Struggles and Triumphs by P.T. Barnum — Read

An English Yankee -- My First Interview with Him -- His Plans Based on Barnum's Book -- Advertising for Partners -- How My Rules Made Him Rich -- Method in Madness -- The "Barnum" of Bury -- Dinner to Tom Thumb and Commodore Nutt -- My Agent in Paris -- Measuring a Monster -- How Giants and Dwarfs Stretch and Contract -- An Unwilling Frenchman -- A Persistent Measurer -- A Gigantic Humbug -- The Steam-Engines "Barnum" and "Charity" -- What "Charity" Did for "Barnum" -- Selling the Same Goods a Thousand Times -- The Great Cakes -- Simnel Sunday -- The Sanitary Commission Fair.

While visiting Manchester, in 1858, I was invited by Mr. Peacock, the lessee, to deliver a lecture in "Free Trade Hall. " I gave a lecture, the title of which I now forget; but I well remember it contained numerous personal reminiscences. The next day a gentleman sent his card to my room at the hotel where I was stopping. I requested the servant to show the gentleman up at once, and he soon appeared and introduced himself. At first he seemed somewhat embarrassed, but gradually broke the ice by saying he had been pleased in listening to my lecture the previous evening, and added that he knew my history pretty well, as he had read my autobiography. As his embarrassment at first meeting with a stranger wore away, he informed me that he was joint proprietor with another gentleman in a "cotton-mill" in Bury, near Manchester, "although," he modestly added, "only a few years ago I was working as a journeyman, and probably should have been at this time, had it not been for your book. " Observing my surprise at this announcement, he continued: