Page:History of American Journalism.djvu/59

Rh ing a paper from prison was always sure to increase the circulation. Certainly, Bradford's Mercury never occupied a very important place in Philadelphia until after he had been in prison.

During much of the time that Bradford conducted The American Weekly Mercury he was postmaster of Philadelphia. This office was of great help to him, if the words of Franklin can be accepted at their face value. To quote from his "Autobiography":—

"As he (Bradford) held the post office, it was imagined that he had better opportunities for obtaining the news, and his paper was thought a better distributor of advertisements than mine, and therefore had many more; which was a profitable thing for him and a disadvantage to me, for tho' I did receive and send papers by the post, yet the public opinion was otherwise; for what I did send was by bribing the riders, who took them privately, Bradford being unkind enough to forbid it, which occasioned some resentment on my part; and I thought so meanly of the practice that when I afterwards came into the position, I took care never to imitate it."

With the issue of Number 80 of The New-England Courant on February 11, 1723 (Old Style), Benjamin Franklin had become a Boston newspaper publisher in name, if not in fact. After a quarrel with his brother, James, he had gone to New York: not finding employment with William Bradford, the only printer there at that time, he had gone on to Philadelphia where he worked at his trade in the office of Samuel Keimer, one of the two printers of the place. Of his trip to England and of his partnership, upon his return to Philadelphia, with Hugh Meredith, nothing needs to be said here until that time when they had decided to publish a newspaper. Unfortunately for them, their decision reached Keimer through a former fellow-workman, George Webb, before they were prepared to bring out the paper.

Keimer, on the other hand, lost no time in publishing a prospectus of one he would speedily print. His announcement reminds one of modern magazine braggadocio:—

Whereas many have encouraged me to publish a Paper of Intelligence: and whereas the late Mercury has been so wretchedly performed as to be a Scandal to the Name of Printing, and to be truly styled Non-