Show THE KING OF LIARS SO FAR as successful im postures are concerned con cerneil ct balsamo better known by tila his adopted title of count was cilly the most moat Mmark remarkable able man the orld has ever produced for lie he not silly ail v numbered ills his victims by the thou bands but practiced ills his chosen art of lying with such consummate cleverness that he victimized cardinals and princes as well as peasants and the various classes lying between these categories ho was vas in truth the king ing of liars beside whom such modern rn examples of cassle chadwick and ponzi honzl were the rankest amateurs As a boy balsamo I gave early curly evi dence of hla his scheming tendencies and after being expelled from school was placed in the ii st shop of a sicilian monastery chere here be set about to master the science of chemicals find and drugs tor for which he appeared to liae hae a positive genius it was while in the shop that Bal balsemo saino sold to n credulous peasant the secret of n R mythical treasure cave which was supposed to be near by but when the he purchaser of the rhe secret went to examine the cave le was set upon by a devil balsams Balsam 3 himself and beaten nearly to death for this escapade gluseppi olus seppo eppe was banished from sicily i and fled to to rome chere lie he succeeded in marrlow it trl ay iy beautiful an and 1 clinn ged ills hla name to count ell gi I 1 I 1 I 1 n ills first Nent M lire on a large haq the indention of 0 nn an elixir of 0 life of which bich lie soll sold many i any thousand bottles it at fabulous prices and IT in order to prove the value of ills his own medicine claimed to be more than 2140 years old anki and to have been present tit at the time of the crucifixion which he described with a wealth of if detail deball omitted front from the hie scriptures at t that at time there was much talk of the wandering jew unit many inary persons believed that cagliostro Cagl lostro was none other than tills this personage a belief which the sicilian took care to fo foster t e r whenever possible when tile the success ot of the elixir of life appeared to be imperiled by the death of a number of persons who had bad taken it I 1 Cagl cagliostro lostro lilt hit upon tile scheme of organizing masonic lodges for women claiming that lie was of oc divine origin and had received a special mission to perform this work upon earth a statement which naturally endeared him to a number of worries women of sufficient wealth to assist jilin him in the accomplishment of ills his other schemes which included the making maffa of diamonds and pre precious clous stones and the transmutation of base metals into gold ny by virtue ot of ills various impositions cagliostro Cagl lostro was able to accumulate a large amount of money and abea he be decided to move the headquarters S ot of his bis influence to france it was a matter of only a few days before lie he became the most talked of man in paris it was bo be who used the cardinal d de e grand almoner of france and one of the shrewdest statesmen in europe in the tragic affair ot of the diamond necklace which brou brought glit disgrace or imprisonment upon everyone implicated including the italian himself who was imprisoned in the bastile in 1780 1786 but was finally acquitted and ordered to leae france after drifting about europe for a number of years the prince of impostors finally returned to rome nome anaw is condemned by the pope to life imprisonment as a dangerous foe to religion II 11 ion dking in a papal dungeon on oil A august Is gust 20 26 1703 1705 after having duped all europe prince and priest and peasant alike cut but apart from ca cag ll strange and almost hypnotic influence over practically everyone will whom lie crime came in contact there are a number of mysteries concerning the j nan man which liae aae aleer been explained including his or origin in anil and liis his exceptional ability for handling handlin all kinds kindi of strange chemical s in addition there is the greatest mystery of all ills power of prophecy ed upon numerous occasions occasion but particularly ticul arly when lien lie announced that maria farla theresa empress of austria was jyung and word ren clied parl 4 five days later that the elli empress press had succumbed at the very hour foretold by the italian count again during his incarceration ja in the bastile cag wrote upon the walls walla of ills his cell within three years the bastile shall be destroyed and the people dance upon its site another prophecy which was carried out to tile the letter |