In later years, and in the last editions of his autobiography, Barnum did not give the details of The Fejee Mermaid with so much pride in his own ingenuity. He wrote in the 1888 edition of his autobiography, published three years before his death: “I used it mainly to advertise the regular business of the Museum, and this effective indirect advertising is the only feature I can commend, in a special show of which, I confess, I am not proud. Newspapers throughout the country copied the mermaid notices, for they were novel and caught the attention of readers. Thus was the fame of the Museum, as well as the mermaid, wafted from one end of the land to the other. I was careful to keep up the excitement, for I knew that every dollar sown in advertising would return in tens, and perhaps hundreds, in a future harvest, and after obtaining all the notoriety possible by advertising and by exhibiting the mermaid at the Museum, I sent the curiosity throughout the country, directing my agent to everywhere advertise it as ‘From Barnum’s Great American Museum, New York.’ The effect was immediately felt; money flowed in rapidly, and was readily expended in more advertising.” While The Fejee Mermaid was on exhibition at the Museum, one of the visitors said to Barnum, “I lived two years on the Fiji Islands, and I never heard of any such thing as a mermaid.” “There’s no accounting for some men’s ignorance,” was Barnum’s answer. But most of the public seemed satisfied, and apparently sent their friends, for during the first four weeks of the mermaid’s exhibition at the Museum the receipts were $3,341.93. During the four weeks preceding its arrival the receipts had been only $1,272. The Museum was now well on its way to financial success. Barnum and his family had lived on the $600 a year allowed him out of the profits until the Museum was paid for. Six months after he had purchased the Museum, Mr. Olmsted found him in the ticket office one day eating his dinner of corned beef and bread. “Is that the way you eat your dinner?” he asked. “I have not eaten a warm dinner since I bought the Museum, except on the Sabbath,” Barnum answered, “and I intend never to eat another on a week day until I am out of debt.” Mr. Olmsted was much pleased, clapped Barnum on the shoulder, and assured him that he was a safe investment. The assertion that he ate only one hot dinner a week is possibly a Barnumization of the truth, for it is this type of statement Barnum was most likely to exaggerate in his autobiography, and which in some instances can be proved untrue. But in less than one year after he arranged for its purchase, Barnum owned the American Museum in his own name and had paid his rent out of the profits. The profits for the year 1842, according to Barnum’s account books, were $27,912.62. For the year before he became its proprietor, the profits had been $10,862.