Now that the most serious effects of this (for six years) alarming epidemic have passed away from among us, and when "the people" who have been called upon to pay the cost of its support, and for the burial of its victims, can look back upon the scenes that have in that period transpired with a disposition cooled by experience, I have thought that a volume like this might prove acceptable to the hundreds and thousands of those who once "took an interest in the hen trade,"—who may have been mortally wounded, or haply who have escaped with only a broken wing; and who will not object to learn how the thing has been done, and "who threw the bricks"!

If my readers shall be edified and amused with the perusal of this work as much as I have been in recalling these past scenes while writing it, I am content that I have not thrown the powder away. I have written it in perfect good-nature, with the design to gratify its readers, and to offend no man living.

And trusting that all will be pleased who may devote an hour to its pages, while at the same time I indulge the hope that none will feel aggrieved by its tone, or its text, I submit this book to the public.

Respectfully,

Geo. P. Burnham.

Russet House, Melrose, 1855.

CONTENTS.

ChapterPageChapterPage
Preface.[v]XXIV.An Expensive Business[160]
I.Premonitory Symptoms of the Disease[9]XXV.The Great Pagoda Hen[165]
II.The "Cochin-Chinas."
Bubble Number One		[14]XXVI."Policy the Best Honesty"[176]
III.The First Fowl Show in Boston[21]XXVII.A Genuine Humbug[182]
IV.How "Poultry-Books" are Made[26]XXVIII.Barnum in the Field[190]
V.Threatening Indications[32]XXIX.First "National" Poultry Show in New York[198]
VI.The Epidemic Spreading[37]XXX.Barnum's Innate Diffidence[204]
VII.Alarming Demonstrations[41]XXXI.A Suppressed Speech[213]
VIII.The Fever Working[47]XXXII.A "Confidence" Man[220]
IX.The Second Poultry Show in Boston[52]XXXIII.The Essence of Humbug[224]
X.The Mutual Admiration Society's Second Show[58]XXXIV.A Trump Card[229]
XI.Progress of the Malady[65]XXXV."Hold your Horses"[237]
XII.My Correspondence[70]XXXVI.Tricks of the Trade[243]
XIII.The Other Side of the Question[85]XXXVII.Final Death-Throes[252]
XIV."Bother'em Pootrums."
Bubble Number Two		[90]XXXVIII.The Porte-Monnaie I Owe 'em Company[259]
XV.Advertising Extraordinary[98]XXXIX.A Satisfactory Pedigree[263]
XVI.Height of the Fever[104]XL.Doing the Genteel Thing[273]
XVII.Running it into the Ground[111]XLI.The Fate of the "Model" Shanghaes[279]
XVIII.One of the Final Kicks[119]XLII.An Emphatic Clincher[288]
XIX.The Fourth Fowl Show in Boston[124]XLIII."Stand from Under"[294]
XX.Present to Queen Victoria[129]XLIV.Bursting of the Bubble[302]
XXI.Experiments of Amateurs[137]XLV.The Dead and Wounded[307]
XXII.True History of "Fanny Fern"[147]XLVI.A Mournful Procession[312]
XXIII.Convalescence[155]XLVII.My Shanghae Dinner[318]
[List of Books]
[Transcriber's Note]