Chapter IV: Business and Literature

Franklin's ancestors in both America and England had not been remarkable for their success in worldly affairs. Most of them did little more than earn a living, and, being of contented dispositions, had no ambition to advance beyond it. Some of them were entirely contented with poverty. All of them, however, were inclined to be economical and industrious. They had no extended views of business enterprise, and we find none of them among the great merchants or commercial classes who were reaching out for the foreign trade of that age. Either from lack of foresight or lack of desire, they seldom selected very profitable callings. They took what was nearest at hand--making candles or shoeing horses--and clung to it persistently.

Franklin advanced beyond them only because all their qualities of economy, thrift, industry, and serene contentedness were intensified in him. His choice of a calling was no better than theirs, for printing was not a very profitable business in colonial times, and was made so in his case only by his unusual sagacity.

I have already described his adventures as a young printer, and how he was sent on a wild-goose chase to London by Governor Keith, of Pennsylvania. I have also told how on his return to Philadelphia he gave up printing and became the clerk of Mr. Denham. He liked Mr. Denham and the clerkship, and never expected to return to his old calling. If Mr. Denham had lived, Franklin might have become a renowned Philadelphia merchant and financier, like Robert Morris, an owner of ships and cargoes, a trader to India and China, and an outfitter of privateers. But this sudden change from the long line of his ancestry was not to be. Nature, as if indignant at the attempt, struck down both Denham and himself with pleurisy within six months of their association in business. Denham perished, and Franklin, after a narrow escape from death, went back reluctantly to set type for Keimer.

He was now twenty-one, a good workman, with experience on two continents, and Keimer made him foreman of his printing-office. Within six months, however, his connection with Keimer was ended by a quarrel, and one of the workmen, Hugh Meredith, suggested that he and Franklin should set up in the printing business for themselves, Meredith to furnish the money through his father, and Franklin to furnish the skill. This offer was eagerly accepted; but as some months would be required to obtain type and materials from London, Franklin's quarrel with Keimer was patched up and he went back to work for him.

In the spring of 1728 the type arrived. Franklin parted from Keimer in peace, and then with Meredith sprung upon him the surprise of a rival printing establishment. They rented a house for twenty-four pounds a year, and to help pay it took in Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Godfrey as lodgers. But their money was all spent in getting started, and they had a hard struggle. Their first work was a translation of a Dutch history of the Quakers. Franklin worked late and early. People saw him still employed as they went home from their clubs late at night, and he was at it again in the morning before his neighbors were out of bed.

There were already two other printing-offices, Keimer's and Bradford's, and hardly enough work for them. The town prophesied failure for the firm of Franklin & Meredith; and, indeed, their only hope of success seemed to be in destroying one or both of their rivals, a serious undertaking for two young men working on borrowed capital. There was so little to be made in printing at that time that most of the printers were obliged to branch out into journalism and to keep stationery stores. Franklin resolved to start a newspaper, but, unfortunately, told his secret to one of Keimer's workmen, and Keimer, to be beforehand, immediately started a newspaper of his own, called _The Universal Instructor in all Arts and Sciences and the Pennsylvania Gazette_.

Franklin was much disgusted, and in resentment, as he tells us, and to counteract Keimer, began writing amusing letters for the other newspaper of the town, Bradford's _Mercury_. His idea was to crush Keimer's paper by building up Bradford's until he could have one of his own. His articles, which were signed "Busy Body," show the same talent for humor that he had displayed in Boston a few years before, when he wrote for his brother's newspaper over the name "Silence Dogood;" but there is a great difference in their tone. No ridicule of the prevailing religion or hatred of those in authority appears in them. The young man evidently found Philadelphia more to his taste than Boston, and was not at war with his surroundings. The "Busy Body" papers are merely pleasant raillery at the failings of human nature in general, interspersed with good advice, something like that which he soon afterwards gave in "Poor Richard."

Keimer tried to keep his journal going by publishing long extracts from an encyclopædia which had recently appeared, beginning with the letter A, and he tried to imitate the wit of the "Busy Body." But he merely laid himself open to the "Busy Body's" attacks, who burlesqued and ridiculed his attempts, and Franklin in his Autobiography gives himself the credit of having drawn public attention so strongly to Bradford's _Mercury_ that Keimer, after keeping his _Universal Instructor_ going on only ninety subscribers for about nine months, gave it up. Franklin & Meredith bought it in and thus disposed of one of their rivals. That rival, being incompetent and ignorant, soon disposed of himself by bankruptcy and removal to the Barbadoes. Franklin continued the publication of the newspaper under the title of the _Pennsylvania Gazette;_ but it was vastly improved in every way,--better type, better paper, more news, and intelligent, well-reasoned articles on public affairs instead of Keimer's stupid prolixity.

An article written by Franklin on that great question of colonial times, whether the Legislature of each colony should give the governor a fixed salary or pay him only at the end of each year, according as he had pleased them, attracted much attention. It was written with considerable astuteness, and, while upholding the necessity of the governor's dependence on the Legislature, was careful not to give offence to those who were of a different opinion. The young printers also won favor by reprinting neatly and correctly an address of the Assembly to the governor, which Bradford had previously printed in a blundering way. The members of the Assembly were so pleased with it that they voted their printing to Franklin & Meredith for the ensuing year. These politicians, finding that Franklin knew how to handle a pen, thought it well, as a matter of self-interest, to encourage him.

The two young men were kept busily employed, yet found it very difficult to make both ends meet, although they did everything themselves, not having even a boy to assist them. Meredith's father, having suffered some losses, could lend them but half of the sum they had expected from him. The merchant who had furnished them their materials grew impatient and sued them. They succeeded in staying judgment and execution for a time, but fully expected to be eventually sold out by the sheriff and ruined.

