Slow and Sure: The Story of Paul Hoffman the Young Street-Merchant

Barnum's stood below the Astor House, on the site now occupied by those magnificent structures, the Herald building and the Park Bank. Hither flowed daily and nightly a crowd of visi

and now anticipated with eagerness the moment when all its wonders should be revealed to him.

dly knew what to look at first, until the approach of a giant eight feet high irresistibly attracted him. It is a remarkable circumstance that Barnum's giants were always eight feet high on the bill, though not always by measure. Sometimes the great showman lavishly provided two or three of these T

my, struck with awe, as he surveyed t

you will ever be,

to be so tall," s

ip all the fellows tha

tease me m

at all?" asked hi

imes they call me Limp

ing it," said Paul energetica

t mind,

e next fellow that calls you Li

gathered round the giant.

large?" asked a b

when I was a baby," sa

h do you

and seventy

you, Jimmy

ig when you

high on my fifteenth bi

k you often?" asked

couldn't take me ove

h you must take for your c

a manufactory running all t

s true, Paul?" aske

answered Pa

eat a good deal?" w

about all I generally eat for dinner. Perhaps I could eat more if I

one of the boys. "I shouldn't like

looking down upon his questioner, a boy of twelve, and rather small of his age,

the expense of the small b

Jimmy," said Paul. "I'm going

ned another crowd, this time surrounding the illustrious T

, smaller than you ar

id Jimmy. "Is

es

as so small. I'm gla

u could make a good deal of money by it. Tom is

ost him so much for c

k he would need to run a ma

t first he thought must be real, so natural was their appearance. There were lions and tigers in cages, who looked out from between the gratings as if

y get out, Pa

they could, I don't think they would attack

Barnum dared to put

to come very near them. But he

t time he had ever seen a play, and it seemed to him a scene of rare enchantment. To Paul, however, it was much less of a novelty. He had frequently been to Barnum's and the Old Bowery, though not as often as those boys who had no home in which to spend their evenings. Mrs. Hoffman was

and Jimmy was affected to tears at the death of little Eva. To his unaccustomed eyes it seemed real, and he felt as if Eva

asked Paul, as they were working the

l. I am so much oblige

it, Jimmy. We will

sidewalk, when a boy about P

!" said he, wi

that again, Peter Blak

emanded Pete

afe," said Pau

you Limpy

on't mind it. But don't you

nd, Paul,"

"No boy shall call yo

uld not have ventured to speak as he did, but he did not at first perceive that Jimmy wa

once an enemy, but now a friend of Paul, met the

home, Paul?" he

since. I have just

n't know wha

rned in

What

burning down. The engines are there,

lucky I've got my bank-book with me, so if we a

, they quickened their steps, and soon