Irish Apprentice.

Hugh Gaine is best remembered as "the turncoat printer of the American Revolution." Born near Belfast, Ireland, he became an apprentice to the printers Samuel Wilson and James Magee in 1740. Before his six years of servitude ended, however, young Gaine found himself unemployed when the Wilson- Magee partnership dissolved. As a result Gaine boarded a ship bound for America. Settling in New York, he became a journeyman for James Parker, printer-editor of the New York Weekly Post-Boy and an associate of Benjamin Franklin. Gaine worked at Parker's shop for seven years.

Making a Name.

In 1752 Gaine started his own newspaper, the New-York Mercury. Its content soon made it one of the better papers in the colonies. Aside from the more-common stories on fires, robberies, and murders gleaned from other newspapers, the Mercury had essays on religion, philosophy, science, and love and...