167 



His life at London forms the crisis of his career. None of 

 the wise maxims of " Poor Richard," none of the prudence 

 displayed in his " Advice to a Young Tradesman," none of 

 the just principles set forth in after years in his moral 

 essays then served to guide him. He wasted his sub- 

 stance. He kept bad company. He misused money 

 entrusted to his care. He wandered from printing house 

 to printing house, thought for one while of setting up a 

 swimming school and for another while of wandering oyer 

 Europe on foot. From this life he was turned by a merchant 

 whose acquaintance he made on the long voyage to London, 

 and who now gave him not advice but a situation. With 

 him Franklin returned to Philadelphia, and at twenty began 

 to keep books, sell goods and learn the secrets of mercantile 

 affairs. He was indeed fast becoming a merchant when his 

 employer died and he once more went back to the trade of 

 printer. 



For a time he was foreman in the shop of Samuel Keimer. 

 But the two soon quarreled and Franklin with the aid of a 

 friend established the " New Printing Office in High Street 

 near the Market." From that hour prosperity never deserted 

 him. At twenty-six he had bought out his partner, paid his 

 debts, married a wife, and opened a shop that defies descrip- 

 tion. There were to be had imported books and legal blanks, 

 paper and parchment, Dutch quills and Alleppo ink, perfumed 

 soap, Ehode Island cheese, live geese feathers, Pahia tea, cof- 

 fee, very good stock, and cash for old rags. Before he was 

 forty-two he had founded one of the best newspapers, pub- 

 lished the most famous almanac, and owned the best paying 

 printing house in the thirteen colonies, was postmaster-general 

 and had written pieces which it is safe to say are the only 

 pieces written by Americans in that age and read in ours. 



