‘I’ll let you know to-morrow,’ said Barnum.
On the following day, he told Coup that ‘Barnum’s great show’ was a fact, and that he (Coup) was to be its manager, as he is to this day. The establishment then formed was, however, far from being the mammoth concern with which the great showman took the field in 1873. Notwithstanding the great loss which he sustained by the burning of the museum which so long attracted attention in the Broadway, New York, at the close of the preceding year, he came before the public a few months afterwards with a circus, a menagerie, a museum, a gallery of pictures and statuary, and a show of mechanical wonders and curiosities, all combined in one, and to which the public were admitted for a single payment of half-a-dollar.
The address to the public with which this colossal combination of entertainments was inaugurated is so unique and characteristic that I need make no apology for inserting it entire.
‘Ladies, Gentlemen, Families, Children, Friends:
‘My career for forty years as a public Manager of amusements, blended with instruction, is well known. You have all heard of my three New York Museums; my great triumphal tour with Jenny Lind, the Swedish Nightingale, and my immense travelling exhibitions. Everybody concedes that I give ten times the money’s worth, and always delight my patrons. I now come before you with the last grand crowning triumph of my Managerial life.
‘Notwithstanding the burning of my last Museum, in December (which, however, did not destroy any of my great travelling chariots, vans, cages, or horses, nor duplicates of most of my living wild animals, which were then on exhibition in New Orleans), I have been enabled, through the aid of cable dispatches, electricity and steam, and the expenditure of nearly a million of dollars, to place upon the road by far the largest and most interesting combination of Museum, Menagerie, and Hippodrome ever known before—a veritable World’s Fair.
‘No description will convey an adequate idea of its vastness, its beauty, and its marvellous collection of wonders. It travels by rail, and requires more than one hundred cars, besides FIFTY OF MY OWN, made expressly for this purpose, and five or six locomotives to transport it. My daily expenses exceed $5,000. We can only stop in large towns, and leave it to those residing elsewhere to reach us by cheap excursion trains, which they can easily get up.
‘Among some of my novelties is a FREE FULL MENAGERIE OF WILD ANIMALS, including all, and more than are usually seen in a travelling menagerie, which I now open to be seen by everybody, WITHOUT ANY CHARGE WHATEVER. Although I have consolidated more than twenty shows in one, containing nearly one hundred gorgeously magnificent gold and enamelled cages, dens and vans, requiring the services of nearly 1,000 men and over 500 horses, the price of admission to the entire combination of exhibition is only the same as is charged to a common show, viz. 50 cents; children half price. My great Hippodrome Tent comfortably seats 14,000 persons at one time, while my numerous other tents cover several acres of ground.
‘The Museum Department contains 100,000 curiosities, including Professor Faber’s wonderful Talking Machine, costing me $20,000 for its use six months. Also, a National Portrait Gallery of 100 life-size Oil Paintings, including all the Presidents of the United States, our Statesmen and Military Heroes, as well as foreign Potentates and Celebrities, and the entire Collection of the celebrated John Rogers’ groups of Historical and Classic Statuary. Also, an almost endless variety of Curiosities, including numberless Automaton Musicians and Mechanicians, and Moving Scenes, Transformation Landscapes, Sailing Ships, Running Water-mills, Railroad Trains, etc., made in Paris and Geneva, more beautiful and marvellous than can be imagined, and all kept in motion by a Steam Engine. Here, also, are Giants, Dwarfs, Fiji Cannibals, Modoc and Digger Indians, Circassian Girls, the No-armed Boy, etc.
‘Among the rare wild animals are Monster Sea Lions, transported in great water-tanks; the largest Rhinoceros ever captured alive, and 1,500 Wild Beasts and Rare Birds, Lions, Elephants, Elands, Gnus, Tigers, Polar Bears, Ostriches, and every description of wild animal hitherto exhibited, besides many never before seen on this Continent.