It is easy to believe that his book sold half a million copies, for Barnum’s influence contributed profoundly to the life of his period, and has lapped over into our own time. His success was so much admired, envied, and emulated, that to-day we have a host of advertising and publicity experts, who owe more for their facility than they realize to the way which Barnum paved. It would be absurd to make Barnum responsible for the crimes and follies of publicity that have since his time become common, but since he was clearly the father of publicity, which has developed into unquestioned and legitimate misrepresentation on a large scale, he must acknowledge his child, and must also be held responsible in some measure for its antics, but only in so far as any father may be said to be responsible for the actions of his child. The effect alone of the statement attributed to Barnum, which he made in a speech, “There’s a sucker born every minute,” is incalculable, but the persistency with which it has worked its way into the body of American proverbs until it stands as one of the few distinctive proverbs of the country indicates its prestige. This simple sentence of Barnum’s has done more than any other one thing to crystallize the American preference for bluff rather than scientific thoroughness: the implication of “There’s a sucker born every minute” is “Catch him, or you’re a sucker of the worst order,” and it unconsciously converts the Golden Rule into “Do the other fellow, or he’ll do you.”