s little of the spirit of tolerance for such in that hot-bed of
patriotism. The air was so full of the growing differences between the
colonials and the king's government, that in seventeen hundred and
seventy Mein closed out his stock and returned to England.

On the other hand, the patriotic booksellers did not fail to take note
of the crystallization of public opinion. Robert Bell in Philadelphia
appended a note to his catalogue of books, stating that "The Lovers and
Practisers of Patriotism are requested to note that all the Books in
this Catalogue are either of American manufacture, or imported before
the Non-Importation Agreement."

The supply of home-made paper was of course limited. So much was needed
to circulate among the colonies pamphlets dealing with the injustice of
the king's government toward his American subjects, that it seems
remarkable that any juvenile books should have been printed in those
stirring days before the war began. It is rather to be expected that,
with the serious turn that events had taken and the consequent questions
that had arisen, the publications of the American press should have
received the shadow of the forthcoming trouble--a shadow sufficient to
discourage any attempt at humor for adult or child. Evidence, however,
points to the fact that humor and amusement were not totally lacking in
the issues of the press of at least one printer in Boston, John Boyle.
The humorous satire produced by his press in seventeen hundred and
seventy-five, called "The First Book of the American Chronicles of the
Times," purported to set forth the state of political affairs during the
troubles "wherein all our calamities are seen to flow from the fact that
the king had set up for our worship the god of the heathen--The Tea
Chest." This pamphlet has been one to keep the name of John Boyle among
the prominent printers of pre-Revolutionary days. Additional interest
accrues for this reason to a play-book printed by Boyle--the only one
extant of this decade known to the writer.

This quaint little chap-book, three by four inches in size, was issued
in seventeen hundred and seventy-one, soon after Boyle had set up his
printing establishment and four years before the publication of the
famous pamphlet. It represents fully the standard for children's
literature in the days when Newbery's tiny classics were making their
way to America, and was indeed advertised by Mein in seventeen hundred
and sixty-eight