the press himself, printing only one page at a time. After the paper was printed, there were no newsboys or fast trains to carry it to its readers. How old the news must have been! When the first daily paper, the Pennsylvania Packet, appeared in Philadelphia, the colonists must have felt that they were making rapid progress.

139. How a New York Newspaper Won Free Speech. Toward the end of the colonial period the newspapers began to discuss politics, like the great journals of to-day. But when Peter Zenger, editor of a New York paper, dared to find fault with Governor Cosby he was cast into prison. His trial caused the greatest excitement in the colony. To secure the punishment of Zenger, Cosby took away from the able lawyers who had agreed to defend him the right to practice in New York. All hope for Zenger seemed gone.

But when the trial began the judges were surprised to see in the courtroom Andrew Hamilton, a venerable and skillful Quaker lawyer who had hurried from Philadelphia to plead the case. In a great speech he declared: "It is not the cause of a poor printer, nor of New York alone, which the jury is now trying. It is the cause of liberty!"

In spite of all the governor could do, Zenger was acquitted. In the crowded courtroom the result was received with deafening cheers, and when the chief justice threatened the people they answered by cheering louder still. Hamilton was the hero of the hour. was given a banquet, a salute was fired in his honor, and he was voted the freedom of the city. Never again was the right of free speech in such danger in America.

RELIGIOUS BELIEF AND CUSTOMS

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140. Many Religious Sects Bring Toleration. In the Old World each nation wanted only one religion, just as it had only one government. When a new way of

worship arose, its followers were punished or had to leave their homes if they wished to remain true to their belief. Many of these sects from different countries found new homes in America, where they could worship as they pleased.

At first some of them did not wish other sects to live among them. Governor Endicott wanted only Puritans in Massachusetts and tried to keep out Episcopalians. Peter Stuyvesant encouraged the Dutch church and persecuted the Quakers. Governor Berkeley wanted only Episcopalians in Virginia and drove away Puritans and Baptists.

Among the early colonies Rhode Island and Maryland set the example of religious toleration, while the later ones, like the Quaker colonies and Georgia, either allowed religious freedom or treated religious sects kindly. The other colonies gradually learned that it was best not to quarrel over religious questions. It turned out well for America that she tolerated many sects, for it not only prevented a state church from being set up and supported by taxation, but it also induced people of all sorts of beliefs to come to this country. Toleration became the rule in America.

141. Colonial Church Ways. The colonists were very much in earnest about their religious ideas and customs. At some time in most of the colonies all persons were compelled to attend church on Sunday. The minister was usually the most highly educated person in his neighborhood, and was looked up to with great respect by all classes of people. They asked his advice in family matters as well as in public affairs. The ministers had most influence in New England, and were often called in by the governors and judges to advise them in regard to the government.

In most of the colonies the Sabbath was kept very

strictly. Little work was done in the home and none out of doors. The people went to church and heard very long sermons. The church buildings were plain and, in the northern colonies, very uncomfortable in the winter, since there was no way of heating them. The men wore their heavy coats, and women brought heated stones for their hands and feet. In New England, if persons fell asleep during the service, an officer tapped them on the head with a rod, sometimes gently and sometimes severely. In the middle colonies, especially in New York, the Sabbath was not kept so strictly as in New England.

142. Severe Punishments. Laws were stricter and punishments more severe in colonial times than now. In our day criminals are put to death for two crimes only, but then there were more than a dozen crimes, in some of the colonies, for which a man might suffer death.

Criminals were more frequently punished in public than now. We lock them in jails and prisons where people cannot see them, but the colonists put them in public places in order that people might see them. In almost every county the gallows on which men were hanged stood in some public place, while in almost every town there were the pillory and the stocks, and now and then the ducking stool. Sometimes men were seen with great scars on their faces or hands, made by a hot iron which burnt in the first letter of their crime. More often in some public place a man was to be seen with a curious crowd around him pointing to a large letter or word on his back or breast. The letter or word showed what his offense had been. These were severe ways of making people behave themselves.

143. Witchcraft. A little over two hundred years ago people almost everywhere believed in witches. That is, they thought that a person might become

the friend and companion of evil spirits and obtain their aid in doing harm to others. Very ugly and deformed persons were usually the ones accused of bringing misfortune or even death upon people whom. they disliked. Persons supposed to have such a power were called witches, and by the laws of all nations, including most of the colonies, were to be put to death.

In 1692, at Salem, Massachusetts, a regular witchcraft craze broke out. Some young people acted strangely and declared that certain other persons had "bewitched" them. In the excitement the craze spread, and large numbers of innocent people were thrown into prison on the charge of being witches. Nineteen persons were tried and hanged before the craze came to an end. The people of Salem saw that if the excitement kept on, most of them would be in jail and many innocent people be put to death. Nearly one hundred years afterward witches were still tried and executed in parts of Europe. Even now a few people are ignorant enough to believe in witches.

INDUSTRY AND TRAVEL

144. Colonial Occupations. The colonists were engaged in three great occupations: agriculture, manufacture, and commerce. Farming was the chief occupation, whether in New England where the farms were small, or in the middle group where they were larger, or in the south where the great plantations existed.

Manufacturing was carried on in all the colonies. But making cloth, furniture, and other things was a very different occupation from what it is now. In colonial days it was not done by great machines and in factories, but by the simplest sort of tools and almost entirely in private houses and small shops.

145. New England Industries. The fishing and shipbuilding industries were most prosperous in New

England. Shipbuilding required sawmills, carpenters, ropemakers, and sailmakers. Every year hundreds of vessels sailed in search of the codfish or the whale. They came back, added lumber and furs to their cargoes, and sailed away for the West Indies or Europe. After selling their cargoes the shipowners brought back loads of English goods, or sold their vessels and came home and built or bought new ones.

Shipbuilding was thus encouraged and gold and silver money was brought in from Europe. Sometimes the trader sold his lumber and fish for sugar and molasses in the West Indies. This new cargo he brought back to New England to be used for food or to be made into rum. Often the ship captain carried the rum to Africa, and with it he purchased slaves whom he carried to the West Indies or to the southern colonies. Though all the colonies built ships and carried on foreign commerce, New England took the lead. By 1750 she was building not far from two hundred vessels every year.

146. Occupations of Middle and Southern Colonies. New York led the colonies in the fur trade. The Dutch early won the friendship of the Indians, especially of the Iroquois, and from a vast region the fur trade flowed to this colony. Although New York farms produced well, and her people built vessels, no business brought so much ready money to the colony as the fur trade.

Pennsylvania, too, traded in furs, built ships, and manufactured many things, but her greatest profit lay in raising grain. She built mills and established a large trade in grain and flour with the other colonies, but particularly with Europe. Her mills were the best in the colonies, and Virginia sometimes sent grain to Pennsylvania to be ground.

Farming of a peculiar kind belonged to the southern colonies. In Maryland and Virginia tobacco, and in the