Thursday 31 May 2018

P.T. Barnum - More than a Showman

I have just concluded reading an autobiography of P.T. Barnum, which at the end of the 19th Century had the second most printed copies of any book in North America after the New Testament. Barnum is now commonly known for his circus, or more recently as Hugh Jackman in The Greatest Showman, however, I have learnt that he was so much more than this, indeed, because he wrote this memoir in 1855, at the age of 45, his travelling circus does not even feature (it began when he was 60!) It also doesn't include any of his later political career.
     What it does include is a fascinating history of early 19th Century American life, both rural and urban; the shifting of culture from a generally agricultural society to one of business, enterprise and manufacture; and a study into the successful manipulation of the public to make money from business, showmanship, lotteries, banking, newspapers and many other enterprises.

Barnum was known as the Prince of Humbug, a term referring to the ways in which he presented things as something other than what they were. His ability to advertise successfully, however, induced people to keep coming back to his museums and tours time after time and on the whole it seems they always enjoyed what they saw. Sometimes they even appreciated when they'd been taken in by a hoax.
     This idea of a joke or a prank was birthed in Barnum from a very early age, and much of the first few chapters of the book is devoted to the various pranks he and other people played on each other. Later on he comments, "No doubt my natural bias is to merriment, and I have encouraged my inclination to 'comedy,' because enough of 'tragedy' will force itself upon the attention of every one in spite of his efforts to the contrary."
     Barnum was not only gifted at spotting a good gag, but also a good deal or a good idea. It was this ability that led him to such success in so many different areas, including running newspapers, building new towns, and managing the American tour of the singer Jenny Lind.

Possibly my favourite parts of the book include extracts from his three-year tour of Europe, in which he visited various royal families and other nobility. This insight into the lives and houses of the richest people in London, Paris and other cities is fascinating and there are probably few other accounts like this one. Also while he was in England Barnum managed to arrange for a team of Bell Ringers from Lancashire to tour America, after he had convinced them that they would pretend to be Swiss. Apparently their accents were so strong no one in America would know the difference!

Ultimately, despite his wealth, fame and general success, Barnum was very philosophical and practical and I agree wholeheartedly with him on many of his thoughts. Barnum became a teetotaller and toured America lecturing on temperance and troubles caused by alcohol. He also highly valued 'home and family' seeing them as the "highest and most expressive symbols of the kingdom of heaven."
     He also makes remarks that would not be out of place today. "What a pitiful state of society it is, which elevates a booby or a tyrant to its summit, provided he has more gold than others - while a good heart or a wise head is contemptuously disregarded if their owner happens to be poor! No man can be truly happy who, because he chances to be rich, mounts upon stilts, and attempts to stride over his fellow beings. My sincere prayer is, that I may be reduced to beggary, rather than become a pampered, purse-proud aristocrat."

Although the musical movie The Greatest Showman shows little of all this I think Barnum would have appreciated the joke. Millions of people have turned out to watch a spectacle, only part of which is true and yet went away very happy.
     Barnum was a more remarkable man than I ever realised and his memoir should be read by those interested in looking back, those studying the present and those planning for the future.



Thursday 17 May 2018

A Prologue

In the early 1800s lived a man of considerable wealth. He was a man of strong values and upright, Christian morals and a great dislike of society and what it had become. Such was the basis for this man's decision to attempt to begin a new society founded on those noble values in a land separated from the evils of this world and unburdened by it's confusion of people and ideals. On some distant island he would start afresh, gather a new people, righteous and good, and there set an example for the world to follow. This man was my father. His death on the outbound voyage was perhaps a blessing given what became of our mission, but there, we all see clearer with hindsight.

The beginnings of this dream awoke in my father when he was still young himself, and just setting out in the world, discovering its wonders and flaws. However, it was many years later that he seriously began setting out plans, scouring maps of distant lands and researching the discoveries of other explorers who had made pathways across the seas.
     My family had made money through shipping and trade, both good and bad and so acquiring a vessel to take us to a new land was not a problem. The greater challenge for my father was deciding who would join us in our venture. He wanted people who were skilled in various ways, but more importantly upright and of good character. We also wanted to avoid unwanted attention or publicity. We did not want the world and his wife to attempt to come with us, and so it became our secret. For nearly two years we watched and listened, talking to friends and strangers, and slowly a list was drawn up.
     Because of our careful planning almost all of those whom we asked to join agreed and were enthusiastic about the idea. They too sought a fresh start and a new way of life. A few declined but thankfully kept our voyage secret and so by the time we were ready to set off the reason for our journey and who was going was largely unknown. Even those coming did not know everything or everyone.
     My father's name was James and my mother's name was Verity. Then there was me, aged 12 at the beginning of our journey to the far side of the world, and completing our family was Amelia, known to all as Emmie, and, at 7 years old, the youngest member of our entire gathering. You'll get to know us and all the others as I go on, but I will add that come departure day we were a happy, even giddy, collection people, united by our passion and excitement and nothing, we thought, could possibly thwart our mission.