ope.

In 1849, after much correspondence, he secured the sweet singer, Jenny
Lind, for one hundred nights, at one thousand dollars per night. His
profits on these concerts were simply immense, and he retired from
business.

In 1857 it was heralded all over the land that Barnum had failed. It was
so; unfortunate speculations had swamped him, and he returned to New
York a bankrupt. Without a dollar he bought the Museum again, and in
less than a year he succeeded in paying for it. His life henceforth has
been full of its ups and downs; twice was he burned out, but as often he
came forth in some new role--or rather an improvement on the old.

General Tom Thumb was again taken to Europe. This venture, and his
lecture on 'Money Making,' in England, succeeded beyond his most
sanguine expectations. Every note was taken up, and he is to-day once
more a millionaire. He has been for years the central figure in 'The
Greatest Show on Earth,' the expense of which is from four to five
thousand dollars a day. But not alone is he great as a showman; his
lectures must have made him noted, and he is connected with different
other enterprises.

He is a very shrewd man, and is also honest. Think of it! at fifty a
ruined man, owing thousands more than he possessed, yet resolutely
resuming business life once more--fairly wringing success from adverse
fortune, and paying his notes at the same time.

When solicited for money with which to carry on his campaign for
Congress, he answered, "God grant that I be defeated, sooner than one
grain of gold be so basely used." Such principles are glorious, and upon
their perpetuation depends the rise or fall of a Republican form of
government. Mr. Barnum's latest sensation, in order to draw crowds, is
the consolidation of his great show with that mammoth show formerly
belonging to Adam Forepaugh. This caps the climax, the two "Greatest
Shows on Earth" united.

MATHEW VASSAR.

Vassar College, five hundred feet long and five stories high, is a
monument of which any man might be proud. The founder, Mathew Vassar,
was born in England in 1792, and four years later landed in America,
settling in Poughkeepsie, on a farm with his parents.

In those days the English people thought that they couldn't live without
a yearly supply of home-brewed ale; such a thing being unknown in the
quiet community to which they had come. As there was no barley to be
had, seed was imported from the mother-country a