This member was so much
impressed by Doctor Baird's remark that he subsequently went to
Benjamin and made this proposition:
"I think you can add a stationer's department to your business, and
thus increase your profits; and if you think so, I will furnish you
with stock on credit."
"Your offer is a very generous one, and I thank you for it," answered
Benjamin; "but I think we had better stick to our trade at present and
not put too many irons in the fire at once."
"That is a wise caution, I think, and I am all the more impressed that
you are a young man of sound judgment, and you will succeed."
He had no doubt now that the printing house would succeed.
"Your good opinion encourages me very much, and I shall do my best to
have it realized," replied Benjamin. "I thank you very much for your
generous offer, and, perhaps, at some future day, I shall wish to
accept it."
"Let me know whenever you are ready for it," said the gentleman as he
took his departure.
"We will start a weekly paper as soon as we are able," said Benjamin
to Meredith one day; "the _Mercury_ is as near nothing as it can be. I
believe that an able paper here, abreast with the times, will
succeed."
"You can make it succeed if any one can," replied Meredith, to whom
his partner had given a full account of his connection with the _New
England Courant_ in Boston.
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