three hundred dollars, but every cent was gone. My clerk had to be
paid seven dollars a week regularly, and a mail and errand boy,
three dollars. Advertising had cost me twenty-five dollars; account
and subscription books as much more; and I had paid over fifty
dollars to my agents for getting subscribers. Besides, there had
been a dozen little et ceteras of expense, not before taken into
calculation. Moreover, out of this three hundred dollars of income I
had my own personal expenses to pay.

In the thirteenth number of my paper, I gave notice that the three
months having expired, all subscriptions were due for the year
according to the terms, and called upon subscribers "to step to the
captain's office and settle." There were of unpaid subscribers now
upon my books the number of five hundred and forty, and my debt to
printer and paper maker was exactly nine hundred and eighty dollars,
I having kept on printing three thousand copies, under the belief
that the list must go up to that.

Day after day went by after this notice appeared, yet not a single
man answered to the invitation. I began to feel serious. Subscribers
continued to come in, though slowly, and people all spoke highly of
the paper and said it must succeed. But its success, so far, was not
over flattering. Finding that people would not take the plain hint I
had given, I went over the books and made out all the bills. One
thousand and eighty dollars was the aggregate amount due. These
bills, except those for the country, I placed in the hands of a
collector, and told him to get me in the money as quickly as
possible. Those for the country, about one hundred in number, I
enclosed in the paper. On the faith of this proceeding, I promised
the paper maker and printer each two hundred dollars in a couple of