Transcriber’s Note
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. A list of these changesis found at the end of the text. Inconsistencies in spelling andhyphenation have been maintained. A list of inconsistently spelled andhyphenated words is found at the end of the text.
THE
HUMBUGS OF THE WORLD.
AN ACCOUNT OF HUMBUGS, DELUSIONS, IMPOSITIONS,
QUACKERIES, DECEITS AND DECEIVERS
GENERALLY, IN ALL AGES.
BY
P. T. BARNUM.
“Omne ignotum pro mirifico.”—“Wonderful, because mysterious.”
NEW YORK:
CARLETON. PUBLISHER. 413 BROADWAY.
1866.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by
G. W. CARLETON,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court for the Southern District ofNew York.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE.
One of Mr. Barnum’s secrets of success is his unique methods ofadvertising, and we can readily understand how he can bear to bedenounced as a “Humbug,” because this popular designation thoughundeserved in the popular acceptation of it, “brought grist to hismill.” He has constantly kept himself before the public—nay, we may saythat he has been kept before the public constantly, by the stereotypedword in question; and what right, or what desire, could he have todiscard or complain of an epithet which was one of the prosperingelements of his business as “a showman?” In a narrow sense of the wordhe is a “Humbug:” in the larger acceptation he is not.
He has in several chapters of this book elaborated the distinction, andwe will only say in this place, what, indeed, no one who knows him willdoubt, that, aside from his qualities as a caterer to popularentertainment, he is one of the most remarkable men of the age. As abusiness man, of far-reaching vision and singular executive force, hehas for years been the life of Bridgeport, near which city he has longresided, and last winter he achieved high rank in the Legislature ofConnecticut, as both an effective speaker and a patriot, having “no axeto grind,” and seeking only the public welfare. We, indeed, agree withthe editor of The New York Independent, who, in an article drawn outby the burning of the American Museum, says: “Mr. Barnum’s rare talentas a speaker has always been exercised in behalf of good morals, and forpatriotic objects. No man has done better service in the temperancecause by public lectures during the past ten years, both in America andGreat Britain, and during the war he was most efficient in stimulatingthe spirit which resulted in the preservation of the Union, and thedestruction of Slavery.”
We cannot forbear quoting two or three additional paragraphs from thatarticle, especially as they are so strongly expressive of the merits ofthe case:
“Mr. Barnum’s whole career has been a very transparent one. He has neverbefooled the publi