his favorite son; at any rate, he neglected to take the precaution, and the boy died of the disease when only four years old. The father mourned for him long and bitterly, and nearly forty years afterwards, when an old man, could not think of him without a sigh.

The other child was a daughter, Sarah, also very handsome, who married Richard Bache and has left numerous descendants. His illegitimate son, William, was brought home when he was a year old and cared for along with his other children; and William's illegitimate son, Temple Franklin, was the companion and secretary of his grandfather in England and France. The illegitimate daughter was apparently never brought home, and is not referred to in his writings, except in those occasional letters in which he sends her his love. According to the letter already mentioned as in the collection of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, she was married to John Foxcroft, who was deputy colonial postmaster in Philadelphia. It was well that she was kept away from Franklin's house, for the presence of William appears to have given trouble enough. A household composed of legitimate and illegitimate children is apt to be inharmonious at times, especially when the mother of the legitimate children is the mistress of the house.

Franklin's biographies tell us that Mrs. Franklin tenderly nurtured William. This may be true, and, judging from expressions in her printed letters, she seems to have been friendly enough with him. But from other sources we find that as William grew up

she learned to hate him, and this, with some other secrets of the Franklin household, has been described in the diary of Daniel Fisher:

"As I was coming down from my chamber this afternoon a gentlewoman was sitting on one of the lowest stairs which were but narrow, and there not being room enough to pass, she rose up & threw herself upon the floor and sat there. Mr. Soumien & his Wife greatly entreated her to arise and take a chair, but in vain, she would keep her seat, and kept it, I think, the longer for their entreaty. This gentlewoman, whom though I had seen before I did not know, appeared to be Mrs. Franklin. She assumed the airs of extraordinary freedom and great Humility, Lamented heavily the misfortunes of those who are unhappily infected with a too tender or benevolent disposition, said she believed all the world claimed a privilege of troubling her Pappy (so she usually calls Mr. Franklin) with their calamities and distresses, giving us a general history of many such wretches and their impertinent applications to him." (Pennsylvania Magazine of History, vol. xvii. p. 271.)

In the pamphlet called "What is Sauce for a Goose is also Sauce for a Gander," already alluded to, Franklin is spoken of as "Pappy" in a way which seems to show that the Philadelphians knew his wife's nickname for him and were fond of using it to ridicule him.

Afterwards, Daniel Fisher lived in Franklin's house as his clerk, and thus obtained a still more intimate knowledge of his domestic affairs.

"Mr. Soumien had often informed me of great uneasiness and dissatisfaction in Mr. Franklin's family in a manner no way pleasing to me, and which in truth I was unwilling to credit, but as Mrs. Franklin and I of late began to be Friendly and sociable I discerned too great grounds for Mr. Soumien's Reflections, arising solely from the turbulence and jealousy and pride of her disposition. She suspecting Mr. Franklin for having too great an esteem for his son in prejudice of herself and daughter, a young woman of about 12 or 13 years of age, for whom it was visible Mr. Franklin had no less esteem than for his son young Mr. Franklin. I have

often seen him pass to and from his father's apartment upon Business (for he does not eat, drink, or sleep in the House) without the least compliment between Mrs. Franklin and him or any sort of notice taken of each other, till one Day as I was sitting with her in the passage when the young Gentleman came by she exclaimed to me (he not hearing) :-

"Mr. Fisher there goes the greatest Villain upon Earth.'

"This greatly confounded & perplexed me, but did not hinder her from pursuing her Invectives in the foulest terms I ever heard from a Gentlewoman." (Pennsylvania Magazine of History, vol. xvii. p. 276.)

Fisher's descriptions confirm the gossip which has descended by tradition in many Philadelphia families. He found Mrs. Franklin to be a woman of such "turbulent temper" that this and other unpleasant circumstances forced him to leave. Possibly these were some of the faults which her husband speaks of as so exceedingly small and so like his own that he scarcely could see them at all. The presence of her husband's illegitimate son must have been very trying, and goes a long way to excuse her.

All that Franklin has written about himself is so full of a serene philosophic spirit, and his biographers have echoed it so faithfully, that, in spite of his frankness, things are made to appear a little easier than they really were. His life was full of contests, but they have not all been noted, and the sharpness of many of them has been worn off by time. In Philadelphia, where he was engaged in the most bitter partisan struggles, where the details of his life were fully known, his humble origin, his slow rise, his indelicate jokes, and his illegitimate children, there were not a few people who cherished a most relentless antipathy towards him which

neither his philanthropy nor his philosophic and scientific mind could soften. This bitter feeling against the "old rogue," as they called him, still survives among some of the descendants of the people of his time, and fifty or sixty years ago there were virtuous old ladies living in Philadelphia who would flame into indignation at the mention of his

name.

Chief-Justice Allen, who was his contemporary and opponent in politics, described him as a man of "wicked heart," and declared that he had often been a witness of his "envenomed malice." In H. W. Smith's "Life of Rev. William Smith" a great Ideal of this abuse can be found. Provost Smith

and Franklin quarrelled over the management of the College of Philadelphia, and on a benevolent pamphlet by the provost Franklin wrote a verse from the poet Whitehead :*

"Full many a peevish, envious, slanderous elf
Is in his works, Benevolence itself

For all mankind, unknown his bosom heaves,
He only injures those with whom he lives.
Read then the man. Does truth his actions guide?
Exempt from petulance, exempt from pride?

To social duties does his heart attend

As son, as father, husband, brother, friend?

Do those who know him love him? If they do

You have my permission--you may love him too.'

(Smith's Life of Rev. William Smith, vol. i. p. 341.)

Provost Smith's biographer resents this attack by giving contemporary opinions of Franklin; and

* This verse Franklin also quotes against Smith in a letter to Miss Stevenson. (Bigelow's Works of Franklin, vol. iii. p. 235.)