The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #108875 Message #2270317
Posted By: Charley Noble
23-Feb-08 - 10:59 AM
Thread Name: BS: We need more squids around here!
Subject: RE: BS: We need more squids around here!
There's a sucker-lover born again every minute, to paraphrase old P.T. Barnhum.
Of course even the original quote attribution has been challenged:
"'There's a sucker born every minute' is a phrase often credited to P.T. Barnum (1810 – 1891), an American showman. It is generally taken to mean that there are (and always will be) a lot of gullible people in the world. However, when Barnum's biographer tried to track down when Barnum had uttered this phrase, all of Barnum's friends and acquaintances told him it was out of character. Barnum's credo was more along the lines of "there's a customer born every minute" — he wanted to find ways to draw new customers in all the time because competition was fierce and people bored easily. While some sources claim the quote is most likely from famous con-man Joseph ("Paper Collar Joe") Bessimer,[1] it was actually uttered by David Hannum, spoken in reference to Barnum's part in the Cardiff Giant Hoax. Hannum, who was exhibiting the original giant and had sued Barnum unsuccessfully for exhibiting a copy and claiming it was the original, was referring to the crowds continuing to pay to see Barnum's exhibit even after both it and the original had been proven to be fakes."