sense in Folio, This is therefore to notify that I shall begin in November next a most useful Paper, to be entitled, The Pennsylvania Gazette or Universal Instructor. The Proposer having dwelt at the Fountain of Intelligence in Europe, will be able to give a Paper to please all and to offend none, at the reasonable Expense of Ten Shillings per annum, Proclamation Money.
The paper, with the longer title of The Universal Instructor in all Arts and Sciences; and Pennsylvania Gazette, appeared on December 24, 1728. The next week Keimer, adopting the style of the Quakers, dated his paper, "The 2d of the 11th mo. 1728." In spite of the fact that the first two pages were given up to extracts from Chambers' "Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences," a book just imported from London, Keimer boasted that with the thirteenth issue the paper had a circulation of two hundred and fifty copies. Then the subscribers began to drop off: not even selected tales of English life or extracts from Defoe's "Religious Courtship" prevented the diminution. One reason for the decline may have been the ridicule hurled at the paper by Franklin, under the nom-de-plume of "Busy Body," in the columns of The Mercury. After nine months the paper had less than one hundred subscribers, and Keimer was glad to sell at any price to Franklin and Meredith, who assumed control with Number 40 on October 2, 1729.
FRANKLIN A REAL NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER
The new firm shortened the title to The Pennsylvania Gazette, cut short the "Religious Courtship," and referred its readers to Chambers' "Dictionary" for further information which it would take them fifty years to give if they followed Keimer's example of printing. In the place of these features, Franklin put good news-items mixed with a little comment of his own. With the fourth issue he announced a "Half Sheet twice a Week" and gave America its first semi-weekly. But he was too progressive a journalist for the time, and after a few numbers he returned to weekly publication.
On July 14, 1730, the partnership of Franklin and Meredith was dissolved: the former continued the sole publisher of the paper until 1748 when he admitted David Hall who had
