Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 106, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 September 1904 — PLOWING WITH ELEPHANTS [ARTICLE]

PLOWING WITH ELEPHANTS

Rarnum’s Reply <• the Farmer Whe Asked Whether It Weald Pay. It may be said of P. T. Barnum that he was the major domo or lord of laughter and torn, the protean dispenser of amusement How well he became known through this function one curious Incident certifies. Some years before he died an obscure person tn soma remote part of Asia wrote a letter, which he dropped in the postoffice near him, directed to “Mr. Barnum, America.” The letter reached its destination without an hour’s delay. The great showman unaffectedly enjoyed being known from the very beginning of bln celebrity, and when he found his celebrity was a tremendous factor in his success he did everything that he could think of to extend the exploitation of his name. This was not to nourish vain Imaginings or because he felt exalted. It was to promote business. Around his successive homes at Bridgeport, Conn., he was fond of putting something that suggested a show. Queerly marked cattle, the sacred cowj or an elephant was frequently among the stock to be noticed in his fields. On one occasion he bad an elephant engaged in plowing on the sloping bill where it could be plainly seen by the passengers on the New Haven find Hartford railroad, an agricultural Innovation that he knew would get notice of some sort in every newspaper in the country. It was even said that he received letters from farmers far and wide asking how much hay one elephant ate and if it was more profitable to plow with an elephant than with horses or oxen. His replies were Invariably frank and were of this purport: If you have a large museum in New York and a great railway sends trains full of passengers within eyeshot of the performance, it will pay. and pay well, but If you have no such institution then horses and oxen will prove more economical.—Joel Benton in Century.