San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-09-16

not unfounded upon both precedent
and his own experience.
He had learned much from his
earlier venture with the aged ne
gress, Joice Heth, and this same
mermaid had been exhibited in Lon.
don twenty years before by the sea
captain who owned it, and according
to the London Times of the period
every day three hundred persons
paid a shilling each to see it.
Soon after the mermaid came into
Barnum's possession, a news letter
appeared IN the New York Herald
from Montgomery, Alabama. 1t told
of the state of trade. the condition
of the crops, the political situation,
and mentioned near the end that a
DIR. Griffin, of the Lyceum of Nat
ural History, London, who had but
recently returned from Pernambucu,
had in his trunk q most remarkable
curiosity, a real mermaid, found by
Chinese in the Fiji Islands, pre-
served by them, and purchased by
DR.. Griffin for the London Lyceum
Of Natural History. -
One week later another news let
ter, this time from Charleston, South
Carolina, telling the same story, was
published in another New York
newspaper. A third letter, mailed
from Washington to another New
York newspaper one week after the
second news letter, announced the
mermaid and mentioned that DIR.
Griffin was soon to visit New York
en- route to London, and expressed
the hope that New Workers. would
have the opportunity to see this ex-
traordinary curiosity.
Several days after the Washing
ton letter, Levi Lyman, Barnum' s
assistant in the business of Joice
Heth, registered at a Philadelphia
hotel as DR.. Griffin, of Pernambuco
and London. He remained there
several days, and, just after paying
his bill, he thanked the landlord for
his constant courtesy and attention.
and offered to show him, in graft
tude for the excellent treatment he
had received at the hosiery, &
unique curiosity.
The landlord gazed in wonderment
at a real mermaid, and asked for
permission to invite a few friends to
see 1t. The doctor said that he did
not suppose that it would do the
Lyceum of Natural History of Lon
don much harm if few of the land
lords best friends saw the mermaid !;
the Philadelphia newspapers for the
next day and several days later COM
mented at length on the great nat
ural phenomenon.
Finally DIR. Griffin arrived in New
York and registered at the Pacific
hotel. Reporters soon learned that
the mermaid was in town, and the
polite and genial agent of the Ly.
ceum OF Natural History allowed
them to look at his curiosity.
Mermaid" Pictures for the Press.
Barnum had meanwhile prepared
Illustrations of the mermaid and
printed $4,000 copies of a pamphlet
describing it. These were stored in
the museum until the time came to
use them publicly. Barnum, of
course, had written the three news
letters and sent them TO friends in
Montgomery, Charleston and Wash.
lngton, who could be trusted to mail
them from those cities, the news
papers of the day were not particu.
lar about the source of their news
| if it was news.
Barnum called upon the editors OF
the Herald. the Mercury and the Al.
las with his engravings of the mer.
maid. He told them that he had
hoped TO use these engravings wLer
he exhibited the mermaid at In,
museum, but that DR.. Griffin had de-
clded that as agent or the Lyceun
OF Natural History it would be quit,
impossible for him to exhibit hi,
curiosity in public anywhere excep
in London. Therefore. Barnum mag
unanimously offered his engravingS
now worthless to him. for the editor
TO print. They thanked him, and III,
following Sunday each newspape,
printed a different picture of III
mermaid, and each editor realized
Barnum's deception only when h
saw the rival newspapers.