Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1854-11-04

Wv 49, 'et'' w t"N n.y. Ut ~ LuF
1t SENS to be a most unfortunate circumstance
that | should he selected to speak on Humbug, as
looking on the ladies', whose profession it peculiar
ly is, | find it hard to express myself in their pres
ence. Everything is h%umbug the whole state is
h~umbug, except our Agricultural Society-that
alone is not.
Ilumbug is generally defined deceit or imposi-
ton" A burglar who breaks into your house, a
forger who cheats you of your property, or Il rascal,
Is not a humbug II humbug is an impostor but
in my opinion the true meaning Of humbug is
manaSement-tact-to take an old truth and put it
in attra, tive form.
But no hnmbug is without truth at the bottom.
The woolly horse was reality. lie was really
born with a wOolly coat. | bought him in Cincin-
natl for 81, 900 and sent him on to Connecticut, but
for Il long time | doubted what | should Do with
him, and feared that he would die on my hands.
Just at this time, in 1919, Col. Fremont and his
party were reported to have been lost among the
Rocky Mountains the public were greatly excl
ted, but shortly news came that he was safe. Now
came the chance for the woolly horse.
1t was also announced that after three DAYS
chase upon the borders of the River Gilla, an ami
NAL had been captured by the quartermastcr of
Col. FremOnts party. who partook i'll a
singular degree of the nature of the buffalo, ante.
lopc and camel. This story was 50 far true, that |
was myself the quartermaster who captured him
and | charged a quarter for the sight, The pic
ture outside the exhibition depicted the animal
as jumping over a ledge of rocks now if the ami
NAL had really leaped, as shown in the picture, he
must have passed over a space of five miles. To
have believed that he could survive such Il leap,
would have been the grossest humbug.
But Col. Benton, who understands no humbug
but his own, arrested my scheme, and prosecuted
me for obtaining money under false pretenses, as
the horse was not what it protested to be but |
think wrongly, as the people who saw it were sat
isicd, and they got the worth of their money.
Now the scientific humbug should know the pre-.
else moment to act as | did, or tho world would
never have been blessed with a sight of the wool
ly horse.
When the woolly horse arrived romConnecticu
he was put in Il stable near Loveioy's Hotel. One
of the boarders who came to see him recognised
him us an animal he had seen at Bridgeport.
"Goou heavens - he cried IL have seen that ami
NAL before it is really an extraordinary humbug. -
He took up a friend from the same hotel, and after
he had seen the animal, let him into the secret
and in succession thirty-seven persons were carried
up, all Of whom took the humbugging in humoi
except the last man.
l have not the vanity to call myself a real scien.
tiic %humbug, | am only an humble member of the
profession.
My ambition to be Prince of Humbugs I will
resign, hut hope the public will take the will fol
the deed L can assure them that if | had been
able to give them all the humbugs have thought
of, they would have been amply satisfied.
Before | wenttO England with Tom Thumb, !
h"u " Sheletoh prepared from various bones. Ii
was to have been eighteen feet high; it was to
have been buried aycar or so in Ohio, and then
dug up by accident, so that the public might learn
that there were giants Of old. The price | was to
pay the person who proposed to put the skeleton
together was to have been 1925.
But finding Tom Thnib more successful than |
thought, | sent word not to proceed with the skele.
ton. My manager, who never thought as highly
of the scheme as it deserved, sold the skeleton for
$50 or S75.
Seven years afterward | received from the South
an account Of a gigantic skeleton that had been
found. Accompanying it were the certificates of
scientific and medical men rs to the genuineness.
The owner asked $4,000 or 81 600 II month |
wrote to him if he brought it on.I wGnld take it if
l iound 1t as represented or would pay his expen-
SEES II not l found 1t was my own old original
humbug come back to me again of course i re-
fused 1t and never heard Of it afterward.