this child set his hand to an indenture of appren
ticeship which formally bound him to his brother
for the next nine years of his life.
Handling the types aroused a boyish ambi
tion to see himself in print. He scribbled some
ballads, one about a shipwreck, another about
the capture of a pirate; but he "escaped being
a poet," as fortunately as he had escaped being a
EARLY YEARS 5
clergyman. James Franklin seems to have trained
his junior with such fraternal cuffs and abuse as
the elder brothers of English biography and lit
erature appear usually to have bestowed on the
younger. But this younger one got his revenges.
James published the "New England Courant,"
and, inserting in it some objectionable matter, was
forbidden to continue it. Thereupon he canceled
the indenture of apprenticeship, and the newspaper
was thereafter published by Benjamin Franklin.
A secret renewal of the indenture was executed
simultaneously. This "flimsy scheme" gave the
boy his chance. Secure that the document would
never be produced, he resolved to leave the print
ing-house. But the influence of James prevented
his getting employment elsewhere in the town.
Besides this, other matters also harassed him. It
gives an idea of the scale of things in the little
settlement, and of the serious way in which life
was taken even at its outset, to hear that this
prentice lad of seventeen years had already made
himself "a little obnoxious to the governing party,"
so as to fear that he might soon " bring himself into
scrapes." For the inherited habit of freedom in
religious speculation had taken a new form in
Franklin, who was already a free-thinker, and by
his "indiscreet disputations about religion" had
come to be "pointed at with horror by good people
as an infidel and atheist" compromising, even
perilous, names to bear in that Puritan village. Va
rious motives thus combined to induce -migration.
6 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
He stole away on board a sloop bound for New
York, and after three days arrived there, in Octo
ber, 1723. He had but a trifling sum of money,
and he knew no one in the strange city. He
sought occupation in his trade, but got nothing
better than advice to move on to Philadelphia;
and thither he went. The story of this journey
ing is delightfully told in the autobiography, with
the famous little scene wherein he figures with a
loaf under each arm and munching a third while
he walks "up Market Street, as far as Fourth
Street, passing by the door of Mr. Read, my fu
ture wife s father; when she, standing at the door,
saw me, and thought I made, as I certainly did, a
most awkward, ridiculous appearance."
In Philadelphia Franklin soon found opportu
nity to earn a living at his trade. There were
then only two printers in that town, ignorant men
both, with scant capacity in the technique of their
calling. His greater acquirements and ability,
and superior knowledge of the craft, soon attracted
attention. One day Sir William Keith, gov
ernor of the province, appeared at the printing-
office, inquired for Franklin, and carried him off
"to taste some excellent Madeira" with himself
and Colonel French, while employer Keimer, be
wildered at the compliment to his journeyman,
"star d like a pig poison d." Over the genial
glasses the governor proposed that Franklin should
set up for himself, and promised his own influence
to secure for him the public printing. Later he
EARLY YEARS 7
wrote a letter, intended to induce Franklin s father
to advance the necessary funds. Equipped with
this document, Franklin set out, in April, 1724,
to seek his father s cooperation, and surprised his
family by appearing unannounced among them,
not at all in the classic garb of the prodigal son,
but "having a genteel new suit from head to foot,
a watch, and my pockets lin d with near five
pounds sterling in silver." But neither his pro
sperous appearance nor the flattering epistle of the
great man could induce his hard-headed parent to
favor a scheme "of setting a boy up in business,
who wanted yet three years of being at man s
estate." The independent old tallow-chandler only
concluded that the distinguished baronet "must be
of small discretion." So Franklin returned with
"some small gifts as tokens" of parental love,
much good advice as to "steady industry and pru
dent parsimony," but no cash in hand. The gal
lant governor, however, said: "Since he will not
set you up, I will do it myself," and a plan was
soon concocted whereby Franklin was to go to
England and purchase a press and types with
funds to be advanced by Sir William. Every
thing was arranged, only from day to day there
was delay in the actual delivery to Franklin of the
letters of introduction and credit. The governor
was a very busy man. The day of sailing came,
but the documents had not come, only a message
from the governor that Franklin might feel easy
at embarking, for that the papers should bo sent
8 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
on board at Newcastle, down the stream. Ac
cordingly, at the last moment, a messenger came
hurriedly on board and put the packet into the
captain s hands. Afterward, when during the lei
sure hours of the voyage the letters were sorted,
none was found for Franklin. His patron had
simply broken an inconvenient promise. It was
indeed a "pitiful trick " to "impose so grossly on
a poor innocent boy." Yet Franklin, in his broad
/^tolerance of all that is bad as well as good in
human nature, spoke with good-tempered indiffer
ence, and with more of charity than of justice,
concerning the deceiver. "It was a habit he had
acquired. He wish d to please everybody; and,
having little to give, he gave expectations. He
was otherwise an ingenious, sensible man, a pretty
good writer, and a good governor for the people.
