M. R. W. CONTENTS PAGE THE CONNECTICUT YANKEE 3 GROWING PAINS 24 BARNUM’S AMERICAN MUSEUM 43 TRAVELS WITH A MIDGET 77 HIS BROTHER’S KEEPER 103 JENNY LIND 114 THE SWEDISH NIGHTINGALE IN THE AMERICAN WOODS 140 SUNDRIES AND AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 198 HUMBUGGED AND BANKRUPT 218 “THE ART OF MONEY-GETTING” 228 THE DWARFS’ DUEL, OR THE MARRIAGE OF THE MIDGETS 253 THIS WORLD, AND THE NEXT 274 THE CIRCUS 306 OLD AGE 361 “NOT MY WILL, BUT THINE, BE DONE--” 370 BIBLIOGRAPHY 373 INDEX 377 BARNUM CHAPTER I THE CONNECTICUT YANKEE I Firecrackers had just celebrated the thirty-fourth year of the Independence of the United States in the small town of Bethel, Connecticut, when the first son by his second wife was born to Philo F. Barnum. P. T. Barnum was born on July 5, 1810. He arrived late. It was a pity, for he would so much have enjoyed being born on the Fourth of July. He himself wrote that after peace and quiet were restored, and the audience had regained their seats, he made his début. Probably his tardiness was for the best: competition between P. T. Barnum and the national holiday would have been too much--for the national holiday. Lincoln had just about cut his first tooth, and Poe was in his swaddling clothes, when Barnum appeared on the American scene. When, in 1891, he died, Free Silver was beginning to be discussed in the Senate, and William James’s _Principles of Psychology_ was a new book. The span his life covered was as significant as any in American history, and he managed to make himself as much at home among his contemporaries as the Fourth of July. Barnum wrote to Matthew Arnold when Arnold was lecturing in this country, inviting him to visit at Bridgeport, Connecticut. The invitation read: “You and I, Mr. Arnold, ought to be acquainted. You are a celebrity, I am a notoriety.” This remained his self-appointed position among his fellowmen during his entire lifetime.