Struggles and Triumphs by P.T. Barnum — Read

Penitent Ticket Purchasers -- Visit to the "Hermitage" -- "April Fool" Fun -- The Mammoth Cave -- Signor Salvi -- George D. Prentice -- Performance in a Pork House -- Ruse at Cincinnati -- Annoyances at Pittsburg -- le Grand Smith's Grand Joke -- Return to New York -- The Final Concerts in Castle Garden and Metropolitan Hall -- The Advisers Appear -- The Ninety-Third Concert -- My Offer to Close the Engagement -- Miss Lind's Letter Accepting My Proposition -- Story About an "Improper Place" -- Jenny's Concerts on Her Own Account -- Her Marriage to Mr. Otto Goldschmidt -- Cordial Relations Between Mrs. Lind Goldschmidt and Myself -- At Home Again -- Statement of the Total Receipts of the Concerts.

After five concerts in St. Louis, we went to Nashville, Tennessee, where we gave our sixty-sixth and sixty-seventh concerts in this country. At the first ticket auction in that city, the excitement was considerable and the bidding spirited, as was generally the case. After the auction was over, one of my men, happening in at a dry-goods store in the town, heard the proprietor say, "I'll give five dollars to any man who will take me out and give me a good horsewhipping! I deserve it, and am willing to pay for having it done. To think that I should have been such a fool as to have paid forty-eight dollars for four tickets for my wife, two daughters, and myself, to listen to music for only two hours, makes me mad with myself, and I want to pay somebody for giving me a thundering good horsewhipping! " I am not sure that others have not experienced a somewhat similar feeling, when they became cool and rational, and the excitement of novelty and competition had passed away.