At this juncture two friends of Franklin came to him and offered sufficient money to tide over his difficulties if he would get rid of Meredith, who was intemperate, and take all the business on himself. This he succeeded in doing, and with the money supplied by his friends paid off his debts and added a stationery shop, where he sold paper, parchment, legal blanks, ink, books, and, in time, soap, goose-feathers, liquors, and groceries; he also secured the printing of the laws of Delaware, and, as he says, went on swimmingly. Soon after this he married Miss Read, and he has left us an account of how they lived together:

"We kept no idle servants, our table was plain and simple, our
furniture of the cheapest. For instance, my breakfast was for a
long time bread and milk (no tea), and I ate it out of a
twopenny earthen porringer, with a pewter spoon. But mark how
luxury will enter families, and make a progress in spite of
principle: being called one morning to breakfast, I found it in
a china bowl, with a spoon of silver! They had been bought for
me without my knowledge by my wife, and had cost her the
enormous sum of three and twenty shillings, for which she had no
other excuse or apology to make but that she thought _her_
husband deserved a silver spoon and china bowl as well as any of
his neighbors."

A story is told on the Eastern Shore of Maryland of a young man who called one evening on an old farmer to ask him how it was that he had become rich.

"It is a long story," said the old man, "and while I am telling it we might as well save the candle," and he put it out.

"You need not tell it," said the youth. "I see."

Franklin's method was the one that had always been practised by his ancestors, and with his wider intelligence and great literary ability it was sure to succeed. The silver spoons slowly increased until in the course of years, as he tells us, the plate in his house was "augmented gradually to several hundred pounds in value."

His newspaper, the _Pennsylvania Gazette_, was the best in the colonies. Besides the ordinary news and advertisements, together with little anecdotes and squibs which he was always so clever in telling, he printed in it extracts from _The Spectator_ and various moral writers, articles from English newspapers, as well as articles of his own which had been previously read to the Junto. He also published long poems by Stephen Duck, now utterly forgotten; but he was then the poet laureate and wrote passable verse. He carefully excluded all libelling and personal abuse; but what would now be considered indelicate jests were not infrequent. These broad jokes, together with witticisms at the expense of ecclesiastics, constituted the stock amusements of the time, as the English literature of that period abundantly shows.

Opening one of the old volumes of his _Gazette_ at random, we find for September 5, 1734, a humorous account of a lottery in England, by which, to encourage the propagation of the species, all the old maids of the country are to be raffled for. Turning over the leaves, we find the humorous will of a fellow who, among other queer bequests, leaves his body "as a very wholesome feast to the worms of his family vault." In another number an account is given of some excesses of the Pope, with a Latin verse and its translation which had been pasted on Pasquin's statue:

"Omnia Venduntur imo
Dogmata Christi
Et ne me vendunt, evolo.
Roma Vale."

"Rome all things sells, even doctrines old and new.
I'll fly for fear of sale; so Rome adieu."

In the number for November 7, 1734, we are given "The Genealogy of a Jacobite."

"The Devil _begat_ Sin, Sin _begat_ Error, Error _begat_ Pride,
Pride _begat_ Hatred, Hatred _begat_ Ignorance, Ignorance
_begat_ Blind Zeal, Blind Zeal _begat_ Superstition,
Superstition _begat_ Priestcraft, Priestcraft _begat_ Lineal
Succession, Lineal Succession _begat_ Indelible Character,
Indelible Character _begat_ Blind Obedience, Blind Obedience
_begat_ Infallibility, Infallibility _begat_ the Pope and his
Brethren in the time of Egyptian Darkness, the Pope _begat_
Purgatory, Purgatory _begat_ Auricular Confession, Auricular
Confession _begat_ Renouncing of Reason, Renouncing of Reason
_begat_ Contempt of Scriptures, Contempt of the Scriptures
_begat_ Implicit Faith, Implicit Faith _begat_ Carnal Policy,
Carnal Policy _begat_ Unlimited Passive Obedience, Unlimited
Passive Obedience _begat_ Non-Resistance, Non-Resistance _begat_
Oppression, Oppression _begat_ Faction, Faction _begat_
Patriotism, Patriotism _begat_ Opposition to all the Measures of
the Ministry, Opposition _begat_ Disaffection, Disaffection
_begat_ Discontent, Discontent _begat_ a Tory, and a Tory
_begat_ a Jacobite, with Craftsman and Fog and their Brethren on
the Body of the Whore of Babylon when she was deemed past child
bearing."

Franklin's famous "Speech of Polly Baker" is supposed to have first appeared in the _Gazette_. This is a mistake, but it was reprinted again and again in American newspapers for half a century.

"The Speech of Miss Polly Baker before a Court of Judicatory, in
New England, where she was prosecuted for a fifth time, for
having a Bastard Child; which influenced the Court to dispense
with her punishment, and which induced one of her judges to
marry her the next day--by whom she had fifteen children.

"May it please the honourable bench to indulge me in a few
words: I am a poor, unhappy woman, who have no money to fee
lawyers to plead for me, being hard put to it to get a
living.... Abstracted from the law, I cannot conceive (may it
please your honours) what the nature of my offence is. I have
brought five children into the world, at the risque of my life;
I have maintained them well by my own industry, without
burthening the township, and would have done it better, if it
had not been for the heavy charges and fines I have paid. Can it
be a crime (in the nature of things, I mean) to add to the
King's subjects, in a new country that really needs people? I
own it, I should think it rather a praiseworthy than a
punishable action. I have debauched no other woman's husband,
nor enticed any youth; these things I never was charged with;
nor has any one the least cause of complaint against me, unless,
perhaps, the ministers of justice, because I have had children
without being married, by which they have missed a wedding fee.
But can this be a fault of mine? I appeal to your honours. You
are pleased to allow I don't want sense; but I must be stupefied
to the last degree, not to prefer the honourable state of
wedlock to the condition I have lived in. I always was, and
still am willing to enter into it; and doubt not my behaving
well in it; having all the industry, frugality, fertility, and
skill in economy appertaining to a good wife's character. I defy
any one to say I ever refused an offer of that sort; on the
contrary, I readily consented to the only proposal of marriage
that ever was made me, which was when I was a virgin, but too
easily confiding in the person's sincerity that made it, I
unhappily lost my honour by trusting to his; for he got me with
child, and then forsook me.

