The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1855-06-13
.rur DAUY DISPATCH
n,pNITM AND HIS BABY SHOW.

Th. most disgusting exhibition ever made
h, mi. Prince of Humbugs, is the Baby
SHOW. He will, however, clear about nine
thousand dollars by II; and every reader OF
the Life of Barnum must be sasished ths'
there Is nothing so disgusting that LOT nine
tbousand dollars, or one-ninth OF that sum-
he would not exhibit. His Joyce Heth and
other impositions upon puo'ic creduhty'
eomplacently narrated in his nauseating au-
Photography, were base and vile enough, in
al conscience, but the Baby Show trans
cends, in combined vulgarity and meanness,
all the previous exploits of this coarse and
mercenary Snowman. What kind of mothers
are they, who are willing, for the sake of
few dollars, to make such an exhibition OF
their own childrenl What kind Of people,
who flock by tens of thousands to see par
Gel of fat babies, when they can be seen anu
heard 10 vast multitudes at every corner, and
who crowd to suffocafion lecture room to
hear silly woman deliver an Grafton on the
merits of baby show7 Surely, after such
displays of popular wisdom, it is not to be
wondered at that aboltionism, and every
other species of fauaticism, find so many vo-
taries in this country, nor that monarchists
question the intellectual capacity of our peo-
pie for self government.
At first, judging P. T. Barnum by human
nature in general, it might be supposed that
he would not like to figure in q scene SO ridi'
culous, as we'll as degrading, even to put mo.
nsy in his purse. But Barnum must not be
judged by Q common standard. 1t would be
q fair to ascribe to the turkey buzzard the
instincts Of the eagle. as to imagine Barnum
actuated by the impulses of man of honor.
There are some creatures whose natural
tastes incline them to that which is to man
most revolving and execrable. In like man.
ner. the propensities of Barnum invest with
beauty and attractiveness things at when
msn of common morality shudder. His
book is confession that he regards decep'
ton in the light of virtue, and fair dealing
az IN objectionable sin. 1t is no more posi-
BILE for him to pursue direct and manly
course in business, than it is for serpent to
move with the onward stride and majestic
port of lion. In fooling and cheating peo
pie. in Joyce Heths, woody horses, mermaids'
and sea serpents, he makes huge fortune,
and then publishes a book, in which he
boasts of his frauds, wallows in the mud OF
his iniquities and grunts forth pious thanks
giving to Heaven for the success which has
crowned his shame.
The present exhibition is simply absurd
vulgar, ridiculous; but Barnum's motto is,
.'Let him laugh who wins He has no more
objections to anything that is ridiculous than
to anything thatis wicked, provided it prove
profitable. He would be willing to stand on
his head, in front of his own Museum; to walk
down Broadway with placard on his back
bearing the inscription, "the greatest hum
bugger of the age;' to be put in pillory
and pelted with rotten eggs twelve hours out
of every twenty four, provided it would swell
his ill gotten gains. Nor is he exclusively to
blame for this miserable self prostitution. If
society looked at Barnum in his true colors; if
1t observed that, Notwithstanding his gilded
outside, he is gross, greedy, vulgar wretch;
If, in word, it gave the man the same social
signs to himself in the moral scale, Barnum
would exhibit some outward respect for the
principles of common honesty and common
decency. But he sees that it is not virtue, it
10 not talents, it is not refinement, which Sc
cure consideration and respect-it is gold,
no matter how obtained, short of open viola
ton Of the laws no matter by whom, how
ever coarse, unre6ned, or even vicious 1t is
not long since we saw in one of the most re-
spectacle New York papers, q recommends
tion of certain locality in Connecticut a,
pleasant summer abode, and among III,
other advantages enumerated by the editor
among the beauties which Nature, with la
wish hand, had bestowed upon the spot, it wa
added, as a climax to sill the glories an
loneliness of creation, that in that neighbor
hood was Iranistan, the residence of Phinea
T. Barnum, Esquire
Oh ye gods and little fishes 1t stbi
thing that is cursing the land with Bar
nuns. Society has only itself to blame, tina,
It is annoyed, feeced, tormented and dishon
Ored by such vermin. If society were trr q
to ITSELF Phineas T. Barnum, ESQUIRE instead
of becoming Connecticut noblemau AZ Irs.
nistan, would, on the strength of his own on
Photography, be arrayed in red flannel shi,
with breeches of a peniteatial stripe. and no
walking up and down the steps of tread
mill.
ETWEEN NEW ORIE.N,
AND SAN FRANCISCO IN EIGHT DAYS.