The Ordway new era., 1922-10-06
TnRYS
MYSTERIES
THE KINo OF LIARS

FAR as succeSs1ul inpOstET,S ure
S.ancerped. Giuseppe Balsamo, bet
v0own by his adopted title Of
.c.,nt m Cagliostro" was undoubt-
o' y" Tho most remarkable man the
eus ',d has ever produced. for he not
N~ numbered his victims by the thou
W.. sna. hut practiced his chosen art Of
sana with such consummate clever.
pD' ,hat he vIctimized cardinals and
p's, ,.os. as well as peasants and the
p.rous classes lying between these
's,.yories He was, In truth. "the
~ liars" beside whom such mod
Am' y. EXAMPLES of Cassie Chadwick and
o.a,, were the rankest amateurs.
boy, Balsamo gave early evi.
,.uca Of his scheming tendencies. and,
stfsr beIng expelled from school. was
a,.cad I'm the apothecary shop Of
rc,,Iou monastery, where he set about
master the science Of chemicals
and drugs, for which he appeared to
have a positive genius. 1t was while
n tbe opothecary's shop that Balsamo
.,,d 10 credulous peasant the secret
~ a mythical treasure cave" which
us. supposed to be near by. but. when
,be p,,rchaser OF the secret went to
examine the cave, he was set upon by
devil" (Balsamo himself) and beat.
an nearly to DEATH For this escapade,
Gluseppe was banished from Sicily
and fled to Rome, where he succeeded
in marrying striklngly beautiful
soman and changed his name to
Count Cagliostro."
His first venture on large scale
vas the Invention of an "elixir of
ute" Of which he sold many thousand
bottles at fabulous prices and. in order
to prove the value of his own medi-
zine. claimed to be more than 1000
years old and to have been present at
the time of the crucif1xion. which he
described with wealth Of detail omit
ted from the Scriptures. At that
time there was much talk of the
"Wandering Jew" and many persons
believed that Cagllostro was none
other than this persOnage-a belief
which the Slcillan took care to foster
whenever possible.
When the success OF the elixir OF
life" appeared to be Imperiled by the
death Of number OF persons who had
taken 1t, Cagllostro hit upon the
scheme OF organizing Masonic lodges
for women, claiming that he was of
divine origin and had received a spe-
cal mission to perform this work upon
earth-a statement which naturally
endeared him TO number of women
Of sufficient wealth to assist him in
The accomplishment of his other
schemes, which Included the making
Of diamonds and precious stones and
the transmutatIon of base metals into
gold.
By virtue OF his various impositions,
Cagliostro was able to accumulate a
lurge amount Of money and. when he
decided to move the headquarters of
bis influence to France. 1t was a mat.
ter Of only few days before he be-
came the most talked Of man In Paris.
1t was he who used the Cardinal de
Rohan, Grand Almoner of France and
one OF the shrewdest statesmen In
Europe, In the tragic affair of the dia.
mond necklace. which brought dis
grace or Imprisonment upon everyone
Implicated, Including the Italian him.
self who was imprisoned In the Bas-
tie In 1888, but was finally acquitted
and ordered to leave France.
After drifting about Europe for
number OF years. the prince of impos
10fs nnally returned to Rome and was
condemned by the pope to life i'm
pfisonment as dangerous foe to re-
lslon' dying In papal dungeon on
August 20. l795. after having duped
IL Europe. nrince en-. priest and