Litchfield enquirer., 1855-06-14
NEW YORK. CORRESPONDENCE.
New YoRK, June 9th, 1855.

been ridiculed in all quarters since he first
proposed it until / thought few would care
| to visit It. Look at the figures. On Tues
/ day, Wednesday, and Thursday, the three
first days of the exhibition forty thousand
| tickets were sold. The indications to-day
are of another ten thousand at least, being
fifty thousand admissions uponstickets at
IS cents each, which gives $4,000 as the
| proceeds. This is lower estimate Than
the Treasurer Of the Museum himself makes.
Add to this the extra shilling per head
charged for admission to the lecture room
where the 8. Moral Drama Councilman
Wild and Mrs. Fowler are exhibited, and
supposing one half the visitors witnessed
them the amount is increased by three thou
sand, and we have Sl5,50o as the gross re-
! ceipts. As pecuniary enterprise this will
evidently pay, and is worthy the teemine
! brain of the protector, but to a refined and
sensitive nature the exhibition Of these in
| faniile prodigies is most disgusting. I'm
agine an immense building redolent of the
Rhinoceros and Giraffe, packed to its full
capacity with sweltering crowd of men,
| women and children. Brazen faced ladies
| in rouge and feathers from Leonard and
Mercer SITS. elbow female hnocents from
the country. Honest country farmers to the
loss perhaps of the family watch or the well
lined wallet, jostle against pickpockets and
! fancy men. Misses and maidens, while
their specialized mamas are looking after
the :" triple's" are put to the blush by the
bold gaze Of lecherous roues, and compelled
| to hear the coarse random remarks suggest
ed by the occasion. Conspicuousiy eleva-
ted on raised platforms running leng,hwise
| through the middle of two of the largest
| halls are the model babies, in most cases in
,, the arms of their mothers, labeled and gaily
dressed. Some Of the more remarkable spe-
cimens occupy the cases erewhile filled by
izwaxen images of Daniel Lambert, Joyce
Heath, the Gar Nicholas, and the Chi.
nese Mandarins. Hard by the Maine Gil
antess and the hairy Swiss child display
their rival attractions. The greater num-
Der of the babies are inferior to what one
sees every day in the houses of his acquain-
tances, and We can see from the scorhful lip
of each lady visitor that she imagines she
has done or can do better Let US at the
| risk of our beavers and coat skirts push our
way to the front of this platform. Here is
| fatty deposit with red heavy face num-
bling gingerbread with the most stole indif-
| ference. 1t is as the proud mother informs
US aged three years, and weighs SO lbs.
An enthusiastic gentleman lifts its frock,
pinches its legs and asks his wife to notice
their plumpness. Next are seated trip
lets" three very pretty little girls five years
old, and as like a. three peas, and the slim
her only children, and that she is widow.
Next is an interesting young lady, Is years
old, with an arm of the precise shape and
size OF smoked ham, who weighs two
hundred and fifty pounds and can give her
own answers to questions. Elbowing our
way past numerous twins whom nothin G
but excessive maternal vanity would have
deemed worthy of exhibition, we come to
the central object'of attraction, the Prize
Baby. He occupies a sort Of throne under
purple canopy, is rather pretty, as is his
mother who sits beside him enduring with
much complacency the curious gaze of he
myriad eyes, and hearing from lips poison
with rum and lust the purposely audible re. !.
marks, I" she is deuced pretty woman,"
look at her FORM "wha; eyes she has,"
and so on until all her good points are can
vassed much after the manner OF crowd of
horse fanciers commenting the dam of ia
vorite foal at an Agricultural Fair. The
shrewd Barnum under pretext Of eliciting
important Physiological truth" for the
benefit Of Baby growers and the human race
in general, has list of eleven questions to
be prorounded to the mothers of model off
spring. and applying these to the case of the
prize baby, it appears that the mother s'fived
/ free" for year previous to its birth, tina,
she took moderate exercise on level land
that she constantly bathed the infantine
prize token in cold wa,er-and that the
father is a coachman. Important physiolo-
gical revelations, Now we know the con-
ditions essential to perfection of physical
humanity. Father a eoachman--mo;he7
handsome and living free-exercise on lev
ell land and plentiful cold water. Moral.
All mothers should be handsome-a1l IA
theirs coachmen. But the pressure of mois,
human bodies grows insuilerable, and SO
through throng as miscellaneous as the
Judgment day will assemble, we work our
way into the street, hot dusty. hungry and
thirsty, and firm in the faith that Barnum
is.tae Prince Of humbags. and that this is
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