The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 4, 1899, Page 23

Cagliostro Performing His Magic Work. d and outh. from Paris that ed b ymes the the Count of ndmarks ace I rtments, the upon @ terr stains its old iron balconles. o o b= o T is not very remarkable that con- firmed gamesters should stoop to fraud as a means of enhancing their ces of winning, says Pearson's ¥; but it is remarkable that gamesters should be €0 blind to the devices invented by more ingenious ows, and fortunes have been won by sharpers, from men and women who have been. well alive to thelr own 1 ts and not wanting in cunning sus- y clever. contrivances of thelr ruction. It s not often that a r is sufficlently enterprieing and to have a cardroom speclally ed to facilitate his fleecing his ims and visitors; but to even this length went a man, now deceased, who, despite his vast private fortune, syste- matically preyed upon the pockets of his wealthy acqualntances room was constructed so small that a sufficient epace was allowed for a square table and the chalrs of four play- ers, the object of this belng to prevent onlookers or any one standing behind the particular chair which the host always took. The room was magnificently decorated, and hidden in the deeply carved black oak paneling were two spy holes, from which 2 person on the other side of the wall could see every card of the person sitting opposite the host. When cards were being played a confederate of the host was al- s watching, unseen, from these holes, his finger upon an electric button. s button communicated with a large button hidden under the carpet just in front of the host’s chalr, and by this ans the confederate was able to com- municate to his master what cards were m the hand of his tete-a-tete player. 8 15 down in his chair, the arch- oundrel put his toe on the invisible but- ton under the table and received the news. One push of the button signified al th famous arts was the preparation of a refuvenating tincture, by 4 wrinkled ladies might obtain & smooth skin and the Below, with their moldering doors, the carriage ho are and the stable, where ed ghosts were materialized, the of which kept the superstitious of Parls indoors on dark nights. = cellars of the old house are dank and nolsome, and there are several large in the floor that remind one of : courtyard has a morose 1 aspect. At one end, under a gged porch, there is a stone staircase, worn time. It does mnot require a vivid imagination to fancy the hosts of tiful women who walked up those s with trembling limbs, attracted by > promises of the old wonder-worker. 1 up these steps walked the pompous rdinal de Rohan to discourse with ‘ount Cagliostro on such subjects as necromancy, metallurgy, cabala and oneirocritic, which constituted the four elementary divisior of the great Cophta’s art. Cagliostro's career in France was a flamboyant one, and for a time all Paris flocked to his soirees and scances. He was as prodi- : INGENIOUS TRICKS OF CARD SHARPS. hearts, two clubs, three diamonds, and four spades. It was the confederate's duty to firet wire what was the strongest gult in the “hand” before him. Thus, one push of the button informed the arch- thief that his tete-a-tete's strongest sult was hearts, and so on. When It had been communicated how the gults stood In strength, it was the confederate's duty to wire what the cards were, starting with the highest in the highest suit and golng to the lowest in the lowest. So quickly could this scheme be worked that very often the hc knew his tete-a-tete's cards before the latter had properly ar- ranged his “hand.” After the strength of the sults had been communicated In this way the host felt twelve rapid taps on the sole of his shoe, and he knew this meant the queen of hearts. - A short pause, and then ten rapld taps told bim the next highest card was the ten of hearts. And so on. It Is said that, thanks to this ingenious scheme, which was never discovered during the in- ventor's life, many wealthy persons were brought to the verge of ruin, while their host entertained them In regal style. A somewhat similar, but less success- ful, scheme was that in the practice of which a certain Continental dressmaker was detected. This woman, like many others of her calling, made it a custom to entertain her customers at gambling in the secrecy of her private apartments, and she probably found it infinitely more lucrative than her professed trade, to which It attracted customers. Her plan was to stand her husband outside the room, which was built in another room, 50 that a passage ran between the two walls on three sides, and through an un- seen opening all around the edge of the ceiling the man could see the cards of all the players but his wife, who sat