BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PRINTER z. torttfU HmuprBttg ICtbrarg BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Sienrg H. Sage 1891 h:3A^.t7A: ,„„ ^Vl^/Z_ 9306 DATE DUE '^n Cornell University Library Z232.F83 086 Benjamin Franklin printer. By John Clyd olin 3 1924 029 503 723 The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029503723 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PRINTER BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. I 706- I 790 An idealized interpretation of the portrait by J. S. Duplessis. Reproduced from an engraving by A. Krause, in the possession of the author. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PRINTER. BY JOHN CLYDE OSWALD. Published by Doubleday, Page & Company for The Associated Advertising Clubs of the World. £V f\.30L(a^f7(e. Copyright, 1917, hy The Associated Advertising Clubs of the World Jll rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian To Edgar Fahs Smith Provost of the University of Pennsylvania Educator, Chemist, Publicist, Creative Leader of American Thought this book is dedicated in grateful appreciation of his cordial and abundant hospitality to the delegates to the Twelfth Annual Convention of the Associated Advertising Clubs of the JVorld. ^va Ava AVa A«a fite gla ate ate ate ate ate ate ate ate ate aPa ate ote aPa ^€ "S^ 'S^€ %€ %€ 'S^ "gfif %€■ "gfi^ 'gijg' ■?&€ '^1^ 'Si^ '9/^ 'S^ "9/^ "^/^ ^^ %§ To the Judicious and Impartial READER. Courteous Reader, <3 S> <3.& cS.s f^fNE of my day dreams contained the hope #flt O #fll that business cares might some day relax %%% sufficiently to permit devoting the time necessary to a careful performance of what I felt would be an agreeable task, the writing of a book on the life of that many-sided man, Benjamin Franklin, dealing primarily with his activities as a printer, using the word in the sense which it pos- sessed in his time, when it included printing, ed- iting, publishing, and advertising. Many years ago I began to collect on a modest scale what is known as Frankliniana — books re- lating to Franklin's history, editions of his writings, specimens of the product of his press, reproductions of his portraits, etc., and as the collection grew my wonder increased that although Benjamin Frank- lin himself placed so much emphasis upon that part of his activities which related to printing, among all the published books about him and his viii To the READER. accomplishments there was not one devoted to that phase of his career. Reference to this fact was made at the annual banquet in honor of the anniversary of FrankHn's birth of the Poor Richard Club in Philadelphia, January 17, 1916, in an address by Mr. Herbert S. Houston, president of the Associated Adver- tising Clubs of the World. Mr. Houston said that the year 1916, because of the holding of the twelfth annual convention of the Associated Advertising Clubs in Philadelphia, with the buildings and grounds of the University of Pennsylvania, which Benjamin Franklin founded, as the scene of its sessions, would be a particularly appropriate time for the publication of such a book, and he did me the honor to nominate me for its authorship. Other tasks were in hand that prevented imme- diate adoption of the suggestion, so that the work could not be promptly begun, and consequently it has therefore had to be performed somewhat hur- riedly in order to keep the promise as to date of its publication, a statement I make because of a regret- ful appreciation of the fact that it could have been much better done. As to the physical structure of the volume, it has been the aim to make it conform typograph- ically somewhat nearly to the style of the books printed by Benjamin Franklin. He had positive ideas as to bookmaking, as will be seen in the quo- To the READER. ix tations from his writings, and we have endeavored to produce a book that would meet with his ap- proval could he have opportunity to pass judgment upon it. Grateful acknowledgment for invaluable service in connection with the preparation of the book is made to Messrs. Henry L. BuUen, of Newark, N. J., Walter Gilliss and Edmund G. Gress of New York, and Dr. William J. Campbell and Harrie A. Bell of Philadelphia. The Author. The CONTENTS. I /^HAP ^ 2. - 3- •■ 4- - 5- 6. ^ 7- ' 8. 9- .- lO. 1 1. 12. 14. ^ 15- -16. I. T"/^^ Colonies at the Beginning of the 18M Century and the First American Printers. Page i Young Franklin as a '^'^ Printer' s Devil" 12 'The First "Tourist" Printer. 29 In Samuel Keimers Shop in Philadelphia. 3 3 "Journeyman Printer in London. 40 A Plan of Life. 50 In Philadelphia Again as Foreman of Keimers Shop. 5^ The New Firm of Franklin and Meredith. 6 1 Publisher and Bookseller. 6 8 The Pennsylvania Gazette. 95 Poor Richard's Almanack. 1 1 o As a Business Man. 129 Partnerships. 13° Typefounder. 15° The Private Press at Passy. 161 Advertiser and Propagandist. 1 66 xii The CONTENTS. 17. The First American Humorist. 178 18. Literary Style. 186 19. Literary Works. ^9S 20. Literary Friends. 213 2 1 . The Love of Books. 219 22. Public Service. 225 23. "Our" Benjamin Franklin. 232 Index 241 Sfe ^i> (i% ^& ^^ <§>% ^& ^% a'a &% 3^% 3^& 3^% 3^& 3^& 3^& ,§'& ^% ,§'& W w^ ^6§ "ip %^ %^ ^ip ^ip %€ %€ '^h^ "Sa^ 'Sfi 'St^ "s^ %€ %€ "&a€ "Bn^ » '^^ ^^ ^ «# ^» «^ ^» «|. #|. #^ #^ ^§ <|t #^ ^# f "sims^ ^^ w^ ^^ ^^ w ^6^ ' The ILLUSTRATIONS. Benjamin Franklin's Portrait — Frontispiece. Title Page of the "Booke of Psalmes." Page 7 Record of Benjamin Franklin s Birth. 13 TzV/i? P^^^ ^y fames Franklin. 19 "7'/^£' iV(?TO England C our ant." 22—23 "T/^^ Independent Whig." 36 Title Page of "The Religion of Nature Delin- eated." 44 Franklin's Diagram for Daily Conduct. 55 7iV/(? P^^^ of "The History of the Quakers." 63 PzW/ and Fourth Page of the " Philadelphische Zeitung" 7°-7^ Title Page of "The Psalms of David." 73 Title Page of"Catos Moral Distichs." 74 Title Page of "A Treaty of Friendship." y^ First Page of "The American Magazine." 76 First Page of "The General Magazine." J J Title Page of "A Catalogue of Books." 79 Title Page of "A Letter from the Rev. Mr. Geo, Whitefield." 80 xiv The ILLUSTRATIONS. Title Page of "A Collection of All the Laws. " 82 "The Yearly Verses of the Printer s Lad." 83 Title Page of"M. T. Cicero's Cato Major." 85 Index Page from "The Cato Major." 86 First Reading Page of "The Cato Major." 87 Pages Showing Type Arrangement of '*The Cato Major." 88-89 Bill to Thomas Pennfor Printing. 91 Bill to the Library Company for Printing. 9 1 Parker's Inventory. 92—93 First Page of "The Universal Instructor." 96 First Page of "The Pennsylvania Gazette." 99 Advertisements in "The Pennsylvania Ga- zette." 104 Broadside Advertising the Wonderful New ' Microscope. 105 "Kalendarium Pennsilvaniense ." 1 1 1 ^^ Apollo Anglic anus." 114 Title Page of "Poor Richard' s Almanack." 116 Inside Page of "Poor Richard's Almanack." 125 Pocket Edition of "Poor Richard's Almanack." 1 27 Franklin's Designs for Paper Money. i 34—1 35 Type Used at Passy. i r 3 Initials Cast from Matrices Owned by Frank- lin. 1^6 The ILLUSTRATIONS, xv Type Specimen Sheets Issued by Benjamin Franklin Bache. 158—159 First Page of a Pamphlet Printed at Passy. 1 6 3 Title Page of "A Modest Enquiry into Paper Currency." 169 Title Page of "Plain Truth." 171 Supplement to " The Boston Independent Chron- icle." 173 Title Page of "Cool Thoughts on Public Af- fairs." 175 The frst American Cartoon. 177 Flag Designed by Franklin. 1 77 First Page of "The Spectator." 189 Two Verses in Franklin's Reformed Alphabet. 194 Title Page of " Experiments and Observations on Electricity ." 206 Title Page of"Oeuvres de M. Franklin." 208 Title Page of First Edition of the "Autobio- graphy." 2 1 o Title Page of Volume by 'James Ralph. 2 1 4 The "Tou are now my enemy" Letter. 2.1 J Title Page of Sermon Acknowledging Frank- lin's Gift of Books. 223 .sife, Qte alto ofe, ttfe, &9a nte afe, ato csSa oiJo ojfe, cSp 'Se tsffp «&> cS^ c\te, a€ 'S^ "^^ %€ <^t %t %t ■p' fit fat §6^ ^^W W W W BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PRINTER. CHAP. I. The Colonies at the Beginning' of the Eighteenth Century and the First American Printers. fl-ffltflfT the beginning of the Eighteenth Century, #fl§ A #^i> ten Colonies stretched up and down the flttfllfflt Atlantic Coast in North America, which, although they had been settled by representatives of different European nations, all acknowledged the sovereignty of Queen Anne of England, who, lately come to the throne, was soon to leave it to give place to that long line of German Georges that was to play so considerable a part in the affairs of the New World. England claimed greater dominion in North America than the narrow fringe of settlements along the Coast, but was actually in possession westward, only to a 2 The First American Printers. line roughly marked by the Allegheny Mountains ; farther to the west was New France, and to the south and southwest was New Spain. Among the colonists, in addition to the English, were Scotch, Irish, Welsh, French, Dutch, Ger- mans, Swedes, Danes, and Spaniards. The wealth- iest of the English settlers lived in the south, particularly in Virginia, where had settled the Royalists, or Cavaliers, driven from England by the successes in the civil wars of Oliver Cromwell and his Roundheads. Contrasted with these aristo- crats were the Georgians, brought over a few years after the opening of the century from English debtor prisons by Oglethorpe, and the Puritans of New England, with their austere religious tenets and disregard of opportunities to lay up stores of this world's goods. In Virginia one must hold property in order to exercise the citizen's right to vote; in New England he must be a member of the Church. Most of the denominations and creeds in relig- ion were represented. In Virginia to be saved from eternal damnation meant conformity to the rules of the established church, while the Puritan in New England, having fled from what he re- garded as persecution by that same ecclesiastical institution, placed his reliance principally upon the teachings of the Bible; and the Quaker largely disregarded both and believed that one could find The First American Printers. 3 a solution of his spiritual problems only in the dictates of his own heart. On the bleak shores of New England the diffi- culties arising from repellent natural conditions inculcated in the people habits of industry and frugality. In the south, where nature was more generous in the distribution of her favors, large plantations were operated by wealthy owners, and luxury and indolence were in evidence. The population one hundred years after the landing of the first shipload of colonists on an island in the James River, in 1607, is not known. ,No census was ever taken, and the estimates vary between one half million and one million souls. There were three large towns — Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, naming them in the order of their size. Even their population cannot defi- nitely be given. Cotton Mather, who would seem to be a credible witness on most subjects, said, of the population of Boston, two years be- fore the opening of the century, that it was " more than eighteen thoufand." Herman Moll, pub- lisher of an "Atlas Geographus," who ought also to be a good witness, said in 1719: "Bofton is reckon'd the biggeft Town in America, except fome which belong to the Spaniards. . . . Its inhabitants are reckon'd about 12,000." Cap- tain Nathaniel Uring, in his "Voyages and Trav- els," published in 1726, said: "The Town is near 4 The First American Printers. two miles in length and in fome places three- quarters of a mile broad, in which are reckon'd 4,000 houfes; moll of them are built with brick and have about 18,000 inhabitants." In 1700 New York contained less than six thousand population, of whom nearly one half were negroes. Some aristocratic families are said to have owned as many as fifty slaves. New York, although having been under English rule for nearly half a century, was still a Dutch town and most of the sights and sounds were Dutch: gable-end houses, streets that were little more than narrow, crooked lanes, cobblestone sidewalks, but withal "clean, compact, tidy." Philadelphia was chartered as a city by William Penn in 1701, at which time it had seven hundred buildings and forty-five hundred inhabitants, hav- ing almost doubled in population since Penn's jour- ney across the seas to his Colony nine years be- fore. It was first settled by the Swedes, who were joined by the Quakers sent over by Penn and still later by Germans at Penn's invitation, thus be- coming the first really cosmopolitan city on the newly settled continent. William Penn said in regard to it : " I wanted to afford an Afylum for the good and the beft of every Nation. I aimed to frame a Government that might be an example. I defired to fhow Men as free and happy as they could be." The First American Printers. 5 Transportation between the Colonies was re- stricted principally to the sea. There were trails across country that could be followed by foot or on horseback, but none of any length or connecting important points. The traveler from Boston to New York must go by sailing vessel out around Cape Cod and southwest through Long Island Sound, taking two to four days for the voyage, depending upon wind and weather. It was prac- tically as long a voyage by water from New York down the New Jersey coast and up the Delaware Bay to Philadelphia. The century was well along toward middle age before covered wagons began to run regularly once a week between New York and Philadelphia, traveling at the rate of about three miles an hour. Later a coach, advertised as "The Flying Machine" because it made the journey in good weather in two days, was put on. In bad weather the jour- ney was not only longer, but less comfortable, for the reason that frequently passengers were called upon to alight and help to pry the wheels out of the mud. THE FIRST AMERICAN PRINTERS. Several printers had come and gone in the American Colonies before Benjamin Franklin first saw the light of day early in the year 1706. First of them all was Stephen Daye. He had been en- 6 The First American Printers. gaged by the Rev. Jesse Glover, "a worthy and wealthy diflfenting clergyman" to come to Amer- ica with a printing equipment which the Rev. Mr. Glover had purchased in England and which he was bringing over to further the affairs of the colonists from the points of view of Church and State. Unfortunately, Mr. Glover died during the voy- age. His widow engaged Stephen Daye to set up the equipment and to take charge of it, the item in the records of Harvard College being to the effect that "Mr. Jofs. Glover gave to the College a font of Printing Letters, and fome gentlemen of Amfterdam gave towards furnifhing of a Printing Prefs with letters forty-nine pounds and fome- thing more." Daye conducted the printing plant at Harvard for about .ten years, being succeeded for a short period by his son Matthew, who spelled his sur- name "Day." Stephen Daye remained in Cam- bridge and some years later brought suit against Henry Dunster, the first president of Harvard College, who had married the Widow Glover and thereby come into control of the printing office, for the recovery of five hundred dollars which sum Daye said was owing to him as an unpaid balance for his former services. Daye presented a petition to the General Court for a grant of three hundred acres of land as " Recompenfe of his Care fefe ^^^ '^eb f:fi WHOLE i^ ©t2 BOOKEOFPSALMBS eJ^ §(.«' FaitifuUy ^^'^i rjlr TRANSLATED iw. ENGtTStt [M^, '^G» cw««. fins HP Wliereunto it prefixed a difcouffede- ^j]^'' 'nj^diring not only che lawfullnes, butalfoolGi ^ rrJ offiugiDg scripture Pfalmes in t^rJ pI^ the Churches of \£ m ""^ %i *j)k^ Zttthevn-iefGiddtreltfleBtituflyin yf 'r]lr jt»,inallmfdemt,teachiii£anitxbtrt'. rjL i <»J 5% '"^ auaitether in VfalmeiP^mnti, and oWji d£^ l^iritiiaU%triTS,fu^iigtotheLtrdmtb ^^j L"^ ffraceinjourhearts, f JK1 r^fj lamts v. e^ffo, U"*;i JF4gfhitffSetcdMl>in>fni^,4Haif HfcH '«*1r«> any iemirrj litbimfmgffiilmn, ^^9 Tlttprintei Title page of the first book published in English America. Printed by Stephen Daye, at Cambridge, Mass., 1640. Original Size 3J" x 6". 8 The First American Printers- and Charge of furthering the work of Printing," which was accepted. Matthew Day was the second colonial printer, but he died before he was thirty years of age, and only one known work bears his imprint. Samuel Green was the third colonial printer and he continued to follow the craft until 1692, his death, at eighty-seven years, occurring ten years later. In 1656 there were two presses in Cambridge operated by Green, one belonging to Harvard College, which was probably that pur- chased in England by the Rev. Mr. Glover, and the other the property of the corporation,' the sec- ond one having been brought over for the purpose of promoting the education of the Indians. Green was the first to print the Bible in the Indian language. Isaiah Thomas, in his "His- tory of Printing in America," says of this Bible: " It was a work of so much consequence as to ar- rest the attention of the nobility and gentry of England, as well as that of King Charles, to whom it was dedicated. The press of Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was, for a time, as celebrated as the presses of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, in England." Green, too, received a grant of three hundred acres of land. He was a man of character and his high standing in the community is attested by the circumstance that for thirty years he held a com- The First American Printers. 9 mission in the Cambridge Militia Company as captain. Robert F. Roden, in his history of "The Cambridge Press," says of him: "Although not the first printer at our first press, his name, and not that of Stephen Daye, is the most glorious name in its history." Of quite another calibre was Marmeduke John- son, an English journeyman printer, who crossed to America in 1660 to assist in printing Eliot's Indian Bible — the greatest achievement of the Cambridge Press; Johnson thus becoming fourth in the ranks of American printers. He seems to have been a capable workman but was continually in debt and occasionally in conflict with the au- thorities. In 1663 the Commissioners wrote from Boston to the corporation in England in regard to Johnson, " If there bee occation further to Imploy him It were much better to contradl with him heer to print by the fheete than by allowing his ftanding wages," and further, "concerning Marmeduke Johnfon the printer whofe Demeanor hath not been fuitable to what hee promifed wee fhall leave him to youerfelues to difmilTe him as foone as his yeare is expir'd if you foe think fit." The above were the first printers in Massachu- setts and in the Colonies, and all of them, as will be noted, were located in Cambridge. The first Boston printers were John Foster, Samuel Sewall, James Glenn, Samuel Green, Jr., Richard lo The First American Printers. Pierce, Benjamin Harris, and Bartholomew Green, the first five of whom were successively connected with one printshop and had passed away or had retired from business before Benjamin Franklin was born. There may have been an exception in the person of an educated Indian known as James the Printer, whose name, however, does not ap- pear in a position of responsibility until the year 1709, when a Psalter in both the Indian and Eng- lish languages was published with the joint im- prints of "Stephen Green and James Printer." Of these Boston printers, one, Benjamin Harris, whose printing house was "over against the old meeting house in Comhill," deserves special men- tion. He is sometimes spoken of as the father of American journalism, because in 1690, four years before he returned permanently to London, he issued a "news-letter" entitled "Publick Occur- ences Both Foreign and Domeftick," which he proposed to furnish once a month or oftener, if required. It contained four pages, one of them being blank, for correspondence. Only one copy of it is known to be in existence, having been dis- covered during a search in the State Paper Office in London by the historian of Salem, Mass. Bartholomew Green went over the river from his father's establishment in Cambridge to Boston in 1690, and set up "the best printing apparatus then in the country," but a complete loss by fire put him The First American Printers. 1 1 out of business a few months after he started. He returned to Cambridge for two years and was employed by his father. In 1692 we find him again engaged in printing in Boston, where he continued to conduct an estabHshment for forty years. In it was produced the first American newspaper, the "Boston News-Lette r," a weekly; No. i being dated April 24, 1704, and printed for John Camp- bell, postmaster. One other printer was to be found within the ter- ritory of the English Colonies during the closing days of the Seventeenth Century, and he was destined to have a good deal to do with the affairs of Benjamin Franklin. He was William Bradford, a Quaker, and the son of a printer, one among the first immigrants to the new settlement on the Delaware River, where he arrived in 1682. He returned to London, where he married the daugh- ter of Andrew Sowle, a printer, and came again to Philadelphia in 1685, bearing a letter from George Fox, the Quaker, introducing him as a sober young man who was on his way to Philadel- phia to set up the trade of printing Friends' books. His first known work is dated 1686, and because of inadvertent and apparently harmless reference to the government authorities he got into difficulty with them. This difficulty continued until 1693, when having received an invitation from the Gov- ernor of New York to remove to that province and 12 Franklin as a Printer's Devil. a guarantee of two hundred dollars a year and the public printing, Bradford removed to New York and became the first printer of that province, continuing to be the only printer in it for thirty years. He established the " New York Gazette " in 1725, thus becoming New York's first newspaper publisher. He is said, although without authority, to have been of noble birth, and he always sealed with a crest showing his coat of arms. @ @ % €« i^ i^ @ @ @ @ i^ i^ €« €« i^ €« €< €< ® €' i^ % CHAP. II. Young Franklin as a Printer's Devil. TOSIAH FRANKLIN, dissenter and dyer, re- moved from Banbury in Oxfordshire, Eng- land, to Boston in New England, with his wife and three children in 1685. After the birth of four more children his wife died, and later he married Abiah Folger and by this marriage had ten chil- dren, a total of seventeen, of whom ten were sons and seven were daughters. Benjamin was the tenth and youngest son and the fifteenth child. Although Pope Gregory XIII promulgated the reform of the Juhan calendar in 1582, and it was in that year adopted by all Roman Catholic coun- tries, Great Britain and her colonies delayed until 1752 before doing likewise. Therefore, in the old public Register of Births, still preserved in the Franklin as a Printer's Devil. 13 Mayor's office in Boston, it is recorded that Benja- min Franklin, son of Josiah and Abiah Franklin, Record of the birth of Benjamin Franklin in the Register of Births in the Mayor's oflSce in Boston. was born January 6, 1706. With the adoption of the reformed calendar came an advance of eleven days, and accordingly the day of the birth, as we now have it, is January 17. The location of the birthplace is usually given as Milk Street, opposite South Meeting House, where the records of the Town of Boston show Josiah Franklin was granted Hberty to build a house eight feet square on land belonging to Lieut. Nathaniel Reynolds. Josiah Franklin later occupied a house "at the sign of the Blue Ball," corner of Hanover and Union streets. Jared Sparks, whose edition of Franklin's works was published in 1840, satis- fied himself that the removal did not occur until after Benjamin's birth. Subsequent investiga- tion by Samuel G. Drake, whose authoritative "History and Antiquities of the City of Boston" was published in 1854, seems to establish the fact that Benjamin was born in the larger house. The day of the birth was a Sunday, and the pious father took the baby boy from his humble cottage to the South Meeting House, and he was there baptized under the name of his paternal 14 Franklin as a Printer's Devil. uncle Benjamin, at that time living in England, and who became later the only member of the numerous Franklin family to join Josiah in the New World. Benjamin being the tenth son was considered to be something in the nature of a tithe, and this fact and his very evident fondness for reading, indicat- ing a tendency toward a literary pursuit, caused his father to decide that the boy should become a minister of the church. Accordingly, in order to give him an education, at the age of eight years he was placed in the Boston grammar school and in less than a year rose to the head of his class. Prov- ing to be deficient in mathematics, he was next sent to a teacher noted for ability to instruct in writing and arithmetic, but although Benjamin remained a year, he made but little progress. Josiah Frank- lin, finding that the income from his business as a maker of candles and soap, which he had adopted because there was small demand for his services as a dyer, was hardly sufficient to meet the needs of his family and keep the younger children at school, withdrew his son from the school — the two years mentioned being Benjamin's sole experience in educational institutions. The ministry project being abandoned, Josiah took the boy into his own establishment, intending to teach him the soap- and candle-making trade, and he continued there until he was twelve years of age. The work proved to be distasteful and Franklin as a Printer's Devil. 15 fearing that Benjamin would follow his oldest brother's example and run away to sea, the father wisely decided to find a more agreeable trade for him. Accordingly, father and son together visited the workshops of the town, and finally it was decided that he should take up the trade of cutlery, his cousin Samuel, son of the elder Benjamin, being established in Boston in that line. Benja- min was employed there for a short time only, his departure resulting from the inability of his father and his cousin to agree upon the price to be paid for his instruction at the trade, it being the custom of the time for a master not only to receive the services of an apprentice free, but to be paid for the tuition, the sum for such a trade as cutlery being about one hundred dollars. -^ At about this time Benjamin's older brother James, a printer, had but recently returned from England with a printing outfit, and it was proposed to Benjamin that he adopt the trade of printing. The early Boston printers enumerated in the previous chapter had removed or died and at the time there were but two other printing establish- ments in the town, one conducted by Thomas Fleet in Pudding Lane and the other by Samuel Kneeland in Prison Lane. James Franklin had established himself on the corner that later became Franklin Avenue and Court Street. i6 Franklin as a Printer's Devil. Although printing dealt with books, of which the youthful Benjamin was so much enamoured, he was not inclined to look with favor upon the project connecting him for life with that trade. However, the persuasion of his father prevailed and he was apprenticed to his brother James for nine years. The terms of apprenticeship at printing were easier upon the father than those imposed by cutlers, the sum to be paid to James Franklin being only about fifty dollars. A clause of the form of apprenticeship used at the time is as follows: "During which term the faid Apprentice his Mafter faithfully ftiall or will ferve, his fecrets keep, his lawful commands everywhere gladly do. He fhall do no damage to his faid Mafter nor fee it to be done of others; but to his power fhall let, or forthwith give notice to his faid Mafter of fame. The Goods of his faid Mafter he fhall not wafte, nor the fame without licenfe of him to any give or lend. Hurt to his faid Mafter he fhall not do, caufe, nor procure to be done. He fhall neither buy nor fell without his Mafter's licenfe. Taverns, inns, or ale-houfes he fhall not haunt. At cards, dice, tables, or any other unlawful game he fhall not play. Matrimony he fhall not contradl; nor from the fervice of his faid Mafter day or night abfent himself; but in all things as an honeft and faithful apprentice fhall and will demean and be- have himfelf towards his faid Mafter and all his during faid term." Franklin as a Printer^s Devil, 17 The obligations of the master were as follows : "And the faid James Franklin, the Mafter, for and in confideration of the fum of ten pounds of lawful Britifh money to him in hand paid by the faid Jofiah Franklin, the father, the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, the faid apprentice in the art of a printer which he now ufeth, fhall teach and inftrudt or caufe to be taught and in- ftrudted the bell way and manner that he can, find- ing and allowing unto the faid apprentice meat, drink, wafhing, lodging, and all other neceffaries during the faid term." He was also to pay journeyman's wages during the concluding year. The apparel of apprentices to be provided by the master is thus described by John F. Watson in his "Annals of Philadelphia": "A pair of deerskin breeches, coming hardly down to his knees, which, before they could be al- lowed to come into the presence of ladies, at meet- ing, on the Sabbath, were regularly blacked up on the preceding Saturday night in order to give them a clean and fresh appearance for the Sunday; a pair of blue woolen yarn stockings, a thick and substan- tial pair of shoes well greased and ornamented with a pair of small brass buckles, a present from his master for his good behavior, a speckled shirt all the week and a white one on Sunday, which was always carefully taken off as soon as he returned from meeting, folded up and laid by for the next Sabbath. The leather breeches after several years' wear got greasy, as they grew old, and were only 1 8 Franklin as a Printer's Devil. flexible so long as they were on and kept warm by the superflux of youthful heat." The terms of the apprenticeship agreement be- tween James Franklin and his brother were ad- hered to with one modification. Benjamin was a constant reader and although able to borrow many books he possessed a desire for some of his own. In order to secure funds with which to make pur- chases, he proposed at the age of sixteen, having been four years in the employ of his brother, a change in their arrangement. The brother being unmarried did not keep house, but boarded himself and his apprentices in another family. Benjamin proposed to accept in cash one half of the sum paid by his brother for his board, and the proposition being accepted he provided his own meals, and out of the sum received from his brother was able to save one half. In this way he found funds that enabled him to accumulate a small library of his own. Says Paul Leicester Ford, in "The Many Sided Franklin:" "It is to be questioned, if the first years of the apprenticeship were of any particular value to Benjamin save on their mechanic side, for the product of James Franklin's press is a dreary lot of gone-nothingness. A few of the New England sermons of the day: Stoddard's 'Treatise on Conversion'; Stone's 'Short Cate- chism'; 'A Prefatory Letter about Psalmody,' in A CATALOGUE OF Curiaus and Valuable BOOKS, Confiftmg of IHhiimty, Veevry. Phihjbphy. Plays. Mflory. Voyages and Mathematicks, Travels. Genenlljr well* Bound. To be Sold by AUCTION, At tlie Cfowii CoffeerHoufe in Eiag-Street iS«/?tf», oi\-Monday the Twwjy 5wrfr Day of this Inftant OSober, 1719.- Beginning eveiy Eveningar half an Ho&r after Four a Clock, until' all be fold. The Books will be fhewn by Samael GerriJh"&o(ik' feller, near the Old Mteti/sg-Heufct where Cata- logues may be had ^rarii; ziioztMi. Uenchmaif&f and at the Place of S a i. e. Printed b/J. FBAHSitir. 1719 Title page by James Franklin. 20 Franklin as a Printer's Devil. defense of church singing, which many Puritans still held to be unholy; an allegory styled 'The Isle of Man,' or, 'Legal Proceedings in Manshire Against Sin'; Care's 'English Liberties'; sundry pamphlets on the local politics of the moment, such as ' A Letter from One in the Country to His Friend in Boston,' 'News from the Moon,' 'A Friendly Check from a Kind Relation to the Chief Cannoneer,' and 'A Word of Comfort to a Melan- choly Country' ; two or three tractates on inocula- tion, and one aimed half at the Boston clergy and half at the fair sex, entitled 'Hooped Petticoats Arraigned by the Light of Nature and the Law of God,' were the chief output of the new printer during the years his brother served him." After James Franklin had been established as a printer for about two years, he secured an order to produce a newspaper, the "Boston Gazette," es- tablished by William Brookcr, the successor as postmaster of John Campbell, publisher, as has already been noted, of the " Boston News- Letter," the first real American newspaper. William Brooker was soon succeeded as postmaster by William Musgrave, who took the printing of the "Boston Gazette" from James Franklin and gave it to Samuel Kneeland, whereupon James Franklin established a new newspaper, the "New England Courant." It was the first newspaper not connected with a postoffice to be published in America. Number I of the "Courant" appeared Monday, August Franklin as a Printer's Devil. 21 17, 1721, printed on a half sheet of crown size printing paper, the type used being small pica with, occasionally, long primer. About two years later pica was adopted and used continuously. James Franklin established the paper against the protests of his father and many of his friends, who pointed out to him that there were already three papers in the Colonies, two of them in Boston, and that another one there could not be made to succeed. The youthful publisher, however, turned a deaf ear to their remonstrances. He proposed to issue a different newspaper from any then in existence. He formed a number of his friends, among them several young doctors, into a club, the members of which were to furnish at least one original essay each week. The paper was hostile to the clergy, attacked some of the religious opin- ions of the day and opposed new fads, one of them which especially came in for severe but mistaken censure being the newly advanced theory of in- oculation for the smallpox. The "Courant" soon drew the fire of the heaviest guns. Its older com- petitor, the " News- Letter," said of it: "On Monday laft the 7th Currant, came forth a Third Newfpaper in this Town, Entitled, The New England Courant, by Homo non unius Negotii; Or, Jack of all Trades, [the motto of Franklin's address to the public] and it would feem. Good at none; giving fome very, very frothy fulfome Ac- THE rN«8o New-England Courant Prom Monday February m to M o h d a 'y February 1 1. 1723. the late Pobliflier of this Paper, finding fo many Ijcjwn- nhuoecs would arife by his carrying the Manufcript ami PiAhck News to be fupenrii'd by the Secreiiry, ai iqweli- ^crluscarryiag it on unprofitable, has intirefy dropf iln- UndeitaLini. Thenreftnt PublKher having rcceivVJihe wDowtttE Piece, defitei the Readers to accept of ic « a Pieface to 'what thcf m»T .hehafter meet with iRftlii* P»per. tfuibt vennmlt Litera etiifia Jeti rjt^ ONGhfljjhePreCigtvflB- jcd in bringing forth -u hateful, but niunifbuB Brood fee old Jamit in our Company. ' There is no Man in Bojion better qoaliRed than bU Jaiuu for a ,Cottrentier, or if you pleaTe, aa O&firvMiar, being a Man uf fuch remarkable OpiUkr, ax to look two ways at once. As for his Morals, he Is a chcarly CbriAtan, as the, Countty PhraTe exprelTM it. A Man or good Temper^ coutteoiu Deportment, Ibund Judgment ;- a mort^ Hater at Nonlenfc, Foppery, Formality, and cndtefi Ceremony. I As for his Club, they aim at no greater Happlnelsiir Honour, than the Publick be made to ^h'ow, that itii^^tfae. utmollof their Ambition to atteiid4ipotianddoall,iinkgiiu-* ble good OlTicrt toeuod Old ^'mw the Couranteer, who k. and alwayii uHl be the Readers humble Servimt. - • • . P. 5. Gentle Reader*, wc defign never to let a Papet !>■]& without a Latin Moiio if we ran polTibly pick one up, wnidi urrief a Chann in it to the Vulgar, and the learned admin the pleafure of Conltruing. We Ihould have obliged Ae World with .a Greek fcrap or two, but the Printer has il» rypcs^aod therefore we intreat the candid Reader not lot tnpiite the defefl to our Ignorance, for our Do^or cqn fay all the Crerh Letters by heart. Hit MajtJI/t Speech t* tht P/irCttmn/, OOofttTiH-. 7R> atrtatlj iubl!p>\l, may ttrhapt, ir ,Ww I0 maiff jf CMT Country KcnJi-ri j iir /Srt// thertjm mfert If J«*Mv Da/i Paper, ^\% MAJESrV's irioft Gracious SPEECH to both Houf^ of Parliament OR Tbtin*- dayOAobcr it. 1721.* lAj -Lords aad CeatUmtHt 'I Am funy to lind my felF obliged, at the O&eoiof of ' thw Parliament, to acquaint you^ That a ^ugenmi C'>nrpita(-y liaa for fbme time formed, and is flil) canyiBgoa againft my Pcrfun and Goveniincnt, in Favour of .s Popilh Pretender, -,■ The DiA'ovcriiri I have made 'here, the InformaiiolU' C hare recervi.1l fruni my Miniflers abroad, and thelnteUlMnoea' I haye had from the Powers in Alliance with me, md udesd from moll parts of Eunipe, hive j;ivea me moftt ample wbA current Proofs of this wicked Dehgo. The Confpiraton have, by their Emifliiricty' made nr Qrongeft Inltances for Amllance from Foreign Powers, but Were difappointcd in their Expectations t However, conEoinc til their Numbers, and not difcouraged by their former ill Succels, they refolved {once more, upon their own ftrength, to attempt the fubveriion of my Government. To this end they provided confiderable Snmt of Moa4> engaged great Numpers of "Officers from abroad, fecwcd large Quantities of Anna and Amitiunition, and ^ougkc ihemfclves in fuch Rcat)inefs, that had not the Confpiracy been timely difeovered, we (hould, without doubt, befbtt now have lecn the whole Nation, and ^rticularly the City of London, involved in Blood ai^l ConfuUan> The Care I have taken has, by the Bleding of God, hith- erto prevented the Execution of their tnytcrous Projefti. The Troopjl havcfbecn incamped all this Summer ( Cx Regi- ments (though Very necellary for ttte Security of thalKin^* dom) liav^ becn-bruugbt over from trelaadi The State* General have given -m^ alTuranccs that they wonid fceepn confiderable Body of Forcesja rcadinels to embark on the lirQ Notice of their be!ng>wantcdherei which was all I de- iiic4 The newspaper established in 1721 by James Franklin. Original in the possession of the Curtis Pubhshing Company, Philadelphia. Size 61" x 10". dcfiicd .of tliem,^ing deMtmirr«l not to put my People to an; more Exp^QCKs. than frhu mi Kbrolutd^ neccQaiy fcr their Peace and Securuy. Some of the ConTpinton have been taken up ^fecutcdi Endeavours are ulcti for appre- heodinz othen. , Jfii Lertb and GtmUmtMt mviDg thui in eeneral laid before you the State ot the firefent Confpiracy. 