"We kept no idle servants, " says Franklin,
"our table was plain and simple, our furniture of the cheapest.
For instance, my breakfast was a long time bread and milk (no
tea), and I ate it out of a twopenny earthen porringer with a
pewter spoon."
With all this frugality, Franklin was not a miser; he abhorred
the waste of money, not the proper use. His wealth increased
rapidly. "I experienced too," he says, "the truth of the
observation, 'THAT AFTER GETTING THE FIRST HUNDRED POUND, IT IS
MORE EASY TO GET THE SECOND, money itself being of a prolific
nature." He gave much unpaid public service and subscribed
generously to public purposes; yet he was able, at the early age
of forty-two, to turn over his printing office to one of his
journeymen, and to retire from active business, intending to
devote himself thereafter to such public employment as should
come his way, to philosophical or scientific studies, and to
amusements.
From boyhood Franklin had been interested in natural phenomena.
His "Journal of a Voyage from London to Philadelphia", written at
sea as he returned from his first stay in London, shows unusual
powers of exact observation for a youth of twenty. Many of the
questions he propounded to the Junto had a scientific bearing. He
made an original and important invention in 1749, the
"Pennsylvania fireplace," which, under the name of the Franklin
stove, is in common use to this day, and which brought to the
ill-made houses of the time increased comfort and a great saving
of fuel.
Pages:
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28