WHEN BEN FRANKLIN SCORED.
Reading edition
WHEN BEN FRANKLIN SCORED.
Long after the victories of Washington over the French and the English had made his name familiar to all Europe, Benjamin Franklin was a guest at a dinner given in honor of the French and English Ambassadors. The Ambassador from England arose and drank a toast to his native land: "To England—the sun whose bright beams enlighten and fructify the remotest corners of the earth."
The French Ambassador, filled with his own national pride, but too polite to dispute the previous toast, offered the following: "To France—the moon whose mild, steady, and cheering rays are the delight of all nations, consoling them in darkness and making their dreariness beautiful."
Then arose "Old Ben Franklin," and said in his slow but dignified way: "To George Washington—the Joshua who commanded the sun and the moon to stand still, and they obeyed him."