The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-07-05


 Railroad Go. in Bridgeport.
 Led the First comlnitte fight
 against New Haven Road.
 Tn the historic old town of Bethel, Conn., 100 years ago today there was born to the unassuming farmer and tavern keeper Philo Barnum and Irene Taylor Barnum, a robust boy who was promptly named for his parental grandfather Phineas Tayolr Barnum. Housewives calling upon the family as was their wont on such occasions, nodded their heads sagely and said the baby looked just like the Barnums. Even as an infant he displayed the well rounded head, the full face and prominent nose characteristic of the Colonial stock from which he sprang.
 Born in humble environment, reared in hardship, this child filled a most important place in world history and blazed a trail that even today the most modern of his imitators have not traversed half so we'll as he.
 Phineas Taylor Barnum, the F. T. Barnum whose name is indellibly stamped upon the evolution Of the modern show business, is known to Bridgeporters principally because of the Greatest Show on Earth, the Bar mum & Bailey Circus, with which he electrified the world. But this was but one of many bold and daring en- terprises in which the Bethel boy made fortunes and amassed millions.
 Barnum had a hard time of it as a boy-the boys of his day were brought up differently from those of the present tion-and most of his boyhood was passed in the un- ceasing round of work that goes with farm life His parents were not over Fl md when his father died, Phineas Taylor Barnun was the oldest of five chill dren and he was only 15 years old. He had 8 good mother, a woman uncom- monly gifted with business ability, and she took over the old Bethel tav- ern. an enterprise of the future showmans father, and by dint of per severing toll, managed to keep her little family together and to clear the place from debt.
 Barnum went to the old Bethel schoolhouse, now long since gone to wrack and ruin but his school days were few and far between. At very early age he displayed that bus mess acumen characteristic of his lat CT life, and in trades with his school boy playInateS he was renowned TOT being able to drive a shrewd bargain. On holidays he was wont to set out with Q store Of molasses candy which
 
 ey he laid by until he got enough to buy a cow and a sheep.
 All this was done before his father 8 death The parent, may be to en- couraged his sons ability to look out fslr himself, accorded the youth the privilege of buying all his own clothes and so it deyolved upon the young tradesman to keep at his money mak- ing undertakings.
 Added responsibility came upon P. T. Barnum when his father died, leav- ing him as the head of the house. hold His mother, stern, exacting, vet kindly withal had too much good sense to spend her widowhood in be- moaning her loss. While her eldest son sought employment in a village store in Grassy Plain, a mile north east of Bethel, towards Danbury, she kept uD the tavern.
 Rarnum early displayed a wealth of sound business sense. Before he was five years old he began to store up his pennies and four pences- Before he was 6 he had a silver dollar. This he later said made him feel more in dependent and wealthy than he ever felt in his life. Then he earned 10 cents a day leading oxen in the fields and this he invested in cookies, candy and cherry rum which he peddled. The instinct of catering to the public must have been innate, for even as a youngster on the holidays when other boys were lavishing their pennies up- on the humble luXuries of these days he was wont to peddle his wares about the streets. He returned home after the holiday with substantial profits while his playmates went home with their wealth exhausted.
 When F years old Barnum made his first visit to New York, going with a cattle trader. He returned after a week in the metropolis, the wonder and envy of the boys of his village. The death of his father whose estate paid but 50 cents on the dollar made it necessary for the resourceful youth to go to work. He became clerk in the store of John $. Keeler and Lewis Whitlock, in Grassy Plain, where he became noted for his shrewdness in driving a bargain.
 It was here that he turned his first big stroke of business. In the ab- sence of his employers he bought up an immense amount of bottles. The store was overstocked with shopworn tinware Barnum's fertile brain ori- ginated a scheme for the disposal of the stock He planned a lottery.
 Instead of cash prizes for the lot tery he conceived the scheme of giv-