Always looking for work

Newly plowed field in Bethel. Vt., in the spring

“Hard work was not only necessary, but it was also noble; and to avoid it would lead to disgrace, dishonor, and probably, eventually, to Hell itself. If a true Yankee ran out of work, he was expected to look for more.’’

Lewis Hill, in Fetched-Up Yankee: A New England Boyhood Remembered, a memoir of the author’s growing up on a Vermont farm in the 1930s

Make 'em smile!

The Barnum Museum, in Bridgeport, which has loads of stuff about the impresario’s career and about Bridgeport.

“The noblest art is that of making others happy.’’

— P.T. Barnum (1810-1891), the entertainment mogul best known as the creator of the the modern American circus, in Struggles and Triumphs. A native of Bethel, Conn., he is most associated with Bridgeport, the once world-famous industrial powerhouse that was his base of operations and where he served as mayor in 1975-1876.

The phrase "There's a sucker born every minute" is a phrase closely associated with Mr. Barnum but there’s no evidence he actually said it.

1866 newspaper advertisement for Barnum's American Museum, on Ann Street in Manhattan.

Downtown Bethel in 1914.