1 muft leave to your ConCdciation, whar u proper and necellary to be done for the Quiet and Safety of the KioEdom. .1 cannot hut believe, that the Hopes .and EzpeCUtions of our Cneunb are very ill grounded, in flatter- ing themfclrei ^t the late Difcontentij^foccafioncd by pri- vate Loffes and misfortunes) hoirever induftrioufly and ma- lidotiriy fomented, are turned into a DifafTcftion and Spirit of iiebajfon. /■Hid I, fince my acceflion to the Tiuone, ever attempted any Invalion in our EOablUhtd Religion j had I, in any oiie Inttance, invaded the Liberty and Property of my Subjects, I fliould lefs wonder at any £ndc?ivoun to alienate the At< feAions of my People, and dVaw them into MeaTum that can end in' nothiiif; but their o*im dcftruflton , But to hope to perfwade a free People, in full enjoyment ftf all that's dear and .riluablc to them, to exchange Freedom for Slaver^-.tlic ProUftaot Religion lor Popery, and to Sacrifice at once the e of fo mucli Blood and XreaTure as have been.fpcnt iu Price o our prefcnt Eftabliftiment, fecins an Infrtuition which cannot be accounted fur. But however Va|n and unrncceCiful thele ilefperate Proje£l« may prove in tlic End, they have at pwfejjt- Xu lar llie dcl'ircd Effect, as to rmte Unealincli and Difli- AJence in the Miiids of my People; which our Enemies im- |iruve to their ami Advantage, by framing Plots i They tleprcriate all Property thrt' is veiled in th? Publicit Fund:., ami then complain nf the low State of CreditjrTheymaltc nn Fjicreafc ot the National Expenses ^fccfiary, aiul then vlamuurat tlic JJmthcn of Taxen, and endeavour t([ impute li* my Government all the Grievance*, tlie-Mircluc& and Calamities, which they alone create and ixxafion. t^m^^ I wifli for notliing more thab to Oe the Fublick Expences leOened, and the great National Debt put into a Method of Iwing gradually retluced and dilcharged, with a ftrift Regard Co ParlLucntacy Faiths- And a more favourable Opportunity could never have been-hOfied forikmthe Suae orirofinmd Peace which we now , e I liavc ordered the iUcount to' be made up and Uid befoK you, of the eatnordiii^ry Charge that hu been incurred thut Summer, for ^he Defence and Safety of ihe .Kingdom ( anil I hive been particularly careful, not.to dlteft any Exijence to be-madc greater orfonner than waa abfoluttly" necellary. if I have likewifc'crdered Eftimatc* to be prepared and Uid before you, for the Service of the Yearenfuingi And I hope the farther provifiohi which the Trfafonable prafticc of our Ene*' rain have made neccil'ary for our Ccmmon Safety, may be' onlered with fuch Frugajity^as very little to exceed the Sup- plies gf the lall year. Mjr LorJt-and GtJilUmen, I need not tell yuu of what infmite Concern -it u to the peace dnd Tranquility of the Kingdom, that this Parliament Ihouldf upon thii OitaTibn, exert themlelvts with a more than ordinary Zeal and Vigour ; An entire Unity among' alt t^at (incerely wifli well to thc^ircll-iit Eftablllliment is.now become abfolutely nece.'tiuy. ' Our Enemies have too long taken Advantages from ydut' Differences & Diffcntiona i Let it be llnown, that the Spirit of P6ix:ry, which betides nothing but tbnfufion to the Civil and KAiligious Rights of a Pjotcltant Church and Kingdomi (hoWcver abandoned fomefewm'ay be, in delpite of''all Obligarion* Divine [and Humane) has DosrofarpofTcCi'd my people as to inake.thi^ ripe for I'uch a fatal Chnngc. Let the World fee, that' the general dinpofi- tion of the Nation it no Invitation to a Foreign Power td invade ui. nor Encouragement to pomeftfcfc'fiftciiilrt t» SSc a Civil War in the ^uweU of the Kmgdwn. Your ovm Intiif! and Welfare calls upou you to drf"0«"" feVeis I flull- wholly rely upon tlie Divme -prottfljiHi, the Support of my Pariiinent. and the Affeft.on» of my p-ople; wlSch I (half endeavour to preferve, by fteadily odhennf hi the Conftirutlon in Church and State, bv conttodmg to \ iiukethjJLaws of my Realms the ruled Meafureiof allmy ■'^ziS, Om, i«. The Humble. Addreffei oft both Houfes of Parliament, and tha»-of the Convocation of Can- ierbury. full of Uyalty and T3uty, have been prefented tut hU Majeftyj which AddrefTes his Majefty was pl«ftd to receive very gracioully. And 'tis not doubted but the ftady adherence of the ParliameAt and Clerg)-. to hisMajefty. Pcrfon and Government, will i>ut an End to the TraytcrjKit Dcfunis of thofc who arc^ Enemies to both. LondtutfOaok 31. "fitfaid thot a Scheme or Draugh/ of a Confpiitacy was found among Counfcllor Lear*B Papers,, /Ipiied wilt hi* own Hand, whereby the Tower was. 10 lia*e bwn (Jrft fciz'd, the Palace of St. James'ii fct on F'tltf and ceruin ^DcfiKradoes to be at hand, who, under pretence ol giving Aflilbncc, were to have murder'd his Majefty | ani (hat a very great Nnmber of difaffeftcd perfons were to lie affemWed in Lincoln's Inn-Fields, tfl put thcTott^ iimfle-_, <|!ntcly intn rhe greatest Confuribih BafloH, Feb. p. Laft Week the Reverend Mr. OruRf, Minifter of tti.* Epifcopal Church, at BrJftol; came from thence with a Per; lion from Twelve of hifi Hcarere, r«hill, which bunita ciiittU enle ptrt of the Xoof before i( wu cxtinguUhcd. Ciftam'Mmfit S^m,- Entrtd XawaiA. Daniel. Jackfon fiwm New-Hafn^ire. ^JonitfiB]|i^ Cha«» frdm l^wport, Jolm .Oflkiu' frpm-Nortn Carallna, loOiut B^amra for South Carolina, Charles Whitfield from Mutii nceo, John Bonntf,.8hip Sarah from lAnoun. . CUartJ Out. None. Owt^tMTit Stand.. Amos Breed for New tondoir, WlUItin FMolwr for-Marrbod, Jamei Bi;n ,for Anhapolb Royal John Trobridge,far North Carolina, J. Pumpey for Altfigui.' Jacobpjnbome for London. THE Itea new Phltadclphta Toijht-boulted Flower) to tie fold by Mr. William Clark: In Metrhiat'i Kow, at Twen|y-£!g& ShUlings-^cr Hundred. A Srrvluit Boys Tinw for 4. Years to be dif^toMl pf. He ** ift about fS. Yeart of Age, and can keep Atmmptk. Enquire at the Blae.Ball in Union Street, and know ttirtber. H* 7tif ff^ havais met vAth fixtmiral at Augptomtti i»Tow» aiui Country, as to requiri a Jar greater Numitrtf thmifi, be printed, tftojitbertu if the etlier^puUkk Paperj; and it being beJiHa more gtneraUjread by a-Moft )lumisr(^'' Borroiaerj, luho do mt take it in,tfie Puuiflur^fiimkt frvf-ir 4a Shettii ^lick Notice for the iHcAwastmaa of \hafe lubt •wofm aavt Advertifements inj'ertej itntkr fubCe Printi, «aUfi tbQ rutf hmt frinted m jhit Paper at a mtdtrM • BO^OVi Printed ahd fold by Benjamin Franjclin iu Queen Street; ■ whert Advertirements are taken in. This is the first number to be issued in the name of Benjamin Franklin. Although he left Boston a few months after its publication, his name was used as pub- lisher of the paper until June 4, 1726. 24 Franklin as a Printer's Devil. count of himfelf, but left the continuance of that ftile Ihould offend his readers; wherein with sub- miffion, (I fpeak for the Pubhfher of this IntelH- gence, whofe endeavours has always been to give no offence, not meddling with things out of his Province) The faid Jack promifes in pretence of Friendfhip to the other News-Publifhers, to amend like soure Ale in Summer, Reflecting too, too much that my performances are now and then, very very Dull, mifreprefenting my candid endeavours (according to the Talent of my Capacity and Edu- cation; not foaring above my Sphere) in giving a true and genuine account of all Matters of Fadt, both Foreign and Domeftick, as comes any way well Attefted, for thefe Seventeen Years & an half paft." Castigation was to come upon the "Courant" from a yet more important source. The ponder- ous Rev. Increase Mather wheeled into line and the character of his thunderings is indicated by this extract from a contribution published in the "News-Letter": "Advice to the Publick from Dr. Increafe Mather. Whereas a wicked Libel called the New England Courant, has reprefented me as one among the Supporters of it; I do hereby declare, that altho' I had paid for two or three of them, I then, (before the laft Courant was publifhed) sent him word I was extremely offended with it: In fpecial, becaufe in one of his Vile Courants he in- fmuates, that if the Minifters of God approve of a Franklin as a Printer's Devil. 25 thing it is a Sign it is of the Devil ; which is a horrid thing to be related." These thrusts could be borne; indeed, it is easy to imagine that such fulminations may have awak- ened feelings of unholy glee in the breasts of the young men who were doing what they could to provoke them, particularly as tradition still ex- ists to the effect that the indignant Dr. Mather, having discontinued his subscription, secretly sent his grandson to buy copies of the "Cour- ant." Soon, however, the venturesome feet of James Franklin and his associates strayed much farther in the risky paths of criticism. It was a dangerous thing to trifle with governmental authority and he who attempted it was sure to come to grief. The government had its eye upon the "Courant" and only awaited opportunity to pounce upon it with heavy hand. Soon the opportunity came. Pirates were known to infest the New England waters and there was a feeling that the government was not as efficient in doing away with them and their mischief as might have been the case. This feeling was voiced in an article supposed to come from Newport, R. I., appearing in the "Courant," which concluded with the statement : "We are advis'd from Bofton that the govern- ment of MafTachufetts are fitting out a Ihip to go 26 Franklin as a Printer's Devil. after the Pirates to be commanded by Captain Peter Papillon and it is thought he will fail fome- time this month, Wind and Weather permit- ting." Shortly after the publication of the number containing this extremely offensive paragraph, the Council, with the Governor presiding, met and resolved " that the faid Paragraph is a high affront to this Government." Further, resolved, "That the Sheriff of the County of Suffolk do forthwith commit to the gaol in Bofton the body of James Franklyn, Printer, for the grofs offence offered to this Gov- ernment in the Courant of Monday laft." A week's close confinement in the stone prison brought a change of mind, temporarily, at least, to James Franklin, as is witnessed in the following humble petition : "A Petition of James Franklyn Printer, Humbly Shewing that he is Truely Senfible y Heartily Sorry for the offence he has Given to this Court, in the late Courant, relating to the fitting out a Ship By the Government, y Truly Acknowledges his Inadvertency y Folly therein in affronting the Government, as alfo his Indifcretion y Indecency, when before the Court, for all which he Entreats the Courts forgivenefs, y praying a dif charge from the Stone Prifon, where he is Confined, by Order of the Court, and that he may have the Liberty Franklin as a Printer's Devil. 27 of the Yard, He being much Indifpofed ^ Suffering in his health, by the Said Confinement." Released from his uncomfortable quarters in the jail, however, Franklin's "impudence" re- turned. Soon after, a single number of the " Cour- ant" contained three articles, all of them objec- tionable to the government, and as a result a joint committee of three from the Council and four from the House was appointed to investigate his case. Its recommendation was that the General Court should forbid James Franklin to "print or publifh the New England Courant or any Pamph- let or Paper of a like nature, except it be firft fu- pervifed by the fecretary of this Province," and that bonds should be exacted from him for his good behavior. Young Benjamin Franklin in the meantime had been making progress in his elder brother's esteem. Desiring to try his hand at writing but believing that James would be prejudiced against him be- cause of his youth, he made a practice of writing short pieces and slipping them at night under the printing office door where they were found by his brother the next rnorning. The pieces were read and approved and it was gratifying to their youth- ful author to hear names of well-known persons in the community suggested as possibly responsible for them. Finally Benjamin, having written about all that he felt able to write, revealed his deception 28 Franklin as a Printer's Devil. to his brother and his friends, much to their sur- prise. A crisis having been reached by James in his pub- Ushing affairs, he turned now to Benjamin as afford- ing a way out of his difficulties. He proposed that since he was unwiUing to continue to pubhsh the "Courant" under the supervision of the secre- tary as ordered by the Court, the paper thereafter be issued in Benjamin's name. The proposition was accepted. In order not to have the master still legally liable, the apprenticeship indentures were publicly cancelled, but, unwilling to surrender what he believed to be a good bargain, James secretly executed new indentures preserving the conditions of the old. James Franklin was a hard task master. Also he was ill-natured, suspicious, taciturn, and his high-spirited young brother found it difficult to get on with him, particularly when arguments were supplemented with blows. Finally Benjamin notified James that he considered their relations at an end, knowing that James would not dare to produce the secret apprentice agreement. James accepted the resignation but as a means of retali- ation for what he considered to be the injustice done him, visited the other printing offices in Boston and induced the owners to refuse to give work to his brother should he apply to them for it. 29 CHAP. III. The First " Tourist " Printer. ■DENJAMIN FRANKLIN was in a quandary. He had devoted five years to an effort to learn the printing business and had attained a considerable proficiency in it. Aside from the printing estabhshments in Boston and Cambridge there were only four in the Colonies: one in New London, one in New York, and two in Phil- adelphia. Because of his brother's ill-natured activity all of those at hand were closed to him, save only that individual's own which he had just quitted and to which he was resolved he would not return. To reach the other towns where printing offices were located meant either long, exhausting, and dangerous walks through trackless forests or a journey by boat. To go by boat required the ex- penditure of passage money, of which he had none. His sole possessions were the books he had been able to purchase with the scanty savings from his brother's allowance, and from the precious books he was most reluctant to part. Besides, there was parental opposition to be encountered. The father sided with the elder brother in the dispute and the seventeen-year-old son knew that, should he ask his father's consent to his plan to go away from home, not only would the consent be refused but 30 The First ** Tourist ' ' Printer. steps would be taken to prevent the carrying out of the project. However, Benjamin resolved to go away and to go secretly. He sold some of his books and with the connivance of his friend Collins and the cap- tain of a New York sloop, he went aboard a vessel bound for Manhattan Island. Three days of good weather and fair winds brought the vessel into New York Bay. The landing was made probably at the wharf at the foot of what is now known as Maiden Lane. A small stream ran down it at the time and entered the Bay at what was called the "V'lei Market," v'lei being old Dutch for valley. The one printing office of the town was conducted by William Bradford, "at the Sign of the Bible," on Hanover Square, not far away, and to it the youthful runaway apprentice immediately re- paired. Bradford had no employment to give to the boy and he suggested that the journey be extended to Philadelphia, where his son conducted one of the two printing offices of the town and who, through the recent death of a workman, was in need of help. Upon this advice Benjamin immediately proceeded to act. There were three ways to go from New York to Philadelphia. One was over the Hudson River and by trail through the forest all the way across New Jersey to Camden, usually followed by those The First ** Tourist'* Printer. 3 1 who could afford to ride horseback, and upon this route William Bradford, on some errand of his own and unknown to the boy who had just called upon him, at once set out. A second route was by boat from Manhattan Island across New York Bay and around Staten Island to Amboy, at the mouth of the Shrewsbury River, thence on foot through the forest for fifty miles to Burlington, between seventeen and eighteen miles above Phil- adelphia on the Delaware River, which at that point is about a mile wide, the last stage of the journey being usually covered by boat. The third route was by sailing vessel down the New Jersey coast and around and up through Delaware Bay, by which route young Benjamin sent his "chest." He chose the second route for himself, and his trip proved to be a most uncomfortable one. Be- cause of bad weather, thirty hours were required for the passage from Manhattan Island to Amboy. A squall tore the rotten sails to pieces; a drunken passenger fell overboard and was rescued with dif- ficulty; and it was necessary to drop anchor near the Long Island shore of the bay and to spend the night in the open boat in the midst of the pounding surf, the entire period without anything to eat or to drink. Franklin finally reached Amboy, however, and after a night spent in resting from his exposure and fatigue, he walked the fore part of the next 32 The First ' ' Tourist ' ' Printer. day through the rain to a poor inn, where wet and tired and thoroughly miserable he went to bed wishing he had never left home. The next day's walk brought him within ten miles of Burlington, and after another night spent at an inn, one more day brought him to the town. He found to his regret that he had missed the regular boat to Philadelphia and that there would not be another for three or four days. He bought some gingerbread from a kindly disposed old wo- man, who sympathized with him in his predica- ment, and, learning that he was a printer, advised him to stay in Burlington and work at his trade. She did not know that something more than a pair of hands and a knowledge of how to use them would be required. On his explanation of the impracticability of her suggestion, she offered him lodging and entertainment for the three days of his prospective stay in Burlington, which offer he accepted, but later in the day while walking on the river bank he descried a boat bound for Phila- delphia, in which he engaged passage and, with- out being able to return to the home of his hostess to say good-bye to her, was soon on his way. At midnight, not having reached Philadelphia and fearing that they might pass it in the dark, the party landed and spent the night on shore. The next day they made an early start and soon were in the Quaker city. 33 CHAP. IV. In Samuel Keimer's Shop in Philadelphia. TT WAS on a bright Sunday morning late in October, 1723, that Benjamin FrankUn ar- rived in Philadelphia, and he found himself in strange contrast with his surroundings. He was in his working clothes, probably very similar to the dress of apprentices described in Chapter 2 of this volume, his "best clothes" (to use his own expression) being still in the boat which was bringing them around by sea. Not being espe- cially presentable when new and clean, it can be imagined what the garb he wore looked like after a week or so of constant use on sea and land and miles of walks through mud and dust. His pockets, of large capacity as was the cus- tom, were stuffed out with shirts and stockings; tired, dirty, hungry, and with only a Dutch dollar left after parting from the shilling which he in- sisted upon paying for his boatride, against the protest of the boatmen because of his assistance at the oars, the runaway youth from Boston offered on his first entry into Philadelphia a figure in marked contrast to that of many years later, when he received a public ovation on his return from his ambassadorship to France. His first concern was to obtain something to eat. Walking up the street from the wharf, he met a 34 In Philadelphia. boy carrying bread, and ascertaining where it could be purchased, he went to the bakery and asked for three penny worth. In Boston it would have been only a moderate quantity, so he was surprised to receive three great puffy rolls. Having no room in his pockets, he put a roll under each arm, and, eating the third roll, walked up Market Street as far as Fourth Street. He passed the house in which lived Miss Deborah Read, who was standing upon the stoop, and she, struck by the uncouth figure which he made, tittered as he went by. It was an ungracious thing to do, but as Elbert Hubbard in his monograph on the Life of Franklin says, Benjamin in later years got good and even with her; he married her. Benjamin found his way back to the wharf where, his hunger having been satisfied, he gave the two remaining rolls of bread to a woman and her child who had been in the boat with him and who were going farther. Later, he found his way to an inn called "The Crooked Billet," in Water Street, where he got dinner, and where he slept all afternoon and all night. Monday morning, having tidied up a bit, he presented himself at the shop of Andrew Bradford, printer, and, much to his surprise, found in the shop the old man, Brad- ford's father, whom he had seen in New York. Andrew Bradford having no work for the young printer, the elder Bradford offered to show him to In Philadelphia. 35 the other Philadelphia printing shop, conducted by Samuel Keimer. Keimer placed a composing stick in the boy's hand to see how he would man- age it and then said he would give him employ- ment soon, having at the moment nothing for him to do. William Bradford did not disclose his identity to Keimer, who thought the elder man to be a resi- dent of the town. Keimer was willing to talk of his affairs and prospects and Bradford led him aptly on, thereby obtaining information that could not but be of interest, if not of profit, to Keimer's com- petitor, Bradford's son. The part played by William Bradford in the little comedy caused Benjamin Franklin to refer to him in the "Autobiography" as a "crafty old sophister" which, however questionable his conduct may have been on this occasion, is not in keeping with his standing in New York. He was public printer of that state for fifty years, and of New Jersey for thirty years; was clerk of the New Jersey Assem- bly, and was vestryman for many years of Trinity Church in New York City. Benjamin Franklin lodged with Andrew Brad- ford, in whose shop he did small jobs. A few days later he was sent for by Keimer and put regularly to work. Keimer's printing house was not much to boast of. There was an old shattered press which had never been used and which indeed, THE INDEPENDENT W,H I G. Vet ullum falls valiJum Jmpemm trat coercen^is SeMtitnilitt Populr, Jo the lower fJoufe of CONVOCATION, YOU, Gentlemen, who ate th'e ReprefetitatSvcs of the Clergy of£«j glanJ, ar€ proper Patrons of a Work, which treats of Religion aaa the Clergy. It is written to promote Lilxrty, Vettue and Piety j the In- jerefts of which, I hope, you will always cfpoiile, and eftecm as youc own } and will coBfcqucntly approve my Delign, and give me your Thanksy whatever may hi^vebeen the Succcfs of my Endeavours. The many wild and unfcriptural Claims (tarted, and impetuouHy roam* tain'd by very many of thofc you tei>rcrent (aad I wilh I could lay deniedy tho'but faintly, by any confidcrable Number of othets) gave Occafiohny the following Sheets j and, having in them, (heWn to my Brethtcn, the Laity, the Abfurdity and Impiety of thofc Claims, by Arguments fctch'd feomReafon, thcGofpcl, and the Laws of our Country ; I (Iiall, in this Addrcfs to your felves, endeavour to convince you, that it is your Intercft to drop them ; and if I can lucceed in this Point, 1 prfifume, all other Ar* gumcnts may be ufclefs. Thcfc Gentlemen, in the Heat of their Demands and Contention foi Tower, have gone fo fjr towards Rome, and borrowed fo many of her Piiociplcs, tliatl fcenooiher Medium left for them, butcithot to proceed en in their Journey thither, (^wliich, as they have minag'd Matters, is now Printed by Samuel Keimer 1723-24. Benjamin Franklin probably set the tyije. Original in the possession of the Curtis Publishing Company, Philadelphia. Size Si" X 6J". In Philadelphia. 37 from what Franklin says of it, could not be used until he put it in order. There was one pair of cases containing a small worn-out font of English, one reason for the delay in Benjamin's employment being the necessity of waiting until another pair of cases could be obtained. Franklin worked steadily, saved a part of his wages, and made friends quickly. Keimer did not like the idea of his continuing to lodge with Andrew Bradford, and being unmarried and having no home of his own, obtained a place for him in the house of Mr. Read, father of the Miss Deborah previously mentioned. Among the friends he made was Sir William Keith, the English governor of the province, whose first knowledge of the boy came through acquain- tanceship with Captain Holmes, Benjamin's brother-in-law, master of a sloop trading between Boston and Delaware. Governor Keith met Cap- tain Holmes at Newcastle and being attracted by a letter from the boy which the Captain read to him, promised to call upon Benjamin on his re- turn to Philadelphia. This, the Governor and his friend, Colonel French, of Newcastle, later did, much to the boy's bewilderment and Keimer's astonishment. The "Autobiography" says, in de- scribing the visit: "Keimer stared like a pig poifoned." Sir William invited Benjamin to dine and con- 38 In Philadelphia. versed with him in the most friendly and familiar manner. He assured him, what he already knew, that the printers at Philadelphia were wretched workmen, and promised him if he would set up for himself that the public business would be given to him and that as Governor he would do every other service in his power. Keith urged Benjamin to return to Boston and secure his father's assistance and gave him what is described as an "ample" letter addressed to the elder Franklin, recom- mending the project of Benjamin's setting up at Philadelphia as a thing that must make his for- tune. Accordingly Benjamin gave up his position with Keimer and returned to Boston. His appearance there was unexpected and created some commotion. The family was glad to see him, excepting possibly his brother, who, says Franklin, "received me not very frankly, looked me all over, and turned to his work again." Evidently James could not forget his former grievance. It can happily be recorded, however, that in later years a reconcilia- tion was effected. The workmen in the brother's printing office, however, were much interested. They had many questions to ask and were open-eyed with astonish- ment when Benjamin showed them a handful of silver money, carelessly exhibited his watch, and as a crowning act gave them "a piece of eight" In Philadelphia. 39 (about a dollar) with which to purchase liquid refreshment. Josiah Franklin was nearly seventy years of age. Fifty years of trouble under hard conditions had imbued him with a very positive degree of conservatism. He received Governor Keith's let- ter with surprise, saying that he must be of small discretion to propose setting up an eighteen-year- old boy in business. He flatly declined to be a party to the enterprise and wrote a civil letter in reply thanking the Governor for the offer, but saying he considered his son too young to be trusted with the management of a business so important. He was evidently pleased with his son's progress in Philadelphia, however, and gave a parental consent to his return. He advised the boy to continue to save his money, to cultivate friend- ships, and to avoid making enemies by "lampooning and libelling," and promised that if by the time Benjamin was of age he had saved enough money to cut a respectable figure in the matter of setting up for himself in business, he would help out with the rest. On his return to Philadelphia, Benjamin pre- sented his father's letter to Governor Keith. Sir William on reading it said the father was too prudent. He declared he himself would furnish the money, directed young Franklin to give him an inventory of the equipment necessary and he 40 Journeyman Printer in London. would then send to England for it. Benjamin had kept his negotiations with the Governor a secret between them; if he had spoken to others about it, the real character of his official patron would probably have been revealed to him. He prepared an inventory of the necessary equip- ment, costing about five hundred dollars. The Governor approved the plan of the outfit, as he probably would have approved any that would be presented to him, and asked if it would not be of advantage for the youthful printer himself to go to London to select the material. Benjamin said that it would be of advantage and arrangements were accordingly made for him to sail on a vessel plying between Philadelphia and London. €« €« €« ® @ €' i^ €« ® €« i^ ® @ i^ €« €« vt €« €« i^ €« €« CHAP. V. Journeyman Printer in London. QOVERNOR KEITH frequently invited the young printer to his house, always referring during the visits to the proposed new business venture as a settled thing; letters to influential friends in England were promised, as well as letters of credit with which to purchase the press, types, paper, and other needed equipment. The letters, however, were never forthcoming when called for; finally the time arrived for leave-taking, and still Journeyman Printer in London, 41 no letters. Instead, the Governor's secretary in- formed the caller that the Governor was extremely busy, but would be at Newcastle before the ship left that point and there the letters would be de- livered. The Governor was at Newcastle when the ship anchored there, but was again too busy to be seen, and the polite secretary presented his excuses with the statement that the letters would be sent on board. The Colonel French previously men- tioned brought the Governor's despatches to the ship, all in one bag, which the captain refused to open until later in the voyage when there would be more time. When the moment arrived there were no letters for Benjamin Franklin, and then came disillusionment. A Quaker merchant named Denham, who sub- sequently was to play an important if limited part in Benjamin Franklin's life and who was sharing quarters with him during the voyage, came for the first time into a knowledge of the affair and he informed young Franklin of Sir William Keith's true character. Denham scoffed at the idea of the Governor giving a letter of credit, saying he had no credit to give. Benjamin had sorrowfully to accept the conclu- sion that he had been deceived and that his dream of soon becoming a master-printer was not to be realized. The disappointment was keen, but he 42 Journeyman Printer in London. seems not to have felt any great degree of animosity toward its author. In later years he generously summed up Keith's character by saying: "He wished to please everybody; and, having little to give, he gave expectations. He was otherwise an ingenious, sensible man, and a good governor for the people, though not for his constituents, the proprietaries, whose instructions he sometimes disregarded." Keith was eventually removed from office and died in London in old age, neglected and destitute. Arriving in London, Franklin and his friend, James Ralph, who had accompanied him, found themselves in a strange city with only fifteen pistoles, amounting to about sixty dollars, in Franklin's pocket and none in Ralph's. Ralph had some ability as a writer and expected to make his living with his pen, but was unsuccessful and after Franklin's stock of pistoles was exhausted went to a small village where he secured employ- ment, as a schoolmaster. Franklin immediately secured work at Samuel Palmer's, a famous printing house in Bartholomew Close, which was the name of the enclosed space adjoining the Church of St. Bartholomew, the old- est church in London. The printing office was located in a part of the church called the Lady Chapel, at that time and for some time afterward devoted to secular uses. It has since been restored Journeyman Printer in London. 43 to its original purposes and the attendant takes pride in saying to visitors, particularly to those from America, that it is the site of the printing office in which Benjamin Franklin worked at his trade. In the north ambulatory in the church is a tablet to Thomas Roycroft, printer of the Polyglot Bible of 1677. Samuel Palmer was more than an ordinary printer. He had visited America, was letter- founder as well as printer, and was engaged in the writing of "A History of Printing," only a third of which he had completed when he died in 1732. He proposed to issue his history in two parts: Part I, historical, which was published in 1632, the first history of printing in English; and Part H, practical. An interesting fact in connection with this proposal is that when it became known, to quote Timperley's "Dictionary of Printing," "it met with such early and strenuous opposition from the respective bodies of letter-founders, printers, and bookbinders, and under an ill-grounded appre- hension that the discovery of the mystery of those arts, especially the two first, would render them cheap and contemptible . . . that he was forced to set it aside." At Palmer's, Franklin was employed in setting the type for the third (not the second, as stated in the "Autobiography") edition of a work called WoUaston's " Religion of Nature." Some of its rea- RELIGION NATURE DELI NEATED. .dvrn^TrDVf 'v^'jn^iaMtiti "En M£'SJ;t juiftiyyiif rri* 'Euff^j3«csV, Plur. Re-princed in the Year 1724. by S a m. -P a l m b n : and SoMby Bernard Li NTOTT, at the CrofeKejtt between the ?>»(/>/? Gatfs J I O s B o R ^f, at the Oxford-Arms in Lombard-Jlreet ; and .W. and J. I N N Y s, at the Weft-End of St, ?«»//. Title page of the second edition of "The Religion of Nature" for which Franklin says in the "Autobiography" he set the type. He wrote from memory and in this statement was in error. He arrived in London in No- vember, 1724, and it was the third edition, published in 1725, upon which he worked. Original in possession of the author. Size s" x 7j". Journeyman Printer in London. 45 soning appealing to him as unsound, he wrote "a little metaphysical piece," entitled " a Diflertation on Liberty and Neceflity, Pleafure and Pain," in refutation. It brought him to the favorable attention of his employer, but because of its atheistic attitude Franklin afterward regretted its publication. He is said to have attempted to suppress the edition, but four copies of the pamph- let are in existence. Franklin now decided to make two changes. His savings had disappeared and his rate of living made it difficult to set aside anything from his wages. He felt the necessity of obtaining an in- creased income and he accordingly sought and secured a position in a larger printing office, con- ducted by John Watts in Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in another part of the city. Watts was one of the eminent printers of his time. He was largely instrumental in establishing the great type-founding house of Caslon ^ Company. William Caslon, its founder, was an engraver of ornamental devices on the barrels of firearms, who also made bookbinding stamps and dies that were noted by Watts for their neatness and accuracy. He introduced young Caslon to other prominent employing printers, with the result that three of them raised the sum of five hundred pounds with which to set Caslon up in business, Watts contribut- ing one fifth of the amount, 46 Journeyman Printer in London. The second change decided upon by Franklin was occasioned by the fact that he was beginning to feel the want of exercise, to which he had been accustomed in America, and he therefore applied for a place in the pressroom instead of in the com- posing room. The press on which he worked was subsequently brought to America and is now pre- served in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institu- tion at Washington. Later he returned to com- posing-room work, but in the same establishment. His expertness as a compositor resulted in his being placed on the rush work, which brought a higher rate of remuneration. The entry of a new man into a London printing office at the time was marked by the imposition upon him by his fellow workmen of a tax for drink. Franklin paid the amount, five shillings, without demur, when he went into Watts' printing office, but objected to paying a similar sum on his transfer to the composing room of the same establishment. His employer agreed with him and forbade com- pliance with the demand. However, after two or three weeks, during which time he found his cases regularly mixed up, the pages of the form upon which he might be at work transposed, and other similar annoyances, all of which were as- cribed to the chapel ghost, which it was explained "ever haunted those not regularly admitted," he surrendered and paid the tax. Journeyman Printer in London. 