Life — April 25, 1889 — page 11: what you’re looking at

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

PHINEAS TAYLOR BARNUM. HINEAS TAYLOR BARNUM, proprietor of the great moral show and author of ‘‘ The Life of P. T. Bar- num,” ‘The Humbugs of the World,” “Struggles and Triumphs of Forty Years,” and ‘How I Made Millions,” is an enthusiastic illustration of what may be accomplished by a retiring and modest young man, who has his own way to make in the world. When Mr. Barnum was born he had no better show than half a score of babies who were born about the same time in his native town of Bethel, Connecticut, and the adjacent and oitlying states and territo- ries; and now, at the age of seventy-nine years, he has the greatest show on earth, while on Greenland’s icy mountains, on India’s coral strands, where Afric’s sunny fountains roll down the golden sands, on every ancient river and every palmy plain, in almost the entire wide world the name of Barnum is a household word. Although of a timid and shrinking nature, Phineas Taylor Barnum has never allowed that circumstance to inter- fere with business. He has never per- mitted false modesty or a mistaken sense of delicacy to deter him from his pur- pose when he has been engaged in the pursuit of the marvels and wonders that constitute his mammoth aggregation under one immense canvas, in four rings, two stages and a race-track. For in- stance, when he desired to purchase Jumbo of the English Government he did not hesitate because he was unac- quainted with Mrs. Guelph, the fat lady who occupies the throne, and when he drove up to Windsor Castle in a red wagon with his name on it in gilt letters she felt that she could not refuse any request he might make—as she after- wards intimated to Chauncey M. Depew, mistaking him for Adam Forepaugh and not desiring to be implicated in any con- test for rivalry between the two shows. Then, when it came to the necessity of procuring a sacred white elephant in order to show the world that a sacred white elephant is black with pink spots, Mr. Barnum sent a man to King Theebaw, of Burmah, with instructions to mention the name of Barnum and ask the price of the holy animals of the king- dom, And Barnum’s ambassador felt so much humiliated by the necessity of treating personally with a barbarian monarch that he ex- pectorated on the steps of the throne and called Theebaw an uxoricide —which it will be remembered that the royal gentleman was to a large extent—but the name of Barnum saved the rash agent from something lingering with boiling oil in it. . Mr. Barnum is an orator anda statesman as well as a showman. He has been a member of the Connecticut Legislature, and has also delivered addresses on tempetance and kindred subjects. He has been the victim of more fires than Kate Claxton; but, though often cast down, he has never been quite destroyed. The life of Phineas Taylor Barnum points a beautiful moral which LIFE'S GALLERY OF BEAUTIES. No. 15. PHINEAS TAYLOR BARNUM, we trust the Young Men’s Christian Association will use to advantage in its warfare upon the Demon Rum, Mr. Barnum is a total abstainer from all alcoholic beverages, and he attributes the success of his show to the circumstance that it is conducted upon a temperance basis, It is probable that there is not a single confirmed drunkard to be found in the entire list of trapeze and bareback performers who are connected with the great moral show. The fact that it is only within the last score or so of years that Mr. Barnum has given up the use of the cup that cheers, and that he made a fortune in spite of the circumstance that he occasionally indulged in malt and spirituous beverages, inter- feres a trifle with the practical moral we are endeavoring to point ; but not seriously so. Phineas Taylor Barnum and the great moral show have spent the last few years in making final farewell tours, and, as the old gentle- man’s health is good, he will probably continue to make final tours for many years to come. comicbooks.com