There was one occasion when their carriage broke down, and, as they had advertised a performance in Rugby that evening, they decided to take the cars; but on arriving at the station they found the last train gone. Barnum immediately looked up the superintendent and told him that they must have an extra train for Rugby, without an instant's delay. "Extra train?" said he, with surprise and a half-sneer, "extra train? why you can't have an extra train to Rugby for less than sixty pounds." "Is that all? well, get up your train immediately, and here are your sixty pounds. What in the world are sixty pounds to me, when I wish to go to Rugby, or elsewhere, in a hurry." The astonished superintendent took the money, bustled about, and the train was soon ready. He was greatly puzzled to know what distinguished person--he thought he must be dealing with some prince, or, at least, a duke--was willing to give so much money to save a few hours of time, and he hesitatingly asked whom he had the honor of serving. "General Tom Thumb." The performance at Rugby netted L160, which not only covered expenses but left a handsome margin. When they were in Oxford, a dozen or more of the students came to the conclusion that, as the General was a little fellow, the admission fee to his entertainments should be paid in the smallest kind of money. They accordingly provided themselves with farthings, and as each man entered, instead of handing in a shilling for his ticket, he laid down forty-eight farthings. The counting of these small coins was a great annoyance to Mr. Stratton, the General's father, who was ticket-seller, and after counting two or three handfuls, vexed at the delay which was preventing a crowd of ladies and gentlemen from buying tickets, Mr. Stratton lost his temper, and cried out: "Blast your quarter-pennies! I am not going to count them! you chaps who haven't bigger money can chuck your copper into my hat and walk in." Mr. Stratton was a genuine Yankee, and thoroughly conversant with the Yankee vernacular which he used freely. In exhibiting the General, Barnum often said to visitors that Tom Thumb's parents, and the rest of the family, were persons of the ordinary size, and that the gentleman who presided in the ticket-office was the General's father. This made poor Stratton an object of no little curiosity, and he was pestered with all sorts of questions; on one occasion an old dowager said to him: "Are you really the father of General Tom Thumb?" "Wa'al," replied Stratton, "I have to support him!" This evasive answer is common enough in New England, but the literal dowager had her doubts, and promptly rejoined: "I rather think he supports you!" Although Barnum was in Europe on business, he made the most of his opportunities for sight-seeing, and in his few leisure hours managed to visit nearly every place of interest both in England and on the continent.