Barnum was elected to the Connecticut legislature. During his term of office he fought the railroads in their efforts to raise commutation rates, and in this fight he defeated the New Haven Railroad lobby. It was while he was speaking on this railroad bill in the legislature at Hartford on July 13, 1865, that Barnum received a telegram from his son-in-law, S. H. Hurd, informing him that the American Museum was in flames. Barnum makes much of the fact in his autobiography that he laid the telegram upon his desk and continued his successful speech against the railroads. The fire in the Museum had started in the engine room, where a small engine pumped sea water for the aquaria. Smoke soon rose into the upper floors and filled the galleries of curiosities and animals. Monkeys jabbered, cats miaoued, dogs barked, parrots screeched, bears growled, a kangaroo made his own familiar cry of distress, and the birds fluttered wildly against their cages. Before long 40,000 people had been attracted by the noises and the flames. Efforts were made to rescue some of the animals, but few of them were saved, the only survivors of the fire being one bear, the educated seal, some birds, and a couple of monkeys. The crowd was delighted with the opportunity to see the curiosities free of charge, and the giantess, the fat lady, the Albino girl, and some of the ladies of the _corps de ballet_, who had lost all of their wardrobe except their ballet skirts, were followed down Fulton Street by a large and enthusiastic audience. Two white whales, who had arrived one week before the fire, were burned to death and steaming when Barnum saw them afterwards. The newspapers of the following day published long descriptions of the fire and editorials on the subject; practically the entire front page of the _Herald_ was devoted to it. Most of the newspapers attempted peculiar humor on the subject of the burned animals.