Want to encounter "spellbinding pictures" of such things as "fat-baby and poultry contests"? Then P.T. BARNUM: AMERICA'S GREATEST SHOWMAN, AN ILLUSTRATED BIOGRAPHY is the book for you, or so declares the flap. Yes, it is today's subject of my forgettable quest to skim a book flap every day. Of all tricks used by book flaps in order to trick you into wasting your time by opening a book, perhaps a promise of pictures is the most perfidious. And open I did, to page 38, whereon was printed a lithograph with the following caption (which I will abbreviate because I know you are busy): "Most famous of all Barnum's fat children were his 'Highland Mammoth Boys'... Encouraged by their employer to fatten up even bigger, the Stewarts enriched their act by giving 'soirees mysterious,' in which they demonstrated powers of mesmerism." Now that's a caption with everything! And I am not pulling your leg when I tell you that the Highland Mammoth Boys are so big their picture spills over onto page 39. Let me see if I can find this print on the "internet." If you see three gigantic cherubs in kilts and feathered hats, I have found it. If you do not see three gigantic cherubs in kilts and feathered hats, you are seeing one of the "blog's" famous "random pictures."