47 His abstemiousness was the subject of comment because it was a belief among the workmen that to do strong labor one must needs partake of strong drink. Franklin says: "My companion at the prefs drank every day a pint [of beer] before breakfaft, a pint at breakfaft with his bread and tea, a pint between breakfaft and dinner, a pint at dinner, a pint in the afternoon about fix o'clock, and another when he had done his day's work." Franklin showed them by example the fallacy of their belief as to the source of physical strength. "On occafion," said he, "I carried up- and down- ftairs a large form of type in each hand, when others carried but one in both hands. They won- dered to fee from this and feveral inftances, that the Water- American, as they called me, was fironger than themfelves, who drank ftrong beer!" Franklin's wages were usually considerably in excess of those of his fellows. He never made a "St. Monday," a holiday, observed by the other workmen while recovering from the week end's dissipation. He received higher wages also be- cause of his superior ability, and he did not have four or five shillings to pay on Saturday night for drink consumed during the week, as did most of the others. He was soon lending money to them, carefully collecting it on pay day, with, one may be assured, a reasonable addition for interest. Acquiring a standing among the men, he pro- 48 Journeyman Printer in London. posed some alterations in their chapel laws which were made. He offered other suggestions also, one being the substitution for the usual pint of beer at breakfast of a "large porringer of hot water gruel, fprinkled with pepper, crumbed with bread and a bit of butter in it," which he convinced them made a cheaper breakfast and kept their heads clearer. He had been lodging in Little Britain at three shillings and six pence (about eighty-four cents) a week. He removed to Duke Street, nearer Watts' printing office, at the same price, but deciding to obtain a cheaper lodging so as to increase his sav- ings, he announced the fact to his landlady and she reduced the price to one shilling and six pence per week. It was a bargain, but lodgings were cheap, compared to modern standards, in that day. It was about the time that we find Dean Swift writing a letter to " Stella" in which he says of his quarters in Bury Street, one block away from Duke Street: " I have a firft floor, a dining room and bedroom, at eight fhillings a week, plaguey dear!" Not far away from Duke Street is Craven Street, at No. 7 of which was Mrs. Margaret Stevenson's boarding-house, where lived Benjamin Franklin during the two periods of his representation of the American Colonies in England. The houses in the street were renumbered twice after he left; consequently when the Roya] Society, of which he Journeyman Printer in London. 49 was a member, in 1875 placed a tablet to his mem- ory it was attached to the wrong house, and patri- otic Americans who visited it during the succeeding forty years worshipped at the wrong shrine. Search of the London County Council records in recent years established the fact that it was at the house now numbered 36 that Franklin lived and at which he received so many of the world's elect. It is now a small hotel where those who make arrange- ments sufficiently in advance may occupy the room tenanted so long by the great American. An interesting fact in connection with this period of Franklin's life is that he was an expert swimmer, and so far as is known, he was America's first amateur athlete. With his accustomed thor- oughness he read books that dealt with the theory and practice of water sports ; gave exhibitions that excited comment to the point that financial aid was forthcoming in a project to establish a nata- torium in I^ondon for him, and it was further pro- posed that he travel in Europe, giving exhibitions of his dexterity as a swimmer. He laid the matter before his Quaker merchant friend Denham, with whom he had kept in associa- tion, who discouraged it and advised him to return to America. Denham was about to go back to Philadelphia with a quantity of goods with which to open a store, and he proposed to Benjamin that he go along and take a position as clerk, keep the 50 A Plan of Life. books, copy letters, and attend the wants of cus- tomers. Later there was to be advancement. Denham offered the equivalent of one hundred and sixty-seven dollars a year as remuneration, which was less than Franklin was then receiving as a compositor, but with the ever-present desire of the compositor to "get away from the case" the offer proved tempting and was accepted. Accordingly they sailed together from England, July 23, 1726. €« €« i^ @ @ % i^Ji % €< v0 €« @ ® €« % €< €« €« €« €< €< @ CHAP. VI. A Plan of Life. A VOYAGE across the Atlantic Ocean in the early years of the Eighteenth Century was jsomething of an undertaking. The ships were small and uncomfortable at best, and during bad weather the conditions became almost unendur- able. The great changes for the better in ocean travel that two hundred years have brought are indicated in the paper which Franklin wrote en- titled: " Precautions to Be Ufed by Thofe Who Are About to Undertake a Sea Voyage." He gives, among other things, a list of the viands with which each passenger should equip himself, for says he, "the moft dif agreeable thing at fea is the Cookery; for there is not properly fpeaking any profelf'd Cook on board. The worfl failor is generally A Plan of Life. 51 chofen for that purpofe, who for the moft part is equally dirty." As to the passenger's equipment, he advises that "a fmall Oven made of tin Plates is not a bad piece of Furniture; your Servant may roaft in it a piece of Mutton or Pork." He warns against the carry- ing of live provisions. "With regard to Poultry it is almoft ufelefs to carry any with you unlefs you refolve to undertake the Office of feeding and fat- tening them yourfelf. With the little care which is taken of them on board fhip they are almoft all sickly and their flefh is as tough as Leather." The voyage upon which Franklin and his mer- chant friend and employer Denham embarked lasted eleven and one half weeks and the diary Franklin kept shows the trip grew so irksome that he finally began to wonder if it would ever come to an end. "For my part," he wrote, "I know nOt what to think of it. , . . Sure the American Continent is not all funk under Water fmce we left it. I rife in the Morning and read for an hour or two perhaps and then Reading grows tirefome. Want of Exercife occafions want of Appetite fo that Eating and Drinking afford but little Pleaf- ure. I tire myfelf with playing at Drafts, then I go to Cards; nay, there is no Play fo trifling or childifh but we fly to it for Entertainment." Such a dull existence aff^orded plenty of oppor- tunity for meditation, This fact and Franklin's 52 A Plan of Life. usual habit of reflection led him to draw up for himself a plan of life. "Thofe who write of the Art of Poetry," he said, "teach us, that, if we would write what may be worth Reading, we ought al- ways, before we begin, to form a regular Plan and defign of our Piece ; otherwife we shall be in Danger of Incongruity. I am apt to think it is the fame as to Life. I have never fix'd a regular Defign in Life, by which means it has been a confuf'd Variety of different Scenes. I am now entering upon a new one; let me, therefore, make fome Refolutions, and form fome Scheme of Action, that henceforth I may live in all Refpects like a rational Creature. "i. It is necefTary for me to be extremely fru- gal for fome time till I have paid what I owe. "2. To endeavor to fpeak Truth in every inftance, to give Nobody Expectations that are not likely to be anfwered, but aim at Sincerity in every Word and Action; the moft amiable Excellence in a rational Being. "3. To apply mjrfelf induflriously to what- ever Bufmefs I take in hand, and not divert my mind from my Bufmefs by any foolifh Projedl of growing fuddenly rich; for Induftry and Patience are the fureft Means of Plenty. "4. I refolve to fpeak ill of no Man whatever, not even in a matter of Truth ; but rather by fome means excufe the Fault I hear charged upon others, and upon proper Occafions, fpeak all the good I know of Everybody." A Plan of Life. 53 To this plan he later made additions. One of them consisted of a set of twelve virtues, which he resolved to practise as follows : I. Temperance 7- Sincerity 2. Silence 8. Justice 3- Order 9- Moderation 4- Resolution ID. Cleanliness 5- Frugality II. Tranquillity 6. Industry 12. Chastity After practising them for some time he found he was doing so well that he had grown proud of the fact, which, as he reflected that pride was a vice, caused him to add another to the table of virtues: 13. Humility Remembering the advice of the Greek philoso- pher, Pythagoras, to the eff^ect that daily examina- tion is a necessary corollary to an attempt to attain perfection, he prepared a chart upon which it was his custom to check himself up at the close of the day. Of this system of self-examination he says : "I made a little Book, in which I allotted a Page for each of the Virtues. I ruled each Page with red Ink, fo as to have feven Columns, one for each Day of the Week, marking each Column with a Letter for the day. I crolTed thefe Columns with thirteen red Lines, marking the beginning of each Line with the firft Letter of one of the Vir- 54 A Plan of Life. tues, on which Line, and in its proper Column, I might mark, by a little black Spot, every Fault I found upon examination to have been committed refpecting that Virtue upon that Day." The diagram was arranged something like that shown on the next page. This chart was at first drawn in a memorandum book made of paper which, because of the frequent markings, proved not to be sufficiently durable, consequently it was transferred to one made of ivory leaves and the records were thus kept for many years. Order was the one virtue in which throughout his whole life Benjamin Franklin found it difficult to attain anything approaching perfection. Of this fault he wrote: "In Truth, I found myfelf incorrigible with refpect to Order; and now I am grown old, and my Memory bad, I feel very fen- fiblythe Wantof it." While Franklin was Minister to France, William Alexander wrote to him, "Will you forgive me my Dear Sir for noticing, that your Papers feem to me to lye a little loofely about your hands — you are to confider yourfelf as furrounded by fpies and amongft People who can make a Cable from a Thread; would not a fpare half hour per day en- able your Son to arrange all your Papers, ufelefs or not, fo that you could come at them fooner, and not One be vifible to a prying eye ?" John Adams, TEMPERANCE EAT NOT TO DULLNESS DRINK NOT TO ELEVATION S. M. T. W. T. F. S. T. S. 0. R. F. I. S. J. M. C. T. C. H. Diagram Franklin used in checicing up his ob- servance of the thirteen virtues. S6 A Plan of Life. who usually saw something to remedy in every situation, when he joined the embassy in Paris, according to Parton, at once "objected to the dis- arrangement of the papers, and very properly addressed himself to the task of putting the em- bassy in order. He procured letter books and pigeon-holes, and performed a great deal of use- ful, and perhaps some superfluous, labor, in ar- ranging and rectifying the afi^airs of the office. In a word, he put the office into red tape." Fully realizing the need for all the check he could put upon his tendency to neglect the observance of Order in his affairs, Franklin early in life devised a plan to cover the twenty-four hours of the day, as follows : THE MORNING ( s) Rife, waffi, and addrefs ( ) Powerful Goodnefs! Quefl:ion. What good Contrive day's bufi- fhall I do this day? ( 6) nefs, and take the ( ) refolution of the day; ( 7) profecute the prefent ftudy, and breakfaft. ( 8) Work. (9) (ID) (II) (12) Read, or overlook my accounts, and dine. ( i)Work. A Plan of Life. 57 (2) (3) (4) (5) EVENING ( 6) Put things in their Queftion. What good places, have I done to-day? ( 7) Supper. Muficordiver- ( 8) fion, or converfation. ( 9) Examination of the day. NIGHT (10) Sleep. (II) (12) ( I) (2) (3) (4) Always a deep thinker on all important subjects, Franklin meditated long and earnestly upon that of religion and as a result formulated his own creed, which he said he felt contained the essentials of every known religion. It was as follows: " That there is one God who made all Things. "That he governs the World by his Providence. "That he ought to be worfhipped by adoration, prayer, and thankfgiving. "But that the moll acceptable fervice of God is doing good to Man. "That the Soul is immortal. "And that God will certainly reward Virtue and punifh Vice, either here or hereafter." 58 Foreman of Keimer^s Shop. Conceiving God to be the fountain of all wisdom, he supplemented his creed with this prayer of his own composition: " O powerful Goodnefs ! bountiful Father! merci- ful Guide! Increafe in me that wifdom which dif covers my trueft intereft. Strengthen my refo- lutions to perform what that wifdom dictates. Accept my kind offices to Thy other children as the only return in my power for Thy continual Favors to me." e« il* i^ it* it* @ i% it* it* it* ® €* ^ @ i^ ® €« €< ® CHAP. V I L In Philadelphia Again as Foreman of Keimer's Shop. ■jV/TR. DENHAM set up his store in Water Street. He and his young clerk took living quarters together and for six months everything went along satisfactorily to both. Then both fell ill and al- though Franklin recovered Mr. Denham did not. The store was taken charge of by his executors and Franklin was under the necessity of finding a new position. He tried to secure employment as a merchant's clerk, but, nothing offering, he accepted an offer from Samuel Keimer to takq charge of his shop, in which was now employed a force of several hands. None was efficient, however, and it was for the Foreman of Keimer^s Shop. 59 purpose of making them so that Keimer offered Franklin what was at that time a high rate of wages. Franklin saw that what Keimer evidently had in mind was to employ him until the workmen, two of whom were bound servants, had attained some measure of the skill at the printing trade which Franklin had brought back from London, and then to dispense with the instructor's services. Notwithstanding that fact, however, the foreman- ship was accepted. The position was made attractive further, by the fact that Keimer closed his shop on Saturday and Sunday, which gave ad- ditional time for reading and study. The new foreman proceeded to set the shop in order and to instruct the workmen. As they increased in usefulness Keimer began to grumble at what he said were the high wages he was paying to Franklin. At the end of the second quarter he demanded a rearrangement at a lower rate of pay. He became dictatorial in his manner, made frequent complaints, and the break finally came over a trivial occurrence which is described in the " Autobiography " as follows: "At length a Trifle fnapp'd our connexions; for, a great noife happening near the Court-Houfe, I put my Head out of the window to fee what was the matter. Keimer, being in the ftreet look'd up and faw me, call'd out to me in a loud Voice 6o Foreman of Keimer^s Shop, and angry Tone to mind my Bufmefs, adding fome reproachful Words, that nettL'd me the more for their pubUcity, all the Neighbors who were looking out on the fame occafion, being WitnefTes how I was treat' d. He came up immediately into the Printing-Houfe, continu'd the Quarrel, high Words paff'd on both fides, he gave me the quarter's Warning we had ftipulat'd, exprefling a wifh that he had not been oblig'd to fo long a Warning. I told him his wifh was unneceffary, for I would leave him that inftant; and so, taking my Hat, walk'd out of doors, defiring Meredith, whom I faw below, to take care of fome things I left, and bring them to my lodgings." Hugh Meredith, referred to above, is described as a "Welfh Pennfylvanian, thirty years of age, bred to country work, honeft, fenfible, had a great deal of fohd Obfervation, was fomething of a Reader, but given to drink." He called upon Franklin in the evening to talk matters over. He disapproved of Franklin's determination to return to Boston, and suggested that they set up a partnership together, saying that his father would furnish the necessary capital as an offset to Frank- lin's knowledge of printing, on a basis of an equal distribution of the profits. The father being in town, a further consultation was held, with a result that an inventory of a printing shop was ' given to a merchant with instructions to send it to London to be filled. Firm of Franklin and Meredith, 6i Franklin applied to Andrew Bradford for work, but was told there was none for him. After re- maining idle a few days, Keimer, having in prospect an opportunity to secure the printing of the paper money of the Province of New Jersey, sent a civil message to Franklin, with the result that he re- turned to Keimer's employment. The New Jersey order was obtained, Franklin constructed a copper- plate press on which to print the money, cut orna- ments for use in the design of the paper bills, and went to Burlington, then the capital of New Jersey, where he remained three months. The one-story building which he fitted up as a printshop in Burlington has been preserved as a museum by a patriotic society because of his early connection with it. During his stay in Burlington he made many influential friends among the lead- ing men of the capital, who rendered valuable as- sistance to him when he later went into business for himself. i^ ^ # i^ i^ # IS @ €< €« vS vt e« €« ® i^ @ i^ €« €« vS CHAP. VIII. The New Firm of Franklin and Meredith. 'T^HE outfit ordered from London arrived at -*■ about the time Franklin finished the work for which he went to Burlington for Keimer, and also at about the expiration of the period for which 62 Firm of Franklin and Meredith. Hugh Meredith was bound to Keimer. Mere- dith's father advanced one hundred pounds, one half the money required, with a promise of the remainder at an early date. They rented a house in the lower part of Market Street at twenty-four pounds a year and sub-let the greater part of it to Thomas Godfrey, with whom Franklin took lodg-, ings. Godfrey used his portion of the house for the living quarters of his family and to accommo- date his own business, which was that of a glazier. A countryman walking along the street and look- ing for a printer was the first customer, having been brought in by one of Franklin's friends. "This man's five fhillings," says Franklin, "being our firfl; fruits, and coming so feafonably, gave me more pleafure than any crown I have fince earned." The second order was to print forty sheets of a work entitled "The History of the Rise, Increase and Progress of the Christian People Called Quak- ers." Keimer had undertaken it, but had failed to complete it in time. Giving an estimated price on the work, Franklin did what printers have been known to do before and since, quoted too low. When that fact became apparent he resolved that the only course to follow would be to produce one sheet every day, and so, even when interrupted by other work, he would finish the sheet before going to bed, and to do this he was obliged often to work until eleven o'clock at night. He did the THE HISTORY O F TH E Rise, Increase, and PiocREss, Of tic CHRISTIAN PEOPLE called QUAKERS: Intermixed with Several Remarkable Occurrences. Written Originally in LOW-DUTCH, and alfo Tran-' flatej into ENGLISH, By WilliamSbwel. J7»,TH1RD EDITION, C»T«T«/. 'PHILJDEL'PHIJ! Printed and Sold ty SAMUEL KEIMER ia SkoiiJ Sfria. This work was begun by Samuel Keimer in 1725 and finished in 1728 with the assistance of the new firm of Franklin and Meredith, being their first large order. Original in the Typogra- phic Library and Museum of the American Type Founders Company, Jersey City, N. J. Size 5^5" x lOjV" 64 Firm of Franklin and Meredith. type composition and Meredith the presswork. One night just as a form of two pages had been completed it was pied, but true to his resolution he set to work and did not leave the printing office until the pi had been distributed and the page set up again and printed. The new firm made a favorable impression, one reason being the superior quality of its work. Franklin knew how to set type correctly, how to operate and keep a press in order, and how to get good effects upon it. Neither Bradford nor Kei- mer was noted for the excellence of his printing, thus giving an opening to the young printers, of which they were quick to take advantage. A notable instance was in connection with the public printing. Bradford was postmaster and printer of the laws and other public documents. On one occasion he printed an address of the House to the Governor in a coarse, blundering manner. Franklin and Meredith reprinted it correctly and in good style, and sent a copy to every member of the House. " They were fenfible of the difference," Franklin says; "it ftrengthened the hands of our friends in the Houfe, and they voted us their printers for the year enfuing." A difficulty soon presented itself to Franklin and Meredith in the shape of a demand from the merchant who had brought their outfit from London for the payment of the second half of the purchase Finn of Franklin and Meredith. 65 price. After some discussion, Meredith, who had come to the conclusion that he never would be successful as a printer, offered to withdraw from the firm on the following terms as stated to his partner: "If you wjill take the debts of the com- pany upon you, return to my father the hundred pounds he has advanced, pay my little perfonal debts and give me thirty pounds and a new faddle, I will relinquifh the partnerlhip. and leave the whole in your hands." Two of Franklin's personal friends came for- ward with an offer of the money required to pay off the whole sum due, which offer was accepted and the title of the firm was changed to read: "B.Franklin, Printer." The interest of his powerful friend Andrew Ham- ilton, whose acquaintance was made at the begin- ning of the voyage to England two or three years before, which voyage, however, Mr. Hamilton at the last moment was prevented from making, now obtained the printing of the Newcastle paper money and the laws of that government, which patronage Franklin retained as long as he continued in busi- ness. The affairs of B. Franklin, Printer, continued to prosper. In 1729, Samuel Keimer went into bankruptcy, sold his printing office, and retired to Barbadoes. One of his apprentices, David Harry, bought the materials and set up in his place. 66 Firm of Franklin and Meredith. He had many friends and Franklin, fearing his competition, proposed a partnership, which, fortu- nately for him, Harry rejected. He neglected his business, however, and soon followed Keimer to Barbadoes, taking the printing outfit with him. This left Franklin with but a single rival for the patronage of Philadelphia, Andrew Bradford, who gave more attention to the post office than he did to his printing office and proved therefore not an aggressive competitor. Franklin now began to think of marriage. His landlady interested herself in the matter and what happened may perhaps be best expressed in his own words: "Mrs. Godfrey projed:'d a Match for me with a relation's Daughter, took opportunities of bring- ing us often together, till a ferious Courtfhip on my part enfu'd, the Girl being in herfelf very deferving. The old Folks encourag'd me by continual Invitations to Supper, and by leaving us together, till at length it was Time to explain. Mrs. Godfrey manag'd our little Treaty. I let her know that I exped:'d as much Money with their Daughter as would pay off my remaining Debt for the Printing-Houfe, which I believe was not then above a hundred Pounds. She brought me word they had no fuch fum to fpare. I faid they might mortgage their Houfe in the Loan-Office. The anfwer to this, after fome Days, was that they did not approve the Match; that, on inquiry of Bradford, they had been inform'd the Printing Firm of Franklin and Meredith. 61 Bufinefs was not a profitable one ; the Types would foon be worn out, and more want'd; that S. Keimer and D. Harry had fail'd one after the other and I fhould probably foon follow them ; and therefore I was forbidden the Houfe, and the Daughter fhut up." Franklin was in doubt as to whether this action expressed the real sentiments of the young woman's family, or whether it was a device to prompt them to* contract a runaway marriage, which would put the family in the position of providing a dowry or not, as they chose. He resolved to give no further consideration to the matter, whereupon Mrs. God^ frey renewed the overtures. He held to his decision and as a result there was a falling out between him and the Godfreys, who removed from the house, which he then decided to retain wholly for his own use. "But," says he, "this affair having turn'd my Thoughts to Marriage, I look'd round me and made overtures of Acquaintance in other Places; but foon found that, the Bufmess of a Printer being generally thought a poor One, I was not to expedl Money with a Wife, unlefs with fuch a One as I fhould not otherwife think agreeable." He renewed his acquaintance with Miss Deborah Read and on September i, 1730, they were married. Of this marriage Franklin said: "She proved a good and faithful helpmate, affillied me much by at- tending the Shop ; we ftrove together, and have ever mutually endeavor'd to make each other happy." 68 CHAP. IX. Publisher and Bookseller. TF A Philadelphian in 1728," says James Par- ton, "had been asked to name the business by which, in Philadelphia, a stranger could make a fortune in twenty years, the business of a printer would have been among the very last to occur to him. There was no good book-store south of Boston, it is true, but also there was no general regard for books south of Boston. Except Mr. James Logan, who had a superb library, and per- haps three or four persons besides, there was no one in Philadelphia who had the true passion for books, until our young printer infused it into them. Franklin, like poets that Wordsworth speaks of, had to create the taste by gratifying which he was to thrive. Almanacs, hymn-books, low-priced books of religious controversy, and very rudi- mental school-books, were the staple commodities of the Philadelphia book-store in the olden time. It was not safe to publish any book higher than eighteen pence, except by subscription. Of the books published in the Colonies before the Revolu- tion, nine tenths, at least, appear to have been sold at less than eighteen pence. The whole busi- ness of printing was trivial, and could be made profitable only by prosecuting successfully a great number of petty projects." Publisher and Bookseller. 69 Although Franklin and Meredith began to print in 1728, the first issue of their press listed by Charles R. Hildeburn in his remarkably complete work, "A Century of Printing; The Issues of the Press in Pennsylvania," is "A Modeft Inquiry into the Nature and Neceffity of a Paper Currency, Print'd and Sold at the New Printing Office near the Market, 1729." Seven other publications are ascribed to Franklin and Meredith for that year, two of which do not show their imprint, but are known to be from their press. One pamphlet bearing their imprint was not printed by them. It is entitled "A Touch of the Times," and was written and printed by Keimer as an answer to an article in the "Mercury" which he considered to be aimed at himself, and wrongfully ascribed on the title page to the "New Printing Office." It brought forth the following advertisement in the "Mercury" dated April 24, 1729: THIS may inform thofe that have been induc'd to think otherwife, That the filly Paper, call'd a Touch of the Times, &c. was Wrote, Print'd and Publifh'd by Mr. Keimer; and that his putting the words New Printing Oifice at the Bottom, and inftructing the Hawkers to fay it was done there is an Abufe." Franklin's publication of the "Pennfylvania Ga- zette" began in 1729, and "Poor Richard's Alma- V. 5o& ich in diefim ^aiimirtbd Koch langsr iti armatb lih'eii. So hoffich doch, Gott wird air dots Bin Itefsre ffebimui sitrta GROSS BRlTTANIEN. Madidcm die Fittdcnsund Kiiegs-affairen la Earopa eipe gcraumc Kit her auf cioen fcV wanckelbahrcn fiifi geftandcn, und man dnige jahie allcreit in . " ^ " ' " dand fich Rvh. Und tfcil det Kc;(fec and EngeUx.^ ..- darlnnen vcrpfiichrct dtolnfaot von Spanicn DOi. Carlo*. t!s Erb-{i/inti-.tla HcrttogthUmcr T\rf- ^ana.altd Paimamit 6ocio Minn Spanifche Trour «1)ioIia!ien dBuifShren., foha; diefem zufol- ec dct KtSni;; von Eogdand cins Efquadcf uifr ret dem AdBitral Wagct nach Bafttlpna gcTchi- •Jet, fitli alda lu der Spanifchen Flsne m Si- gen und die «soo. .SpanieiB nach LivomoYo raosnorurea, wetche- lotfoduftion anch,glacl.T hchioJ ffch gegangen, -viod aniafs gegebenYa cfoCT Anrodc lej KSmgs am 13- Jan. an die Bey- «5 HlofcrdoParlotoents, welchiwir wegenen- ge dcs raums auf cine anderc Geicgenhcii veiJp_3- ^toains in aj. 5«». Vctwchenen Mittwoeh a- hcnds um 9 nhr, gab der Gwff Bothmat-, crltK MiiflBer d« Hannovenfchcn affsiren, in <='»'" Haufe in S. J^roaPark, nach eiiicr lang ge»«hr- teuunpatacljteit.detZcitlichlceii gate nacht Er hat dber »o . Jahr in Engehnd gewohoct. Sein-Leichnam foil halfimirat, nach Hannovci peBracht and bey. fcinenVortltemsqi Eidenbt- iUrtct wciden. - , ., Z deiroan war HJllig aa hci&a, dergeitak, dafs das Wohnhauis noch, -wicwohl nicht ohne fchadsB, ifl errettetwotden, , , ., VeigingttcWoehe hat e» fich beseb«B.da&eiJ 8c Frfla-j vrdche cinigc «it saivor iehr melaucho- Tch gewden, in eincm Sloop das Riviet hinab gofiihien, und die Gelcgcnhcit wahTgenommen, wenn nicmand in d« Cabiiieeilcllen hat, mic ncli- nien konne So b^Idnon Jieobgemcldte 3i<.ah] der Uaterlchreiber vorhandea, wclchi; fo bald als moglich erfuche in Phila- delphia Title page of the first number of Franklin's German nevpspaper. Size 5I" X 8". 72 Publisher and Bookseller. nack" was'established in 1732. Each will be dealt with at length in separate chapters. The issuies of Franklin's press, exclusive of the "Pennsylvania Gazette," "Poor Richard's Alma- nack," the " Philadelphifche Zeitung," and the "General Magazine," between the years 1729 and 1748, in which latter year the active management of the printing office was turned over to David Hall, numbered more than seven hundred, in which is included everything from a single sheet to preten- tious volumes of several hundred pages each. Early in 1741 Franklin began the publication of "The General Magazine and Hiftorical Chronicle for all the Britifh Plantations in America, to be Continu'd Monthly." A part of the announce- ment of the new magazine in the " Pennsylvania Gazette " was to this effect : "We defire no fubfcriptions. We fhall publifh the Books at our own Expertfe, and rifk the fale of them, which Method, we fuppofe, will be moft agreeable to our Readers, as they will then be at Liberty to buy only what they like, and we fhall be under the conftant Neceflity of endeavoring to make every particular Pamphlet worth their Money." The "General Magazine" came out late in the month and followed by three days the publication by Andrew Bradford of the first number of "The American Magazine or a Monthly View of the I A New Verfion | H OF THE $ iP S A L M si ID AF I D.I S Fitted to the T U N E S Ufed g IN S gCHURCHES.i I ~1T § • N. Brady, D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary, * and N. 'fate, E(q; Poet Laurcat to His S MAJESTY. * PHILADELPHIA: 5 Primed and Sold by B. FR A N K L I N, ^ at the New Printing-Office, near the «£ Market. Sold alfo by A. BraJfcrJ, at V the Bible in Second-Street. 1755. ^ Ji The seventh edition of this work, printed in 1729, was the first important production of Franklin's press. In speaking of the deplorable tendency of people to prefer light literature he said: "An impression of the Psalms of David had been upon my shelves for above two years," yet he had "known a large impression of Robin Hood's Songs to go off in a twelvemonth." Original in the possession of the Curtis Publishing Company, Philadelphia. Size zj" x 4! ". ■"SfSS C A T O's MORAL DISTICHS EngUped in Couplets. HI 'J>HILjiD,EL(PHIji! Printed and Sold by B. F R A N K L 1 1^, 17 35- Franklin's first reprint of a classic. He said "The Cato Major" (1744) was "the first translation of a classic in the Western World," forgetting this edition of the "Moral Distichs" and Samuel Keimer's publication in 1729 of" Epictetus his Morals." Original in the possession of the Curtis Publish- ing Company, Philadelphia. Size 4" x 6". A T R E 'A T Y OP FRIENDSHIF HELD WITH THE CHIEFS OF THE SIX NATIONS, PHILADELPHIA SEPTEMBER and OCTOBER. ^^$6. mt^ew

