Tody Hamilton phrase (Barnum's press agent)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

According to the Sunday NY Times: "One quotation attributed to him is: 'To  
state a fact in ordinary language is to permit doubt concerning the statement.'”
  I can't seem to trace that one well.
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The NY Times is wrong on several things. Tody Hamilton's father was William  
Hamilton, but Tody's real name was Richard Francis (not William) Hamilton.  
The NY Times gives his years as 1847-1916, but the below newspaper account  of a 
close friend states that he died at age 72. Also, Tody appears to have  
retired from the circus in 1906, not 1907.
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_http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/nyregion/thecity/01fyi.html?ref=thecity_ 
(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/nyregion/thecity/01fyi.html?ref=thecity) 
 
 
 
He Lived Up to the Hype 
Q. This is my  favorite season because the circus is back at Madison Square 
Garden. Could you  write about Tody Hamilton, the famous promoter for Barnum? 
A. He was never a performer, a  ringmaster, a clown or a sideshow act, but 
William Hamilton (1847-1916), known  as Tody, was one of the most beloved circus 
personalities of his time.  
As chief publicist for the Barnum & Bailey Circus from 1881 to 1907, he  was 
the MOST STUPENDOUS SOURCE of SUPERLATIVE, SPECTACULAR CIRCUS SYNTAX in the  
ENTIRE HISTORY of PRESS AGENTRY on THIS PLANET! 
If Hamilton, a native New Yorker, didn’t actually invent overwrought  
alliterative circus prose or the florid three-ring poster, he certainly took  credit 
for it. He so perfected that kind of lingo — “millionaire menageries,”  for 
example — that for years after his death, his name was used, by the writer  
Christopher Morley and others, as a metaphor for hyperbole. 
His publicity stunts were legendary: staging a tug of war between an elephant 
 and a few roustabouts; testing the effect of musical instruments on a cage 
of  kangaroos; organizing a midgets’ strike; feeding two live lambs to hungry 
lions  and leopards. One quotation attributed to him is: “To state a fact in 
ordinary  language is to permit doubt concerning the statement.” 
But perhaps Hamilton’s most remarkable claim came in an interview shortly  
before his death: During all his years with Barnum & Bailey, he never once  saw 
the show. 
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2 September 1916, Janesville (WI) Daily Gazette (Newspaperarchive.com),  
"Side Lights on the Circus Business" by D. W. Watt, pg. 9:
The prince of all press agents, a veteran journalist, the "bon-vivant"  whose 
baptismal name was Richard Francis Hamilton, yet known to all the world as  
"Tody" Hamilton, departed this life on August 16 at the home of his  
brother-in-law,...
(...)
"Tody Hamilton was a newspaper man by instinct and training. His father,  
William C. Hamilton, was the managing editor of a New York paper when "Tody" was  
born, seventy-two years ago and "Tody" began his career in a newspaper office 
at  the early age of twelve.
(...)
He was a life member of the New York Press club, and the newspaper men of  
America gave him a testimonial at the Waldorf-Astoria when he retired from the  
Barnum & Bailey show in 1906.




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