P. T. Barnum Never Did Say
"There's a Sucker Born Every Minute"
By R. J. Brown
Editor-in-Chief
P. T. Barnum is most often associated with the circus sideshow and the
display of freaks. While this is true, he is also the founding force behind
one of America's most famous circuses: Barnum & Bailey Circus. Barnum is
also affiliated with the famous quote "There's a sucker born every minute."
History, unfortunately, has misdirected this quotation. Barnum never did say
it. Actually, it was said by his competitor. Here's the incredible story.
From 1866 until 1868 Mr. George Hull, of Binghamton, New York studied
archeology and paleontology. Over this period of time Hull contemplated how
to pull off a hoax. It seems that many an evangelist at the time had been
preaching that there were giants in the earth. In June of 1868 Hull traveled
back to Fort Dodge, Iowa where there was a gypsum quarry he had recalled
seeing two years earlier. Even then, he had noticed that the dark blue
streaks running through the soft lime rock resembled human veins. Realizing
this its appearance was tailor-made for his hoax and it was easy to carve,
Hull hired a group of quarry workers to cut off a slab measuring twelve feet
long, four feet wide and two feet thick.
In November, Hull had his gypsum wrapped in canvas and hoisted onto a wagon.
Since the nearest railroad was forty miles away, it proved to be a long,
difficult job. He then had the slab of gypsum shipped by rail to Chicago
where he had hired a stone cutter named Edward Burghardt to carve a giant.
Burghardt and his two assistants, were sworn to secrecy and agreed to work
on the piece in a secluded barn during their off hours and Sundays. The
instructions were to carve the giant as if it had died in great pain, and
the final result was an eerie figure, slightly twisted in apparent agony,
with his right hand clutching his stomach. All of the details were there;
toenails, fingernails, nostrils, sex organs and so forth. Even a needlepoint
mallet was used to add authentic-looking skin pores. When the carving was
done, sulfuric acid and ink were used to make the figure look aged.
The giant finished, Hull then had the figure shipped by rail to the farm of
William Newell, his cousin, located near the town of Cardiff, New York. In
the dead of night, Hull, Newell and his oldest son buried the giant between
the barn and house. They were instructed to say nothing about it and that
Hull would let them know in about a year of what the next stage was.
Luckily, about six months later, on another farm near the Newell's, some
million year-old fossil bones were dug up. Newspapers around the country
reported the finding. Hull was filled with glee in reading the accounts.
True to his word, one year after burying the giant, Hull sent word to his
cousin on October 15, 1869, to start the next stage of the hoax. Newell
hired two laborers to dig a new well near his home. Newell directed them to
the exact spot he wanted the well dug and went back into the house to
wait -- anxiously. Sure enough, well into the day, the two laborers rushed
up to the house to announce their discovery: a giant turned to stone! The
laborers and both Newells carefully excavated the area surrounding the
giant.
News of this amazing discovery spread throughout the valley and soon wagon
loads of neighbors streamed into Newell's farm to see the giant. By
mid-afternoon, Newell erected a tent around the "grave" and started charging
25 cent admission. Two days later, the Syracuse Journal (New York) printed
an article about the discovery. Being greedy, Newell raised the price to 50
cents, and a stage coach company made four round trips a day from Syracuse
to the Newell farm. Thousands came every day. Among the visitors were
clergymen, college professors and distinguished scientists. Before long, the
expert's opinions split into two theories; one side claimed it was a true
fossilized human giant and the other side pronounced it an authentic ancient
statue. No one asserted that it was a fake!
About ten days after the discovery, and about the time the Cardiff Giant, as
the papers had named it, started receiving national attention, Hull sold
two-thirds interest in the giant for $30,000 to a five-man syndicate in
Syracuse, the head of which was a banker named David Hannum. The syndicate
moved the giant to an exhibition hall in Syracuse and raised the admission
price to a dollar a head. Unknown to them, P. T. Barnum sent an agent to see
the giant and make an assessment. The particular Sunday the representative
saw the giant, the crowds were abnormally large -- about 3,000 people. The
agent wired the news back to Barnum and Barnum instructed him to make an
offer of $50,000 to buy it. Hannum turned his offer down.
The Cardiff Giant was the most talked about exhibit in the nation. Barnum
wanted the giant to display himself while the attraction was still a hot
topic of the day. Rather than upping his offer, Barnum hired a crew of
workers to carve a giant of his own. Within a short time, Barnum unveiled
HIS giant and proclaimed that Hannum had sold Barnum the original giant and
that Hannum was now displaying a fake! Thousands of people flocked to see
Barnum's giant. Many newspapers carried the version that Barnum had given
them; that is, Hannum's giant was a fake and Barnum's was authentic. It is
at this point that Hannum -- NOT BARNUM -- was quoted as saying "There's a
sucker born every minute." Hannum, still under the impression that HIS giant
was authentic, was referring to the thousands of "fools" that paid money to
see Barnum's fake and not his authentic one.
