Mesmerism was then a great novelty, and Peale was given exhibitions of it. He had one subject on whom he operated daily, with most surprising results; though at times she was unimpressionable, and the people who had paid to come in and see her performances complained loudly that they were being swindled. Barnum saw here a great opportunity to squelch a rival and increase his own fame at a single stroke. He engaged a bright little girl who was exceedingly susceptible to such mesmeric influences as he could induce. That is, she learned her lesson thoroughly, and when he had apparently put her to sleep with a few passes and stood behind her, she seemed to be duly "impressed," as he desired; raised her hands as he willed, fell from her chair to the floor; and if he put candy or tobacco into his own mouth, she was duly delighted or disgusted. She never failed in these routine performances. Strange to say, believers in mesmerism used to witness her performances with the greatest pleasure, and adduce them as positive proofs that there was something in mesmerism, and they applauded tremendously--up to a certain point. That point was reached when, leaving the girl "asleep," Barnum called up some one in the audience, promising to put him "in the same state" within five minutes, or forfeit fifty dollars. Of course, all his "passes" would not put a man in the mesmeric state; at the end of three minutes he was as wide awake as ever. "Never mind," Barnum would say, "looking at his watch; "I have two minutes more, and meantime, to show that a person in this state is utterly insensible to pain, I propose to cut off one of the fingers of the little girl who is still asleep." He would then take out a knife and feel of the edge, and when he turned around to the girl whom he left on the chair, she had fled behind the scenes, to the intense amusement of the greater part of the audience, and to the amazement of the mesmerists who were present. "Why! where's my little girl?" he asked, with feigned astonishment. "Oh! she ran away when you began to talk about cutting off fingers." "Then she was wide awake, was she?" "Of course she was, all the time." "I suppose so; and, my dear sir, I promised that you should be 'in the same state' at the end of five minutes, and as I believe you are so, I do not forfeit fifty dollars." Barnum kept up this performance for several weeks, till he quite killed Peale's "genuine" mesmerism in the rival establishment. At the end of six months he bought Peale's Museum, and the whole, including the splendid gallery of American portraits, was removed to the American Museum, and he immediately advertised the great card of a "Double Attraction," and "Two Museums in One," without extra charge.