Judge — May 19, 1923 — page 33: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

BARNUM WAS RIGHT by Walter Prichard Eaton HE sout of Phineas T. Barnum, i like that of John Brown, goes marching on, Personally, we are much surer of it in Barnum’s case than in Brown’s. ‘There are more press agents than martyrs in the world at present. And Barnum was first, last and always the supreme press agent. He wasn’t a great showman because he didn’t show anything great; even the modern circus wasn’t really his idea; and his one ven- ture with serious art was the Jenny Lind concert tour. But he could make the public come to see as He made his own name, from the 184 on, better known in America than any other—and in England, too, almost. Even to-day he is not forgotten. There in New York right now called Right.” And there is Morris Gest, not to mention Channing Polloc Morris Gest, a Russian Jew, press agented the Moscow Art Players in advance, and after their arrival, so suc- cessfully that they packed a big theater for twelve weeks and New York went nearly as uncriti mad about them as it did more than seventy-five years ago, over Jenny Lind. And the shade of P. T. Barnum, watching from the celestial circus, smiled a bland and Yankee smile. He knew he was right. There are numerous editions, under different titles, of Barnum’s autobiog- raphy. My copy is called “Struggles and Triumphs, or Forty Years’ Recol- and was printed in 1873, an appendix bringing it down to that date. It is a vastly entertaining book, but an body who accepted all its statements on their face value Morris Gest is good in his day, but even he hasn't been able to get h: i national publicity out of § y and all the Moscow Players that Barnum got out of one elephant. One perhaps, is that Barnum had a Y; sense of humor. When he left the Bishop of London said, ‘“Good-by, Mr. Barnum. I hope I shall see you in heaven.” “You will if you're there,” replied the genial shown Morris Gest couldn’t do that. few people could—and get away with Called in a lawsuit over a will, and asked if he regarded the deceased of sound mind, he said his mind was as that of any rich man with poor More people would be capable of his last words; dying, he feebly asked what the circus receipts were that day, at the Madison Square Gard Was Barnum a humbug? Certainly not. He was an artist. He knew that from earliest times the curiosity of man- kind to see strange things, and their love of being enticed into a show, had been fair game for the exhibitor. There was no real deception. He pitted his ¥ against the crowd, who, as aly wanted to be enticed. And be of his shrewd humor, his Yankee nose for news, in the sense of the odd, the bizarre, the picturesque, he succeeded in making $4,000,000 and an undying name. He was the grandfather of the modern press agent, of the modern dignified “publicity man,” of the modern newspaper “human interest” story (in- directly, of course), of modern vaudeville, of the modern concert tour, of the modern circus. In fact, he was rather more of a person than our Very would believe the promises of a Re- publican platform, any theatrical man- ager’s announce- ment that he was about to open a repertoire theater, and the prospectus of a real estate dealer, Somebody named M.R.Werner has read all the edi- tions of Barnum’s autobiography. all the rary material could get hold of, and then practically rewritten the old showman’s life for him, in the light of the facts. He calls his book, simply and cloquently, “Bar- num,” and — Har- court, Brace & Co. publish it. A circus poster of our old friend Jumbo adorns the jacket. Are you old enough to re- member — Jumbo? Drawn by Joun Git Carnegie Tech. ning smoothly!” “What's wrong, Jack? ) me your domestic machinery isn’t run- “Yeh, the governor’s busted.” ~—] friend Mr. Werner admits. At times we prefer to believe his own estimates of himself, rather than Mr. Werner's. Barnum right. RATH Wieiat Biman Lester Pearson, that humorous librarian who knows the insides of books (many don’t), had written of Barnum’s autobiography — in his “Books in Black and Red (The Macmillan Co.). It wouldn't, of course, be included in his first. chapter on fa- mous literary hoaxes, but it could well come into the apter on “The Search for Curious Books,” or in a chapter all its own. 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