The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1891-04-16

cen years old, and thereafter the boy
armed his own living as n clerk, first at
tome and then In Brooklyn. In 1923 he
secame n small merchant, and added to his
spcrience by becoming the editor of The
Herald OF Freedom, and serving two OF
Tree terms OF imprisonment for libel,
though always for telling the truth, which,
owever, was no defense Various enter
Uses interviewed between these and the
jeginning of his career, in what proved to
his proper vocation, MS ashowman. His
erst venture was the exhibition of col
cred woman ll2 years old.
Tho Jenny Lind engagement which
netted him quarter OF n million, wan the
drst great evidence of Mr.. Barnum's genius
for the show business. Since then his
name has become household word, and is
associated in the public mind with every
thing that's wonderful and not little in
t1e line of attractive hoaXing-the "Japan-
csc Mermaid and the "Woolly Horse"
ne what Isl t2" tom Thumb" and 1.-THE
lowing Elephant" not to mention the
treat Snaix" and "Moril Wax Figgers"
1t adds not little to popular interest In
this wonderful man that he was all his life
pursued by two dangerous enemies-1re
md ing nio;;' rascality. Twice was he
.ukruptcd Az live times was he burned
1T, yet he rose from the first like Antnus
aud from the second like the oft quoted
phenix. His first great loss is seldom
bought of, as 1t occurred in lS3+-35, when
10 was comparatively an obscure man; but
when it was announced in 1856 that the
failure of the great jerome Clock company
had swept away Mr.. Barnum's entire fort
me, popular estimated at sl.o0o,000, the
public amazement was rs it would be now
It the failure of Gould or Vanderbilt.
This is the only part of Mr. Barnum's
ife of which he ever spoke with bitterness
or he was above all things a genial man
scarcely any one believed that he would
.etrieve his fortunes; many serious persons
declared that it was Judgment" and n
few of the baser sort openly eXulted in his
ruin. Yet i'll seven years he was greater
than before and soon after mach richer.
While exhibiting Joyce lIeth the colored
woman, "l6l years old and once the nurse
If George Washington" he reioiced great
IS when his receipts reached 81 800 week,
vet with 'Tom Thumb" he quadrupled
that amount, and for the ninety0ve con
earts given by Jennie Lind the gross re-
eeipts were SIP, l6l, of which one-half WIS
lear profit
All this and much more was swept away
N 1856, and "for his daily beefsteak he de
pended on the property he had settled on
his wife" Yet another tour in England
With "Tom Thumb" set him up again,
and he WAS soon in control of the famous
museum mt the corner of Ann street and
Broadway, New York. To this he added
fresh curiosities in rapid succession, and
had it. ~ he said, "just about to his no.
IL Il I,,I,
ia, 1865 He soon had another museum,
and that also was burned. Them in 1871,
h3 took to the road with ii great combina
ton circus and menagerie," and since that
date his history is in common knowledge.
beside the successes in his chosen field,
Mr. Barnum has been twice unwillingly
sent to Congress, twice elected mayor of
lSfidgeport, and four times representa-
i've in the legislature Of the state. He
Aaight have been the president Of the
Omitted States, perchance, if he had not de