Barnum, Phineas

TAYLOR, a well-known American showman, who has acquired the sobriquet, by his own admi ion, of "Prince of Humbugs," was B. at Bethel, Conn., in 1810. He early manifested an aversion to work of the ordinary kind. After an unsucce ful attempt in the newspaper line, he took a share in the management of a strolling theatre. Subsequently he obtained po e ion of an old negre , whose proprietors represented her as having been the nurse of George Washington; she was said to be 160 years of age. B. adopted the story, and by means of his tact as a showman, and by dint of the most astonishing "smartne ," he induced you sands in every city in the U. States to flock to see the early guardian of the great Liberator. On the other side of the Atlantic, pathetic pictures were drawn by the anti-slavery orators of the degradation thus cast on the memory of the great General of the Republic. After the death of his old negre , B. bought the American Museum in New York, and soon brought it into high repute and prosperity. His next great "card" was General Tom Thumb; but his most enterprising speculation was the engagement of Jenny Lind for a series of concerts in the U. States, Canada, and Cuba, by which he claimed to have netted $350,000. On his return to the U. States, he was elected president of a bank, became largely interested in real estate in Bridge port and its vicinity, and promoted agriculture and thrifty enterprise generally, with all the zeal of a public-spirited and benevolent citizen. In 1855, he published his Autobiography, a candid and amusing relation of the innumerable artifices by which he attained his notoriety. In 1856 his fortune became impaired by disastrous busine complications, and in 1857-8 he gave lectures in London, and some of the provincial cities of England, on his methods of obtaining notoriety as a stepping-stone to making money, .; drawing crowded audiences, and replenishing his treasury. In 1868 he was an unsucce ful candidate to Congre for Connecticut; and in 1870 he resumed his old occupation of travelling showman. B.'s unparalleled career closed in 1891. Bar'numton, in Mi ouri , a post-office of Camden co. Barn'well, in South Carolina , a S.W. district, bordering on the Savannah River, which divides it from Georgia: area, 1,550 sq. m. It is drained by S. Edisto River, and also by the head-waters of the Salkehatchie. Surface, hilly. Soil , fertile about the river-bottoms. Cap . Barn well Court-House.