In France

P. T. Barnum (1810–1891)
From Americans in Paris: A Literary Anthology

Interesting Links
The Barnum Museum (Bridgeport, CT)

“There’s a Sucker Born Every Minute:
P.T. Barnum? Hungry Joe Lewis? Artemus Ward? Mike McDonald? Apocryphal? Anonymous?” (Quote Investigator)

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Americans in Paris: A Literary Anthology
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In the mid-1840s P. T. Barnum embarked on his first European tour. After scouting Paris for prospective venues and visiting the French Industrial Exposition of 1844, he returned the next year with “General” Tom Thumb. In a June 1845 dispatch for the New York Atlas, he wrote, “We have now been in Paris for nearly two months, and Gen. Tom Thumb’s harvest is still increasing! The excitable Parisians talk of nothing but ‘General Tom Pouce, les tres jollie [sic] charmant enfant!’” Two months later, he wrote to his stateside associate Moses Kimball, exclaiming that France “is the most charming country” but complaining about the onerous tax assessments, which he had handled with “a touch of Yankee.” The following selection from his 1869 memoir Struggles and Triumphs describes in greater detail the story of Barnum’s tour de France: the mobs that greeted Tom Thumb, the audience before the royal family, and the “Yankee trick” he pulled on the French tax collectors.

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I stopped at the Hotel Bedford, and securing an interpreter, began to make my arrangements. . . . If you don't see the full story below, click here (PDF) or click here (Google Docs) to read it—free!

This selection may be photocopied and distributed for classroom or educational use.