Of doggerel he has left plenty. The lines that stand at the heads of the monthly calendars in "Poor Richard' are his. There is more of the same kind in the Gazette. But of good verse, not six pieces are extant. The Lines on Paper; the Drinking Song for the Junto, beginning "Fair Venus calls;" "My Plain Country Joan;" "David's Lamentation," and a humorous poem never published, make up the list. The unpublished piece is among his papers in the State Department at Washington.

After 1740, Franklin almost ceased to contribute essays to the Gazette. In 1748 he sold it, with his printing-house, to his partner David Hall. As a newspaper there is little to be said in its behalf. The printing is well done, for, as a printer, the colonies did not produce his equal. But as an editor, he was outdone, and much outdone, by William Bradford of the Journal. It seemed impossible for him to rise above the job-printer. The years during which the printing-house and the Gazette were under his control were years of great literary activity. During these years the press of Pennsylvania showed a boldness and fertility to which the press of no other colony approached. The classics were translated, magazines were begun, newspapers in foreign languages established,

German type introduced, and the largest work printed before the Revolution issued. From the Pennsylvania press came, before 1748, "Epictetus his Morals," the first translation of a classic issued in America; "Philadelphische Zeitung," the first German newspaper; and "Zionitischer Weyrauch-Hügel," the first book printed from German type; the first and second monthly magazine, and the first book published in a European tongue. Nor did enterprise end here. In 1764 came forth the first religious periodical, and in 1785 the first daily newspaper in North America. Yet for all this activity we owe nothing or next to nothing to Franklin. The encouragement he gave to letters was not by printing good books, but by putting it in the power of his poorer townsmen to read them.

To bring this about he founded the Philadelphia Library. The idea was not a sudden one. When a lad of one-and-twenty, in Keimer's employ, he formed his boon companions into the famous Junto. The number was limited to twelve, and no one could be a member till he had, with his hand upon his heart, declared that he loved mankind; that he thought no man ought to be harmed in body, name, or goods because of the opinions he held or the creed he followed; that he loved truth for the

sake of truth, should seek diligently for it, and when found make it known to others. On Friday evenings, when the Junto met, it was usual to read through a list of questions, which each one present must answer if he could, and to bring up some matter for general debate. The debates and the questions often made it necessary to bring a book, and noticing this, Franklin proposed that each should bring all the books he owned and leave them in the room of the Junto for the good of all. This was done. But when a year was gone, some of the members finding their books had been badly treated, took them away. Even for this Franklin had an expedient ready, and suggested that fifty subscribers be found who were willing to pay forty shillings down, and ten shillings a year thereafter for maintaining a library. The suggestion seemed a good one, and the members of the Junto were soon carrying round papers to which subscribers set their names but slowly. Five months were spent in filling the list, four more went by before the shillings were collected. But at last, in March, 1732, forty-five pounds were sent to London to be laid out in the purchase of books. In October the first invoice arrived, and the Library was opened in the room where the Junto met.

CHAPTER IV.

1732-1748.

WHEN the year 1732 opened, Franklin's career of prosperity may be said to have begun. He had ended his partnership with Meredith, had paid his debts, had married a wife, set up a newspaper, and opened a shop, which defies description, hard by the marketplace in High Street. There were to be had imported books, legal blanks, paper and parchment, Dutch quills and Aleppo ink, perfumed soap, Rhode Island cheese, chapbooks such as the peddlers hawked, pamphlets such as the Quakers read, live-geese feathers, bohea tea, coffee, very good sack, and cash for old rags. Everything connected with this miscellaneous business was carried on in strict accordance with the maxims of Poor Richard. No idle servant fattened in his house. His wife, in such moments as could be snatched from the kitchen and the tub, folded newspapers, stitched pamphlets, and sold inkhorns and pocket-books, which, as paper-money drove out the coin, came more and more into use.

Franklin meanwhile managed the printinghouse, made lampblack, cast type, made rude cuts for the paper-money bills, and might be seen at times trundling home a wheelbarrow loaded with paper bought at some neighboring merchant's shop.

Industrious, thrifty, saving, full of hard common sense and worldly wisdom, he suffered no chance to pass unused, and rose rapidly to the place of chief printer in the province. The business of the place in a year would not now suffice to keep a journeyman printer occupied three months. Never since the press had been set up in Pennsylvania had all the issues in any one year numbered thirty. In 1732 they were but nineteen; but of the nineteen, three, bearing the imprint of Franklin, are noteworthy. One was "Philadelphische Zeitung," the first German newspaper printed in America. Another was "The Honour of the Gout," a book that long afterwards suggested the famous Dialogue between Franklin and the Gout. The third was the greatest of all almanacs "Poor Richard."

The publication of "Poor Richard" he was tempted to undertake by the quick and great returns such pamphlets were sure to bring in. For the mere copy of popular almanacs, printers were then compelled to pay down in advance