While a few editors roared and the people bought his book, Barnum sat in his study at “Iranistan” and laughed. All he usually asked of any one was, “Mention my name.” If people called him a scoundrel in print, it was good; for to call him a scoundrel in print they had to say, “P. T. Barnum, of the American Museum, is a scoundrel,” and their diatribes soon made it unnecessary to add, “of the American Museum.” The more people who read of Barnum’s rascality, the more people bought the _Life of P. T. Barnum Written by Himself_ and dated from the American Museum. And those who read the _Life of P. T. Barnum Written by Himself_ visited Barnum’s American Museum. There was not more than a loud minority of censure. Even the pious portion of the community recommended Barnum. He had so cleverly and sincerely mixed his own earnest piety with his large-scale deception that clergymen were known to recommend his book to the young. Henry Hilgert, a preacher in Baltimore, said from his pulpit: “I pray you to recommend the good citizen, Phineas Taylor Barnum, to your children as an exemplary man. When you give one of your daughters away in matrimony, advise her to imitate Charity Barnum; when your son leaves home to try his luck upon the ocean of life, give him Barnum for a guide; when you yourself are in trouble and misery, and near desperation, take from Barnum’s life and teachings consolation and new courage.” Barnum never neglected to include this reference in the subsequent editions of the autobiography. And Mr. Hilgert was not alone. The clergy followed close behind the business community, taking him into the fold, with frequent and familiar public references to their good fellow citizen, “Brother Barnum.” CHAPTER IX HUMBUGGED AND BANKRUPT I Barnum’s interest in the future of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and its suburbs as a manufacturing center was one of the abiding influences of his financial life, and he did more than any other one man to make that city such a center. In 1851 he purchased with William H. Noble, a wealthy citizen of Bridgeport, 224 acres of land on the east side of the Pequonnock River, where they planned a new manufacturing suburb, with model houses for sober workmen. The new city was laid out with an eye to beauty and convenience as well as profit; trees were planted, and an eight-acre grove was set aside as a park. Then Barnum and his partner began to sell lots at cost, reserving for themselves enough property to guarantee a large profit when the new city should begin to flourish and property should be in demand. The purchasers of lots were constrained to build after a style of architecture approved by Barnum and his associate--there is no record of an attempt to make it Oriental--and they planned a city which for neatness would be an example to other communities, and which would harbor enough manufactories to keep its happy population out of mischief.