“To the perfecting of this grand Zoölogical Collection, I have made Earth, Sea, and Air pay tribute, and my brave rangers, hunters, and agents have traveled to the uttermost parts of the Earth to complete it; braving the dangers of the jungle, the miasma of the morass, the arid, burning plains, the snows of the Polar Circle, the simooms of the desert, the ferocious cannibals of the African forests, and ‘the pestilence that walketh by noon-day’ in the dread lagoons and poisoned swamps of India. This superb and only exhaustive Zoölogical Collection in the United States contains more costly and rare specimens of natural reptiles, amphibia, and wild denizens of every clime and country than have ever been before presented to the public, and form a Vast Living School of Instruction, where the student may spend hours in wondrous contemplation, looking ‘from Nature up to Nature’s God.’” The foregoing sounds as if Barnum had stepped out, and the circus press agent had stepped in. But he took personal interest in all the publicity of his huge show, and he undoubtedly approved all blurbs which he did not write himself. These Barnum circus advertisements have a grandiose intensity that is unsurpassed in the history of advertising. There is a Walt Whitmanlike fervor in Barnum’s exhortation to the public not to miss his free street parade: “Come from your fields, your workshops, your offices, your stores and homes! Gather your families--your friends--your neighbors, and make a holiday for once! Secure an eligible position by 9 o’clock in the morning, and see the gorgeous procession--then troop along to the acres of snowy canvas, and devote the rest of the day to seeing my Grand Museum, my School of Automatic Wonders, the Tattooed Greek Nobleman, Giants and Dwarfs, my Gigantic Menagerie, my Twenty Trained Imported Stallions, and my Magnificent Circus! Then you can go home happy, having enjoyed yourselves innocently and learned much that will afford you pleasure hereafter. Then for a night’s refreshing sleep and a good day’s work to-morrow.” But in spite of all the wonders of the Barnum show, as advertised, Cooper & Bailey continued to prosper and enjoy some of the patronage that Barnum thought was exclusively his. Barnum’s programs and advance publicity began to question the honesty of other shows. One year this verse was used: “Others may issue paper lies, But we show all we advertise.”