"That very person, you all know; he is now become a magistrate
of this country; and I had hopes he would have appeared this day
on the bench, and have endeavoured to moderate the Court in my
favour; then I should have scorned to have mentioned it, but I
must now complain of it as unjust and unequal, that my betrayer,
and undoer, the first cause of all my faults and miscarriages
(if they must be deemed such), should be advanced to honour and
power in the government that punishes my misfortunes with
stripes and infamy.... But how can it be believed that Heaven is
angry at my having children, when to the little done by me
towards it, God has been pleased to add his divine skill and
admirable workmanship in the formation of their bodies, and
crowned the whole by furnishing them with rational and immortal
souls? Forgive me, gentlemen, if I talk a little extravagantly
on these matters: I am no divine, but if you, gentlemen, must
be making laws, do not turn natural and useful actions into
crimes by your prohibitions. But take into your wise
consideration the great and growing number of bachelors in the
country, many of whom, from the mean fear of the expense of a
family, have never sincerely and honestly courted a woman in
their lives; and by their manner of living leave unproduced
(which is little better than murder) hundreds of their posterity
to the thousandth generation. Is not this a greater offence
against the public good than mine? Compel them, then, by law,
either to marriage, or to pay double the fine of fornication
every year. What must poor young women do, whom customs and
nature forbid to solicit the men, and who cannot force
themselves upon husbands, when the laws take no care to provide
them any, and yet severely punish them if they do their duty
without them; the duty of the first and great command of nature
and nature's God, increase and multiply; a duty, from the steady
performance of which nothing has been able to deter me, but for
its sake I have hazarded the loss of the public esteem, and have
frequently endured public disgrace and punishment; and therefore
ought, in my humble opinion, instead of a whipping, to have a
statue erected to my memory."

A newspaper furnishing the people with so much information and sound advice, mingled with broad stories, bright and witty, and appealing to all the human passions,--in other words, so thoroughly like Franklin,--was necessarily a success. It was, however, a small affair,--a single sheet which, when folded, was about twelve by eighteen inches,--and it appeared only twice a week.

It differed from other colonial newspapers chiefly in its greater brightness and in the literary skill shown in its preparation. But attempts have been made to exaggerate its merits, and Parton declares that in it Franklin "originated the modern system of business advertising" and that "he was the first man who used this mighty engine of publicity as we now use it." A careful examination of the _Gazette_ and the other journals of the time fails to disclose any evidence in support of this extravagant statement. The advertisements in the _Gazette_ are like those in the other papers,--runaway servants and slaves, ships and merchandise for sale, articles lost or stolen. On the whole, perhaps more advertisements appear in the _Gazette_ than in any of the others, though a comparison of the _Gazette_ with Bradford's _Mercury_ shows days when the latter has the greater number.

Franklin advertised rather extensively his own publications, and the lamp-black, soap, and "ready money for old rags" which were to be had at his shop, for the reason, doubtless, that, being owner of both the newspaper and the shop, the advertisements cost him nothing. This is the only foundation for the tale of his having originated modern advertising. His advertisements are of the same sort that appeared in other papers, and there is not the slightest suggestion of modern methods in them.

Parton also says that Franklin "invented the plan of distinguishing advertisements by means of little pictures which he cut with his own hands." If he really was the inventor of this plan, it is strange that he allowed his rival Bradford to use it in the _Mercury_ before it was adopted by the _Gazette_. No cuts appear in the advertisements in the _Gazette_ until May 30, 1734; but the _Mercury's_ advertisements have them in the year 1733.

Franklin made no sudden or startling changes in the methods of journalism; he merely used them effectively. His reputation and fortune were increased by his newspaper, but his greatest success came from his almanac, the immortal "Poor Richard."

In those days almanacs were the literature of the masses, very much as newspapers are now. Everybody read them, and they supplied the place of books to those who would not or could not buy these means of knowledge. Every farm-house and hunter's cabin had one hanging by the fireplace, and the rich were also eager to read afresh every year the weather forecasts, receipts, scraps of history, and advice mingled with jokes and verses.

Every printer issued an almanac as a matter of course, for it was the one publication which was sure to sell, and there was always more or less money to be made by it. While Franklin and Meredith were in business they published their almanac annually, and it was prepared by Thomas Godfrey, the mathematician, who with his wife lived in part of Franklin's house. But, as has been related, Mrs. Godfrey tried to make a match between Franklin and one of her relatives, and when that failed the Godfreys and Franklin separated, and Thomas Godfrey devoted his mathematical talents to the preparation of Bradford's almanac.

This was in the year 1732, and the following year Franklin had no philomath, as such people were called, to prepare his almanac. A great deal depended on having a popular philomath. Some of them could achieve large sales for their employer, while others could scarcely catch the public attention at all. Franklin's literary instinct at once suggested the plan of creating a philomath out of his own imagination, an ideal one who would achieve the highest possibilities of the art. So he wrote his own almanac, and announced that it was prepared by one Richard Saunders, who for short was called "Poor Richard," and he proved to be the most wonderful philomath that ever lived.

As Shakespeare took the suggestions and plots of his plays from old tales and romances, endowing his spoils by the touch of genius with a life that the originals never possessed, so Franklin plundered right and left to obtain material for the wise sayings of "Poor Richard." There was, we are told, a Richard Saunders who was the philomath of a popular English almanac called "The Apollo Anglicanus," and another popular almanac had been called "Poor Robin;" but "Poor Richard" was a real creation, a new human character introduced to the world like Sir Roger de Coverley.

