Struggles and Triumphs: or, Forty Years' Recollections of P. T. BarnumBarnum, P. T. (Phineas Taylor)
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Struggles and Triumphs: or, Forty Years' Recollections of P. T. Barnum
Barnum, P. T. (Phineas Taylor)
Barnum, P. T. (Phineas Taylor), 1810-1891; Circus owners -- United States -- Biography
The first great assembly at Castle Garden was not gathered by Jenny
Lind’s musical genius and powers alone. She was effectually introduced
to the public before they had seen or heard her. She appeared in the
presence of a jury already excited to enthusiasm in her behalf. She
more than met their expectations, and all the means I had adopted to
prepare the way were thus abundantly justified.
As a manager, I worked by setting others to work. Biographies of the
Swedish Nightingale were largely circulated; “Foreign Correspondence”
glorified her talents and triumphs by narratives of her benevolence; and
“printer’s ink” was invoked in every possible form, to put and keep
Jenny Lind before the people. I am happy to say that the press generally
echoed the voice of her praise from first to last. I could fill many
volumes with printed extracts which are nearly all of a similar tenor to
the following unbought, unsolicited editorial article, which appeared in
the _New York Herald_ of Sept. 10, 1850 (the day before the first
concert given by Miss Lind in the United States):
“JENNY LIND AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.--What ancient monarch was he,
either in history or in fable, who offered half his kingdom (the
price of box tickets and choice seats in those days) for the
invention of an original sensation, or the discovery of a fresh
pleasure? That sensation--that pleasure which royal power in the
old world failed to discover--has been called into existence at a
less price, by Mr. Barnum, a plain republican, and is now about to
be enjoyed by the sovereigns of the new world.
“Jenny Lind, the most remarkable phenomenon in musical art which
has for the last century flashed across the horizon of the old
world, is now among us, and will make her _début_ to-morrow night
to a house of nearly ten thousand listeners, yielding in proceeds
by auction, a sum of forty or fifty thousand dollars. For the last
ten days our musical reporters have furnished our readers with
every matter connected with her arrival in this metropolis, and the
steps adopted by Mr. Barnum in preparation for her first
appearance. The proceedings of yesterday, consisting of the sale of
the remainder of the tickets, and the astonishing, the wonderful
sensation produced at her first rehearsal on the few persons,
critics in musical art, who were admitted on the occasion, will be
found elsewhere in our columns.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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