In the large house of M. de Chaumont, which he occupied, he, of course, had his electrical apparatus, and played doctor by giving electricity to paralytic people who were brought to him. On one occasion he made the wrong contact, and fell to the floor senseless. He had, also, a small printing-press with type made in the house by his own servants, and he used it to print the little essays with which he amused his friends. His friendships in France seem to have been mostly among elderly people. There are only a few traces of his fondness for young girls, and we find none of those pleasant intimacies such as he enjoyed with Miss Ray, Miss Stevenson, or the daughters of the Bishop of St. Asaph. Unmarried women in France were too much restricted to be capable of such friendships even with an elderly man. But among his papers in the collection of the American Philosophical Society there is a letter written by some French girl who evidently had taken a fancy to him and playfully insisted on calling herself his daughter. “MY DEAR FATHER AMÉRICAIN “god Bess liberty! I drunk with all my heart to the republick of the united provinces. I am prepared to my departure if you will and if it possible. give me I pray you leave to go. I shall be happy of to live under the laws of venerable good man richard. adieu my dear father I am with the most respect and tenderness “Your humble Servant “and your daughter “J. B. J. CONWAY. “Auxerre 22 M. 1778.” Besides the dining abroad, which, he tells us, occurred six days out of seven, he gave a dinner at home every Sunday for any Americans that were in Paris; “and I then,” he says, “have my grandson Ben, with some other American children from the school.” New-Englanders had very economical ideas in those days, and when it was learned that Franklin entertained handsomely in Paris there was a great fuss over it in the Connecticut newspapers. The _fête-champêtre_ that was given to him by the Countess d’Houdetot must have been a ridiculous and even nauseous dose of adulation to swallow; but he no doubt went through it all without a smile, and it serves to show the extraordinary position that he occupied. He was more famous in France than Voltaire or any Frenchman. A formal account of the _fête_ was prepared by direction of the countess, and copies circulated in Paris. The victim of it is described as “the venerable sage” who, “with his gray hairs flowing down upon his shoulders, his staff in his hand, the spectacles of wisdom on his nose, was the perfect picture of true philosophy and virtue;” and this sentence is as complete a summary as could be made of what Franklin was to the French people. As soon as he arrived the countess addressed him in verse: “Soul of the heroes and the wise, Oh, Liberty! first gift of the gods. Alas! at too great a distance do we offer our vows. As lovers we offer homage To the mortal who has made citizens happy.”