The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-01-23
ADAM FOREPAUGH DEAD.
The Veteran Snowman Succumbs to
the Grippe in Philadelphia.

Every woTaan and child in the COM
munity, not to speak of solemn men, will
he sorry to hear of the death of Adam
Forepaugh, the great Philadelphia circus
manager, the only rival OF the great and
only Barnum.
The event took place last night at his
residence in Philadelphia. A week ago
the grippe got hold of the veteran show
man, and pneumonia supervened.
Adam Forepaugh was born in Philadel-
phia in February, 1881. He went to work
when small boy for John Hinkle, q
butcher, at a salary of S4 a month and his
board. When sixteen years old he ran
away from his home and went to work
for butcher in Cincinnati.
He stayed there two years, receiving
$50 for his first months work and 800 a
month during the remainder of the time.
With some short intervals in which he
followed other business, Adam stuck to
the butchers trade until 1S4S, when he
started stage line and ran it until 1854.
When the war made horses scarce, Fore
paugh got several contacts to furnish
eqlines to several street car companies,
and tradition says he put himself in
snug circumstances by buying up the
castaway car horses, rejuvenating them
through q temporary sojourn and careful
treatment on an island in the Schuylkitl
and then selling them back to the COM
panies. He is said to have sometimes
sold as m any as 10000 horses in year.
In 1851 Fotepaugh sold siXty-two horses
to John O'Brien, the circus manager, for
$4,000. and in 1865 he took notion to visit
the circus.
O'Brien had been In bad luck and had
failed to entirely square himself in the
horse deal.
Forepaugh conceived fancy for the
oh nd ryhf T,ofo ha oil
Jerry Mabie's menagerie in Chicago for
$42, 900, the collection including two ele-
plants and eight other animals.
This was the beginning of the career as
circus manager and proprietor whichsu
seauently made Forepaugh more than a
only to that of p. I. Barnum as a show
man, and secona to nobody's in its famil-
iarity to juvenile Americans
Forepaugh engaged Dan Rice for
clown. paying him $1,000 per week and
allowing him extraordinary privileges.
He kept Dan for three years. beginning
in '65.
In his almost quarter century of cir
Gus business Forepaugh brought his show
to enormous proportions, and never once
were the predictions of his ill fortune
made by other managers verified.
Several times he seemed on the verge of
financial disaster, but each time his luck
turned. and he came out 100000 ahead on
one season when he had been compelled
to fee from his New England circuit.
He gave his personal attention to every
thing about his show, from the engage
ment of his lieutenants and his star per-
formers down to the selection of the low
liest animal specimen, or truck horse.
He accumulated vast amount of real
estate in Brooklyn, and in Philadelphia
his assessment on houses built as invest
ments, besides his magnificent residence,
rose above $700,000
He was a confirmed theatre-goer, an
everyday humorist, imperative in his
orders for business, persevering and
shrewd as any Yankee.
He leaves wife and son, Adam Fore
paugh, Jr., the elephant trainer, snd an
adopted son, John "A. Forepaugh. who is
really nephew of the great Snowman.