A Unique Story of a Marvellous Career: Life of Hon. Phineas T. BarnumBenton, Joel
History
A Unique Story of a Marvellous Career: Life of Hon. Phineas T. Barnum
Benton, Joel
Barnum's American Museum; Barnum, P. T. (Phineas Taylor), 1810-1891; Circus owners -- United States -- Biography
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN--I thank you most sincerely for this and
many other tokens of kindness showered upon me to-day. After
being for more than twenty years before the public, I little
expected at this late day, to attract so much attention. Indeed
if I had not become a family man I should never have known how
high I stood in public favor, and I assure you I appreciate
highly and am truly grateful for this evidence of your esteem and
consideration. I am soon off for foreign lands, but I shall take
with me the pleasant recollection of your kindness to-day. But,
ladies and gentlemen, a little woman in the adjoining apartment
is very anxious to see us, and I must, therefore, make this
speech, like myself, short. I kindly thank the excellent band of
music for its melody, the sweetness of which is only exceeded by
my anticipations of happiness in the new life before me. And now,
Ladies and Gentlemen, wishing you all health and happiness, I bid
you all a cordial good-night." [Applause.]
The following entirely authentic correspondence, the only
suppression being the name of the person who wrote to Dr. Taylor,
and to whom Dr. Taylor's reply is addressed, shows how a certain
would-be "witness" was not a witness of the famous wedding. In
other particulars the correspondence speaks for itself.
TO THE REV. DR. TAYLOR.
Sir: The object of my unwillingly addressing you this note is to
inquire what right you had to exclude myself and other owners of
pews in Grace Church from entering it yesterday, enforced, too,
by a cordon of police for that purpose. If my pew is not my
property, I wish to know it; and if it is, I deny your right to
prevent me from occupying it whenever the church is open, even at
a marriage of mountebanks, which I would not take the trouble to
cross the street to witness.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
W*** S***
804 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, Feb. 16, 1863.
MR. W*** S***
Dear Sir: I am sorry, my valued friend, that you should have
written me the peppery letter that is now before me. If the
matter of which you complain be so utterly insignificant and
contemptible as "a marriage of mountebanks, which you would not
take the trouble to cross the street to witness," it surprises me
that you should have made such strenuous, but ill-directed
efforts to secure a ticket of admission. And why, permit me to
ask, in the name of reason and philosophy, do you still suffer it
to disturb you so sadly? It would, perhaps, be a sufficient
answer to your letter, to say that your cause of complaint exists
only in your imagination. You have never been excluded from your
pew. As rector, I am the only custodian of the church, and you
will hardly venture to say that you have ever applied to me for
permission to enter, and been refused.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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