136

Of these variations appears with the Baltimore volunteers
... composed ... October 29, 1798," appended, which
makes it almost certain to be a Baltimore publication
of the last months of 1798, or possibly 1799. And if
it were printed in Baltimore at this time, the general
similarity of the type, the lack of uniformity of the
letters, the bad alignment, and the generally poor proof-
reading, all of which agree with the typography of the
Satechism, make this publication almost certainly the
work of Michael Duffey. No other known Maryland printer
of the period issued work with the same characteristics,

According to the Baltimore directories, Duffey
lived at 45 and 47 Wilks Street, Fell's Point at least
from 1798 through 1800. Information about his life,
his press, and his work is lacking; but in 1799, in
most of the newspapers which advertised Dr. Hamilton's
Celebrated Worm Destroying Lozenges,⁹⁵ and in a booklet,
Maxims on the Preservation of Health, issued by Lee &
Co.'s Patent and Family Medicine Store of Baltimore,
and probably printed some time after 1800, occurs an
affadavit, sworn to by one Michael Duffey of 47 Wilks
Street, Although a testimonial for a commercial medi-
cine can hardly be taken as the best biographical datum,
It does indicate certain things. Judging from the word-
95 e.g. Herald and Eastern Shore intelligencer.
November 5, 1799. Also other newspapers of ap-
proximately the same date.