This Country of OursMarshall, H. E. (Henrietta Elizabeth)
History
This Country of Ours
Marshall, H. E. (Henrietta Elizabeth)
United States -- History
So with just a little soreness in his heart Penn sailed away never
to return. At home trouble and misfortune awaited him. And in
the midst of his troubles sickness fell upon him. For six years a
helpless invalid with failing mind, he lingered on. Then in 1718
he died. He was seventy-four. Only four years of his long life had
been spent in America. Yet he left his stamp upon the continent
far more than any other man of his time. He was the greatest, most
broad-minded of all the colony builders. As he said himself he had
sailed against wind and tide all his life. But the buffetings of
fortune left him sweet and true to the end.
__________
Chapter 41 - How Benjamin Franklin Came to Philadelphia
After Penn left his colony there was frequent trouble between the
Governors and the people. Some of the Governors were untrustworthy,
some were weak, none was truly great. But about ten years after
Penn's death a truly great man came to Philadelphia. This was
Benjamin Franklin. Of all the men of colonial times Franklin was
the greatest.
Benjamin was the fifteenth child of his father, a sturdy English
Nonconformist who some years before had emigrated from Banbury
in England to Boston in America. As the family was so large the
children had to begin early to earn their own living. So at the
age of ten Benjamin was apprenticed to his own father, who was a
tallow chandler, and the little chap spent his days helping to make
soap and "dips" and generally making himself useful.
But he did not like it at all. So after a time he was apprenticed
to his elder brother James, who had a printing press, and published
a little newspaper called the Courant. Benjamin liked that much
better. He soon became a good printer, he was able to get hold of
books easily, and he spent his spare time reading such books as the
"Pilgrim's Progress" and the "Spectator." Very soon too he took
to writing, and became anxious to have an article printed in his
brother's paper.
But as he was only a boy he was afraid that if his brother knew he
had written the article he would never print it. So he disguised his
handwriting, and slipped his paper under the door of the printing
house at night. It was found next morning, and to Benjamin's
delight was thought good enough to be printed in the paper. After
that Benjamin wrote often for the little paper. In time however he
and his brother began to quarrel, and when he was seventeen Benjamin
decided to go to New York to seek his fortune there.
He took ship to New York in 1723 and arrived there one October day
with very little money in his pocket and not a friend in the town.
He did not find work in New York, but an old printer advised him
to go to Philadelphia where he knew his son was in need of a printer.
Benjamin was already three hundred miles from home, and Philadelphia
was another hundred miles farther, but he resolved to go.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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