Note 21 — Chapter XIII · THE CIRCUS

There are persistent rumors of Barnum’s moral irregularity. Men have told me that he was “an old devil,” which in the salty manner in which they deliver the dictum sounds more enticing than degrading. These rumors are so persistent as to be worthy of mention—on the principle of the co-existence of smoke and fire—but they are also so vague as not to be worth much in the tracing of his character.

The New York World of January 17, 1897, more than five years after Barnum’s death, printed a long Sunday feature article on his moral character. According to the World story, he had an illegitimate son, whose mother was a French actress performing at the American Museum. Barnum, according to the World, educated the boy, who later became a physician. Before Barnum’s second marriage, said the World, this son appeared in Bridgeport and claimed some settlement in case of the birth of a male heir, for which Barnum was anxious. The petitioner received $60,000 after he had signed a contract that he would never bother the heirs after Barnum’s death, according to the World.

The World also wrote that when one of Barnum’s daughters committed an offense against her husband for which Barnum reproved her, she snapped her fingers in his face, remarking: “How can I help it? I’m P. T. Barnum’s daughter.”

These stories in the World are worthy of mention because they have never been denied. The sources of information to their verification are closed completely by the comprehensible secrecy of family pride.