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In 1837, when Laura was eight years old, she was brought to the Boston Institution for the Blind. The strange locality seemed awhile to bewilder her mind; but in the course of a fortnight, by continually using her one perfect sense of touch, she made herself at home, or acquainted with surrounding objects. To convey to her a knowledge of signs, words in raised letters were used. For example, the name s-p-o-o-n was pasted on the article signified; and in the same way the words key and book were used. Shortly she learned to put the label book upon a book, and so to recognise the labels for the spoon, key, and other objects. Next she learned to arrange the separate and disordered letters-for example, o o s p n, so as to form the word spoon. This process required some weeks of patient toil. Dr Howe says he could almost fix the moment when, after much bewilderment, the notion entered her mind of expressing her wishes by the arbitrary signs of embossed letters. The next step was to procure a set of metal types, with a board drilled with square holes, in which she might fix the letters when spelling names of objects. She attained great dexterity in the use of this manual alphabet, and could read very quickly, on the tips of her fingers, the names of known objects arranged by her teachers.

Having mastered the manual alphabet of the deaf mutes, and learned to spell in this mode the names of many things, Laura readily acquired the use of words denoting qualities, such as hard or soft, and naturally placed these adjectives after their respective nouns. Next, she was taught the use of words denoting relations to place. A ring was placed on a box, then on a hat, then in the hat or box; and these distinctions were pointed out by the usual mode of spelling. After some study, the meaning of the several little words seemed suddenly to enter her mind. She spelled the word on, and then laid one hand on the other; then spelled into, and enclosed one hand within the other. Active verbs-such as to walk, to run, to sew—were readily understood; but at first, no distinction of mood or tense could be made. In asking for bread she used the form: 'Bread, give, Laura.'

When she first understood the use of writing, and knew that by tracing letters with a pencil she could convey her thoughts to absent persons, her delight was remarkable, and her progress so rapid, that, after a few months, she was able to write a note to her mother. About the same time, Laura learned to add and subtract small numbers, and to count to one hundred. She acquired, without any great labour, a considerable accuracy in the measurement of time; knew the days of the week; could calculate on what day the 15th or 16th from a certain date would fall; and could mark upon the key-board of a pianoforte

the relative durations of crotchets and quavers-in other words, she could divide a second of time into two equal parts. Her acuteness of touch became more and more remarkable, and in her eleventh year, among forty or fifty friends, she was able to recognise any person whose hand she might examine. At the same time, her vocabulary had greatly increased, so that she could construct such sentences as 'I did learn to read much with types'-'Doctor did teach me in nursery.' The use of pronouns now varied her forms of speech, and she would even correct those who used the childish repetition of the noun. When Dr Howe said, 'Doctor will teach Laura,' she eagerly shook his arm, and told him to say, 'I will teach you.' The moral qualities were developed in proportion with the intellectual. She was remarkably correct in her deportment; and her love of order, neatness, and cleanliness was exemplary. Her notions of property were very definite, and while she tenaciously claimed her own, she was never known to take anything belonging to another. In two instances of strong temptation, Laura was found capable of falsehood; but, with these exceptions, her openness and conscientiousness were very pleasing. Having offended in some trifling manner, she would at once spontaneously confess her fault, sometimes with tears, and saying, 'It was wrong. Teacher cannot love wrong girl.'

She distinguished the different degrees of intellect in others, would betray a rather unamiable contempt of dull pupils, and selected the most lively and intelligent as her friends. The traits of self-assertion and jealousy were strongly marked in her character, and a sense of the humorous was shewn by such tricks as treating her doll as a sick pupil, putting it to bed with a bottle of hot water to its feet, and laughingly requesting the doctor to apply a blister to the wooden patient. When left alone, she would soliloquise by spelling on her fingers. Dr Howe observes, of her moral character: 'It is beautiful to behold her continual gladness, her keen enjoyment of existence, her expansive love and sympathy with suffering, her truthfulness and hopefulness.' Speaking of the child when eleven years old, he adds: 'No religious feeling, properly so called, has developed itself, nor is it yet time perhaps to look for it; but she has shewn a disposition to respect those who have power and knowledge, and to love those who have goodness.'

Such were the results of a benevolent effort to liberate an imprisoned mind. The report of the case must be as interesting to the metaphysician as it is pleasing to the general reader.

We do not see how Locke and Condillac could have explained the well-authenticated facts in the education of Laura Bridgman.

PHINEAS T. BARNUM.

The Life of P. T. Barnum, written by himself, would scarcely claim a notice here, if regarded simply as a literary effort; but it is a representative book. It tells a curious tale of the tastes for amusement prevailing in large masses of respectable people in Great Britain and America. Mr Barnum was one of the most successful of showmen. While others were labouring, through heavy discouragements, to educate and refine popular taste, he determined to cater for that taste in statu quo, and to make a large profit by so doing. Putting aside all consideration of the honesty of such a plan, it must be admitted that the means adopted were clever. Having failed in various other schemes for raising money, the writer turned his attention to the showman's profession, and resolved to speculate on the popular love of wonders. The first curiosity to which he invited the notice of a discerning public, was described as a very old negress-'Joice Heth, aged 161 years, and formerly nurse to General Washington.' Mr Barnum liked the appearance of the old woman; for 'so far as outward indications were concerned, she might almost as well have been called a thousand years old as any other age.' Having largely advertised this curiosity, as the venerable negress who, to use her own words, had 'raised' General Washington, the showman was liberally assisted by the press. Editorial notices in literary, political, and religious papers recommended the people to make haste to behold the monument of antiquity; and the people obeyed. Her love of psalmody made the old negress a favourite object of religious sympathies.

