g life, and any sheet of it to-day would bring a
larger price in the open market probably than a single sheet of any
other periodical ever published.

Franklin's Almanack, his crowning work in the sphere of journalism,
published under the pseudonym of Richard Saunders,--better known since
as Poor Richard,--is still one of the marvels of modern literature.
Under one or another of many titles the contents of this publication,
exclusive of its calendars, have been translated into every tongue
having any pretensions to a literature; and have had more readers,
probably, than any other publication in the English or indeed in any
other language, with the single exception of the Bible. It was the
first issue from an American press that found a popular welcome in
foreign lands, and it still enjoys the special distinction of being
the only almanac ever published that owed its extraordinary popularity
entirely to its literary merit.

What adds to the surprise with which we contemplate the fame and
fortunes of this unpretentious publication, is the fact that its
reputation was established by its first number, and when its author
was only twenty-six years of age. For a period of twenty-six years,
and until Franklin ceased to edit it, this annual was looked forward
to by a larger portion of the colonial population and with more
impatience than now awaits a President's annual message to Congress.

Franklin graduated from journalism into diplomacy as naturally as
winter glides into spring. This was simply because he was by common
acclaim the fittest man for any kind of public service the colony
possessed, and especially for any duty requiring talents for
persuasion, in which he proved himself to be unquestionably past
master among the diplomatists of his time.

The question of taxing the Penn proprietary estates in Pennsylvania,
for the defense of the province from the French and Indians, had
assumed such an acute stage in 1757 that the Assembly decided to
petition the King upon the subject; and selected Franklin, then in the
forty-first year of his age, to visit London and present their
petition. The next forty-one years of his life were practically all
spent in the diplomatic service. He was five years absent on this his
first mission. Every interest in London was against him. He finally
surmounted all obstacles by a compromise, which pledged the Assembly
to pass an act exempting from taxation the unsurveyed lands of the
Penn es