"Ticket-taker Bennett, however, took much to heart the attacks of Editor Bennett upon Jenny Lind. When Editor Bennett came on board the 'Falcon,' his violent name-sake said to a by-stander:
" 'I would willingly be drowned if I could see that old scoundrel go to the bottom of the sea.'
"Several of our party overheard the remark and I turned laughingly to Bennett and said: Nonsense; he can't harm any one, and there is an old proverb about the impossibility of drowning those who are born for another fate.'
"That very night, however, as I stood near the cabin door, conversing with my treasurer and other members of my company, Henry Bennett came up to me with a wild air, and hoarsely whispered:
" 'Old Bennett has gone forward alone in the dark—and I am going to throw him overboard!'
"We were all startled, for we knew the man, and he seemed terribly in earnest. Knowing how most effectively to address him at such times, I exclaimed:
" 'Ridiculous! you would not do such a thing.'
" 'I swear I will,' was his savage reply. I expostulated with him, and several of our party joined me.
" 'Nobody will know it,' muttered the maniac, 'and I shall be doing the world a favor.'
"I endeavored to awaken him to a sense of the crime he contemplated, assuring him that it could not possibly benefit any one, and that from the fact of the relations existing between the editor and myself, I should be the first to be accused of his murder. I implored him to go to his stateroom, and he finally did so, accompanied by some of the gentlemen of our party. I took pains to see that he was carefully watched that night, and, indeed, for several days, till he became calm again. He was a large, athletic man, quite able to pick up his name-sake and drop him overboard. The matter was too serious for a joke, and we made little mention of it; but more than one of our party said then, and has said since, what I really believe to be true, that 'James Gordon Bennett would have been drowned that night had it not been for P. T. Barnum.' "