Struggles and Triumphs by P.T. Barnum — Read

My Tour at the West -- The Curiosity Exhibitor Himself a Curiosity -- Buying a Farm in Wisconsin -- Helping Those Who Help Themselves -- A Ride on a Locomotive -- Punctuality in My Engagements -- Tricks to Secure Seats in the Ladies' Car -- I Suddenly Became Father to a Young Married Couple -- My Identity Denied -- Pity and Charity -- Reverend Doctor Chapin Pulls the Bell -- Temperance -- How I Became a Teetotaler -- Moderate Drinking and Its Dangers -- Doctor Chapin's Lecture in Bridgeport -- My Own Efforts in the Temperance Cause -- Lecturing Throughout the Country -- Newspaper Articles -- The Story of Vineland, in New Jersey.

During the summer of 1866, Mr. Edwin L. Brown, Corresponding Secretary of the "Associated Western Literary Societies," opened a correspondence with me relative to delivering, in the ensuing season, my lecture on "Success in Life," before some sixty lyceums, Young Men's Christian Associations, and Literary Societies belonging to the union which Mr. Brown represented. The scheme embraced an extended tour through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri and Iowa, and I was to receive one hundred dollars for every repetition of my lecture, with all my travelling expenses on the route. Agreeing to these terms, I commenced the engagement at the appointed time, and, averaging five lectures a week, I finished the prescribed round just before New Year's. Before beginning this engagement, however, I gave the lecture for other associations at Wheeling, Virginia, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Louisville, Kentucky. I also delivered the lecture in Chicago, for Professor Eastman, who at that time had one of his Business Colleges in that city. He engaged the celebrated Crosby Opera House for the occasion, and I think, with, perhaps, two exceptions, I never spoke before so large and intelligent an audience as was there assembled. It was estimated that from five to six thousand ladies and gentlemen were gathered in that capacious building; and nearly as many more went away unable to obtain admission. I was glad to observe by the action of the audience, and by the journals of the following day, that my efforts on that occasion were satisfactory. Indeed, though it is necessarily egotistical, I may truly say that with this lecture I always succeeded in pleasing my hearers. I may add, that I have invariably, as a rule, devoted to charitable purposes every penny I ever received for lecturing, except while I was under the great Jerome Clock cloud in England, when I needed all I could earn.