Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 October 1895 — BARNUM’S WOOING. [ARTICLE]

BARNUM’S WOOING.

The Greut Showman Knew Human Nature Pretty Well. The recent marriage of the widow of P. T. Barnuni to a wealthy Greek has brought out a story of how* the great showman won his English bride. It was his theory that the people liked to be humbugged, and he made good use of the idea in the managqpient of his show, but It will be news to many that he worked the same scheme In securing his British wife. As the story goes Barnum at the time was Mayor of Bridgeport. He was lonesome, and his beautiful home, Waldemere, on the shore of Long Island Sound, was not much visited, except by sightseers. He became interested in the beautiful daughter of John Fish, of Southport, England, a retired manufacturer, and solicited her hand in marriage. Barnum was well advanced in years, and knew his fame as the prince of showmen was not sufficient to win. the prize. In fact, that fame might have hurt his suit more than helped it, for Miss Fish greatly disliked the notoriety attached to the “greatest show on earth,” and after she married its Owner always managed to hold herself aloof from the publicity her husband loved so well. But the old showman’s knowledge of the English love for official celebrity led him to play a winning card. He had his photograph taken with Waldemere as a background. The picture represented him seated in a showy landau, harnessed to four beautiful black horses, his coachman on the box and two footmen up behind. Under the photograph were the words, “Lord Mayor of Bridgeport.” A copy of this picture was forwarded to Miss Fish, and Bamum always thought it “did the business.”