you go through it, and you will miss many hard thumps."

Franklin says that this sensible advice, which was thus beat into his head, was of great use afterward; in fact, he learned then how to stoop to conquer.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FRANKLIN LEARNING TO STOOP.]

[Footnote 13: The name of this book, written by the Rev. Cotton Mather, was _Essays to do Good_.]