When Franklin was twenty-four years old he was married to Miss Deborah
Read, the young lady who had laughed at him when he was walking the
street with his three rolls.
They lived together very happily for a great many years.
Some time before this marriage, Franklin's friend and employer, Mr.
Denham, had died.
The dry-goods store, of which he was the owner, had been sold, and
Franklin's occupation as a salesman, or clerk, was gone. But the young
man had shown himself to be a person of great industry and ability. He
had the confidence of everybody that knew him.
A friend of his, who had money, offered to take him as a partner in the
newspaper business. And so he again became a printer, and the editor of
a paper called the _Pennsylvania Gazette_.
It was not long until Franklin was recognized as one of the leading men
in Philadelphia. His name was known, not only in Pennsylvania, but in
all the colonies.
He was all the time thinking of plans for making the people about him
wiser and better and happier.
He established a subscription and circulating library, the first in
America. This library was the beginning of the present Philadelphia
Public Library.
He wrote papers on education. He founded the University of
Pennsylvania. He organized the American Philosophical Society.
He established the first fire company in Philadelphia, which was also
the first in America.
He invented a copper-plate press, and printed the first paper money of
New Jersey.
He also invented the iron fireplace, which is called the Franklin stove,
and is still used where wood is plentiful and cheap.
After an absence of ten years, he paid a visit to his old home in
Boston. Everybody was glad to see him now,--even his brother James, the
printer.
When he returned to Philadelphia, he was elected clerk of the colonial
assembly.
Not long after that, he was chosen to be postmaster of the city. But his
duties in this capacity did not require very much labor in those times.
He did not handle as much mail in a whole year as passes now through the
Philadelphia post-office in a single hour.
[Illustration: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.]
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