»nKxt tthe Maiix>-a>'d Govern- nn n. PiocfeBDiMGi in thcAflem- biy of that Province. IIl.,PiocKEDiNcs of the AP- ^femhly of Pknhsvlvaniai ■in Relation to the inltftingof Servanti. IV. PftOCBitDrNCi of the AC- lembly of Nkw-Yq^nK, re- Cetit/iimpgt rpcfiing the King's Inflmffi- ons to make Provifions for the 'ITroopsi dircd:cd to be railed there. V AnAccotJNT oftheSPERCH- Ks in Aflembly of hii Excel- lency the Governor of Naw- JtRSEV. VI. The P««»KNT 8t^4i;b of the WAR. VII. The Affaihi of Eukopk PHILj4DELPHfAi Printed and 5oM by Anorrw Bhadfobd: (Price OneShillJnp Penrfyhmia Currency, or Eir^S: Pence A,T//rfi ) Title page of the second number of "The American Magazine.** From the file in the possession of the New York Historical Society, the only copies known to be in existence. The title page of the first number is missine. Size ^W' X 6f ". THE General Magazine, A K D Hiftorical Chronicle, For all the Britijh Plantations in Amtritt, [To be Continued Montbtjr.] JANUARY, 1741- PHILADELPHIA: v,jm^ ,^ SnM«i» H. FRANKLIN. Title page of the "General Magazine," the second magazine established in the Colonies. It bears the coronet of the Prince of Wales, of Hanoverian ancestry, which accounts for the German motto. Original in the Ridgway Branch of the Philadelphia Public Library. Size 2f " x 6". 78 Publisher and Bookseller. Political State of the Britilh Colonies." The publication of the two magazines had been pre- ceded by a wordy dispute in the newspapers be- tween Franklin and John Webbe, the editor of the "American Magazine." Franklin claimed that the idea of publishing a magazine in the Amer- ican Colonies originated with him and that he had concluded with Webbe an agreement to edit it, but that Webbe had broken faith, and had be- trayed Franklin by laying the plan before Bradford and inducing him to enter into an agreement on better terms than those arranged for with Franklin. On the title page of the "General Magazine" appeared a wood cut reproduction of the Prince of Wales' coronet with three plumes and the motto "Ich dien." The contents consisted of theological controversy, proceedings of Parliament, governors' speeches, and extracts from books, very little of the matter being original, and practically none of it of the interesting character of that to be found in the "Gazette" and " Poor Richard's Almanack." The information was useful, but not calculated to attract a wide circle of readers. The magazine edited by Webbe and issued by Bradford lasted three months. Of Franklin's "General Magazine" six of the monthly numbers were published. It contained sixty pages, 2| x 5| inches in size, and was set in type corresponding to modern six point and ten point solid. Only A CATALOGUE o F CHOICE AND VALUABLE BOOKS, CONSISTING OF Near 600 Volumes, in moft Faculties and Sciences, viz. Divinity, History, Law, Ma- thematics, Philosophy, Phy- sic, PoETRYj &c. Which will begirt' TOBESOLD for Ready Money only, by Ben J. Franklin; at the Poji-Ofee ra FAilaA/fhia, on Wednefday, the lith.af ^nV 1744. at Nine a Clock in the Morning ; And, for Diipatch, the loweft Price is mark'd in each Book. The Sale to continue Three Weeks, and no longer ; and what then remains will be fold at an advanced Price. Thofe Perfons that live remote, by fending their Orders and Money to faidB. Franklin, may depend en the fame Juftice as if prefent. Announcing a sale of books. Original in the possession of the Curtis Publishing Company, Philadelphia. Size 2f" X s". LETTER FROM THE REVEREND Mr. George Whtiefield, T O THE REVEREND Mr. John We/ley, IN ANSWER TO HIS SERMON, ENTITLED, FREE GRACE. Gal. rr. It. BitVihen Peter itias came taAmioch, tiuithjlood hitii fnht Faai iuaufc he wat t/> be blamed, P HIL ABE LP HI Ai I'iiiilBtaadS6H-1)y8. Frankun, M,DCC,XLr, Title page that is interesting because showing a typographical error, from which Benjamin Franklin'sVork was usually singularly free. Original in Ridgway Branch of the Philadelphia Public Library. Size 3 J" x 5!". Publisher and Bookseller. 8i one advertisement gladdened its short life, appearing in small type at the bottom of the last page in the fifth and sixth numbers. Since it is the first Amer- ican magazine advertisement, it is here reproduced: THere is a F E R R Y kept over Poto- mac^ {hy the Subfcriber) being the Pojt Road and much the nighejt way from Annapolis to Will- iamfburg, where all Gentlemen may depend on a ready PaJJage in a good new Boat with able Hands Richard Brett, Deputy-Pojt-M after at Potomack. Another publication venture of Franklin's was announced as the " Philadelphifche Zeitung, or Newfpaper in High-Dutch, which will continue to be publifhed on Saturdays once a Fortnight, ready to be deliver'd at Ten a Clock, to Country Subfcribers." The editor was Louis Timothee, "language master." Although Franklin relates in the "Autobiog- raphy" his early business ventures in considerable detail, he makes no mention of either the " General Magazine " or the " Philadelphifche Zeitung." "Though the bulk of the issues of Franklin's press are of little moment," says Paul Leicester Ford, " there can be no doubt that as a whole they contain more of genuine merit than those of any printer of the same or previous periods in the Colonies, the amount of doctrinal and polemical theology being a minimum, and bearing a less proportion to the whole mass that can be found A COLLECTION OF ALL THE TAWS Of the Province of PE NNS TL FA N I^ : Now IN Force. Puilified by Order of ASSEMBLY .<^H^klHL ^^ PHILADELPHIA : Printed and Sold by B. FRANKLIN. M,DCC^n. Franklin excelled in title pages, of which this is a fine example. Original in the Typographic Library and Museum of the American Type Founders Company, Jersey City, N. J. Size 4!" x 8|". THE YEARLY VERSES Of the Printer's Lad, who caiTrieth a- bout the ^ennfyU vania GAZETTE, to the Cullomer thereof. Jan. I. t74t. _J{5^ y labour's done for one unreckon'd Year, : 1^ p And to account, kind S I R, I now appear. S 'Twouldgive OiFence, could I the News rdicarfr, '* T* attempt it all, here, in my fcanty Vcrfc s Bat if th' important Parts are nam'd again That ftrlke the Paflions and irfpire the Pen, Tho' Grief, and Joy, and Anger, thofe may niiie. And fome deferve Reproach, and others Praifc \ Such Parts, by Cuftom due, ye will expcfl ; And fuch will make the noble Mind reflect'. Heading of "The Yearly Verses of the Printer's Lad." Original in the possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Size 3" X Ill's". 84 Publisher and Bookseller. in the books of contemporary American printers. In the earliest years of the venture he took the risk of printing two httle volumes of American poetry, as well as reprinting other verses of Euro- pean origin. In 1741 he published the earliest American medical treatise, Colden's 'Essay on the IHac Passion,' and four years later the second Cadwalader's 'Essay on the West India Dry Gripes,' From his press came the first two pamph- lets against slavery. In 1744 he reprinted Rich- ardson's ' Pamela,' the first novel printed in Amer- ica. Despite his personal disregard of the classics, he printed as early as 1735, James Logan's Trans- lation of Cato's 'Moral Distichs,' the first Latin work to be both translated and printed in America." Franklin's printing and bookmaking were of a higher grade than those of his contemporaries. His type arrangements, particularly of title pages, demonstrate skill, and his presswork as a rule, although it does not measure up to modern stand- ards, is good. The book he regarded as his me- chanical masterpiece was the " Cato Major." A feature of his work which impresses one is its freedom from typographical errors, although they did occasionally occur. One is to be noted in the title page shown on page 80 and the date lines of the issues of the " Pennfylvania Gazette" occasion- ally were not changed from the issues of the pre- vious week. However, he was able to turn even M. T.CICERO'S CATO MAJOR, OR HIS DISCOURSE OLD-AGE: with Explanatory NOTES. (^^^^ PHILADELPHIA i Printed and Sold by B. FRANKLIN, MDCCXLIV, Title page of the book Franklin is said to have regarded as the best specimen of his book printing. Original in the possession of the Curtis Publishing Company, Philadelphia. Size 3!" x 6f". TD:Ki Milter 95 X Ifccratca 28 54 Re/n/jn FuluraU Rcf,r.1 Pag» e.5 Junius Ikatiis 13S QMimtot. (9 T Acrtcs 109 A^* La*Iiu3 ifW Scipio 10 iz y. } Stifaiiltct 8l Scipio -.:«\RdrOQicus 103 SdpioCn.&f E.Com. 63 1^4 LhYj z^Dicti:t 26 Scipio Na£ca ' 4Q ^7 JLuciusflamiiuua 86 S,ri(bl,.n zo (exnuy£mitii» 61 It/TAndnusCniiis 8; IVi MwdlusM.a 144 146 Simonidcs 45 8o 'nAuIas iEmiliiu '3«- JT. Ka'o 47 S" ' 1 Mrehtum, 1 TdrtdfTia »4 129 Plato'i Pliiflon 150 Tiiemillodej 42 I'lautiu M. Accius 103 Theophrallu5 55 PMlhams <& ?>«« 133 135 Tmnce's Addphi ■'4 Fntif^x Maxwuix 65 TerintiM 0. Varro '45 Podtius/.^Gff/A/7W 70 Tithonns 9 yontm tie Saimilt^ 82 FoflhumiQj Spurius 83 Titiu P. Attion 1 ...:.Q^Flaiiinlu5 3 4 frxur'j 0§a 2} — '"• Cofuncaniua H 35 PjnhiB 24 33 83 TriMa cftMai Tiipa Anbivii] 5 Fythagorai 46 100 r>^>M.'Atil. 139 JtV MomimfuiU^iofafvethlir YAnlliippw 140 z!L Xai9plimVS7inpofiiim 98 CtiMrj, ixfcftJ tbmfihialt '% a ta-taiii Diali 14S 147 7]^ 485" ^^ THB Index page from the "Cato Major." Ji^i^m^m^^.- ^ T H E CATO MAJOR Of M. TuH'ms Ciccroy O R His discourse of OLD-AGE^ ADDRESSED TO (i) Titus Pomi'qnius Atticus. C H A P. I. |^f§1^^3^> Titus, if Some fovereign I 9 ^ 5a/;;; I find " ^ Ts) footh your Carres, and calm l^fe your ruffled Mind, Sbant I dej'erve a Fee ? A For N O ' T E S, (i) Tif/O! Pcmpmitts Jtlicits, to wliom this DiftDliff; is addrefs'd, was of an undent Family of /i«»*, ofilic Kquefltian Order, the fecond in Dignity amongll thi; Hemaiis. Of all C/»ri»'s Friends flu appears tu Ij.wc First reading page of "The Cato Major." [78 J feund Co, in his Uftderftanding. I am now ort the fevcnth t\x)k of my Origiiies^ (59) wherein lam coUcding ^11 the Monu- ments of Antiquity of every kind. I am alfo making out thofe Orations, that 1 formerly delivered in pleading the feveral Ciiufts I defended. I am further treating of ;thc Civil Law, .and of that of the Au- gurs and Pontifts. I read much Greek-, and, agreeable to the Pythagorean Precept, the better to exercifc my Memory, I re- coiled at Night what I have heard, faid or done in the D.iy. Thefe are the Mc- tJiods I purfuc to keep/my Mind employed; and while with a conftant and affiduous Application I continue thefe Exercifes, I c!ann6t fay I am fenllble of any Want of Strength. I am ftill able to lerve.my Friends ; I come duly to the Senate, and there propofc fuch Matters of Weight, as I have (59) Calt'% Or/giiies was a Work much eftcemed by the Romans, biit is loft to us. C. Nepcs informs us, ijuft its firft Book contained the Alstons of the People ot Rtmtt (probably to the Timcof thefi^l Punic or Car- thaj^Ww V'ar) the id and 3d gavf the Origin x>t firft Rile of all die Cioes oi Italy % the 4th was the Hiftor>' of the firft Punic War 5 the 5th gave the fccond, whidi fni9iin4is own Tunt j In the tbUowir^ he related tluu ■ otlier Facing pages showing type arrangement of "The Cato Major.' [79] ihavc long pondered and digefted ; and I fupport what I propofe with Arguments, to which bodily Strength can. contribute fiothing. And if for want of a Coftipeteat Share of that Strength, I llionld be-rehde- Teduncapablc of all this; yet I couldpTleaft myfclf, even on my Couch, with running thetn over hi my Thoughts. And whocvCV will purfue tire fame Methods, and pradifc thus, will fcarce be fenfible of the Advan- ces of Old-Age, but gradually Aiding on, and infehfibly decaying, without any fuddcn Changes, will at lafb drop like ripe Fruit, or go off like an expiring Light. CHAP. XII 'pHE third Charge againft Old- Age was, That it is (they fay) infcnfiblc InPleafure, and the Enjoyments arifing fiom the Gratifications of the Scnfes. And S'moft blefied and heavenly Effed it truly is, if it eafcs of what in Youth was the foreft «*fco* Wars^ till th« C<5nqUeft of Ln/itdtiia, now P'orlw Ijjfj'^^h I judg* to have been the Conqueft mention'd Vi^ilik/^i.c.ii'. for v/liicli L. Pcfihumius triilmphcd »«»-2wa . . . .p « . - - - - • /7"' *< (mg^^. /XA ife.^T^'Tis^-^- ^'Pi - • ''•■'°-;<. ^» 'fL^Lf(f«, ^^x^A-^"-. ^//3 • - - ^^•.^:^ "a '§^d^,.^o^'^ ■^'/' /««-.^ 9/ st/uA- ir^iX- J- - 5> ■//. ; - - • -^ * > 1%,^ -. a^/-. - • ■ • 7" ' fs 5r,^, />-. «ay^^/J» :a / - IS" y,i jbTizi^^ «.'■(/■'" i^- - -i; - a/ i^a-o ."? ^ixjJa-iw". 3'/---— --- i_— — •» i-o /^ ^%L . 3^/ ^•^•? 'Kd^c^, /^i-y^ /^/-•Jt. a ^/. .A:/'>o i.^iti^^M^ ^£^, ^^/(.a^^ . . _ /rlo:0 / oi4Ar >f »^ i^ «,„ ^ /V»^ vifc^, .-jS'-!&.«:S' - .-.- S./<».<7 / im A*/(^^ ,„.^/£Sia - - _ .^ _ _ w - - - /-•"-" '^t^l^/r-A*y»^ f!^*^ .^-/S^O /« (i~tr /ir-Qii/u',;^ if.U^n>^n6 . 3:«.e obfcry'd ot our Univerfal . Thii'firft fimplcft Sound A fcrvesus to expreftmoft JWfcwSwV Wr a4 Great Things are compounded qjf of the Movements of the Soul. Tis lo mu?hthe Lan- Sfl«ll7 WftJhink ^^ ncceffary, in Order to furnifli out Buage of Nature, that upon allfudden ajid-extraorclinary t»wr wl^Tiropcr MiteriaLs deferving that Charaftffh OreaTions. we are necefTarilv led to it. as the Inftru-. tolJitroduto It with an ExpoGtion*n the Letter A, the Went ready at band. Wiih this we fpeak ou^' Admirati^ firftSniha'AfchSbetrand as ieWcri were before Wordi, on, Joy, Anguilh, .Aveifion, Apprehenfion of Danger, *nd-W«v Efieft of the anticnt Orthography, xvhich, as low a« Qiu that ^ is the firft Sound .Nature fcftj fcttb at_ the cry- Elixabetb, added an « to the a, and wrote taulk, waulk^ ing and imiUng bf Infants •,. ahd that it needs' ilo other Sic.' , - . . - ," . . i ,. Motion to form it, hut a bare opening of thetips.- ^The flowaof laid 3 mighty Strefs on their*; and di- Cyvdthiviat, refining on this Sintiijicnt of Scalt^tr, flinguifli'd exaftly, both in Writing And Speaking, wbeiy obfe(y«t Very gravely, that the firft Sound pur fbrth by it was long, and when fliort. To denote it Ion-", they^ £erh i*Ai but ihaf J3itls firftput forth E\ each 'pro- firft wrote it double, Aalaior Ala;' which' ^being noUBCing. the initial--, or firft Letter of. the Name ot the enough, they infertcd an i between 'cm, . B. Ac, Pareirtiffteri'erpeaive Ser. Dt- LittletmfSctting Adam length they fell to the common long Accent- a.« "-» »fidt7du*t5-HAe 'tine fpeak the final, arid the othtrthe ./« was one of the Numeral Letter* among the Antients, initlil.Cefter of the Mother' of Mankind, EyA. and (ignily'd 500..... >Vitli a Daffli on the lopl, it ftood But^^ ijfc vJin that Auihors comparp' the A of the for ^000.- , £ngiij^i:AKiiih frciub, &c-with the Altpb of the Ke- Sarmiur gives us a Set of ancient Technical Verfes, %nxnij^Offt^''Etifb ol the Atabt \ ihofe t*) Letters ha- Ubat iV, Verfet treatlux *f Art, Technical being a t^trd -riBg^W'-lOmfomiicy with our European A, exccpB in Jrtm tbe Greek, /jyi^K'&re the ftmo Isolds oP ill the other Afpirates. ■ HifpaleHfu, an Author of the VlUh C«ntury> affirms it Tborlifl/iwdifiaij v' Sort bi fevipi Rabble*, in thatr expredy, Latmi autent numertt ad tit^Atllm eemptrtaiit \ €Mi^ Xiebitt^^t • Myjiicat Expt/tiett from Viorda and that is> But tbe Latins da att reelm t6ei> Uiintifrs b/ IfiMn'.^ i[A<7f fAr} preccndingtq^finil out ahftr^fe and Ltttfrt. The Uf^e was really introdue'd in the' Days jilgnTC'MeiniMt'J^prein, tell u£ the & ^d S^ oP.BaVbarifm. .Monlieur da Cange, explaiaiog wfaai «Tl^ firff,,titttf^ciBg join'd^iBakc ^fi.'wMoh-ftBil tlM Ufago was, at die beginning of each L^ftrt;«f8^ «A 'FMA tii'ffiWefli't and by ^fmCpoODg '#m4ntdlUt (itaffary, \jBbieb U * Dimoxtiry cfebftatt; MUdnte Mtf ■uks AUi,.-»iisii in the Sfr^U^-aM Cft^fMv Cm^ bi^bariai IPtrjr tf^ fbraj^rcf o ^itrr*di,j l||||#li w* jft;:i^HijjLCi:4f^.^^i£? <■[. — - ' ■ ■ v, ' ; - ,; — , , ,„„ivv;.i ly-^ retSagy j^'i-t. Sail m^^ rew jo-., *-rj«i-« j*- w-^-^^k -iw, t.J^i O"*!!"^- Jtf.i»(«>»T««Aif< i-KihyiJ.. |ti iW a » B r Miin p.ff„.^.^a.iT.». toa.tfc.Ttoi.Mji* ... " ■■>' .■0»-*T.''^'*""'-""'''""5'7 _ v" -•■ R..HTK", .i4Ce-r.-«<>i*Hwil« .^Om Wrtt T«™<«. *« D^b Mt_ a,t(l:ulni>la«E»M>rli, ►•""■^' "'T' """' w,,_l*i-- g, . Kb ti^ MiAir ob »>iJ. lUlfc, •!— I l* f« '■»«, (bo Sur, tM^^I fc^..,IU*».pf..-JfcT.fa". '»-■".'■'="■* "^'"^^^ ; L-U-- i^ • TtaH-»*hMI BiUuIbMrTiir,,, .rnri^-in. ♦ v..n M, ., H.-.fc.«k. >"«< — ~ „_-.■'„- rmt.ikr.>u7Utk. . ' . .. "* "'■ Mm, i«k-ii™io."'(o™»«i, ««W''i'«; t> U N away from RidiiTd Foote, AMtfBi,-B,&i^tnai,iUr,^,^^' hiB. Wk«*( («"T.i hln, 1( ll«H. ''.™' ™ IS. In inlTor* &««,,■ ilKiW. if jMf/.&WA rftWtU H«*a,^«-> .p»lr leC^iua * *»» » J f i» *"*"*«ir ^' J^ s^ ISjj Ii»* I Ci ■ W. K»1, !■! m M.I. .fo th Nab t^ "f"?^ <»« i-t-Ki Pm, ' Uiq fc^;: ■ l -^ ll P..U B^«M^_ c^ ^.Hr--i*.lT;l-(«, .JC^_ ^ -^ ■ t ■ %Cla.^tl^ - ,.,tki.c««.TSi«.,h.h..=k««.um.-fc*ya^ A LL Peifons ntdebtd *'A-FvW''I*i9-Th^<'' l^^* <"^<=»>C.3Tl&. ..d bn h«n.b« ilMH'b.'i.tt.i. /\ tt>t.<<>tmB^4 *^ Tn—fc't Ji"— HisRi. B ilH Bil> BitKh CHMn, hc>rUa>p>4CcTr 'I'^p'u'biiiutfti' EAdi, BhIo, wrii j'i.-iiriniltrri Iff n~-\"- r — '-'-r - -■ ■ ■ ' ■■ ;"■■•■", B. M^Mi cmt, u ■'iliMi iM t\r- EiMin •( Uuvni JikrD. •) HI WbHnr oka » od llniini ikllif taTBrf, l< fwly pirncM ul IkhirT ^*SSj.X.,'»«^> Jii.%si^5S.SiJs=,»i: j-.*»,i.T^rpr^ /^ Toa-nlbip of flriftol m the Comiy of j, y~^ ^-^ AJ" O h"^ " P"" >»^'> wiumt, >«, «, lijj AbC taMM Vr i>^ Kl«u Dili>in. loTooil. O VJ VJ J\. O !«■*■», miT.f,f,i.ib.(ri*[»»Wi-,fc. iuni4su.^.c,r. i*,rt.rfMi-.kL«.i.DiBLES of aU Sizes, Tdtameno, ir^— : — ^ , 'TV'. -t— ■airfiipiiu.. -h«-b.B«i>u*.rf[i«ui, tiik.£>^ ,,^„^„_h,,^^,f,„^^ iVbftrt u berth ma 7 WILLIAM REtu. ,^.^,^,^',v.'X^';;::f:::;::i:J^X'.^: ^ i^--......a=Ai.*rJ2 fcrmf, JbEiil > bti>"l/»l S«l. -Uh V.rt.lj el .S^ fiKn, l.« i ltTTw,,ni. pnniciR.^ tnn)« , ^nD.T.cn,»«..'irfpU.a.i OuluK tbt -(lol. Li uI pimmin | ("mm. bot.hm i to*™ Kin Pmil ii: Lcnhn JmB In&id, I* ftll tbat .MkirlkfitD, ibcrix ifkuHb. ilru'IBi ^ l^t-MwT •* Aon Cn^t. bckn'lfiutnTr LkiVi 4JrtDj oimcTfifB ri. B. All P«-t«i hn«r'"' [>»■■<' If "Ind klm «ptHi"l fripiJV B^lfltiuru, Jilio llfl.fClM, bas- i, bILTu.!?! te ''pnU,4DSLfUIjl! Prinled by B. FRANKLIN, Post-M*ste«, il llitKw FjiiHTiHO-OmcBt QcartbcMukcb Showing style and arrangement of the advertisements in the "Pennsylvania Gazette," 1744- Original in the Ridgway Branch of the Philadelphia Public Library. *fuji arrived from LONDON, t^ir^fe EsTEHTAiNUBNT t)F ihc CURIOUS and Othr»s, Ami is'Oo* w be S E E N, by Six or inord^ in a large commodious KoOM, at the Houfe of Mr. ndaft in Second-Street; ^ Sskr or Camera Oifiura MICROS CO PE^ Invehtbd by the Ingenious Dt. LIBERKHUN. ITiiiJieiniftEn'crtairangdfiny Minoicbpi whatfoever, and magnlfici Objefls to a moft" IbMhTiog Degree. The ArJmalcute in feveral Sorts of FluiJi, with nuny other liniig and ti^Cmc&St too teJioiB to mniddni will be fticWnmoIl incroJibly magnificJ, at the (anie Time ditiin^i ■ ^ '^"^ rirculirion " of the Blood in a frog's Foor, a Fifli'i Tail, alfo in rjea: uld LMci where ydu diftwia- ffio ftllfedftlie Kwrt, the moving ol' ihc BoivcU, ihc VtiiU iJid Arterirt, ihd many Giiall .IrJi-aj, Ihiai oiie Tlioufand of (hem wilt not ««cdthc D'encTsofi Grain oFSahdi vnth their Ypung in. them i EfU in I'afle, which have given agMwral S-'itafiflion lo all Uuiefe !"•"♦ tl>«n- Tha LOripficy *as ftcvcr flicwn by any I'ctfun thjt ever Eocli'Shd incUJt'id Plant; that PUint, A^ain fits elitr StedtyVtbkb elbcr Plants fintan • tbefcetbtrPleBtii^iiitllhtirSttdst tmd thft Men PLmI] again Jm^e^ ikehft. " thutstverfm^$tTTjtb)it^^ni. IfAi. tcillj^i^' itfil/i wbtU ^cT(fit tfUs hnd. ekitirt and fTealti <"tt Acorn may dij^nft Sj PUtts u fail a Tbmifaiid Agti keiui\ Note, Tbi MiCROacoPf iwj Ujetn ai Ctniltmtns Hsufis, giving half an Ihur't Noiist, Ibe n ptmiHiKg tnlj ^mtrn in iht Metnmg 19 Four inlbt Aflrrnnon, in my Room. THE unparaHei'dMUsfcA'L SLOCK, madcbytliat great Mafttr of Mathinfiy David. LiicitwodD i ■ t^ great tilrtofify performs by Springs only -, it is a Machine to»mparalile iij its KLTd ( it excels all itthers in the Beauty of its Srnjfture i is mod Entertaining bltsMufick, and aiaji the fchoicdi Aiis fron\ the moft cdcbntcd Operas, with the greateft KkOT and Eiciftnei : It pftfertni with beautiful Graces, ingeniouQy and vaiinully Intermbt'dj the FltMch Horn Receii perfbon'd upon the Organ, German, and Common Flute, Flageolet, t^f, a Sonaca'ij Conccrto'^it Miichea, Minuets, JigS^' *"<^ Scot Airs, comtws'd by CotelE, Atberoiiii Mr. Haodd) andothcTgRuaodemineQtMaltmofMurick: Snix Eigbtetn Petict. TO* beaudfii] Curiouty hai Wn fliewn twici before the K I M Gi in his Royal Palace ut St. ^uha'i, where His Majeft^ was rieas'd to make an Obfovatinn on liie Excellence of its B«uty, ud dcchr*d. He thmght it the Wonder of this Age, It is allowed by all wlio have fcen it, t9 be more worthy to ad«n a King*! Palace than of bang aijKB'd for a comtnon Sight. //■. 5. This (iirpiiling Piece of Macluncry Has riven fucK general SatisfafKoh to the Loveri bT Att arid Ingenuity, that the Nobility arc condnually commanding 4C to thdr Scats to fatuly thdr Ckta{6Dt7i and u to be SOLD fay, the Owner Edmund RtsiKo. - The Indde of thi^ Machine may be vicw'd t^Gentlemen and Ladles^ and is to be feen froit t)^ iA die Morning till Eight at Nighc For the ^lining bhe^orti TH E ^ tt$ey^ t Clocb Broadside advertising the wonderful new microscope. Bound in the volume of the "Pennsylvania Gazette" for 1744 in the Ridgway Branch of the Philadelphia Public Library. io6 The Pennsylvania Gazette. and you can neverthelefs difcover who he is, you may in like Manner way-lay him in the night, at- tack him behind, and give him a good drubbing. Thus far goes my Projedl as to private Refent- ment and Retribution. But if the publick Ihould ever happen to be affront'd, as it ought to be, with the condud: of such Writers, I would not advife pro- ceeding immediately to thefe Extremities, but that we fhould in Moderation content ourfelves with tar- ring and feathering, and tofling them in a Blanket." Some of the news items afford a striking con- trast to those of the present day, as witness this one from the issue of February 29, 1732, which, while more than commonly startling, is not entirely un- representative. "From the South-Carolina Gazette": "One Day laft week, Mr. Charles Jones, pur- fuing a Runaway Negro who had robb'd him; he came up with the Negro, who refilled and fought him ; and he ftruck the Lock of his Mufket into the Negro's Scull, and kill'd him. He went and told a Juftice what he had done, who order'd him to cut his Head off, fix it on a Pole, and fet it up in a Crofs-Road ; which was done accordingly near Afhley Ferry." The advertisements in the "Gazette" related to runaway servants, horses strayed or stolen, real estate, "very good live-geese feathers," ^c. for sale. In the issue of the "Gazette" of May 30, 1734, ap- peared the first advertising cut, not, however, the first used in colonial newspapers, the "Mercury" having used them for some months previously. The Pennsylvania Gazette. 107 Many of the advertisements have a curious sound as viewed by modern standards : OIX or Seven Months ago, was lent by '^ David Evans, a barbicuing Iron, which he de- fires may be return'd, he having forgot to whom he lent it. A LL persons who are indebted to ■'■ *■ Henry Flower late Poftmaster of Pennfyl- vania, for Poftage of Letters or otherwife, are de- fir'd to pay the fame to him at the old CofFee- Houfe in Philadelphia. "D ETWEEN the fecond and third Sun- ■'-' days in June paft, there was ftolen three Bi- bles out of the Baptift Meeting-Houfe. . . . Whoever gives Notice of the faid Bibles, and fe- cures them so that they may be had again, fhall have Fifteen Shillings Reward. To Be Sold A LIKELY young breeding Negro Woman fit for Town or Country Bufinefs, has had the Small Pox; as alfo a Mill for grinding Malt, and a fcreen for cleaning of Malt or any other grain; inquire of John Danby in Third Street, and Know the Price; they will be sold very reafonable for ready Money. Counterfeiting seems not to have been a difficult art two hundred years ago if we are to judge by the following advertisement of the government of the Province of New Jersey: "Burlington, June 19, 1734. " 'T^HIS is to give Publick Notice, that X fome fraudulent Jerfey Bills have been lately io8 The Pennsylvania Gazette. utter'd at Burlington, and to caution all Persons that they may not be impof'd upon by them. They may be plainly diftinguifh'd from the true ones by thefe Marks; viz. The Coat of Arms, and the firft Word, This, are ftamped with red Ink, whereas in the true Bills they are done with black Ink: The Frauds are much foil'd and pafted on the Back and the Signers Names fuppof'd to be artfully taken from fome fmall Bill, and paft'd to the Fraud: and feveral other fmall Patches art- fully paft'd, to make them look like the true ones. The following advertisement has a flavor that is almost modern: "TJR. BATEMAN'S Pectoral Drops, -*—' which are given with fuch great Succefs, in all Fluxes, Spittingof Blood, Confumption, Small-Pox, Meafles, Colds, Coughs, and Pains in the Limbs or Joints; they cure Agues, and the moft vio- lent Fever in the World, if taken in Time, and give prefent Eafe in the moft racking Torment of the Gout; the fame in all forts of Cholicks; they cure the Rheumatifm, and what is wonderful in all forts of Pains (be they ever fo violent) they give Eafe in a few minutes after taken; they eafe After Pains, prevent Mifcarriages, and are wonderful in the Stone and Gravel in the Kidneys, Blad- ders and Ureters; bringing away Slime, Gravel, and oftentimes Stones of a great bignefs, and are the beft of Medicines for all Stoppages or Pains in the Stomach, Shortnefs of Breath, and Strait- nefs of the Breaft, re-enkindling the almoft ex- tinguish'd natural Heat in difeaf'd Bodies, by which Means they reftore the languifhing to per- fect Health. Their manner of working is by mod- erate Sweat and Urine. For Children's Dif- tempers no medicine yet difcovered can compare with it: For it cures the Gripes in their Stomach The Pennsylvania Gazette. ' 109 and Bowels. It caufes weak and forward Chil- dren to take their natural Reft. It is taken with great Succefs in the Rickets, and in a Word, it hath reftored Hundreds of poor Infants to their Strength and livelinefs that have been re- duc'd to meet fkeletons. Sold by Miles Strick- land in Market-Street, Philadelphia, price 4s. a bottle with Directions. At the time Franklin became a publisher it was the custom for newspapers to be sent through the mails post free, but the postmaster had the option of denying the privilege to such as he chose, and usually he denied it to all but his own. The suc- cessful newspapers in Boston and Philadelphia were conducted by the postmasters. This was an in- justice to other pubUshers and was keenly felt by Franklin in his efforts to extend the circulation of the "Gazette." His only feasible way to secure out-of-town distribution was to bribe the postriders to carry his newspapers in addition to the post- master's own. When he was appointed postmaster he opened the mails to all newspapers on terms equal to those he prescribed for himself. When he became Deputy Postmaster General for the Col- onies, in 1758, he withdrew the privilege of free distribution and established a charge of nine pence a year for each fifty miles of carriage. He was the first postmaster to advertise unclaimed letters, no CHAP. XL Poor Richard's Almanack. A LTHOUGH the encyclopaedias are authority ■^ for the statement that WilHam Bradford in 1685 issued the first American almanac, the fact is that Stephen Daye printed an almanac in Cam- bridge almost fifty years before. One of the first issues from Daye's press was an almanac printed in 1639 for that year, which began with March and not with January. Almanacs were also issued by other Cambridge printers prior to Bradford's. William Bradford issued the first almanac pub- lished in Philadelphia and it was also the first prod- uct of his press. Its title was "Kalendarium Pennfilvanienfe, or, America's Meflinger. Being an Almanack For the Year of Grace, 1686." Hildeburn says: "It consists of twenty unpaged leaves. The reverse of the title which, in the copy at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, measures 6 by 3 1 inches, the type occupying 5^^ by 2| inches, and half of the succeeding page is filled by Atkins' address 'To the Reader,' which is followed by Bradford's : 'The Printer to the Readers.' The latter was as follows: " Hereby underftand that after great Charge and Trouble I have brought that great Art and Myftery of Printing into this part of America believing it may be of great fervice to you in feveral refpects, Kalendarium Penn/ihanienfe , OR, Americas Memnger. BEING AN ALMANACK For the Year of Grace, 16S6. Wherein is contained both the Englilh & Forreign Account. th(Motionsofth;P1anctsthrou^hth;Sigiis, with th; Luminann, Conjuniftions, Arpffls, Eclipfc j therifing, fouthing and frtting of tiw Moon, with the time when me paffrth^.or is with the moft eminent fixed Stars. Sun riling andfetting and the time of High-Water at the City of PAi- ladelphii, Gfr, \Wth Chronologies, and many other Notes, Rales, and Tables, very fitting foreverymanto know& have j all which is accomodated to the Longitude of the Province of Pnnfitwma, and Latitude of 40 Degr. north, with a Table of Houfesforthefame, which may indifferently ferve Wen". EngUnd, NnTork, EaJl&iWeft Jtr[ty, Marjlaad, andmoll parts of /';^i™. By SAMVEL ATKINS Student in the Mathamatidu and Aftrology. Ajtitht Stars in their Ceurfes fought cgainfl Seftra, Jndg.5. 59. Printed and Sold by William Bradford, fold alfojby the Author and M Murrey in Philadelphia, and Philip Richards in New-Tori; 1685. First issue of Bradford's Almanac. Original in the possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Size 2|" X sA"- 1 12 Poor Richard's Almanack. hoping to find Encouragement, not only in this Almanack, but what elfe I fhall enter upon for the ufe and fervice of the Inhabitants of these Parts. Some irregularities, there be in this Diary, which I defire you to pafs by this year; for being lately come hither, my Materials were Mifplaced, and ,out of order, whereupon I was forced to ufe Figures i^ Letters of various fjzes, but underftanding the want of fomething of this nature, and being importuned thereto, I ventured to make publick this, defiring you to accept thereof, and by the next, (as I find encouragement) fhall endeavour to have things com- pleat. And for the eafe of Clarks, Scriviners, ^c. I propofe to print Blank Bills, Bonds, Letters of Attourney, Indentures, Warrants, ^c. and what elfe prefents itfelf, wherein I fiiall be ready to ferve you, and remain your Friend. Philadelphia, the 28th loth Month, 1685 W. Bradford. When Benjamin Franklin in 1732 decided to issue an almanac for the succeeding year, the busi- ness of almanac making was in a thriving state. Says John Bach McMaster in ** Benjamin Franklin as a Man of Letters": "The almanac was the one piece of literafure of which the sale was sure. Not a household for a hundred miles around the printer, but if there was sixpence to spare, would have a copy. In remote towns, where money was not to be had, a dozen copies would be bought with potatoes or wheat, and disposed of one by one — at the blacksmith's for a Poor Richard 's Almanack. 113 few nails; at the tavern for rum; at some neigh- bor's in payment of a trifling debt. Chapmen carried them in their packs to exchange with copper kettles and china bowls, for worsted stockings and knit gloves. They were the diaries, the journals, the account books of the poor. Strung upon a stick and hung beside the chimney-place, they formed an unbroken record of domestic affairs, in many instances for thirty years. On the margins of one since picked up at a paper mill are recorded the interesting cases of a physician's practice, and the names of those who suffered with the smallpox and the flux. Another, has become a complete journal of farm life. A third is filled with verses written in imitation of Pope and Young."~ Although late in 1732 there were in Philadelphia alone seven established almanacs, the fact did not deter young Franklin from entering the field. The cost of securing the copy for almanacs from the philomaths was between twenty to thirty pounds each year, which, in view of the fact that the salary of the attorney-general was only sixty pounds, was high pay. Franklin proposed to save this expense by furnishing his own copy. Since he was to be the publisher he did not wish to be known also as the author and predictor of events, and he therefore borrowed a title which he found in a London almanac entitled "Apollo Anglicanus" (the English Apollo) issued by "Richard Saunders, Student in the Phyfical and Mathematic Sciences." . m^MM ^ Apoi/o Anglicmm: ^ rtj2 THE English Apollo; Aflifting 'All Pcrfons in the Right Underftand- Irg of this Y E A R's Revolutions, as alio of Things pail, prefent, and to Come. 'iA Twofold Kakndary viz. Julian or Englijh, ■ and Gregorian or toreigit Computations, more plain and full than any other ; with the K.iflng i anjJ Setting of the' Sun, the Nightly Rifing and ' Setting of the Moon, arid alfo het Southing, eii&\y calculated for every Day, Of General USE for moft M E N- Bciiig the Second after Bifixtlk, or Le a r -Ye a r. To which is. added, the Moon's Application to the Planets : with the Calculations of the Eclipfei : Alfo Rules and Tables for the Meafuring of Timber : With inanj other Xhingi both plea&nt, ufe&I.and hecellaiy. Calculated according to A R T, and fitted to the Meridian of Lticeflrr, whofe J-atitude ii sa Degreei,4| Minuter, exa^y htdng all the middle Coiuitiet of Estglani, and, without ienlible Error, the whole Kingdom. \^Y RICHARD SJUN-DERS, i SiuJtitl in tie Phyfical a»^ Mathematical Sciesca. ^LONDON: Printed by A. Wi i d e, j forthe GompaBy of STArioNERS,-i746. m m The English almanac issued by the original Richard Saunders, upon an early number of which Franklin modeled his "Poor Richard's Almanack." Original in possession of the author. Size ji" x sf". 114 Poor Richard's Almanack. 115 The success of "Poor Richard's Almanack" was immense. The first edition was immediately sold out, as was also a second, and before the end of the year a third was printed. Of the Almanack Frank- lin says: "I reaped confiderable profit from it, vending annually near ten thoufand." Poor Richard, although entirely fictitious, be- came in the minds of the readers of the almanac a very real person. Franklin, as he says, scoured the literature of the ages, and the wisdom thus secured was served up in the homely words of Poor Richard in a way that proved to be very acceptable to the readers. Not only did the sayings pass into the common speech of the people, but the writings of others of that time and the years immediately suc- ceeding abound in quotations from Poor Richard. Indeed, it is true of the present as of the past that probably no other American writer is so frequently quoted as Benjamin Franklin. Poor Richard in the first number gives as a reason for the publication of the Almanack : " The plain Truth of the Matter is, I am exceflive poor, and my Wife, good Woman, is I tell her, exceflive proud ; fhe cannot bear to fit fpinning in her Shift of Tow, while I do nothing but gaze at the Stars; and has threaten'd more than once to burn all my Books and Ratthng-Traps (as flie calls my Infl:ruments) if I do not make fome profitable Ufa of them for the Good of my Family, The Printer has ofi^er'd me Poor Richard, 1733. A N Almanack For thcYcarofChrift Being the Firft after I E AP YEAR: Atti Wfl*«» fvt ihe Crcatim Vests By the Accounr of ihe E Arm Gmki 7241 By the Latin Church, whrn O ciw IT 6952 By the Computation cX tV IV 5742 By the Reman ChroAoIogy %6iz By the Jeaifo Kabblo {494 iVherein ts contatned The Lonations, 'Eclipfcs, Judgmenr of the Weather, Spring Tirfes Planets Motions & jnutual AfpeSt, Sun and Moon's R ifing and Set- ting, Length of Days, Time of High Water. Flits, Cmrrs, and obfcrvable Day» Fitted to the Larttmlcol Fortv Degrees, and a Meridian of Five Hours Wrft fmn* / mdm. hut may without (cnfiMe Error fe rve all the ad- jaccnr tlace^ eveafroio tintfnmdljnJ 10 Siash- CaroVma. By RICHJRD Sy4[JNDERS,PhUom. PHILADELPHIA.- Piinted and fold by B FKJNKLlS. at the New , Printing Officr near the Maikci Title Dage of the first number of "Poor Richard's Almanack." ^ ^ Size 3I" X sF- Poor Richard 's Almanack. 117 some confiderable share of the Profits, and I have thus begun to comply with my Dame's De- fire." He gives his readers warning that they must not expect too much of solid stuff: "And be not thou difturb'd, O great and fober reader, if, among the many ferious fentences in my book, thou findeft me trifling now and then, and talking idley. In all the Difhes I have hitherto cooked for thee, there is folid Meat enough for thy Money. There are f craps from the Table of Wifdom, that will, if well digeft'd, yield ftrong Nourifhment for the Mind. But fqueamifh ftomachs cannot eat without Pickles; which, it is true, are good for nothing elfe, but they provoke an Appetite. The vain Youth, that reads my Almanack for the fake of an idle Joke, will, per- haps, meet with a ferious Reflection that he may the ever after be the better for." Poor Richard was entertainingly frank about his personal family affairs. In the second number, in congratulating himself upon the success of the Almanack, he announces that his wife has been able to buy a pot of her own, instead of being obliged to borrow one, and that they have got something to put into it. " She has alfo got a pair of Shoes, two new Shifts, and a new warm Petticoat ; and for my part I have bought a fecond-hand Coat, fo good that I am not now afhamed to go to Town or be feen there. Thefe Things have render' d her tem- ii8 Poor Richard's Almanack. per fo much more pacifick than it uf'd to be, that I may fay I have flept more, and more quietly, within this last year, than in the three foregoing years put together." In a stanza of doggerel in the first number he takes this fling at Bridget : She that will eat her Breakfaft in her Bed, And fpend the Morn in drefling of her Head, And fit at Dinner like a maiden Bride, And talk of Nothing all Day but of Pride; God in his Mercy may do much to fave her, But what a Cafe is he in that fhall have her. In the next number of the almanac appears the following stanza by "Mrs. Bridget Saunders, My Dutchefs, in anfwer to the print' d Verfes of laft Year": He that for the fake of Drink neglects his Trade, And fpends each Night in Taverns till 'tis late. And rifes when the Sun is four Hours high. And ne'er regards his ftarving Family, God in his Mercy may do much to fave him. But, Woe to the poor Wife, whofe Lot it is to have him. An astronomical prophecy is as follows : "During the firft vifible Eclipfe Saturn is retro- grade : For which reafon the Crabs will go fidelong, and the Ropemakers backward. Mercury will have his Share in thele affairs, and so confound the , Poor Richard 's Almanack. 119 Speech of the People, that when a Pennfylvanian would fay Panther he fliall fay Painter. When a New Yorker thinks to fay This he fhall say Difs, and the People in New England and Cape May will not be able to fay Cow for their Lives, but will be forc'd to fay Keow by a certain involuntary Twift in the Root of their Tongues. No Connecti- cut Man nor Marylander will be able to open his mouth this year, but Sir fhall be the firft or laft Syllable he pronounces, and fometimes both. Brutes shall fpeak in many Places, and there will be above feven and twenty irregular Verbs made this year; if Grammar don't interpose. Who can help thefe miffortunes .? This year the Stone- Blind fhall see but very little; the Deaf fhall hear but poorly; and the Dumb fhan't fpeak very plain; and it's much, if my Dame Bridget talks at all this year. Whole Flocks, Herds, and Droves of Sheep, Swine and Oxen, Cocks and Hens, Ducks and I)rakes, Geefe and Ganders fhall go to Pot; but the Mortality will not be altogether so great among Cats, Dogs and Horses. As to Old Age 'twill be incurable this Year becaufe of the years paft. And towards the Fall fome People will be seiz'd with an unaccountable Inclination to roaft and eat their own Ears: Should this be call'd Madnefs, Dodors.? I think not. But the worft Difeafe of all will be a certain moft horrid, dreadful, malignant, catching, perverfe and odious Malady, almoft epidemical, infomuch that many fhall run mad upon it; I quake for very fear when I think on't; for I affure you very few will efcape this Difeafe; which is call'd by the learned Albro- mazar Lacko'mony." I20 Poor Richard's Almanack. In another number he prophesies: " Before the middle of this Year, a Wind at N. Eaft will arife, during which the Water of the Sea and Rivers will be in fuch a manner raif'd, that great part of the Towns of Bofton, Newport, New York, Philadelphia, the Lov/lands of Maryland and Virginia, and the Town of Charlefton in South Carolina, will be under Water. Happy will it be for the Sugar and Salt Handing in the Cellars of thofe Places, if there be tight roofs and ceilings overhead; otherwife, without being a Conjuror, a man may eafily foretel that fuch Commodities will receive Damage." In the next number appeared the following ex- planation : "The Water of the Sea and Rivers is raif'd in Vapors by the Sun, and is form'd into Clouds in the Air, and thence defcends in Rains. Now, where there is Rain overhead (which frequently happens when the Wind is at N. E.), the Cities and Places on Earth below are certainly under Water." Fooling that was most relished by the public related to rival almanac makers. The one among them who was selected to receive the shafts of Poor Richard's wit was Titan Leeds, the philo- math responsible for Bradford's "American Alma- nack." After the paragraph explaining Franklin's reasons for publishing, there followed a prediction of the forthcoming death of Mr. Leeds, a device that was not origuial with Franklin, but had been Poor Richard's Almanack. 121 used years before in England by Dean Swift, when he prophesied the death on a certain date of one Partridge, an almanac maker. Partridge sur- vived the date and then exuhingly proclaimed the failure of the prophecy, but Swift replied that Partridge was so notorious a liar that his testi- mony could not be accepted in so important a matter. Franklin was more gentle in his jest at the expense of Titan Leeds. Poor Richard said: "Indeed this Motive would have had Force enough to have made me publifh an Almanack many Years fince, had it not been overpower'd by my Regard for my good Friend and Fellow Student Mr. Titan Leeds, whofe Intereft I was extreamly unwilling to hurt: But this Obftacle (I am far from fpeaking it with Pleafure) is foon to be remov'd fince inexorable Death, who was never known to refpe(ft Merit, has already prepar'd the mortal Dart, the fatal Sifter has already extend'd her deftroying Shears, and that ingenious Man muft foon be taken from us. He dies, by my Calcula- tion made at his Requeft, on October 17, 1733, 3h. 29m. P. M. at the very inftant of the c/ of O and y . By his own Calculation he will furvive till the 26th of the fame Month. This fmall Difference between us we have difput'd whenever we have met thefe 9 Years paft ; but at length he is inclin- able to agree with my Judgment: Which of us is moft exadl, a little Time will now determine. As therefore thefe Provinces may not longer ex- ped: to fee any of his Performances after this Year, I think my felf free to take up the Talk, and 122 Poor Richard's Almanack. requeft a fhare of the publick Encouragement; which I am the more apt to hope for on this Ac- count, that the Buyer of my Almanack may con- fider himfelf, not only as purchafmg an ufeful Utenfil, but as performing an Act of Charity, to his poor Friend and Servant." Leeds repHed indignantly, as Franklin hoped he would, which resulted in further reference to the matter in the second number of "Poor Richard's Almanack" as follows: " In the Preface to my laft Almanack, I foretold the Death of my dear old Friend and Fellow-Stu- dent, the learn'd and ingenious Mr. Titan Leeds, which was to be on the 17th of October, 1733, 3h. 29m. P. M. at the very Inflant of the c/ of O and ^ : By his own Calculation he was to survive till the 26th of the same Month, and expire in the Time of the Eclipfe, near 11 o'clock P. M. At which of thefe Times he died, or whether he be really dead, I cannot at this prefent Writing pofitively affure my Readers; forafmuch as a Diforder in my own Family demand'd my Prefence, and would not permit me as I had intend'd, to be with him in his aft Moments, to receive his laft Embrace, to clofe lis Eyes, and do the Duty of a Friend in perform- ing the laft Offices of the Depart'd. Therefore it is that I cannot pofitively affirm whether he be dead or not. . . . There is however (and I cannot fpeak it without Sorrow) there is the ftrongeft Probability that my dear Friend is no more: for there appears in his Name, as I am af- fur'd, an Almanack for the Year 1734, in which I Poor Richard* s Almanack. 