The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York (53 page)

87
To engineer the merger:
Tucher, 18.

87
Seeking a consulship:
Fermer, 16.

91
Runners passing information:
Headley, 61.

91
A full-scale campaign:
Much of this discussion is based on Bertram Wyatt-Brown’s essay, “The Abolitionists’ Postal Campaign of 1835,” published in the
Journal of Negro History,
October 1965.

91
Passed through the New York post office:
Wyatt-Brown, 230.

92
“If that sum is placed”:
Wyatt-Brown, 231.

92
“The least spark would create a flame”:
Richards, 17.

94
More than one hundred riots:
Reiss (2001), 7.

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94
“We have complied”:
The letter, and Locke’s response to it, can be found in the
Sun’
s issue of August 20, 1835.

C HAPTE R 6: TH E P R I N C E O F IVY I S LAN D

97
The village of Bethel:
Bethel was actually a parish of Danbury until 1855, when it was incorporated as its own town.

97
“The smoke had all cleared away”:
Barnum (1855), 12.

97
Children ate their meals with lead spoons:
Werner, 11.

97
Calomel, jalap, and Epsom salts:
Werner, 13.

98
“A pretty pass, indeed”:
Barnum (1855), 50.

98
The presiding spirit of the town was Calvinist:
See the excellent discussion in Saxon, pp. 47–48.

98
“Almost smelling, feeling and tasting”:
Saxon, 48.

99 Love God and Be Merry: Saxon, 158.

99
Ivy Island:
The story of Ivy Island is found in Barnum (1855), pp. 30–35.

101
“One seldom hears”:
Brooks, 258.

102
Like all tribal initiations:
Van Wyck Brooks called Ivy Island “a clear case of tribal initiation, as the anthropologists know it” (259).

102
Barnum’s inheritance:
The outrageous practical joke of Ivy Island would seem to be one of Barnum’s own inventions. But Barnum biographer A. H.

Saxon, who has been there, reports that “Ivy Island does indeed exist, and is nearly every bit as awful as Barnum makes it out to be.” And Barnum did in fact own the property as a boy; his grandfather deeded it to him when he was nearly two years old. Saxon, 29–30.

102
“I have drawn and bottled more rum”:
Roarke, 374.

105
Tens of thousands of items:
For a detailed listing of the museum’s remarkable collections, see its 1823 catalogue,
A Companion to the American Museum:
Being a Catalogue of Upwards of Fifty Thousand Natural and Foreign Curiosities, Antiquities, and Productions of the Fine Arts,
compiled by the son of the museum’s founder, John Scudder.

105
On the corner of Ann Street:
In 1830 John Scudder, the proprietor, moved his museum from the former almshouse in City Hall Park to a five-story building on the corner of Broadway and Ann.

105
“Advertising is like learning”:
Saxon, 77.

106
“People would gamble in lotteries”:
Barnum (1855), 75.

106
Not disestablished until 1818:
Saxon, 41.

107 “Hireling Priests”: Saxon, 51.

107
Two of his sons:
Saxon, 43.

108
“The same spirit governs my enemies”:
Werner, 20.

108
“The fearless advocate”:
Saxon, 44.

109
“By friendship”:
Saxon, 41.

109
His last issue:
After issue number 160, Barnum’s brother-in-law, John W.

Amerman, moved the
Herald of Freedom’
s offices to Norwalk and continued

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to publish for another year before finally selling the paper to another publisher, George W. Taylor.

110
“Fortunes equalling that of Croesus”:
Barnum (1855), 143.

111
“CURIOSITY”:
Barnum included a transcription of the
Inquirer
article in his autobiography. Barnum (1855), 148.

112
“The least deserving of all my efforts”:
Barnum (1888), 37.

112
It was the fall of 1841:
For Barnum’s account of the sale of the American Museum, see Barnum (1855), 216–223.

112
The problem of money:
When a friend, knowing his lack of funds, asked him what he would use to buy the museum, Barnum says that he replied, “
Brass,
for silver and gold I have none.” Barnum (1855), 216.

