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A CHERRY-COLORED CAT: Great Showman’s Little Joke in World’s News (Sydney AU) February 8, 1919, p. 2—
Professor William Lyon Phelps of Yale University, in newly-published reminiscences of the one and only P. T. Barnum, declares that it was the great showman to whom Robert Browning referred in "Mr. Sludge, the Medium," and, incidentally.disclosed a delicious and little-known bit of highly-successful Barnum “camouflage.”
It was while Professor Phelps was a small boy, In New Haven CT, that Barnum advertised as a special sideshow attraction, "A Cherry-Colored Cat!”
Naturally, an enormous crowd trickled in to see the curiosity, and all they saw was a common black house cat. Disappointment, indignation, and chagrin. "We've been humbugged!" was the prevailing sentiment expressed In the equivalent of "stung again."
Then somebody, who was quicker to catch the point, infected the crowd with the philosophy of good humor. "Why, don't you know, certain kinds of cherries are black? This is a sure-enough cherry-colored cat, and everybody ought to see it.”
The victims caught the idea, grinned with delight, winked, and went out, and urged everybody they knew to be sure not to miss the wonderful sight of the cherry-colored cat, with the inevitable result that practically everybody got stung." The cat, which belonged to a local woman, had mysteriously disappeared two days before the circus reached the town, but reappeared the day following the circus' departure, adorned with a ribbon and a card expressing Mr. Barnum's appreciation of the involuntary loan.