123 am treat'd in a very grofs and unhandfome Man- ner, in which I am call'd a falfe Predidler, and Ignorant, a conceit'd Scribler, a Fool, and a Lyar. Mr. Leeds was too well bred "to ufe any Man fo indecently and so fcurriloufly, and moreover his Efteem and Affection for me was extraordinary; So that it is to be fear'd that Pamphlet may be only a Contrivance of fomebody or other, who hopes perhaps to fell two or three year's Almanacks ftill, by the fole Force and Virtue of Mr. Leeds' Name; but certainly, to put Words into the Mouth of a Gentleman and a Man of Letters, againft his Friend, which the meaneft and moft fcandalous of the People might be afham'd to utter even in a drunken Quarrel, is an unpardonable Injury to his Memory, and an Impofition upon the Publick." Leeds replied again, and to this reply in the issue for 1735 Poor Richard makes reference: "But having receiv'd much Abufe from Titan Leeds deceas'd (Titan Leeds when living would not have uf 'd me fo !) I say, having receiv'd much Abufe from the Ghoft of Titan Leeds, who pre- tends to be flill living, and to write Almanacks in Spight of me and my Predictions, I cannot help faying, that tho' I take it patiently, I take it very unkindly. And whatever he may pretend 'tis undoubtedly true that he is really defunct and dead. Firft becaufe the Stars are feldom dif- appointed, never but in the Cafe of wife Men, Japiens dominabitur afiris, and they forefhow'd his Death at the Time I predid:ed it. Secondly, 124 Poor Richard's Almanack. 'Twas requifite and neceffary he fhould die pundlu- ally at that Time, for the Honour of Aftrology, the Art profeff'd both by him and his Father before him. Thirdly, 'Tis plain to every one that reads his two laft Almanacks (for 1734 and 35) that they are not written with that Life his Performances ufe to be written with ; the Wit is low and flat, the little Hints dull and fpiritless, nothing fmart in them but Hudibras's Verfes againft Aftrology at the Heads of the Months in the laft, which no Af- trologer but a dead one would have inferted, and no Man living would or could write fuch Stuff as the reft. But laftly I convict him in his own Words, that he is dead {ex ore fuo condemnatus eft) for in his Preface to his Almanack for 1734, he says. Saunders adds another Grofs Falfhood in his Almanack, viz. that by my own Calculation I fliall furvive until the 26th of the faid Month October, 1733, which is as untrue as the former. Now if it be as Leeds fays, untrue and a grofs Falfhood that he surviv'd till the 26th of October, 1733, then it is certainly true that he died before that Time ; and if he died before that Time, he is dead now, to all Intents and Purpofes, any thing he may fay to the contrary notwithftanding." But the feature that gave widest popularity to "Poor Richard's Almanack" was the short epigram- matic sayings with which he filled the blank spaces on the calendar pages as shown in the illustration on page 125. They were mixed with the calendar announcements indiscriminately and are to be distinguished only by the difference in type face. Mob, March hath xxxi days. My Love and I (or Killes playM, She woufd keep ftakcs, I was contend But when I won ihe would be paid ; This made me ask her what flte meant: •Qaotb flie, finc( yoa are in this wrangling veio. Here take your Kiues. eive ne mine agaim 3 4 5 p J S $> 10 ti It «3 «5. 1« iSjG to 5Q.Ca[oiineNat E£ghipring tides jSxmd. Lent 7 * fet 1 1 2 Days II h. 54 m. mtk- ■ ■ ■ 21 22 -5 S4 2ti 27 lis: 1321 w 'mitmichKdjr * ^ 9 " .«W cnt. V then Spring Q_ begin: £^Xi &makes|S Eq.Day&Nighc ^ lf%if lut luarm Days incr. J h. £ 7 * fet 10 20 St. Patrick > Palm Sunday / many •at»- 6 hi **"' /^ooi be htifft, 5*7 *fet 100 J £Good Friday PW14. !»/.'$ fim.-fair&'tkar EASTER Day 7 • fcr 9 4j Higbv^ndSjtoith fime iteia ta $ht SCOh tni 8X9 - 7 » fet 9 17 5 [20$ 20| » n J9 0|29 "SI 24 19 7 '4 9 8 J 5 5. 8 t « o J J9 J 58 165 56 5 5J J 34 J J? J 5* 5 J« 5 49 J 48 $ 47 $ 4« S 45 f 44 5 4? 5 4» $ 40 S 39 5 37 '«S 35 Ki 34 145 53 «Kt. David i >rif.4 16 mo. £New]> 4 day, fct! 5 mom. 'y Go m at Am'fi litem; 7 E^xnthjnmki 7 take piiik 7Fuli ® 19 day 7 ; in the Mom. 7 )-rif 8 4« a-ft. 7 7l« Itai'rt 7 their tcaarj- 7 was 7 > rif I mom. 7 Lad Quarter. ; ffiatn tuwr 7 /rfw budbrtflo- 7lDaysincr.J 38 jl>rif J aS Inside page of "Poor Richard's Almanack." Original 3 J" x sl" 126 Poor Richard's Almanack. A few of these maxims, selected at random, are as follows : " Keep thy fhop, and thy fhop will keep thee." " Diligence is the Mother of Good Luck." " God helps Them that help Themf elves." " Bargaining has neither Friends nor Relations." " Early to Bed, Early to rife, makes a Man healthy, wealthy and wife." "An Empty Bag cannot ftand upright." " Ben beats his Pate and fancys wit will come ; " But he may knock, there's Nobody at home." Franklin summed them up in a preface to the Almanack of 1758 (not 1757, as was stated in the "Autobiography") which is sometimes entitled " Father Abraham's Speech to the American People" and sometimes "The Way to Wealth." Of it Paul Leicester Ford says: "It is this preface which has given the name of Poor Richard currency in alien races, and a quot- able quality to this day. It has been printed and reprinted again and again. In every size, from a 'pot duodecimo' up to 'imperial folio'; in thou- sands for the plow-boy, and in limited and privately printed editions at the expense of noblemen ; for the ' penny-horrible ' hawker, and for the bibliomaniac ; for the 'Society for Preserving Property Against Republicans and Levelers,' and for the 'Associa- tion for Improving the Condition of the Poor'; and under the titles of 'Father Abraham's Speech,' 'The Way to Wealth,' and 'La Science du Bon- ^ a A POCKET )\LMANACK For the Year 1744. Fitted to the Ufe ofpEsm- STtrVAiriA, and tHe neighbour- ing Provinces. With feveral ufsfal AlfrBiTioNS. 5yR. SAUNDERS. PM. rniLADELPHIAt Printed and>>lbfd by B. Fr A n k l in. o/g«ff Fianth, and fyAriei, HeadSeFece, ^ Taurus, Neek, liCeRkini, Atmt» gz: Cancer^ Brtafi, ! ^Leo^ Heart. 11J,VirgO, Btwe/« ■ jilJhra, Reim. ^ C3priiBom,^«;<^ ^Aqnaty, i/f*. jllrorcs, Fi!«K •■SffiTiHT GSol, }>cr9Ltina, I^Saturnr "^Jupittr, ^ Mars. ?, Venus. $ Mercury, A.Trioeu P<2u&rtale. sleSextile. ^Conjuitd. ^ Oppcihion Pocket edition of the Almanack. 128 Poor Richard's Almanack. homme Richard,' it has proved itself one of the most popular American writings. Seventy-five editions of it have been printed in English, fifty-six in French, eleven in German, and nine in Italian. It has been translated into Spanish, Danish, Swedish, Welsh, Polish, Gaelic, Russian, Bohemian, Dutch, Catalan, Chinese, modern Greek, and phonetic writing. It has been printed at least four hundred times, and is to-day as popular as ever." Testimony to the value of the wisdom of the maxims is given by John Paul Jones, famous in American history as a naval officer in the War of the Revolution. The government of France had prom- ised a new ship to Jones and he waited at Brest, on the seacoast, month after month for it to arrive. He wrote for a fulfilment of the promise to every- body who might be connected with the transaction, even to the King of France himself, but the vessel was not forthcoming. One day he came across a copy of "Poor Richard's Almanack" in which he read the sentence, "If you would have your Bufi- nefs done, go; if not, fend." He took the hint, im- mediately journeyed to Versailles, and soon ob- tained an order for the purchase of the ship which, in grateful recognition of the source from which came the suggestion that brought an end to his difficulties, he named Bon Homme Richard. ' For twenty-five years Franklin compiled and printed the Almanack, the one in which appears the summing up of its philosophy being the last one As a Business Man. 129 edited by him. In 1748 it was enlarged from twenty-four to thirty-six pages and the size from 2| X 5I inches to 3i x 5I inches, the name being changed to "Poor Richard Improved." Small engravings first appeared in the issue for 1749. i^ i^ i^ i^ i^ i^ i^ i^ ® i^ @ C« i^ ® i^ % ® i^ €« C« i^ €« CHAP. XII. As a Business Man. Bufinefs, the Plague and Pleafure of my Life, Thou charming Miftrefs, thou vexatious Wife; Thou Enemy, thou Friend, to Joy, to Grief, Thou bring'ft me all, and bring'ft me no Relief, Thou bitter, fweet, thou pleafing, teazing Thing, Thou Bee, that with thy Honey wears a Sting; Some Refpite, prithee do, yet do not give, I cannot with thee, nor without thee live. CO WROTE Poor Richard in his Almanack of 1742, fourteen years after Benjamin Franklin went into business for himself and six years before the date of his retirement permanently from it. The wisdom that experience in business had brought to him and with which Poor Richard for so many years pointed the way to achievement is to be found tersely stated in the epigrams and aphorisms which filled what would otherwise have been the blank spaces in the Almanack. To those who would look further into his business philosophy are commended the short papers entitled "Advice to a I30 As a Business Man. Young Tradefman," " Hints for Thofe That Would Be Rich," and particularly "The Way to Wealth," which has been described as "the best sermon ever preached upon industry and frugality." Prof. Albert Henry Smyth found seventy-three repe- titions in Franklin's writings of his favorite phrase "industry and frugality," and adds "there are many more." The great business enterprises of the present day had no counterpart in the America of the Eigh- teenth Century. We were then truly a country of shopkeepers. John F. Watson gives an interesting picture of the business men of that time. "The tradesmen before the Revolution (I men- tion these facts with all good feeling)," he says, "were an entirely different generation of men from the present. Between them and what were deemed the hereditary gentlemen there was a marked differ- ence. 'The gentry think scorn of leather aprons,' said Shakespeare. In truth, the aristocracy of the gentlemen then was noticed, if not felt, and it was to check any undue assumption of ascendency in them that the others invented the rallying name of ' the Leather Apron Club '—a name with which they were familiar before Franklin's 'junta' was formed, and received that other name. In that day the tradesmen and their families had far less pride than now. While at their work, or in going abroad on weekdays, all such as followed rough trades, such as carpenters, masons, coopers, blacksmiths, ^c, uni- versally wore a leathern apron before them, and As a Business Man. 131 covering all their vest. Dingy buckskin breeches, once yellow, and check shirts and a red flannel jacket was the common wear of most working men ; and all men and boys from the country were seen in the streets in leather breeches and aprons and would have been deemed out of character without them. In those days, tailors, shoemakers, and hat- ters waited on customers to take their measures, and afterward called with garments to fit them on before finished. "No masters were seen exempted from personal labour in any branch of business — living on the profits derived from many hired journeymen; and no places were sought out at much expense, and display of signs and decorated windows, to allure custom. Then almost every apprentice, when of age, ran his equal chance for his share of business in his neighbourhood, by setting up for himself, and, with an apprentice or two, getting into a cheap lo- cation, and by dint of application and good work, recommending himself to his neighbourhood. "The overworked and painfully excited business men of the present day have little conception of the tranquil and composed business habits of their fore- fathers in the same line of pursuits in Philadelphia. The excited and anxious dealers of this day might be glad to give up half of their present elaborate gains, to possess but half of the peace and content- ment felt and enjoyed by their moderate and tran- quil progenitors." James Parton in his " Life of Benjamin Franklin" adds to the picture of the colonial business man and his activities by saying, "A store was simply a 132 As a Business Man. dwelling house, with a room full of goods on the ground floor, and a wooden bee-hive, anchor, Bible, ship, basket, or crown, hung over the door." Benjamin Franklin did not stop with preaching to others in his Almanack and "Gazette" correct principles in business. He practised them himself. Industry, frugality, modesty of demeanor, self- reliance — these were the foundation stones upon which he built, and that he built well is attested by the comparatively short period in which he secured a competence and was enabled to retire. But there were croakers in Philadelphia at the time when he went into business as there seem to be in all places at all times. One such, whom he de- scribes as "a Perfon of note, an elderly Man, with a wife Look and a very grave Manner of fpeaking," one day stopped at his door, asked him if he were the young man who had lately opened the printing house, and, being answered in the affirmative, ex- pressed his sympathy on the ground that the enter- prise was sure to fail. The elderly gentleman was not alone in his dismal prophecy. In a discussion at what was called the "Merchants' Every Night Club" the general opinion was that since there were already two printers in Philadelphia, a third could not succeed. But a Dr. Baird gave a contrary opinion. "The In- duflry of that Franklin," said he, "is fuperior to anything I ever faw of the kind ; I fee him ftill at As a Business Man, 133 work when I go home from Club and he is at work again before his neighbors are out of bed." DiHgence was characteristic of FrankHn's long and busy life. At the age of sixty-nine we find him writing to his friend Priestly, "In the Morning at fix I am at the Committee of Safety, which Com- mittee holds till near nine, when I am at the Con- grefs and that fits till after four in the afternoon." Franklin had a due regard for appearances. A chapter in the "Autobiography" is to the following effect : " In order to fecure my Credit and Character as a Tradefman, I took care not only to be in reality in- dufl:rious and frugal, but to avoid all Appearance to the contrary. I drefl^'d plainly; I was feen at no Places of idle Diverfion. I never went out a fifhing or fhooting; a book, indeed, sometimes debauch'd me from my Work, but that was feldom, fnug, and gave no Scandal ; and, to fhow that I was not above my Businefs, I fometimes brought home the Paper I purchafed at the fl:ores through the flxeets on a Wheelbarrow." Franklin's independence is illustrated by an anecdote related by Jared Sparks. Some of the patrons of the " Pennsylvania Gazette " thought that he was too free in his criticism of the public acts of certain persons of high standing and warned him against its continuance as prejudicial to his business welfare. By way of answer, Franklin invited his critics and the other gentlemen of whom they spoke. iMwi Design for paper money made by Benjamin Franklin. Exact size of origi- nal, in possession of the author. ^Si^l^^M^SfcMl: ^■^^^^f||f^^|§r^;|g The veins of a leaf were used to make counterfeiting difficult. The inscrip- tion reads: "To Counterfeit is DEATH." 136 As a Business Man, to supper. They accepted, and when they had assembled at his board they found, much to their surprise, nothing before them but two puddings made of coarse meal, usually called "sawdust pud- ding," and a stone pitcher of water. Franklin ate heartily, although his guests found it practically im- possible to do so. When he had finished he dis- missed them with the statement, " My friends, any one who can subsist on sawdust pudding and water, as I can, needs no man's patronage." Franklin was careful of the quality of his work. While learning his trade, and afterward when fol- lowing it, he looked carefully into every method and process, with a view to determining for himself the reason for each operation, and frequently he was able to substitute better ones. Examination of the books and pamphlets he printed shows his work to have been of a uniformly higher grade than that of the other printers of his time or of the period which preceded his. We have already seen (p. 64) how he obtained one of his first orders, the public print- ing of Pennsylvania, because of the better quality of his workmanship. Of Franklin's position in the business world in 1744, sixteen years after he began and four years be- fore he was to retire, Parton says: "His 'Gazette' became the leading newspaper of all the region between New York and Charleston. Poor Richard continued to amuse the whole coun- As a Business Man. 137 try, to the great profit of its printer, who was obliged to put it to press early in October in order to get a supply of copies to the remote colonies by the beginning of the new year. All the best jobs of printing given out by the provinces of New Jer- sey, Maryland, Pe^nnsylvania, and Delaware, fell to the office of Franklin; who, by means of his partnerships, had a share also in the good things of Virginia, New York, the Carolinas, and Georgia. His schoolbooks, his hand-books of farriery, agri- culture, and medicine, his numberless small pamph- lets, his considerable importations from England, all contributed to swell his gains." Of these profits Parton adds: "Probably his business in the most prosperous years did not yield a profit of more than two thousand pounds sterling. But there was not, probably, another printer in the Colonies whose annual profits exceeded five hun- dred pounds." Sydney George Fisher in "The True Benjamin Franklin," says: "Although extremely economical and thrifty in practice as well as in precept, he had very little love of money, and took no pleasure in business for mere business' sake." Fisher esti- mates Franklin's fortune at the time of his death to have been "considerably over one hun- dred thousand dollars." Parton gives the amount "at a liberal estimate, one hundred and fifty thou- sand dollars, of which about two-thirds was pro- ductive," 138 CHAP. XIII. Partnerships. TN ALL his business arrangements Benjamin Franklin was careful to have, complete under- standings in advance. It is the almost universal experience that partnerships are prolific sources of quarrels. Franklin had many business partner- ships, but all, with possibly one exception, turned out satisfactorily. This was owing, he said, "a good deal to the Precaution of having very ex- plicitly Settled, in our articles, everything to be done by or expedled from each Partner fo that there was Nothing to difpute; which Precaution I would therefore recommend to all who enter into partnerfhips ; for, whatever efteem Partners may have for, and Confidence in, each other at the time of the Contradl, little Jealoufies and Difgufts may arife, with Ideas of Inequality in the Care and Burden, Bufmefs, yc, which are attended often with Breach of Friendfhip and of the connexion; perhaps with lawfuits and other difagreeable Confequences." It is interesting to speculate on how wide might have become the operations of Benjamin Franklin had he cqntinued in business for the remainder of his long life. Success in printing nowadays is con- sidered to be entirely a matter of personaHty. Some one man or group of men dominates every Partnerships. 139 printing establishment, which means that it Is necessarily a local business. In all the United States, with more than thirty-one thousand print- ing and publishing establishments, there are com- paratively few conducting plants In places remote from their main offices. Benjamin Franklin oper- ated printing houses located in widely separated parts of the Colonies and the West Indies. He was the first American trust magnate and the only one so far as the printing business Is concerned. The first of his ventures of the kind after the dissolution of the firm of Franklin and Meredith occurred in 173 1, when he had been in business only three years. This partnership was with Thomas Whitemarsh, who began in Charleston, S. C, October i, 173 1, and who the next year es- tablished a newspaper, the "Gazette," the first paper in either of the Carollnas. He was after- ward appointed printer to the government. Franklin had later another partner In Charles- ton, as successor to Whitemarsh. He was Peter Timothy, son of the Louis TImothee, who, as pre- viously related, was the editor of Franklin's Ger- man newspaper, the " Philadelphlfche Zeitung." Three partnerships concern themselves with relatives. Having become reconciled to his brother James, whom he visited. In Newport, R. I., to which place James had removed his printing office from Boston, Franklin returned to Philadelphia 1 40 Partn er ships. with his brother's son, who also bore the name of James, taught him the printing trade, and a few years later sent him back to Newport with a new assortment of types to be added to the equipment which his mother was using in her management succeeding the death of the boy's father. This was a philanthropic rather than a business enter- prise. Franklin had another nephew, Benjamin Me- com, son of one of his sisters, whom he took into his shop in Philadelphia, taught the trade, and then established in business in Antigua, West Indies. The boy afterward returned to Boston, where Franklin again helped to set him up in busi- ness. He was only moderately successful and later made another move this time to New Flaven, where Frankhn procured for him the office of post- master. William Dunlap was another of Franklin's part- ners who was a relative, although by marriage, he having married into Mrs. Franklin's family. He began printing at Lancaster, but later removed to Philadelphia. According to Isaiah Thomas his "printing was correctly and handsomely executed." He subsequently left the business to engage in the study of divinity, and in 1768 became the rector of a parish in Virginia. Samuel Holland and Benjamin Franklin signed an agreement June 14, 1753, under which Holland Partnerships. 141 began to print at Lancaster, Pa. Franklin was to let Holland have a printing press and type; Hol- land was to keep them in good order and to pay- thirty pounds a year in four instalments. Hall and Miller were the names of two others of Frank- lin's partners at Lancaster. All of the Lancaster partners, including William Dunlap, were prob- ably connected with the same plant. William Smith was also a partner of Franklin in the West Indies. He established in Dominica in 1765 "The Freeport Gazette or the Dominica Advertifer" printed weekly on Saturday "on foolfcap fheet and with new long primer and fmall pica type." Hildeburn gives three other partnerships, all in Philadelphia, as follows: B. Franklin and G. Armbruester, 1 747-1 750; B. Franklin and J. Boehm, 1749-175 1 ; and B. Franklin and A. Armbruester, 1754-1758. Articles of agreement were signed February 27, 1741, between Benjamin Franklin and James Parker, who had served his apprenticeship with William Bradford in New York, by the terms of which Parker was to establish himself in that city. When Bradford discontinued the publication of his "New York Gazette" Parker reestablished the paper under the title of "The New York Gazette, Revived in the Weekly Poft-Boy," and he probably retained Bradford's subscription list. 142 Partnerships. The original agreement with Parker was for six years, but it continued until Parker's death in 1770. Franklin provided the plant, which is quoted by Livingston to have been: "A Printing Prefs with all its neceffary Appurtenances, together with 400 Pounds Weight of Letters; but of 'all charges for Paper, Ink, Ball, Tympans, Wool, Oyl and other things necelTary,' two thirds was en- tered againft Parker and one third against Frank- lin." The profits or losses were divided in the same proportions. When Franklin retired from active business he turned over his printing and publishing business to David Hall, his foreman, who was- to carry it on under the firm name of Franklin and Hall and to pay Franklin one thousand pounds a year for eighteen years, at the end of which time Hall was to become sole proprietor. This agreement Hall faithfully carried out. In the final settlement James Parker acted as Franklin's representative, the latter being then in England. Parker made an inventory and ap- praisal (pp. 92, 93) showing that Hall had not kept the outfit up to a very high standard of efficiency. The manuscript of his report to Franklin is in the Typographic Library and Museum of the American Type Founders Company in Jersey City, and since it has not previously been published is here given in full. The long letter seems to justify the des- Partnerships. 143 ignation sometimes made of Parker as "the weep- ing philosopher." It is as follows: Philadelphia, February 3, 1766. Hon. Sir: This accompanies one Copy of the State of your Accounts with Mr. Hall according to the befl; of my Skill and Judgment, and the Quantity and State of the Printing Office : And tho' I have endeavoured to mention every Thing as plainly as I could, yet poflibly some Articles may need a little Explana- tion, befides what is fo fet down: — The Valuation of the Printing Materials feems fmaller than I im- agin'd it would be ; but as I examin'd all the Letter, and faw the whole weigh' d, I could not do other- ways: for the greateft Part of the Letter is much worn; the Old Brevier fit for very little, and Mr. Hall purpofes to throw it by as foon as he can, hav- ing got a new Fount himfelf already come over, to ufe in its Stead, — and indeed the whole is worn much, except the Double Pica, and neweft Englifh, tho' neither of them are new, — we weigh'd the Forms and Pages of Almanacks ^c. with all their Rules in and about them, so that thofe Rules are charged in the Letter the fame as the Letter: In weighing a Form, we only took the Chace out of the Weight, — and in weighing the Letter in the Cafes, we weigh'd two empty Cafes first, and took their Weight al- ways out of it, — the Furniture and Rules not actu- ally up in Forms was but little and poor, and he muft foon get himfelf more : — One of the Preflfes is almoft done its beft, having been mended fo often, as to be very patch'd and Mackled : — On the whole, I think I have valued it, at what I thought was the 144 Partnerships. Value of it, fuppofing no Advantage of one want- ing to buy it, or of one wanting to fell it, on either fide to be taken. — yet Mr. Hall fays, if there be any Particulars in it, that you fhall make objedtion to, he is willing it fhould be redlified.— With Re- spedl to the Paper furnifhed by you he fays, he had no other Rule to afcertain it, than by the Work-Books, which we carefully look'd over, and fet down the Quantity ufed in every Job and Newfpaper, — ^As the Paper ufed for Pubhc Work before 1756, and fundry other Work, had been fettled and accounted for to you already, as by the Accounts he produced in your own Writing ap- pears. — ^Tho' we fettled the Pocket Almanacks he fold at 6d which is as he fold them wholesale, yet he charges you with those fent to Rhode Island but at /{d which were part of thofe he charges himfelf 6d at. — ^The Money paid by him in England at fundry Times, as charged Stirl. we reckon'd Exchange @ 170, as a Medium, as for fome of that Money he gave above L. 100 — and for fome others little more than 160, — and we have been as exadl in reckoning every thing as we poffibly could. — We had gone on very nigh finifhing when we recolle(fled fome of the Money, both of what you received, and what he had, was due to you before the Partnerfhip began: This obliged us to have a new refearch, and a thorough new Examination of all the Books and Accounts, and dif covered, that he had received the fum of £. 246. 4:2 J of Money due to you before the Partnerfhip began, which Sum being included already in the Articles of Numb, i on the Credit Side, whereby you are credited for one half of it, we credited the Partnerships. 145 other Half at the Bottom of the General Account, being £.123.2 :ii — ^Again we found of the Sums you had received, the fum of £.185.6:7 which belonged to you before the Partnerfhip began, and as you had been charged with the Half of that in No. 3 Debtor fide, fo we have credited the General Account for that Half £. 92.13 :3J — ^This we thought the moft eligible Way, as we had already enter'd and caft up the Whole before: On your Confidering the Matter, I think you will find this to be the right, and perhaps the beft that could be, to fet fuch blend'd Accounts in the cleareft Light. — There are fome of the Books and Pamphlets printed in the Partnerfhip unfold, fome of which he has taken to himfelf, and allowed for them, but fome others which don't appear faleable, he has left, and if hereafter any of them fells, he will account for them: — And upon the Whole, if any Miftake or Error fhall be hereafter difcovered on either Side, he is willing it Ihould be rectified, — If you fhould return home this Spring or Summer, you can ex- amine any thing you fhall think wrong yourfelf : — As I fhall leave the final palTmg of them, till I hear from you, or fuch Return to do it yourfelf. My lafl to you was from Burlington, the End of laft December, and beginning of January: — I came down here, tho' fcarce able to crawl, the i6th inftant, — I continued all the reft of the Month to proceed on with the Accounts, whenever I was able to ftir, tho' I had a Relapfe, or rather only an In- creafe of the Pain, a few Days after I came, that rendered me unable to walk for three Days, — and am flill but very poorly, — I hope to be able to get back again to Burlington, — as it is not com- 146 Partnerships. fortable to be fick from home : — nor there neither, if it could be help'd. — I have now been in the Gout three Months, and have had it fome Days in the Heart and Stomach fo bad, I thought I could not live: — My Son been fick above three Months, — and he is but poorly yet, tho' he is mending, and likely to get well. On the Whole, this year paft has been a diftrefTed one with me. — But, God's Will be done. Mr. Foxcroft is gone to Virginie, and I have not heard any thing from him fmce his Departure: — I wifh I may hear from you, before the End of this Month, where I am to put the Printing- Materials of B. Mecom's that are now at Burling- ton: — I have no body there at Work, all my Boys being gone to New York y Woodbridge: And in- deed, I have no work there for them to do, if they were there: — I would immediately away to New York now, were I able to travel at any Rate, but I even fear, I fhall hardly be able to get back to Burlington only, as the Weather is uncomfortable : but I will go as foon as I can. — I think I wrote you before, I had fecured the Goods you fent to Mr. Hughes, but they are imopen'd, as I would be there myself. — I wrote alfo to Balfour, which I inclofed to you, and hope you will have received it: — I don't know any thing further material about Affairs wherein I am concerned, — ^And thofe relating to the Publick you will doubtlefs have from abler and better Hands — I wrote to B. Mecom lately, but had but a fliort Anfwer, that he would foon fend me the Account yc. — I have wrote again — But, — I fear nothing can quicken his Sluggifhnefs. — I have told Holt I intend to come to New York, and take my Printing Office Partnerships. 147 again: I don't know what he defigns: he keeps it fecret from me: — I heard the Gentlemen of Vir- ginia were trying to get a new Printer, in Oppofi- tion to Mr. Boyle, becaufe he declined going on, or was too much under the Influence of the Governor there: and as Green and Rind are parted. I im- agine Rind is the Man, and that they have bought the Office that was Stretch's, which by an Invoice I faw of it, was very compleat and good; fo that if it be fo, it will be bad for Billy Hunter whether Boyle lives or dies: — It was reported Boyle grew worfe after his Return home but as we have not heard lately from thence, I can't fay no more about it, and Doubtlefs you will hear from thence from Mr. Foxcroft foon, who can give you a better Account of the Matter. As I am neceffarily to send you two copies of the Accounts ^c. — fo another to the same Purpofes as this, I Ihall leave in Mr. Hall's Hands to be for- warded to you, with them, Therefore, I think I can add no more, than all Refpedls ^c. from Your most obliged Servt. James Parker. P. S. Mr. Hall made fome Demands for hiring a Clerk: He fays he hired one at your Particular Requeft @ one Time : — that he had one conftantly from 1753 : and for 18 Months two of 'em : never lefs than 20/ a Week, and great Part of the Time 25.— he alfo muft keep one Still, to draw out Accounts and get in the Money due, and thinks part of the Expenfe should be yours: — As the Articles were filent on that Stead, and my Power did not extend fo far, I could only refer it to you: — Two Iron 148 Partnerships. Fire places of yours are left, and he having a year or two ago, purchafed two Cannon Stoves, he keeps them himf elf, as he bought them with his own Money. Burlington, Feb. 10. — I got as well home here as I expe(fled : the Gout not quite left me yet. — As foon as my Strength will admit, I fhall fet forward for New York: — No Packet come in yet tho' momen- tarily expedted: — I Ihall send down B. Mecom's Printing Office to Philadelphia, immediately, as Mrs. Franklin fays fhe will fee Care taken of it. Feb. II. — I juft now heard Mr. Holt has had an Execution levied on his Goods ; he does not tell me fo himfelf, but I have heard it, and fear its too true : — I believe I fhall be a far greater lofer by him, than you were by B. Mecom: — Its an eafy Thing to be- have with Fortitude, when all goes generally well : But I muft expedl it notwithftanding all may go aginft me: And indeed, I know I can't command Succefs in my Affairs, but as far as Refignation, and a Steady Diligence could deferve it, I have endeav- oured it: — I have fupported others and almoft Starv'd myfelf : but I am thankful its no worfe, and will ftill fay, God's will be done. Feb. 20. Laft night heard the Packet was come in, but no Letter for me, fo I now attempt to Stop : — I am ftill poorly with this wretched Gout, or rather now a real Rheumatifm, as it takes all my Bones. — Hope only remains at the Bottom of Box. I long for my Health to go to New York, but I mufl fubmit. One thing I forgot to mention, I mufl now note — One box of goods fent to Mr. Hughes came by Capt. Tillet, — this I fuppofe is the Stationary: — this I Partnerships. 149 have in my Store at New York, but I have Advice of another come in Capt. Berton, — ^which I fuppofe is the Electrical Machine, but as you have never fent a Bill of Lading for it either to Mr. Hughes or me, Capt. Berton won't deliver it without a Bill of Lading tho' I fent him word I would indemnify him fo he keeps it in his Pofreffion,^ — and I cannot de- mand it without a Bill ^c. All Mecom's materials are fent down to Phila- delphia. Adieu. An interesting account of Franklin's last business relationship with a printer on a considerable scale is given by Livingston. It is that which relates to his dealings with Francis Childs, a young printer of New York, who had learned his trade in the shop of William Dunlap. Franklin, then in his seventy- sixth year, was in Paris as Minister to France when Childs first wrote to him to enlist his interest in the printing business which he had established on a frail basis in New York, and the relationship, which cannot certainly be called a partnership be- cause no definite statement appears in the cor- respondence of Franklin's acceptance of Childs' proposals, continued until a few days before Frank- lin's death in April, 1790. Franklin's experience with those who are known to have been his partners was almost entirely satisfactory to him, but that with Childs could hardly be so termed. Childs' letters are filled with ISO Typefounder. continual complaint of shortages in equipment of type sent to him from the foundry which Franklin had established for his grandson, Benjamin Frank- lin Bache, in Philadelphia, and with excuses for his failure to make payments as promised. A little less than a year before his death Franklin wrote to him as follows, giving a glimpse into his financial affairs at that late period of his life : "You wrote to me in December lafl, that as foon as you return'd from attending the Aflembly you would immediately fet out for Philadelphia in order to make a final Settlement of our Accounts : This was a Promife very agreeable to me, as my late heavy Expenfe in building five Houfes (which coft much more than I was made to expedl) has fo ex- haufted my Finances, that I am now in real and great Want of Money." Franklin was able to live comfortably upon the annual payments by Hall and the salary received from the various public offices he held, although when Hall's payments ceased Franklin felt himself, as he said and was, in reduced circumstances. i^ ® €^ e« i^ @ €< €* €< ® ® ® ® €^ ® e« €^ it* e« €< €« it* CHAP. XIV. Typefounder. TN FRONT of Bartholomew Close, near Palmer's printing office in London, was located a type- foundry conducted by Thomas James, and it was to Typefounder. 