On his way back to New York Barnum read in a Pittsburg newspaper an advertisement for _Sears’ Pictorial Illustrations of The Bible_, and three days after his return to the city he called upon Robert Sears, its publisher. For $500 Barnum received 500 copies of the book and received the agency for its sale in the United States. He opened an office in New York, advertised widely, and in six months he had sold several thousand copies of the book; but he had appointed agents and sub-agents in other cities, who cheated him of all his profits and also of his capital. For the third time he was swindled because of his trust in other people. Only after serious financial losses, and not until late in life, did Barnum learn to question the integrity of those he was forced to trust. It is doubtful if he ever gave up an implicit faith in man’s innate righteousness, for a skeptical opinion of mankind, although it might be justified by his continual experiences, would clash with his sincere piety, and his earnest belief that the dead shall be raised. Virtue, to him, undoubtedly bore its own reward, and he seldom guarded against the attempt to cheat him out of it. Soon his funds were completely exhausted, and Barnum sought any kind of employment and found none that was lucrative. At the age of thirty-one, with a wife and two daughters to support, and a third daughter in prospect, he was compelled to grasp at straws, and he wrote advertisements for the Bowery Amphitheater at four dollars per week. He added to this by means of occasional articles which he wrote for the Sunday newspapers. Heretofore theatrical managers had most of them contented themselves with announcements in the newspapers of the names of their plays and the names of their performers, and Barnum was one of the first men in the United States to realize the power of the paid adjective in advertising theatrical attractions. Adjectives were lavished at this time on patent medicines, and the advertising columns in the newspapers of the day were made up largely of extravagant praise of pills by their makers. Theaters were sparing in their advertisements. His daily visits to the newspaper offices for the purpose of inserting his advertisements made him acquainted at this time with those persons who were to contribute so much to his success during the rest of his life by advertising his wares, not least of which was his personality. CHAPTER III BARNUM’S AMERICAN MUSEUM I