Ellsworth American., 1922-12-06
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THE KING OF LIARS

60 FAR as successful impOStureS are
~ concerned, Giuseppe Balsamo, bet
ter known by his adopted title OF
Count Cagliostro" was undoubt-
edly the most remarkable man the
world has ever produced, for he not
only numbered his victims by the thou
sands but practiced his chosen art Of
lying with such consummate clever
ness that he victimiZed cardinals and
princes as well as peasants and the
various classes lying between these
categories. He was, in truth, 1.-The
king Of liars" beside whom such mod
ern examples of Cassie Chadwick and
Ponzi were the rankest amateurs.
AS a boy, Balsamo gave early evil
dence of his scheming tendencies, and
after being expelled from school. was
placed in the apothecary shop of a
Sicilian monastery, where he set about
to master the science of chemicals
and drugs, for which he appeared to
have a positive genius. 1t was while
In the apothecary's shop that Balsamo
sold tA credulous peasant the secret
Of mythical treasure cave" which
was supposed to be near by, but, when
the purchaser Of the secret went to
examine the cave, he was set upon by
"devil" (Balsamo himself) and beat
en- nearly to death. For this escapade,
Giuseppe was banished from Sicily
and fled to Rome, where he succeeded
in marrying strikingly beautiful
woman and changed his name to
Count Cagliostro."
His first venture on large scale
was the invention of an "elixir Of
life" of which he sold many thousand
bottles at fabulous prices and, in order
to prove the value of his own medi-
cine, claimed to be more than 1000
years old and to have been present at
the time of the crucifixion, 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 Cagliostro vas none
other than this personage-a belief
which the Sicilian took care to foster
whenever possible.
When the success of the "elixir of
life" appeared to be imperiled by the
death of a number of persons who had
taken 1t, Cagliostro hit upon the
scheme Of organizing Masonic lodges
for women, claiming that he was of
divine origin and had received spe-
cial 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
large amountsof money and, when he
decided to move the headquarters of
his influence to France, it was mat
ter of only a 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-
tile In 1885, but was finally acquitted
and ordered to leave France.
3v,s4
number Of years, the prince Of impos-
tors finally returned to Rome and was
condemned by the pope to life i'm
prisonment as dangerous foe to re-
ligion, dying in a papal dungeon on
August 20, 1795, after having duped
all Europe, prince and priest and
peasant alike. But, apart from Gag
liostro's strange and almost hypnotic
influence over practically everyone
with whom he came in contact there
are number of mysteries concerning
the man which have never been eX-
Misunderstanding his origin and his
exceptional ability for handling al
kinds of strange chemicals. In add.
ton. there Is the greatest mystery of
all: His power of prophecy manifest
ed upon numerous occasions but par.
ticularly when he announced that
Maria Theresa, empress of Austra,
was dying, and word reached Paris
five days later that the empress had
succumbed at the very hour foretold
by the Italian count Again, during
his Incarceration in the Bastile, Gag
liostro wrote upon the walls Of his
cell: within three years the Bastile
shall be destroyed and the people shah
dance upon it's site"-another proph.
ecy which was carried out to the let.
ter.