Barnum, Phineas Taylor

P. T. Barnum was the most famous showman and circus manager of all time. He called

his circus "The Greatest Show on Earth" and most people agreed with him. Barnum was born in Bethel, Connecticut, in 1810. He started working when he was a boy. He went to New YorkCity and worked there and in Brooklyn until he was 18 years old. He returned to Connectitcut and went into business with the moneu he had saved. After being very successful for a while, his luck changed and he found himself penniless. He got married when he was 19, and he became a newspaper editor. Some people thought he wrote too carelessly in his newspaper. He was accused of libel. (A libel is a printed statement that insults somebody.)

He was found guilty of libel and he was put in jail for two months. After getting out of jail he left Connecticut, a poor man. One day, while he was visiting Philadelphia, he saw a Negro slave woman named Joyce Heth, who said that she had been the nurse of George Washington. Her owner said that she was 161 years old. He showed Barnum a piece of paper that seemed to prove this. Barnum borrowed $1,000 and bought Joyce Heth from her owner. He advertised in many newspapers, saying that he owned George Washington's nurse. People flocked to see her and paid Barnum a lot of money. But when Joyce Heth died the following year, the doctors found that she was only eighty years old. People didn't seem to mind this very much. Barnum saw that people liked to be fooled, as long as he gave them a good show for their money. He put this feeling he had about people into some very famous words. Barnum said: "There's a sucker born every minute. For the next several years Barnum traveled through the South with small shows. None of them was very successful. Then he bought a museum and he heard about a very small person, a midget, less than two feet tall, who lived in Connecticut. Barnum made arrangements to show this midget around the country. He called the midget General Tom Thumb, and he made a great deal of money exhibiting Tom Thumb in the United States. Barnum then took the midget on a tour of Europe and soon the whole world knew about P. T. Barnum and General Tom Thumb.

A few years later Barnum arranged to have a very famous Swedish opera singer named Jenny Lind come to America. Miss Lind was known as "the Swedish Nightingale." She toured the country under Barnum's direction, and both of them made a great fortune. Barnum paid Jenny Lind $1,000 for every night she sang. During the next several years Barnum put most of his savings into several businesses, but they all failed. He took Tom Thumb on a new tour of Europe and made enough money to return to America. He bought two museums, both of which burned down. Then, in 1871, Barnum set up the great traveling circus that he called "P. T. Barnum's Greatest Show on Earth." No one had ever seen anything like it. In this circus Barnum exhibited a great elephant that he called Jumbo, and General Tom Thumb. He also included many clowns and unusual animals that could do tricks. In fact, most of the things you now can see in a circus were introduced by Barnum in his "Greatest Show on Earth." His circus was later called Barnum & Bailey, and still later was combined with the Ringling Brothers circus. After a very busy and exciting life, Barnum died in 1891, at the age of 81.

by: David Bunch

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