Ben Franklin meets the Royal Governor!

Posted on June 8, 2012 by Benjamin Franklin Speaker, Christopher Lowell

Ben Franklin meets the Royal Governor of Pennsylvania! – Blog #11B

Good Citizens, who are waiting, I am sure, with baited breath to hear of how the letter I wrote, as described in last week’s Blog #11A, changed my life.

I responded to my brother-in-law’s request to return to Boston without delay. As I said last week, I wrote him back immediately, telling him that I would not be following his advice and giving detailed and I hoped cogent arguments as to why I had chosen to remain in my new home in Philadelphia.

Now my brother-in-law was a friend of the Royal Governor of the province of Pennsylvania, Sir William Keith, and he showed Governor Keith my letter during a social call. Mr. Keith apparently was so impressed with the logic and thoroughness I had exhibited in the letter that he decided that I was just the kind of intelligent and industrious lad to help mold the future of the colony he headed. He decided to meet me. I was working at the time as a printer’s apprentice for a Mr. Samuel Keimer in Keimer’s print shop in Philadelphia. When the governor’s carriage pulled up outside, Keimer thought, quite naturally, that the governor was calling upon him and, much excited by this prospect, came happily, if a bit nervously to the door to greet so important a personage. But when Mr. Keith asked instead to be introduced to the eighteen-year old apprentice whose prose had caught his eye, Keimer, as I report in my Autobiography, stared like a pig poisoned! But he recovered and called me from my work. I was a bit taken aback myself to meet so important a figure and nervously wondered what the Royal Governor of the colony could possibly want with me. Read more... (436 words, 1 image, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

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Ben Franklin and the “real” lessons from the Print Shop – Part 1

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Benjamin Franklin Speaker, Christopher Lowell

Ben Franklin and the Real Lessons from the Print Shop – Part 1

Good Citizens, all,

I indicated in my last chat with you that the subject of “Ben Franklin, Printer,” was one that had some unexpected lessons for me. Yes, my half-brother James taught me a good deal about printing. But he taught me something else that proved to be far more important.

James was ten years older than I, and when I was sixteen and he twenty-six, he began beating me. He did this regularly and without, might I say, much provocation on my part.

Note from Christopher Lowell: Well, it’s my feeling that when he was a lad, Ben was pretty arrogant and a bit full of himself. This doesn’t excuse the beatings, but I can imagine James wanting to put Ben a bit more in his place.

I recognized that James held all the power in this relationship and I had none. He was my half-brother but also my employer and could treat me as he wished, even if that wish involved physical abuse. He had the power, he had the strength, he had the authority, and he certainly seemed to have the will to treat me in this unjust manner whenever it pleased him to do so. Read more... (447 words, 1 image, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

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Ben Franklin, Printer’s Apprentice, Part 3 – Silence Dogood’s Success

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Benjamin Franklin Speaker, Christopher Lowell

Ben Franklin, Printers Apprentice, Part 3: Silence Dogood’s Success – Blog #7C

Good Citizens,

I deliberately left you hanging until today to finish the story of my letter to the “New England Courant.” My intent was to whet your appetite for more! I am happy to complete this little chapter for you now.
Well, in the morning (and if you are a bit lost, you should first refer to last week’s entry entitled “Ben Franklin, Printer’s Apprentice, Part 2”,) I stayed carefully in the back of the print shop as my brother and his friends opened my letter–the one signed “Silence Dogood,” and read it. Would they throw it into the fire? Put it aside? Even enjoy it? I waited with a much more casual demeanor than my beating heart belied.

Well, to my delight, they started chuckling and then even laughing! James declared it worthy of publication and all began to speculate as to who the real author might be. Of course, I kept my own “silence” and said nothing. Of course, I was exhilarated.

And indeed, my “Silence Dogood” letter was published forthwith. Readers loved it, so I wrote a second and delivered it the same way; carefully awaiting the darkness of a moonless night, then sliding the letter under the door of the print shop and running away.

The reception of this second letter mirrored that of the first. And my literary career, such as it was at the age of sixteen, was launched. Seeing the letter in print in my brother’s newspaper and having such a positive reaction from the readers was heady stuff indeed for me. I continued, of course, buoyed, yay, almost inebriated by this early triumph, and wrote a total of fourteen letters from “Silence” that year. And my anonymity continued. My brother never knew until many years later that it was I, his little brother, who was the author of those letters. I recall quite vividly that he did not receive the news with equanimity! Read more... (391 words, 1 image, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

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Ben Franklin, Printers Apprentice, Part 2: Silence Dogood

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Benjamin Franklin Speaker, Christopher Lowell

Ben Franklin, Printers Apprentice, Part 2: Silence Dogood

Citizens, all,

In my last musings, I began the story of my days as a printer’s apprentice–a splendid trade for me because even young, I loved books and being around them.

As I indicated last week, I admired good prose and often ran off a sheet or two on the press from one of my favorite authors–men like Addison, Swift, and some of the Roman orators–and I’d “play” with this writing. For instance, I’d cut a page into sentences, put the pieces in a drawer for a few weeks, then take them out again and try to rearrange them in the “best” order. Or I’d try putting a few lines into poetry and then back into prose without looking at the original. It was here, in my brother’s shop, that I came to be curious as to whether I, myself, might write anything worthy of inclusion in my brother’s paper. There was an obvious problem though; James was ten years older than I and certainly not about to print anything in his paper that he knew came from his sixteen-year old brother, the apprentice! Those of you who have older brothers will readily understand my predicament. I solved this dilemma however.

