“GEN. TOM THUMB.” Barnum did not accept this offer immediately, but early in 1857 he arranged his affairs and left for England with General Tom Thumb and Cordelia Howard, a small girl whose Little Eva in _Uncle Tom’s Cabin_ was very popular in this country. CHAPTER X “THE ART OF MONEY-GETTING” I Upon his return to England Barnum was greeted cordially by those who had admired him in the days of his reputation. His autobiography, in spite of the few scathing reviews, had not damaged either his popularity or his esteem in England. One of the first to greet Barnum in London was Albert Smith, playwright, dentist, literary hack and showman, who had admired Barnum and had studied his methods during the first English tour of General Tom Thumb. Smith at the time of Barnum’s return to England was exhibiting his panorama of Mont Blanc, which he had ascended the year before. He gave a descriptive lecture explaining his model. In the course of this lecture Smith referred several times to a character he had met on his trip, whom he called “Phineas Cutecraft,” a Yankee showman, who had visited Cologne Cathedral with him. According to Smith’s story, the sexton was telling them the sad tale of the ashes and bones of the eleven thousand virgins of Cologne, who had been sacrificed upon a certain black historical occasion. “Old fellow, what will you take for the hull lot of bones?” asked Phineas Cutecraft. “I want them for my Museum in America.” “Mine Gott! it is impossible,” the German was supposed to have answered. “We will never sell the Virgins’ bones!” “Never mind,” said Phineas Cutecraft, “I’ll send another lot of bones to my Museum, swear mine are the real bones of the Virgins of Cologne, and bust up your show!” A celebrity who received Barnum cordially upon his return to England was Thackeray. When Thackeray visited the United States in 1853 to deliver his lectures on The English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century, he had called upon Barnum at the Museum with a letter of introduction from Albert Smith, and he had asked Barnum’s advice on the management of his lecture tour. Barnum had given Thackeray valuable information concerning the cities he should visit, the lecture halls suitable in each city, and the proper admission charges, for which the novelist was grateful. When he returned to New York in 1855 to deliver his lectures on The Four Georges, he visited Barnum often. Therefore, in 1857, when Barnum returned to London, Thackeray hastened to offer him sympathy and financial aid. To Thackeray’s question whether he needed money, Barnum replied, “I need more money in order to get out of bankruptcy, and I intend to earn it; but so far as daily bread is concerned, I am quite at ease, for my wife is worth 30,000 or 40,000 pounds.” “Is it possible?” Thackeray said. “Well, now, you have lost all my sympathy. Why, that is more than I ever expect to be worth; I shall be sorry for you no more.”