Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/99

89 but I am now convinced that there are limits beyond which paper money would be prejudicial.

I ſoon after obtained, by the influence of my friend Hamilton, the printing of the Newcaſtle paper money, another profitable work, as I then thought it, little things appearing great to perſons of moderate fortune; and they were really great to me, as proving great encouragements. He alſo procured me the printing of the laws and votes of that government, which I retained as I continued in the buſineſs.

I now opened a ſmall ſtationer's ſhop. I kept bonds and agreements of all kinds, drawn up in a more accurate form than had yet been ſeen in that part of the world; a work in which I was aſſiſted by my friend Breintnal. I had alſo paper, parchment, paſteboard, books, &c. One Whitemaſh, an excellent compoſitor, whom I had known in London, came to offer himſelf. I engaged, him; and he continued conſtantly and diligently to work with me. I alſo took an apprentice, the ſon of Aquila Roſe. I began to pay, by degrees, the debt I had contracted; and in order to inſure my credit and character as a tradeſman, I took care not only to be realty induſtrious and frugal, but alſo to avoid every appearance of the contrary. I was plainly dreſſed, and never ſeen in any place of public amuſement. I never went a fiſhing or hunting. A book indeed enticed me ſometimes from my work, but it was ſeldom, by ſtealth, and occaſioned no ſcandal; and to ſhow that I did not think myſelf above my profeſſion, I conveyed home ſometimes in a wheelbarrow the paper I purchaſed at the warehouſes. I thus obtained the reputation of being an induſtrious young man, and very punctual in his payments. The merchants who imported