Novel-writing was in its infancy in those days, and Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," Addison's character of Sir Roger, and the works of Richardson, Fielding, and Smollett were the only examples of this new literature. That beautiful sentiment that prompts children to say, "Tell us a story," and which is now fed to repletion by trash, was then primitive, fresh, and simple. Franklin could have written a novel in the manner of Fielding, but he had no inclination for such a task. He took more naturally and easily to creating a single character somewhat in the way Sir Roger de Coverley was created by Addison, whose essays he had rewritten so often for practice.

Sir Roger was so much of a gentleman, there were so many delicate touches in him, that he never became the favorite of the common people. But "Poor Richard" was the Sir Roger of the masses; he won the hearts of high and low. In that first number for the year 1733 he introduces himself very much after the manner of Addison.

"COURTEOUS READER,

"I might in this place attempt to gain thy favor by declaring
that I write almanacks with no other view than that of the
public good, but in this I should not be sincere; and men are
now-a-days too wise to be deceived by pretences, how specious
soever. The plain truth of the matter is, I am excessive poor,
and my wife, good woman, is, I tell her, excessive proud; she
cannot bear, she says, to sit spinning in her shift of tow,
while I do nothing but gaze at the stars; and has threatened
more than once to burn all my books and rattling traps (as she
calls my instruments) if I do not make some profitable use of
them for the good of my family. The printer has offered me some
considerable share of the profits, and I have thus begun to
comply with my dame's desire."

There was a rival almanac, of which the philomath was Titan Leeds. "Poor Richard" affects great friendship for him, and says that he would have written almanacs long ago had he not been unwilling to interfere with the business of Titan. But this obstacle was soon to be removed.

"He dies by my calculation," says "Poor Richard," "made at his
request, on Oct. 17, 1733, 3 ho., 29 m., P. M., at the very
instant of the [symbol: conjunction] of [symbol: Sun] and
[symbol: Mercury]. By his own calculation he will survive till
the 26th of the same month. This small difference between us we
have disputed whenever we have met these nine years past; but at
length he is inclinable to agree with my judgment. Which of us
is most exact, a little time will now determine."

In the next issue "Poor Richard" announces that his circumstances are now much easier. His wife has a pot of her own and is no longer obliged to borrow one of a neighbor; and, best of all, they have something to put in it, which has made her temper more pacific. Then he begins to tease Titan Leeds. He recalls his prediction of his death, but is not quite sure whether it occurred; for he has been prevented by domestic affairs from being at the bedside and closing the eyes of his old friend. The stars have foretold the death with their usual exactitude; but sometimes Providence interferes in these matters, which makes the astrologer's art a little uncertain. But on the whole he thinks Titan must be dead, "for there appears in his name, as I am assured, an Almanack for the year 1734 in which I am treated in a very gross and unhandsome manner; in which I am called a false predicter, an ignorant, a conceited scribbler, a fool, and a lyar;" and he goes on to show that his good friend Titan would never have treated him in this way.

The next year he is still making sport of Titan, the deceased Titan, and the ghost of Titan, "who pretends to be still living, and to write Almanacks in spight of me;" and he proves again by means of the funniest arguments that he must be dead. Another year he devotes several pages of nonsense to disproving the charge that "Poor Richard" is not a real person. He ridicules astrology and weather forecasting by pretending to be very serious over it. At any rate, he says, "we always hit the day of the month, and that I suppose is esteemed one of the most useful things in an Almanack." He and his good old wife are getting on now better than ever; and the almanac for 1738 is prepared by Mistress Saunders herself, who rails at her husband and makes queer work with eclipses and forecasting. Then in the number for 1740 Titan writes a letter to "Poor Richard" from the other world.

Besides the formal essays or prefaces which appeared in each number, there were numerous verses, paragraphs of admirable satire on the events of the day or the weaknesses of human nature, and those prudential maxims which in the end became the most famous of all. As we look through a collection of these almanacs for an hour or so we seem to have lived among the colonists, who were not then Americans, but merry Englishmen, heavy eaters and drinkers, full of broad jokes, whimsical, humorous ways, and forever gossiping with hearty good nature over the ludicrous accidents of life, the love-affairs, the married infelicities, and the cuckolds. It is the freshness, the sap, and the rollicking happiness of old English life.

"Old Batchelor would have a wife that's wise,
Fair, rich and young a maiden for his bed;
Not proud, nor churlish, but of faultless size,
A country housewife in the city bred.
He's a nice fool and long in vain hath staid;
He should bespeak her, there's none ready made."

"Never spare the parson's wine, nor the baker's pudding."

"Ne'er take a wife till thou hast a house (and a fire) to put her in."

"My love and I for kisses play'd,
She would keep stakes, I was content,
But when I won, she would be paid,
This made me ask her what she meant:
Quoth she, since you are in the wrangling vein
Here take your kisses, give me mine again."

"Who has deceived thee so oft as thyself?"

"There is no little enemy."

"_Of the Eclipses this year._

"During the first visible eclipse Saturn is retrograde: For
which reason the crabs will go sidelong and the ropemakers
backward. The belly will wag before, and the ---- will sit down
first.... When a New Yorker thinks to say THIS he shall say
DISS, and the People in New England and Cape May will not be
able to say Cow for their Lives, but will be forc'd to say KEOW
by a certain involuntary Twist in the Root of their Tongues...."

"Many dishes many diseases."

"Let thy maid servant be faithful, strong and homely."

"Here I sit naked, like some fairy elf;
My seat a pumpkin; I grudge no man's pelf,
Though I've no bread nor cheese upon my shelf,
I'll tell thee gratis, when it safe is
To purge, to bleed, or cut thy cattle or--thyself."

"Necessity never made a good bargain."

"A little house well filled, a little field well till'd and a
little wife well will'd are great riches."

"_Of the Diseases this year._

"This Year the Stone-blind shall see but very little; the Deaf
shall hear but poorly; and the Dumb shan't speak 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 Drakes, Geese and Ganders shall go to Pot; but
the Mortality will not be altogether so great among Cats, Dogs
and Horses...."

"_Of the Fruits of the Earth._

"I find that this will be a plentiful Year of all manner of good
Things, to those who have enough; but the Orange Trees in
Greenland will go near to fare the worse for the Cold. As for
Oats, they'll be a great Help to Horses...."

"Lend money to an enemy, and thou'lt gain him; to a friend, and
thou'lt lose him."

"Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut
afterwards."

"It is hard for an empty sack to stand upright."

For twenty years and more "Poor Richard" kept up this continuous stream of fun, breaking forth afresh every autumn,--sound, wholesome, dealing with the real things and the elemental joys of life, and expressed in that inimitable language of which Franklin was master. In this way was built up the greater part of his wonderful reputation, which in some of its manifestations surprises us so much. Such a reputation is usually of long growth; one or two conspicuous acts will not achieve it. But the man who every year for nearly a generation delighted every human being in the country, from the ploughman and hunter to the royal governors, was laying in store for himself a sure foundation of influence.

The success of "Poor Richard" was immediate. The first number of it went through several editions, and after that the annual sales amounted to about ten thousand copies. For the last number which Franklin prepared for the year 1758, before he turned over the enterprise to his partner, he wrote a most happy preface. It was always his habit, when a controversy or service he was engaged in was finished, to summarize the whole affair in a way that strengthened his own position and left an indelible impression which all the efforts of his enemies could not efface. Accordingly, for this last preface he invented a homely, catching tale that enabled him to summarize all the best sayings of "Poor Richard" for the last twenty-five years.

"I stopt my Horse lately where a great Number of people were
collected at a Vendue of Merchant Goods. The Hour of Sale not
being come, they were conversing on the Badness of the Times,
and one of the Company call'd to a plain clean old Man, with
white Locks, 'Pray, Father Abraham, what think you of the Times?
Won't these heavy Taxes quite ruin the Country? How shall we be
ever able to pay them? What would you advise us to?'--Father
Abraham stood up, and reply'd, 'If you'd have my Advice, I'll
give it you in short, for a Word to the Wise is enough, and many
Words won't fill a Bushel, as Poor Richard says.' They join'd in
desiring him to speak his Mind, and gathering round him, he
proceeded as follows:

"'Friends,' says he, 'and neighbours, the Taxes are indeed very
heavy, and if those laid on by the Government were the only Ones
we had to pay, we might more easily discharge them; but we have
many others, and much more grievous to some of us. We are taxed
twice as much by our Idleness, three times as much by our Pride,
and four times as much by our Folly, and from these Taxes the
Commissioners cannot ease or deliver us by allowing an
Abatement. However let us hearken to good Advice, and something
may be done for us; God helps them that help themselves, as Poor
Richard says in his Almanack of 1733.

"'It would be thought a hard Government that should tax its
People one tenth Part of their Time, to be employed in its
Service. But Idleness taxes many of us much more, if we reckon
all that is spent in absolute Sloth, or doing of nothing, with
that which is spent in idle Employments or Amusements, that
amount to nothing. Sloth, by bringing on Diseases absolutely
shortens Life. Sloth, like Rust, consumes faster than Labour
wears, while the used Key is always bright, as Poor Richard
says. But dost thou love Life, then do not squander Time, for
that's the Stuff Life is made of, as poor Richard says.--How
much more than is necessary do we spend in Sleep! forgetting
that The Sleeping Fox catches no Poultry, and that there will be
sleeping enough in the Grave, as Poor Richard says. If Time be
of all Things the most precious, wasting of Time must be, as
Poor Richard says, the greatest Prodigality, since, as he
elsewhere tells us, Lost Time is never found again; and what we
call Time-enough, always proves little enough. Let us then be up
and doing, and doing to the Purpose; so by Diligence shall we do
more with less Perplexity. Sloth makes all Things difficult, but
Industry all Things easy, as Poor Richard says; and He that
riseth late, must trot all Day, and shall scarce overtake his
Business at night. While Laziness travels so slowly, that
Poverty soon overtakes him, as we read in Poor Richard, who
adds, Drive thy Business, let that not drive thee; and Early to
Bed, and early to rise, makes a Man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

* * * * *

"'So much for Industry, my Friends, and Attention to one's own
Business; but to these we must add Frugality, if we would make
our Industry more certainly successful. A man may, if he knows
not how to save as he gets, Keep his nose all his life to the
Grindstone, and die not worth a Groat at last.

* * * * *

"'And now to conclude, Experience keeps a dear School, but Fools
will learn in no other, and scarce in that; for it is true, we
may give Advice, but we cannot give Conduct, as Poor Richard
says: However, remember this, They that won't be counselled,
can't be helped, as Poor Richard says: and farther, That if you
will not hear Reason, she'll surely wrap your Knuckles.'

"Thus the old Gentleman ended his Harangue. The People heard it,
and approved the Doctrine, and immediately practised the
contrary, just as if it had been a common Sermon; for the Vendue
opened and they began to buy extravagantly, notwithstanding all
his Cautions and their own Fear of Taxes."

* * * * *

This speech of the wise old man at the auction, while perhaps not so interesting to us now as are some other parts of "Poor Richard," was a great hit in its day; in fact, the greatest Franklin ever made. Before it appeared "Poor Richard's" reputation was confined principally to America, and without this final speech might have continued within those limits. But the "clean old Man, with white locks" spread the fame of "Poor Dick" over the whole civilized world. His speech was reprinted on broadsides in England to be fastened to the sides of houses, translated into French, and bought by the clergy and gentry for distribution to parishioners and tenants. Mr. Paul Leicester Ford, in his excellent little volume, "The Sayings of Poor Richard," has summarized its success. Seventy editions of it have been printed in English, fifty-six in French, eleven in German, and nine in Italian. It has also been translated into Spanish, Danish, Swedish, Welsh, Polish, Gaelic, Russian, Bohemian, Dutch, Catalan, Chinese, and Modern Greek, reprinted at least four hundred times, and still lives.

