idea. This sudden change was in no small degree influenced by an
edition of "Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography" which was published in
Edinburgh about this time. He was greatly taken with the spirit of this
volume which found sympathy in his thrifty Scotch nature. From the
moment he finished this life of Franklin he determined to come to
America, and after a short stay in Halifax, and Boston, his stay in each
place being attended with great privation, we find him in the year 1822
in the city of New York, and still later he is employed on the
_Charleston Courier_, of Charleston, South Carolina. There his knowledge
of Spanish was a benefit, enabling him to translate the Cuban exchanges,
and to decipher the advertisements which were sent in that language.

After a few months he returned to New York where he attempted to open a
Commercial School. This scheme came to naught, however, and he then
tried lecturing on political economy with but moderate success to say
the least. He soon saw that these undertakings were not in his sphere,
and once more he returned to journalism. He first connected himself with
the _New York Courier_ and when that journal became merged into the
_Enquirer_ he was chosen associate editor. After this the senior
editor, J. Watson Webb, turned square around and began to support the
United States Bank which he had so bitterly opposed and fought so
vehemently. Young Bennett now withdrew and started a small paper, _The
Globe_, but it was short-lived. He next went to Philadelphia and assumed
the principal editorship of the _Pennsylvanian_. At that time all papers
allied themselves to one party or the other.

Mr. Bennett conceived the idea of an independent paper; one which would
be bound to no party or ring. He accordingly returned to New York for
this purpose. He was very short of funds, and this fact alone would have
discouraged most young men; not so with this man. He hired a cellar; two
barrels with a board across served as desk on which was an ink-stand and
goose quill. The proprietor of these apartments was not only editor and
manager, but reporter, cashier, book-keeper, salesman, messenger and
office boy. One hour he was writing biting editorials or spicy
paragraphs; the next rushing out to report a fire or some other
catastrophe, working sixteen to twenty hours per day. He persuaded a
young firm to print his paper, and he was thus tided over that
difficulty. Most young men would never have undertak