The Portsmouth inquirer. [volume] (Portsmouth, O. [Ohio]) 1849-1855, 1851-03-24
oeE-Ths wss q he N. Q. Delta tslsiss

or The wugo The N. O.. Delta relates
The following, which Is doubtless the coinage
Of his.own imaginative brain:
BAREuM TAKEN In, &esr-About On hour
be fore Barnum took bis leave Of our goodiy
city on Monday last, mysterious placard
|in English and French, wss posted up on
the street corners and public. places of the.
First Municipality. announcing that a
strange animal of The horse kind, with a
face like child and large revolving eye
in tn. center Of his forehead, ufter the most
approved Cyclops fashion, was on exhibition
ia room at The corner Of Exchange Alley
and ST. Louis Street The announcement
struck the eye OF the Empresario into ex-
irene optical astonishmrni; and theTeupon
he dele fmined not TO leave the city till the
Cyclopian wonder was made manifest, not
only TO his visual but his mental ken. In
fulfiIlment OF this determination, the great
curiosity caterer started with hasty strides
towards St. Louis Street. During his perez
gnoation strange visions of Rocky Noun
lain ponies, clad in wool to suit the ext
gencies Of the climate, Of Tom Thumbs
ponies, miracles Of snallness,) and Of all
other ponies that he had ever seen or heard
OF, danced through the Barnum brain. AZ
ter revolving and re-reyolving, resolving
and re-resolving, re the conclusion was at last
adopted, that the horse with the face Of a
child, and with the wild rolling eye in the
center of his forehead, was the horse Of hor-
|ses, the curiosity OF curiosities, ana the
greatest Of yet discovered wonders in the
animal republic. There could be no hum
bug in the hanimal in question, foi even the
tiny show-bill Of the present proprietor de-
clared that humbug in the premises was inn
possible; and that not only in the Anglo
Saxon but the Franco tongue. Another
proof of the genuine pretention of Cyclops,
was that he first saw the light Of day with
his single eye on the yerdant banks Of the
Mississippi. There could be no mistake
about his being horse, living, moving
and wonder rfully keen sighted horse, when
the two tongued air Of truth in the show
bill, and the Mississippian birth Of the won
der were considered; and, moreover, truth
is stranger than fiction.
The entrance fee TO the exhibition room
being 25 cents, Barnum threw down halt
dollar piece and passed in without waiting
for the change. He was TOO eager to see the
wonder to think Of cents, for dollars and
Cyclops were in his thoughts. Judge of the
surprise of the Worlds Empressrio, when
Cyclops turned out 10 be the stuffed hide Of
an exceedingly juvenile colt, the skin Of
whose head was distorted into horrible
semblance OF human face, and the fore
head dis6gured with large and glaring eye
of glass, most villainous.y green. The EN-
presario was sold, humbugged, excited, mad
dened, and forge ting Tor the moment his
religious tende ncies, he swore good round
oath that whoever humbu.ged him the next
time, should be rewarded with no measured
vengeance. He had gone to see living
wonder and found nothing but the stuffed
outlines of paltry cheat. 1t was too much
TO BE- endured by mortal patience and SO
the Empresario thought, when he rushed to
he door and demanded the money he had
psd. The door, keeper who spoke nothing
int Frneh, could not understand the de.
maud. but the ire Of ES.rnum, who was de.
t. rmined not to be cheated, brought him tc
his senses. He then offered 70 cents; bu'
no, Barnum must have his fifty. The Ffench
man demurred. He had no right, he thought
10 give back the % cents which had beer
rendered in munifcence. But he had to dc
it lhough--and Barnum departed. begging
us to make no note Of the event, but TO al
low the waves Of Lethe 10 roll their obliyi
ous current over his visit to the stable o
| Cycloos