The Penn's Grove record., 1923-11-02
nIST1RY'y
NTH
THE KING OF LIARS


~ concerned, Giuseppe BaIsumo, bet
ter known by his adopted title IF
Count CagliOstrO" was undoU l.t-
edly the most remari able man lie
world has ever produced. for he uDt
only numbered his victims by the thou
sands but practiced his chosen art II
living with such consUmmate cleves-
ess that he victimized cardinals aud
princes as well as peasants and Jle
various classes lying between these
categories. He vas, in truth, TN
king Of liars" beside whom such mod
prn examples Of Cassie Chadwick and
Ponzi were the rankeSt amateurs.
As boy, Balsamo gave early evi-
dence Of his scheming tendencies, and
after being expelled from school. was
placed in the apothecary shop of Z
Sicilian monastery, where he set about
10 master the science of chemicals
and drugs for which he appeared 70
have IA positive genius. II WAS While
In the spotheeary'S shop that Ea!s no
sold to cl,edufous peasant the secret
of a mythical treasure cave which
was supposed to be near by, hut, Wien
the purchaser Of the secret wenf TO
examine the cave, he was set upon by
.'devtf' Balsamo himself) and beat
en- nearly to death. For this escapade
Giuseppe was banished from Sicily
and fed to Rome, where ne succeeded
in marrying Il 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 2.G00
years old and to have been present at
the time of the crucihXion. which he
described with wealth of detail omit
ted from the Scriptures Al that
time there WAS much talk of the
"Wandering Jew and many persons
believed that Cagliostro was 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'
ciaI mission to perform this work upon
earth-a statement which naturally
endeared him to a number of women
of sufficient wealth to assist him ID
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 amount of money and, when he
decided to move the headquarters OF
his influence to France, 1t was mat
ter of only few days before he be
came the most talked of man in Paris
Ii was he who used the Cardinal de
R0han, 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 everyon"
implicated including the Italian him
self. who was imprisoned in the Bas
tile in 1886, but was finally acquitted
and ordered to leave France.
After drifting about Europe for &
number of years, the prince of impos
tors finally returned to Rome and was
condemned by the pope to life I'M
prisonment as a dangerous foe to re
ligion, dying in a papal dungeon on
August 26, 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 a number of mysteries concerning
the man which have never been eX-
plained-including his origin and his
exceptional ability for handling all
l.'Rd3 of strange chemicals. In addi-
tion, there is the greatest mystery OF
all: His power of prophecy manifest
ed rnon numerous occasions, but par
ticularly when he announced tiar
Maria Theresa, empress of Austria
was dying, and word reached Paris
five days later that the empress bad
succumbed at the very hour foretrld
by the Italian count. Again, during
his Incarceration in the Bastile, Gag
liostro wrote upon the walls of his
ell: within three years the BaStile
shall be destroyed and the people shall
dance upon its Site"-another proph-
ecy which was carried out to the let
ter.