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GREAT TRAVELING WORLD'S FAIR
FOR THE CAMPAIGN OF 1873,
P. T. BARNUM TO THE PUBLIC.
LADIES, GENTLEMEN, FAMILIES,
CHILDREN, FRIENDS:
My career for forty years as a public Manager of Amusements
blended with Instruction is well know. You have all hear of
my three New York Museums; my appearance before kings,
queens, and royal courts, with Gen. Tom Thumb; my great
triumphal tour with Jenny Lind, the Swedish Nightingale; and
my immense Traveling Exhibitions. Every body concedes that I
give ten times the money's worth, and always delight my
patrons. I now come before you with the LAST GRAND
CROWNING TRIUMPH OF MY MANAGERIAL LIFE.
Notwithstanding the burning of my last museum, in
December (which, however, did not destroy any of my great
traveling chariots, vans, cages, or horses, nor duplicates
of most of my living wild animals, which were then on
exhibition in New Orleans), I have been enabled, through the
aid of cable dispatches, electricity, and steam, and the
expenditure of nearly a million of dollars, to place upon
the road by far the largest and most interesting Combination
of MUSEUM, MENAGERIE, and HIPPODROME ever
known. Indeed, it may fairly be called a great TRAVELING
WORLD'S FAIR.
No description will convey an adequate idea of its vastness,
its beauty, and its marvelous collection of wonders. After
our Grand Opening in the buildings of the American
Institute, Monday, March 31, where we will remain for about
ten days, we shall commence the campaign of 1873.
It will travel entirely by railroad, and be exhibited this
season in nearly every large town in New England, Canada,
and the States east of the Mississippi River and north of
the Ohio. It requires more than one hundred cars, besides
fifty of my own, made expressly for this purpose, and
five or six locomotives, to transport it. My daily expenses
exceed $5,000. We can only stop in large towns, and leave it
to those residing elsewhere to reach us by cheap excursion
trains, which they can easily get up,
Among some of my novelties are a FREE PULL MENAGERIE OF
WILD ANIMALS, including all, and more than are usually
seen in a traveling menagerie, which I now open to be seen
by every body, WITHOUT ANY CHARGE WHATEVER.
Although I have consolidated more than twenty shows in one,
containing nearly one hundred gorgeously magnificent gold
and enameled cages, dens, and vans, requiring the services
of nearly ONE THOUSAND MEN and OVER FIVE HUNDRED HORSES, the
price of admission to the entire combination of exhibitions
is only the same as is charged to a common show, viz., 50
cents: children half price.
My great Hippodrome Tent comfortably seats 13,000 persons at
one time, while my numerous other tent covers several acres
of ground.
The Museum Department contains 100,000 Curiosities,
including Prof. Faber's wonderful TALKING MACHINE,
costing me $20,000 for its use six months. Also a NATIONAL
PORTRAIT GALLERY
of 100 life-size Oil Paintings, including all the Presidents
of the United States, our Statesmen and Military Heroes, as
well as foreign Potentates and Celebrities, and the entire
Collection of the celebrated John Rogers' Groups of
Historical and Classic Statuary. Also an almost endless
variety of Curiosities, including numberless Automaton
Musicians and Mechanicians, and Moving Scenes,
Transformation Landscapes, Sailing-Ships, Running
Water-Mills, Railroad Trains. &c., made in Paris and Geneva,
more beautiful and marvelous than can be imagined, and all
kept in motion by a Steam-Engine. Here also are Giants,
Dwarfs, Feejee Cannibals, Modoc and Digger Indians,
Circassian Girls, the No-Armed Boy, &c.
Among the rare Living Animals are MONSTER SEA LIONS,
transported in great water-tanks; the largest RHINOCEROS
ever captured alive, and 500 Wild Beasts and Rare Birds,
Elephants, Elands, Gnus, Lions, Tigers, Polar Bears,
Ostriches, and every description of Wild Animal hitherto
exhibited, besides many never before seen on this Continent.
In the Hippodrome department are THREE DISTINCT RINGS,
wherein three sets of rival performances are taking place at
the same time, in full view of all the audience. Here will
be seen performing elephants, horse-riding goats, educated
horses, ponies, trick mules and bears, and three distinct
equestrian companies (with six clowns), including by far the
best male and female bare-back riders in the world, with
numerous athletes and gymnasts who have no equal.
Every thing is perfectly chaste and unobjectionable.
I
regard this with pride as the culminating triumph of my
amusement career, and I hazard nothing in saying that the
like will not be seen again in this generation.
THE GREAT STREET PROCESSION, three miles long, takes
place every morning at half-past eight o'clock. It is worth
going one hundred miles to see. It consists of trains of
elephants, camels, dromedaries, zebras, and elks in harness;
nearly one hundred gold, enameled, and cerulean chariots,
vans, dens, and cages; Arabian horses, trick ponies, three
bands of music, and a most marvelous display of gymnastic,
automatic, and musical performances in the public streets.
 THREE
FULL EXHIBITIONS will be given each day at 10, 1, and 7
o'clock. Clergymen of all denominations, and there wives,
admitted free. Parties from the country are earnestly
advised to see the Grand Procession, and attend the first
morning exhibitions, while every thing is fresh, and seen to
the best advantage, thus avoiding the immense crowds of
afternoon and evening,
The public's obedient servant,
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438 FIFTH AVENUE, March 15, 1873,
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