and those persons who were anxious for a restoration of the business
were in some way led to believe that Barnum intended to re-commence the
business of clock-making. For myself, I do not suppose that Barnum ever
seriously contemplated any such thing; but the belief that he did, made
some men quiet who might otherwise have been active and troublesome.

The manner in which this matter has been represented would reflect
dishonesty upon the Secretary, which would be untrue. No one who knows
him will, or can accuse him of dishonesty. I love truth, honesty and
religion; I do not mean, however, the religion that Barnum believes in:
(I believe that the wicked are punished in another world.) I ask the
reader to look at my situation in my old age. I think as much of a good
name, as to purity of character and honesty at heart, as any man living;
and very often reading in the New York papers of speeches that Barnum
has made, alluding to his being defrauded by the Jerome Manufacturing
Company, I wish the world to know the whole facts in the case, and what
my position was in the Company which bore my name. After many years--
years of very active business life--I had retired from active duty in
the Company, although I took a deep interest in every thing connected
with it, and also a great pride, as it was a business that I had built
up and had been many years in perfecting. The manufacturing had been
systematized in the most perfect manner and every thing looked
prosperous to me. I owned stock as others did, but did not know of its
financial standing, and was always informed that it was all right, and
that I should be perfectly safe in endorsing. I wish to have it
understood that I did not sign my name to any of this paper, it being
done by the Secretary himself, that therefore I could not know of the
amounts that were raised in that way, that I did not find out till after
the failure, and then the large amounts overwhelmed me with surprise.

It will be remembered that Barnum made two or three trips to Europe to
provide in some way for the support of his "poor and destitute" family,
which as he claimed, had been robbed and ruined by the Connecticut
clock-makers. At one time he was stopped on a pier in New York, just as
he was starting for Europe, by a suit brought against him. Thus the news
went abroad that poor Barnum was hunted and troubled on every side with
these clock notes. It was reported that he was quite sick in England and