Part 20 (1/2)

THE EXPEDITION TO CEYLON--HARNESSING AN ELEPHANT TO A PLOW--BARNUM AND VANDERBILT--THE TALKING MACHINE--A FIRE AT IRANISTAN--MOUNTAIN GROVE CEMETERY

The great showreat an enterprise as the Jenny Lind concerts to monopolize his attention In 1849 he planned the for the features of a erie and a circus In this he associated with himself Mr Seth B Hoas already a noted and successful showman, and also Mr Stratton, the father of Tom Thumb In order to procure a supply of novelties for this show they chartered the shi+p ”Regatta,” and sent it froe, was to procure, either by purchase or by capture, a nu elephants and other wild animals To make sure of a sufficient supply of fodder for them, nearly a thousand tons of hay were purchased in New York and taken out aboard the shi+p Five hundred tons of it were left at the Island of St Helena, to be taken up on the return trip, and a great supply of staves and hoops were also left there for the construction of water casks

This extraordinary mission was successful In al the shi+p returned to New York Its novel cargo was unloaded, the ten elephants which had been secured were harnessed in pairs to a gigantic chariot, and the whole show paraded up Broadway past the Irving House It was reviewed fro there on her second visit to New York An elaborate outfit of horses, wagons, tents, etc, was added, the whole costing over 100,000, and then the shoent on the road under the nominal leadershi+p of Tom Thumb It was called, ”Barnuerie;” it travelled about the country for four years, and yielded to its proprietors enormous profits

At the end of this tour Barnues, chariots and everything else, excepting one elephant This huge brute he took to his far purposes It occurred to him that if he should keep the animal there for a ti on the farreatly add to public curiosity and interest in his Aly took the elephant to Bridgeport and put hie of a co Oriental costume A six acre field close by the New York and New Haven railroad track was set apart for their use Barnuave the keeper a time-table of the road and directed hi, always to be busily engaged with the elephant at plowing or other agricultural work as close to the track as possible Of course the passengers noticed the strange spectacle, ite even to the press of foreign lands, and thousands of people caht Everyabout it Many of these were froricultural societies in all parts of the United States,serious and earnest inquiry as to the utility of the elephant as an agricultural anireatly diversified in tone, but the substance of their inquires was about as follows:

1 ”Is the elephant a profitable agricultural animal?”

2 ”How much can an elephant plow in a day?”

3 ”How much can he draw?”

4 ”How much does he eat?”--this question was invariably asked, and was a very ienerally useful on a farm?”

6 ”What is the price of an elephant?”

7 ”Where can elephants be purchased?”

Then would follow a score of other inquiries, such as, whether elephants were easily ed; if they would quarrel with cattle; if it was possible to breed them; how old calf elephants ; and so on indefinitely

Barnuan to be alarmed lest some one should buy an elephant and thus share the fate of the man who drew one in a lottery and did not knohat to do with hieneral letter printed, which I mailed to all my anxious inquirers It was headed 'strictly confidential,' and I then stated, begging my correspondents 'not to ricultural animal, because he was an excellent advertisement to my museum; but that to other farmers he would prove very unprofitable for many reasons In the first place, such an animal would cost from 3,000 to 10,000; in cold weather he could not work at all; in any weather he could not earn half his living; he would eat up the value of his own head, trunk and body every year; and I beggedas to undertake elephant far was highly successful Newspaper correspondents sent highly colored accounts of it all over the world, and numerous pictures of the elephant harnessed to a plow appeared in the illustrated papers and azines After the field had been plowed over fifty or sixty times, Barnum concluded that the elephant had been ”worked for all he orth,” and sold hierie

In 1851 Mr Barnum became a part owner of the steamshi+p ”North America,” which he proposed to run between Aht vessel This idea was presently abandoned, and the shi+p was sent around Cape Horn to San Francisco and put into service on the Pacific Mail Line, Co purchased a one-half interest in it and Mr Barnu half After she had made several trips Barnum called upon Mr Vanderbilt at his office and introduced hi, and this is Barnum's own account of the interview:

” 'Is it possible you are Barnum?' exclaimed the Commodore, in surprise, 'why, I expected to see a monster, part lion, part elephant, and a er! Is it possible,'

he continued, 'that you are the shoho has ly replied that I was, and added that if I too had been governed in my anticipation of his personal appearance by the fame he had achieved in his line, I should have expected to have been saluted by a steam whistle, and to have seen hi out 'all aboard that's going'

” 'Instead of which,' replied Mr Vanderbilt, 'I suppose you have come to ask me to walk up to the Captain's office and settle'

”After this interchange of civilities, we talked about the success of the 'North Aot safely around the Horn, and of the acceptableher duty on the Pacific side

” 'We have received no states yet,' said the Coive your receipt to our treasurer, and take some'

”A few months subsequent to this, I sold out my share in the steamshi+p to Mr Daniel Drew”

Nue of Mr

Barnum's career Some of these were connected with his museum, while others were entirely independent of it Thus in 1844, in Paris, besides purchasing Robt Houdin's ingenius automatic writer and other costly curiosities for the e panoraantic picture showed every event of that pageant, beginning with the e with its final entombment at the Hotel des Invalides

This exhibition, after having had its day at the American Museum, was sold, and extensively and profitably exhibited elsewhere

While Barnued a coers,” then perfor in Ireland, to make an American tour They were really admirable performers, and by means of their nuhtful music They attracted much attention in various parts of the United States, in Canada, and in Cuba

After the loss of the bell ringers to the English public Barnum secured and sent thither a party of sixteen North American Indians, idely exhibited On his return to Aenious workman to construct an automatic orator This was a life-size and reure, and orked from a key-board similar to that of a piano it actually uttered words and sentences with surprising distinctness It was exhibited for several h it was really a wonderful machine and attracted the earnest attention of soton visited it several tiht that the ”voice” proceeded from the exhibiter, whom he assumed to be a skilful ventriloquist He was asked to touch the keys with his own fingers, and, after so, he was able to lish but also in Gere the Duke seemed familiar Thereafter, he entered his naraph book, and certified that the ”Autoenius