The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1891-04-17
HIS EARLY VENTURES

Phineas Taylor Barnum was born in
Bethel, Conn.,, July s, 1910. His
father was country innkeeper and a
merchant in a small way. Phineas
from the age of I3 to IS years, was in
many different branches of business
part of the time in BROOKLYN and part
in New York city. He gathered TO
gether little money and came back
to Bethel and started a little store.
He took the agency for lottery char
tered by the state to build the Groton
monument. He failed in business in
1890, got married and started news
paper called The Herald of Freedom.
1t was not long before he was in iail
for libel. In 1884 he brought to New
York a colored woman, Joyce Hetb,
said to be I6I years old and the nurse
of George Washington. A post NOR
TEN showed she had added eighty
years to her age.
TOM THUMB AND JENNY LIND.
But Barnum had got taste of the
SIlOW buolilNSS dllNl uCNCl
forsook it. He travelled through the
south with one horse circuses which
we're generally unsuccessful. In IS41
without dollar of his own, he brought
out Charles S. Stratton Tom
Thumb), then less than two feet high
and weighing only sixteen pounds. He
took the dwarf through the United
States and Europe and made money
But it was in I84o, when he brought
Jenny Lind over and got her to sing
in Castle Garden, that he made a
national reputation for himself He
paid her 81 900 a night, and the gross
receipts of tour Of ninety-fve con-
certs were S7I2,I6I.
He retired from busines in 1855 and
devoted his attention TO booming the
town of East Bridgeport. In order to
encourage a manufacturing company
to establish itself there he indorsed
their notes for nearly $1,000, 900. The
company failed and Barnum went into
bankruptcy, but he had settled a for
tune upon his wife and he started into
the show business again.
AS AN ADVERTISER.
He took charge of his old New
York museum once more. 1t was
then OF the corner of Broadway and
Ann street. While there he astonish-
ed the vestry of Trinity church by
asking permission to stretch an adver
tising banner from his museum to the
steeple of ST. Paups chapel. This was
the finest specimen of sublime nerve
then known to the American people.
On July IS, 1865, the museum burned
down, and he got an unlimited quantity
of advertising out of it by securing the
publication of most gaudy account
of the way the orangoutang and the lion
and other denizens of the tropical forests
took the conhagration. He rebuilt
it, and again it burned.
In 1871 he established travelling
museum and added numerous features
like the hippodrome and elephant
races, to the old circus. Never was a
travelling show SO advertised, and the
country boys for weeks pored over his
Advance Courier with more interest
than that given to any yellow backed
novel.
He used to give temperance lectures
from the ring and was himself prom
inent feature of the street parade.
HIS SEASON IN LONDON.
AT the close of the season Of 1850
Mr.. Barnum transported his entire
aggregation to London, at a cost OF
$6so,oo and astonisbed the natives
with a midwinter American circus. His
attempt and failure to have his street
parade on the day Of the lord mayors
show gave him a great deal of gratui-
tous advertising, and the receipts OF
his thirteen weeks season aggregated
$7oo,ooo.
The Jumbo episode occurred in 1882.
Mr.. Barnums agents arrived in Lon
don in February of that year and pur-
chased the great elephant from the
Geological society for 6,2,ooo sterling.
Mr.. Barnum was four times mem
Der of the Connecticut legislature and
mayor Of Bridgeport. He presented
that city with public park. He also
gave stone museum to Tufts college,
near Boston.
Among Mr.. Barnum's literary achl-
evements were his autobiography,
several times rewritten, "Funny Stores
from P. T. Barnum," "Ihe Humbugs
of the World" and ''Lion Jack"