st of his time for
the last twenty-five years in improving on springs and escapements for
clocks, and who has done a great deal for the advancement of this
business. Mr. Atkins, who is making this thirty-day time-piece, is an
excellent man to deal with. The five large companies which I have named,
manufacture about a half a million clocks per annum; the New Haven
company about two hundred thousand; and the others about three hundred
thousand between them.

CHAPTER X.

BARNUM'S CONNECTION WITH THE JEROME CLOCK CO.--CAUSES AND RESULTS OF ITS
FAILURE.

The connection of Barnum with the Jerome Manufacturing Company of New
Haven, and the failure of the Company have been the subject of much
speculation to the whole world, and has never been clearly understood.
Barnum claimed that he was cheated and swindled by this company, robbed
of his property and name, and reduced to poverty. But before giving any
statements, I call attention to the following article taken from the New
York Daily _Tribune_, of March 24th, 1860:

THE GREAT SHOWMAN.--P.T. Barnum, "the great American showman," as he
loves to hear himself called, who furnishes more amusement for a
quarter of a dollar than any other man in America, is, we are happy to
announce, himself again. He has disposed of the last of those
villainous clock notes, re-established his credit up on a cash basis,
and once more comes forward to cater for the public amusement at the
American museum. To day, between the acts of the play, Mr. Barnum will
appear upon his own stage, in his own costly character of the Yankee
Clockmaker, for which he qualified himself, with the most reckless
disregard of expense, and will "give a brief history of his adventures
as a clockmaker, showing how the clock ran down, and how it was wound
up; shadowing forth in the same the future of the museum." Of course,
Barnum's benefit will be a bumper. Next week the Museum will be closed
for renovation and repairs, and the week after it will reopen under
the popular P.T.B., once more.

I will now give the true statement of facts and particulars of his
connection with the Jerome Manufacturing Company--which, however, was
not his first experience in clock-making. Some time before this, he was
interested in a Company located in the town of Litchfield, Connecticut,
and, I believe, owned about ten thousand dollars worth of stock. They
made a very poor article which was called a mar