Richard Saunders,"
"Poor Richard." He has an industrious wife named Bridget. He publishes
his almanac to earn a little money to meet his pressing wants. "The
plain truth of the matter is," says this pretended almanac maker, "I am
excessive poor, and my wife, good woman, is, I tell her, excessive
proud; she cannot bear, she says, to sit spinning in her gown of tow,
while I do nothing but gaze at the stars; and has threatened more than
once to burn all my books and rattling-traps (as she calls my
instruments) if I do not make some profitable use of them for the good
of my family. The printer has offer'd me some considerable share of the
profits, and I have thus began to comply with my dame's desire."

This Titian Leeds was a pen name for his rival publisher, who also
issued an almanac. The two had begun life in Philadelphia together as
printers.

The way in which he refers to his rival in his new almanac, as a man
about to die to fulfill the predictions of astrology, was so comical as
to excite a lively interest. Would he die? If not, what would the _next_
almanac say of him? Mr. Leeds (Keimer) had a reputation of a knowledge
of astronomy and astrology. In what way could Franklin have introduced a
character to the public in the spirit of good-natured rivalry that would
have awakened a more genuine curiosity?

The next year Poor Richard announced that his almanac had proved a
success, and told the public the news that they were waiting for and
much desired to hear: his wife Bridget had profited by it. She was now
able to have a dinner-pot of her own, and something to put into it.

But how about Titian Leeds, who was to die after the astrological
prediction? The people awaited the news of the fate of this poor man, as
we await the tidings of the end of a piece of statesmanship. He thus
answers, "I can not say positively whether he is dead or alive," but as
the author of the rival almanac had spoken very disrespectfully of him,
and as Mr. Leeds when living was a gentleman, he concludes that Mr.
Leeds must be dead.

In these comic annuals there is not only the almanacs and the play upon
Titian Leeds, but a large amount of rude wisdom in the form of proverbs,
aphorisms, and verses, most of which is original, but a part of which,
as we have said, is apt quotation. The proverbs were everywhere quoted,
and became a part of the national education. They became popular in
France, and filled nearly all Europe. They are still quo