Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1877 — Bijah and Barnum. [ARTICLE]

Bijah and Barnum.

When Mr. Snow, Baruum’s press agent, was here, he called on Bijali and they had a long visit. When he was on the poiut of going away he h&qded the old janitor an envelope. Inside of -it was a ticket. The ticket read: PASS BIJAH INTO THE SHOW After he PAYS FIFTY CENTS. And as soon as Barnum himself arrived in Detroit he sent for Bijah to come and see him. The good old man parted his hair in the middle, changed ends with his paper collar, and otherwise slicked himself up, and by-and-by he might have been seen in the presence of the great showman. “I’ve heard of you, and you’ve heard of me,” brusquely began Mr. Barnum. “ How would you like to travel with me *” “First rate. I just hanker to roll from town to town.” “ You shall be one of my cannibals at fifteen dollars per week,” continued Mr. Barnum. > Bijah ’s jaw fell. “Or you can have a cage all by yourself, and be known as the wild hyena of Australia.” Bijah began to get red in the face. “Or if you had rather,” softly continued Mr. Barnum. “you can sit behind a screen and exhibit those feet of yours to the astonished public. We will label one, ‘The Eastern Hemisphere,’ the other, ‘The Western Hemisphere,’ and you can read dime novels behind the canvas while the populace gaze in wonder and awe. When can you leave?” Bijah left in about a minute. He said he wanted to go down stairs and get a toothpick, and he never returned. —Detroit Free Press. _ —Until the week before his death, the late Dr. Taylor Lewis dictated to his daughter. In the course of this work he once stoppedand remarked: “Buskinhas written much about the beauties of nature, but he has never seen anything so beautiful as my dear old wife and devoted daughter tending night and day to all my wants.”