Struggles and Triumphs by P.T. Barnum — Read

The Most Popular Place of Amusement in the World -- The Moral Drama -- Reforming the Abuses of the Stage -- Famous Actors and Actresses at the Museum -- Adding to the Saloons -- Afternoon and Holiday Performances -- Fourth of July Flags -- The Museum Connected with St. Paul's -- Victory Over the Vestrymen -- The Egress -- St. Patrick's Day in the Morning -- A Wonderful Animal, the "Aigress" -- Inpouring of Money -- Zoological Eruption -- The City Astounded -- Baby Shows, and Their Object -- Flower, Bird, Dog and Poultry Shows -- Grand Free Buffalo Hunt in Hoboken -- N. P. Willis -- The Woolly Horse -- Where He Came From -- Colonel Benton Beaten -- Purpose of the Exhibition -- American Indians -- P. T. Barnum Exhibited -- A Curious Spinster -- The Touching Story of Charlotte Temple -- Services in the Lecture Room -- A Financial View of the Museum -- An "Awful Rich Man."

The American Museum was the ladder by which I rose to fortune. Whenever I cross Broadway at the head of Vesey Street, and see the Herald building and that gorgeous pile, the Park Bank, my mind's eye recalls that less solid, more showy edifice which once occupied the site and was covered with pictures of all manner of beasts, birds and creeping things, and in which were treasures that brought treasures and notoriety and pleasant hours to me. The Jenny Lind enterprise was more audacious, more immediately remunerative, and I remember it with a pride which I do not attempt to conceal; but instinctively I often go back and live over again the old days of my struggles and triumphs in the American Museum.