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him with some of his first earnings there, in working it off at the press, when it had been composed in type by the eccentric Keimer.

Persevering industry and personal attention to his business, with civil deportment, and constant care that whatever work he was employed to do, should be done promptly and in a neat, thorough, and workmanlike manner, united to the public spirit he had evinced, and his talents as a writer, were now producing for him their legitimate results; and his thrift enabled him to commence paying off the debt he had incurred in setting up his printing-office. His habits and course of life at this period, are well described in the following passage from his own pen:—

"In order to secure my credit and character as a tradesman," says he, "I took care not only to be in reality industrious and frugal, but to avoid even appearances to the contrary. I dressed plain, and was seen at no places of idle diversion. I never went out a fishing, or shooting. A book, indeed, sometimes enticed me from my work; but that was seldom, was private, and gave no scandal 1; and to show that I was not above my business, I sometimes brought home the paper I purchased at the stores, through the streets on a wheel-barrow. Thus, being esteemed an industrious, thriving young man, and paying duly for what I bought, the merchants who imported stationery solicited my custom; others proposed supplying me with books, and I went on prosperously."

CHAPTER XVI.

RIVALS IN TRADE

FRUITLESS ATTEMPT AT MATCH-MAKING-HE MARRIES MISS READ-LIBRARIES

STUD

IES- PROSPECTS.

WHILE Franklin was thus prospering in business, and growing in the esteem of the community, Keimer, his former employer, was daily losing both custom and credit; and being compelled before long to sell out his whole stock in trade, to meet the demands of his creditors, he went off to Barbadoes, in the West Indies, where, after several years of poverty, he died in great indigence.

David Harry, who has already been mentioned as an apprentice to Keimer, but who had in fact been taught his trade by Franklin while working in Keimer's office, was the person who bought out his former master, and undertook to carry on the same business himself. Har ry's friends were persons of considerable property and influence; and when he commenced business on his own account, Franklin felt no little solicitude lest his own prosperity should be seriously checked by one who seemed likely to be a powerful rival. To avoid any unfriendly competition, which could only prove injurious to both, he proposed to Harry to form a partnership. This proposal, however, says Franklin, "he, fortunately for me, rejected with scorn." Harry's foolish pride, expensive habits, indulgence in amusements, and consequent neglect of business, soon involved him in debt; his customers quit him, and he pretty soon followed Keimer to

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Barbadoes, taking along with him his printing apparatus. "There," says Franklin, "the apprentice employed his former master as a journeyman. They often quarrelled; Harry went continually behindhand; and at length was obliged to sell his types and return to country-work in Pennsylvania."

Thus ended the career of another young man, whose means and opportunity for the achievement of success in business and a respectable standing in society, were so ample, but were forfeited by his follies and his vices.

These events left in Philadelphia only two printingoffices, Bradford's and Franklin's. But Bradford was in very easy circumstances; he employed only a few roving journeymen; did but little business, and made no effort to increase it. Still, as he was the postmaster of the city, it was taken for granted that his means both of obtaining news and circulating advertisements, must be the best; and this idea gave him some advantage over his competitor, especially as he had ordered his post-riders not to carry any of that competitor's papers. This unneighborly conduct of Bradford gave Franklin great disgust; and he considered it so unfair and meanspirited, that afterward, during the long period for which he had the management of the same postoffice, he never copied so unworthy an example.

Franklin's printing-office was on the second floor of his own house, and under it, on the first floor, was his stationer's shop, one side of which, the apartment being pretty large, was occupied as a glazier's shop, by Thomas Godfrey, who, with his family, lived in the same house, and with whom Franklin still continued to board. The intimacy which grew out of these circumstances led Mrs. Godfrey to plan a match between Franklin and one of her young relatives. For this purpose she made opportunities to bring them frequently together, and the

consequence was, that Franklin soon commenced courtship in earnest; especially as the young woman, according to his own testimony, was "very deserving." Her parents, also, favored the courtship by "continual invitations to supper," and leaving the young people to each other's society.

When, in due time, it became proper that all the parties concerned should come to a definite understanding on this subject, Mrs. Godfrey was employed as the negotiator. Through her Franklin gave the parents distinctly to understand that if he married their daughter, he must receive with her a sum sufficient to pay off the remnant of debt, estimated by him at a hundred pounds, which he still owed for his establishment. To this message they sent back for answer that they had no such amount of money to spare; upon which Franklin suggested that they might mortgage their house and lot to the loan-office.

On receiving this suggestion, the parents took some days to consider the expediency of the match, in a more business-like way; they made inquiries of Bradford respecting the profits and general character, safety and prospects of the printer's trade; and when they had obtained all the information they deemed necessary on these points, they replied that printing, as they were told, was not a productive trade; that its materials were not only expensive, but necessarily subject to great wear and tear, and that fresh supplies were, therefore, needed at short intervals; that two printers, Keimer and Harry, had recently become bankrupt in the business, and that Franklin was himself likely soon to make the third. The result was, that they forbid Franklin's visits to their house, and shut up their daughter.

On this final reply from the parents Franklin makes the following comment: "Whether this was," says he,

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"a real change of sentiment, or only an artifice, on the supposition of our being too far engaged in affection to retract, and that therefore we should steal a marriage, which would leave them at liberty to give or withhold what they pleased, I know not. But I suspected the motive, resented it, and went no more."

The conduct of the parents, as presented in the foregoing statement to the mind of an uninterested reader, even at this distance of time, certainly affords some reason for Franklin's suspicion; and that reason was strengthened, in his opinion, at least, by the account, which Mrs. Godfrey subsequently gave him, of the return of the parents to more friendly views, upon the strength of which she urged him to renew his visits to the young woman. He, however, avowed his fixed determination to have no further intercourse with those people. This gave such offence to the Godfreys, that they quit Franklin's house, leaving it wholly to himself; and he thereupon "resolved to take no more inmates."

Though Mrs. Godfrey's attempt at match-making failed of its particular object, yet it served to turn Franklin's thoughts to the subject of marriage; and led him to seek acquaintance with other families. It was not long, however, before this kind of intercourse disclosed to him a very prevalent impression unfavorable to his trade, as a means of accumulating property and giving a family a respectable position in society; and that he was not to expect money with a wife," unless it should be found requisite by way of compensation for lack of other attractions. But, situated as he was, the temptations to irregular habits, and to pernicious as well as costly pleasures, were numerous and strong; and he felt his danger.

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The most neighborly intercourse had been maintained between himself and the family of the Reads, whose at