prayerful wish for the spiritual and temporal good of their read-
ers. Much diurnal good may now be had at the very low price
of one cent. It would be folly to deny that a pure and refined
taste has been engendered by the cheap literature of the day."
This paper should not be confused with another member of the
penny family of Boston which had practically the same name,
The Boston Morning Herald, but which had been started earlier
and was edited by William B. English.
PENNY PRESS IN PHILADELPHIA
When Day started The Sun in New York in 1833, he had in his employ three printers, A. S. Abell, A. H. Simons, and William Swain. The last printer later became the foreman of its com- posing-room at twelve dollars a week. Worn out by having to work overtime Swain was compelled to take a vacation; upon his return he was not able to make satisfactory settlement for the time he was absent, and withdrew from The Sun, taking Abell and Simons with him. The trio, convinced of the wonderful pos- sibilities of the penny press, but satisfied that New York was already well served, went to Philadelphia where they brought out, on March 25, 1836, the first number of The Public Ledger. Being practical printers, they were unable to look after the edi- torial end of the paper and secured for this work Russell Jarvis, whose work on The United States Telegraph had already at- tracted attention. The new paper adopted as its editorial policy: "While The Public Ledger shall worship no man, it shall vitu- perate none. The Public Ledger will be fearless and independent, applauding virtue and reproving vice wherever found, un- awed by station, uninfluenced by wealth." The Ledger was not quite so successful as The Sun in New York and at the start was published under great handicaps, financially and otherwise. But when it started to attack the United States Bank in the days of the "Banking War," it became very popular and grew in "stature and wisdom." The Ledger continued to be a penny paper until 1864 when it was sold to George W. Childs who ad- vanced the price to two cents on account of the greatly increased cost of white paper.
A few days before The Ledger was started, The Daily Tran-
