Struggles and Triumphs by P.T. Barnum — Read

Disgust at the Travelling Business -- Advertising for an Associate -- Rush of the Million-Makers -- Counterfeiters, Cheats and Quacks -- A New Business -- Swindled by My Partner -- Diamond the Dancer -- A New Company -- Desertions -- Successes at New Orleans -- Tyrone Power and Fanny Ellsler -- In Jail Again -- Back to New York -- Acting as a Book Agent -- Leasing Vauxhall -- from Hand to Mouth -- Determination to Make Money -- Fortune Opening Her Door -- The American Museum for Sale -- Negotiations for the Purchase -- Hopes and Disappointments -- The Train Laid -- Smashing a Rival Company.

I have said that the show business has as many grades of dignity as trade, which ranges all the way from the mammoth wholesale establishment down to the corner stand. The itinerant amusement business is at the bottom of the ladder. I had begun there, but I had no wish to stay there; in fact, I was thoroughly disgusted with the trade of a travelling showman, and although I felt that I could succeed in that line, yet I always regarded it, not as an end, but as a means to something better.