The Spectacular P. T. Barnum
theatlantic.com
theatlantic.com
"Barnum’s first big venture of his own was the American Museum—a collection of curiosities, located in New York. One day a beggar approached Barnum in the street. Instead of giving him money, Barnum decided to employ him. Taking him back to the museum, he gave the man five bricks and told him to make a slow circuit of several blocks. At certain points he was to lay down a brick on the sidewalk, always keeping one brick in hand. On the return journey he was to replace each brick on the street with the one he held. Meanwhile he was to remain serious of countenance and to answer no questions. Once back at the museum, he was to enter, walk around then leave through the back door and make the same bricklaying circuit again. On the man’s first walk through the streets, several hundred people watched his mysterious movements. By his fourth circuit, onlookers swarmed around him, debating what he was doing. Every time he entered the museum he was followed by people who bought tickets to keep watching him. Many of them were distracted by the museum’s collections, and stayed inside. By the end of the first day, the brick man had drawn over a thousand people into the museum. "
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8581
-or-
https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/p-t-barnum/the-art-of-mone...
Well, gosh golly and gee willickers! That old rascal!
I don't think anyone benefits from this sort of white-washing the past. How about taking the topic seriously and writing, "Sadly, he was an unrepentant racist who literally bought or kidnapped his 'performers' before exploiting their racial differences or physical deformities. This was not a good man."
Honestly, I stopped reading after that. I have no desire to read some revisionist history puff piece about such a horrible human being.