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"Ben Franklin"
Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography: Page 20
of 154
so of my first entry into that city, that you may in your mind compare such
unlikely beginnings with the figure I have since made there. I was in my working
dress, my best cloaths being to come round by sea. I was dirty from my journey;
my pockets were stuff'd out with shirts and stockings, and I knew no soul nor
where to look for lodging. I was fatigued with travelling, rowing, and want of
rest, I was very hungry; and my whole stock of cash consisted of a Dutch dollar,
and about a shilling in copper. The latter I gave the people of the boat for my
passage, who at first refus'd it, on account of my rowing; but I insisted on
their taking it. A man being sometimes more generous when he has but a little
money than when he has plenty, perhaps thro' fear of being thought to have but
little.
Then I walked up the street, gazing about till near the market-house I met a boy
with bread. I had made many a meal on bread, and, inquiring where he got it, I
went immediately to the baker's he directed me to, in Secondstreet, and ask'd
for bisket, intending such as we had in Boston; but they, it seems, were not
made in Philadelphia. Then I asked for a three-penny loaf, and was told they had
none such. So not considering or knowing the difference of money, and the
greater cheapness nor the names of his bread, I made him give me three-penny
worth of any sort. He gave me, accordingly, three great puffy rolls. I was
surpriz'd at the quantity, but took it, and, having no room in my pockets,
walk'd off with a roll under each arm, and eating the other. Thus I went up
Market-street as far as Fourth-street, passing by the door of Mr. Read, my
future wife's father; when she, standing at the door, saw me, and thought I
made, as I certainly did, a most awkward, ridiculous appearance. Then I turned
and went down Chestnut-street and part of Walnut-street, eating my roll all the
way, and, corning round, found myself again at Market-street wharf, near the
boat I came in, to which I went for a draught of the river water; and, being
filled with one of my rolls, gave the other two to a woman and her child that
came down the river in the boat with us, and were waiting to go farther.
Thus refreshed, I walked again up the street, which by this time had many
clean-dressed people in it, who were all walking the same way. I joined them,
and thereby was led into the great meeting-house of the Quakers near the market.
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