Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-07-05

WASHINGTON, July 2. Every
philosopher to whom the world has
accorded any serious attention has
agreed on the instability of the works
OF mankind. 1t is a proverb that
practically all human works are
short-lived. What the man initiates
today is gone tomorrow. This has
been particularly true in the busi-
ness world.
This fact emphasizes the remark
able circumstance that the two prin-
cipal business ventures of n of the
greatest men America ever produced
have defied the rules of the philoso-
pliers, run counter to most human
experience, and for nearly two CEN
turtles have defied the obscuring eff
fects of Time. Nearly two hundred
years ago, Benjamin Franklin start
ed a little print shop in Philadelphia
and about the same time founded a
weekly newspaper. Both business
enterprises still are thriving, now
greatly enlarged since the days of
their founder but still bearing some
thing of the stamp he placed upon
them.
When a young man, practically a
newcomer in the city which he later
ornamented SO conspicuously, Frank
lin opened what he named the New
Printing Office" III a little building
on Market Street in Philadelphia. In
this shop he printed Poor Richards
Almanac, a periodical which when
Philadelphia had only 10000 inhabi-
tants, boosted of a circulation of
10000 copies. He operated small,
crudely built hand presses with the
aid of a few helpers and apprentices.
This shop has not closed since he
founded it. 1t has removed a few
doors from its original location but
still is doing business in the same
neighborhood.
Its ownership has changed hands
in the course of the two centuries
which have interviewed, but the re-
cent owners, among whom has been
numbered former Governor Sproul
of Pennsylvania, have not failed to
realize the Importance of maintain
ing the shops ancient tradition, and
have named it The Franklin Printing
Company.
The colonial printer would be
much amazed If he could see his
shop in operation today. In Mace
OF the cabinet of handmade typ
and the clumsy hand press, there
stand batteries OF typesetting ma
chimes and huge presses, operated by
the electrical power which he, HIM
self, first defined and, to a limited
extent, captured by means of his silk
kite and his key.
How Franklin Worked
DR.. Franklin had a helper in his
print shop who was something of an
amateur poet. He wrote verses in a
manner which would seem very cur
ious to the present day bards. Stand
ing before his case of type he would
compose his verses and, as he did so,
set them In type. He did not write
them down first; the transfer from
his mind to the cold type was direct.
Franklin worked, to some extent, in
the same way. AS one of the pro-
verbs of Poor Richard, such as,
Early to bed and early to rise,
makes a man healthy, wealthy and
WISE" would occur to him, he would
go to his type case and put the words
on a stick. They might lie there,
half-forgotten, for days until he had
an opportunity to put them in the
press and transfer them to paper.
Contrast this simple and direct
method CT producing printed works
with the fact that the Franklin
Printing Company of today can is
sue thousands Of copies of books or
pamphlets an hour. Not long ago
the shop got out a book printed in
thirty-three different languages.
Franklin was glad to get a f ew
pennies for some of his pamphlets.
Recently, the Franklin shop produc-
ed a book of the work of Joseph
Pennell, the celebrated artist, which
sold for SIS a copy.
Yet the s75 book would not be ac-
|cepted by the American people in ex-
change for a nickel copy of Poor
Richards Almanac, If there were but
one copy Of each in the world. In
these days of best sellers, 1t is sun
prising to know that no book ever
written by any American has been
reprinted so aften as %Franklin's little
volume OF thrift and honesty entitled
1.-THE Way To Wealth"
Working day and night Franklin
made a success of his little print
shop. His neighbors used to say that
no paRtaer how late one stayed at the,
pa the. way. hape he would
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