I have made it a rule,' said he, 'whenever in my power, to
avoid becoming the draftsman of papers to be reviewed by a
public body. I took my lesson from an incident which I will
relate to you.

"'When I was a journeyman printer, one of my companions, an
apprenticed hatter, having served out his time, was about to
open shop for himself. His first concern was to have a
handsome sign-board with the proper inscription. He composed
it in these words: _John Thompson, Hatter, makes and sells
Hats for ready Money_, with a figure of a hat subjoined. But
he thought he would submit it to his friends for their
amendments. The first he showed it to thought the word
_hatter_ tautologous, because followed by the words _makes
hats_, which showed he was a hatter. It was struck out. The
next observed that the word _makes_ might as well be omitted,
because his customers would not care who made the hats; if
good and to their mind, they would buy, by whomsoever made.
He struck it out. A third said he thought the words _for
ready money_ were useless, as it was not the custom of the
place to sell on credit: every one who purchased expected to
pay. They were parted with, and the inscription now stood,
_John Thompson sells hats_. "_Sells_ hats," says his next
friend; "why, nobody will expect you to give them away. What
then is the use of that word?" It was stricken out, and
_hats_ followed, the rather as there was one painted on the
board. So his inscription was ultimately reduced to _John
Thompson_, with the figure of a hat subjoined.'"

When the members were about to sign the document, Mr. Hancock is
reported to have said, "We must be unanimous; there must be no pulling
different ways; we must all hang together." "Yes," replied Franklin,
"we must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang
separately."

The Doric simplicity of his style; his incomparable facility of
condensing a great principle into an apologue or an anecdote, many of
which, as he applied them, have become the folk-lore of all nations;
his habitual moderation of statement, his aversion to exaggeration,
his inflexible logic, and his perfect truthfulness,--made him one of
the most persuasive men of his time, and his writings a model which no
one can study without profit. A judicious selection from Franklin's
writings should constitute a part of the curr