should enter into ventures of that character, than were Garrison and
Knapp. Garrison was unfortunate in this respect but it seems that Knapp
was more so. Neither took to book-keeping, and neither overcame his
serious deficiency in this regard. The consequence was that the books
kept themselves, and confusion grew upon confusion until the partners
were quite confounded. Garrison naively confesses this fault of the firm
to his brother-in-law thus: "Brother Knapp, you know, resembles me very
closely in his habits of procrastination. Indeed I think he is rather
worse than I am in this respect!"

The paper was issued originally without a single subscriber. At the end
of the first volume the subscription list numbered five hundred names.
In the course of the next two volumes this number was more than doubled,
almost tripled, in fact. The subscription price was two dollars. The
property would have begun from this point to make returns to its owners
had they possessed the business training and instinct requisite to its
successful management. But they were reformers, not money-getters, and
instead of enjoying the profits they proceeded to use them up
incontinently in their first enlargement of the paper. But while they
had added to the cost of publication, they took no thought to augment
the cost of subscription. The publishers gave more and the subscribers
received more for the sum of two dollars. The pecuniary embarrassments
of the _Liberator_ increased, and so the partners' "bondage to penury"
increased also. This growing pressure was finally relieved by "several
generous donations," made for the support of the paper. At the beginning
of the fourth volume, the publishers wisely or other-wisely, again
enlarged their darling, and again neglected to raise the subscription
rates at the same time.

Misfortunes never come without company, but alight in flocks, and a
whole flock of misfortunes it was to the _Liberator_ when Joshua Coffin,
"that huge personification of good humor," was appointed canvassing
agent for the paper. He was as wanting in business methods as his
employers were. Confusion now gathered upon confusion around the devoted
heads of the partners, was accelerated and became daily more and more
portentous and inextricable. The delinquencies of subscribers grew more
and more grave. On the three first volumes they were two thousand
dollars in arrears to the paper. This was a large, a disastrous loss,
but traceable, t