The Age of Invention | Page 5

London, and he
accepted an offer to return to Philadelphia with employment as a clerk.
But early in 1727 his employer died, and Benjamin went back to his
trade, as printers always do. He found work again in Keimer's printing

office. Here his mechanical ingenuity and general ability presently
began to appear; he invented a method of casting type, made ink, and
became, in fact, the real manager of the business.
The ability to make friends was one of Franklin's traits, and the number
of his acquaintances grew rapidly, both in Pennsylvania and New
Jersey. "I grew convinced," he naively says, "that TRUTH,
SINCERITY, and INTEGRITY in dealings between man and man were
of the utmost importance to the felicity of life." Not long after his
return from England he founded in Philadelphia the Junto, a society
which at its regular meetings argued various questions and criticized
the writings of the members. Through this society he enlarged his
reputation as well as his education.
The father of an apprentice at Keimer's furnished the money to buy a
printing outfit for his son and Franklin, but the son soon sold his share,
and Benjamin Franklin, Printer, was fairly established in business at the
age of twenty-four. The writing of an anonymous pamphlet on "The
Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency" called attention to the need
of a further issue of paper money in Pennsylvania, and the author of the
tract was rewarded with the contract to print the money, "a very
profitable job, and a great help to me." Small favors were thankfully
received. And, "I took care not only to be in REALITY industrious and
frugal, but to avoid all appearances to the contrary. I drest plainly; I
was seen at no places of idle diversion." And, "to show that I was not
above my business, I sometimes brought home the paper I purchased at
the stores thru the streets on a wheelbarrow."
"The Universal Instructor in All Arts and Sciences and Pennsylvania
Gazette": this was the high-sounding name of a newspaper which
Franklin's old employer, Keimer, had started in Philadelphia. But
bankruptcy shortly overtook Keimer, and Franklin took the newspaper
with its ninety subscribers. The "Universal Instructor" feature of the
paper consisted of a page or two weekly of "Chambers's Encyclopedia".
Franklin eliminated this feature and dropped the first part of the long
name. "The Pennsylvania Gazette" in Franklin's hands soon became
profitable. And it lives today in the fullness of abounding life, though
under another name. "Founded A.D. 1728 by Benj. Franklin" is the
proud legend of "The Saturday Evening Post", which carries on, in our
own times, the Franklin tradition.

The "Gazette" printed bits of local news, extracts from the London
"Spectator", jokes, verses, humorous attacks on Bradford's "Mercury",
a rival paper, moral essays by the editor, elaborate hoaxes, and pungent
political or social criticism. Often the editor wrote and printed letters to
himself, either to emphasize some truth or to give him the opportunity
to ridicule some folly in a reply to "Alice Addertongue," "Anthony
Afterwit," or other mythical but none the less typical person.
If the countryman did not read a newspaper, or buy books, he was, at
any rate, sure to own an almanac. So in 1732 Franklin brought out
"Poor Richard's Almanac". Three editions were sold within a few
months. Year after year the sayings of Richard Saunders, the alleged
publisher, and Bridget, his wife, creations of Franklin's fancy, were
printed in the almanac. Years later the most striking of these sayings
were collected and published. This work has been translated into as
many as twenty languages and is still in circulation today.
Franklin kept a shop in connection with his printing office, where he
sold a strange variety of goods: legal blanks, ink, pens, paper, books,
maps, pictures, chocolate, coffee, cheese, codfish, soap, linseed oil,
broadcloth, Godfrey's cordial, tea, spectacles, rattlesnake root, lottery
tickets, and stoves--to mention only a few of the many articles he
advertised. Deborah Read, who became his wife in 1730, looked after
his house, tended shop, folded and stitched pamphlets, bought rags, and
helped him to live economically. "We kept no idle servants, " says
Franklin, "our table was plain and simple, our furniture of the cheapest.
For instance, my breakfast was a long time bread and milk (no tea), and
I ate it out of a twopenny earthen porringer with a pewter spoon."
With all this frugality, Franklin was not a miser; he abhorred the waste
of money, not the proper use. His wealth increased rapidly. "I
experienced too," he says, "the truth of the observation, 'THAT AFTER
GETTING THE FIRST HUNDRED POUND, IT IS MORE EASY TO
GET THE SECOND, money itself being of a prolific nature." He gave
much unpaid public service and subscribed generously to