By far the best statue in the park -- the heroic effigy of Benjamin Franklin, looking toward heaven
before he set loose his kite to catch the lightnings -- stood on a high pedestal, a monument
not only of the great father of the republic whom it counterfeited, but a testimony as well of the
genius of Carl Rohl-Smith, the Danish sculptor.
Inscription: Mirabeau on Ben Franklin, "He has wrenched the thunderbolt from heaven and the sceptre
from tyrants," thus referring at once to his genius and patriotism, and offering the most remarkable
encomium ever bestowed on man by man. -- The Dream City
