ost her the enormous sum of
three and twenty shillings; for which she had no other excuse or
apology to make, but that she thought her husband deserved a silver
spoon and china bowl, as well as any of his neighbors. This was the
first appearance of plate or china in our house; which afterward, in a
course of years, as our wealth increased, augmented gradually to
several hundred pounds in value."[13]

[Footnote 13: Life of Franklin, by Sparks, p. 102.]

While thus engaged he conceived the idea of establishing a public
subscription library. His knowledge of human nature taught him that if
he presented the enterprise as his own, feelings of jealousy might be
excited, and it might be imagined that he was influenced by personal
ambition. He therefore said that a number of gentlemen had adopted the
plan, and had requested him to visit the lovers of books and of
reading, and solicit their subscriptions. Each subscriber was to
contribute two pounds to start the enterprise, and to pay a yearly
assessment of ten shillings.

By the arduous labors of five months, Franklin obtained fifty names.
With this the enterprise commenced. Such was the origin of the
Philadelphia Library, now one of the most important institutions of
the kind in our land. In the year 1861, seventy thousand volumes were
reported as on its shelves.

Philadelphia contained a population of nearly ten thousand people.
Pennsylvania was decidedly the central point for European emigration.
Its climate was delightful; its soil fertile; and William Penn's
humane policy with the Indians had secured for the colony peace and
friendship with the native inhabitants for more than fifty years.

The white man, on this continent, has told his own story. The Indians
have had no historians. But nothing is more clear than that in almost
every instance they were goaded to war by the unendurable wrongs which
were inflicted upon them.[14] Until Braddock's dreadful defeat,
Pennsylvania had scarcely known a single alarm. In the summer of 1749,
twelve thousand Germans landed at Philadelphia. This was the average
number for many years. The policy of William Penn had been to
establish upon the banks of the Delaware, an extended and beautiful
village, where every house should have its lawn and its garden for
vegetables and flowers. In the year 1732, when Franklin was twenty-six
years of age, the dwellings of this village were mostly of brick or
stone, and were spread along the banks o