Hannum brought a lawsuit against Barnum for calling his giant a fake. When
it came to trial, Hull stepped forward and confessed that the Cardiff Giant
was a hoax and the entire story. The judge ruled that Barnum could not be
sued for calling Hannum's giant a fake since it was a fake after all.
Thereafter, Hannum's name was lost to history while Barnum was left with the
misplaced stigma of being the one to say "There's a sucker born every
minute."
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sterling K. Webb" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Michael Farmer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "M come Meteorite Meteorites"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Notkin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Meteorite
List" <meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Monday, March 19, 2007 12:44 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Mr. Kramskoi & Meteorite Offers from Russia
Hi, Mike, List,
I have to quarrel with your arithmetic, Mike.
A sucker a day is only 365 new suckers a year,
and the population of suckers is far too great to
have been created at that rate.
The great Phineas T. Barnum is the source
of that quote, and I believe that he said, "There's
a sucker born every minute," Even that is only
525,960 new suckers a year, which sounds a
little on the shy side to me. But I'll take old
Phineas' word for it; he knew his suckers.
Sterling K. Webb
-------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Farmer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "M come Meteorite Meteorites" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Notkin"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Meteorite List"
<meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Monday, March 19, 2007 10:03 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Mr. Kramskoi & Meteorite Offers from Russia
A sucker is born every day.
Michael Farmer
-- M come Meteorite Meteorites
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I doubt a nigerian scam continue to send you emails
with photos etc....and is not real this person ask
immediatly $800 of contract, I have sent 100 euro
and
now I want seen what arrive
Matteo
--- Michael Farmer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ha
scritto:
> Geoff, this is another form of Nigerian scam. They
> are
> now getting on ebay, finding items that sell,
> learning
> about them, then ripping people off who are
gullible
> enough to send money to people they do not know.
> This
> has been on the news lately.
> These guys plan to take your $800.00 then you will
> never hear from them again. The same people are
> likely
> sending the same emails to people for coins,
> fossils,
> and anything else of value from Russia that people
> might actually want to buy.
> Buy from people you know, or suffer the
> consequences.
> Michael Farmer
> --- Notkin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > Dear Listees:
> >
> > Greetings all.
> >
> > Thank you to those of you who replied off-List
to
> my
> > post inquiring
> > about a Mr. Kramskoi.
> >
> > The following information may be of interest to
to
> > any List members who
> > have received a recent offer from Russia about
> > meteorites for sale:
> >
> > 1) A significant number meteorite dealers and
> > collectors, around the
> > world, have been contacted by email by a person
> > representing himself as
> > Mr. Aleksandr Kramskoi supposedly of Kramskoi
Law
> > Firm in Moscow. He
> > states he is selling meteorite specimens in
order
> to
> > raise funds for
> > the Kanatnaya Doroga Charity Foundation
> (supposedly
> > an orphanage) in
> > Russia.
> >
> > 2) Mr. Kramskoi has offered for sale Lunar
> specimens
> > from the Russian
> > Luna missions, and some very attractive
> > Sikhote-Alins, apparently from
> > an old collection. He has emailed photos of
these
> > specimens to numerous
> > people. Mr. Kramskoi offered to send me 4.5 kg
of
> > Sikhote-Alins, "so
> > you can inspect it carefully and give a fair
price
> > for these items."
> > Once I agreed to receive the specimens for
> > inspection, he then emailed
> > me an elaborate contract and asked for $800 in
> > advance as a "contract
> > fee."
> >
> > 3) Mr. Kramskoi stated that after receiving the
> $800
> > from me, he would
> > ship the Sikhote-Alins by UPS or Fedex and that
> upon
> > receipt I would
> > have 180 days to pay the balance. I found the
> length
> > of time allowed
> > for payment to be suspicious.
> >
> > 4) A well-respected List member, and
professional
> > colleague of mine in
> > Europe, was offered the same pieces and the same
> > contract, at the same
> > time, though for a different price.
> >
> > 5) My colleague has a reliable friend in Russia
> who
> > has established
> > that the address provided by Mr. Kramskoi for
his
> > law office does not
> > exist.
> >
> > 6) My colleague and I both declined to enter
into
> > any form of
> > transaction with Mr. Kramskoi, and I post this
> > information so anyone
> > else who is thinking of doing business with him
> will
> > be able to form
> > their own conclusions before sending any money
to
> > Russia.
> >
> > Anyone wanting more detailed information, please
> > contact me off-List. I
> > can tell you about another great offer I
received
> > from Nigeria : )
> >
> >
> > Sincerely,
> >
> > Geoff N.
> > www.aerolite.org
> >
> > ______________________________________________
> > Meteorite-list mailing list
> > Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com
> >
>
http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
> >
>
> ______________________________________________
> Meteorite-list mailing list
> Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com
>
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>
M come Meteorite - Matteo Chinellato
Via Triestina 126/A - 30173 - TESSERA, VENEZIA,
ITALY
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sale Site: http://www.mcomemeteorite.it
Collection Site: http://www.mcomemeteorite.info
MSN Messanger: spacerocks at hotmail.com
EBAY.COM:http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/mcomemeteorite/
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