In the course of a little time, the negress died, and dissection exposed the gross imposition, but not before it had succeeded well enough for the showman. His next remarkable adventure, after some attempts in selling fictitious Cologne-water and bear's grease, was the purchase of a collection of curiosities known as 'the American Museum.' Mr Barnum made great improvements in this place of amusement, enriching it with 'industrious fleas, educated dogs, fat boys, giants, dwarfs,' manufactured mermaids, &c.; and among his first 'extra exhibitions,' he presented to the public a model of Niagara Falls, with real water,' of which he gives a ludicrous account.

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This was followed by an exhibition of 'the Fejee Mermaid,' a romantic specimen in natural history, manufactured with some skill, but, according to the placards, taken alive by a fisherman somewhere near the Fejee Islands. It was a miserable disappointment for the spectators who had gazed on the external bait, a

'large transparency,' representing beautiful sirens, when they saw the internal reality, 'a black-looking specimen of dried monkey and fish;' but the adventure was successful. The rage for seeing this coarse fiction infected editors of papers as well as the less enlightened public, and is described as the 'mermaid fever' by Mr Barnum, who boasts that he sold 10,000 'mermaid pamphlets.'

The next adventure cast both the mermaid and the venerable negress into the shade. Mr Barnum had heard of a remarkably small child named Charles Stratton. He was only five years old, and to exhibit a dwarf of that age might provoke the question: "How do you know that he is a dwarf?" Consequently, the caterer for public amusement advertised the little boy as 'General Tom Thumb, a dwarf of eleven years of age, just arrived from England!' In fact, he came from Bridgeport, in Connecticut. With this curiosity, Mr Barnum started to make the tour of Europe.

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Having arrived in London, he determined to begin the imposition among the highest classes of society, and accordingly hired a respectable house in the West End, whence he sent letters of invitation to the editors and several of the nobility,' to visit the little boy. The invitation was readily accepted, and it soon became fashionable to call on the tiny general. Mr Everett, the American minister, called,' and 'was highly pleased.' The Baroness Rothschild sent her carriage for the dwarf and Mr Barnum,' who says: 'On taking our leave, an elegant and wellfilled purse was quietly slipped into my hand, and I felt that the golden shower was beginning to fall! The same trick was played upon me, shortly afterwards, at the mansion of Mr Drummond,' the eminent banker. Greater distinction followed, when a placard on the door of the Egyptian Hall announced that the exhibition would be closed one evening, as General Tom Thumb would be at Buckingham Palace, by command of Her Majesty.' Thrice the general appeared at court: this made success sure in town, as in the provinces. Portraits of the dwarf were given in pictorial papers-Tom Thumb Polkas and Quadrilles were published; Punch, as Mr Barnum states, gave caricatures, which assisted in bringing in funds. 'Besides his three public performances per day, the little general attended from three to four private parties per week, for which we were paid eight to ten guineas each.' The Queen-dowager, Adelaide, presented to the diminutive boy 'a beautiful little goldwatch, placing the chain around his neck with her own hands.' His Grace the Duke of Devonshire contributed to the Tom Thumb Museum 'an elegant gold snuff-box mounted with

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turquoise.' 'The Duke of Wellington called frequently to see the little general.' Mr Barnum adds: 'At the various parties which we attended, we met, in the course of the season, nearly all the nobility.'

A remarkable success rewarded the enterprising showman in France, where he visited King Louis-Philippe and the royal family on four different occasions.' In Paris, 'the general made a great hit as an actor. He performed for two months at one of the leading theatres, in a French play,' entitled Petit Poucet, written expressly for him.

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Having returned to America, the dwarf was allowed to visit his native place, Bridgeport, where the people were much delighted to see their old friend 'little Charlie' again. They little thought, when they saw him playing about the streets a few years previously, that he was destined to create such a sensation among the crowned heads of the Old World.' 'How old are you, general?' asked one of his acquaintances. As Mr Barnum makes it out, I am fifteen,' said the general, laughing, for he was aware that the inquirer knew his true age to be only nine.

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The next great speculation consisted in a contract made with the prima donna Jenny Lind. Mr Barnum, who had never heard this lady's voice, determined to advertise her vocal powers and private virtues throughout the Union, and to pay 1000 dollars, besides all the expenses, for each concert. The popular furor for Jenny Lind was extreme: as the speculator himself declares,' the facts, at this late day, seem, even to myself, more like a dream than a reality.' Bayard Taylor, a poet, was employed to write a prize ode on the 'nightingale's' arrival in America. Biographies of the Swedish nightingale were largely circulated. Foreign correspondence glorified her talents and triumphs by narratives of `her benevolence, and printer's ink was employed in every possible form to put and keep Jenny Lind before the people.'1

The receipts for ninety-five concerts amounted to more than 712,000 dollars, of which sum the portion of 176,000 dollars and upwards was paid to Miss Lind; while the sum of more than 535,000 dollars was claimed, according to contract, by Mr Barnum. On one occasion, the sum of 625 dollars was paid for a ticket.

This was the adventurer's climax of success. Having made his fortune, he retired to his mansion, built in the style of the Brighton pavilion, and styled Iranistan. The grandeur of his principal schemes has induced us to overlook several minor speculations which more or less assisted his progress. In 1844, he had engaged the Lancashire bell-ringers for an American

1 In justice to this lady, it should be stated that she was ignorant of many of the stratagems practised by the showman.

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