MR BARNUM UPON THE ART OF HUMBUG.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 765, 29 October 1886, Page 8

MR BARNUM UPON THE ART OF HUMBUG.

The great showman of the New World ie aggrieved. Some one the other day attributed his enormous takings to ‘ humbug.’ But there is no humbug about Barnum and his wonderful combination of the world’s marvels. Therefore Mr P. T. Barnum has despatched to this office the following vindication of * The Greatest Show on Earth ’ audits creator, which we print as a perfect specimen of the kind of humbug—not in its offensive sense—by which Mr Barnun has risen to his present proud pre-eminence among the showmen of the world : In a reoeut number of your journal I read a statement which is perfectly true —namely, that the expenses of my travelling show were last year about L20Q.000. The other part of the statement —namely, that my profits, after paying these enormous expenses, were also L 200,00 correct within L6o.ooo—the real profits being in fact 700,OOf) dole., or L 140,000. These expenses and profits have been about the same for the last five years, and a third less for fifteen consecutive yearsBut you most unwarrantably add that this is all the result of humbug. I merely give the gist of your article, the paper having become mislaid. If by‘humbug’ you mean deceiving the public, I think you are teaching a false and dangerous philosophy. On December 29, 1858 (twenty-six years ago), I gave a lecture on ‘ The Art of Money-getting ’ in the GreatSt James’s Hall, Piccadilly, LondoD, and repeated it sixty limes in that hall, and in other parts of Great Britain. This lecture is inserted in my autobiography ; more than a million copies have been printed and Bold, and an average number of 40,Q(X> copies are sold each season under my show tents. I

■ send you a copy of the book by this post ; you ■vrill see that when speaking of the advantages •of advertising good and cenuine articles, and ■the disadvantage of advertising spurious cgoods, X said, among other things, as lollows: Adyektise to UK Business. — Those who with tlie pu’dic must bn careful that *4heir goods nre valuable'; that they are geDuiDe, and will give satisfaction. When you get an article which you krso.v is going to please your customers, and that when'they have tried it they will feel they have got their money’s worth, "then let the fact be known '4hat you have got it. Ba careful to advertise "it in some shape or other, because it is evident that if a man lias ever so good an article for sale, and nobody knows it, it will' bring Slim no return. If a man has a genuine article there is no way in which he can reap more advantageously than by sowing to the public in this way. He must, of course, have really good article, nnd one which will please his customers; anything spurious will not succeed permanently, because the public is wiser than many imagine. Lien and women ■are selfish, and we all prefer purchasing where we can get the most for our money ; and we try to find out where wo can most surely do •so. You may advertise a spurious article, and induce many people to call and buy it once, but they will denounce you as an impostor and swindler, and your business will gradually die out and leave you poor. This is right. 3Tew people can safely depend upon' chance <eustom. You all need to have your customers return and purchase again. Preserve your Integrity. —lt is more precious than diamonds or rubies. The old miser said to his sous, * Get money ; get it honestly if you can, but get money.’ This advice was not only atrociously wicked, but it was the very essence of stupidity. It was as much as to say : ‘lf you .find it difficult to obtain money honestly, you can easily get, it ■dishonestly. Get it in that way.’ Poor fool ! Not to know that the mc-st difficult thing in life is to make money dishonestly j not to know that our prisons are full of men who attempted to follow this advice ; not to understand that no man can be dishonest without soon being found out, and that when his lack of principle is discovered nearly every avenue to success is closed against him for ever. The public very properly shun all whoso integrity is doubted.

I have been a public manager for nearly half a century, and it has always been said that I give the public novelties to he found nowhere else, and that my patrons receive their money’s worth thrice told. The only fault ever attributed to my ‘ Greatest Show on Earth ’ is that, it is ‘ too large, and contains more marvels than can be well seen and comprehended at a single inspection.’ It is ■obvious, therefore, that my millions of patrons will say that there is no humbug, in its offensive sense, about Birnum or his wonderful combination of the world’s marvels. But I plead guilty (if it is guilt) oE that kind of * humbug’ which consists of flags, banners, sky-rockets, unique advertisements, attractive colored shpws bills, grand street pageants, bands of music, etc. —all used to attract public •attentions to the very best exhibitions extant. This is the kind of humbug which placed the inscription on the Egyptian pyramids—‘Try W arren’s blacking, 30, Strand, London.’ The uniqueness of th a advertisement, in such a place, gave tbe blacking maker great notoriety —the people did ‘try ’ the blanking, and‘fin fling it good, Warren made a fortune, much of which was due to the ‘humbug’ way of advertising his genuine article. To this sort of humbug, and no other, do I owe my ■success, as is well known wherever my exhibitions have been seen.—Pall Mall Gazette.