exclusion of the Old Road. But the governor reminded the grumblers that by this means a trade had grown up between Philadelphia, Burlington, Perth Town, and New York such as had never before existed.

Notwithstanding this travel, the road when Franklin used it ran for miles through an uninhabited country. The almanacs, which were the road-books of that day, make mention of but four places where a traveler could find rest and refreshment. One was at Cranberry Brook; another was at Allentown, a place nine years old. A third was at Crosswick Bridge; and the fourth at Dr. Brown's, eight miles from Burlington, and here Benjamin slept on the night of his second day from Amboy.

Early the next morning he was at Burlington, where he once more took boat, slept that night in the fields, and early one Sunday morning in October, 1723, entered Philadelphia. For a while he wandered about the streets, but falling in with a number of Quakers, followed them to meeting and there fell asleep. It was well that he did, for had the constable met him sauntering around the town, Benjamin would have been placed in the lockup.

CHAPTER II.

1723-1729.

THE prospect that lay before Benjamin, when, the fatigue of the journey slept off, he went forth in search of work, was poor indeed. All the printing done in Pennsylvania was done on the press of Andrew Bradford; and all the printing Bradford did in a year could, in our time, be done in one hour. From his press came the "American Weekly Mercury," the contents of which would not fill a column and a half of such a daily newspaper as the "Boston Traveller" or the "Philadelphia Press." Never in any one year did all the tracts, all the sermons, all the almanacs, all the appeals, catechisms, and proposals published in Pennsylvania number thirty-nine. Nor did the largest book yet printed contain three hundred small octavo pages. Indeed, forty-seven years had not gone since William Bradford began the list of Middle Colony publications with Atkins's "Kalendarium Pennsilvaniense, being an Almanac for the year of Grace 1686.”

William Bradford was then a lad of two-andtwenty, who had been brought up to set type and work a press in the shop of Andrew Sowle, a famous London printer of Friends' books. His relations with Sowle, first as apprentice and then as son-in-law, brought him often to the notice of William Penn. Anxious to secure a good printer for his province, Penn made an offer to Bradford to go to Pennsylvania and print the laws: the offer was accepted, and in the summer of 1685 the young printer landed at Philadelphia with types, a press, and three letters from George Fox.

On the day he landed there were but two printing-presses in the whole of British North America. Evidence exists that there was, for a while, a third; that in 1682 one John Buckner published the Virginia laws of 1680; that he was promptly summoned before the governor and council, censured, and forbidden to print again till the king's will was known; and that for forty-seven years not another type was set in the Old Dominion. With the single exception of the Virginia laws of 1680, not a piece of printing had been done out of Cambridge, Massachusetts, when early in December, 1685, Bradford issued the " Kalendarium Pennsilvaniense," and introduced "the great art and mystery of printing" into the Middle Colonies.

"Some Irregularities," said he in his address to the readers," there be in this Diary, which I desire you to pass by this year; for being lately come hither, my Materials were Misplaced and out of order." But the advance sheet had no sooner been seen by Secretary Markham than he detected one irregularity for which neither the recent arrival nor the disordered fonts could atone. "In the Chronology," Markham informed the council, "of the Almanack sett forth by Samuel Atkins of Philadelphia and by William Bradford of the same place, are the words 'the beginning of Government by ye Lord Penn."" Thereupon the council sent for Atkins and bade him "blott out ye words Lord Penn;" and to "Will Bradford, ye printer, gave Charge not to print anything but what shall have lycense from ye Council." Atkins obeyed, and in the only copies of "Kalendarium" now extant the hated words are blotted out.

With this the struggle for the liberty of the press began in Pennsylvania. Twice was Bradford called before the governor; thrice was he censured by the meeting; once was he put under heavy bonds, and once thrown into jail, before he gathered his type, and in 1693 fastened his notice of removal on the courthouse door and set out for New York. Dur

ing the six years that followed his departure not a type was set in Pennsylvania. Then the Friends brought out a press from London, put it under the censorship of a committee, and rented it to Reynier Jansen. Jansen died in 1705, and the press passed in turn to Tiberius Johnson, to Joseph Reyners, to Jacob Taylor, in whose hands it was when, in 1712, William Bradford established his son Andrew as a printer at Philadelphia.

For ten years Andrew Bradford continued to print almanacs and laws, religious tracts and political pamphlets, without a rival. But on the October morning, 1723, when Franklin passed under the sign of the Bible, entered the shop of Bradford and asked for work, Samuel Keimer, a rival printer, had set up in the town. Bradford had nothing for the lad to do, but gave him a home and sent him to Keimer, by whom he was soon employed. During a few months all went well, and Franklin spent his time courting, printing, and making friends. Among these was William Keith, who governed Pennsyl vania for the children of Penn.

Keith affected great interest in the boy, and sent him to Boston with a letter urging Josiah to fit out the son as a master printer. Josiah refused, and Benjamin came back to Keith, who now dispatched him on a fool's errand to Lon