OBITUARIES, AMKltlCAN. 





oty, and in 1850 he removed to New York city. He 



ic "i the incorjiorators <it' tin- New Vnrk Medi- 



'llcv'c; was ap|N.intcd Obstetrical Surgeon t" 



Bcllcviic Ib.-pital in iNVJ.and In-Ill III.' u Hi. T till 1874; 



iiu-iiil-i r it' tin- iiu-t lii-iil board i>f tliut lini>itul 



for thirty-five years; and became Professor of Clini- 



i-ul Midwifery HI tin- nu-iliral college of tin- hospital 



ill 1 ->i'.l >. At sllb.-t orient periods 111! Wa* also coiiMllt- 



iinr physician to Kcllcviic, M. Kli/.ahcth's. tin- Ma 

 . tin- Cancer, tin- Women's, mill tin- Children's 



llo-pitals. Hi- had a large private practice. A mom; 



hi.- nuiiii-ruus publication.-, his works on l'iu i|<. ml 

 .s" and "On Seasickness" liavi- been imt 



widely translated. Mi- u a- \"u-i- President of the In- 



tcrnai'ional Medical CongreBB, held in London in !>>>!, 

 and tin- first American President oft In- Aniflo-Amcri- 

 >f Paris, France, in l^'.i. He bequeathed 

 to tin- New York Academy of Medicine the greater 

 part "t' hi- nii-ilii-ul lihrury. 



Barnum, Phineas Taylor, showman, born in Bethel, 

 Conn.. .Inly .">, 1M<>; uicd in Bridgeport, Conn., April 

 7, Is'.M. lie rei-eivcd u dUtricVconoo] education, and 

 iy distinguished tor his <|iiiekness and ami- 

 rai-y in iniithenmtii-s. For several years utter leaving 

 school he \viis engaged in increantilo and agency 

 work. In !*""> lie began his can-cr as a showman, as 

 he always delighted to eall himself. His first vent- 

 ure was tin- exhibition of the famous Joyce Heth, a 

 colored woman who claimed to be one hundred 

 and sixty-one years old, and to have been the nurse 

 of George Washington in his infancy. lie hud 

 been hitherto but indirt'erently successful as a 

 money maker in his various undertakings, but 

 fortune now began to favor him, and after a se- 

 ries of exhibition tours he bought out several col- 

 lections of wonders and curiosities and opened the 

 American Museum in New York city in 1841. Three 

 year- afterward he went abroad with the celebrated 

 dwarf, "Tom Thumb," with whom he gave entertain- 

 ments at the Knirlish and at most of the Continental 

 courts. In 1-Cio In- introduced Jenny Lind to the 

 American public, agreeing to pay her $*1,000 each fora 

 lon^r series of concerts, besides many personal ex- 

 penses. In addition to many charity concerts she sung 

 in ninety-five regular concerts, the total receipts of 

 which were $712,161.34, of which her net receipts 

 were $17ii.i>7.\'.i, and Mr. Barnum's gross receipts, 

 after paying the singer, were $535,486.25. The mar- 

 riage of Tom Thumb to Lavinia Warren, another 

 dwarf, in Trinity Church, and the introduction to the 

 public of Commodore Nutt and Admiral Dott, two 

 other dwarfs, the woolly horse, the What is It, and 

 other specialties, added largely to his popularity. 

 For some time he conducted a museum in Philadel- 

 phia in conjunction with the one in New York. He 

 published several books, which had a large circula- 

 tion, and delivered lectures on temperance and popu- 

 lar subjects before crowded houses. In 18(55 the 

 American Museum was destroyed by fire. lie then 

 organized another one farther up town, and contin- 

 ued his popular exhibition and lecture-room attrac- 

 tions till burned out a second time, a few vears nftcr- 

 wurd. In 1871 he opened to the public "The Great- 

 est Show on Earth," a combination of circus and 

 menagerie, and to this, with vast licentious, he ap- 

 plied the remainder of his life. His later triumphs 

 were the exhibitions of "Jumbo," the great elephant 

 of the London Zoological Ciarden, and the sacred 

 white elephant of Siam, and the transportation and 

 exhibition in England of his entire show. Prior to 

 the civil war Mr. Barnum was a Democrat, but ho 

 then joined the Republican party, and in 1865-'69 

 was a member of the Connecticut Legislature. In 1^7"> 

 he was elected Mayor of Bridgeport, and in public 

 improvements and gifts did much for the city. He 

 gave $500,000 before his death to the Bridgeport Sci- 

 entific and the Fairfiold County Historical Socie- 

 ties t'or the erection of their now building, and he 

 also bequeathed handsome legacies to personal friends 

 and to numerous literary, charitable, and religious 



bodi-. s. 



Barrett, Lawrence, actor, Urn of Irish parent* in 



u, V .1.. April 4, IMh; .iie.i in S, ^...^ 

 city, March -.'I. l^'.'l. A t u very early ugt he dixplu) J 



evidence* ol'ifreut i lltcllit-CIICf, Ulld fiin lljothel. | 



working woman, often curried him to c 

 arms when he wa too feeble to wulk. lie l.< L 'un lift: 

 for himself in u dry-goods tori-. where he nl,. 

 ta>te tor mimicry, and wa fond of i nt ruining h'm 

 fellow -clerk* with imitations of the lav- : 

 the day. His tir-t theatrical employment WA ft* call- 

 boy in a l)etn.it 

 theatre, at a nul- 

 ary of fc'J.'.n a 



week. He kept his 



eyes and his ears 

 open, and stud- 

 iously watched all 

 that wiis going on 

 about him, spcnd- 

 inireven spare mo- 

 ment over a book 

 or a play. Stick- 

 ing upon nails on 

 the floor Of hi* mis- 

 erable garret the 

 ends of candles he 

 had begged from 

 the property-man, 

 he spent whole 

 nights in reading. 

 His favorite book was an old dictionary, which he 

 knew almost by heart, and, naturally enough, a love for 

 philological studies distinguished him through life. 

 At last, this earnest little boy with a preternatural ly 

 big head and bright, intelligent blue even at. 

 the attention of the manager, and, much to his ioy, in 

 1853 he was given his first speak intr Part, that of 

 Murad in "The French Spy." The character was 

 very insignificant, but- he put as much thought into 

 it as if it had been Hamlet, i.ml from that time his 

 career as an actor bciran. In 1854 he went to Pitts- 

 burg as a member of the Grand Opera House stock 

 company, then under the management of Joseph 

 Foster. For two years lie plaved in the support of 

 many of the leading actors anJ actresses of the day. 

 His 'first appearance in New York was in the old 

 Chambers btioet Theatre, which had been abandoned 

 by William E. Burton about a year before. The 

 opening piece was "The Hunchback," Jan. 19,1857, 

 and he waa Sir Thomas Clittbrd. During thut en- 

 gagement Mr. Barrett played many leading roltf, 

 amoni; them Fazio, the Stranger, Armand, Ingomar. 

 Claude Melnottc, and Lord Townlcy; and he made.-o 

 favorable an impression that he soon had many oilers 

 for a next season's engagement. He accepted that of 

 Mr. Burton as promising the greatest ad vantages, and 

 on March 2, 1857, he pegan his work at Burton's 

 Theatre (the Metropolitan, afterward Winter Gar- 

 den), making his first appearance there as Matthew 

 Hates in Douglas Jen-old's u Time Tries All." Dur- 

 ing the season at Burton's he first met Edwin Booth, 

 and there the two young men began a friendship 

 which ended only with Mr. Barrett's death. Totally 

 unlike in nature, they seemed to supplement each 

 other, and the reliitioiis'lnp between them was constant 

 and cordial. While at Burton's Mr. Barrett played 

 Florizel to Burton's Autolycus, and Fagan to Char- 

 lotte dish man's Nancy Sikes,and he acted often with 

 Kdwin liooth. In the autumn of 1858 he became a 

 leading actor in the Boston Museum, where heopened 

 as I-' red crick Bramble in the comedy of "The Poor 

 Gentleman,"' in which Mr. \Varnn was Dr. Ollapod 

 and W. II. Smith Sir Robert. During his two years 

 at the Museum he played many characters and be- 

 came an established favoriU-. r'rom then- he went to 

 the Howard Athena-urn, when- he siip|xrtcd during 

 one season Charlotte Ctishman. Harry Sullivan, 

 James II. Hackett, Edwin L. Davenport, and Charles 

 W. Conldock. Mr. Barrett enlisted in 1861, and 

 served for some time as captain of Company B, of 

 the 28th Massachusetts Volunteers. Returning North, 





