“In 1842, [P.T. Barnum had a chance encounter with] that miniature concoction, who was to make him rich beyond belief and famous beyond his wildest dreams. Four-year-old Charles S. Stratton was no bigger than a doll. All at once, at seven months, measuring 25 inches and weighing 15 pounds, the child had simply stopped growing. … Sherwood Stratton, the boy’s carpenter father, was only too happy to rent his little son out for a trial month at $3.00 a week plus room and board. … Barnum whisked the youngster away to New York City, where speedily printed museum posters testified to the thorough Barnumizing Charles Stratton underwent; the four-year-old carpenter’s kid from Bridgeport had been transformed overnight into General Tom Thumb, an 11-year-old marvel just arrived from Europe and engaged at ‘extraordinary expense.’ … Barnum himself was the schoolteacher, training his small charge, first in manners, then in memorizing little quips and speedy comebacks, finally the words and actions for a number of dress-up roles he would play. … Tom, who was a natural mimic, would strike poses and in other ways imitate well-known individuals, including Cupid, Samson, a Highland chieftain, Hercules, an English fox-hunter, Frederick the Great, and Napoleon. … From later-published scripts we know [how their routines] started off: ‘You being a general, perhaps you will tell us what army you command?’ ‘Cupid’s artillery,’ the General would reply. . …
“By 1862, Barnum was watching his wealthy Bridgeport neighbor Charles Stratton (alias Tom Thumb) sail his yacht and drive his thoroughbreds and smoke his imported cigars. … [Barnum soon added as an act] Mercy Lavinia Warren Bump [who] was a 21-year-old beauty from Middleborough, Massachusetts, [and] only 32 inches tall. … Tom Thumb took one look at the museum’s dainty addition and fell head over heels in love. … [Sixteen years later] in 1878, Lavinia’s sister Minnie died painfully while giving birth to a full-sized baby, not the miniature child she and her husband had expected. … [After this and another friend’s tragic death], Tom Thumb was never the same. … [In 1883] Tom died suddenly of a stroke at the age of 46.”