. . . Several of our best laws were of his plan
ning, and passed during his administration."
None the less it turned out that this contemp
tible governor did Franklin a good turn in sending
him to London, though the benefit came in a fash
ion not anticipated by either. For Franklin, not
yet much wiser than the generality of mankind,
had to go through his period of youthful folly,
and it was good fortune for him that the worst
portion of this period fell within the eighteen
months which he passed in England. Had this
part of his career been run in Philadelphia its
unsavory aroma might have kept him long in ill
odor among his fellow townsmen, then little toler-
EARLY YEARS 9
ant of profligacy. But the "errata" of a jour
neyman printer in London were quite beyond the
ken of provincial gossips. He easily gained em
ployment in his trade, at wages which left him a
little surplus beyond his maintenance. This sur
plus, during most of the time, he and his comrades
squandered in the pleasures of the town. Yet
in one matter his good sense showed itself, for
he kept clear of drink; indeed, his real nature
asserted itself even at this time, to such a degree
that we find him waging a temperance crusade
in his printing-house, and actually weaning some
of his fellow compositors from their dearly loved
"beer." One of these, David Hall, afterward
became his able partner in the printing business
in Philadelphia. Amid much bad companionship
he fell in with some clever men. His friend
James Ralph, though a despicable, bad fellow,
had brains and some education. At this time,
too, Franklin was in the proselyting stage of infi
delity. He published "A Dissertation on Liberty
and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain," and the pam
phlet got him some little notoriety among the free
thinkers of London, and an introduction to some
of them, but chiefly of the class who love to sit in
taverns and blow clouds of words. Their society
did him no good, and such effervescence was better
blown off in London than in Philadelphia.
But after the novelty of London life had worn
off, it ceased to be to Franklin s taste. He began
to reform somewhat, to retrench and lay by a little
10 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
money; and after eighteen months he eagerly
seized an opportunity which offered for returning
home. This was opened to him by a Mr. Den-
ham, a good man and prosperous merchant, then
engaged in England in purchasing stock for his
store in Philadelphia. Franklin was to be his
managing and confidential clerk, with the prospect
of rapid advancement. At the same time Sir
William Wyndham, ex-chancellor of the exchequer,
endeavored to persuade Franklin to open a swim
ming school in London. He promised very aristo
cratic patronage; and as an opening for money-
getting this plan was perhaps the better. Franklin
almost closed with the proposition. He seems,
however, to have had a little touch of homesick
ness, a preference, if not quite a yearning, for the
colonies, which sufficed to turn the scale. Such
was his third escape; he might have passed his
days in instructing the scions of British nobility
in the art of swimming! He arrived at home,
after a tedious voyage, October 11, 1726. But
almost immediately fortune seemed to cross him,
for Mr. Denham and he were both taken suddenly
ill. Denham died; Franklin narrowly evaded
death, and fancied himself somewhat disappointed
at his recovery, "regretting in some degree that
[he] must now sometime or other have all that
disagreeable work to go over again." He seems
to have become sufficiently interested in what was
likely to follow his decease, in this world at least,
to compose an epitaph which has become world-
renowned, and has been often imitated :
EARLY YEARS 11
THE BODY
OF
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
(LIKE THE COVER OF AN OLD BOOK,
ITS CONTENTS TORN OUT,
AND STRIPT OF ITS LETTERING AND GILDING,)
LIES HERE, FOOD FOR WORMS,
YET THE WORK ITSELF SHALL NOT BE LOST,
FOR IT WILL, AS HE BELIEVED, APPEAR ONCE MORE,
IN A NEW
AND MORE BEAUTIFUL EDITION,
CORRECTED AND AMENDED
BY
THE AUTHOR.
