Quote: fool born every minute (antedating earliest variant) (1806) (attrib P. T. Barnum 1890)

Sat Apr 12 15:43:17 UTC 2014

Am too lazy to check the source, but I recall a cite in HDAS from the early
20th C. (or maybe the 1890s) that says, "There's a sucker born every
minute, and they never die."

JL

On Sat, Apr 12, 2014 at 11:41 AM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> Just to extend the list, there is the now frequent, allusive form,
> "There's one born every minute."
>
> It seems not to require explanation.
>
> But Garson knew that.
>
> JL
>
>
> On Fri, Apr 11, 2014 at 12:20 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
> adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: Quote: fool born every minute (antedating earliest
>> variant)
>>               (1806) (attrib P. T. Barnum 1890)
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Back in March 2010 I posted about the famous slogan attributed to P. T.
>> Barnum
>>
>> There's a sucker born every minute.
>> There's a fool born every minute.
>>
>> Now there is an entry on the QI website. Special thanks to Bill
>> Mullins who located the January 7, 1882 citation for the "sucker"
>> variant back in 2008. Also, thanks to Barry for his great work and to
>> others who have examined this topic.
>>
>> Scans of the valuable 1885 bio of Hungry Joe Lewis were placed online
>> by Harvard as part of a pamphlet digitization program. Compliments to
>> Harvard.
>>
>> The July 21, 1892 cite attributing "there was a sucker born every
>> minute" to P.T. Barnum was the earliest linkage of Barnum to the
>> "sucker" variant that I was able to find. Back in 2010 I found an
>> earlier October 19, 1890 linkage of Barnum to the "fool" variant.
>>
>> There's a Sucker Born Every Minute
>> http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/04/11/fool-born/
>>
>> [Begin excerpt]
>> There exists a family of closely related expressions with a long
>> history. Here is a sampling together with years of occurrence. The
>> first item listed employed dialectical spelling. The word "flat" was a
>> synonym for "fool". The abbreviation "attrib" means that the words
>> were attributed to an individual, but the evidence was indirect:
>>
>>     1806: there vash von fool born every minute
>>     1826: a new fool is born every day
>>     1839: there is a flat born every minute
>>     1877: there is a fool born every hour
>>     1882: there was a sucker born every minute (attrib anon con man)
>>     1885: there was a sucker born every minute (attrib Hungry Joe)
>>     1888: there is a sucker born every minute (attrib Artemus Ward)
>>     1889: a sucker is born every minute (attrib Mike McDonald)
>>     1890: a fool was born every minute (attrib P.T. Barnum)
>>     1892: there was a sucker born every minute (attrib P.T. Barnum)
>>
>> The above listing is a snapshot of current research results, and it
>> will certainly change over time as more data is gathered. The earliest
>> instances of these expressions were anonymous, and QI believes that
>> later attributions had inadequate support.
>> [End excerpt]
>>
>> Garson
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Mar 6, 2010 at 1:30 PM, Garson O'Toole
>> <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > There's a sucker born every minute.
>> >
>> > This saying has long been attributed to P. T. Barnum (Phineas Taylor
>> > Barnum). It is discussed in the Yale Book of Quotations, the Oxford
>> > Dictionary of American Quotations (and other Oxford Quotation books),
>> > Barry Popik's website, WikiQuote, and Wikipedia. Many messages about
>> > the saying are found in the ADS-L archive.
>> >
>> > Variants of the maxim substitute words such as fool, flat, and toot
>> > for the word sucker. Other variants substitute time-period terms such
>> > as week, day, and hour for minute. I attempted to find the earliest
>> > citation while allowing any of the variants.
>> >
>> > 1806 is the date of the earliest cite that I found. The text uses the
>> > term fool instead of sucker, and it contains an anti-Semitic
>> > stereotype.
>> >
>> > Citation: 1806 January, The European Magazine And London Review, Essay
>> > on False Genius, Page 26, Vol. XLIX, James Asperne, London. (Google
>> > Books full view, also NewspaperArchive)
>> >
>> > ... "That there vash von fool born every minute." And perhaps the
>> > calculation might be brought to the proof, that not more than fifty
>> > men of genius are born in half a century.
>> >
>> > http://books.google.com/books?id=dccPAAAAQAAJ&q=fool+born#v=snippet&
>> >
>> > The earliest attribution to P. T. Barnum I could locate is in an
>> > advertisement dated 1890 in the Chicago Tribune for a company that
>> > sells tailor-made clothes called Willoughby & Hill. The saying uses
>> > the term fool instead of sucker.
>> >
>> > Citation: 1890 October 19, Chicago Daily Tribune, Display Ad 67 by
>> > Willoughby & Hill, Page 39. (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)
>> >
>> > Any of these so-called Dry Goods stores go into the Clothing business
>> > by hiring a salesman from some clothing house, send him down to New
>> > York, and when he returns they "ADVERTISE" his purchases 40 per cent
>> > LESS than Clothing Store Prices. However, they don't care a "---" what
>> > they say in the papers, anything to get the crowd. Barnum said many
>> > years ago that a fool was born every minute.
>> >
>> > http://bit.ly/aZrSQk
>> >
>> > The second earliest attribution to P. T. Barnum that I found is also
>> > in an advertisement by "Willoughby & Hill, American Clothiers" in the
>> > Chicago Tribune.
>> >
>> > Citation: 1891 November 6, Chicago Daily Tribune, Display Ad 3 by
>> > Willoughby & Hill, Page 5. (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)
>> >
>> > The "Immortal" Barnum said every minute a new fool is born, and he
>> > catered that way and was successful. He could have kept successfully a
>> > "Department" Store.
>> >
>> > http://bit.ly/9wuBoZ
>> >
>> > Garson
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
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>>
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
>

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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