Article on Barnum's attractions and financial state

“Inside or out, Barnum’s Museum is one great centre of attraction. Like Gen. Grant, Barnum is full of resources and other curiosities—if the dwarfs fail to attract as dwarfs, he has only to splice three or four of them together, and lo! and behold, you have a giant. If you tire of the beauty of the Angel Fish, Barnum will convert it into a Devil Fish, by turning it over. Skeletons live at Barnum’s that can live nowhere else. The “wax figgers” of royalty are as useful at Barnum’s as the originals are in their realms afar. The Museum is a little world in itself, presided over by wax princes, potentates, and other powers; here you see all the birds of the air, all the fishes of the sea, and all the animals of the forest; gems from the depths of the sea, minerals from the depths of the land, and specimen bricks from everywhere; there be shells from many a sea girl shore, and living waters from the Dead Sea; here’s a lock of John Brown’s hair, and there a lock of John Brown’s musket; one of the Arabian Knights, and one of Algier’s Deys, all clearly defined by the light of other days. Ah! its [sic] a grand old place to walk through, to see things, and to marvel o’er the many trophies that carry us back to olden times and old Virginia’s shore. We shall sadly miss the ancient pile should the demands of commerce compel its demolition, and drive the old curiosity shop among the nobs up town.”