THE PRINCE OF SHOWMEN.

Evening Post, Volume XVI, Issue 261, 2 November 1878, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE PRINCE OF SHOWMEN.

A correspondent at New York writes as follows to the San Francisco Chronicle :—: — "Barnum, who is considered, and who considers himself the Prince of Showmen and King of Humbugs, has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in his various enterprises, though the popular notion is that he possesses the power of Midas, whose touch turned every thing to gold. Most people know of him from his connection with Jenny Lind, having no acquaintance with his early struggles and his repeated adversities. I have often heard him tell the story of hia life, and it is curious enough to bear repetition. Having been born in Connecticut, he is naturally a Yankee of the Yankees, as his astuteness and enterprise have demonstrated him to be. As a boy he evinced a fondness for trade and practical jokes which foreshadowed hi 3 future, and which found opportunity for development at the tavern his father kept at Bethel, and in a oountry store where he was placed at thirteen. The boy was not long in accumulating something, and after roaming through the State, he returned to his native village and set up as dealer in miscellaneous merchandise with pecuniary benefit. At that time lotteries were the rage, and young Phineas resolved to try his hand in selling tickets instead of buying them, as most youths would have done. Ho came here for instruction in the questionable trade, and having acquired the knowledge he wanted, he established many agencies and gathered lucre thereby. Not content to be a rival shopman, he decided to become a journalist, and after running away and marrying' at 19, he went to Danbury and became editor and proprietor of the Herald of Freedom. He prospered pecuniarily in his new calling ; but he exercised liberty of speech to such an extent that he was several time 3 sued for libel and even sent to gaol for sixty days. • Danbury isn't big enough for me,' he said one day, ' I'm going to New York.' And hither he came. He was twenty-four then, and for a number of months he seemed to have made a mistake, divers business plans having miscarried. At this juncture he heard of Joice Heth, who was on exhibition at Philadelphia as the nurse of George Washington. He entered into negotiations for her at once, and purchased her for 1000 dollars, which, he says, is the best investment he has ever made. He was so low in funds that he had to borrow the amount, which he repaid with interest in less than a month. By widely advertising the curiosity he excited public curiosity, and cleared here 1500 to 2000 dollars a week. This, his first experience as a showman, fired his financial heart, and revealed his vocation. He raised a cotnpany travelled through the country, and was flourishing finely when Joice was unkind enough to close her eyes for ever on this sinful world. Barnum had proclaimed her to be one hundred and sixty-one years old ; but an autopsy by prominent physicians showed that she was not over 80 at the most. In all probability she had never seen Washington, though she pretended to answer questions put to her about him ; but she answered in such a mumbling, incoherent way that it was impossible to tell whether Bhe spoke English or Coctaw. The showman has often declared that if the. public had known Joice to be what was claimed for her, it would not have flocked to see her. It was. the grave doubt that the public had on the subject which drew. The people, as he puts it, love to be humbugged. Barnum made 100,000 dollars directly out of the old negress, and indirectly ten times as much. - Through exhibiting her he learned how to hoodwink the community with the woolly horse, the Fiji mermaid, the What-is-it etc. At twenty-nine, while still a nomadic showman, he lost everything, and returned to Manhattan to begin over again. For months he had not the means always to buy food, eking out subsistence by odd jobs and writing for the Sunday journals. Two years later, Scudder's American Museum having been offered for sale, he negotiated for its purchase, without owning a dollar, and satisfied its proprietors of bis ability to pay. In twelve months he met his entire obligations, and, by adding constantly to his collection, made his Museum the best known and most popular show on the continent. No countryman or countrywoman came here for years without a burning curiosity to go to Barnum's, and they lost no time in getting there. He made a fortune from Tom Thumb, and another by Jenny Lind, although he' gave her 1000 dollars a night for 150 nights, and defrayed the entire expenses oi herself and troupe. Every-

body predicted hiß ruin ; but he cleared nearly 500,000 dollars by her concerts. He has had. innumerable enterprises, made and lost money wholesale, and was wrecked once more (1556) through his connection with the Jerome Clock Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut. After a while he compounded with his creditors, got his affairs into his own hands, and resumed his humbuggery of the public, in which he iB still employed, and likely to continue for some time yet, as he is just turned sixtysix. After his last Museum was burnt down, he resolved for the sixth or seventh time to retire to private life ; disposed of many of his curiosities and all his goodwill to George Wood, and agreed not to be a showman any more on penalty of 25,000 dollars. He remained quiet as long as possible ; but the old passion returning, he paid the penalty and started his menagerie and hippodrome, which has been placarded in flaming colors on every dead wall from Nova Scotia to Lower California. He cannot resist his vocation, though almost any other man than he would have succumbed long since to misfortunes like this."