It was quite common a hundred years ago to charge Franklin with being an arrant plagiarist. It is true that the sayings of "Poor Richard" and a great deal that went to make up the almanac were taken from Rabelais, Bacon, Rochefoucauld, Ray Palmer, and any other sources where they could be found or suggested. But "Poor Richard" changed and rewrote them to suit his purpose, and gave most of them a far wider circulation than they had before.

More serious charges have, however, been made, and they are summarized in Davis's "Travels in America,"[15] which was published in 1803. I have already noticed one of these,--the charge that his letter on air-baths was taken from Aubrey's "Miscellanies,"--which, on examination, I cannot find to be sustained. Davis also charges that Franklin's famous epitaph on himself was taken from a Latin one by an Eton school-boy, published with an English translation in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for February, 1736. Franklin's epitaph is already familiar to most of us:

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.

The Eton boy's was somewhat like it:

Vitæ Volumine peracto
Hic Finis Jacobi Tonson
Perpoliti Sociorum Principis;
Qui Velut Obstetrix Musarum
In Lucem Edivit
Foelices Ingenii Partus.
Lugete, Scriptorum chorus,
Et Frangite Calamos;
Ille vester, Margine Erasus, deletur!
Sed hæc postrema Inscriptio
Huic primæ Mortis Paginæ
Imprimatur,
Ne Prælo Sepulchri Commissus,
Ipse Editor careat Titulo:
Hic Jacet Bibliopola
Folio vitæ delapso
Expectans novam Editionem
Auctiorem et Emendatiorem.

One of these productions might certainly have been suggested by the other. But Franklin's grandson, William Temple Franklin, who professed to have the original in his possession, in his grandfather's handwriting, said that it was dated 1728, and it is printed with that date in one of the editions of Franklin's works. If this date is correct, it would be too early for the epitaph to have been copied from the one in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for February, 1736. It might be said that possibly the Eton boy knew of Franklin's epitaph; but I cannot find that it was printed or in any way made public before 1736. There is no reason why both should not be original, for everybody wrote epitaphs in that century.

Franklin has been credited by one of his biographers with the invention of the comic epitaph, and Smollett's famous inscription on Commodore Trunnion's tomb in "Peregrine Pickle" is described as a mere imitation of Franklin's epitaph on himself. But there is no evidence that Smollett had seen Franklin's production before "Peregrine Pickle" was published in 1750, and it was not necessary that he should. There were plenty of similar productions long before that time. Franklin's own _Gazette_, January 6 to January 15, 1735/6, gives a very witty inscription on a dead greyhound, which is described as cut on the walls of Lord Cobham's gardens at Stow. In writing comic epitaphs Franklin was merely following the fashion of his time, and he was hardly as good at it as Smollett.

He has himself told us the source of one of his best short essays, "The Ephemera," a beautiful little allegory which he wrote to please Madame Brillon in Paris. In a letter to William Carmichael, of June 17, 1780, he describes the circumstances under which it was written, and says that "the thought was partly taken from a little piece of some unknown writer, which I met with fifty years since in a newspaper."[16] It was in this way that he worked over old material for "Poor Richard." Everything he had read seemed capable of supplying suggestions, and it must be said that he usually improved on the work of other men.

He was very fond of paraphrasing the Bible as a humorous task and also to show what he conceived to be the meaning of certain passages. He altered the wording of the Book of Job so as to make it a satire on English politics. He did it cleverly, and it was amusing; but it was a very cheap sort of humor.

His most famous joke of this kind was his "Parable against Persecution." He had learned it by heart, and when he was in England, and the discussion turned on religious liberty, he would open the Bible and read his parable as the last chapter in Genesis. The imitation of the language of Scripture was perfect, and the parable itself was so interesting and striking that every one was delighted with it. His guests would wonder and say that they had never known there was such a chapter in Genesis.

The parable was published and universally admired, but when it appeared in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ some one very quickly discovered that it had been taken from Jeremy Taylor's Polemical Discourses, and there was a great discussion over it. Franklin afterwards said, in a letter to Mr. Vaughan, that he had taken it from Taylor; and John Adams said that he never pretended that it was original.[17] It is interesting to see how cleverly he improved on Taylor's language:

TAYLOR.

"When Abraham sat at his tent door according to his custom,
waiting to entertain strangers, he espied an old man stooping
and leaning on his staff; weary with age and travel, coming
towards him, who was an hundred years old. He received him
kindly, washed his feet, provided supper, and caused him to sit
down; but observing that the old man ate and prayed not, nor
begged for a blessing on his meat, he asked him why he did not
worship the God of heaven? The old man told him, that he
worshipped the fire only and acknowledged no other god. At which
answer Abraham grew so zealously angry, that he thrust the old
man out of his tent, and exposed him to all the evils of the
night and an unguarded condition. When the old man was gone, God
called to Abraham, and asked him where the stranger was? He
replied, I thrust him away, because he did not worship thee. God
answered him, I have suffered him these hundred years, although
he dishonoured me; and couldst not thou endure him one night,
and when he gave thee no trouble? Upon this, saith the story,
Abraham fetched him back again, and gave him hospitable
entertainment and wise instruction. Go thou and do likewise and
thy charity will be rewarded by the God of Abraham."

FRANKLIN.

