There are no files of this paper extant, which is unfortunate, for they would undoubtedly reveal interesting character developments in our hero’s history. He himself tells us that “the boldness and vigor with which this paper was conducted soon commanded a liberal circulation, not only in the vicinity of its publication, but large numbers of copies were sent into nearly every State in the Union.” The vigor and boldness are not Barnum’s exaggerations, for we know that he was always vehement, but particularly so at this period, and it was not long before he was sued for libel. A Danbury butcher whom Barnum accused in his paper as a spy in the Democratic Party caucus, sued for libel and collected several hundred dollars. But this did not deter the twenty-one-year-old editor and publisher, and soon afterwards he had another and more important libel suit to defend. _The Herald of Freedom_ accused a deacon of “taking usury of an orphan boy.” Had he called the deacon a “note-shaver” and extortioner, or merely remarked that he was “grinding the face of a poor orphan boy,” the court would have been lenient, but to call a deacon a usurer was ungodly, for usury is forbidden in the Bible, and the judge, who was also a churchman, charged the jury vigorously; and when they brought in the appropriate verdict, he sentenced Phineas T. Barnum, editor, to sixty days in the common jail and to pay a fine of $100. Barnum went to jail in Danbury, where his room was papered and carpeted, and where friends were allowed to visit him daily. He continued to edit _The Herald of Freedom_ there, and several hundred additional subscriptions came in during his period of servitude. Mr. P. F. Madigan, the New York autograph dealer, recently found the following letter from Barnum, written while he was in jail. It was addressed to Gideon Welles, then a member of the Connecticut Legislature, and afterwards Secretary of the Navy under President Lincoln: “DANBURY, ‘COMMON JAIL,’ Oct. 7, 1832. “MR. WELLES D’r Sir: