費尼爾司‧泰勒‧巴能 (Phineas Taylor Barnum) 的誕生

巴能也很會取悅他的觀眾。當他只有25歲的時候，他偽裝成喬治‧華盛頓那個高達161歲的護士喬伊絲‧海斯 (Joice Heth) 。你也許不會被這種玩笑所愚弄，但是許多人都前來看這個老護士。你會想花錢看看長了鬍子的阿理公主嗎？

在1842年時，巴能接管了紐約市的美國博物館 (American Museum) 。他把所有古怪的事物都納入了博物館的收藏，其中最有名的就是他的假斐濟美人魚 (FeeJee Mermaid) ，這是一種介於人類和魚之間的生物。


Barnum was skilled at fooling his audiences. When he was only 25 years old, he passed off Joice Heth as George Washington's 161-year-old nurse. You might not have been fooled by the hoax, but a lot of people came to see her. What would you pay to see the bearded Princess Ali?

In 1842, P.T. Barnum took over the American Museum in New York City. He brought oddities of all sorts to the museum. Among the most famous of his attractions was the fake FeeJee Mermaid, a cross between a human and a fish.
 

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