I decided that I would disguise my identity behind the most unlikely persona I could imagine; that of a young Boston widow, whom I crowned with the absurd and patently false name of “Silence Dogood.” Silence, I decided, was a young widow with some strong opinions–opinions she wanted to share with the readers of the “New England Courant.” Although humorous and meant to please, my letter to the editor contained a few serious ideas, too. Not the least of these was that women should be educated and had as much to contribute to society by their brains as by their physical labor in the home. Apparently this idea is one you have accepted in your time but it was usually ridiculed in mine. Read more... (472 words, 1 image, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

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Ben Franklin on how he became a printer

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Benjamin Franklin Speaker, Christopher Lowell

Ben Franklin writes of how he became a printer, Part 2

Dear Readers,

Note from Christopher Lowell: Dr. Franklin will finish up this tale, but I’ll begin today by continuing from last week’s entry on just why his father thought him ill-suited to the serious contemplation required of a preacher. There is a rather delicious story that illustrates this, I think you’ll agree.

Ben, impatient with his father’s long, drawn-out prayers over each meal, suggested, at age 10, when gazing into the cellar where the winter’s supply of meats and fish were salted away, that his father should “say Grace over the whole lot”, as it would be “…a great savings of time.” Josiah, his father, was not amused and soon thereafter decided to end his schooling and have him learn a trade instead. But what trade?

Well, for once, dear readers, my annoying business manager, Mr. Lowell is accurate in his reporting. I even recall the incident and particularly the look on my father’s face when I made what I thought a perfectly good suggestion. But my father decided that a trade, and not a collar, was to be my lot and, having other children to educate, took me out of the Boston Latin school and my formal education, for which I had a natural inclination. My father took me around to various coopers, silversmiths, harness makers and although I was only 10, I remember this quite well. From those visits, I retained a respect for craftsmen who made useful things–a respect that has lasted all my life. I also gained a pride in my roots, for we were a family of people who worked with their hands. In fact, I’m the only “Founding Father” with such a background, which I believe you call today “blue collar.” Read more... (463 words, 1 image, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

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Ben Franklin on Fitness and Health – Blog #5B

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Benjamin Franklin Speaker, Christopher Lowell

Benjamin Franklin on Fitness and Health - Blog #5B

To my faithful readers of these reflections,

Inasmuch as my last musings had to do with how some of my beliefs resulted in entries in my “Poor Richard’s Almanac,” I thought that this week, I’d give you an example. And that example has to do with health.

I had much to say about health and what you call today “wellness.” As a boy I became interested in many aspects of maintaining a hearty body, and, as a young printer’s apprentice, was at the height of my physical powers. Running up and down stairs many times a day with heavy lead type in trays will do that rather quickly for a lad. Later, I remembered those stairs and advocated that older people use staircases in the winter to increase their heart rates or lift dumbbells to keep fit. I became quite interested in diet, recommending in my “Poor Richard’s Almanac” for instance that, “To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals,” (I had trouble in following that one, actually, but it was good advice even so!), and “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” By the way, I’ve heard an insidious but TOTALLY FALSE rumor that I had said originally that… “an apple a day keeps the doctor away…if aimed right!” Slanderous! I had no such animosity towards doctors; in fact, one of my closest friends, Benjamin Rush, was a doctor. But I admit enjoying poking my physician friends with a bit of humor from time to time. “God heals, and the doctor takes the fee!”, as Poor Richard says! But all in all, I rarely called for the doctor, for his methods often involved blood-letting and leeches, which I didn’t think all that highly of. Read more... (424 words, 1 image, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

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Titan Leeds and the Great Almanac Hoax, Part 2, Blog#4B

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Benjamin Franklin Speaker, Christopher Lowell

Benjamin Franklin on Titan Leeds and the Great Almanac Hoax, Part 2, Blog #4B

To my faithful readers,

I must admit to you that when I finished writing the entry to last week’s blog, concerning the hoax I played on Mr. Titan Leeds regarding his Almanac, I was overcome with chuckling for full on five minutes. There’s little that an old man so appreciates as the memory of his own wit and cleverness.

To continue the story, Mr. Leeds having excoriated me in the basest of terms for having suggested the precise day, date, and time of his demise, and having published said excoriation in his own almanac, it was my turn to respond. And I did.

In the next issue of my “Poor Richard’s Almanac,” I had every reason to state, or so I contended, that Mr. Leeds’s attack actually proved that he had indeed expired as I had predicted. Let me explain by quoting my thoughts on this subject from my own Almanac for 1734:

“There is however, (and I cannot speak it without Sorrow) the strongest Probability that my dear Friend is no more; for there appears in his Name, as I am assured, an Almanack for the Year 1734, in which I am treated in a very gross and unhandsome Manner; in which I am called a false Predicter, an Ignorant, a conceited Scribbler, a Fool, and a Lyar. Mr. Leeds was too well bred to use any Man so indecently and so scurrilously, and moreover his Esteem and Affection for me was extraordinary: So that it is to be feared, that Pamphlet may be only a Contrivance of somebody or other, who hopes perhaps to sell two or three Year’s Almanacks still, by the sole Force and Virtue of Mr. Leeds’s Name…(this is)…an unpardonable Injury to his Memory, and an Imposition upon the Publick.” Read more... (457 words, 1 image, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

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