" Small favors were thankfully
received. And, "I took care not only to be in REALITY industrious
and frugal, but to avoid all appearances to the contrary. I drest
plainly; I was seen at no places of idle diversion." And, "to
show that I was not above my business, I sometimes brought home
the paper I purchased at the stores thru the streets on a
wheelbarrow."
"The Universal Instructor in All Arts and Sciences and
Pennsylvania Gazette": this was the high-sounding name of a
newspaper which Franklin's old employer, Keimer, had started in
Philadelphia. But bankruptcy shortly overtook Keimer, and
Franklin took the newspaper with its ninety subscribers. The
"Universal Instructor" feature of the paper consisted of a page
or two weekly of "Chambers's Encyclopedia". Franklin eliminated
this feature and dropped the first part of the long name. "The
Pennsylvania Gazette" in Franklin's hands soon became profitable.
And it lives today in the fullness of abounding life, though
under another name. "Founded A.D. 1728 by Benj. Franklin" is the
proud legend of "The Saturday Evening Post", which carries on, in
our own times, the Franklin tradition.
The "Gazette" printed bits of local news, extracts from the
London "Spectator", jokes, verses, humorous attacks on Bradford's
"Mercury", a rival paper, moral essays by the editor, elaborate
hoaxes, and pungent political or social criticism.
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