Greatest Showman on Earth

"Money is in some respects life's fire: it is a very excellent servant, but a terrible master. "

Phineas Taylor Barnum

or how about this one:

"Whatever you do, do it with all your might. Work at it, early and late, in season and out of season, not leaving a stone unturned, and never deferring for a single hour that which can be done just as well now." P.T.B.

or this:

“Without promotion something terrible happens... Nothing!” P. T. B.

Man oh man oh man, more than once and without success I've tried to convince editors to give me some of their company's money in exchange for my writing and illustrating a book about P. T. Barnum, showman, publisher, vaudevillian, museum-monger. Who would better personify 19th Century America? Hardly anybody! Here he's pictured with his greatest discovery, Mr. Charles Sherwood Stratton (1838-1883), better known, in fact, known around the world and presented to Her Majesty Queen Victoria as "General Tom Thumb." http://history1800s.about.com/od/americanoriginals/a/gentomthumb.htm

Think of the multitudes plunking down two bits to enter P.T. Barnum's American Museum (in lower Manhattan, NYC, from 1841 until 1865, when it burned down) to see every sort of attraction, human and otherwise http://www.lostmuseum.cuny.edu/archives/museum.htm

Think of the thousands of Victorians who flocked, meandered, and swarmed to see Jumbo the Elephant or the "Feejee Mermaid," or to see and hear "The Swedish Nightingale," soprano Jenny Lind (1820-1887), in America for a thunderously successful tour arranged by impresario/promoter extraordinaire, P.T. Barnum. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenny_Lind Think of the millions who came to and are still coming to the circus that he began: THE circus, THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH, now to be found under the name of his rivals, at www.ringling.com

Oh well, yes, don't I know that it's all editors can do these days to keep their heads above the roiling, oiling waters of the 21st Century? Ah yes, so consider here for a moment the remarkable, colorful life of Phineas Taylor Barnum, who was born in Bethel, Connecticut, 200 years ago today, July 5, 1810.

"Whatever you do, do it with all your might. Work at it, early and late, in season and out of season, not leaving a stone unturned, and never deferring for a single hour that which can be done just as well now.' P. T. Barnum