When, in his thirty-second year, Barnum was “at the foot of fortune’s ladder,”--his own description of his position as a writer of advertisements and newspaper articles--he learned that Scudder’s American Museum was for sale. Scudder’s American Museum had been founded in 1810, and it had gradually risen in the estimation of the population, so that in 1840 it was New York’s greatest storehouse of curiosities, natural, theatrical, and unnatural. Scudder, its founder, had spent more than $50,000 on the collection, and for many years the profits had kept him comfortable. When he died he left a considerable fortune and the Museum to his daughters; but ladies in 1840 were neither permitted by custom nor fitted by education to manage a museum, and the Scudder establishment had been losing money since the death of its founder, because of lack of proper administration. Barnum had visited the American Museum many times, and he coveted the opportunity to exercise his energy in such a fertile field, so suited to his talents and previous experience. The price asked for the Museum, however, was $15,000, and Barnum was forced to admit to himself that his dreams were presumptuous. But he never admitted that to himself for long; he preferred to act on the assumption that anything was within his grasp, materially and intellectually, and to consider difficulties later. When he discussed his intentions with a friend who knew his circumstances, the friend said, “You _buy_ the American Museum? What do you intend to buy it with?” “_Brass_,” said Barnum, “for silver and gold I have none.”