[278] Tree of Liberty, August 7, 1802.
[279] Pittsburgh Gazette, December 4, 1801; Tree of Liberty, August 7, 1802.
[280] Pittsburgh Gazette, December 17, 1813.
[281] Pittsburgh Gazette, March 27, 1812.
[282] The Navigator, Pittsburgh, 1814, pp. 258–259.
[283] John Mellish: Travels in the United States of America in the years 1806–1807–1809–1810 and 1811, Philadelphia, vol. ii., p. 58.
[284] Christian Schultz, Jun.: Travels on an Inland Voyage, New York, 1810, p. 133.
CHAPTER IX
THE BROADENING OF CULTURE
Cramer’s business prospered. His was the only establishment in Pittsburgh where the sale of books was the predominant feature. He had long called it the “Pittsburgh Bookstore.”[285] Oliver Ormsby, whose store was in the brick house on Water Street, at the westerly side of Chancery Lane, sold “Dilworth’s and Webster’s Spelling books, testaments, and Bibles in Dutch and English, primers, toy books, and a variety of histories, novels, etc.”[286] William Christy[287] and John Wrenshall[288] kept a few books, a special feature of the latter’s business being the sale of Dr. Jonathan Edwards’s Sermons, but compared with Cramer’s stock, the supply of books in other hands was insignificant. Cramer was also practically the only publisher of books in the borough. After he had been publishing for a few years, others began the business, but their books were few in number and generally unimportant in character. Cramer’s advertisements were sometimes amusing. He sold his goods for money, or in trade, and in making the announcement employed the axiomatic language of “Poor Richard.” This was one of his naïve notices: “I hope the ladies and all good girls and boys will not forget to fetch me all the clean linen and cotton rags they possibly can. Save the smallest pieces and put them in a rag bag; save them from the fire and the ash heap. It is both honorable and profitable to save rags, for our country wants them.”[289]
He added new lines to his business. Articles which tended to elevate and refine the standard of living were introduced. Wall papers had been in use in the East to a limited extent since 1769, and were no longer rare in good homes. In the West they were scarcely known until Cramer advertised his “large stock of hanging or wall papers.”[290] He sold stationery, writing paper, Italian and hot-pressed letter paper, wafers, quills, camel-hair pencils, inkstands, sealing wax, red and black ink powders. Card playing was one of the leading social diversions and he had the best English and American playing cards. Patent medicines were largely used and Cramer found it profitable to supply the demand. He had books of instructions for the flute, the violin, the piano-forte, and books of songs. His stock of English dictionaries included those of Nathan Bailey, Dr. Samuel Johnson, Thomas Sheridan, and John Walker. For the German population he had books in the German language, which he often designated as “Dutch” books. He sold German almanacs, German Bibles and testaments. Many of the German churches, both in Pittsburgh and in the surrounding settlements, had schools attached to their churches, where the German language was taught in connection with English studies. For these schools Cramer supplied the books. Ever since the cession of Louisiana to the United States there had been a great increase in the students of the French language among Americans, who intended either to engage in commerce with the people of that territory, or expected to settle there. The liberally advertised easy methods of learning French[291] induced many persons to engage in its study. For these Cramer kept French books. He also sold Greek and Latin schoolbooks, Greek and Latin dictionaries, and Spanish grammars.