Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-07-26

rope.
Cagliostro affirmed that he could
heal all diseases, that he could render
himself invisible at will, and that the
elixir vitae he offered for sale would
keep death and decay at bay. 1t is
strange to read that on these preten-
sions he gained a great following.
However, it was a credulous age.
Science was still young. shreds Of
astrology clung to astronomy, many
a doctor gathered his herbs in certain
aspects Of the planets. Over in Lon
don the antics Of the Cock Lane ghost
could engage men like Samuel john
son In deep and serious investigation.
Considering that in this twentieth GEN.
tury it Is not impossible for a quack
to gain a following, 1t is perhaps not
so strange that in the eighteenth the
oily Cagliostro made people believe
him.
He and his countess went first to
Sleswick, to visit their great prede-
cessor in the art of making dupes, the
Count de st. Germain, and to take a
few finishing lessons from him. Then
for several years they travelled in Ger
many and Russia, telling fortunes.
and selling vast quantities Of the elk
ir of life, taking in italian counts
and French ENJOYS"
Once they went to Palermo-a great
mistake, for Cagliostro was promptly
clapped into jail on an old charge.
Then Lorenza proved herself wife
worth having, for she sought the son
of the nearest prince, and so charmed
him that he went and bodily belabor-
ed the advocate for the plaintiff into
withdrawing the charge, and Caglios-
tro was released. He never went to
Palermo again. Goethe, who visited
the town some time afterward and
sought out the Balsamo family, gives
a rather touching picture Of the old
mother and her daughter and grand
son asking for news of the wanderer
who sends them no message and has
dropped their very name.
In 1875 Cagliostro, who by this
time had a Continental reputation
went to England. A great deal has
been written about his English expe-
riences, but those who have looked In
to the matter say most Of 1t Is fabu-
lous 1t seems clear that he became
involved with a nest Of gamblers, no
tably one Scot, who posed as Lord"
Scot, and a Miss Fry, who passed as
Lady" Scot. But whether he fleeced
them or they fieeced him Is rather a
moot point.
He was jailed more than once In
England, and left it poorer than he
entered it. One thing of value, though,
he gained there. Already, with his
leaning toward the supernatural, he
had had an eye on freemasonry, and
in some obscure lodge in London he
was promoted through the three
grades of Apprentice, Companion, and
Master Mason, at the cost Of five
guineas. Lorenza also was made a
Mason or Masoness.
Then In an old book-stall he chanc-
ed to find certain manuscripts belong
ing to one George Cotton which treat
ed of Egyptian Masonry. They sug-
gested a new plan to his fertile brain,
a new means Of duping people. He
would revive Egyptian Masonry, an
nounce that he was going to free 1t
of magic, and through it renovate the
universe; he would promise to con-
duct his followers to perfection by
means Of physical and moral regener-
alton, promise to find the philoso-
piers stone, and to give to all who
obeyed him eternal youth.
Back on the Continent, he set the
thing going. None knew better than
Cagliostro how to use all the access
ories-the death's-heads, the screens
painted with hieroglyphics, the spa
cious halls in shadow, with the beard
ed head of a supernatural Grand
Kophta just showing in the gloom
how, in short, to work on the imagi-
nation.
From city to city he went with his
countess, founding Egyptian lodges
everywhere, a thing, OF course,
which involved expense. His follow
ers, who grew to thousands. met the
expense gladly. 1t Is said they actu-
ally believed that he held certain
authority over the angels. Yet speci-
mems Of his speeches which are pre-
served show that they were the mer-
est jargon. He seems to have carried
his plans through by pure audacity.
Meantime, he and Lorenza did not
neglect the old trade of selling beauty
water and the elixir Of life. His
pockets were distended with ducats,
he travelled with a train of servants,
and in nearly every city he stopped at
the most magnificent hotel, where he
entertained the rich, and where the
poor thronged to be healed" He dis
pensed charity freely. and no doubt
that made men think his nostrums eff
ficacious: that. and their imagina-
tions.
His progress was not. always a tri-
umph. In no place did his vogue last
long; frequently he was accused Of be-
fng the Antichrist: and in st. Peters,
burg his thaumaturgy was overhaul
ed and found wanting by the empress's
physician, and Cagliostro was igno-
miniously driven out of the city.
But news in those days did not trav-
ell very fast. and there was always a
fresh place to seek when the last one
grew too hot for him.
LorenZa, who was not more than
twenty-five years old when the pair
settled i'm Strasburg, where they
reached the height of their career,
used to speak carelessly Of "my son.
a captain in the Dutch service, just
twenty-eight years old" Naturally,
all the ugly old women thronged to
buy Cagliostro's beauty-water. hoping
1t would make them young too.
1t was in Strasburg that Cagliostro
met the Prince Cardinal de Rohan,
over whom he gained a remarkable
ascendency. De Rohan was one Of
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