But there was no use for this graveyard literature ;
Franklin got well, and recurred again to his proper
trade. Being expert with the composing-stick,
he was readily engaged at good wages by his old
employer, Keimer. Franklin, however, soon sus
pected that this man s purpose was only to use
him temporarily for instructing some green hands,
and for organizing the printing-office. Naturally
a quarrel soon occurred. But Franklin had proved
his capacity, and forthwith the father of one Mere
dith, a fellow journeyman under Keimer, advanced
sufficient money to set up the two as partners
in the printing business. Franklin managed the
office, showing admirable enterprise, skill, and
industry. Meredith drank. This allotment of
functions soon produced its natural result. Two
friends of Franklin lent him what capital he
12 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
needed ; he bought out Meredith and had the
whole business for himself. His zeal increased;
he won good friends, gave general satisfaction, and
absorbed all the best business in the province.
At the time of the formation of the partnership
the only newspaper of Pennsylvania was published
by Bradford, a rival of Keimer in the printing
business. It was "a paltry thing, wretchedly
managed, no way entertaining, and yet was profit
able to him." Franklin and Meredith resolved
to start a competing sheet; but Keimer got wind
of their plan, and at once "published proposals
for printing one himself." He had got ahead of
them, and they had to desist. But he was igno
rant, shiftless, and incompetent, and after carrying
on his enterprise for "three quarters of a year,
with at most only ninety subscribers," he sold out
his failure to Franklin and Meredith "for a trifle."
To them, or rather to Franklin, "it prov d in
a few years extremely profitable." Its original
name, "The Universal Instructor in all Arts and
Sciences, and Pennsylvania Gazette," was reduced
by the amputation of the first clause, and, relieved
from the burden of its trailing title, it circulated
actively throughout the province, and further.
Number 40, Franklin s first number, appeared
October 2, 1729. Bradford, who was postmaster,
refused to allow his post-riders to carry any save
nis own newspaper. But Franklin, whose moral
ity was nothing if not practical, fought the devil
with fire, and bribed the riders so judiciously that
EARLY YEARS 13
his newspaper penetrated whithersoever they went.,
He says of it: "Our first papers made a quite
different appearance from any before in the Pro
vince ; a better type, and better printed ; but
some spirited remarks of my writing, 011 the dis
pute then going on between Governor Burnet and
the Massachusetts Assembly, struck the principal
people, occasioned the paper and the manager of
it to be much talked of, and in a few weeks
brought them all to be our subscribers." Later
his articles in favor of the issue of a sum of paper
currency were so largely instrumental in carrying
that measure that the profitable job of printing
the money became his reward. Thus advancing
in prestige and prosperity, he was able to dis
charge by installments his indebtedness. "In
order to secure," he says, "my credit and char
acter as a tradesman, I took care to be not only
in reality industrious and frugal, but to avoid all
appearances to the contrary." A characteristic
remark. With Franklin every virtue had its mar
ket value, and to neglect to get that value out of
it was the part of folly.
About this time the wife of a glazier, who occu
pied part of Franklin s house, began match-making
in behalf of a "very deserving " girl; and Frank
lin, nothing loath, responded with "serious court
ship." He intimated his willingness to accept the
maiden s hand, provided that its fellow hand held
a dowry, and he named an hundred pounds sterling
as his lowest figure. The parents, on the other
14 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
part, said that they had not so much ready money.
Franklin civilly suggested that they could get it
by mortgaging their house; they firmly declined.
The negotiation thereupon was abandoned. "This
affair," Franklin continues, "having turned my
thoughts to marriage, I look d round me and made
overtures of acquaintance in other places; but
soon found that, the business of a printer being
generally thought a poor one, I was not to expect
money with a wife, unless with such a one as I
should not otherwise think agreeable." Finding
such difficulties in the way of a financial alliance,
Franklin appears to have bethought him of affec
tion as a substitute for dollars; so he blew into
the ashes of an old flame, and aroused some heat.