with her back to the single wall. ‘Walking in the passage, the man ex- THE SAN FRANCISCO OCALL, 000000000000C00CQ Cagliostro is perhaps better known as “Balsamo,” the princl- pal character in #veral of Du- mas’ famous novels. In fiction the Itallan adventurer is given credit for many good qualities that historfans seem to have been unable to find. The affair of Marle Antoinette’s diamond necklace 1s even justified on pol- ftical grounds. There s good ground to belleve that Cagliostro was the first man to make use of mesmerism for fraudulent pur- poses. ©000000000000000000 o [} [} o [} [} o [} [} ] [} o ] [} o [} [} [ [} 00000D0D00000000O gal as he was mysterious, giving to the poor with generous hand, snubbing the rich and noble and posing as the peer of Dukes and Princes, His dazzling career ¢ to a sudden end. K He became In- ved in the affair of the diamond neck- i to the Bastile, and, r d released, he never re- gained his prestige, and with his death thaumaturgy beeame a thing of the past, science laughed away sorcery, witcheraft and necromaney and the art of sleight ot hand became popular. He was the last of the exponents of natural magic. The 1 iostro makes fas- ymas Carlyle re- character in that ount Cagliostro,” s so. Carlylesque and consequently entirely accurate. Joseph Balsamo real name, but it did not enough when he became sorcerer, so he e of Count Ca reading. not was the Count” sound mysteriou more than an amateur chose a high-sounding title, just as the fortune telie Irvoyants and mediums of our own day change the name of Thom: Smith or Maria Jones to Signor Patzulosi and Mme. Zella. Human nature has not changed so materially 1n 150 years, and people still belleve in witcheraft and sorcery, and voung giris give up hard- earned gavi for amulets and love po- tions. People laugh at the pretensions of ecighteenth century soothsayers, forget- ting t never in the history of the world did empiricism thrive as it does at the present time. Balsamo was born of a merchant fam- fly in Palermo, Sicily, in 1743. He recelved > rudiments of an education, and be- naturally bright he made good use all his learning. He was such an apt student of chemistry that he was sent to a monastery near Palermo to pursue the study under the direction of learned priests. It was an age of lgnorance and superstition, and the agile mind of Bal- samo detected great possibilities in per- forming tricks d on this science. He was naturally a tricksier, and so, after completing his courge of study, he started out on a career of deception. He began e R R R- e R-R-R-F-E-R-F-8-F-F-F-R-i-R=RoR-R-R-F-F-F-F-F ol - F-F-FoFoRoicF-ReReRoRaReReR-FeF=-FoFoF-F=F-F-1-1 o e fad bod Utl!2!fiflflnfiflflflfiflflbufiflfiflC‘C!flfibfiflflfitffldfiflfififlfifififlfififlfififififlfiflfl amined the cards of the unsuspecting players, and, opening a small trap in the wall, exhibited similar cards drawn from a pack he carried. Owing to the light, which was thrown down upon the table and Into the faces of all players but the dressmaker, the exhibited cards could be seen by her only. Her eyes, shaded from the glare of the lamp, were accustomed to the dim light in which the cards were exhibited, but to the other players, glanc- ing from the glare, such dimness would have been as impenetrable the dark- ness of night. In this way 2 man was able to sho s wife exactly what cards were in tt and’’ of the player behind whom he stood, and when one hand had been disclosed in this manner he moved on to the mext. But it was too clumsy to be entirely successful; victims became suspicipus of the dressmaker’'s extraordinary runs of luck and her habit of constantly looking up at the walls, and one day a victim contrived, during ‘her host's absence, to fix the gas shade to sult her own eyes, and during the game followed the schem- er's eyes the moment she saw them rise. Then the dressmaker vanished. Many attempts have been made to in- vent @ system of ornamenting the backs of cards In such a way that & person knowing the secret can read them. But the difficulties in the way are manifest, and gamblers who have attempted such frauds have generally betn speedily de- tected. It 1s & pretty well known fact, however, that a notorious American ‘‘crook,” who died in jall not long ago, was successful In this connection. He invented a pack of cards and demonstrated how readily he would read them by the backs, while no one else could discover anything in the least suspicious or suggestive about them. They are now in the hands of the police and have been examined by hundreds of ersons, but no one has been able to read heir secret. DAY, JUNE 4, 1899, CAGLIOSTRO’S Farnous House in PARIS [S NOW BEING TORN DOWN SOME OF THE MYSTERIOUS RITES HE PERFORMED THERE AND THE SENSATION HE