The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1886-02-20
THE BARD'SB BIRTHPLACE
How MIR. Barnum Was Instrument
al in Saving It from Ruin.

IN There are very few Americans who
ma are aware of the fact that but for Phin-
cas- T. Barnum, the Snowman, Shakes
u peare's birthplace would not be in ex-
N istence to-day. By his birthplace l do
a not refer to the town of the great
bard's nativity, but to the house in
which he was born.
n The hundreds of American tourists
who go to Standardization every
year and inspect the little house where
the immortal William first saw the
light never hear the most interest
ing of all stories about the place.
Perhaps it was my luck during
a recent hasty trip abroad to
get this information. Perhaps it was
my newspaperinstinct that was always
prying into things and asking the most
absurd out-of-the-way questions. The
reason ! can not give. But the fact
came to me all the same. 1t was one
of the neat maiden ladies who have
charge of the Shakespeare birthplace
that impaired the information. l feel
pretty sure she did not mean to impart
it. English men and women are not
o%yer-anxious to praise anything Amer
leans may do for England or for any of
England's cherished heroes. The maid
en- lady in question let the information
slip out by mistake. She had kepther-
self in restraint hitherto to Americans,
but she divulged enough to arouse my
curiosity. l at once dropped the char
acter of a tourist and became an inter-
viewer. l even threw aside my pilgrim
phase far enough to take out a pencil
and notebook and jot down the story
as she told it to me. 1t will certainly
be of interest to all Americans.
1t seems the old house in which
Shakespeare was born had begun to de-
cay very fast after the first quarter of
this century had passed. The people
of Stratford were Indifferent to the his
torical value attached 10 the place. The
tourists who arrived from day to day
simply had the house pointed out to
them, and were then hurried on to
Hathaway cottage, where the sweet
William did his counting, or to the
church where the great dramatist is
buried. The owner of the property, who
got it from one of the Shakespearean
descendants, viewed the estate merely
from a financial standpoint. Its pos
session or sale was a matter of pounds
and shillings with him. He had no
other use for il. In 1916 he advertised
the property for sale. Strange to say,
it went begging for a purchaser. For
over a year there was not even a bid
der. 1t never struck the proprietor that
by fitting the house up, 80 that
it was safe to enter, he could
capture many a shilling, or even half
crown, from the tourist and the
eager admirer of Shakespeare. All
Stratford seemed to overlook the fact
that the most interesting relic of all
relics that reminded people of the
towns chief citizen was the house
where he was born, and in whose
shadow he passed his boyhood and
most Of his youth. The bench on
which he sat and made love to Anne
Hathaway was preserved, but the room
in which his nativity occurred and the
bed in which he slept were allowed to
60 to rack and ruin. The lines young
William wrote to the gentle Anne
Hathaway, every verse of which ended:
"Anne hath q way, Anne hath a way,
For making love, Anne hath a way
were carefully kept framed and hung
or the wall in the old Hathaway cot
tage. But the initials "W. 81 carved
by the boy with his knife or scrawled
in rough characters on the walls Of his
oom at home were permitted to die
out and be obliterated. 1t was a
strange commentary IN the English in
habitant of interesting towns. Gener-
ally he is eager to save all relies and
charge heavily for the sight of each
article of interest.
It was in 1847 that P. T. Barnum
went to England for the first time. He
was in search Of curiosities that would
add to the fame he had already acquired
at home. White in London one day he
heard accidentally that Sh~akespeare's
birthplace was for sale. He at once
saw a glorious opportunity. He would
buy the house, move it bodily to Am
erica, and exhibit it as part OF the
''grcatcst show on earth The next
day saw him ut the Red Lion Inn at
Stratford, in search of the owner.
Somehow he missed him, and left word
that he would give $4,000 for the prop
erty. So far as material value was
concerned it was ten times what the
house was worth. But the proprietor
thought the property was greatly de-
sired by some one, from the price Of
farnd and he demanded Slb. 900 for it.