Before going to England he had engaged himself
to Miss Deborah Head; but in London he had
pretty well forgotten her, and had written to her
only a single letter. Many years afterward, writ
ing to Catharine Kay in 1755, he said: "The
cords of love and friendship ... in times past
have drawn me ... back from England to Phila
delphia." If the remark referred to an affection
for Miss Read, it was probably no more trust
worthy than are most such allegations made when
lapsing years have given a fictitious coloring to a
remote past. If indeed Franklin s profligacy and
his readiness to marry any girl financially eligible
were symptoms attendant upon his being in love, it
somewhat taxes the imagination to fancy how he
would have conducted himself had he not been the
EARLY YEARS 15
victim of romantic passion. Miss Read, mean
while, apparently about as much in love as her
lover, had wedded another man, "one Rogers, a
potter," a good workman but worthless fellow, who
soon took flight from his bride and his creditors.
Her position had since become somewhat question
able; for there was a story that her husband had
an earlier wife living, in which case of course her
marriage with him was null. There was also a
story that he was dead. But there was little
evidence of the truth of either tale. Franklin,
therefore, hardly knew what he was wedding, a
maid, a widow, or another man s wife. Moreover
the runaway husband "had left many debts, which
his successor might be calTd upon to pay." Few
men, even if warmly enamored, would have entered
into the matrimonial contract under circumstances
so discouraging ; and there are no indications save
the marriage itself that Franklin was deeply in
love. Yet on September 1, 1730, the pair were
wedded. Mrs. Franklin survived for forty years
thereafter, and neither seems ever to have regretted
the step. "None of the inconveniences happened
that we had apprehended," wrote Franklin; "she
proved a goocV and faithful helpmate; assisted me
much by attending the shop ; we throve together,
and have ever mutually endeavored to make each
other happy." A sensible, comfortable, satisfac
tory union it was, showing how much better is
sense than sensibility as an ingredient in matri
mony. Mrs. Franklin was a handsome woman,
16 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
of comely figure, yet nevertheless an industrious
and frugal one ; later on in life Franklin boasted
that he had "been clothed from head to foot in
linen of [his] wife s manufacture." An early con
tribution of his own to the domestic menage was
his illegitimate son, William, born soon after his
wedding, of a mother of whom no record or tradi
tion remains. It was an unconventional wedding
gift to bring home to a bride; but Mrs. Franklin,
with a breadth and liberality of mind akin to her
husband s, readily took the babe not only to her
home but really to her heart, and reared him as
if he had been her own offspring. Mr. Parton
thinks that Franklin gave this excellent wife no
further cause for suspicion or jealousy.
CHAPTER II
A CITIZEN OF PHILADELPHIA: CONCERNMENT IN
PUBLIC AFFAIRS
So has ended the first stage, in the benign
presence of Hymen. The period of youth may be
regarded as over ; but the narrative thereof, briefly
as it has been given, is not satisfactory. One
longs to help out the outline with color, to get the
expression as well as merely the features of the
young man who is going to become one of the
greatest men of the nation. Many a writer and
speaker has done what he could in this task, for
Franklin has been for a century a chief idol of
the American people. The Boston boy, the boy
printer, the runaway apprentice, the young jour
neyman, friendless and penniless in distant Lon
don, are pictures which have been made familiar to
many generations of schoolboys; and the trifling
anecdote of the bread rolls eaten in the streets of
Philadelphia has for its only rival among Ameri
can historical traditions the more doubtful story
about George Washington, the cherry-tree, and the
little hatchet.
