The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1912-01-30
&o.MsIapsAAE.
A HUMAN ENIGMA
The Count of st. German, a Fa-
nous Old World Imposter.
CLAIMED TO BE IMMORTAL

He pazzIed the Court of Louis XIV. and
Said He Had Lived 1000 Years and
Had coneooted an Elixir That Would
Keep Him Young and Alive Forever.
One of the greatest impostors In the
annals of France and that the court Of
any nation has had to deal with was
the Count Of st. German, whose life
is written down as one long mystery
and tastes much more OF fiction than
of fact in its relating. Who he was no
one knows nor where he came from
nor what finally became Of him. Hs
suddenly appeared at the French court
Of Louis XIV In 174S. he had an af-
fable and convincing way about him
and succeeded In winning friends. Just
who introduced him or how this hand
some, brilliant stranger came to be In
troduced into the court circle is a mys-
terry 1t was at the period when the
most rigorous etiquette was maintain
ed and ancestry counted for much and
every title of nobility had to be thor
oughly authep tcated before It was &C
copied
No one knew St. German nor had
ever heard Of him when he made his
debut at the French court, although he
spread the report that he was 1000
years old and was able to convince
many of the more susceptible into be-
Ieving 1t. He had no records to show
that he was entitled to the name Of
l. golI -
port and yet he took up splendid quar-
tiers in Paris and lived at an extrava
CANT rate. The French court had had
some experience with adventures and
were more or less suspicious; but, In
spite OF the fact that they knew moth
ing about him, st. German was receiv
ed with open arms and the king made
him his boon companion. Nine de
Pompadour, the reigning beauty Of the
court, consulted him freely on affairs
OF state and society. So powerful did
he become that dukes and ambassa
doris were among his closest friends
and bitterest foes.
Finally st. Germans claim to i'm
mortality became the general discus
sion among all who knew him or had
heard Of him. He claimed that he
would never die, for had he not al
ready lived 1900 years, and natural
ly he was pointed out as the wonder
of the age. He spoke every language
then known and one as fuently as the
other. He had a positive genius for
chemistry and astounded the world by
discoveries he made-or pretended to
have made-along this line. The most
monumental of all his fakes was the
story he told Of how, having been born
close to 300 years before Christ, he
had found age creeping up and deter
mined, through his skill in chemistry,
to concoct the liquor that would keep
him always alive and young. The
mans perfect and intimate knowledge
of all history led many people to be-
lieve this wild statement. He would
relate personal narratives Of Nero,
Dante, Francis 1. and other notables Of
former centuries
st. German also claimed to possess
a secret of turning baser metals into
gold and of making precious stones
His untraced wealth and the fact that
he fairly blazed with diamonds lent
credenee to his stories. He was so
clever In the workings Of his fakes
as not to be detected. and he was never
proved to be swindler. gambler or
a spy, though he was charged with be-
ing all three.
He was about fifty years old at the
time Of his appearance at the French
court. He carried everything before
him while he remained there. but he
was restless and finally drifted from
court to court and later is credited
with having become the boon COM
panion of the Landgrave, Charles Of
Hesse, and is reported to have died in
Schleswig- Holstein in 1880.
But did he die or is he still living?
Naturally he is not alive, but no one
ever knew what became Of him. eros
ley, an eminent scientist and fellow Of
the Royal society, believed he saw st.