We are reproducing Duplessis’s pastel portrait of Franklin on this page. This picture has a story. Duplessis made several portraits of Franklin; this seems to be the only one in pastel, the others being oil paintings. When Franklin was in France he lived at Passy, a suburb of Paris. A friend and neighbor was M. le Veillard, who frequently urged Franklin to write his memoirs. Franklin lent a willing ear, and it was his wish that his neighbor should translate the memoirs, when finished, into French. With that end in view, he turned over to M. le Veillard much auto-biographical material. This pastel portrait by Duplessis was made especially for M. le Veillard, and when that unfortunate gentleman met his death on the Revolutionary scaffold in 1794, the picture went to his daughter, and later came into the possession of Mr. John Bigelow, when he was United States Minister to France (1865-66). By him it was presented to the New York Public Library, and it now hangs in the trustees’ room. [Illustration: W. D. Moffat EDITOR] DAYLIGHT SAVING FRANKLIN’S IDEA There was nothing of any significance in the affairs of mankind that escaped Benjamin Franklin’s attention. Not only political, social, commercial, literary and artistic matters concerned him, but likewise the many problems, great and small, that had to be met in the course of the day’s work. He was the first to conceive the idea of daylight saving--which means that he was, in practical wisdom, 130 odd years ahead of his time. On an early morning walk along the streets of London in 1784 the thought first came to Franklin, and in passing it on to the world at large he said: “In a walk through the Strand and Fleet street one morning at 7 o’clock, I observed there was not one shop open, although it had been daylight and the sun up above three hours, the inhabitants of London choosing voluntarily to live by candle light and sleep by sunshine; and yet often complaining a little absurdly of the duty on candles and the high price of tallow.” Soon thereafter in the _Journal de Paris_ he published an article, later appearing among his essays under the title “An Economical Project,” which further elaborated the advantages of daylight saving; namely, of “Turning the clock forward an hour” so that everybody would live one hour longer by daylight and one hour less by artificial light. * * * * * THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION ESTABLISHED FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A POPULAR INTEREST IN ART, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, HISTORY, NATURE, AND TRAVEL THE MENTOR IS PUBLISHED TWICE A MONTH BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC., AT 114-116 EAST 16TH STREET, NEW YORK, N. Y. SUBSCRIPTION, FOUR DOLLARS A YEAR. FOREIGN POSTAGE 75 CENTS EXTRA. CANADIAN POSTAGE 50 CENTS EXTRA. SINGLE COPIES TWENTY CENTS. PRESIDENT, THOMAS H. BECK; VICE-PRESIDENT, WALTER P. TEN EYCK; SECRETARY, W. D. MOFFAT, TREASURER, J. S. CAMPBELL; ASSISTANT TREASURER AND ASSISTANT SECRETARY, H. A. CROWE. THE MENTOR