Struggles and Triumphs by P.T. Barnum — Read

The East Bridgeport Enterprise -- W. H. Noble -- Plans for a New City -- Dr. Timothy Dwight's Testimony -- Investing a Fortune -- Selling City Lots -- Money Making a Secondary Consideration -- Clock Company in Litchfield -- The "Terry and Barnum Manufacturing Company" -- The Jerome Clock Company -- Baiting for Bites -- False Representations -- How I Was Deluded -- What I Agreed to Do -- The Counter Agreement -- Notes with Blank Dates -- The Limit of My Responsibility -- How It Was Exceeded -- Startling Discoveries -- A Ruined Man -- Paying My Own Honest Debts -- Barnum Duped -- My Failure -- The Barnum and Jerome Clock Bubble -- Moralists Making Use of My Misfortunes -- What Preachers, Papers, and People Said About Me -- Down in the Depths.

I now come to a series of events which, all things considered, constitute one of the most remarkable experiences of my life -- an experience which brought me much pain and many trials; which humbled my pride and threatened me with hopeless financial ruin; and yet, nevertheless, put new blood in my veins, fresh vigor in my action, warding off all temptation to rust in the repose which affluence induces, and developed, I trust, new and better elements of manliness in my character. This trial carried me through a severe and costly discipline, and now that I have passed through it and have triumphed over it, I can thank God for sending it upon me, though I feel no special obligations to the human instruments employed in the severe chastening.