The Saber and Scroll Journal Volume 8, Number 3, Spring 2020 | Page 24

Reconnecting America: P.T. Barnum
performances themselves move “like
clockwork.” 37 Barnum said during these
years he “worked unremittingly, re-organizing
and re-enforcing my great
traveling show.” 38 He said he negotiated
with all the railway companies between
New York and Nebraska to organize the
transport of his show by railroad, which
he said required sixty to seventy freight
cars, six passenger cars, and three engines.
39 Often traveling a hundred miles
in a night, Barnum’s show visited more
than a dozen different states. 40 By 1874,
Barnum had formed a second traveling
roadshow, P.T. Barnum’s Great Roman
Hippodrome, which he touted as alcohol-free.
41
Barnum transformed the circus
from “an unsavory source of cheap
adult entertainment into a purified setting
for children, young and old.” 42 Especially
in rural America and growing
settlements out west, Barnum’s circus
had an ever-growing appeal. Barnum
said his Hippodrome “afforded a treat to
the American public that will probably
not be witnessed again in this generation.”
43 The Hippodrome and Barnum’s
Greatest Show on Earth boasted aerial
divers (acrobats) and a human cannonball
“shot from an 80-ton gun.” 44 The
traveling shows touted “one hundred
thousand curiosities,” “marvelous mechanical
effects,” Fiji cannibals, giants,
dwarfs, four elephants, sixteen camels,
and buildings heated by steam. 45 An article
in The Sunbury Gazette promoting
his Great Traveling World’s Fair in 1873
said, “P.T. Barnum exhibits all he advertises.”
46 His illustrated advertisements
for when he show was coming to town
included promotions for “70 museum
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