XI.—A LEADING MAN IN PHILADELPHIA.
When Franklin was twenty-four years old he was married to Miss Deborah Read, the young lady who had laughed at him when he was walking the street with his three rolls.
They lived together very happily for a great many years.
Some time before this marriage, Franklin's friend and employer, Mr.
Denham, had died.
The dry-goods store, of which he was the owner, had been sold, and Franklin's occupation as a salesman, or clerk, was gone. But the young man had shown himself to be a person of great industry and ability. He had the confidence of everybody that knew him.
A friend of his, who had money, offered to take him as a partner in the newspaper business. And so he again became a printer, and the editor of a paper called the Pennsylvania Gazette.
It was not long until Franklin was recognized as one of the leading men in Philadelphia. His name was known, not only in Pennsylvania, but in all the colonies.
He was all the time thinking of plans for making the people about him wiser and better and happier.
He established a subscription and circulating library, the first in
America. This library was the beginning of the present Philadelphia
Public Library.
He wrote papers on education. He founded the University of
Pennsylvania. He organized the American Philosophical Society.