106

many other articles in his line of profession.
Enquire at this office.

Sower did not "decline the printing business" in
1799, although it is true that the number of books
published by him decreased markedly after that date.
Two other printers disappeared from the Baltimore
scene about this date, Enoch Story and Michael Duffey,
but there is no avidence that they printed in German,
and it is likely that their printing offices were not
nearly so well equipped as this one, offered for sale,
The instruction to "Enquire at this office" (the
office of the Telcgraphe) indicates that a local
printer was advertising. In all probability it was
Sower, and the printing apparatus was to be sold to
give more time to the type-founding business.

Sower's grandfather and father, among their other
accomplishments, were typefounders, and Samuel Sower
was also adept at this art.¹⁰⁸ Evans believes that
the cut of Hermes, appearing in the heading of Der
Noue Unpartheyische Baltimore Bote for 1796, is per-
haps Sower's first effort at typefounding,¹⁰⁹ At any
rate, Sower's elder brother, Christopher Sower III,
came to Baltimore from Brookville in the Province of New
Brunswick, where he had lived since 1784 in conse-

108 McCulloch, William, op. cit. p. 146, 150.

109 Ivans, Charles. American bibliography, v. 10,
item 29140,