• The Whistle’ is a parabolic short story-cum-letter penned on

the 10th of November 1779 by Benjamin Franklin at the age

of 73 to Anne Louise Brillon de Jouy.

• She was a French musician and composer.

• She became a friend of Benjamin Franklin during the

American Revolution.
The Whistle
Benjamin narrates the whistle’s story, which happened when he was a
lad of seven years with the help of several copper coins given to him by his
friends when he was on holiday. With all that money, he bought a mere
whistle. His family, brothers, sisters, and cousins derided him for his actions,
saying that he had paid four times the sum of an actual worthless whistle.
They also try to make him feel horrid by reminding him that if he had thought
correctly and only paid the sum of the whistle to the shopkeeper and nothing
more, he could have bought so many other beautiful things.
This example would always remain with him all his life. After that, he was
never tempted to buy unnecessary stuff while young reminding himself of
the money he had paid for the whistle. As he grew older and wiser, he
realized that everyone he met always paid more than required for their
whistles. In other words, they were giving more importance to things,
people, and places that needed the least priority in their life. He speaks
about the six categories of people who pay too much for the whistle.
• A person ambitious of court favor used to spend too much time attending at

court. He gave up his repose, freedom or liberty, virtue, and good values, and

friends to attain favor at the court.

• A person who fond of popularity regularly engages in political bustles, neglecting

his affairs.

• The example of a miser who gives up every kind of comfortable living, the

pleasure of doing good to others, his fellow citizens’ esteem, and the joys of

warm friendship in his pursuit of wealth. But his wealth gives him no happiness

on its own.
• A man of pleasure who gives in to his corporeal senses and ruins his health in

its pursuit. Such a person never improves his mind intellectually or his fortune

because he keeps spending it on the enjoyment of his primary senses.

• A man of fond appearance who is handsome, wears fine clothes, lives in a fine

house, has the best furniture, good fortune, and equipages but goes into debt

for it all and lands in prison. Such a person will end his career in jail for not

paying his debts because he spends more than his earnings.

• A sweet-tempered girl who marries an ill-tempered brute pays too much for her

whistle by selecting the wrong husband. 

Examples