151 be expected that a young man with an inquiring mind such as Benjamin Franklin possessed and par- ticularly one with his interest in printing and every- thing connected with it, would be attracted to the foundry. There he witnessed the processes that go to make up the typefounder's art, the designing of characters, the making of molds, and the casting, trimming, and polishing of individual types. After Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1726, and what he considered to be an ill turn of fortune obliged him again to take up the printing trade, he made an arrangement, as has already been stated, to take over the mechanical management of Samuel Keimer's printing establishment. There he found that his knowledge of typefounding, although limited, served him in good stead. Keimer's type cases were in need of sorts, and since there was no place in America at which to purchase them and months were required to secure supplies from abroad, the young foreman contrived a mold, used the letters on hand to make puncheons, and with them cast type that served the purpose. Thus Benjamin Franklin became America's first typefounder. It has already been related how he went as the employee of Keimer to Burlington, then the capi- tal of New Jersey, to fulfill a contract which Keimer had secured to print the paper money of that province. He says in the "Autobiography," " I con- 152 Typefounder. trived a copper plate Prefs for it, the firft that had been feen in the Country; I cut feveral Orna- ments and Checks for the Bills." The press was probably not imposing in appearance or remark- able for its execution, and the design of the cur- rency does not show a high order of artistic ability, but both are important in establishing the fact that, in making this copper plate press, Franklin was the first American maker of printing presses and the first designer and engraver for printing purposes. Franklin's interest in the building of printing presses was not confined to his early years at the business. In 1753 we find him writing to his friend William Strahan, of London, as follows : " If you can perfuade your Prefs-Maker to go out of his old Road a little, I would have the Ribs made not with the Face rounding outwards, as ufual, but a little hollow or rounding inwards from end to end ; and the cramps made of hard caft Brafs, fixed not acrofs the Ribs, but longways, fo as to flide in the hollow Face of the Ribs. The reafon is, that Brafs and Iron work better together than Iron and Iron. Such a prefs never gravels; the hollow Face of the Ribs keep the Oil better, and the Cramps, bear- ing on a large Surface, do not wear, as in the com- mon Method. Of this I have had many years' Experience." One of Franklin's English friends, with whom he corresponded for many years, was William Caslon, the famous typefounder. In a letter written to 3UP A Cua^re gravrf i Piri* pour M. FRANKLIN, par S. P. FouRNIER le jnaie, I781. ~2aamd onixctlii da/iw jon 4wiana/r(l, Jrnllu, at^icllu,, Sf Comtdlt ediCcrmc/U^ J^u xjciemca et la tyOrtd aiw Ion cwltn. \ Tandem aliqua \ ABCDEFGHIJ Two Lintt Great Primer Rom. Tandem aliquand ABCDEFGHJKLO 7W Liitti ZHgliJb Rem, J TANDEMaliquando.Qu I ABCDEFGHIJKLMN t 7W Lints Pica Ram. i Tandem aliquando,Qmrites! J L. Cadlinam forentem audacia I ABCDEFGHIJKLMKOPS I Double Pica Rom. 8 Tandem aliouando, Quihtes! I L. Catilinam furentcm audacia, \ fcclus anhelantem, peftem patris I ABCDEFGHIJ KLMNOPQR I ^Doifhle Pica Rom. Tandem aliquando, Quirites ! L. Catilinam furentem audacia, fcc- lus anhelantem, peftem patrise ne ABCDEFGHlJKLMNOPCiRT Frentli Canon Ital. Tandem aliquan ABCDEFGH Two Lines Double Pica ItoL « Tandem aliquand. * JBCDJEFGHI Two "CiiRrGicaz Prhniff Iiai. Tandem aliquando., ^BCDEFGHK Tvo Lmes Englidilul. Tandem aliquando, ^iri ABCDEFGHIKJMOS Two Lints Pica ItaL Tandem aliquanJo, Stjfirites ! L. Catilinam furentem auiacia,fce- JBCDEFGHIJKLMNOPR Double Pica Ital. 'tandem ali^uatidoy ^irites / L- Catilinam furentem audaciajfce' lui anhelantem^ peflem patriae nef ABCDEFGHIJ KMNOPSIR "Double Pica Ital. Tandem aliquando^ Quirites I L. Catilinam furentem audacia, fcehs anheVantem, peftem patriae nefarie ABCDEFGHIJKLMNSPQRS Type specimen sheets issued by Benjamin Franklin Bache. Size inside the border 7I" x 14I". BcNjAMiN PKANKUH Bachb') SPECIMEN. TuiKTKBK LiNxa Pica. York. ELirsH Lines Pica. Bofton. NiMB Lines Pica. ! Baltimore Sbviw Lib¥! Fic*. I Burlington. | Fivt Lines Pica.V^^^ \ I Philadelphia City \ J Four Lines Pica. 2 Northumberland I 4^^^ ^^^ A, Quantity of 19, i6, 13, il, g ft 7 Lines Pica is always to be difpofed of, at B. F. Bache's Printing-Opce, Market Street ; As alfo a number of typogra- phical Cuuand a great Variety of Flowers. From the Typographic Library and Museum of the American Type Founders Company, Jersey City, N. J. i6o Typefounder. abundant, and all the reft will appear deficient, fo that there will be no End of proceeding in that Manner. Therefore it is, that Printers have iffually to every large Fount what they call a Bomcafe, or Fount Cafe, that is, a Cafe to hold thofe Sorts that are fuperfluous in one kind of Work and where they may be found when wanting in another. You remark that your now demanding more of fundry Sorts (after being fupply'd with all you formerly thought wanting) is owing partly to your not taking an accurate Lift of the Imper- fed:ions at firft : and I am perfuad'd that the pref- ent Lift you have fent me is far from being accurate, fmce it is in Pounds weight, and not in the Number of Letters. This lumping Method of calling for Sorts to fupply fuppof'd Imperfedlions, 5 lb. of m's 3 lb. of s's, etc. etc. can never be accurate ; and in this Inftance of the Petit Romain, you may fee already the Effedl of fuch Inaccuracy, viz. to aug- ment inftead of diminifhing the Imperfedlions of a Fount; for at firft you want'd but 4 or 5 Sorts of the lower Cafe, and now you want 15 or 16, which is a great Part of the Four ^ twenty, and proves what I have faid above that there can be no End of going on in this Way. — However to oblige you, tho' it is much more Trouble as the Mold muft be adjuft'd afrefh for every little Parcel, you ftiall have the Sorts you want if you fend a Lift of them in Numbers. My Grandfon will caft them, as foon as he has taken his Degree and got clear of the College; for then he purpofes to apply himfelf clofely to the Bufinefs of Letter founding and this is expect'd in July next. You fliall alfo have some W's of a better form for the Pica as you defire. The Private Press at Passy. i6i And I will willingly receive the Petit Canon again which you propofe to return." To his grandson, who was twenty-one years of age at the time of his death, Franklin left "all the Types and Printing Materials which I now have in Philadelphia with the complete Letter Foundry, which, in the whole, I suppofe to be worth near one thoufand Pounds." it* it* it* it* it* it* it* iU'it* iU i^ it* it* it* it* it* it* it* it* it* it* it* CHAP. XV. The Private Press at Passy. "OENJAMIN FRANKLIN sailed from Phila- delphia on his mission as one of the three comjnissioners to France, October 27, 1776. He landed nearly two months later, proceeded imme- diately to Paris, and soon had established himself in the Hotel de Valentinois, in Passy, a village between Paris and Versailles, at which latter place the headquarters of the French government was located. The growth of Paris in the direction of Versailles in the years that have intervened has swallowed up the village of Passy, and the Hotel de Valentinois long since disappeared. A replica of Boyle's statue of Franklin in front of the post- office on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia has been placed in that part of Paris which once was 1 62 The Private Press at Passy. Passy on the Rue Franklin, so named because of Franklin's residence there. He used the residence for eight and a half years, and it comes within the scope of the present vol- ume because during practically all of that time he operated in it a printing equipment for the pro- duction of leaflets, broadsides, etc., some of them for practical use, but mostly for the amusement of himself and his friends. Franklin's biographers have had little to say about the press at Passy. William Temple Frank- lin dismisses it with the single sentence, "Not- withstanding Dr. Franklin's various and important occupations, he occasionally amused himself in composing and printing, by means of a small set of types and a press he had in his house, several of his light essays, bagatelles, or jeux d'esprit, written chiefly for the amusement of his intimate friends." Edward Everett Hale in his two volumes, "Franklin in France," says: "Franklin soon es- tablished in his own house at Passy a little printing establishment, from which occasionally a tract or handbill was issued. From this press the pre- tended 'Independent Chronicle,' with an account of Indian scalping, was issued, and the little books published here are among the treasures most de- sired by the connoisseurs." Professor Smyth makes only one important INFORMATION TO THOSE WHO WOULD REMOVE TO AMERICA. IVl ANY Perfons in Europe having direftly or by Letters, exprefs'd to the Writer of this, who is well acquainted with North-America, their Defire of iranfporting and eftablishing themfelves in that Country ; but who appear to him to have formed thro' Ignorance, miftaken Ideas & Expedations o£ what is to be obtained there ; he thinks it may be ufeful, and prevent inconvenient, expenfive & fruit- lefs Removjus and Voyages of improper Perfons, if he gives fome clearer & truer Notions of that Part of the World than appear to have hitherto pre- vailed. He finds it is imagined by Numbers that the In- habitants of North -America are rich, capable of rewarding, and difpos'd to reward all forts of Ingenuity ; that they are at the fame time ignorant of all the Sciences ; & confequently that ftrangers poflelling Talents in the Belles-Letters, fine Arts, !kc. muft be highly efteemed, and fo well paid as to become eafily rich themfelves ; that there are alfo abundance of profitable Offices to be difpofed of, A First page of a twelve-page pamphlet printed at Passy. Exact size. From "Franklin and His Press at Passy." 164 The Private Press at Passy. reference to the press in Passy: "Sometimes they were printed upon his private press at Passy, in limited editions of perhaps a dozen or fifteen copies. Nearly all are lost. The fictitious 'Sup- plement ' exists in the Library of Congress and the - Library of the American Philosophical Society, and the latter cpUection has also the printed orig- inal of 'La Belle et la Mauvaise Jambe' (Passy, 1779). But the other fugitive leaves have dis- appeared." It remained for the late Luther S. Livingston in his beautiful volume, " Franklin and His Press at Passy," privately published by the Grolier Club in 1 9 14, to present a nearly complete account of the printing done at the Hotel de Valentinois. N Livingston describes fifteen "bagatelles," four- teen of which, each a separately printed piece, are bound together in a little volume in the Franklin collection of William Smith Mason. He says, "three of these are sixteen pages each, one is of twelve pages, two of eight pages, one of six pages, one of four pages, and six of two pages (or a single leaf) each. The fifteenth i? a single sheet printed on one side only, among the Franklin papers in the Library of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. William Temple Franklin was too much of a dandy to think of giving his time and attention to such trivial matters as setting type and 'working. The Private Press at Passy. 165 a press. A younger grandson, Benjamin Franklin Bache, was of a different mold. It was the grand- father's intention to bring the younger boy up in a way that would fit him for public business, but evidently reflection upon his own personal experi- ence of the limited financial return to be derived from such a career caused him to change his mind, for we find him writing to the boy's father that he had de- termined to teach him a trade, that "he may have fomething to depend on, and not be oblig'd to aflc Favours or Offices of anybody." Franklin further said, "he has already begun to learn the bufmefs from Mailers who come to my Houfe, and is v^ry intelligent in working and quick in learning." This reference is confirpied by an entry in Ben- jamin Franklin Bache's diary to the effect that a "mafter founder" had come to Passy to teach him to cast printing types and that the teacher was to remain all winter. A later entry says that M. Didot, whom he describes as ^'the belt printer of this age and even the befl: that h^s ever been feen," had consented to take him into his house for some time in order to teach him his art. The statement is made that in the house is combined " engraving, the forge, the foundry, and the printing office." A further reference in the diary, dated April 5^ 1785, to M. Didot's establishment, is to the effect that "the meals are frugal." 1 66 Advertiser and Propagandist. It has already been noted that WiUiam Temple Franklin referred to his grandfather's equipment as "a small set of types," which does not agree with a reference Benjamin Franklin made to it in a letter he wrote to Francis Childs after his return to Philadelphia, in which he said: "My printing Materials, confifting of a great variety of founts, were fent down the Seine fome weeks before I left Pafly." Livingston's investigations indicate that the equipment was a considerable one. Much correspondence with French typefounders, among them the famous house of Fournier, has been brought to light, and unless the type purchased was disposed of in ways not known and not now ascertainable, the supply must have been a large one. There is also some evidence to war- rant the belief that two printing presses were operated. i^ €« @ €« @ i^ €« €« €« €« €' €« @ €« €« % €« €« i^ i^ i^ i^ CHAP. XVI. Advertiser and Propagandist. T^RANKLIN is sometimes spoken of as the first American advertiser, but there is no special reason for such a designation. The " Pennfylvania Gazette" under his ownership contained more advertising than it did under that of Samuel Keimer and more than was common to the other Advertiser and Propagandist. 167 colonial newspapers, but the circumstance is to be accredited rather to the enlarged circulation of the "Gazette," owing to its superiority as a news- paper, than to any particularly effective manner of promoting the advertising department. Franklin himself was far from being a self- advertiser. Excepting for the statement of his public services that he prepared for the Conti- nental Congress, he never made any claims for him- self. Throughout his long career he was almost continually in the public service, but he never sought office or made anything like a special effort to obtain it. Although a seemingly indefatigable writer, he never issued so much as a single vol- ume of his literary productions and on at least one occasion discouraged others from doing so. He did, however, advertise occasionally for him- self or the members of his family. The following examples show that to them, as to all other things with which he had to do, he imparted a measure of originality. TAKEN out of a Pew in the Church fome months fince, a Common Prayer Book, bound in red, gilt, and lettered D. F. [Deborah Franklin] on each cover. The Perfon who took it is delired to open it and read the eighth Com- mandment, and afterwards return it into the fame Pew again, upon which no further Notice will be taken. 1 68 Advertiser and Propagandist. A LL Persons indebted to Benj Frank- ■*■ *-lin. Printer of this Paper, are defired to fend in their refpective Payments: (Thofe Subscribers for the News excepted, from whom a Twelve- Month's Pay is not yet due). Gentlemen, it is but a little to each of you, though it will be a conjiderable Sum to me; and lying in many hands wide from each other, (according to the Nature of our Bufinefs) it is highly inconvenient and fcarce practical for me to call upon every One; I fhall therefore think myfelf particularly obliged, and take it very kind of thofe, who are mindful to fend or bring it in without further Notice. Franklin's English is a model for advertisement writers. Simplicity was its chief characteristic. He had the faculty of putting the most thought Into the fewest words, extravagance in language being the target of one of his chief animadver- sions. Writing to John Jay from Paris in 1780 he says: "Mrs. Jay does me much Honor in defiring to have one of the Prints, that have been made here of her Countryman. I fend what is faid to be the beft of five or fix engraved by different Hands, from different Paintings. The Verfes at the Bottom are truly extravagant. But you muft know, that the Defire of pleafing, by a perpetual Rife of Com- pliments in this polite Nation, has fo ufed up all the common exprefTions of approbation, that they are become flat and infipid, and to ufe them almoft implies Cenfure. Hence mufic, that formerly might be fufficiently praifed when it was called A MODEST ENQUIRY INTO THE Nature and Neceffity OF A PAPER'CURRENCi: Qmd affe Vtik Nummus hahet ; patriae, cbarifq) propitiquis i^dtium ilargifi dcceat. .■ ' ■■ - ■- , Pcrf. 'PHILJDEL'THIJ Printed and Sold at the New PRINTING. OFFICE, .near the Market. 1729- Franklin's initial effort in propagandist literature, which resulted in the issuance of thirty thousand pounds in paper currency by the governor and the assembly of the province of Pennsylvania in defiance of orders from England to the contrary. Size 3" x 5!", ' ~ 1 70 Advertiser and Propagandist. bonne, to go a little farther they call excellente, then Juperhe, magnifique, exquije, celefte, all which being in their turns worn out, there only remains divine] and, when that is grown as infignificant as its Predeceffors, I think they muft return to common fpeech and common fenfe ; as, from vying with one another in fine and coftly Paintings on their Coaches, fmce I firft knew the Country, not being able to go farther in that Way, they have returned lately to plain Carriages, painted without arms or figures in one uniform color." Franklin's studies in the art of expression both as a youth and practically throughout his whole life were pursued with one purpose in mind, to in- fluence those who read what he wrote. He had the admirable quality of vision — to be able always to see into things further than did those about him, and seeing clearly he desired others to do likewise. As a youth he practised the Socratic method, but later abandoned it for plain, substantial statements of arguments and facts. Later in life he sometimes employed the dialogue. Every public project, such as paving, cleaning, , and lighting the streets, establishing a fire com- pany, hospital, public library, or university, brought forth an article from Franklin's pen published either in the "Gazette," or as a pamphlet, always interestingly and, as events proved, effectively written. In his later years Franklin adopted another PL^nN TRUTH: Serious Considerations On the Present State of the CITY of PHILADELPHIA, AND Province of PENNSTLVANIA. Bv a Tradesman of Pbiiadelpbta^ Cx^a urhtt tdbil ft re/igtii mSti. Sed, fer Deei immartalet, v»t ego epptlhf qui Jemper domoj, vitlai, figna^ taiftloi *uejtra$, tan* tte afiitHtttionit fectjih ; fi ifiu, agufaonque modifra, qu* am- ffexamini, retinere, fi vobtptatihiu 'veftri: etium frabtrt vultit t Vpergifeimini aliquando, (^ capejjite rempublicam. Non agitur nunc dt fociorum itguriit % Li-bertas y k^xu^mfiraindu' hio tfi. Dux hoJiiuM cttpi exercitu 'Jupra capiJhfi. Vos atnSamini etiavt tmne, tf dubttath quid faciatit f SdHcet, res tp/a aJPerm tfit fii 1VJ n«n timetit earn', Jmo vera m4xume ; fed inertia (*f moUitiS ttttimij alius alium exJpeSataes^ cunSamini ; indelieeft Dits immortaliiut eonfijtt qui bane' rempublicam in maxumit peri* emiit fervttvere. Now Votis, nbc^b Suppliciis Mc^lie* BRtBvs, AcxiLiA Deorum ParAktur : 'vigilando, agen- do, bene confulenda, proj^ere onmia eedunt^ Vbtficordia tete at^ que ignavia tradideris, neqmcquam Dees implores } irati, infejlir ^urfimt, M. For. Cat. in Salvst, Printed in the Year MDCCXLYIL The pamphlet written by Franklin that caused the inhabitants of east- ern Pennsylvania, despite the protests of the Quakers, to put them- selves in a state of defense against France and Spain. Original in the possession of the Curtis Publishing Company, Philadelphia. Size 3 J" x 6i". 172 Advertiser and Propagandist. propaganda method, that of the hoax. Balzac termed him "the inventor of the lightning rod, the hoax, and the republic." A notable example was entitled "An Edict of the King of Pruflia," in which the claim of the King, because of early Ger- man settlements upon the island, to a right to hold England as a German province and to lay taxes upon its inhabitants, was supported by the same kind of argument by which the ministry of George the Third attempted to justify its claim in respect to the American Colonies. Another hoax took the form of a letter from a Hessian ruler to his representative in America, where Hessian soldiers were employed by Great Britain to fight against the colonial army, in- structing him not to be too careful of their lives on the ground that more money was paid by England for dead soldiers than for those who fought and re- turned alive. The most notable effort of the kind, however, was one intended to bring home to the people of Great Britain the horrors of warfare as conducted by the allies of the British soldiers, the Indians, in Amer- ica. It was issued from the Private Press at Passy, as a pretended " Supplement to the Bofton Independent Chronicle" and purported to be "an extract of a letter from Captain Gerrifh of the New England militia." It gave particulars of eight large packages of scalps taken by the Seneca Kjinib. 70;. SUPPLEMEN TOTHE BOSTON INDEPENDEISTT CHRONICLE. BOSTON, Mueli 11. E.Y/nifl rf a Lcll'.r fmm Capt. Ottlilh, 'ft/ie NtfW&fllllld Ml- ... — '^■•Hf, PtUi/ lik!^n la ide Fjipodiiion [ Stc iht Aeminl k/ 1 il.c tvi'cJitii-n to Oft\\-g»iehic an lAt Kiven i"(. Lau- rwt;. In riir . oi-tr Kj lit in lnl.anl.lv.m uyou fee^our.i (o- n ■ from th.- Inha'ji-' tiiitk o( ilw I lomieij of New-Yoik, Nirw-Jerfev, PcnDfyli-ania, ii\t V iivinia, a.id ^-ni by thi.-Tn a* a rrefL-ni 10 Cpl. HiIdLmtnd, (luvurior, cf Luiad^inoidtr lobe by him irinfmiiied ta Ki.cou'p:iii:ii ky ih: fallawine culiout L«IM to lUu.CiulUi'KU, AUy ii tihaft goiir Exctlleifff, Tcnpi, J411, jJ. frSp •■ At ih: l(cju.-fi of lb J S,'nnvkji(!hk& I L-nJ h.rc^liJi n't your Kx- r:1I<.'ncy. u-idLrilK'Ciieof .limci CoydiuiphtPictikor^alni. cu^oJ. (Ill -d, hopo( to HOC: itKJr b.inj: kill.-d « iih i1u]l^-n. /.ii L' ilvii bjinK rutpiirt-d in iheNifhi i sr-d jblukHitiha i^illi.'MidiU.-, l1f;n>ryiiigih^it)rin;ltilLd wilhlhilSli'apnn- No. ).(Jii:iainiiii; gS of Firini;n kllltfd in ihdf Houf.-n HooJ-jtiJj lif ure uf 4 Hm. irt milk (h:.-i( I'lof^niofl t r'"" " bil J * .lltil.' and Sun, tolliini-thtywCTC fuTrrifLiyi!niCi*1i[|te T.-H Icot, 10 Qicw thiy Rood upon. (heir VsImu, uii diiul fifihiin;; fni iIi,it Livrt Ltd l*uuli«. No> }• (Iinijinine p7nf Fanrk'n; HoopiftTCtiit in Ih.lt' ih.-yu\i\.' kilk-d III iFi:iiFiJd« ; > larju-' « \iti! Liicje wiih ■ liiiL lAund Mjtk O'l ii for til.- Sun. to Okv ihal it u'u in the yjy-iini.'| blx:k H -llct-oiaik on bmc. Ifalf K-t on oihi.Ti> No. 4. Conijiniiie icaarFaiRint. miii.'d'^f 'hcfvv^iilMajki'altivi;! only 1 3 mATkedUkithalitrl.'y.'II'ni-rtiihCi l'.-ihji b> inc uf tiiruntii buiiu «livc, ifti-i lieinp/calpod. tKn) V^jh piilNd out by theKH>it.udoik?Ti>iiiK3iiki'>nv-uf ihcftila'- icr fuppofk-d to be of I rebel CU-tfymin. fait hand bc>r|: fiwd toihuHoopof UiSealp.aionofihtFumTtarp.'a'by tb«Hiiir tohave beea ynjnjr viniddlo'ir'^Miini thiicbvirg bill fi7 vay pcy Htiit among ihcraii)| whicb SMika Uu S<,-ivice moil! cITrniiaL / Ho. {. Ctmiaininf 86 Scalpiof ToiMn i Hait Iore. braided in th^In* dlan FaihioQ, to Ibrw ihcy w.-re Alothun 1 Hsbf-k bliff 1 i>Vn yi'Ilow Giourd.uiih little red Tidpolia to rcrtvri.-ni, ty u ay tif Tfiuirjh. ib«1Vara or CticrocufiOMd to 'heir HiUii'wi.t a black rt.-n]ping Knife or Hattli.t u th« Hoitnm. tn;cjil: t^ Jr brire bilkdwithiholutDnrunK-nu. i7 0ilvBiHut \>'iy|ii-vi tUcH Honpi ipIainbrDw-nColouijno AUibbiuih>.'((ioiit'l>ib or Can'.iciL', 10 Olta- xbir/ Wat knixkjd iawa dead, 01 hid iln:i/ Hrainv beat out. ho. 6, (loiLiaininp ipj Boyi* Scalp, of x'ariou^ Apiii fir*ll (roi-h hvon i u hiiilh Ground on the Skin, w Ith r.-d T.-^it in ihu riiddle, and black BullcE-inafki, Knlf^-, FUlthut, oiOub. » tli.-r T)itj nor reratdi : we cnu!d pliy iviib tkn f *f.:Iv . we '.-'tciI noiSi^ihcycouIJdoioui. Bui nj...nh,v Ci>uiir>-, thai r.ur Childtcn niay li\T: afiir ui, aidU' hit Frifiids ji'.. ChUdrcn.iiweixc. Say ihiilurunolhj Ei.atKic|j.Tiii;iifurniit ' A mat ifhlK. Bell wii/i Hue T-i'T'lt' r.JtftCr. We havi- only lu fay fittln.' iliat \-our Tridjn Wtll mifo this nv: hi ilit-ir Cioid) : and olt Hunting u lefTcr.ed by thu Vai. fci ih^^i wu have fi-n-cr Skins to give for ih;:[n.Thii>uli»ui. Think of foiM.&a> ijirtjy. ft c ail' p»>i ! and ynu have PKnty iif cvtiyTIiiiw, T hnuu- you will f.-nd w I'ltuder and Cuns a.-idJCnU<7 aiuTKut i.h.it 1 but \vj alfo WWII ihitii aJitillankiiCte A liiilt while Hilt. Idi> not doubt but thai yi^ur txccIlLTcy will ihini: it r>rr>p.-r i.t civi; foniL- raiih.T rni.'iuiii{:.-nii'ni 10 ihr.fv hnncll I^t-«p1.. Vk high d^r.riti Kiy K- f.-ni f.'.r th.'in ihrouch my Hands. ri:itl bv c'.il'tiluicJ jVviifij'Wilt.iiet and lidJiiy. J hatoib.- H..»our..f l^-inR Vout h3(i.\'lli.*ncv'» nwrt uhidi.Tt AsJinnJihumbl.-'^eriMr. JAMLS CliAUKUIlD.'* llw^tar firfl eroiMifiJ 10 tutyiliLfc^ralrnbui liimt^anfrii'- fjiji uhoyouhiiAt hat fm Uai'.- Pt Abr.-ncL'tc pn W:i land p; th;ir DoaThs happened. Mo. 7. 11 1 Girh' Scalpt. big and little 1 1 rls" Scalpt. big and little ; faull yi.Ilriw Hiin[ii j ufut( uiuund ; Teaiv i Haicheti Club, fcalpinjt Krife, he. No. e. Thii Packape iia Mtxtutf of all ihi:Vaii.;iict abm >Ricrt ion'd, to (he Number of I aa; with ■ Pox nftliich Haik. cnniaming ijlitilcTntanis' Scatpt of vaiiouiSi^Hi rmalluhitj Hnon ; white Ground j no Tcan ; and unlv a lililc hhcU Kr.ifj in th^- Atiddle, to Jhcw ihcy lAcrc tipt oui of ihcir' Miiih.-t/ Ikllit. . Tiihihi.r.:Pathi. the Thicft fend 10 your KieclLncy th: follnwinp .^pivth, djLvcicdbyConeiagaichie inC.ouncil. iniL-rpn.'tedbyih^'i.-Idi.'f lIuarcihjTradn, and taken (lownby me iu Ciiiine. Val/tr, Ve wi(h yoii to fend tliifc Sealpt over the Water lolfe (real Kinp. thii he mA) r.'^ard th^m and b.' refieltii.d ; a-idiliat he ma/ fe.- nur *"jiihru!ni.r> in dr(lroyin([ hii Kneniin, and be cunvitlccd that hit l'rerem> h,'>v- nm been made lounmicful Pcopla. if iliit nnJ wAiU Belt with red Talfeh. Taller, Attend -io U hji I am now eainf> to f^y ; it ii a Matter of much Weifhi. Th,.- groat King's fnemloi art many, and ikeygrnwfafl in HiiatkT. 1 hiy wf fefemeily Ukeyoims Pantbat i ibcy tMjd nci- #.ljd wh., — -., . — , - -^ - nib ) livaic Aflaitt, fjid hi. ttinuphi it bt'tiri ihi-v <1inutd rroc.vd 11 ih,iiU\'|lir*'lor'(andifihi7*tfti'j!i»in 10 him.h.-wiiuU ur,dt-inlis T^cairy ih.-m to l-jipland and hanf ih«'ni all up in fork- rliik ^'ipTM «•.! tthi Titvi in St. ,'tmi.t'i. ! ark, whfi.; ih.i' ciuld be ri\n f/nm the Kii.c ar-dOu i-n'i t aUr.* h ihi- .V.-rrinp . i..r ih.ii ih.- 5i, hr of ih.-i. m■I}^lp^^^p>t^lik.■Muk>ll^.f^».■I^■^h_■(al1-dh;ra)«l^hfn^v.■' "rr.- 'fS'niiiii.- ^1 t unfri'nfc Thiy w.tc arrMiJlr;^!/ A- tiuiftl in Yvt^ kind \ii Ii^ biouchi iSi'tn faf.' hiih^'i. T'>-ninrinv ih / lo n tth hla Ba},a^>' 1 aH i^^tm (ui BulWot and uill prabablyU,- t!u'i<.-i!laf>^v U«ytafi>a tliMniui, SAMUEt CrRRIPH. UnSTOM. March J'^. Munjiy laH anlvt-d here Liruwpana FibigmU atm.mtnilonjd. •nd Wiiti.*../ ih.- Sapfrvi « iih ihe Sf »!;■•, 'Ihoufani oTT^^W are floe tir>F 10 rivihL-nihlt Moinine. 'nd all Mnuihtrrt-full n( 1 if- Ciationk, Hnin^ih.-min ihi'Tu-.ts not approved. Iii> wiwpifoTed IfiKi.kclh.iEi.-findLtclHliillel'ock,**. f.al %T^ fnit^ 1 hem i one to iK- kiiip. loa'ainlnB a San-rli.' cf n-erv Jon fiT kii Wu'it ir • one to the (Juix-n. wih fom.- rf »or.cn and lltlL- (.hildrm : ihj -rll "■> bo diniilnitnl amonc both Koufei cf PajIiaiKnt i a double Quaaljiy te ihi' bKh.ipt. TO BE SOLD. yVconvemcni Tan-Yard, lying in Mediield, ri thj Ton Koad, Hiif ■ Mile from ilic llKiirg-Houfv. wyih a (Oor IhO.I'inp-Houfeind ham, and ibnui joAcrnof Land. coimiD^i-t McM in?. I lowUip, and PaduruiE, and an ncclLtii 0):h«jl. Foi fuj- ihjr Panitulait emiui tf-otAdamt'cii.ison iliePrrmifc^. """■ T O H t S O L D. A large Trad of L A N D, lying partly in O«ro.d, and partly in Cha.lion. 1. t).e C-nurlv ..f Woictrl j;. It 11 fitu- ated on agrirat Country Hoid, about Hall' ; .Mile from Ctiiillon M«i- ing-Houfe, and i» capable of makinqiNumbit of fine Scitl;jienii.For fuiihct Pan Lculu- cnouite of ici<.-^ Bla-iey, of Salem, or DjAor Sa- muel Djiifiitih, of Unfloii . All Perfons indebted to, or that have any Demandso-1, -he Ualc of Richard Creenleaf, late of Ncwbuiy-Pjtt, >T.|; deccared, Jie r.-vfui-nfd to biing in ihiir Atc-eni. 10 Mofei I la- zier and Mary Gieenlcjr, fiecuiois id ihe LA U ill ii:d Tulamcni of the deceire d,for an immediate Sttik-mcpl. TO B K SOLD, A fmall new Brick H O U S E, two Rooms oji a FI.-or, at iheSoJih Part o f iheTown.— bmiuJrcof th-Ptmicr. Strayed or ftolen from the Subfcriber, livine in SaJem, 1 Bay Hoife, about feven Yean old, a flocky well fet Horfi. marked I.e. " "— " "■'■ 0.-11--.-..- fii!lHMf;».-dietui: m hiv off ThlKh. tioM all. IJhoctet Ihill iikeup iin" 10 iIi-O'A m, fliall be handfomely rewatdcc. HENRY WHITE. Orig- The " scalp" hoax. Written by Franklin and printed at Passy. inal in the possession of the Curtis Publishing Company, Phila- delphia. Size 8ii" X 121^'. 174 Advertiser and Propagandist. Indians from the inhabitants of the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, and sent by them as a present to the governor of Canada to be transmitted by him to England. Package No. I was said to contain forty-three scalps of soldiers, Nos. 2, 3, and 4, two hundred and ninety- seven of farmers; No. 5, eighty-eight scalps of women, and Nos. 6, 7, and 8, those of boys and girls, with twenty-nine infants' scalps of various sizes. Some of Franklin's hoaxes were for amusement purposes primarily, although each usually had a moral of its own. One such was the famous "Parable of Persecution," written in biblical phraseology as the last chapter of Genesis, in which was contrasted man's inhumanity to man because of differences in religious belief with the patience of the Heavenly Father in passing judgment upon his children. Franklin memorized the chapter and it was his habit in the presence of ecclesiastics and others versed in the Scriptures to turn the conversation to it, then to pick up the Bible and to pretend to read it to them, to their wonder and often confusion because of the lack of previous knowledge of its existence as a chapter of the Bible. An article published in the "Public Advertifer" of London, while Franklin was resident agent for the colonies there, entitled "Rules bv Which a CoolThoughts ON THE PRESENT SITUATION OF OUR PUBLIC AFFAIRS. In a Letter to a Friend in the Country. PHILADELPHIA* printed by W. BUNtAP. M, DCCj LXtT* A political pamphlet written by Franklin advocating the chang- ing of Pennsylvania from a proprietary province to a royal colony. Original in the possession of the Curtis Publishing Company, Philadelphia. Size 3i" x 6J" 176 Advertiser and Propagandist. Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One," was not exactly a hoax but it carried indirectly a message that could not have been presented so effectively in any other way. There were twenty of the rules and they prescribed the exact course of conduct that Great Britain was at the time pur- suing in connection with her colonies. At a time such as the present when honesty in advertising and merchandizing is so much under discussion, and when Truth is the slogan upon the banner behind which associations of advertis- ing men are marching, it is interesting to find a discussion of the subject of truth, or rather its antithesis, "lying," in the "Gazette" of the later months of 1730. One of the issues con- tains an editorial in which this statement is made: "There are a great many Retailers, who falfely imagine that being Hiftorical (the modern phrafe for Lying) is much for their Advantage; and fome of them have a Saying, That 'tis a Pity Lying is a Sin, it is fo ufeful in Trade." The editorial discusses the matter for more than a page and in a later issue appear two let- ters, one of which, signed "Shopkeeper," says in part: " Sir, I am a Shopkeeper in this City, and I fup- pofe am the Person at whom fome Refledlions are The first American Cartoon. Drawn by Franklin and published in the "Pennsylvania Gazette," May 9, 1754. A flag designed by Franklin for the Pennsylvania "Associators," 1747. From Ford's "The Many-Sided Franklin." 178 The First American Humorist. aimed in one of your late Papers. . . . Shop- keepers are therein accused of Lying, as if they were the only Perfons culpable, without the leaft Notice being taken of the general Lying practif'd by Cuftomers. They will tell a hundred Lies to undervalue our Goods, and make our Demands ap- pear Extravagant." The other letter "from a Merchant" pointed out that not only do shopkeepers lie when they sell but also when they themselves go out to buy. In 1754 Great Britain and France were at war. A weakness of the Colonies consisted in the fact that they were disunited and this weakness Benjamin Franklin pointed out in the "Gazette" with a sug- gestion as to how the difficulty might be overcome. He illustrated his arguments with an engraving of a drawing of a serpent cut into pieces, each piece bearing the initials of the name of one of the Colonies, and beneath it the warning caption "Join, or Die." Thus he became the first American cartoonist. i% % @ @ @ i^ i^ i^ e« C* €« €« i^ it* it* iU it* it* it* it* @ ^ CHAP. XVII. The First American Humorist. "T^NGLISH literature of the eighteenth century abounds in humor, wit, and satire, all produced in England itself. The writings of Addison, Swift, The First American Humorist. 179 Steele, and Pope, to mention only four of the bril- liant essayists and satirists of the time, furnished abundant entertainment for their own age and the ages which have followed it; but in America literary production of a lighter vein in the Eigh- teenth Century is to be found only in the works of Benjamin Franklin. There it bubbles forth as continuously and as refreshingly as water from a hillside spring. James Parton quotes David Hume as having said that a disposition to see things in a favorable light is a turn of mind it is more happy to possess than to be born to an estate of ten thousand a year. Ben- jamin Franklin had the turn of mind that not only enabled him to see things in the most favorable light but so to present them to others that they, too, could have the same privilege. His sense of humor developed early, in support of which assertion may be quoted an incident re- lated by William Temple Franklin. It was the custom of Josiah Franklin to say long graces before and after meals, a circumstance that proved irk- some to the younger element in the family. One autumn day after the winter's provisions had been stored away, young Benjamin suggested to his father that if he would " say grace over the whole cask, once for all, it would be a vast saving of time." The first of his literary efforts, the "Silence i8o The First American Humorist. Dogood" papers, produced when he was a boy in his teens and offered anonymously as contributions to his brother's newspaper, evidence this gift of humor in an engaging manner. Exhumed by Professor Smyth from the dusty pages of the "New England Courant," they make good reading even at this late day. "Poor Richard's Almanack" sprang into aston- ishing popularity because the sound sense of its aphorisms was expressed in such quaint humor and entertaining wit. Some of the humor was coarse, belonging rather to the age of Francois Rabelais than to that of Oliver Wendell Holmes, but enough remains that may be repeated in polite society to make Franklin still the most quoted humorist in American literature. Humor began to show itself in the columns of the " Pennfylvania Gazette" as soon as Franklin took hold of it. A correspondent asked : " I am courting a girl I have but little Acquaintance with. How fhall I come to a Knowledge of her Faults and whether (lie has the Virtues I imagine Ihe has." Franklin replied, "Commend her among her female Acquaintances." His tendency always to see the humorous side of a situation sometimes got him into difficulties. "Andrew Miller, Peruke-maker, in Second Street, Philadelphia, takes Opportunity to arquaint his Cuftomers, that he intends to leave off the Shaving The First American Humorist. i8i Bufinefs after the 22d of Auguft next," was an advertisement appearing in the " Pennfylvania Gazette" that occasioned a letter from Mr. Frank- lin addressed to himself on the subject of ** Shavers and Trimmers," in which occurred the statement: " If we would know why the Barbers are fo eminent for their Skill in Politicks, it will be neceffary to lay afide the Appellation of Barber and confine our- felves to that of Shaver and Trimmer, which will naturally lead us to confider the near Relation which fubfifts between Shaving, Trimming and Politicks, from whence we Ihall difcover that Shaving and Trimming is not the Province of the Mechanic alone, but that there are their feveral Shavers and Trimmers at Court, the Bar, in Church and State." The article went on to consider the matter of shaving and trimming, particularly trim- ming, from every angle, evidently very much to the dissatisfaction of Mr. Miller, for in the next number of the "Gazette" appears an explanation from the editor. But, although it contains the statement, " I have no real Animofity againft the perfon whofe Advertifement I made the motto of my paper" the explanation could not have been satisfactory to any one able to read between the lines. In 173 1 Franklin printed an announcement of the sailing of a ship for Barbadoes at the bottom of which was this postscript: "N. B. No Sea Hens nor Black Gowns will be permitted on any Terms." 