"¶ 1 And it came to pass after these things, that Abraham sat in
the door of his tent, about the going down of the sun. ¶ 2 And
behold a man, bent with age, coming from the way of the
wilderness leaning on his staff. ¶ 3 And Abraham rose and met
him, and said unto him: Turn in, I pray thee, and wash thy feet,
and tarry all night; and thou shalt arise early in the morning
and go on thy way. ¶ 4 But the man said, Nay, for I will abide
under this tree. ¶ 5 And Abraham pressed him greatly: so he
turned and they went into the tent, and Abraham baked unleavened
bread, and they did eat. ¶ 6 And when Abraham saw that the man
blessed not God he said unto him, wherefore dost thou not
worship the Most High God, Creator of heaven and earth? ¶ 7 And
the man answered, and said, I do not worship thy God, neither do
I call upon his name; for I have made to myself a god, which
abideth in my house and provideth me with all things. ¶ 8 And
Abraham's zeal was kindled against the man; and he arose and
fell upon him, and drove him forth with blows into the
wilderness. ¶ 9 And at midnight God called unto Abraham saying,
Abraham, where is the stranger? ¶ 10 And Abraham answered and
said, Lord, he would not worship thee, neither would he call
upon thy name; therefore have I driven him out from before my
face into the wilderness. ¶ 11 And God said, have I borne with
him these hundred and ninety and eight years, and nourished him,
and Cloathed him, notwithstanding his rebellion against me; and
couldest not thou, who art thyself a sinner, bear with him one
night? ¶ 12 And Abraham said, Let not the anger of the Lord wax
hot against his servant; lo, I have sinned; forgive me I pray
thee. ¶ 13 And Abraham arose and went forth into the wilderness
and sought diligently for the man and found him, and returned
with him to the tent; and when he had entreated him kindly, he
sent him away on the morrow with gifts. ¶ 14 And God spake unto
Abraham, saying, For this thy sin shall thy seed be afflicted
four hundred years in a strange land. ¶ 15 But for thy
repentance will I deliver them; and they shall come forth with
power and gladness of heart, and with much substance."

The parable was, indeed, older than Taylor for Taylor said he had found it in "The Jews' Book," and at length it was discovered in a Latin dedication of a rabbinical work, called "The Rod of Judah," published at Amsterdam in 1651, which ascribed the parable to the Persian poet Saadi. None of them, however, had thought of introducing it into the Old Testament, nor had they told it so well as Franklin, who gave it a new currency, and it was reprinted as a half-penny tract and also in Lord Kames's "Sketches of the History of Man."

While on this question of plagiarism it may be said that Franklin's admirable style was in part modelled on that of the famous Massachusetts divine, Cotton Mather, whom he had known and whose books he had read in his boyhood. The similarity is, indeed, quite striking, and for vigorous English he could hardly have had a better model. But he improved so much on Mather that his style is entirely his own. It is the most effective literary style ever used by an American. Nearly one hundred and fifty years have passed since his Autobiography was written, yet it is still read with delight by all classes of people, has been called for at some public libraries four hundred times a year, and shows as much promise of immortality as the poems of Longfellow or the romances of Hawthorne.

Besides his almanac and newspaper, Franklin extended his business by publishing books, consisting mostly of religious tracts and controversies. He also imported books from England, and sold them along with the lamp-black, soap, and groceries contained in that strange little store and printing-office on Market Street. He sent one of his journeymen to Charleston to establish a branch printing-office, of which Franklin was to pay one-third of the expense and receive one-third of the profits. After continuing in this manner some five years, the Legislature of the province in 1736 elected him clerk of that body, which enabled him to retain the printing of the notes, laws, paper money, and other public jobs, which he tells us were very profitable.

The next year Colonel Spotswood, Postmaster-General of the colonies, made him deputy postmaster of Philadelphia. This appointment reinforced his other occupations. He could collect news for his _Gazette_ more easily, and also had greater facilities for distributing it to his subscribers. In those days the postmaster of a town usually owned a newspaper, because he could have the post-riders distribute copies of it without cost, and he did not allow them to carry any newspaper but his own. Franklin had been injured by the refusal of his predecessor to distribute his _Gazette_; but when he became postmaster, finding his subscriptions and advertisements much increased and his competitor's newspaper declining, he magnanimously refused to retaliate, and allowed his riders to carry the rival journal.

How much money Franklin actually made in his business is difficult to determine, although many guesses have been made. He was, it would seem, more largely and widely engaged than any other printer in the colonies, for nearly all the important printing of the middle colonies and a large part of that of the southern colonies came to his office. He made enough to retire at forty-two years of age, having been working for himself only twenty years.

On retiring he turned over his printing and publishing interest to his foreman, David Hall, who was to carry on the business in his own way, but under the firm name of Franklin & Hall, and to pay Franklin a thousand pounds a year for eighteen years, at the end of which time Hall was to become sole proprietor. This thousand pounds which Franklin was to receive may be looked upon as an indication that before his retirement the business was yielding him annually something more than that sum, possibly almost two thousand pounds, as some have supposed.

He never again engaged actively in any gainful trade, and his retirement seems to have been caused by the passion for scientific research which a few years before had seized him, and by that trait of his character which sometimes appears in the form of a sort of indolence and at other times as a wilful determination to follow the bent of his inclinations and pleasures. 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. The charges of sordidness and mean penny-wisdom are not borne out by any of the real facts of his life. It is not improbable that just before his retirement he had advanced far enough in his scientific experiments to see dimly in the future the chance of a great discovery and distinction. He certainly went to work with a will as soon as he got rid of the cares of the printing-office, and in a few years was rewarded.

He had invested some of his savings in houses and land in Philadelphia, and the thousand pounds (five thousand dollars) which he was to receive for eighteen years was a very good income in those times, and more than equivalent to ten thousand dollars at the present day. He moved from the bustle of Market Street and his home in the old printing, stationery, and grocery house, and is supposed to have taken a house at the southeast corner of Second and Race Streets. This was at the northern edge of the town, close to the river, where in the summer evenings he renewed his youthful fondness for swimming.

