The Eccentric Side of Benjamin Franklin "Thou can'st not joke an enemy into a friend, but thou may'st

a friend into an enemy." - Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin, to some, is the embodiment of American common sense and wisdom, yet he loved to effect the appearance of the iconoclast and was a practical joker. The American founding father and statesman who could claim inventions from the rocking chair to the lightning rod, often wore unfashionable clothes, and challenged prevailing authority. He adopted and discarded eccentric values and beliefs throughout his life. His love of the paradoxical and contradictory can be seen in his humorous proverbs. "There's more old drunkards than old doctors." "He does not possess wealth, it possesses him." "Good sense is a thing all need, few have, and none think they want." Humor in Franklin's mottoes added to the popularity of his "Poor Richards's Almanac." Humor also appeared in his newspaper, the "Pennsylvania Gazette" . A reader wrote to the editor in what was possibly the first advice column, "I am courting a girl I have but little acquaintance with. How shall I come to a knowledge of her faults and whether she on the pompous and elite were a fond sport of Franklin. He turned an advertisement for a barber shop, that no longer offered full service, into political satire. He announced that the barber would no longer offer these extra services, since shaving and trimming services could be found "at Court, the Bar, in Church, and State." Franklin was quick to offer a joke at his own expense. In a new suite of clothes, he was walking over some barrels of tar on a ship's dock, and the head of one of the barrels gave way. He related the incident in the "Gazette." When one of his electrical experiments to kill a turkey with electricity backfired and he shocked himself he said, "Well, I meant to kill a turkey, and instead I nearly killed the goose." His electrical experiments attracted a lot of attention, both among scientists and the general population. In the case of the latter, the attention the public showered upon him was sometimes annoying. Once a crowd of gawkers gathered in front of his home and would not leave without seeing the great scientist. Franklin dispatched them by sending a generous charge of electricity through the iron fence on which the crowd was leaning. He was never a slave to fashion or fad. In the royal courts of France he often wore the uncouth frontier dress of buckskin and fur. Yet, in his declining days he was carried about like royalty in his own private sedan chair, by two servants. He had dined in the places of Europe, but once invited creditors to a meal of "sawdust gruel" to show them they could not starve him by not extending his credit. Franklin used his humor to diffuse some tense political situations. In the days before the Revolution, The Committee of Safety was divided over the act of the Episcopal clergy praying for the King. The controversy was about to disrupt the work of the Committee. Franklin spoke, "The measure is quite unnecessary; for the Episcopal clergy, to my certain

knowledge, have been constantly praying, these twenty years, that 'God would give the King and his Council wisdom,' and we all know that not the least notice has ever been taken of that prayer. So, it is plain, the gentlemen have no interest in the Court of Heaven." The good humor of the Committee was restored and the matter was dropped. The most famous of his political wit was at the signing of the Declaration of Independence. John Hancock said, "We must be unanimous; there must be no pulling different ways; we must hang together." Franklin responded, "Yes, we must, indeed, all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately." Franklin believed that fresh air was conducive to good health. Each morning, no matter the temperature, he arose, stripped naked and opened all the windows to his London apartment. His "air baths" were commended to others with the result being few converts. He had an attraction for the risqu. He once wrote an essay on the benefits of "passing gas", which he sent to the Royal Academy at Brussels for publication. He was also known to publish some of the more erotic literature and books of his day. In a private letter to a young man he urged him to find a wife and marry. However, in the event that he could not he advised him to find an old woman for a mistress. "Because . . . in the dark all cats are gray." Benjamin Franklin - printer, statesman, scientist, inventor, humorist, and practical joker. Benjamin Franklin on Business and Government "In time, perhaps, mankind may be wise enough to let trade take its own course, find its own channels, and regulate its own proportions, etc. At present, most of the edicts of princes, placoerts, laws and ordinances of kingdoms and States for the purpose prove political blunders, the advantages they produce not being general for the Commonwealth, but particular to private persons or bodies in the State who procure them, and at the expense of the rest of the people." Copyright (C) 1997 by Frank Granger