Struggles and Triumphs: or, Forty Years' Recollections of P. T. Barnum

CHAPTER I.--EARLY LIFE.

MY BIRTH--FIRST PROPERTY--FARMER BOY LIFE--GOING TO SCHOOL--EARLY ACQUISITIVENESS--A HOLIDAY PEDDLER--FIRST VISIT TO NEW YORK--LEARNING TO “SWAP”--MISERIES FROM MOLASSES CANDY--“IVY ISLAND”--ENTERING UPON MY ESTATE--CLERKSHIP IN A COUNTRY STORE--TRADING MORALS--THE BETHEL MEETING-HOUSE--STOVE QUESTION--SUNDAY SCHOOL AND BIBLE CLASS--MY COMPOSITION--THE ONE TH...