All this seemed plausible to Barnum, and the bill of sale did look creased, fragile, and old. Barnum asked how such an old woman with such historic associations had only then come to the public attention, why she had never aroused the curiosity of showmen and audiences before; but when it appeared that she had lived in an outhouse on the Kentucky estate of the Bowling family, the respectable family of the advertisement, Barnum was contented that she was authentic. The discovery of the bill of sale in the Virginia record office by one of the Bowling sons made the family realize the value of its property, Barnum was told. He asked how much a piece of property like Joice Heth might be worth, and the answer was three thousand dollars. At the time he possessed five hundred dollars of his own. He persuaded Lindsay that one thousand dollars was enough, and, returning to New York, he borrowed an additional five hundred dollars and sold his interest in the grocery store. By his contract with Lindsay Barnum came into “the possession of the person of the African woman, Joice Heth,” and Lindsay offered to continue his exhibitions in Philadelphia while Barnum made preparations for her reception in New York. He called upon William Niblo, who did not recognize him as the young man who a few months before had applied for the position of bartender at Niblo’s Garden. Niblo agreed for one-half the receipts of Joice Heth’s exhibition to allow Barnum the use of a room near his saloon, and also paid the expense of whatever printing and advertising was necessary. Levi Lyman, whom he characterized as a “shrewd, sociable, and somewhat indolent Yankee” lawyer of Penn Yan, New York, was engaged by Barnum as his assistant. Lyman wrote a memoir of Joice Heth, and Barnum distributed throughout the city small handbills and posters announcing his phenomenon. The newspapers printed advertisements on the day of her début, written by Barnum, and containing the following partial descriptions of her attractions: “She is cheerful and healthy, although she weighs but forty-nine pounds. She relates many anecdotes of her young master; she speaks also of the red-coats during the Revolutionary War, but does not appear to hold them in high estimation. She has been visited by crowds of ladies and gentlemen, among whom were many clergymen and physicians, who have pronounced her the most ancient specimen of mortality the oldest of them has ever seen or heard of, and consider her a very great curiosity.” And again: “Joice Heth is unquestionably the most astonishing and interesting curiosity in the world. She was the slave of Augustine Washington (the father of George Washington), and was the first person _who put clothes on the unconscious infant_ who was destined in after days to lead our heroic fathers to glory, to victory, and to freedom. To use her own language when speaking of her young master, George Washington, ‘she raised him.’” (Italics are _always_ Barnum’s.)