184 



He was the most experienced of American journalists, the 

 editor and principal contributor of the New England Courant, 

 when, in 1723, it threw Boston into tumult, and, in 1729, 

 founder of the Pennsylvania Gazette, for more than half a 

 century the leading newspaper in the New World. He fully 

 appreciated the possibilities of periodical literature in America 

 and established, in 1741, a monthly called " The General 

 Magazine and Historical Chronicle for all the British Prov- 

 inces in America," * an effort which failed because the country 

 was not yet ready. 



The Almanac was to the people of that day, what the week- 

 lies and monthlies have become to their great-grandchildren. 

 Franklin began to print it in 1732, and it soon became a neces- 

 sity in every household from New England to the Carolinas, 

 and made the name of " Poor Eichard " famous all over the 

 world. Within twenty-five years, at least a quarter of a mil- 

 lion copies of this treasury of homely wisdom had been dis- 

 tributed throughout the colonies. 



Franklin wished that his Almanac should be a vehicle for 

 conveying instruction among the common people, who bought 

 scarcely any other books. He, therefore, filled all the little 

 spaces between the remarkable days in the calendar with prov- 

 erbial sentences, chiefly such as inculcated industry and frugal- 

 ity as the means of procuring wealth and thereby securing 

 virtue; "it being," as he said, " more difficult for a man in 

 want to act always honestly than it is hard for an empty sack 

 to stand upright." Finally he brought together in a connected 

 fabric, all the best of the sayings of Poor Kichard for twenty- 

 five years, in the form of the harangue of a wise old man to 

 the people attending an auction. " Father Abraham's Speech," 

 "The Way to Wealth," or "La Science du Bonhomme 



* Six numbers of this periodical were printed. 



