He told me that the large full sheet lithograph of his own head cost him
a little less than a cent and a half each; I could not have got them at
the time for less than eight cents. He also told me that his book, “The
Life of P. T. Barnum,” a bound volume of several hundred pages, was
printed in Buffalo, and cost him a trifle over nine cents each and sold
for a dollar; but he bought a million copies both of the book and of his
lithograph. He always arranged to have his colored show bills made so as
to answer the same purpose from one year to another. He seldom had a new
drawing made, but, with the introduction of modern type descriptive
bills, he could border the old colored posters and make a fine display.
He had bill-posting reduced to a fine art. He claimed that there was
only one liquid a man could use in excessive quantities without being
swallowed up by it, and that was printer’s ink.
His house in Bridgeport was a museum of itself. All the gems of the old
museum that were of extraordinary interest as curios were to be seen
there. Although he cared nothing especially for rare paintings, the
things that he gathered about him seemed designed to attract the eye
rather than the ear or the finer qualities of the mind. His band was
composed of the cheapest musicians that could be hired. For his side
shows he engaged people personally. I remember a man who had a special
act of some kind that rather attracted Barnum’s interest as a feature
for a side show. The man spoke of a woman he knew with whom he did a
double act which made a great hit. Mr. Barnum at once asked if she were
his wife. The man said, “No.”
“Well,” says Barnum, “you must fix that. You will have to make
arrangements to occupy the same berth in the sleeping car. We put four
people in a section.”
Once I told Mr. Barnum of an experience a friend of mine had at his show
in Milwaukee. There was a big crowd around the ticket wagon, but he got
through it and called for eight tickets, holding out a $50 bill to the
agent, who seized it, handed him eight tickets and a wad of money. After
he got out of the crowd and counted his money he found that he was $20
short, and of course that spoiled the enjoyment of the show for him. He
seated his party, went back, and waited for an opportunity to get to the
box office. The ticket seller just politely bluffed him off, insisting
that he got his right change, and one or two “bouncers” around the
office hustled the man away. Of course there was no recourse for him
whatever. The story seemed to make no impression on Barnum at all. He
simply said, “That was nothing; my man pays $5,000 a year for the
privilege of selling tickets at my show.” I asked him if that was the
custom, and he said it was with all circuses and big shows on the road;
that the privilege of selling tickets was awarded to the highest bidder.
For years he had never let it for less than $2,500. I afterward learned
that that was indeed the custom.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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