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A UNIQUE STORY OF A MARVELLOUS CAREER.
LIFE OF Hon. PHINEAS T. BARNUM. ——
COMPRISING HIS BOYHOOD, YOUTH, …
By JOEL BENTON.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. IN THE BEGINNING. Family and Birth—School Life—His First Visit to New York City—A Landed Proprietor—The Ethics of Trade—Farm Work and Keeping Store—Meeting-house and Sunday-school—"The One Thing Needful."
CHAPTER II. EARLY YEARS AT BETHEL. Death of his Grandmother and Father—Left Penniless and Bare-footed—Work in a Store—His First Love—Trying to buy Russia—Uncle Bibbin's Duel
CHAPTER III. BUSINESS LIFE Removal to Brooklyn—Smallpox—Goes Home to Recover His Health—Renewed Acquaintance with the Pretty Tailoress—First Independent Business Venture—Residence in New York—Return to Bethel—Anecdotes
CHAPTER IV. TRYING MANY VENTURES. Visit to Pittsburg—Successful Lottery Business—Marriage—First Editorial Venture—Libel Suit—Imprisonment and Liberation—Removal to New York—Hard Times—Keeping a Boarding House
CHAPTER V. BEGINNING AS A SHOWMAN. Finding His True Vocation—The Purchase of Joice Heth—Evidence as to Her Age—Her Death—Signor Vivalla—Visit to Washington—Joining a Travelling Circus—Controversies with Ministers—The Victim of a Practical Joke
CHAPTER VI. INCIDENTS OF A CIRCUS TOUR. Beating a Landlord—A Joke on Turner—Barnum as a Preacher and as a Negro Minstrel—A Bad Man with a Gun—Dealing with a Sheriff—"Lady Hayes"—An Embarrassed Juggler—Barnum as a Matrimonial Agent