26 RISEN B V FERSE VERANCE. 



reduced to //V, I immediately distributed and composed it 

 over again before I went to bed; and this industry, visible 

 to our neighbours, began to give us character and credit.' 

 The consequence was that business, and even offers of credit, 

 came to them from all hands. 



They soon found themselves in a condition to think of 

 establishing a newspaper; but Franklin having inadvertently 

 mentioned this scheme to a person who came to him wanting 

 employment, that individual carried the secret, to their old 

 master, Keimer, with whom he, as well as themselves, had 

 formerly worked ; and he immediately determined to antici- 

 pate them by issuing proposals for a paper of his own. The 

 manner in which Franklin met and defeated this treachery 

 is exceedingly characteristic There was another paper pub- 

 lished in the place, which had been in existence for some 

 years; but it was altogether a wretched affair, and owed 

 what success it had merely to the absence of all competition. 

 For this print, however, Franklin, not being able to commence 

 his own paper immediately, in conjunction with a friend, set 

 about writing a series of amusing communications under the 

 title of the Busy Body, which the publisher printed, of course, 

 very gladly. ' By this means,' says he, ' the attention of the 

 public was fixed on that paper; and Keimer's proposals, 

 which we burlesqued and ridiculed, were disregarded. He 

 began his paper, however; and before carrying it on three- 

 quarters of a year, with at most only ninety subscribers, he 

 offered it me for a trifle ; and I, having been ready some time 

 to go on with it, took it in hand directly, and it proved in a 

 few years extremely profitable to me.' The paper, indeed, 

 had no sooner got into Franklin's hands than its success 

 equalled his most sanguine expectations. Some observations 



