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The entertainment lies less in the nature of the attraction (although as Barnum pointed out, a certain amount of “glitter” is essential) than in the implicit competition between patron and promoter, each one seeking to outwit the other in a game of deception and exposure. It was a distinction on which P. T. Barnum would build a career, and it helps to explain the continuing success of the Sun in the aftermath of the moon series.
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Matthew Goodman (The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteen)