CHAPTER XXIX. 



FIRST "national" POULTRT-SHO-W IN NEW YORK. 



Whether it was because Barnum had taken this enter- 

 prise in hand, whether it was because it was known that my 

 "superior" stock was to be seen at the Museum, or' whether 

 it was because the intrepid " Fanny Fern" had promised to 

 visit the show, I cannot say ; but one thing was certain, — 

 such a gathering of "the people" was seldom witnessed, 

 even in busy, driving, sight-seeing New York, as that 

 which crowded the great rooms of Barnum's establishment 

 on the occasion of the first exhibition of the so-called " Na- 

 tional Poultry Society." 



" All the world " was there, with his wife and babies, 

 and nieces and nephews. The belle and the beau, the mer- 

 chant and the mechanic, the lawyer and the parson, the rich 

 and the poor, old and young, grave and gay, — all were in 

 attendance upon this extraordinary display of cockadoodle- 

 dom ; and Barnum — the indefatigable, the enterprising, 

 the determined, the incomparable Barnum — was in his 

 glory, as the quarters were piled up at the counter of the 



