Franklin says that the
"little ability" in writing, developed through his self-imposed tasks, was
a principal means of his advancement in after life.
He learned the printer's trade in Boston, and ran away at the age of
seventeen to Philadelphia, where he worked at the same trade. Keith, the
proprietary governor, took satanic pleasure in offering to purchase a
printing outfit for the eighteen-year-old boy, to make him independent.
Keith sent the boy to London to purchase this outfit, assuring him that the
proper letters to defray the cost would be sent on the same ship. No such
letters were ever written, and the boy found himself without money three
thousand miles from home. By working at the printer's trade he supported
himself for eighteen months in London. He relates how his companions at the
press drank six pints of strong beer a day, while he proved that the
"Water-American," as he was called, was stronger than any of them. The
workmen insisted that he should contribute to the general fund for drink.
He refused, but so many things happened to his type whenever he left the
room that he came to the following conclusion: "Notwithstanding the
master's protection, I found myself oblig'd to comply and pay the money,
convinc'd of the folly of being on ill terms with those one is to live with
continually.
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