THE HISTORY OF THl HBN FEVER. 199 



ticket-o£5ce, and "the people" wedged their way uf the 

 crowded stairs and aisles of his Museum. 



The great show-man was as busy as His Satanic Majesty 

 is vulgarly supposed to be in a snow-storm ! Now here, 

 now there ; up stairs, down stairs ; in the halls, in the 

 lobbies; busy with John, button-holing the "committees," 

 from morning till night. All smiles, all good-nature, all 

 exertion to please the throngs of visitors who constantly 

 jammed their way about the building. And, to say that 

 everything about this undertaking (so far as he was person- 

 ally concerned) was not managed with tact and good judg- 

 ment, as well as complete propriety and liberality, would 

 be to state what was untrue. Mr. Barnum rarely does 

 anything by halves ; and to him, in this instance, belongs 

 the credit of getting up, and carrying through successfully, 

 the very best show of poultry ever seen in America, — 

 beyond aU comparison. 



In due season I selected from my then somewhat reduced 

 stock sixty specimens of the Shanghae tribe of fowls, which, 

 with some twenty samples of choice Madagascar Kabbits, I 

 forwarded (in charge of my own agent) to this long-talked- 

 of show. 



The person whom I employed to look after my stock — 

 (for I had long since got to be "a gentleman," and couldn't 

 attend to such trifling matters, personally) — the man who 

 went with it to this exhibition was thoroughly posted up in 



