The Providence News

HOW BAILEY BEAT BARNUM.

And That at the Veteran Showman's Own Game, Advertising.

One of the elephants with the Barnum-Bailey circus was the means of making the fortune that Mr. Bailey is credited with possessing. It was as a baby phenomenon that the pachyderm did the good turn for the successor of "the great and only Barnum."

Columbia is the name of the creature, and of the hundreds of rare animals in the aggregation none is treasured more highly than she, now a huge, ungainly and overgrown creature with not half the wit possessed by the smallest elephant connected with the circus.

It was away back in 1880, when the news got around that the first elephant born in captivity was living and traveling with the Bailey show. Mr. Bailey was a struggling young circus owner then, battling against fearful odds. Barnum was at the height of his most remarkable career—at the very topmost notch of circus fame.

Mr. Barnum, quick to see the advantage of having so important an attraction as a real American baby elephant, telegraphed to Mr. Bailey as follows:

"Will give $100,000 for your baby elephant. Must have it."

Mr. Bailey wired in answer, "Will not sell at any price."

This seemed a daring thing for Mr. Bailey to do, for $100,000 would almost have purchased the entire show. Even Mr. Bailey's best friends, whom he consulted in the matter, advised him to accept the offer. Instead of doing that he refused it and hustled east with his circus to meet Barnum on his own ground.

By the time that the Bailey circus reached the east the whole country was billed with posters on which was printed "What Barnum Thinks of the Baby Elephant." Underneath that heading was printed Barnum's telegram to Mr. Bailey.

As the Bailey show followed in the wake of the Barnum circus each town in which the Barnum aggregation appeared was billed with the Bailey poster.

Probably the Bailey advertising did not affect the attendance at the Barnum circus. Mr. Bailey has since said that he thought that it did not. But the advertisements staring the veteran showman in the face everywhere he went worried him, and finally to dodge the huge posters he changed the route of his circus, although that route had been determined upon nearly 12 months in advance. He jumped from New York to Kansas City and surrendered the whole eastern field to the Bailey show. The next year the two shows were consolidated and have been one show ever since.

Mr. Barnum's old joke with Mr. Bailey as long as the shrewd old circus manager was alive was, "Well, have you any more baby elephants that you do not want to sell?"—New York Press.