"I," said one, "will guaranty you fifty subscribers among my own
circle of acquaintances."

"And I," said another, "am good for double that number."

"Put me down for a hundred more," said a third, and so the promises
of support came like music to my willing ear.

One or two old veterans of the "press gang," to whom I spoke of my
design, shrugged their shoulders, and said I had better try my hand
at almost any thing else. But I was sanguine that I could succeed,
though hundreds had failed before me. I felt that I possessed a
peculiar fitness for the work, and could give a peculiar charm to a
newspaper that would at once take it to the hearts and homes of the
people.

A printer was called upon for an estimate, based upon a circulation
of three thousand copies, which was set down as a very moderate
expectation. He gave the whole cost of paper, composition, (type
setting,) and press-work, at $4000.

This fell a little below my own roughly-made estimate, and settled
my determinations. Two thousand copies, at two dollars a copy, which
was to be the subscription price, would pay all the expenses, and if
the number of subscribers rose to three thousand, of which there was
not the shadow of a doubt in my mind, I would have a clear profit of
$2000 the first year. And should it go to four thousand, as was most
probable, my net income would be about $3400, for all increase would
simply be chargeable with cost of paper and press-work--or about