Struggles and Triumphs by P.T. Barnum — Read

A Terrible Loss -- How I Received the News -- Burning of the American Museum -- Details of the Disaster -- Faith in Herring's Safes -- Baked and Boiled Whales -- The New York Tribune on the Destruction of the Museum -- A Public Calamity -- Sympathy of the Leading Editors -- Amount of My Loss -- Small Insurance -- My Property -- Intention to Retire to Private Life -- Horace Greeley Advises Me to Go A-Fishing -- Benefit to the Museum Employees at the Academy of Music -- My Speech -- What the New York Sun Said About It -- The New Uptown Museum -- Opening the Establishment to the Public.

On the thirteenth day of July, 1865, I was speaking in the Connecticut Legislature, in session at Hartford, against the railroad schemes, when a telegram was handed to me from my son-in-law, S. H. Hurd, my assistant manager in New York, stating that the American Museum was in flames and that its total destruction was certain. I glanced over the despatch, folded it, laid it on my desk, and calmly continued my speech as if nothing had happened. At the conclusion of my remarks, the bill I had been advocating was carried, and the House adjourned. I then handed the telegram, announcing my great loss in New York, to my friend and fellow-laborer, Mr. William G. Coe, of Winsted, who immediately communicated the intelligence to several members. Warm sympathizers at once crowded around me, and Mr. Henry B. Harrison, of New Haven, my strongest railroad opponent, pushing forward, seized me by the hand, and said: