Benjamin Franklin : $b Representative selections, with introduction, bibliograpy, and notesFranklin, Benjamin
General
Benjamin Franklin : $b Representative selections, with introduction, bibliograpy, and notes
Franklin, Benjamin
Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790
I found in _his_ House these Hands; Hugh Meredith a Welsh-Pensilvanian,
30 Years of Age, bred to Country Work: honest, sensible, had a great
deal of solid Observation, was something of a Reader, but given to
drink: Stephen Potts, a young Country Man of full Age, bred to the
Same:--of uncommon natural Parts, and great Wit and Humour, but a little
idle. These he had agreed with at extream low Wages, p[er] Week, to be
rais'd a Shilling every 3 Months, as they would deserve by improving in
their Business, and the Expectation of these high Wages to come on
hereafter was what he had drawn them in with. Meredith was to work at
Press, Potts at Bookbinding, which he by Agreement, was to teach them,
tho' he knew neither one nor t'other. John ---- a wild Irishman brought
up to no Business, whose Service for 4 Years Keimer had purchas'd from
the Captain of a Ship. He too was to be made a Pressman. George Webb, an
Oxford Scholar, whose Time for 4 Years he had likewise bought, intending
him for a Compositor: of whom more presently. And David Harry, a Country
Boy, whom he had taken Apprentice. I soon perceiv'd that the Intention
of engaging me at Wages so much higher than he had been us'd to give,
was to have these raw cheap Hands form'd thro' me, and as soon as I had
instructed them, then, they being all articled to him, he should be able
to do without me.--I went on however, very chearfully; put his Printing
House in Order, which had been in great Confusion, and brought his Hands
by degrees to mind their Business and to do it better.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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