A Unique Story of a Marvellous Career | Page 4

Island--The Black Whale Pays the Board
Bill--The Wheeler & Wilson Company Remove to East
Bridgeport--Setting Sail for England
CHAPTER XXVII.
A PROSPEROUS EXILE. His Successful Pupil--Making Many
Friends in London--Acquaintance with Thackeray--A Comedy of
Errors in a German Custom House--Aristocratic Patronage at
Fashionable Resorts--Barnum's Impressions of Holland and the Dutch
CHAPTER XXVIII.
HOME AGAIN. A Jolly Voyage--Mock Trial on Shipboard--Barnum
on Trial for His Life--Discomfited Witnesses and a Triumphant
Prisoner--Fair Weather Friends--The Burning of Iranistan
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE ART OF MONEY GETTING. The Lecture
Field--Success--Cambridge--Oxford--An Unique
Entertainment--Barnum Equal to the Occasion--Invited to Stay a Week

CHAPTER XXX.
AN ENTERPRISING ENGLISHMAN. A New Friend--Dinner to Tom
Thumb and Commodore Nutt--Measuring the Giant--The Two Engines
CHAPTER XXXI.
AT HOME AGAIN. The Clock Debts Paid--The Museum once more
under Barnum's Management--Enthusiastic Reception--His
Speech--Two Poems
CHAPTER XXXII.
THE STORY OF "GRIZZLY ADAMS." Barnum's Partnership with the
Famous Bear Hunter--Fooling Him with the "Golden Pigeons"--Adams
Earns $500 at Desperate Cost--Tricking Barnum out of a Fine Hunting
Suit--Prosperity of the Museum--Visit of the Prince of Wales
CHAPTER XXXIII.
BUILDING A CITY. At Home Once More--Growth of East
Bridgeport--Barnum's Offer to Men Wanting Homes of Their
Own--Remarkable Progress of the Place--How the Streets were Named
CHAPTER XXXIV.
A GREAT YEAR AT THE MUSEUM. Capturing and Exhibiting
White Whales--Newspaper Comments--A Touching Obituary--The
Great Behemoth--A Long "Last Week"--Commodore Nutt--Real Live
Indians on Exhibition
CHAPTER XXXV.
GENERAL AND MRS. TOM THUMB. Miss Lavinia Warren--The
Rivals--Miss Warren's Engagement to Tom Thumb--The
Wedding--Grand Reception--Letter From a Would-be Guest, and Dr
Taylor's Reply

CHAPTER XXXVI.
POLITICAL NOTES. Barnum Becomes a Republican--Illuminating
the House of a Democrat--The Peace Meeting--Elected to the
Legislature--War on the Railroads--Speech on the Amendment
CHAPTER XXXVII.
BURNING OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM. How Barnum Received
the Tidings--Humorous Description of the Fire--A Public
Calamity--Greeley's Advice--Intention to Re-establish the
Museum--Speech at Employees' Benefit
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
POLITICAL LIFE. In the Connecticut Legislature--The Great Railroad
Fight--Barnum's Effective Stroke--Canvassing for a United States
Senator--Barnum's Congressional Campaign--A Challenge that was not
Accepted
CHAPTER XXXIX.
FIGHTING A NEWSPAPER. Disposing of the Lease of the Museum
Site--The Bargain with Mr. Bennett--Barnum's Refusal to Back Out--A
Long and Bitter War with "The Herald"--Action of the Other
Managers--The Return of Peace
CHAPTER XL.
BRIDGEPORT. The Fight for the Establishment of Seaside
Park--Laying out City Streets--Impatience with "Old Fogies"--Building
a Seaside Home--Waldemere--A Home in New York City
CHAPTER XLI.
HONORS AND ADULATIONS. Second Marriage--The King of
Hawaii--Elected Mayor of Bridgeport--Successful Tour of the

Hippodrome--Barnum's Retirement from Office
CHAPTER I.
IN THE BEGINNING.
FAMILY AND BIRTH--SCHOOL LIFE--HIS FIRST VISIT TO NEW
YORK CITY --A LANDED PROPRIETOR--THE ETHICS OF
TRADE--FARM WORK AND KEEPING
STORE--MEETING-HOUSE AND SUNDAY SCHOOL--"THE ONE
THING NEEDFUL."
Among the names of great Americans of the nineteenth century there is
scarcely one more familiar to the world than that of the subject of this
biography. There are those that stand for higher achievement in
literature, science and art, in public life and in the business world.
There is none that stands for more notable success in his chosen line,
none that recalls more memories of wholesome entertainment, none
that is more invested with the fragrance of kindliness and true humanity.
His career was, in a large sense, typical of genuine Americanism, of its
enterprise and pluck, of its indomitable will and unfailing courage, of
its shrewdness, audacity and unerring instinct for success.
Like so many of his famous compatriots, Phineas Taylor Barnum came
of good old New England stock. His ancestors were among the builders
of the colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut. His father's father,
Ephraim Barnum, was a captain in the War of the Revolution, and was
distinguished for his valor and for his fervent patriotism. His mother's
father, Phineas Taylor, was locally noted as a wag and practical joker.
His father, Philo Barnum, was in turn a tailor, a farmer, a storekeeper,
and a country tavernkeeper, and was not particularly prosperous in any
of these callings.
Philo Barnum and his wife, Irena Taylor, lived at Bethel, Connecticut,
and there, on July 5, 1810, their first child was born. He was named
Phineas Taylor Barnum, after his maternal grandfather; and the latter,
in return for the compliment, bestowed upon his first grandchild at his
christening the title-deeds of a "landed estate," five acres in extent,

known as Ivy Island, and situated in that part of, Bethel known as the
"Plum Trees." Of this, more anon.
In his early years the boy led the life of the average New England
farmer's son of that period. He drove the cows to and from the pasture,
shelled corn, weeded the garden, and "did up chores." As he grew older
he rode the horse in plowing corn, raked hay, wielded the shovel and
the hoe, and chopped wood. At six years old he began to go to
school--the typical district school. "The first date," he once said, "I
remember