Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1891-04-24

;een years old, and thereafter the boy
earned his own living as clerk, first at
home and then in Brooklyn. In 1928 he
became small merchant, and added to his
experience by becoming the editor of The
Herald of Freedom, and serving two or
three terms of imprisonment for libel,
though always for telling the TRUTH which,
however, was no defense. Various enter
prises interviewed between these and the
beginning of his career, in what proved to
be his proper vocation, as ashowman. His
first venture was the exhibition of col
ored woman 112 years old.
The Jenny Lind engagement, which
netted him a quarter of a million, was the
first 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
the line of attractive hoaxing-the Japan
ese Mermaid" and the "Woolly Horse"
the "What-I Is It?" "Tom Thumb" and "The
Flowing Elephant" not to mention the
Great 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-fire
and ingenious rascality Twice was he
bankrupted and five times was he burned
out, yet he rose from the first like Antpus
and from the second like the oft quoted
phenix. His first great loss is seldom
thought of, as it occurred in 1834-35, when
he 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.. Rarnum's entire fort
une, popular estimated at 100000, the
Il he,
at the failure of Gould or Vanderbilt.
This is the only part of Mr.. Barnum's
life of which he ever spolle with bitterness,
for he was above all things a genial man.
Scarcely any one believed that he would
retrieve his fortunes; many serious persons
declared that it was Judgment" and a
few of the baser sort openly eXulted in his
ruin. Yet in seven years he was greater
than before and soon after much richer.
While exhibiting Joyce Heth, the colored
woman, "161 years old and once the nurse
of George Washington" he rejoiced great
ly when his receipts reached 81, 500 week,
yet with ''Tom Thumb he quadrupled
that amount, and for the ninety-fve con-
eertg given by Jennie Lind the gross re-
ceipts were s712, 16l, Of which one-half was
clear profit.
All this and much more was swept away
in 1856, and 'for his daily beefsteak he de-
pended on the property he had settled on
bis wife" Yet another tour in England
with 'FTom Thumb" set him up again,
and he was soon in control Of the famous
museum at the corner of Ann street and
Broadway, New York. To this he added
fresh curiosities in rapid succession, and
had it. as he SAID, 'just about to his no
ton" when it was destroyed by fire, July
ID, 1865. He soon had another museum,
and that also was burned. Then, in 1871,
he took to the road with a great combina-
ton circus and menagsrie," 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
Bridgeport, and four times representa-
tive in the legislature of the state. He
might have been the president OF the
United States, perchance, if he had not de-