1939-10-07 — Page 15

THE CHINA MAIL, OCTOBER 7, 1939

TO-DAY'S STRANGE STORY OF REAL PEOPLE ·

THE WEIRD COUNT CAGLIOSTRO

BY VINCENT TOWNE

.

A hush fell upon the gayeties of the court of Louis XVI. Nov 29, 1780, Count Cagliostro, the lion of Paris society, gravely announced that on that day and at the moment named Queen Marie Antoinette's mother, the Empress Maria Theresa, had died in Vienna. There was no telegraph or telephone at that time, and the fleet- est messenger could make Paris from · Vienna in no less than five days. Of course, the vast majority of courtiers merely thought that Cagliostro had taken big chances on a bold guess, and they sniffed dubiously. Then, early in December, a messenger appeared with a dispatch from the Queen, and Paris stood agape to note that the Count's grim prophecy had been ful- filled to the hour of the day.

CAGLIOSTRO AND HIS ELIXIR OF LIFE

Ambassadors, nobles, princes were now ready to belleve some of the most extravagant claims concerning Cagliostro that he could manufac-¡ sentenced to life imprisonment in a incorrigible ture gold; that he could summon even dungeon, where he died in 1795.

at school that he had kings from their graves; that he had

been expelled, and after this disgrace His past was then laid bare and it his family entered him in a Sicilian renewed the youth of his wife, who

was learned that he was Giuseppe monastery, where he was put to work was really a very old woman with a Balsamo, son of a poor peasant of in the apothecary shop conducted by son of 50; that he was of divine origin Palermo, Sicily. He had been such an the monks. His knowledge of chemis- and could make himself invisible at will. It was thought also that he had lived for centuries that he was, in fact, the Wandering Jew.

He awed Europe with his hypnotic feats and by his healing of the poor, from whom he would accept no pay- ment. He instituted a sort of Masonic cult, into which he drew thousands of initiates, many of them women.. He foretold the lucky numbers of the government lotteries and dispensed his elixir of youth, the "wine of Egypt." He lived like a noble, travelled with the entourage of a prince, showered money upon charitles, assumed а majestic monner which forbade fami- liarities.

or

Once when some one made so bold as to ask, "Who are you?" he replied, "Iam He Who Is." As in the case of St. Germain, no one could learn whence he had

come whence he had obtained his title. But whereas St. Germain spoke all languages equally well, Cagliostro spoke them "equally badly." The Prince Cardinal de Rohan declared that he had seen the Count manufac- ture gold and diamonds. Finally, after he had become implicated with the Cardinal in the celebrated scandal of the Queen's diamond necklace, they locked him up in the Bastille, where he uttered the prophecy:

"The Bastille shall be destroyed and the people shall dance on its alta.”

And this prophecy was fulalled .completely within three years. But by this time Cagliostro had been acquitted and was drifting about Europe. Having reached Rome, how- ever, he was condemned by the Pope as a dangerous foe to, religion and

Kitty

8-26

Dancing in the moonlight is fun If the climate doesn't drip all over

SATURDAY

TO-NIGHT

6th

IN THE

try learned there made possible many

of his successos in later life.

Entering early upon a career of 'deceit, his first feat was to sell to an unsophisticated peasant, for 60 pieces

of gold, the secret of an alleged trea- sure cave, but during the dupe's search for the treasure he was set upon by rufflans of Balsamo's employ, who, masquerading as imps of Satan, beat him into insensibility.

This little episode was the cause of Balsamo's plunge into the outer world, which now offered him such a variety of adventures. He had to flee from the outraged authorities.

Wandering across Europe, he cross- ed into Asia and in the Orient gleaned the esoteric knowledge that later enabled him to influence the fulers of men. In Rome he gained the affec- tions of a wondrously beautiful girl; he wed her and made her his partner In mischief.

When they arrived in Paris, she was still only 20, but to sell his "wine of Egypt" he pronounced her to be an aged woman, mother of a son of 50, who had renewed her youth by this elixir of life.

But although proved a swindler and a quack, no one ever satifactorily ex- plained to the people of his time the secret of his psychic feats, such as guessing the successful lottery num- bers and announcing the death of the Queen's mother. foundation of his reputation as the They were the

greatest man of mystery of that time.

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