The Humbugs of the World: An Account of Humbugs, Delusions, Impositions, Quackeries, Deceits and Deceivers Generally, in All AgesBarnum, P. T. (Phineas Taylor)
General
The Humbugs of the World: An Account of Humbugs, Delusions, Impositions, Quackeries, Deceits and Deceivers Generally, in All Ages
Barnum, P. T. (Phineas Taylor)
Impostors and imposture
The announcement of this romantic and mysterious history, this boundless
wealth, this interesting mission from majesty to majesty in person and
the reality which every one could see of so much grace and beauty,
supplied all that was wanting to set the upper-tendom of the place in a
blaze. It was hardly etiquette for a royal visitor to receive much
company before having been presented at Court; but as this princely lady
came from a point so far outside of the pale of Christendom, and all its
formalities, it was deemed not out of place, to show her befitting
attentions; and the ice once broken, there was no arresting the flood.
The aristocracy of Bristol vied with each other in seeing who should be
first and most extravagant in their demonstrations. The street in front
of the "White Lion" was day after day blocked up, with elegant
equipages, and her reception-rooms thronged with "fair women and brave
men." Milliners and mantuamakers pressed upon the lovely and mysterious
Princess Cariboo the most exquisite hats, dresses, and laces, just to
acquaint her with the fashionable style and solicit her distinguished
patronage; dry-goodsmen sent her rare patterns of their costliest and
richest stuffs, perfumers their most exquisite toilet-cases, filled with
odors sweet; jewellers, their most superb sets of gems; and florists and
visitors nearly suffocated her with the scarcest and most delicate
exotics. Pictures, sketches, and engravings, oil-paintings, and
portraits on ivory of her rapturous admirers, poured in from all sides,
and her own fine form and features were reproduced by a score of
artists. Daily she was feted, and nightly serenaded, until the Princess
Cariboo became the furore of the United Kingdom. Magnificent
entertainments were given her in private mansions; and at length, to cap
the climax, Mr. Worrall, the Recorder of Bristol, managed, by his
influence, to bring about for her a grand municipal reception in the
town-hall, and people from far and near thronged to it in thousands.
In the meantime the papers were gravely trying to make out whether the
Cariboo country meant some remote portion of Japan, or the Island of
Borneo, or some comparatively unfamiliar archipelago in the remotest
East, and the "Mirror" was publishing type expressly cut for the purpose
of representing the characters of the language in which the Princess
spoke and wrote. They were certainly very uncouth, and pretended sages,
who knew very well that there was no one to contradict them, declared
that they were "ancient Coptic!"
Upon reading the sequel of the story, one is irresistibly reminded of
the ancient Roman inscription discovered by one of Dickens' characters,
which some irreverent rogue subsequently declared to be nothing more nor
less than "Bil Stumps His Mark."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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