It must be confessed that very few self-made men, conducting a profitable business with the prospect of steady accumulation of money, have willingly resigned it in the prime of life, under the influence of such sentiments as appear to have moved him. But that intense and absolute devotion to business which is the prevailing mood of our times had not then begun in America, and it was rather the fashion to retire.

The years which followed his retirement, and before he became absorbed in political affairs, seem to have had for him a great deal of ideal happiness. He lived like a man of taste and a scholar accustomed to cultured surroundings more than like a self-made man who had battled for forty years with the material world. In writing to his mother, he said,--

"I read a great deal, ride a little, do a little business for
myself, now and then for others, retire when I can, and go into
company when I please; so the years roll round, and the last
will come, when I would rather have it said, He lived usefully
than He died rich."

After his withdrawal from business he remained postmaster of Philadelphia, and in 1753, after he had held that office for sixteen years, he was appointed Postmaster-General of all the colonies, with William Hunter, of Virginia, as his colleague, and he retained this position until dismissed from it by the British government in 1774, on the eve of the Revolution. There was some salary attached to these offices, that of Postmaster-General yielding three hundred pounds. The postmastership of Philadelphia entailed no difficult duties at that time, and his wife assisted him; but when he was made Postmaster-General he more than earned his salary during the first few years by making extensive journeys through the colonies to reform the system. The salary attached to the office was not to be allowed unless the office produced it; and during the first four years the unpaid salary of Franklin and his colleague amounted to nine hundred and fifty pounds. He procured faster post-riders, increased the number of mails between important places, made a charge for carrying newspapers, had all newspapers carried by the riders, and reduced some of the rates of postage.

But he was not the founder of the modern post-office system, nor was he the first Postmaster-General of America, as some of his biographers insist. He merely improved the system which he found and increased its revenues as others have done before and since.

The leisure he sought by retirement was enjoyed but a few years. He became more and more involved in public affairs, and soon spent most of his time in England as agent of Pennsylvania or other colonies, and during the Revolution he was in France. There was a salary attached to these offices. As agent of Pennsylvania he received five hundred pounds a year, and when he represented other colonies he received from Massachusetts four hundred, from Georgia two hundred, and from New Jersey one hundred. These sums, together with the thousand pounds a year from Hall, would seem to be enough for a man of his habits; but apparently he used it all, and was often slow in paying his debts.

In a letter written to Mrs. Stevenson in London, while he was envoy to France, he expresses surprise that some of the London tradespeople still considered him their debtor for things obtained from them during his residence there some years before, and he asks Mrs. Stevenson, with whom he had lodged, how his account stands with her. The thousand pounds from Hall ceased in 1766, and after that his income must have been seriously diminished, for the return from his invested savings is supposed to have been only about seven hundred pounds. He appears to have overdrawn his account with Hall, for there is a manuscript letter in the possession of Mr. Howard Edwards, of Philadelphia, written by Hall March 1, 1770, urging Franklin to pay nine hundred and ninety-three pounds which had been due for three years.

He procured for his natural son, William, the royal governorship of New Jersey, and he was diligent all his life in getting government places for relatives. This practice does not appear to have been much disapproved of in his time; he was not subjected to abuse on account of it; and, indeed, nepotism is far preferable to some of the more modern methods.

When Governor of Pennsylvania, after the Revolution, he declined, we are told, to receive any salary for his three years' service, accepting only his expenses for postage, which was high in those times, and amounted in this case to seventy-seven pounds for the three years. This is one of the innumerable statements about him in which the truth is distorted for the sake of eulogy. He did not decline to receive his salary, but he spent it in charity, and we find bequests of it in his will.

As minister to France he had at first five hundred pounds a year and his expenses, and this was paid. He was also promised a secretary at a salary of one thousand pounds a year; but, as the secretary was never sent, he did the work himself with the assistance of his grandson, William Temple Franklin, who was allowed only three hundred pounds a year.

He considered himself very much underpaid for his services in resisting the Stamp Act, for his mission to Canada in 1776 at the risk of his life, and for the long and laborious years which he spent in France. Certainly five hundred pounds a year and expenses was very small pay for his diplomatic work in Paris, but during the last six years of his mission there he received two thousand five hundred pounds a year, which would seem to be sufficient compensation for acting as ambassador, as well as merchant to buy and ship supplies to the United States, and as financial agent to examine and accept innumerable bills of exchange drawn by the Continental Congress (Bigelow's Works of Franklin, vol. ix. p. 127). In 1788, two years before his death, he made a statement of these claims for extra service and sent it to Congress, accompanied by a letter to his friend, Charles Thomson, the secretary.

He thought that Congress should recognize these services by a grant of land, an office, or in some other way, as was the custom in Europe when an ambassador returned from a long foreign service; and he reminded Thomson that both Arthur Lee and John Jay had been rewarded handsomely for similar services. But the old Congress under the Articles of Confederation was then just expiring, and took no notice of his petition; and when the new Congress came in under the Constitution, it does not appear that his claims were presented. It is a mistake to say, however, as some have done, that the United States never paid him for his services and still owes him money. These claims were for extra services which the government had never obligated itself to pay.

He died quite well off for those times, leaving an estate worth, it is supposed, considerably over one hundred thousand dollars. The rapid rise in the value of houses and land in Philadelphia after the Revolution accounts for a part of this sum. He owned five or six large houses in Philadelphia, the printing-house which he built for his grandson, and several small houses. He had also a number of vacant lots in the town, a house and lot in Boston, a tract of land in Nova Scotia, another large tract in Georgia, and still another in Ohio. His personal property, consisting mostly of bonds and money, was worth from sixty to seventy thousand dollars.

FOOTNOTES:

[15] Pp. 209-217.

[16] Bigelow's Franklin from His Own Writings, vol. ii. p. 511.

[17] Bigelow's Works of Franklin, vol. v. p. 376; also vol. x. p. 78; Adams's Works, vol. i. p. 659.