covering all their vest. Dingy buckskin breeches, once yellow, and check shirts and a red flannel jacket was the common wear of most working men; and all men and boys from the country were seen in the streets in leather breeches and aprons and would have been deemed out of character without them. In those days, tailors, shoemakers, and hatters waited on customers to take their measures, and afterward called with garments to fit them on before finished. "No masters were seen exempted from personal labour in any branch of business-living on the profits derived from many hired journeymen; and no places were sought out at much expense, and display of signs and decorated windows, to allure custom. Then almost every apprentice, when of age, ran his equal chance for his share of business in his neighbourhood, by setting up for himself, and, with an apprentice or two, getting into a cheap location, and by dint of application and good work, recommending himself to his neighbourhood. "The overworked and painfully excited business men of the present day have little conception of the tranquil and composed business habits of their forefathers in the same line of pursuits in Philadelphia. The excited and anxious dealers of this day might be glad to give up half of their present elaborate gains, to possess but half of the peace and contentment felt and enjoyed by their moderate and tranquil progenitors. James Parton in his "Life of Benjamin Franklin adds to the picture of the colonial business man and his activities by saying, "A store was simply a dwelling house, with a room full of goods on the ground floor, and a wooden bee-hive, anchor, Bible, ship, basket, or crown, hung over the door." Benjamin Franklin did not stop with preaching to others in his Almanack and “Gazette" correct principles in business. He practised them himself. Industry, frugality, modesty of demeanor, selfreliance-these were the foundation stones upon which he built, and that he built well is attested by the comparatively short period in which he secured a competence and was enabled to retire. But there were croakers in Philadelphia at the time when he went into business as there seem to be in all places at all times. One such, whom he describes as "a Person of note, an elderly Man, with a wife Look and a very grave Manner of speaking," one day stopped at his door, asked him if he were the young man who had lately opened the printing house, and, being answered in the affirmative, expressed his sympathy on the ground that the enterprise was sure to fail. The elderly gentleman was not alone in his dismalt prophecy. In a discussion at what was called the "Merchants' Every Night Club" the general opinion was that since there were already two printers in Philadelphia, a third could not succeed. But a Dr. Baird gave a contrary opinion. "The Industry of that Franklin," said he, "is fuperior to anything I ever faw of the kind; I fee him ftill at work when I go home from Club and he is at work again before his neighbors are out of bed." Diligence was characteristic of Franklin's long and busy life. At the age of sixty-nine we find him writing to his friend Priestly, "In the Morning at fix I am at the Committee of Safety, which Committee holds till near nine, when I am at the Congrefs and that fits till after four in the afternoon." Franklin had a due regard for appearances. A chapter in the "Autobiography" is to the following effect: "In order to fecure my Credit and Character as a Tradefman, I took care not only to be in reality induftrious and frugal, but to avoid all Appearance to the contrary. I dreff'd plainly; I was feen at no Places of idle Diverfion. I never went out a fishing or fhooting; a book, indeed, sometimes debauch'd me from my Work, but that was feldom, fnug, and gave no Scandal; and, to show that I was not above my Business, I fometimes brought home the Paper I purchased at the ftores through the ftreets on a Wheelbarrow." Franklin's independence is illustrated by an anecdote related by Jared Sparks. Some of the patrons of the "Pennsylvania Gazette" thought that he was too free in his criticism of the public acts of certain persons of high standing and warned him against its continuance as prejudicial to his business welfare. By way of answer, Franklin invited his critics and the other gentlemen of whom they spoke, |