FIRST "NATIONAL" POULTRY-SHOW IN NEW YORK.
Whether it was because Barnum had taken this enterprise 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 "National Poultry Society."
"All the world" was there, with his wife and babies, and nieces and
nephews. The belle and the beau, the merchant 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
cockadoodledom; 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 ticket-office, and "the people"
wedged their way up 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 personally concerned) was not managed with
tact and good judgment, 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 all 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 Rabbits, 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 his "profession," and knew a hawk from a handsaw, as well
as a Shanghae from a Cochin-China. And when he started for New York with
my contributions, I enjoined it upon him to bear in mind, under _all_
circumstances, that the gentleman he represented had the only
_pure_-bred poultry in America, any way. To which he replied, briefly,
"Is _that_ all? I knew that before."
I said, "John, you're a brick. A faced-brick. A _hard_-faced-brick.
You'll _do_."
John winked, and left me, with the understanding that, as soon as he
should have time to look around the show, he would telegraph me at
Boston what the prospect was, comparatively. I felt quite _sure_ that my
fowls would take all the premiums, for they always had done so before;
and my "pure-bred" stock grew better and better every year!
I did not go to the show for a day or two after my agent left; and, on
the morning succeeding the opening, I received from him the following
brief but expressive telegraphic dispatch:
"G.P. BURNHAM, BOSTON.
"Arrived safe; thought we'd got 'em, _sure_. We have--_over the
left_. You are nowhar!
"B."
Here was a precious fix, to be sure! For five years, I had carried away
the palm at every exhibition where my "splendid" and deservedly
"unrivalled" samples had been put in competition with the stock of
others. And now, at the first great _national_ exhibition, where
everybody would of course be present (and where the first cages that
would be looked for, or looked into, must be those of Mr. Burnham, the
breeder of the only original "pure"-blooded poultry in the country),
according to my agent's dispatch I was _no_whar!
This dispatch reached me at noon, and on the following morning I was in
New York. I looked about the several apartments in the Museum, and
satisfied myself who had the best fowls there, very quickly. As it
happened, they were not inside of _my_ cages, by a long mark!
Yet "the people" crowded around my showy coops, for which my agent had
secured an advantageous position, and in displaying them (if I remember
aright) he lost no opportunity in saying just _enough_ (and no more) to
the throng who passed and admired their beautiful proportions, their
great size, and splendid colors. There were not a few choice birds
scattered about the rooms,--under the benches, or in the far-off
corners,--which my eye fell upon, which my agent subsequently purchased
at very modest prices, and which found their way, somehow, into my
coops.
"The people" now stared with more earnestness than ever. By the evening
of the second day, my "pure-bred" stock _did_ look remarkably well! And
when the "committee" came round, at last, I found myself the recipient
of several of the leading premiums, for my "magnificent," "superb" and
"extraordinary" contributions, again. And now commenced the fun, once
more, in earnest.
Everything that I sent to New York was quickly bought up at enormous
prices. Fifty, eighty, a hundred, a hundred and twenty-five dollars per
trio, was willingly paid my agent for the rare and incomparable fowls I
exhibited there. "The people" were literally mad on the subject; and I
hadn't half enough to supply my customers with, at figures that
astonished even _my_ ideas of prices,--which, by the way, were not
easily disturbed!
During this exhibition, Mr. Barnum announced that a "conversational"
gathering would be held, one day, in the lecture-room of his Museum;
whither the throng were invited to repair, at last, to talk over matters
pertaining to the welfare of the trade generally, and the hen-humbug
more particularly.
A rush was directly made for this hall, which was quickly filled up by
the multitude, who now stood or sat, with gaping mouths and staring
eyes, in readiness to be further bamboozled by the managers of this
_National_ "Society," who duly paraded themselves upon the platform, and
commenced to show themselves up for the edification of the uninitiated,
and to the great amusement of those who had "been there" before them.
Mr. Barnum presided, but with that grace and modesty and extreme
diffidence for which he is so noted. The enthusiasm of the occasion soon
reached concert-pitch, however, and everybody on the stage, in the
parquette, and around the gallery, desired to relieve themselves of the
pent-up patriotism that rioted in their bosoms; and all desired to be
heard at the same time.
Cries of "Barnum! Barnum!" "Where's Bennett?" "Speech from Burnham!"
"Down in front!" "Give 'em a chance!" "Hear the president!--there he
is!" "Hurra for the Bother'ems!" &c. &c., rang from the lungs of the
crowd. And finally order was restored, and Mr. Barnum approached the
front of the stage, to deliver himself of "feelings that could be
fancied, not described," amid the cheers and shouts of that crazy
multitude.