. Benjamin Franklin: his autobiography : with a narrative of his public life and services. ly, to be beforehand with me, publishedproposals for one himself, on which Webb was tobe employed. I was vexed at this ; and, to counter-act them, not being able to commence our paper, Iwrote several amusing pieces for Bradfords paper,under the title of the Busy Body, which Breintnalcontinued some months. By this means the atten- 108 LIFE OF FRANKLIN. tion of the public was fixed on that paper, andKeimers proposals, which we burlesqued and ridi-culed, were disregarded. He began his paper, how-ever, and,
. Benjamin Franklin: his autobiography : with a narrative of his public life and services. ly, to be beforehand with me, publishedproposals for one himself, on which Webb was tobe employed. I was vexed at this ; and, to counter-act them, not being able to commence our paper, Iwrote several amusing pieces for Bradfords paper,under the title of the Busy Body, which Breintnalcontinued some months. By this means the atten- 108 LIFE OF FRANKLIN. tion of the public was fixed on that paper, andKeimers proposals, which we burlesqued and ridi-culed, were disregarded. He began his paper, how-ever, and, before carrying it on three quarters of ayear, with at most only ninety subscribers, he offer-it me for a trifle; and I, having been ready sometime to go on with it, took it in hand directly; andit proved in a few years extremely profitable to me.*I perceive that I am apt to speak in the singularnumber, though our partnership still continued; itmay be that, in fact, the whole management of thebusiness lay upon me. Meredith was no compositor,a poor pressman, and seldom sober. My friends. * This was the Pennsylvania Gazette, of which Franklin and Meredithassumed the publication in 1729. It is related of Franklin that, some ofhis patrons taking exceptions to his course, he invited them to sup withhim, and talk the matter over. The only provision which he made for sup-per was a pitcher of water, and two coarse meal puddings, vulgarly de-nominated saw-dust. When he found, as he expected, that his fastidiousfriends could not master such fare, he gave them the moral of the actedI)arable in these words : My friends, any one who can subsist, as I can,on saw-dust pudding and scaler, needs no mans patronage. LIFE OF FRANKLIN. 109 lamented my connection with him, but I was tomake the best of it. Our first papers made quite a different appearancefrom any before in the province; a better type, andbetter printed; but some remarks of my writing, onthe dispute then going on between Governor Bur
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