The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-03-09


sailors, they alleged came from the
far distant South seas, near the Fill
Islands, etc.
Barnum's own story.
Europe and America did not hear of
these mermaids however, until along
about 1922, when an English sailor took
one TO London, where it created an inn
| mense sensation and even puzzled the
men of science of that day and time.
| Finally it remained for Barnum to eX-
plot the matter, which he did some
years after this mermaid reached Lon
! don. Speaking of the matter in his
Memoirs and life. he says:
"A curiosity, which in an eXtraordi-
| nary degree served my ever-present OBJ
| ject of extending the notoriety of the
| American museum (Barnum's fourth
venture in the amusement line, located
! on Broadway, and about the worst COL
| lection of humbugs and frauds ever
| gathered under one roof was the So
called Feejee Mermaid 1t has been
supposed that this mermaid was man
ufactured by my order, but such is not
the fact. l was known as successful
| Snowman and strange things of every
sort were brought to me from all quar-
ters for sale or exhibition. In the sum-
mer of 1912 Moses Kimball of the Bos-
ton Museum, came to New York and
| showed me what purported to be a mer-
maid. He had bought it from a sailor
whose father, a sea captain, had pur-
chased 1t i'll Calcutta in 1922 from some
japanese sailors. ] may mention here
that his nautical preserved specimen
was exhibited in London in 1922, as
fully verified in my visit to that city
in 1858, for l found an advertisement of
1t in an old file of the London Times
and friend gave me a copy of the
Mirror, published by j. Limbard. 335
of this same creature and two pages of
letter press describing it, together with
an account of other mermaids said to
have been captured in other parts of
the world. The Mirror stated that this
specimen was the great source of 1T
traction in the British metropolis and
300 to 400 people every day paid their
shilling to see it,
This was the curiosity which had
fallen into Mr.. KimbaH's hands. re-
quested my naturalist's opinion of the
genulneness of the animal and he said
ne could not conceive how it could
have been manufactured, for he never
saw monkey with such peculiar teeth.
arms, hands, ETC., and he never saw a
flsh with such peculiar fins; but he did
not believe in mermaids. Nevertheless I
concluded to hire this curiosity and to
modify the general incredulitv (Which
was evidently not a very hard task in
those days., and to awaken curiosity
to see and examine the specimen 1
invoked the potent power of printers
ink.
''Since Japan has been opened to the
outer world it has been discovered that
certain artists in that country manu-
Iacture great variety of fabulous an
lmals with an ingenuity and mechani-
cal perfection we'll calculated to de-
celve. No doubt my mermaid was a
specimen of this curious manufacture.
used it mainly to advertise the regu-
lar business of the museum, and this
effective, indirect advertising is the
only feature l can commend in a spa4,
cial show, of which, / confess, I am
not proud. Newspapers throughout
the country copied the mermaid no
tees, for they We're novel and caught
the attention of the readers. Thus was
the fame of the museum as well as
the mermaid waited from one end of
the land to the other. / was careful
to keep up the excitement, for 1 knew
that every dollar sown in advertise
ing would return in tens and perhaps
hundreds in a future harvest, and after
obtaining all the notoriety possible by
advertising and exhibiting the mer-
maid at the museum | sent the curl
osity throughout the country. directing
my agent to everywhere advertise it
as From Barnums Great American
Museum New York The effect was
Immediately felt. Money flowed in
rapidly and was readily expended in
more advertising"
Markets Soon Overstocked.
The fact that the mermaid business
was more profitable than fan tan or the
opium trade spread in China and ia
! pan until so many Chinks were busy
| making mermaids that soon there came
eli -
| the dense and superstitious sailors to
| suspect fraud. Every sailor returning
from the Far East brought one of these
| mummified mermaids home with him,
and soon the objects which in 1922 and
| 1912 were the sensation of the hour
and, as Barnum himself states, were a
| puzzle to men of science, were as COM
mon as conch shells and cocoanuts
along the docks of London and New
York. Mermaids became very cheap,
| and sailors refused to buy more. In
| fact the sailors. angry over having
| been deceived. were ready almost to
mob the first celestial who at Hong
Kong, Canton, Shanghai or Nagasakj
came aboard ship with ''mermaids'' for
| sale.
The one in the old Hancock tavern
was brought to this city from China
| in 1870, or perhaps earlier and for a
time belonged to Il groceryman of the
name of B. w. Read. who kept store
on Pennsylvania avenue, near the cor
| ner of Eleventh street, and who gave
it to MIR. Hancock. 1t is. PERHAPS to-
day one of the very few of these OBJ
jects still to be found in this country
! and England, an empty piece of non
sense, upon which the Barnum fortune
was largely built.
Some twenty-five years ago the Cen
| fury Magazine published an article on
Monsters in which a very enter
tanning account was given of the old
trade in Japanese mermaids. Yet for
all this enlightenment Mr.. Hancock is
every now and then astonished, not tc
say amused, at the talk and arguments
of people who, apparently intelligent
stand before this humbug, believing il
to be real, positive that it is the dried
corpse of an actual mermaid and ready
to back their credulity with money
More than once Mr.. Hancock, in order
to prevent such people from losing
). money, has been obliged to forestal
| and int aoa-c and hatfit,o oil.