Yet, if plain truth is to be told, there was no
thing unusual about this sunrise, no rare tints of
18 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
divine augury ; the luminary came up in every-day
fashion. Franklin had done much reading; he
had taken pains to cultivate a good style in writing
English ; he had practiced himself in dispute ; he
had adopted some odd notions, for example vege
tarianism in diet; he had at times acquired some
influence among his fellow journeymen, and had
used it for good; he had occasionally fallen into
the society of men of good social position; he had
kept clear of the prevalent habit of excessive
drinking ; sometimes he had lived frugally and
had laid up a little money; more often he had
been wasteful; he had been very dissolute, and in
sowing his wild oats he had gone down into the
mud. His autobiography gives us a simple, vivid,
strong picture, which we accept as correct, though
in reading it one sees that the lapse of time since
the occurrences narrated, together with his own
success and distinction in life, have not been with
out their obvious effect. By the time he thought
it worth while to write those pages, Franklin had
been taught to think very well of himself and his
career. For this reason he was, upon the one
hand, somewhat indifferent as to setting down
what smaller men would conceal, confident that
his fame would not stagger beneath the burden of
youthful wrong-doing ; on the other hand, he deals
rather gently, a little ideally, with himself, as old
men are wont to acknowledge with condemnation
tempered with mild forgiveness the foibles of their
early days. It is evident that, as a young man,
A CITIZEN OF PHILADELPHIA 19
Franklin intermingled sense with folly, correct
living with dissipation, in a manner that must have
made it difficult for an observer to forecast the
final outcome, and which makes it almost equally
impossible now to form a satisfactory idea of him.
He is not to be disposed of by placing him in any
ready-made and familiar class. If he had turned
out a bad man, there would have been abundance
in his early life to point the moralist s warning
tale ; as he turned out a very reputable one, there
is scarcely less abundance for panegyrists to ex
patiate upon. Certainly he was a man to attract
some attention and to carry some weight, yet not
more than many another of whom the world never
hears. At the time of his marriage, however, he
is upon the verge of development; a new period
of his life is about to begin; what had been dan
gerous and evil in his ways disappears ; the breadth,
originality, and practical character of his mind are
about to show themselves. He has settled to a
steady occupation; he is industrious and thrifty;
he has gathered much information, and may be
regarded as a well-educated man; he writes a
plain, forcible style ; he has enterprise and shrewd
ness in matters of business, and good sense in all
matters, that is the chief point, his sound sense
has got its full growth and vigor, and of sound
sense no man ever had more. Very soon he not
only prospers financially, but begins to secure at
first that attention and soon afterward that influ
ence which always follow close upon success in
20 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
practical affairs. He becomes the public-spirited
citizen; scheme after scheme of social and public
improvement is suggested and carried forward by
him, until he justly comes to be one of the fore
most citizens of Philadelphia. The enumeration
of what he did within a few years in this small
new town and poor community will be found sur
prising and admirable.
His first enterprise, of a quasi public nature,
was the establishment of a library. There were
to be fifty subscribers for fifty years, each paying
an entrance fee of forty shillings and an annual
due of ten shillings. He succeeded only with diffi
culty and delay, yet he did succeed, and the results
were important. Later a charter was obtained,
and the number of subscribers was doubled.
"This," he says, "was the mother of all the North
American subscription libraries, now so numerous.
. . . These libraries have improved the general
conversation of the Americans, made the common
traders and farmers as intelligent as most gentle
men from other countries, and perhaps have con
tributed in some degree to the stand so generally
made throughout the colonies in defense of their
privileges." "Beading became fashionable," he
adds. But it was not difficult to cultivate the
desire for reading; that lay close to the surface.
The boon which Franklin conferred lay rather in
setting the example of a scheme by which books
could be cheaply obtained in satisfactory abun
dance.
A CITIZEN OF PHILADELPHIA 21
From the course of this business he drew one
of those shrewd, practical conclusions which aided
him so much in life. He says that he soon felt
"the impropriety of presenting one s self as the
proposer of any useful project that might be
supposed to raise one s reputation in the smallest
degree above that of one s neighbors, when one
has need of their assistance to accomplish that
project. I therefore put myself as much as I
could out of sight, and stated it as a scheme of a
number of friends, who had requested me to go
about and propose it." This method he found so
well suited to the production of results that he
habitually followed it in his subsequent under
takings. It was sound policy; the self-abnegation
helped success ; the success secured personal pres
tige. It was soon observed that when "a number
of friends " or "a few gentlemen " were represented
by Franklin, their purpose was usually good and
was pretty sure to be carried through. Hence
came reputation and influence.
In December, 1732, he says, "I first published
my Almanack, under the name of Richard Saun-
JCAS ," price five pence, thereby falling in with
a common custom among the colonial printers.
Within the month three editions were sold ; and
it was continued for twenty-five years thereafter
with an average sale of 10,000 copies annually,
until "Poor Richard" became a nom deplume as