Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-03-16
UNKNOWN FAMOUS MEN
By. DR.. Frank Crane

Foremost and most spectacular Of un-
known celebrities is Cagl1ostro.
All of us have read that fascinating string
of novels by Alexander Dumas, Including
the Three Musketeers, The Queens Neck
lace Joseph Balsamo, and the rest.
In the life of JOSEPH Balsamo he dealt
with this character of Cagliostro, figure
which had strongly impressed the magma
tion of Europe.
tro really was ard no two people appear to
have agreed about the acts of his l1fe And
this was Cagliostro's hold he was pro-
fessional man of mystery. He had all OF the
showmans art Of concealment. .
What is certain is that strange man who
claimed to be sometimes a physician, some
times a spiritualistic medium, sometimes ar
aIchemist, roamed about Europe in the
days that preceded the French Revolution.
Dumas called him Joseph Balsamo, but
he called himself Cagliostro, although he
claimed not to know his real name and ne
did not even stick to this one name at all
times and places.
He said that he was born in Medina in
1749.
Whether he was from Medina or Palermo
we know that he came up to London at the
time of the outbreak of the American ReVo-
luton. Just how or where he got his money
to come nobody knows. We do know, how
ever, that he had an affair with the London
police and was accused of getting money
under false pretenses.
We find him again in Amsterdam, in
Frankfort, in Berlin, in Konigsberg.
Again suddenly the whole of Saint Peters
burg is agog about great magician. Gag
liostro had arrived.
Those were days favorable to his craft
Mesmer was then announcing his first at
tempts in hypnotism. Swedenborg had con
WINGED many people that it was very sim
pie matter to converse with the angels
Freemasonry was in it's virile youth, and as
Cagliostro was thought to be high up in
masonry circles that added to his glamour
of mystery.
Everybody in Petrograd was seeing
ghosts and having other strange psychic ex,
periences.
Next he showed up in Warsaw, and after
wards in Strasbourg.
In Strasbourg he was not a crook nor q
magician; he was physician, and phys1
clan who could cure anything. It would take
a large book to hold the account of all the
strange and marvellous stories of his doings
in Strasbourg.
Then he went to Paris, where he posed as
seer. He would get his house full of PEG
pie and give mystical speeches, after the
manner of the theosophists. 1t is but fair tc
| say, however, that the theosophists would
not accept him as one of their number any
| more than would the doctors or the chemists
! He got into trouble again in Paris, as ne
! seemed to find trouble everywhere. The
queens necklace disappeared; that famous
necklace that had much to do with the
| French Revolution. Cagliostro was mixed VI
| in this, but finally was declared innocent
and betook himself to London.
After two years in London the place grew
| too hot for him again and he went to Swift
erland and then to Rome.
That was the end of him. For in 1871 hi
| got into trouble with the Inquisition, an in
| stitution that was just mysterious anc
much more powerful than he. He was lock
| ed up in the Fortress of San Leone. There
they turned the key upon him and there hi
| disappears from history.
lCopyright. 1922, by Frank Crane.)