For other and not less effective advertising,--flags and banners, began to adorn the exterior of the building. I kept a band of music on the front balcony and announced “Free Music for the Million.” People said, “Well, that Barnum is a liberal fellow to give us music for nothing,” and they flocked down to hear my outdoor free concerts. But I took pains to select and maintain the poorest band I could find--one whose discordant notes would drive the crowd into the Museum, out of earshot of my outside orchestra. Of course, the music was poor. When people expect to get “something for nothing” they are sure to be cheated, and generally deserve to be, and so, no doubt, some of my out-door patrons were sorely disappointed; but when they came inside and paid to be amused and instructed, I took care to see that they not only received the full worth of their money, but were more than satisfied. Powerful Drummond lights were placed at the top of the Museum, which, in the darkest night, threw a flood of light up and down Broadway, from the Battery to Niblo’s, that would enable one to read a newspaper in the street. These were the first Drummond lights ever seen in New York, and they made people talk, and so advertise my Museum. CHAPTER IX. THE ROAD TO RICHES. THE MOST POPULAR PLACE OF AMUSEMENT IN THE WORLD--THE MORAL DRAMA--REFORMING THE ABUSES OF THE STAGE--FAMOUS ACTORS AND ACTRESSES AT THE MUSEUM--ADDING TO THE SALOONS--AFTERNOON AND HOLIDAY PERFORMANCES--FOURTH OF JULY FLAGS--THE MUSEUM CONNECTED WITH ST. PAUL’S--VICTORY OVER THE VESTRYMEN--THE EGRESS--ST. PATRICK’S DAY IN THE MORNING--A WONDERFUL ANIMAL, THE “AIGRESS”--INPOURING OF MONEY--ZOOLOGICAL ERUPTION--THE CITY ASTOUNDED--BABY SHOWS, AND THEIR OBJECT--FLOWER, BIRD, DOG AND POULTRY SHOWS--GRAND FREE BUFFALO HUNT IN HOBOKEN--N. P. WILLIS--THE WOOLLY HORSE--WHERE HE CAME FROM--COLONEL BENTON BEATEN--PURPOSE OF THE EXHIBITION--AMERICAN INDIANS--P. T. BARNUM EXHIBITED--A CURIOUS SPINSTER--THE TOUCHING STORY OF CHARLOTTE TEMPLE--SERVICES IN THE LECTURE ROOM--A FINANCIAL VIEW OF THE MUSEUM--AN “AWFUL RICH MAN.” The American Museum was the ladder by which I rose to fortune. Whenever I cross Broadway at the head of Vesey Street, and see the _Herald_ building and that gorgeous pile, the Park Bank, my mind’s eye recalls that less solid, more showy edifice which once occupied the site and was covered with pictures of all manner of beasts, birds and creeping things, and in which were treasures that brought treasures and notoriety and pleasant hours to me. The Jenny Lind enterprise was more audacious, more immediately remunerative, and I remember it with a pride which I do not attempt to conceal; but instinctively I often go back and live over again the old days of my struggles and triumphs in the American Museum.