114
Recently bought the paper:
Benjamin Day sold the
Sun
to his brother-in-law Moses Beach in 1838 for $40,000.

114
“Five acres of land in Connecticut”:
A. H. Saxon has pointed out that when the deal for the American Museum was finally completed, Barnum had pledged as security two other parcels of land in Bethel in addition to Ivy Island. Saxon, 32.

C HAPTE R 7: STR AN G E ATTR ACTI O N S

115
A thousand years old:
Barnum wrote in his autobiography, “So far as outward indications were concerned, she might almost as well have been called a thousand years old as any other age.” Barnum (1855), 148.

115
She was reclining on a high lounge:
For Barnum’s account of his first encounter with Joice Heth and how he purchased her contract, see Barnum (1855), 148–152.

115
Barnum was examining this woman:
See Reiss (2001), 19–20.

117
“This whole account”:
Barnum (1855), 150.

117
He always denied this:
In an article entitled “A Go-A-Head Day with Barnum,” published in
Bentley’s Miscellany
in 1847, an associate of Barnum’s named Albert Smith wrote that Barnum had told him in 1844 that he had created the Joice Heth hoax himself, teaching her the George Washington stories and faking her documents. Smith (1847), 627. However, Barnum’s claims here (which he never repeated and later often contradicted) can be dismissed as the idle boasting of a young showman who preferred to be seen as the “humbugger” rather than the “humbugged”; see Saxon, 73. Moreover, the historical record clearly indicates that Joice Heth was being advertised as “George Washington’s nursemaid” well before Barnum became acquainted with her in the summer of 1835.

117
First consulted with Charity:
Wallace, 9.

118
“Golden harvest”:
Barnum (1855), 150.

118
“Became Joice Heth’s sole owner”:
Harris, 21.

118
“Overnight became showman and slaveholder”:
Wallace, 9.

118
Purchasing the right to exhibit Joice Heth:
See also the discussions in Reiss (2001), 23–27; and Saxon, 21.

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118
William Henry Johnson:
Johnson was actually the last of a series of What Is It?’s employed by Barnum. The first one was a disabled actor from New York named Harvey Leetch, who played the What Is It? for Barnum in London in 1846. Cook, 126.

118
Born in New Jersey:
Cook, 128.

118
A heated debate:
See Saxon, 83.

119
“If the blacks were unceremoniously set free”:
Saxon, 83.

119
“I am no apologist for slavery”:
Saxon, 83.

119
An unsigned article published in the
Atlas: Saxon, 84.

119
Mentioned the
Ceres
in his autobiography:
Barnum (1855), 205.

119
Cited the
Atlas
article:
“The proprietors of the Atlas had published my portrait with a brief sketch of my life, interspersed with numerous anecdotes.”

Barnum (1855), 356.

120
“Gazed, wondered, looked”:
This description is from a front-page article,

“The Joice Heth Hoax,” published in the
Herald,
September 24, 1836.

120
A former stud farm:
The widespread notion that Niblo built on the former site of the open-air venue called the Columbia Garden is mistaken; the Columbia Garden was across the street. See Garrett, 9.

120
A full city block:
The block bounded by Prince, Houston, Broadway, and Crosby streets, in what is today Soho.

120
Pleasure garden:
Thomas Garrett has defined a pleasure garden as “a privately owned (as opposed to a governmentally owned) enclosed ornamental ground or piece of land, open to the public as a resort or amusement area, and operated as a business.” Garrett, 4. Pleasure gardens were enormously popular in New York from the early eighteenth century well into the twentieth century.

120
Niblo’s Suburban Pleasure Garden:
Dayton, 227.

121
A white apron and a blue sash:
Lines, 3.

121
Carried in a sedan chair:
Reiss (2001), 32.

121
“Newspapers friendly”:
Saxon, 75.

121
“I am indebted to the press”:
Saxon, 76.

122
“The expense of making these sudden conversions”:
Lyman recounted the story of Barnum’s dealings with the newspaper editors in a front-page article,

“The Joice Heth Hoax,” published in the
Herald
on September 24, 1836.

123
“Victoria herself”:
Reiss (2001), 37.

123
Fourteen hours a day:
Reiss (2001), 38.

124
Gross receipts of fifteen hundred dollars:
Barnum (1855), 152.

124
The differences between the races:
See the discussion in Reiss (2001), 42–45.

125
He whose portrait hung in almost every house:
In 1858, Walt Whitman wrote of Washington, “His portrait hangs on every wall, and he is almost canonized in the affections of our people.” Reiss (2001), 56.

125
On August 8:
In his history of the
Sun,
Frank O’Brien gives the date of the move as August 3 (O’Brien, 49), but issues of the newspaper from the period clearly indicate that the move took place on Saturday, August 8.

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125
One of the most destructive fires:
An even more destructive fire would strike the following December 16. Though only two lives were lost, more than six hundred buildings would be destroyed and many thousands of people thrown out of work. See, for example, Burrows and Wallace, 596–598.

127
Its circulation spiked:
On August 13 the
Sun
proclaimed, “We may safely assert that no other one paper in the Union, nor in the world, ever sold as many papers in one day, as we did yesterday.” See Thompson, 24.

127
Afong Moy, “the Chinese Lady”:
Caldwell, 86.

C HAPTE R 8: C E LE STIAL D I S C OVE R I E S

131
Guessed Locke to be an inch shorter:
Harrison (1902), 15:136.

131
“A calm, clear
luminousness”: Harrison (1902), 15:136.

131
“Strongly pitted by the smallpox”:
Harrison (1902), 15:136.

132
Two years later a son would arrive:
National Archives and Records Administration, 1860 Census Records, Film Series M653, Roll 850, page 22.

132
Manor house:
My thanks to Anna and Robert Orledge, its present-day owners, for graciously allowing me to visit their home.

133
“The Universe Restored”:
Griggs, 42.

133
“The Moon and its Inhabitants”: Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal
1

(April–October 1826), 389–390. William Griggs mistakenly claimed that this article was written by Thomas Dick. However, Dick’s article was earlier in the issue and concerned a new type of telescope, not the possibility of life on the moon. Griggs, 5.

134
A longer article:
Thomas Dick, “Description of a New Reflecting Telescope, Denominated the Aërial Reflector,” 41–51.

134
“The operations of intelligent agents”:
Dick (1828), 371.

134
“There can be little doubt”:
Dick (1828), 372.

135
Locke asked three hundred dollars:
In his interview with the
Sun
published on September 1, 1883, entitled “Benjamin Day’s Own Story,” Day recalled,

“I paid between $500 and $600. That was more than the sum first agreed upon, which was $300.”

135
A penny paper they called the
True Sun: O’Brien, 33.

139
“It can, in truth represent objects”:
This item from the
Times
of London was reprinted in the Richmond
Enquirer
of April 12, 1833.

140
An estimated $70,000:
The following day the
Sun
noted in an Erratum item that this should have been printed as £70,000. Locke had been living in the United States too long.

141
Astronomers had not even tried:
Buttman, 5.

142
John joined his father:
Buttman, 19–20.

142
Seventy-two hours straight:
Clerke, 35.

143
“Not as a matter of choice”:
Moore, 6.

143
“Tranquility of the retina”:
Clerke, 101.

143
“Sick of star-gazing”:
Fernie, 77.

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143
Never again sit behind a telescope:
Clerke, 183.

143
Has been compared to Einstein’s:
Fernie, 104.

145
Making observations of everything:
Fernie, 79.

C HAPTE R 9: A PA S SAG E TO TH E M O O N

147
“Excited my fancy”:
Harrison (1902), 15:127.

148
“Conspicuous, as well”:
Varle, 9.

149
E. J. Coale’s bookstore:
Allen, 267.

149
“The Bard”:
Allen, 267.

149
Fig trees and raspberry bushes:
Allen, 105.

149
Eight houses and an estate:
Silverman, 99.