hood, by setting up for himself, and, with an apprentice or two,* getting into a cheap location, and by dint of application and good work, recommending himself to his neighbourhood. Thus every shoemaker or tailor was a man for himself; thus was every tinman, blacksmith, hatter, wheelwright, weaver, barber, bookbinder, umbrella maker, coppersmith and brassfounder, painter and glazier, cedar cooper, plasterer, cabinet and chairmaker, chaisemaker, &c. It was only trades indispensably requiring many hands, among whom we saw many journeymen—such as shipwrights, brickmakers, masons, carpenters, tanners, printers, stonecutters, and such like. In those days, if they did not aspire to much, they were more sure of the end-a decent competency in old age, and a tranquil and certain livelihood while engaged in the acquisition of its reward. Large stores, at that time, exclusively wholesale, were but rare, except among the shipping merchants, so called; and it is fully within my memory, that all the hardware stores, which were intended to be wholesale dealers, by having their regular sets of country customers, for whose supplies they made their regular importations, were obliged, by the practice of the trade and the expectations of the citizens, to be equally retailers in their ordinary business. They also, as subservient to usage, had to be regular importers of numerous stated articles in the dry goods line, and especially in most articles in the woollen line. At that time, ruinous overstocks of goods imported were utterly unknown, and supplies from auc * Apprentices then were found in every thing;-now they often give a premium, or find their own clothes, &c. tion sales, as now, were neither depended upon nor resorted to. The same advance "on the sterling" was the set price of every storekeeper's profit. As none got suddenly rich by monopolies, they went through whole lives, gradually but surely augmenting their estates, without the least fear or the misfortune of bankruptcy. When it did rarely occur, such was the surprise and the general sympathy of the public, that citizens saluted each other with sad faces, and made their regrets and condolence a measure of common - concern. It strikes me as among the remarkable changes of modern times, that blacksmith shops, which used to be low, rough one story sheds, here and there in various parts of the city, and always fronting on the main streets, have been crowded out as nuisances, or rather as eyesores to genteel neighbourhoods. Then the workmen stood on ground floors in clogs or wooden soled shoes, to avoid the damp of the ground. But now they are seen to have their operations in genteel three story houses, with warerooms in front, and with their furnaces and anvils, &c. in the yards or back premises. "Lines of packets," as we now see them, for Liverpool and for Havre, abroad, and for Charleston, New Orleans, Norfolk, &c. at home, are but lately originated among us. The London packet in primitive days made her voyage but twice a year. And before the revolution, all vessels going to England or Ireland used to be advertised on the walls of the corner houses, saying when to sail and where they laid. Some few instances of this kind occurred even after the war of independence. In those days, vessels going to Great Britain was usually called "going home." Kalm, when here eighty years ago, made a remark which seemed to indicate that then New York, though so much smaller as a city, was the most commercial, saying, "It probably carries on a more extensive commerce than any town in the English colonies, and it is said they send more ships to London than they do from Philadelphia." From the period of 1790 to 1800, the London trade was all the channel we used for the introduction of spring and fall goods. The arrival of the London ships, at Clifford's wharf, used to set the whole trading community in a bustle to see them "haul in to the wharf." Soon the whole range of Front street, from Arch to Walnut street, was lumbered with the packages from the Pigou, the Adrianna, the Washington, &c. Great and noisy was the breaking up of packages, and busy were the masters, clerks, and porters, to get in and display their new arrived treasures. Soon after were seen the city retailers, generally females in that time, hovering about like butterflies near a rivulet, mingling among the men, and viewing with admiration the rich displays of British chintzes, muslins, and calicoes, of the latest London modes. The Liverpool trade was not at that time opened, and Liverpool itself had not grown into the overwhelming rival of Bristol and Hull-places with which we formerly had some trade for articles not drawn from the great London storehouse. SUPERSTITIONS, AND POPULAR CREDULITY. "Well attested, and as well believ'd, Heard solemn, goes the goblin-story round, OUR forefathers (the ruder part) brought with them much of the superstition of their father land," and here it found much to cherish and sustain it, in the credulity of the Dutch and Swedes; nor less from the Indians, who always abounded in marvellous relations, much incited by their conjurers and pow-vows. Facts which have come down to our more enlightened times, can now no longer terrify, but may often amuse; as Cowper says, "There's something in that ancient superstition, From the provincial executive minutes, preserved at Harrisburg, we learn the curious fact of an actual trial for witchcraft. On the 27th of 12th mo. 1683, Margaret Mattson and Yeshro Hendrickson, (Swedish women,) who had been accused as witches on the 7th instant, were cited to their trial; on which occasion there were present, as their judges, Governor William Penn and his council, James Harrison, William Biles, Lasse Cock, William Haigne, C. Taylor, William Clayton, and Thomas Holmes. The governor having given the grand jury their charge, they found the bill! The testimony of the witnesses before the petit jury is recorded. Such of the jury as were absent were fined forty shillings each. Margaret Mattson being arraigned, "she pleads not guilty, and will be tried by the country." Sundry witnesses were sworn, and many vague stories told-as that she bewitched calves, geese, &c. &c., that oxen were rather above her malignant powers, but which reached all other cattle. The daughter of Margaret Mattson was said to have expressed her convictions of her mother being a witch. And the reported say-sos of the daughter were given in evidence. The dame Mattson "denieth Charles Ashcom's attestation at her soul, and saith, Where is my daughter? Let her come and say so." "The prisoner denieth all things, and saith that the witness speaks only by hearsay." Governor Penn finally charged the jury, who brought in a verdict sufficiently ambiguous and ineffective for such a dubious offence, saying they find her "guilty of having the common fame of a witch, but not guilty in the manner and form as she stands indicted." They, however, take care to defend the good people from their future malfaisance, by exacting from each of them security for good behaviour for six months. A decision infinitely more wise than hanging or drowning. They had each of them husbands, and Lasse Cock served as interpreter for Mrs. Mattson. The whole of this trial may be seen in detail in my MS. Annals, page 506, in the Historical Society. By this judicious verdict, we, as Pennsylvanians, have probably escaped the odium of Salem. It is not, however, to be concealed, that we had a law standing against witches; and it may possibly exonerate us in part, and give some plea for the trial itself, to say it |