This was Browne's chracterization of himself after years of success as writer and lecturer.

The lecturing came from Browne's writing, and the writing from his printing. This was in the tradition of Phildelphia printer Benjamin Franklin (1706-1799) who created the famous "Poor Richard's Almanac" to supplement his income from printing handbills and a local newspaper and such.

Browne's newspaper career came (said biographer Austin) "at the height of the era of personal journalism. The first successful penny newspaper was printed only two years before his birth. Its success depended on its mass appeal, and this meant a lively style with emphasis upon local news and human interest. It was still possiblle to found a newspaper on a capital of a few thousand dollars or less, and rivalry for the mass audience became keen. The number of newspapers in the United States more than doubled in the period between 1833 and 1860. A city such as Cleveland [where Browne became editor of the Plain Dealer], with a population of twenty or thirty thousand, could boast at one time or another of more than four vigorously competing papers.

"By the time [1857] Browne began to work for the Plain Dealer, national and international news was gathered by telegraph, mostly from the East. The telegraph being costly, news reports were brief and colorless, and it remained for the local editor to fill up the paper with local news, editorial comment, and humor. Nor were these categories always kep separate. It was often difficult for the local editor to find anything to write about, and the Plain Dealer's pages frequently contained such complaints as the following by Browne: 'THE TIMES.--No startling suicides -- no foul and unnatural murders -- no racy elopments -- no anything rare and spicy -- November! Dull times for locals.'

".... Thus the wit and audacity of the editors was responsible for the liveliness of the paper, upon which its circulation depended. It was the day of such newspaper personalities as Horace Greeley and James Girdon Bennett and of the beginning of John Phoenix, Orpheus C. Kerr, Mark Twain, and a host of others.

".... Charles Browne'd principal duty on the Plain Dealer was to write the daily local column, 'City Facts and Fancies' ... Although Browne performed his task skillfully and soon made a national reputation, the writing in these columns is mostly of minor interest today."

"always the printer" -- Browne wrote "a great many newspaper, magazine, and gift book contributions both in America and England, and peraps some almanac contributions, which have never been collected."