The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb - Melanie Benjamin [75]
Mr. Stratton did not appear to perceive the insult from the younger man; indeed, he grinned sunnily and exclaimed, “Miss Warren, of course!”
“Indeed!” Mr. Nutt’s nostrils flared, and his chest puffed out like a bantam rooster’s. “What a tragedy for you. For naturally she and I are in each other’s company every day, while you are stuck at home in Connecticut.”
“No, I’m not, for I’m to be in New York often, now that I’m in Business!” Mr. Stratton nodded eagerly.
“Oh, really. How fascinating. Ah, beauty, cruel, cruel beauty!” Mr. Nutt whirled and reached for my hand, raising it to his lips, kissing it. “You know not how many hearts you break!”
“Now, see here!” Charles Stratton rose, a faint, puzzled frown almost creasing his face. “I was here first, old chap.”
“All’s fair in love and war, as the poet says,” Nutt retorted, with a grin.
“Ridiculous!” I yanked my hand away, then pointed to an empty chair. “You—sit over there. And you”—I gestured at Mr. Stratton—“just—sit. And you!” I whirled around and glared at Mr. Barnum.
He was watching the three of us pensively, as if we were performers upon a stage, a stage of his own design. His eyebrows drew together, his crooked mouth pursed, and I saw that piercing, all-seeing light in his eyes escape from behind its gray curtain.
If I hadn’t known any better, I would have sworn I heard a cash register jingle in his brain. Actually, I did know better. And I knew that I had.
I was disgusted, I was insulted.
I was also, in spite of myself, intrigued.
INTERMISSION
From The Scientific American, April 4, 1863
PRESENT CONDITION OF THE “ROANOAKE”
The iron-clad steam battery, ROANOAKE, is rapidly approaching completion and it is thought that steam will be applied by 1st of April. The turrets are nearly finished and the pilot-houses are completed.… Her armament will be one 15-inch gun and one rifled 200-pound Parrot gun in the forward turret; one 11-inch gun and one 15-inch gun in the midship turret, one 11-inch gun and one rifled 200-pound Parrot gun in the after tower.
From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 23, 1863
POLITICS IN PETTICOATS
The people of Brooklyn in turning out largely last evening to hear a young lady talk politics, and in very warmly applauding the incoherent nonsense which she uttered, gave a marked proof—not of their good sense—but of their chivalric feeling for the sex. Miss Dickinson labored for an hour last evening (the thermometer was at eighty-seven), to show a sweltering crowd the way in which Providence is teaching the nation. Miss Dickinson came to an abrupt conclusion, and left her audience about as wise as she found it. As the ways of Providence are interpreted by Miss Dickinson, our salvation depends solely upon the darkey. She is not very clear on this or any other point, but as nearly as we can guess at it, this is what she means.
[ TEN ]
Two Rivals for One Hand
CHARLES STRATTON WAS BORN IN 1838 NEAR BRIDGEPORT, Connecticut, where Mr. Barnum had not yet made his home but soon would. It was there, in 1842 while visiting his brother, that Mr. Barnum heard of this remarkable child who was barely two feet tall, even though the lad was nearly four years old.
Phineas Taylor Barnum was still in the early stages of his career as a showman; he had already come to some fame by exhibiting Joice Heth and the Feejee mermaid. But he was looking for something even more remarkable, and the moment he discovered this tiny child, he realized he had found it.
Convincing the child’s parents—whom I never did like, finding them coarse and vulgar and, worse, stupid—to entrust little Charlie into his care, Mr. Barnum began to teach him how to sing, to dance, and to do popular impressions of the day. (“Yankee Doodle” became his best known.) He clothed him in miniature uniforms, increased his age from five to eleven (in order to play up his