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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: one new company being formed after another, till they became so numerous
as to include most of the inhabitants who were men of property;
and now, at the time of my writing this, tho' upward of fifty years
since its establishment, that which I first formed, called the Union
Fire Company, still subsists and flourishes, tho' the first members
are all deceas'd but myself and one, who is older by a year than I am.
The small fines that have been paid by members for absence at the monthly
meetings have been apply'd to the purchase of fire-engines, ladders,
fire-hooks, and other useful implements for each company, so that I
question whether there is a city in the world better provided with
the means of putting a stop to beginning conflagrations; and, in fact,
 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |