| Show A STORY taie barnum annum P T barnum tells in his autobiography a great many stories illustrative of his own sharpness but omits omila as m many an y more in in w which aich the laugh happens to beat be at his own expense one of these omitted incidents occurred in the spring of 1866 when barnum was a member of the connecticut house of representatives ta tives it was waa the second week of the session and david clark dark of hartford being in town the legislature met in new haven that year gave a very elegant dinner at the savin rock bock house in honor of governor hawley just been inaugurated twenty or thirty gentlemen were invited among them P T barnum and ike bromley now of the hartford post then editor of the norwich bulletin ul letin and representative from norwich barnum as usual was very conspicuous doing most of the talking and making himself as prominent prominent romi nent as possible brom who rad ead had never met the showman before except once ea ft usually at the beginning of the session was a good deal disgusted with him by and by after the dinner had been disposed of mr clark dark proposed the health of governor hawley and the governor res responded d in a little speech one or two distinguished other distinguished gentlemen were toasted and responded and then health w wab was as proposed the great showman rose with the manner of a man who was to say the funniest things of the evening and was confident he could nil fill the bill and with an air of mock embarrassment embarras ment began mr chairman you know I 1 am not in the habit of making speeches here he commenced examining his big pockets as if looking for his manu scripts not finding any ny he turned to the gentleman near him and enquired chos got my in y notes the question had not left his lips before brom sitting way at theother the other end of the table without lifting his eyes from the nuts nuta on his plate shouted in answer chauncey jerome the effect was electrical the crowd stamped and yelled until the dishes danced and barnum for the first time in his life was really embarrassed he had not anything to say after awhile when the uproar had sufficiently subsided to give him a chance he managed to bay say he owed the gentleman from norwich one and with a few words sat down but he was extinguished for the evening and gave up for once the position of head centre norwich bulletin |
