Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1899-05-17
FRANKLIN THE PRINTER.
The Philosopher Maintained n Life.
long Interest in His :
Early Trade.

Scotch journeyman, David Hall,
whom Franklin took into his employ
nent in 1743, was admitted to part
aership five years later. He took off
my hands all care of the printing of
fee, paying me punctually my share of
the profits" and Franklin, in congratu-
lating a friend on return to your
beloved retirement" wrote with evil
lent pleasure that he, too, was TAX
ing the proper measures for obtaining
leisure to enjoy life and my friends
more than hitherto, having put my
printing house under the care of my
partner, David Hall, absolutely left off
book-selling, and removed to a more
juliet part of the town, where l am set
ling my old accounts, and hope soon
to be quite master of my own time"
This partnership continued is years,
successfully for us both,' at the end of
which time Hall became the purchaser
Of the outfit.
This did not mean that Franklin
wholly retired from his connection with
printing, for long before this he had
esta blished number of printing of.
fees in other towns. For instance, in
1888 Il sent one of my journeymen tc
Charleston, South Carolina, where a
printer was wanting. l furniSh'd him
with press and letters, on the agree
ment of partnership by which l was
to receive one-third of the profits of
the business, paying one-third of the
expense" The partnership in Carolina
having succeeded, Il was encouraged
| tn in th nd 70
several of my workmen who had be-
haved well by establishing them with
printing houses in different colonies,
on the same terms as that in Carolina"
One of these was James Parker, whom
he established in New York, and by
1743 he had three printing houses in
three different colonies, and purpose
to set up a fourth if | can meet with
a proper person to manage it, having
all the materials ready for that pur-
pose" Five years later he sent an
outfit to Antigua, in the West Indies,
under the charge of a journeyman who
had worked with me here and in my
printing house in New York three or
four years" He was also interested in
printing Offices in Kingston, Jamaica.
and, as already noted. he took two of
his nephews as apprentices, and when
they were trained helped them to es-
tablish themselves as printers. Most
of them did well, being enabled at the
end of our term, six years, to purchase
| the types of me and go on working
| for themselves, by which means several
| families were raised. Partnerships
often finish in quarrels; but l was hap
| oy in this that mine were all carried
On and ended amicably."
| Nor did his retirement from active
printing lessen his interest in his trade,
and every possible improvement in the
art received attention from him. {.
Nothing proved better the printers at
:achment for his calling than an amuse
nent of his during his diplomatic serv
lce in France. In his own home he
set up press and types, all of which
ne or his servants cast, and with them
occasionally printed little bagatelles
and skits of both his friends writing
and his own, usually in very small edi
tons. These printing materials, con-
sisting of a great variety of fonts" he
brought with him on his return to
type to Francis Childs, the New York
printer, and still more to Matthew
Carey. The remainder he used to es-
tablish his grandson, Benjamin Frank
lin Bache, in business as a printer, the
original occupation of his GRANDPA
Their"
Despite the many honors that had
come to him, to the last he held him
self to be first and foremost a printer,
and began his will: 81 Benjamin
Franklin, Printer, late Minister Pleni-
potentiary from the United States of
America to the Court of France, and
now President of the State of Pennsyl-
vania." 1t was at his own request that
1.-The Printers of the city, with their
Journeymen and Apprentices" were
given prominent position in his fu-
neral procession.-PaulL l.. Ford, in Cen,
fury.