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
Some time previously, in Raleigh, North Carolina, I had sold one-half of
my establishment to a man, whom I will call Henry, who now acted as
treasurer and ticket-taker. At Augusta, Georgia, the sheriff served a
writ upon this Henry for a debt of $500. As Henry had $600 of the
company’s money in his possession, I immediately procured a bill of sale
of all his property in the exhibition and returned to the theatre where
Henry’s creditor and the creditor’s lawyer were waiting for me. They
demanded the keys of the stable so as to levy on the horses and wagons.
I begged delay till I could see Henry, and they consented. Henry was
anxious to cheat his creditor and he at once signed the bill of sale. I
returned and informed the creditor that Henry refused to pay or
compromise the claim. The sheriff then demanded the keys of the stable
door to attach Henry’s interest in the property. “Not yet,” said I,
showing a bill of sale, “you see I am in full possession of the property
as entire owner. You confess that you have not yet levied on it, and if
you touch my property, you do it at your peril.”
They were very much taken aback and the sheriff immediately conveyed
Henry to prison. The next day I learned that Henry owed his creditors
thirteen hundred dollars and that he had agreed when the Saturday
evening performance was ended to hand over five hundred dollars (company
money) and a bill of sale of his interest, in consideration of which one
of the horses was to be ready for him to run away with, leaving me in
the lurch! Learning this, I had very little sympathy for Henry and my
next step was to secure the five hundred dollars he had secreted.
Vivalla had obtained it from him to keep it from the sheriff; I received
it from Vivalla, on Henry’s order, as a supposed means of procuring bail
for him on Monday morning. I then paid the creditor the full amount
obtained from Henry as the price of his half interest in the exhibition
and received in return an assignment of five hundred dollars of the
creditor’s claims and a guaranty that I should not be troubled by my
late partner on that score. Thus, promptness of action and good luck
relieved me from one of the most unpleasant positions in which I had
ever been placed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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