Three Great Puffy Rolls
My brother had, in 1720 or 1721, begun to print a newspaper. It was the second that appeared in America. I remember his friends trying to persuade him not to attempt it, since it probably would not be successful. One newspaper was in their judgement, enough for America. He went on, however, and I was employed to carry the papers through the streets to the people.
He had some clever men among his friends whose writing added to the success of the newspaper. These gentlemen often visited us. Hearing their conversation, and their accounts of the approval their articles had received, I became excited and decided to write a piece of my own. But still being a boy, and suspecting that my brother would object to printing anything of mine, I wrote an article and left it unsigned. At night, I put it under the door of printing house. It was found in the morning, and shown to his writing friends when they came to visit. They read it and gave their opinions.
I had the wonderful pleasure of finding it met with their approval, and that, in their different guesses as to the author, they named men of learning and imagination. I suppose now that I was lucky in my judges, and that perhaps my writings were not as good as I then thought.
Encouraged by this judgements, however, I wrote and delivered in the same way several more articles which were also approved; and I kept my secret till I just about ran out of ideas. When my brother finally found out, he was not exactly pleased. Perhaps this might be one cause for the arguments that we began to have about this time.