1 82 The First American Humorist. "Black Gowns," it seems, had reference to the clergy, some of whom became indignant because of being classed with "sea hens." In the " Gazette '*^ of June loth for that year appears a long "Apology for Printers" in which the argument is made on twelve numbered "particulars" that printers should not be held responsible for what is said in the things they print. One cannot help but be somewhat skeptical as to the accuracy of the state- ment in the "Apology" that this printer had noth- ing to do with the matter of adding to the an- nouncement the postscript to which the reverend gentlemen objected. Franklin never hesitated when opportunity offered to relate a joke at his own expense. One of his electrical experiments was an attempt to kill a turkey by shock. He himself received the full effect of the electrical discharge and was rendered unconscious. When restored his first remark was, "Well, I meant to kill a Turkey, and inftead I nearly killed a goofe." Clad in a new suit of clothes, he walked over some barrels of tar on the wharf when the head of one of them gave way and Franklin was partly immersed in its contents. The incident was duly chronicled in the "Gazette." A typographical error in one issue of his paper was apt to be turned to good account in the next, usually with a letter from a supposed reader giving an entertaining account of other The First American Humorist. 183 printers' errors. How he turned his own physical infirmities into entertainment for his friends is shown in the delightful " Dialogue between Frank- lin and the Gout." Sometimes he joked his fellow-editors. A rhym- ing contribution to the " Mercury " was signed B-d. Franklin referred to it in the " Gazette" as follows: "Mr. Franklin, I am the Author of a Copy of Verfes in the laft Mercury. It was my real In- tention [to] appear open, and not bafely with my Vizard on, attack a Man who had fairly unmalked. Accordingly, I fubscrib'd my Name at full Length, in my Manufcript fent to my Brother B-d; but he for fome incomprehenfible Reafon, infert'd the two initial Letters only, viz. B. L. 'Tis true, every Syllable of the Performance dif covers me to be the Author, but as I meet with much Cenfure on the Occafion, I requeft you to inform the Publick, that I did not defire my Name fhould be conceal'd ; and that the remaining Letters are O, C, K, H, E, A, D." Many stories of Franklin's sallies are told. One related by Parton is of a Quaker citizen who came to him with this inquiry: " Canft thou tell me how I am to preferve my fmall Beer in the back Yard.? My Neighbors, I find, are tapping it for me." Franklin's solution was simple : " Put a barrel of old Madeira by the fide of it." The storm aroused in America by the passage of the Stamp Act by the English Parliament is a familiar incident of history. In one of the ex- 184 The First American Humorist. aminations before the committee of the Whole House which was held to consider the matter, Franklin was urged by his friends to repeat a reply he had made to a member who was a most strenuous advocate of the Act and who had told Franklin that if he would but assist the Ministry a little the Act could be amended so as to make it acceptable to the Colonies. Franklin gravely replied that he had thought of one amendment, a very little one, in fact the change of but a single word, which he felt would make the Act acceptable in America. The Tory member was much interested. Franklin then ex- plained that the change he proposed was in the phrase "on and after the firft day of November, one thoufand feven hundred and fixty-five, there fhall be paid, etc.," where he would substitute "two" for "one." He declined to make the sug- gestion during the official examination, however, on the ground that it would be "too light and ludicrous for the Houfe." One day at dinner in a bottle of Madeira wine were found three flies apparently dead. Having heard that it was possible to revive flies supposedly drowned by placing them in the sun, Franklin tried the experiment, with the result that two were brought back to life. This caused him to remark: " I wifh it were poflible from this Inftance, to invent a Method of embalming drowned Perfons in fuch a manner that they may be recalled to Life at any The First American Humorist. 185 Period however Diftant; for having a very ardent defire to fee and obferve the State of America a hundred Years hence, I fhould prefer to any- ordinary Death the being immerfed in a cafk of Madeira Wine, with a few Friends, till that Time, to be then recalled to Life by the folar Warmth of my dear Country!" Many a tense situation was relieved by a laugh following one of Franklin's remarks. There came a day when the Committee of Safety, composed principally of " diffenters, " was required by the more strenuous among the Pennsylvania patriots to call upon the Episcopal clergy to refrain from pray- ing for the king. The suggestion afforded an oppor- tunity for a disagreeable and disturbing discussion, which was averted by Franklin. "The Meafure," said he, "is quite unnecelTary; for the Epif copal clergy, to my certain Knowledge, have been con- ftantly praying, thefe twenty years, that 'God would give to the King and his Council Wifdom,' and we all know that not the leaft notice has ever been taken of that prayer. So, it is plain, the gentle- men have no intereft in the Court of Heaven." Good humor was restored and the matter was dropped. The most famous of the witty remarks credited to Franklin is probably that which relates to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. John Hancock is reported to have said, "We muft be unanimous ; there muft be no pulling different ways ; 1 86 Literary Style. we mufl: all hang together." Franklin replied, "Yes, we mufl, indeed, all hang together, or, moft afluredly, we fhall all hang feparately." The inci- dent is entirely traditional, but it is so characteris- tic as to be generally accepted as authentic. The first year or two of the Revolution was dis- couraging for the envoys in France. Their success on the continent of Europe depended almost en- tirely upon the success of the revolutionary arms in America. The outlook for the American forces was bad, but news came that was worse, to the effect that General Howe had captured Phila- delphia. "Well, Doctor," said an Englishman jubilantly to Franklin, "Howe has taken Phila- delphia." " I beg your pardon. Sir," was Franklin's reply; "Philadelphia has taken Howe," which proved to be true, for while the British General and his officers were wasting their time in the agreeable social gaieties of the Quaker city Washington was reorganizing his army, thereby laying the founda- tion for the victories that came later. % i^ m i^ €« €« i^ €< €« v|« e« ® €< €< i^ % i^ €« €« €« €« @ CHAP. XVIII. Literary Style. '^ QUERY: — How fhall we judge of the good- 'Xjnefs of a writing? Or what qualities fhould a writing have to be good and perfedl in its kind ? Literary Style. i$7 "Answer. To be good, it ought to have a Tendency to benefit the Reader, by improving his Virtue or his Knowledge. But, not regarding the Intention of the Author, the Method fhould be juft, that is, it fhould proceed regularly from Things known to Things unknown, diftindlly and clearly without Confufion. The Words ufed fhould be the moft exprefTive that the Language affords, provid'd that they are the mofl generally under- flood. Nothing fhould be exprefT'd in two Words that can be as well exprefT'd in one; that is, no Synonymes fhould be ufed, or very rarely, but the whole fhould be as fhort as pofTible, confiftent with clearnefs ; the Words fhould be fo placed as to be agreeable to the Ear in reading, fummarily it fhould be fmooth, clear, and short, for the con- trary qualities are difpleafmg." So wrote Benjamin Franklin after thirty years of constant production of what is generally ac- cepted as the strongest, clearest, simplest English that has come from the pen of an American writer. Earlier in his career, after five years of editor- ship, he had written "To the Printer of the Ga- zette:" "To write clearly, not only the moft exprefTive, but the plaineft Words fhould be chofen. . . . The Fondnefs of fome Writers for fuch Words as carry with them an Air of Learning, renders them unintelligible to more than half their Countrymen. If a man would that his Writings have an Effect on the Generality of Readers, he had better imitate 1 88 Literary Style. that Gentleman, who would ufe no Word in his Works that was not well underftood by his Cook- maid." His first effort to acquire correct literary style began in his early teens and was the result of a controversy with a youthful friend, John Collins, over "the Propriety of educating the female Sex in Learning and their Abilities for Study." Frank- lin preserved not only his friend's letters but copies of his own arguments on the subject. The cor- respondence later came to the attention of his father, who pointed out to his son that the literary form of his arguments was inferior to that of his antagonist and suggested methods of improvement, which were followed to advantage. About this time Benjamin came across a volume of the " Spectator," the brilliant collection of essays on a wide variety of subjects that was published in London between the years 171 1 and 1714, and despite his youth he immediately discovered its value from a literary point of view. In the " Auto- biography" he relates how he made synopses of some of the papers, laid them aside for a few days and then without looking at them again rewrote them from his notes and compared his effort with the original. He soon saw that he was deficient in his vocabulary and he attempted to turn the papers into verse, which necessitated a search for words of different sound and number of syllables. Numb. CCCLXXXIll The SPECTATOR Cnminlbus debent Hortos- Juv. Titefday, May 20. 1711, AS I was furing in my Chamber, and tbin3ang on a Subjeft Tor my next j/e* wi little£oy upon theHead, and bidding him beagood Child and mind his Book. I do not remember that I have any where menii- «ned,inSirRoGEB'5Char4^er. hijCuftomof We were no fooner come to the Temple Stairs, Salutjng every Body that paHit) by him with a hut we wcTft furrounded with a Crowd of Water- Good-moirow, or a Good-night. This 'the Old- wen offering-US their refpeitivt Services. Sir Ro; Mandoej out of the Ovcrflowftgsof his Humanity GER, aftcrhavinglookedabouthim veryaitentively, tho* at the fame time it renderj him fo popular a- fpied one With a Wooden L^, and immediately mong all bis Country Neighbours, that it is thought gavehimOrders togechiiBoatready. As we were to have gone a good way in m^lng him once or walking- towards it, Ton mujl know, foys Sir Ro- twice Knight olthe Shire. He cannot forbear this c E R, i nevtr tnake vfi of any Body te Rcw me chat Exercife of Benevolence even in Town when he All net either lajl aLegeranJrm. I wot^d rather mcew with any one in his Morning or Eventne tatt htm a.fiUi Strekej of ill Oar^ than not Employ Walk. It broke from him to fev«?fll Boats that tot. kotttft Jt/fan thai has bttnviQundedtrt the (^Mcen's paffedbyus upon the Water; but to the Knight's Strvict. Ij I luti a Lord, or a. Bijhopj and kept a, great Surprifc, ai he gave the Good-night to two ^•vst, J ■wou^d. not fut a. Felhw in my tiwry thai or thrceyonn^ Fellows a little before Our Landing, hadnoi a IVotdefL Ltg. One of them, inftead of returning the Civility, asked ui what Queer old Purt we had in the Boat : and My old Friend, after having feated himfelf, and whether he waj nor afhamed to go a Wenching tt tnmmedtheBoatwithhisCoachman, who, being a hisVearai with a great deal of the VikeThamej- ];«ry fober Man, always fervcs for Baliaft on thefe Ribaldry. Sir,RoGERfeemed a Hulelhockedatfirft Occafions,wemade thebeftof our v/ay for Fox-hall, but at length affuming a Face of Magiaracy, tol4 5'"RocER obliged the Waterman to give us the us, tiatifbe tuere a Middlefcx 7^/'rt, ie ^Bu/(f Hiitoryofhjs Right Leg andhearingthathchadleft it make JuchVt^ants hjioiu that HarMajaftfiSubttSii lnfi<«*ryfiuv,wi[hmaTiyParticularswhich paffpdin vtere no merz to be abufed by IVaier than by Latd tku glorious Aftion, theKnjghl in the Triumph of ^ We A first page of the London newspaper which young Benjamin Franklin used as a model in his study to improve his literary style. Size of original si" x 9J", 190 Literary Style. He would also take a synopsis and jumble the hints into confusion, later attempting to restore them to their proper order, by which process he taught himself method in the arrangement of his thoughts. He supplemented his scanty education by read- ing the best books. Among them were Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," Burton's " Historical Collec- tions," Plutarch's "Lives," DeFoe's "Essays on Projects," Mather's " Essays to Do Good," Locke's "On the Human Understanding," du Port Royal's "Art of Thinking," Xenophon's "Memorable Things of Socrates," and other works that one would not expect ordinarily to find in the library of a boy of fifteen or sixteen. The book last named had a pronounced influ- ence upon Franklin. He had become an aggressive controversialist, and his study of Xenophon's work induced him to adopt the Socratic method of arguing, that of asking questions seemingly irrele- vant but leading to conclusions not suspected by the opponent. He became adept in its use and his victories afforded him much satisfaction. Of his arguments with Keimer, who was himself fond of disputations, he said : " I ufed to work him fo with my Socratic method, and had trepanned him fo often by queftions apparently fo diftant from any Point we had in hand, and yet by De- grees led to the point, and brought him into Diffi- Literary Style. 191 culties and Contradidions, that at laft he grew ridiculoufly cautious, and would hardly anfwer me the moft common Queftion without afking firft, 'What do you intend to infer from that?' However, it gave him fo high an opinion of my Abilities in the confuting way that he ferioufly propofed my being his Colleague in a projecft he had of fetting up a new fedl. He was to preach the Doctrines, and I was to confound all Oppo- nents." Franklin eventually abandoned the Socratic method. "I continued this Method fome few years, but gradually left it," he said, "retaining only the Habit of exprefling myfelf in terms of modeft Diffidence, never uling, when I advanced any thing that might poflibly be difputed, the words certainly, undoubtedly, or any others that give the air of pofitivenefs to an Opinion; but rather fay, I conceive or apprehend a thing to be fo and fo; it appears to me, or I should think it fo or fo, for fuch and fuch reafons; or I imagine it to be fo ; or it is fo, if I am not miftaken. This Habit, I believe has been of great Advantage to me when I have had occafion to inculcate my opin- ions, and perfuade Men into Meafures that I have been from Time to Time engaged in pro- moting." Franklin gives evidence in his correspondence of having been always a student of language. 192 Literary Style. In 1789 young Noah Webster sent him his "Dif- fertations upon the English Language." Franklin acknowledged its receipt in approving terms, complimenting the young author on his "zeal for preferving the purity of our Language" and recom- mending further effort along that line. He objected to the growing use of the word "improved" instead of "employed" in an expres- sion like " a country Houfe improved as a Tavern." He also objected to the forming of verbs from sub- stantives such as "noticed," "advocated," "pro- greffed" and "oppofed." When Franklin published his so-called "Canada Pamphlet" he himself came under the criticism of the English historian, David Hume, because of his use of unusual words. Three that Hume speci- fied were "pejorate," "colonize" and "unfliake- able." Franklin gave up the first two as being provincial and the last as "rather low." He con- ceded the inadvisability of introducing " new words where we are already poirefFed of old ones fuffi- ciently expreflive," but added "at the fame time I cannot but wifli the Ufage of our Tongue per- mitted making new words, when we want them, by Compofition of old Ones, whofe meanings are already well underftood." "For inftance, the word 'inaccefTible' fo long in ufe among us, is not, I darefay, fo univerfally underftood by our people as the word 'uncomeatable' would immediately be." Literary Style. 193 Franklin proposed "A Scheme for a New Al- phabet and Reformed Mode of Spelling," explained in the following remarks : "It is endeavoured to give the Alphabet a more natural Order; beginning firft with the fimple Sounds formed by the Breath, with none or very little help of Tongue, Teeth, and Lips, and pro- duced chiefly in the Windpipe. "Then coming forward to thofe, formed by the Roof of the Tongue next to the Windpipe. "Then to thofe, formed more forward by the fore part of the Tongue againft the Roof of the Mouth. "Then thofe, formed still more forward, in the Mouth, by the Tip of the Tongue applied firft to the Roots of the upper Teeth. "Then to thofe formed by the Tip of the Tongue applied to the Ends or Edges of the upper Teeth. "Then to thofe, formed yet more forward, by the upper and under Lip opening to let out the founding Breath. "And laftly, ending with the fhutting up of the Mouth, or clofing the Lips, while any Vowel is founding." His reformed alphabet comprised twenty of the characters of the English alphabet and to replace those rejected he substituted six of his own con- struction. He used it in correspondence with some of his close friends whose devotion to him and inter- est in everything he did caused them to study the alphabet sufficiently to be able to write with it, but it had no vogue beyond his immediate circle. Noah So hucn sym endfiel, byi divyin kamand, Vi^l ryizig., tempests fieeks ,e gilti land, (Syt'fi. az av leet or peel Britania past,) Kalm and siriin hi dryivs lit fiuriys blast ; And, pliiz'd Y almiiitis ardyrs tu pyrfarm, ■Ryids in l]i hiiyrluind and dyirekts Ty, starm. So Tii piur limpid striim, huen faul uifi steens av ryfiig. tarents and disendiy. reens, Uyrks itself kliir ; and az it ryns rifyins ; Til byi digriis, Tii flotig. miryr fiyins, Riflekts iitfi flaw \at an its bardyr grog, And e nu hev'n in its feer byzym fioz. Two verses in Franklin's reformed alphabet. "Englished," they read as follows : So when some angel by divine command With rising tempests seeks a guilty land (Such as of late o'er pale Britannia passed) Calm and serene he drives his furious blast And pleased the Almighty's orders to perform Rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm. So the pure limpid stream when foul with stains Of rising torrents or descending rains Works itself clear and as it runs refines Till by degrees thy Boating mirror shines Reflects each flower that on its border grows And a new heav'n in its fair bosom shows. Literary ff^orks. , 195 Webster in his "Dissertation upon the English Language " makes this interesting reference : " This indefatigable Gentleman (Dr. Franklin), amidft all his other employments, public and private, has compiled a Dictionary on his Scheme pf a Reform, and procured types to be caft for printing it. He thinks himfelf too old to purfue the plan; but has honored me with the offer of the Manufcript and Types and exprefTed a flrong Defire that I fhould undertake the task. Whether this project, fo deeply interefting to this Country will ever be effeded ; or whether it will be defeated by Infolence and prejudice remains for my countrymen to determine." i^s €« i^s €« €< €« % i^s ^4 €« e« % €« i^s €« €« ts e« €« €« €« i^ CHAP. XIX. Literary ff^orks. A LBERT HENRY SMYTH in his chapter on the works of Franklin quotes Sydney Smith's remark to his daughter, "I will disinherit you if you do not admire everything written by Franklin," and himself adds "The literature of the world might be searched in vain for the works of another author who should exhibit such a variety of theme, fertility of thought and excellence of style." Franklin's earliest attempts at authorship were in the form of ballads. In his time nearly every- 196 Literary PF'orks. body took a turn at rhyming, and although the ballads were, as Franklin in later years said of his own, usually "wretched stuff," many of them had a large sale. Thomas Fleet is said by Isaiah Thomas to have sold so many ballads that "the profit upon them alone was sufficient to support his family respectably." The ballads were commonly of a tragic nature, relating the "exploits of pirates, the execution of murderers, the gallantry of highway- men, terrible shipwrecks, horrible crimes, etc." Young Franklin, seeming to have some facility at ballad writing, at the suggestion of his elder brother James, wrote two, one called "The Light Houfe Tragedy" and the other relating the exploits of Edward Teach, a pirate known as " Blackbeard," who cruised up and down the Atlantic Coast, striking terror wherever he went. Benjamin not only wrote the ballads, but went, under his brother's direction, to sell them on the streets. Of "The Light Houfe Tragedy" it is said that it "sold prodigiously," which so encouraged the young author that he would have made further efforts in ballad writing had not his father come to his rescue and persuaded him to devote his talents to more sensible endeavor. Franklin wrote most of the matter in the " Penn- sylvania Gazette" not credited by him to other sources. The Almanack was a sort of melting pot into which he gathered whatever came his way Literary W^orks. 197 that served his purpose. Some of Poor Richard's sayings were phrased as they were found, others were sHghtly altered, and in many the thought alone was used but expressed in Franklin's own words. His attitude may be seen in what Poor Richard had to say in No. 1 5 of the Almanack on the subject of poetry. "The Verfes on the Heads of Months are alfo generally defigned to have the fame Tendency. I need not tell thee that not many of them are of My Own Making. If thou haft any Judgment in Poetry, thou wilt eafily difcern the Workman from the Bungler. I know as well as thee, that I am not Poet Born; and it is a Trade I never learnt, nor in- deed could learn. . . . Why then Ihould I give my Readers bad Lines of my own, when good Ones of other People's are fo plenty?" Franklin wrote much on scientific subjects, giv- ing evidence of interest in them at an early age. During his first sojourn in London he made the acquaintance of several men of scientific attain- ment, one of them being Dr. Pemberton, secretary of the Royal Society, who made him the promise of an introduction to Sir Isaac Newton, but failed to keep it. Another was Sir Hans Sloane, who in- vited him to his house and showed him his collec- tion of curiosities. In the "Gazette" he published papers of his own authorship on such subjects as "On Making Rivers Navigable," "Caufes of Earthquakes," etc., but it 198 Literary ff^orks. was not until 1746, when he was forty years of age and two years before his retirement from business, that his attention was first drawn to electricity. In that year his friend, Peter Collinson, London Agent for the Library Company of Philadelphia, and fellow of the Royal Society of London, sent to Philadelphia an electrical tube with directions for its use. Franklin gave himself up to the fascinat- ing experiments he was able to make with it. " I never was before engaged in any Study that fo totally engrolTed my Attention and my Time as this has lately done" ; he says, "for, what with mak- ing Experiments when I can be alone, and repeating them to my Friends and Acquaintance, who, from the Novelty of the thing, come continually in Crowds to fee them I have, during some Months past, had little Leifure for anything elfe." Franklin's writings on the subject of electricity were sent to Europe, where they were at first re- ceived with ridicule and later accepted with en- thusiasm. With his untiring energy, he delved into the mystery of natural phenomena in every direction. He propounded a theory of navigation; it was he who discovered that storms have a definite di- rection ; the experiments he conducted on shipboard to relieve the tedium of the long ocean voyages demonstrated that there is a diff^erence of tempera- ture in the Gulf Stream as compared with the Literary ff^orks. 199 water which surrounds it, and it was he who found an explanation of the effect of oil upon water. A conception of Franklin's writings on science and philosophy may be obtained from the following statement by Professor Smyth: "Franklin's mind teemed with ideas. In a single letter he speaks of linseed oil, northeast storms, the origin of springs in mountains, petrified shells in the Appalachians, and tariff laws — subjects apparently far apart and with little connection, and yet they are linked together with relevancy enough, for, as he said, with homely comparison, ' ideas will firing themf elves like ropes of onions.' . . . His philosophical writings relate to subjects of electricity, seismology, geology, meteorology, physics, chemistry, astronomy, mathe- matics, hydrography, horology, aeronautics, navi- gation, agriculture, ethnology, paleontology, medi- cine, hygiene, and pedagogy." His writings upon scientific subjects received more than usual attention, one reason being that they were so understandable. He wrote not in scientific terms, but in the language of the layman. "Science appears in his language," says Sparks, "in a dress wonderfully decorous, the best adapted to display her native loveliness." Only one product of Franklin's pen was of sufficient length to make a book of average size. All others were intended as contributions to news- papers or for publication as pamphlets and broad- 200 Literary ff^orks. sides, or were social and business letters. There are in existence between fifteen thousand and six- teen thousand of his original manuscripts, em- braced mainly in three great collections, which are located respectively in the Library of Congress at Washington, D. C, the Library of the American Philosophical Society, in Philadelphia, and the Library of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Among what might be called the minor collections, because not so large, the most im- portant probably is that in the possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Professor Smyth says of Franklin, "he had the magpie trait of hoarding things." Letters written to him, rough drafts and copies of letters written by him, visiting cards and invitations to dinner or to masonic lodge meetings were saved and cherished and went to swell the tremendous aggregate of his collection of papers. When in 1776 Franklin went to France as a rep- resentative of the Confederation he was seventy years of age and naturally uncertain as to the prob- able tenure of his life. He made Joseph Galloway, once speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly and a friend of many years, one of his executors and in his supposedly safe care left his collection of papers securely packed in a chest. Two things happened which Franklin naturally did not expect would happen. One was the sending Literary JVorks. 201 by Galloway of the chest of papers to his country seat some miles from Philadelphia, where they were stored in a small house sometimes used as an office, and the other was Galloway's desertion of the patriot cause and alliance with the British. The house was later broken into by "rebels," to use Galloway's phrase, by which he probably meant American soldiers. The chest was opened and its contents scattered upon the floor, where they remained in disorder until Richard Bache, Franklin's son-in-law, heard of the disaster and went to Galloway's house, collected such of the papers as could be found, and returned with them to Philadelphia. Important letters and manuscripts, including those relating to the whole period of Franklin's representation of the Colonies in Eng- land, the most valuable of his early documents, were lost. All of Franklin's papers and manuscripts were be- queathed to his grandson, William Temple Frank- lin, who took with him to London some letter books and a few other original manuscripts, leaving what remained, comprising thirteen thousand separate pieces, in the possession of the father of Charles P. Fox, who nearly fifty years later bequeathed all but a comparatively small portion of them to the Amer- ican Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, where they have since remained. The portion referred to was stored in a garret 202 Literary ff^orh. over a stable at the home of the Fox family, and was therefore overlooked. Miss Fox knew what the papers were but took small interest in them, and needing a new carpet for her kitchen decided to sell the waste paper to a paper mill in order to secure funds with which to purchase the carpet. They were in process of removal when a Mrs. Hol- brook was visiting Miss Fox. Mrs. Holbrook remonstrated and the papers, with the exception of those contained in one unlucky barrel, which could not be recalled, were returned to the house and later presented to Mrs. Holbrook. Eventu- ally, through the efforts of Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, they were purchased and deposited in the Library of the University of Pennsylvania. The manuscripts taken abroad by William Temple Franklin had the "strange, eventful history" which seems to have been the fate of all of the Benjamin Franklin papers. After the publication of his edition of his grandfather's writings, the original papers were deposited for safe keeping with a firm of London bankers. A few years after William Temple Franklin's death the widow removed the papers and for the next seventeen years nothing is known of their where- abouts. Mrs. Franklin remarried and apparently lost interest in them. In 1840 they were found "loosely bundled up," on the top shelf of a tailor's shop in the London Literary ff^orks. 203 street where William Temple Franklin had lodged. The finder ineffectually offered them for sale, to the British Museum among others, for nearly a dozen years. Finally a buyer was found in Henry Stevens, of Vermont, who sorted, repaired, and rearranged them, and in turn sold them to the United States for ?.3 5,000. Comprising nearly three thousand separate items, they are now ac- curately catalogued and arranged in fourteen folio volumes in the Manuscript Department of the Library of Congress in Washington. When William Temple Franklin came into the possession of his grandfather's works, his first thought was of course to issue a complete edition of such as in his opinion were worthy of preserva-- tion, and that none of the papers might escape him he inserted in the "Aurora," a newspaper pub- lished by Duane, who had married the widow of his cousin, Benjamin Franklin Bache, the following advertisement : "DR. FRANKLIN'S PAPERS "Towards the end of the year 1776, the late Dr. Franklin, on his departure for Europe, for greater security deposited a large chest, containing his papers and manuscripts, with Mr. Joseph Galloway, at his place in Bucks County in Penn- sylvania. The same was left there by Mr. Galloway, when he quitted his habi- 204 Literary W^orks. tation, and was, it is said, broke open by persons unknown, and many of the papers taken away and dispersed in the neigh- borhood. " Several of the most valuable of these papers have since been recovered; but there are still some missing, among which are a few of the Doctor's Letter Books, and a manuscript in four or five volumes folio, on Finance, Commerce, and Manu- factures. The subscriber, to whom Dr. Franklin bequeathed all his papers and manuscripts, and who is preparing to give his works to the public, takes this method of informing those who may have knowl- edge of any of the above mentioned pa- pers, and will communicate the same to him so that he may thereby be enabled to recover any of them, or who may them- selves procure any of thern and deliver them to him, shall be thankfully and gen- erously rewarded and no questions asked. He likewise requests those persons who may have any letters or other writings of Dr. Franklin that may be deemed worthy of the public eye, to be so kind as to for- ward them as early as possible, that they may be inserted in the Doctor's Works. "Those, also, who may have any books or maps belonging to the library of the late Dr. Franklin, are desired to return them without delay, to the subscriber, who is about to embark for Europe. "W. T. Franklin." Literary JJ^orh. 205 William Temple Franklin went to London to arrange for the publishing of the papers, arriving just in time to halt the issuance in English of two translations of a French edition of the "Autobi- ography" that had been published by Buisson in 1 79 1. On his positive assurance that he would soon bring out a complete edition of his grand- father's works, the publication of these two trans- lations was delayed two years. In 1793 they both appeared, one bearing the imprint of J. Parsons and the other, edited by Richard Price, one of Benjamin Franklin's friends, which was much the better of the two, bearing the imprint of G. C. J. y J. Robinson. A year later the "Autobiography" appeared in Germany, translated from Robinson's edition, and in 1798 a new version in French was published in Paris. In this later French edition the editor complained because the edition promised by Wil- liam Temple Franklin had not been published, adding, "the works of a great man belong less to his heirs than to the human race." In 1806, "while Temple Franklin was still scis- soring, sorting, shifting, and pasting the heaps of his grandfather's papers," appeared "The Com- plete Works in Philofophy, Politics and Morals, of the late Dr. Benjamin Franklin now firft col- lected and arranged: with Memoirs of his early Life written by himfelf in 3 vols., London, J. John- EXPERIMENTS A N t> OBSERVATIONS ON ELECTRICITY, MADE At Philadej.t»hia in America, B Y Benjamin Franklin, L. L. D. iand FrR. Si To which are added, LETTERS and PAPERS O N Philosoehical Subjects. The Wholeeonefted, methodized, improved, and now.firft col- lected inco one Yolume, AND . llluftrsted with COPPER PLATES.. LONDON: Printed for David Henry ; and fold bjr Framcis NEflmiRY, at the Corner of St. Paul's Churth-Yard. MDCCLXIX. " First comprehensive collection of Franklin's writings in English. Original in the Typographic Library and Museum of the American Type Founder? Company, Jersey City, N. J. Size \^t" x f. Literary Jf^orh. 207 son and Longman." In the preface of this edition, the editor of which is said to have been a Mr. Marshall, assisted it is believed by Benjamin Vaughan, appears a severe criticism of William Temple Franklin, because of his delay in the pub- lication of the work. A part of it is as follows : "The proprietor, it seems, had found a bidder of a different description in some emissary of government, whose object was to withhold the manuscripts from the world, not to benefit it by their publication; and they thus either passed into other hands, or the person to whom they were bequeathed received a remuneration for suppress- ing them. This at least has been asserted, by a variety of persons, both in this country and Amer- ica, of whom some were at the time intimate with the grandson, and not wholly unacquainted with the machinations of the ministry; and the silence, which has been observed for so many years re- specting the publication, gives additional credibil- ity to the report." Later in the same year the "American Citizen," a newspaper published in New York, joined in the condemnation by saying that WiUiam Temple Franklin, "without shame and without remorse, mean and mercenary, has sold the sacred deposit committed to his care by Dr. Franklin to the British government; Franklin's works are lost to the world forever." To this Temple Franklin published a reply cc txxrif. Avta Approbation & Permijjion Ju Rar, First edition of Franklin's writings in French. Original in the Typographic Library and Museum of the American Type Founders Company, Jersey City, N. J. Size si" x 7I". Literary ff^orks. 209 branding the charge as "atrociously false" and saying that the papers had been left to him to be published "in his discretion" and the manuscripts were not lost but were "under lock and key in the secure vaults of my bankers." Finally in 1817, twenty-seven years after Temple Franklin came into the possession of the papers willed to him by his grandfather, appeared the first volume of his edition. There were six octavo volumes, the last appearing in 1819. The edition was limited to seven hundred and fifty copies. The publisher, Henry Colburn, assumed all the expenses and risks and took one third of the profits, Temple Frank- lin's profits amounting to fourteen hundred and seventy-three pounds. Of the editions of Franklin's works not men- tioned above the most notable are the following : Vaughan, London, 1779, one volume. Marshall and Vaughan, London, 1806, three vol- umes. Duane, Philadelphia, 1808-18 18, six volumes. Jared Sparks, Boston, 1836-1842; ten volumes. John Bigelow, New York, 1 887-1 888 ; ten volumes. Albert Henry Smyth, New York, 1907, ten vol- umes. Of these editions the only one now not out of print is that by Professor Smyth, and it is by far the best. Sparks took liberties with the manu- MfiMOIRES DE LA VIE PRIVfiE DE BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. jfeCRITS PAR LUI.MEME. ET ADRESS^S A ^ON FILS'; Svzvis £un Pricis historlque de sa Vie politique ^ a de ptusieurs Piices , relatives A ce Pire de la JJherti. A PARIS, Ches Bvxssos> libiaire, rue Haute*feailla, n*. sa. *79 ». The first edition in any language of the famous "Autobiography." Original in the Typographic Library and Museum of the American Type Founders Company, Jersey City, N. J. Size 3^" x 6^". Literary ff^orks. 211 scripts, correcting and altering as he chose. Bige- low's edition was an improvement, but he based many of his quotations upon the work of Sparks and thereby repeated the errors. Professor Smyth performed a notable service to American letters in preparing his edition of Franklin's works. He had access to many manu- scripts not known when previous editions were published and in republishing he went to the orig- inal documents in every case, preserving their exact style, spelling, and of course phraseology. The "Autobiography" will always remain one of the great monuments of American literature. It has been translated into practically every tongue, securing a wide circulation all over the globe, and in America no library is complete without it. In some cities it is used as a text-book in the public schools. The manuscript of the "Autobiography" in Franklin's handwriting long remained in the pos- session of the family of M. le Veillard, Mayor of Fassy when Franklin lived there, and one of his close personal friends. In 1867 it came into the possession of Hon. John Bigelow, Minister to the Court of France, and for the first time the public was made acquainted with the "Autobiography" as written by its author. On comparison with the edition put forth by William Temple Franklin, it was found that as his grandfather's literary execu- 212 Literary Works. tor he had taken unwarranted liberties with the text. More than twelve hundred changes were found to have been made by him, all of them of course in his own mind improvements upon the original. "Of these changes," says McMaster, "little need be said. They are usually Temple Franklin's Latin words for Benjamin Franklin's Anglo-Saxon. They remind us of the language of those finished writers for the press who can never call a fire any- thing but a conflagration, nor a crowd anything but a vast concourse, and who dare not use the same word twice on the same page Thus it is that in the Temple Franklin edition 'notion' has become 'pre- tence,' that 'night coming on' has become 'night ap- proaching,' that 'a very large one' has become 'a con- siderable one,* that 'treated me' has become 'received me,' that 'got a naughty girl with child' has become 'had an intrigue with a girl of bad character,' that 'very oddly' has been turned into 'a very extraor- dinary manner.' But the changes did not stop here. The coarseness of the grandfather was very shocking to the grandson, and 'guzzlers of beer' is made 'drinkers of beer,' 'footed it to London' be- comes 'walked to London,' 'Keimer stared like a pig poisoned' is made to give way to 'Keimer stared with astonishment.' " 213 CHAP. XX. Literary Friends. 