choose. It warn't out of character, with Franklin, and he was a poor
printer boy, nor Washington, and he was only a land-surveyor, and they
growed to be 'some punkins' too.


1 The reader will perceive from a perusal of this Journal, that Mr
Slick, who is always so ready to detect absurdity in others, has in
this instance exhibited a species of vanity by no means uncommon in
this world. He prides himself more on composition, to which he has but
small pretensions, than on those things for which the public is
willing enough to give him full credit. Had he however received a
classical education, it may well be doubted whether he would have been
as useful or successful a man as President of Yale College, as he has
been as an itinerant practical Clockmaker.


"An American clockmaker ain't like a European one. He may not be as
good a workman as t'other one, but he can do somethin' else besides
makin' wheels and pulleys. One always looks forward to rise in the
world, the other to attain excellence in his line. I am, as I have
expressed it in some part of this Journal, not ashamed of having been
a tradesman--I glory in it; but I should indeed have been ashamed if,
with the instruction I received from dear old Minister, I had always
remained one. No, don't alter my Journal. I am just what I am, and
nothing more or less. You can't measure me by English standards; you
must take an American one, and that will give you my length, breadth,
height, and weight to a hair. If silly people take you for me, and put
my braggin' on your shoulders, why jist say, 'You might be mistakened
for a worse fellow than he is, that's all.' Yes, yes, let my talk
remain 'down-east talk,'1 and my writin' remain clear of cant terms