gress of America since that day. At
that time there was not a daily paper in the land. Now there are eight
in the city of Boston alone, having an aggregate daily circulation of
about _one hundred and twenty-five thousand_, which would amount to
nearly FORTY MILLION sheets in a year,--more than enough to furnish
every man, woman, and child in the country with one sheet each. All
this from the daily press of Boston, where, one hundred and forty
years ago, it was thought that a third weekly newspaper, scarcely
large enough to wrap a baker's loaf in, could not be supported! Bind
them into volumes, containing one hundred sheets each, and we have an
enormous library of daily newspapers, numbering _four hundred thousand
volumes_, the annual production of the Boston daily press in 1860! And
this only the aggregate of eight different papers, while Boston alone
now has _one hundred and forty_ papers and periodicals of all sorts,
and the State of Massachusetts nearly _three hundred_! How marvellous
the change since Franklin was a poor printer-boy!

But look at these eight daily papers of Boston again. Suppose they
measure a yard each in width, upon an average, when opened;--here we
have one hundred and twenty-five thousand yards of newspapers
emanating daily from only eight presses of Franklin's native city;
which is equal to _seventy-one miles_ per day, and _four hundred and
twenty-six_ miles per week, and _twenty-two thousand one hundred and
fifty-two_ miles in a year! This is truly surprising. Almost paper
enough from the eight daily presses of Boston alone, every year, to
reach around the earth!

Or, suppose we weigh these papers. If ten of them weigh a single
pound, then each day's issue weighs _twelve thousand five hundred
pounds_, each week's issue amounts to _seventy-five thousand pounds_,
which swells the annual aggregate to about _four million pounds_. Load
this yearly production upon waggons, one ton on each, and we have _two
thousand and two horse loads of newspapers_ from these eight presses
in a year! Again, we say, how marvellous the change!

If eight daily papers of Boston throw off this vast amount of
reading-matter in a year, what immense quantities are supplied by all
the presses in the land! Could the actual statistics be laid before us
in round numbers, doubtless the most credulous even would be amazed at
the result.

But to return. James decided to issue his paper, notwithstanding the
advice of some of h