'T^HE first of Benjamin Franklin's friends who could properly be classed under the title of this chapter were two friends of his youth, John Collins and James Ralph. It was with young Collins that he engaged in youthful controversies over weighty subjects, as has been related in another chapter, which resulted in his decision, at the suggestion of his father, to acquire an improved literary style. Collins seems to have been a young man of great promise, but he took to over-indulgence in in- toxicants and early disappeared from Franklin's life. James Ralph was one of the original members of the Junto. He was clerk to a merchant and was "ingenious, genteel in his manners, and extremely eloquent." But he abandoned a young wife and child and went with Franklin to England, where he became a literary hack and a producer of indifferent poetry. His memory is kept alive principally be- cause of the fact that Alexander Pope satirized him in the "Dunciad." He dedicated his first work to Franklin. In enumerating in the "Autobiography" his closest acquaintances during his first years in Philadelphia, Franklin named not only James Ralph, but Charles Osborne and Joseph Watson, "all lovers of reading," and presents an attractive NIG H T : POEM. Li Four. Books. FItcbf abd dark the night Sometimes appearr, Friend p> our woe, and parent of our fears : Dur joys and wonder fometimes flic excites. With ftars unnumbred. and «temal lights^ P R J O R, By JAMES RAL^P H, L M 7> N: Printed by C JckiUi for S. BittiKtisLEY at the Jui;/^ Heoi in CbanceryLaiu^ tjzti (Price is. 6 i.y Title page of a volume by Franklin's youthful friend, James Ralph. Original in possession of the author. Size 4" .X S\". Literary Friends. 215 picture of their intimacy when he adds: "Many pleafant Walks we four had together on Sundays into the Woods near Schuykill where we read to one another and conferred on what we read." One of the dearest friends of FrankHn's later years was Benjamin Vaughan, a native of the West Indies, who was in London serving as secretary to Lord Shelburne when Franklin was there. When the "Parable of Persecution" was published in London during Franklin's absence in America, and a charge of plagiarism was brought against him, Vaughan sprang immediately and successfully to his defence. He it was who urged Franklin to con- tinue the writing of the "Autobiography," and he was the editor of the first edition of Franklin's works. Peter CoUinson, celebrated because of his knowl- edge of botany and natural history, was another close friend- He kept up a correspondence with men of science in all parts of the world, and it was to him that Franklin was indebted for the opportunity to make his first experiments with an electrical tube which Collinson sent from London to the Library Company of Philadelphia. Cadwallader Colden, another friend, was about the same age as Benjamin Vaughan, both being a dozen years older than Franklin. Colden was the author of the "Hiftory of the Five Indian Nations," "Principles of Action in Matter," and other 21 6 Literary Friends. scientific and historical works. He invented a method of stereotyping about which he wrote a long description to Franklin, but which did not come into general use. Other literary friends in England were Edmund Burke, author of an "Essay on the Sublime and the Beautiful," who later became better known through his oratory and statesmanship; David Hume, the historian, and Adam Smith, author of a "Theory of Mild Sentiments" and "The Wealth of Nations." America at the time was not abundantly supplied with literary men, but Franklin was friend and con- fidante to two young men whose names were later to become well known. One of them was Thomas Paine, to whom he wrote advising him not to pub- lish his attacks upon the prevailing religious beliefs, and the other was Noah Webster, compiler of the dictionary that bore his name. Franklin's greatest friendship, however, one which has become historic, does not properly come under the designation of "literary" in the sense of authorship. It is that which existed between him and William Strahan (now pronounced as if spelled Strawn, but in his lifetime pronounced Stray-han), the celebrated London printer and publisher. Strahan was nine years younger than Franklin, having been born in 1715. Fie built up a successful business, became printer to the king and 7^ ffn^^e^ The famous "you are now my enemy" letter. Original in the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C, 2 1 8 Literary Friends. was the publisher of David Hump's "History of England " and the works of Edward Gibbon, author of the " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. " Strahan and Franklin spent much time in each other's company when Franklin was resident in England, and later he was Franklin's representative in London in his business negotiations. Their cor- respondence was voluminous and it was to Strahan that the famous "you are now my enemy" letter was addressed. Paul Leicester Ford makes the statement, on what authority is not known, that the letter was never sent. What may be the original, but what would seem to be a copy, is pre- served in the collection of Franklin manuscripts in the Library of Congress at Washington, and it is the one usually used for illustration in works relating to Franklin. In the private library of J. Pierpont Morgan, in New York, is another copy in Franklin's handwriting, which fact affords material for in- teresting speculation. Franklin's letters to Strahan were, with one ex- ception, decorous and dignified, save that some of them, instead of bearing a formal superscription, were addressed " Dear Straney." What must have been Strahan's astonishment when he received the exception, which was dated Burlington, October 4, 1763, and which begins: " In the name of God what I have faid or done to you, that fo many Months fhould elapfe, fo many The Love of Booh. 219 VelTels arrive without my having the Plcafurc of a fingle Line from you fince my Arrival in America. I can't help imagining that you must have Wrote, and the letter mifcarried, but Mrs. F. fays Ihe thinks you have quite forgot us, now we have left England, and that you will not trouble yourfelf about us any more. I hope fhe is miftaken and that you will enable me to prove her so." The original is in Mr. Morgan's collection. William Strahan put himself on record as to his friendship for Franklin in a letter to Mrs. Franklin, unsuccessfully urging her to overcome her dislike for the sea and to make a voyage to London. " For my own part," he said to her about her husband, " I never faw a man who was in every refpect so per- fectly agreeable to me. Some are amiable in one view, fome in another, he in all." e« €« €« C« % i^ i^ €« @ i^ i^ i^ i^ i^ % i^ i^ i^ ® i^ v0 €« CHAP. XXL The Love of Booh. ■pENJAMIN FRANKLIN'S early love of books is revealed in the incident related in the first chapter of this volume of his arrangement with the brother to whom he was apprenticed to spend less upon his board and clothing in order to provide him with money for the purchase of books. One of his earliest friends in Boston was a Matthew Adams, 220 The Love of Booh. who had a collection of books and who invited the boy to his home and placed the books at his dis- posal. » It is related in the "Autobiography" that when he arrived in New York from Boston the second time, the governor of the province (Burnet) hearing from the Captain of the ship that one of his pas- sengers had a great many books, invited the young man to call upon him. "The Governor treated me with great Civility, fhowed me his Library, which was a very large one, and we had a good deal of converfation about books and authors." In the "Autobiography" Franklin relates how he once changed an enemy into a friend by borrowing a book: "Having heard that he had in his Library a certain very fcarce and curious Book, I wrote a note to him, expreffing my defire of perufmg that Book, and requefting he would do me the favor of lending it to me for a few days. He fent it immediately, and I return'd it in about a week with another note expreffing ftrongly my fenfe of the favor. When we next met in the Houfe he fpoke to me (which he had never done before) and with great civility, and he ever after manifeft'd a readinefs to ferve me on all occafions, fo that we became great friends, and our friendfhip continued to his death." Before young Benjamin made the arrangement with his brother James by which he hoped to ac- quire a library of his own he became acquainted The Love of Booh. 221 with an apprentice in a second-hand book store, through whose connivance he sometimes borrowed a book, "a fmall one," which he was careful to return soon and clean, often sitting up the greater part of the night so as to finish with it and be able to return it in the morning "left it fhould be miffed or wanted." Next door to Palmer's printing house in London was a second-hand book establishment kept by one Wilcox, with whom he arranged "on certain reafonable Terms," to "take, read and return any of his books." Franklin had definite ideas as to the way in which books should be read. In a letter to his young friend, Miss Mary Stevenson, accompanying a gift of books, he wrote: "I would advife you to read with a Pen in your Hand, and enter in a little Book fhort Hints of what you find that is curious, or that may be ufeful; for this will be the beft method of imprinting fuch Particulars in your Memory, where they will be ready, either for pradliice on fome future occafion, if they are mat- ters of utility, or at leaft to adorn and improve your converfation, if they are rather points of curiofity. And as many of the terms of Science are fuch, as you cannot have met with in your common reading, and may therefore be unac- quainted with, I think it would be well for you to have a good Dictionary at hand, to confult imme- 222 The Love of Books. diately when you meet with a Word you do not comprehend the precife Meaning of. This may at first feem troublefome and interrupting; but it is trouble that will daily diminifti, as you will daily find lefs and lefs occafion for your Dictionary, as you become more acquaint'd with the Terms; and in the mean time you will read with more Satif- faction, becaufe with more underftanding." Franklin bought books for their contents rather than for their appearance, as will be seen by the following quotation from a letter written to Ben- jamin Vaughan in 1785 : "One can fcarce fee a new Book, without obferving the exceflive Artifices made ufe of to puff up a Paper of Verfes into a Pamphlet, a Pamphlet into an Octavo, and an Octavo into a Quarto, with Scabboardings, white Lines, fparfe Titles of chapters, and exorbitant Margins, to fuch a Degree, that the Selling of Paper feems now the object, and printing on it only the Pretence. I enclofe the copy of a Page in a late Comedy. Between every two Lines there is a white fpace equal to another line. You have a Law, I think, againft Butchers blowing of Veal to make it look fatter; why not one againft Book- sellers' blowing of Books to make them look bigger." As was to be expected, Franklin's own library was a large one. The Rev. Dr. Manasseh Cutler, while on a visit to Philadelphia, called to pay his THE DIGNITY OP MAN. A DISCOURSE Addrefled to the Coi^regatioain FRANKLIN, Upon the Occafion of their receiving from Dr. FRANKLIJSr, The Mark of his Refped, in a rich DONATION OP BOOKS, Appropriated to the Ufe of a PARISH-LIBRARY. iYNATHANAEL EMMONS. F«>TOK or THI CbukCH llf FtTia>STtI»T. A sermon acknowledging one of Franiclin's gifts of books. ' Original in Boston Public Library. Size 3t5j" X 61". 224 The Love of Books. respects to Dr. Franklin, and in his journal he gives this glimpse of the library: "After it was dark we went into the Houfe, and he invited me into his Library, which is likewife his Study. It is a very large Chamber, and high-ftudded. The Walls are covered with Book-Shelves, filled with Books; befides there are four large Alcoves, ex- tending two thirds the Length of the Chamber, filled in the fame manner. I prefume this is the largeft and by far the beft private Library in America." Franklin made gifts of books to the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Academy, Yale and Harvard Colleges, and the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh (St. An- drews) and was instrumental in securing contribu- tions of books to other colleges. He gave a li- brary of three hundred books to the town of Frank- lin in New Hampshire, and when a request came from the town of Fmnklin in Mass achusetts for a bell to hang in the steeple of the meeting house he advised that he would send books instead of a bell, " Senfe being preferable to Sound." 225 CHAP. XXII. Public Service. Studious of Eafe, and fond of humble Things, Below the Smiles, below the Frowns of Kings : Thanks to my Stars, I prize the Sweets of Life, No fleeplefs Nights I count, no Days of Strife. I reft, I wake, I drink, I fometimes love, I read, I write, I fettle, or I rove; Content to live, content to die unknown. Lord of Myfelf, accountable to None. CUCH was Poor Richard's conception of life ^ after permanent release from business cares. When Franklin retired he wrote to his friend Cadwallader Golden of New York: "I have re- moved to a more quiet part of the Town, where I am fettling my old Accounts, and hope foon to be quite mafter of my own Time, and no longer, as the Song has it, at every one's call but my own. . . . Thus you fee I am in a fair way of having no other Tafks than fuch as I fhall like to give my- felf, and of enjoying what I look upon as a great Happinefs, Leifure to read, ftudy, make Experi- ments, and converfe at large with fuch ingenious and worthy Men, as are pleaf'd to honor me with their Friendfhip or Acquaintance, on fuch points as may produce fomething for the common Benefit of Mankind, uninterrupted by the little cares and fatigues of Bufmefs." But he was not to be permitted to make use as 226 Public Service. he chose of what he fondly hoped would be leisure time. On the contrary, no project, public or semi-public, was proposed but that the first thought of the proposers seems to have been to interest Benjamin Franklin in it. "There is no fuch thing," said Dr. Bond to Franklin, "as carrying through a public-fpirited Project without you are concerned in it, for I am often afked by thofe to whom I propofe fubfcrib- ing, 'Have you confulted Franklin on this Bufmefs ? And what does he think of it?' And when I tell them that I have not (fuppofmg it rather out of your line), they do not fubfcribe, but fay, they will confider it. ' Franklin's service to the public began when, at the age of twenty, he gathered a number of his young friends around him and established the Junto, the first American debating society, and the service ended when, two thirds of a century later, at the age of eighty-four, he founded the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. Between these two events is a long list of services and achievements in the public interest. No work relating to Franklin's life would be complete without mention of the more important of these services and achievements, although want of space in the present volume permits of no more than the listing of them by name. Public Service. 227 So far as the holding of public offices is con- cerned, Franklin stated it to be his rule "never to afk, never refufe, or never refign an office." His first was that of Justice of Peace which, however, he did resign, because he felt that he had not sufficient legal knowledge to fill it adequately. The other offices he held were as follows : Clerk Pennsylvania Assembly Speaker Pennsylvania Assembly Member Philadelphia Common Council and, later. Alderman Postmaster of Philadelphia Deputy Postmaster General for the Colonies Postmaster General for the Colonies Delegate to Albany convention to consider plans for a union of the Colonies Acting General, Pennsylvania Militia Colonel, Pennsylvania Militia President Pennsylvania Commission of Safety Commissioner to Continental Army at Cam- bridge Commissioner to Canada Agent in England for the Colonies (sixteen years) Member Secret Committee of Correspondence Member Committee to draft Declaration of Independence Member Continental Congress 228 Public Service. President Pennsylvania Constitutional Con- vention United States Commissioner to France United States Minister Plenipotentiary to France United States Commissioner to Negotiate Peace with Great Britain President (Governor) of Pennsylvania Equally important with the holding of public office was Franklin's service of an unofficial kind. The more important of these achievements, in addition to the two already mentioned, were as follows : Founded the American Philosophical So- ciety (First President) Founded the Philadelphia Library, upon which is based our public library system Founded the University of Pennsylvania Founded the Philadelphia Fire Company Helped to found the Philadelphia Hospital Introduced the basket willow Introduced street paving, cleaning, and lighting Reformed the night watch Promoted use of plaster Promoted use of mineral fertilizers Promoted culture of silk Advocated building of ships with water-tight compartments Public Service. 229 Eventually he began to feel that he was identi- fying himself to too great a degree with philan- thropic projects, so when the Reverend Gilbert Tennent came to him with a request for assistance in erecting a new meeting house he said, "Unwilling to make Myfelf difagreeable to my fellow-citizens by too frequently foliciting their Contributions, I abfolutely refuf'd." He did, however, give ad- vice to the reverend solicitor, as to how to proceed, which was followed to success. This attitude of mind is further illustrated by the following quotation from his statement in the "Autobiography" in regard to the founding of the Pennsylvania Academy which later became the University of Pennsylvania. "In the Introduc- tion of thefe propofals, I ftat'd their publication, not as an Act of mine, but of fome public-fpirited Gentlemen, avoiding as much as I could, according to my ufual Rule, the prefenting Myfelf to the Public as the author of any Scheme for their benefit." His inventions come properly within the catalog of public service for the reason that he took out no patents. He declined Governor Thomas' offer to give him a patent on the Pennsylvania fireplace, saying "that as we enjoy great Advantages from the Inventions of others, we fhould be glad of an Opportunity to ferve others by an Invention of ours ; and this we fhould do freely and generoufly." 230 Public Service. Most of his inventions were of a minor character, tending merely to convenience or comfort (such as the chair which turned over and became a step ladder) exemplifying his statement that "human felicity is produc'd not fo much by great pieces of good fortune that feldom happen as by little ad- vantages that occur every day." The more im- portant of his inventions are the following: Lightning rod Franklin stove Smokeless chimney Bi-focal lens for spectacles Improved armonica A part of Franklin's public service resulted from his deep interest in and his constant study of medicine. So important were his contributions to medical literature that a volume on "The Med- ical Side of Franklin," by Dr. William Pepper, has been published. He proposed, among other innovations, a new theory of colds that met with much opposition before being finally adopted. His contributions on the subject of ventilation had much the same experience, although he came eventually to be so highly regarded as an authority on the sub- ject that the government of England consulted him about the ventilation of the House of Com- mons. Public Service, 23 1 Dr. Pepper says that Franklin's "letters on lead poisoning are wonderful and would have been a credit to any physician of that age." One such that had reference to printing was addressed to Benjamin Vaughan and is in part as follows: " I there found a Practice I had never feen before, of drying a Cafe of Types (which are wet in dif- tribution) by placing it floping before the fire. I found this had the additional Advantage, when the Types were not only dri'd but heat'd, of being comfortable to the Hands working over them in cold Weather. I therefore fometimes heat'd my Cafe when the Types did not want drying. But an old workman, obferving it, advif'd me not to do fo, telling me I might lofe the ufe of my Hands by it, as two of our Companions had nearly done, one of whom that ufed to earn his Guinea a week, could not then make more than ten Shillings and the other, who had the Dangles, but feven and fixpence. This, with a kind of obscure Pain, that I had fometimes felt, as it were in the Bones of my Hand when working over the Types made very hot, induced me to omit the Practice." Franklin was not a graduate of a medical school, but was a member of several medical societies, and he did treat people for various ills. Many of the most prominent medical men of America and Europe were his intimate companions and valued correspondents, and many medical works were dedicated to him. 232 CHAP. XXI 1 1. ** Our " Benjamin Franklin. T> ECAUSE of the wide range of his sympathies, of the astonishing energy and industry that per- vaded his long Hfe, and of his interest in the activi- ties of nearly all the great movements of his cen- tury, mankind has many claims upon the heritage left by the words and deeds of Benjamin Franklin. I am firmly of the belief, however, that we of the printing and publishing craft have first claim in that respect, for whatever the many and remark- able achievements that took him into other fields in which he received welcome and acclaim, his in- terest in printing never lessened. When in England, as agent for the Colonies, he went on one occasion to Watt's printing office, and according to the "Memoirs" of his friend Strahan, sought out, a particular press and designated it as the one upon which he worked as a journeyman printer. During his ambassadorship at Paris, he visited the famous printing house of Didot, and taking hold of one of the presses with easy familiar- ity, printed off^ several sheets. To the startled printers who observed the performance, he said: "Do not be aflonifhed, Sirs, it is my former Bufi- nefs." To acknowledge having been a tradesman was, in the circle in French society in which he moved, Our Benjamin Franklin, 233 almost to accept membership in the lower orders, but Franklin never hesitated to speak of his early- experiences. At dinner one day in Paris in the presence of a distinguished company he addressed a young gentleman just arrived from Philadelphia, with the statement that he had always felt an obli- gation to the young man's family because his grand- father had been one of the first of his customers. In a letter to William Strahan, dated 1784, near the close of his life, a paragraph is written enter- tainingly in printing terms. It is as follows : "But let us leave these ferious Refledlions and converfe with our ufual Pleafantry. I remember your obferving once to me as we fat together in the Houfe of Commons, that no two Journeymen Printers, within our Knowledge, had met with fuch Succefs in the World as ourfelves. You were then at the head of your Profeffion, and foon after- wards became a Member of Parliament. I was an Agent for a few Provinces, and now act for them all. But we have rifen by different Modes. I, as a Republican Printer, always liked a Form well Elain'd down; being averfe to thofe overbearing etters that hold their Heads fo high, as to hinder their Neighbours from appearing. You, as a Monarchift, chofe to work upon Crown Paper, and found it profitable, while I work'd upon pro patris (often indeed call'd Fools Cap) with no lefs ad- vantage. Both our Heaps hold out very well, and we feem likely to make a pretty good day's Work of it. With regard to Public Affairs (to 234 Our Benjamin Franklin. continue in the same ftile), it feems to me that the Compofitors in your Chapel do not caft ofiF their Copy well, nor perfectly understand Impofmg; their Forms, too, are continually pefter'd by the Outs and Doubles, that are not eafy to be corrected. And I think they were wrong in laying afide some Faces, and particularly certain Head-pieces, that would have been both ufeful and ornamental. But Courage ! The Bufmefs may ftill flourifh with good Management ; and the Mafter become as rich as any of the Company." In a letter to Noah Webster dated the day after Christmas, 1789, he acknowledges receipt of that author's " DilTertations on the EngHfh Language" and takes occasion to make a number of observa- tions relating to writing and printing. One point he brings out is that interrogation marks should be placed at the beginning of a sentence instead of at the end, so that one reading aloud would know how to modulate the voice. It was Franklin's practice usually to capitalize all important words, and he therefore takes occasion to deprecate the growing practice of restricting capitals to proper words. The letter goes on to state : "From the fame Fondnefs for an even and uni- form Appearance of Characters in the Line, the Printers have of late banifhed alfo the Italic Types, in which Words of Importance to be attended to An the Senfe of the Sentence, and Words on which an Emphafis fhould be put in Reading, ufed to be printed. And lately, another Fancy has induc'd Our Benjamin Franklin. 235 fome Printers to ufe the fhort round s, inftead of the long one, which formerly ferved well to distinguish a word readily by its varied appearance. Certainly, the omitting this prominent Letter makes the Line appear more even, but renders it lefs immediately legible; as the paring all Men's Nofes might fmooth and level their Faces, but would render their Phyfiognomies lefs diftinguifhable. "Add to all thefe Improvements backwards, an- other modern Fancy, that grey Printing is more beautiful than black; hence the Englifh new Books are printed in fo dim a Character, as to be read with difficulty by old Eyes, unlefs in a very Strong Light and with good Glaffes. Whoever compares a Volume of the 'Gentleman's Magazine,' print'd be- tween the Years 173 1 and 1740 with one of thofe print'd in the last ten Years, will be convinc'd of the much greater Degree of Perfpicuity given by Black Ink than by grey. Lord Chefterfield pleafantly remark'd this Difference to Faulkener, the Printer of the Dublin Journal, who was vainly making Encomiums on his own Paper, as the moft complete of any in the World ; But, Mr. Faulkener, said my Lord, don't you think it might be ftill farther im- prov'd by ufmg Paper and Ink not quite fo near of a Colour? For all thefe Reafons I cannot but wifti that our American Printers would in their Editions avoid thefe fancied Improvements, and thereby render their Works more agreeable to Foreigners in Europe, to the great advance of our Bookfelling Commerce." He felt strongly upon the matter of the misuse of capitals and italics. According to Professor 236 Our Benjamin Franklin. Smyth, " he wrote to the printer Woodfall, enclos- ing a contribution to his paper, asking him to take care that the compositor observed strictly the Italicking, Capitalling and Pointing!" And he told his son that his " Edict of the King of Pruflia" had been reprinted in the "London Chronicle," "but stripped of all the Capitalling and Italicking that intimate the allufions and mark the emphafis of written difcourfes, to bring them as near as poflible to thofe fpoken. — Printing fuch a piece all in one even fmall Character, feems to me like repeating one of Whitefield's Sermons in the Monotony of a fchool boy." Among the memorial services held after Frank- lin's death, the part played by the printers of Paris in the meetings held in that city is worthy of quotation here: "They assembled in a large hall, in which there was a column surmounted by a bust of Franklin, with a civic crown. Below the bust were arrayed printers' cases and types, with a press, and all the apparatus of the art, which the philosopher had practiced with such distinguished success. While one of the fraternity pronounced a eulogy on Franklin, several printers were employed in com- posing it at the cases; and, as soon as it was finished, impressions of it were taken, and distributed to the large concourse of people, who had been drawn to- gether as spectators of the ceremony." The famous epitaph was written when the author Our Benjamin Franklin. 237 was twenty-two years of age, but was never used, the grave in the old cemetery in Philadelphia being marked only by a simple stone giving the bare facts of his Hfe. The epitaph reads : THE BODY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PRINTER (like THE COVER OF AN OLD BOOK, ITS CONTENTS TORN OUT, AND STRIPT OF ITS LETTERING AND GILDING,) LIES HERE, FOOD FOR WORMS. BUT THE WORK SHALL NOT BE LOST, FOR IT WILL (as HE BELIEVED) APPEAR ONCE MORE, IN A NEW AND MORE ELEGANT EDITION REVISED AND CORRECTED BY THE AUTHOR When he wrote his will in the closing days of his life it began, "I, Benjamin Franklin, of Philadel- phia, Printer, late Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States of America to the Court of France," etc. Franklin statues have been erected in most of the large cities of America, and his bust has a place in 238 Our Benjamin Franklin. the decoration of school houses and other public buildings generally throughout the land. Every year in every important American city his birthday is celebrated by meetings and banquets of members of societies of advertising men, publishers, and printers. Printers claim him as their own by the statement that he is their "patron saint." Benjamin Franklin died April 17, 1790, at the age of eighty-four years and three months, at his home in Philadelphia, surrounded by his family and near friends. Four days later he was buried in Christ Church burial ground, at Fifth and Arch streets, in Philadelphia. In the funeral pro- cession, headed by the clergy of the city, were the chief members of the executive, legislative, and judicial departments of the government, and (according to the " Gazette of the United States," of April 28, 1790) "the Mayor and Corporation of the City of Philadelphia, the Printers of the city, with their Journeymen and Apprentices, the Philosophical Society, the College of Physicians, the Cincinnati, the College of Philadelphia, sun- dry other Societies — together with a numerous and respectable body of Citizens." The account in the "Gazette" continues: "The concourse of spectators was greater than ever was known on a like occasion. It is com- puted that not less than 20,000 persons attended and witnessed the funeral. The order and si- Our Benjamin Franklin 239 lence which prevailed, during the Procession, deeply evinced the heartfelt sense, entertained by all classes of citizens, of the unparalleled vir- tues, talents, and services of the deceased." The grave in Christ Church burial ground is unmarked by a monument of any kind. Sim- plicity was the keynote of all the events of his long and useful life, and simplicity characterizes the final resting place of his earthly remains. THE END '3i#' "S^ "^10 %€ 'Si0 %€ %€ ■§&« %€ %€ ?!#' 'gflg' "Sa^ '&6€' "^aS" 'St^ %€ 'S^e ^S S'a ^& ■§'€> c^'fe <§'& ,#a ^"fe ,§'& t^'a ^'a ^'S> ^& <§>'€ <^'€ :S'fe ^'& ^i: t&% cSS'l '^'g' '^€ %€ %€ 'S(0 "Si^ "3a€ ^10 %€ %€ "&a€ '&a€ ^A§ "Sfl^ %€ '&a€ "gfiW %€ "^a^ The INDEX. Almanac making in the Col- onies in the eighteenth century, 112 "American Citizen" quoted, 207 " American Weekly Mer- cury," 95 Autobiography, alterations in, 202 Bache, Benjamin Franklin, i57> 165 Balzac, quoted on Franklin, 172 Baskerville, John, 154 Bond, Dr., quoted, 226 Boston, early population of, 3 " Boston News-Letter" estab- lished, II Bradford, William, first \ printer in Philadelphia and New York, 1 1 Burke, Edmund, 216 Business before the Revolu^ tion, 130 Caslon, William, 152 Childs, Francis, 149 Colden, Cadwallader, 215 Collins, John, 213 CoUinson, Peter, 215 "Court of the Press," 103 Craven Street, London, where Franklin lodged, 48 Cutler, Rev. Dr. Manasseh, quoted, 222. Day, Matthew, second prin- ter in the Colonies, 8 Daye, Stephen, first printer in the Colonies, 5 Dunlap, William, 140 Editions of Franklin's works, 209 First American magazine ad- vertisement, 81 Fisher, Sydney George, quoted, 137 Ford, Paul Leicester, quoted, 81, 126 ?4i 242 The INDEX. Franklin, Benjamin, Birth, 13 Goes to school, 14 Adopts a trade, 15 Terms of apprenticeship, 1 6 Becomes publisher of the "New England Cour- ant," 28 Runs away from Boston, 30 In New York, 30 Goes to Philadelphia, 3 1 Lodges with Andrew Brad- ford, 35 Meets Sir William Keith, 37 Returns to Boston, 38 Sails for London, 41 Goes to work at Samuel Palmer's, 42 Sets type for Wollaston's " Religion of Nature," 43 Goes to work for John Watts, 45 Known as the "Water- American," 47 As an athlete, 49 Employed as a clerk, 50 Draws up a plan of life, Religious belief, 57 Foreman of Keimer's print- ing office in Philadelphia, S8 Prints the New Jersey Money, 61 Franklin, Benjamin, Con. Goes into business with Hugh Meredith, 62 Secures the public print- ing, 64. Dissolution of partnership with Meredith, 65 Marries, 67 Becomes publisher of "The Universal Instructor," 98 Becomes typefounder, 151 Writes about the building of printing presses, 152 Writes about sorts, 157 Goes to France, 161 Establishes himself in Passy, 161 On the uses of words, 168 Interest in medicine, 237 Inventions, 237 Franklin, James, gives em- ployment to Benj amin, 1 5 Establishes "New Eng- land Courant," 20 In prison, 26 Franklin, James, Jr., 140 Franklin, Josiah, 12 Franklin, William Temple, quoted, 162, 186 Inherits his grandfather's papers, 201 Advertises for those not in his possession, 203 The INDEX. "General Magazine," 72 ' Green, Bartholomew, prin- ter of the first American newspaper, 10 Green, Samuel, third printer in the Colonies, 8 Hale, Edward Everett, quoted, 162 Hall, David, 142 Hall and Miller, 141 Harris, Benjamin, publisher "Public Occurrences Both Foreign and Do- mestic," 10 Harry, David, 65, 67 Holland, Samuel, 140 Hume, David, quoted, 179 James, Thomas, typefounder, ISO Jones, John Paul and "Poor Richard's Almanack," 128 Johnson, Marmeduke, fourth printer in the Colonies, 9 Junto, Formation of, 213 " Kalendarium Pennsilvan- iense," no Keimer, Samuel, 65, 98 Livingston, Luther S., quoted, 157, 164 Mather, Rev. Increase, 24 Bach, McMaster, John quoted, 112 Mecom, Benjamin, 140 Meredith, Hugh, Franklin's first partner, 60 "New England Courant" es- tablished, 20 New York, early population of, 4 Ocean travel early in the Eighteenth Century, 50 Parker, James, 141 Palmer, Samuel, author of "A History of Printing," 43 Parton, James, quoted, 56, 68, 131, 136 "Pennsylvania Gazette," 98 Advertisements in, 107, 167 Philadelphia, early popula- tion of, 4 "Philadelphische Zeitung," 81 "Poor Richard's Almanack," Printing in Philadelphia in 1728, 68 Prophecy of the Death of Titan Leeds, 120 Ralph, James, 42, 213 Roden, Robert F, quoted, 9 244 The INDEX. Independent Chronicle," 172 Scheme for a new alphabet, "Supplement to the Boston Scheme for Twenty-Four Hours, 56, 57 t ■ 1 "SeaHens and Black Gowns," Thomas, Isaiah, quoted, 8, 140, 196 Timothy, Peter, 139 "Touch of the Times," 69 "Universal Instructor," 97 Vaughan, Benjamin, 215 Watson, John F., quoted, 130 Webb, George, 95 181, 182 "Shavers and Trimmers," 181 Smith, Adam, 216 Smith Sydney, quoted, 195 Smith, William, 141 Smyth, Albert Henry, quoted, 162, 195, 199, 200 Socratic method of arguing, 190 Sparks, Jared, quoted, 13, 199 Webster, Noah, quoted, 192 Strahan, William, 155 Whitemarsh, Thomas, 139 THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS GARDEN CITY, N. Y. '1 ■ i 1 1 ^