Hero Tales from History — Benjamin Franklin, The Boy Who Was Diligent in Business
THE GREATEST AMERICANS
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, THE BOY WHO WAS DILIGENT IN BUSINESS
When Benjamin Franklin was a little boy he lived in Boston, where his father was a maker of soap and candles.
Little Ben was only ten years old when his father took him out of school and set him at work in his shop.
Dipping candles all day long is hard, disagreeable work and Ben, who loved books, often wished that he was back in school.
His uncle Benjamin sometimes tried to cheer the lad at his tiresome toil by telling him: “It is not so much what you do in life as how you do it.
” One day Ben’s uncle brought a Bible into the smoky soapfat room and read from it: “Seest thou a man diligent in his business?
He shall stand before kings.
” Ben Franklin was a thoughtful boy.
While he was bending over the little vat of hot tallow all that long day, he could not help thinking of what his uncle had read to him.
Half smothered by the burning grease he whispered to himself: “‘Stand before kings?
’ I’m so tired, and my back is so lame when night comes that I can hardly stand at all!
” After Ben had worked at home for two long years, his father said to him, “My son, you have been so faithful that I cannot bear to let you dip candles all your life.
You are fit for something better.
What trade would you like to learn?
” Ben was delighted.
He was so fond of books that he felt sure he would like to learn how to make them.
He answered his father’s question by saying, “I would like to be a printer.
” When a boy went to learn a trade in those days, he had to serve as an apprentice.
That is, he was bound out by law to work for a master until he was twenty-one.
At first he received nothing for his work but his board and clothes, and when he was nineteen or twenty he was given very small wages.
At that time James Franklin, Ben’s older brother, had a printing office in Boston.
It was soon arranged that Ben should be his brother James’s apprentice, and work for nine years to learn the printing business.
Ben was clever and willing.
The work of a printing office boy was very hard.
More than this, James Franklin was a hard master.
He sometimes boxed Ben’s ears and treated him very unkindly.
The more the young brother tried to please, the crosser James seemed to be.
Ben bore this abuse for five years.
He soon learned to set type well, and to run the “hand”--or foot--press, which was hard even for a man to do.
James was so mean to him at home that the boy asked for just half the money it cost his brother to feed him, so that he might board himself.
Of course, James was pleased with such a bargain.
The boy was so eager to learn that he saved half of that small sum to buy books.
He ate no meat--only bread and a few plain vegetables.
Instead of going out, as the men and the other apprentices did, to get a good dinner, he stayed in the shop at noon to eat his dry bread and read.
Benjamin Franklin liked books, which other boys thought too dry, even better than good things to eat.
Besides being studious, Ben was ingenious.
He had the knack of finding out what was wrong with things and making them right.
When the printing press would not work, he fixed it and set it going again.
He soon wrote pieces for his brother’s newspaper.
He was so bright, willing, and useful that every one praised him--except his brother, who, instead of being proud of Ben, was jealous, and treated him worse than ever.
So Ben had to run away--not to sea, but to Philadelphia, where he could get printing work to do.
He quickly found a place there and worked with a royal will.
If ever a young man was “diligent in his business,” it was Benjamin Franklin.
When he was about twenty-one, he became the owner of the largest printing business in America.
He was soon editing and publishing the best newspaper in the country.
Before long he also started “Poor Richard’s Almanac,” a sort of yearly magazine containing Franklin’s maxims, or short, wise sayings.
These have been translated into many languages and are quoted all over the world.
Franklin founded the first library in Philadelphia, and started the University of Pennsylvania.
He kept on improving and inventing useful things.
He made printers’ type and presses better than they were before.
One night his whale-oil lamp smoked.
He went to work to fix it.
To do this he had to find out what made it smoke like that.
Before he finished he had invented the best lamp in the world.
With his new knowledge of the action of drafts, he went on and invented a stove, to take the place of the fireplace, which before this time was generally used for heating and cooking.
Many people thought the most striking thing that Franklin did was to make a silk kite with a steel wire projecting from the end of the long cross-stick to fly in the clouds during a thunderstorm.
When the lightning struck the steel wire, it ran down the kite string to a big iron key which Franklin had hung there for that purpose.
He then put the key into a big, wide-mouthed glass jar.
This was like catching the lightning in a trap.
In this simple way, Benjamin Franklin proved that lightning is nothing but electricity flashing up in the clouds.
Thus, by studying into things every chance he had, Benjamin Franklin became not only one of the most learned men in the world, but the greatest inventor of his time.
He was honored with the title of Doctor of Philosophy by the greatest universities in Europe.
Better than this, he was known and loved by the people all over the world.
While the War for Independence was under way, the leaders of the new nation, called the United States of America, came to Doctor Franklin and urged him to go to France and persuade the king and the people to help the United States.
Doctor Franklin said he would see what could be done.
When he reached Paris he received a more wonderful welcome than was ever given to a king.
“The good Doctor Franklin’s” portrait and his stove were seen in nearly every home in France.
He became “the fashion” in Paris, “the city of fashion.
” Storekeepers were selling “Franklin” hats, “Franklin” canes, “Franklin” snuffboxes and so on.
While he was entertained by the king of France, the kings of four other nations came to see him.
Not only did he “stand before kings,” but he sat at table with the rulers of five great nations of Europe.
The French government supplied him with money, men, and ships to help to win the independence of the United States.
Then he stayed in France and signed the treaty of peace, which he brought home to America.
He arrived at the old wharf in Philadelphia where he had landed many years before--a poor, hungry lad of seventeen, running away from his cruel brother.
This time he was welcomed by thousands of people, cheering.
Cannon were booming.
The bells of the city were ringing.
Above them all tolled the great Liberty Bell of Independence Hall.
The happy people shouted to one another-- “Hurrah for Doctor Franklin!
Hurrah for peace!
” And Benjamin Franklin told some of them about the words his uncle had read to him when he was a boy: “Seest thou a man diligent in his business?
He shall stand before kings.
”
