It has been publicly stated that Mr. Barnum endorsed largely on blank notes and drafts and that he was thus rendered responsible to a far greater extent than he was aware of; such, however, was not the case. The troubles that have grown out of the failure of this great business, have left me poor and broken down in spirit, constitution and health. I was never designed by Providence to eat the bread of dependence, for it is like poison to me, and will surely kill me in a short time. I have now lost more than forty pounds of flesh, though my ambition has not yet died within me. CHAPTER XI. EFFECTS OF THE FAILURE ON MYSELF--REMOVAL TO WATERBURY AND ANSONIA-- UNFORTUNATE BUSINESS CONNECTIONS. After saying so much as I have about my misfortunes in life, I must say a few words about what has happened and what I have been through with during the last four years. When the Jerome Manufacturing Company failed, every dollar that I had saved out of a long life of toil and labor was not enough to support my family for one year. It was hard indeed for a man sixty-three years old, and my heart sickened at the prospect ahead. Perhaps there never was a man that wanted more than I did to be in business and be somebody by the side of my neighbors. There never was a man more grieved than I was when I had to give up those splendid factories with the great facilities they had over all others in the world for the manufacture of clocks both good and cheap, all of which had been effected through my untiring efforts. No one but myself can know what my feelings were when I was compelled, through no fault of my own, to leave that splendid clustre [sic] of buildings with all its machinery, and its thousands of good customers all over this country and Europe, and in fact the whole world, which in itself was a fortune. And then to leave that beautiful mansion at the head of the New Haven bay, which I had almost worshipped. I say to leave all these things for others, with that spirit and pride that still remained within me, and at my time of life, was almost too much for flesh and blood to bear. What could have been the feelings of my family, and my large circle of friends and acquaintances, to see creditors and officers coming to our house every day with their pockets full of attachments and piles of them on the table every night. If any one can ever begin to know my feelings at this time, they must have passed through the same experience. Yet mortified and abused as I was, I had to put up with it. Thank God, I have never been the means of such trouble for others. I had to move to Waterbury in my old age, and there commence again to try to get a living. I moved in the fall of 1856, and as bad luck would have it, rented a house not two rods from a large church with a very large steeple attached to it, which had been built but a short time before. In one of the most terrific hurricanes and snow storms that