CREATED by forging theater tickets, and then a will. He robbed a goldsmith named Ma- rano of a sum of money. Balsamo pre- tended that a secret treasure lay buried in & certain rocky chasm juat outside the city of Palermo, and that he, for a con- sideration—of course—was able to unearth the gold by means of certain magical in- cantations. The goldbeater was a sim- ple man, and likke a gudgeon swallowed the bait, hook and all. He paid the re- quired fee, and accompanied by the ama- teur sorcerer pald a visit on a certain @ark night to the lonely spot where the treasurs was supposed to he. The necromancer drew a magie eirols of phosphorus on the ground, pronounced some cabalistic words and bade the gold- smith to dig. Marano went to work with pick and spade. Suddenly terrific yells were heard, and a troop of devils (Jo- seph’s boon companions In disguise) rushed from behind the rocks and pounc- ed upon the hapless goldsmith. They pummeled him with their fists and prod- ded him with pitchforks, and left him in- sensible among the rocks. For this act Balsamo was forced to flee from Palermo to escape the vengeance of the furious goldsmith and punikhment at the hands of the authorities. He was not loath to leave the city, for he had the heart of a rover. In company with a Greek named Al- thotas he visited Greece, gypt, Arabla, Persia, Rhodes, Malta, Naples, Venica and Rome. According to his own account, he studled alchemy at Malta in the lab- oratory of Pinto, grand master of the Knights of Malta and St. John. During the course of his wanderings he became G efotienoBoReRINe R more and more versed in natural magic, and his talents in that line were so great that he soon won a reputation as a mas- ter of miracles. He perfected his dex- terity and became proficient in tricks in- volving the use of sleight of hand. He also learned the art of forging documents and geals, and practiced with zeal the profession of the idea of “mine and thine.” In Rome he met & beautiful girl, Lo- renza Feliclani, daughter of a girdle maker, and as she was dexterous in the practtce of sly arts and promised to be a good assfstant to him and helpmate, they were married. She was, In fact, more original and Inventive than himself. and they traveled over Europe In a coach-in- four with a retinue of servants geous liveries. He played the part of a magician, prophet and ex that his fame spread over Europe an ple of the better class, s 1 ers, met him with great deference. The ladles wore fans, hats and souvenirs a la Cagliostro; his wife's picture and his own were worn in lockets. Marble busts of the couple were to be seen in the parks and palaces, and under the picture of the charlatan were inscribed the words, “The Divine Cagliostro.” One of his famous arts was the prepar- atfon of a reuvenating tincture, by whose use old and wrinkled ladies might obtain a smooth skin and the varfous charms of youth. *At Strasburg,’” one of his biogravhers, “he reaped abundant harvest by p : the of making old people young glic himself pretended to be of declared that he had hobnonbed wi an eat age exander and Jullus Caesar; that he was present at the burning of Rome under Nero, and was an eye-witness of the crucifixion of Christ. As the founder of a certain mysterious lodge Cagliostro gained many adherents. He led his brotherhood back to Enoch and Ellas, and promised the members that they should be born again, morally and physi- cally, and in that way they could live 5000 years. Count Cagliostr4 was at the perihelion of his fame when he first appeared in Paris, In the summer of 178l. His record bad preceded him, and all Paris was on the qui vive. Cardinal de Rohan of nce, who was a firm believer in the tensions of the charlatan, entertained in Paris, introducing him to that gay crld of the old regime which went out forever in the French Revolution. He cap- tured Paris as easily as he had the other 1pitals on the Continent, and he literally coined money. Imbert Sainte-Armand, the author of % ! oinette and the End of the Old “The mania for the svpernatural, the rage of the marvelous, d in the last years of the eigh- nth century, which had wantonly de- d every sacred thing. Never were the sicruclans, the adepts, the sorcerers prophets 80 numeérous and respected. Serlous and educated men, maglstrates, courtiers, declared themselves eye-wit- nesses of alleged miracles When Cagliostro. came to France he found the ground prepared for his magi- cal operations. A society eager for dis- tractions and emotlions, indulged to every ferm of extravagance, necessarily wel- y8: 202500 NN et o N oM 4 %N NN Ne RN RN Ne R e R BB oNe RN+ R 9 TALLEST BUILDING IN THE WORLD. It Has Twenty-Nine Floors, 950 Rooms, Cost $2,400,000, and Has Just Been Completed In New York in New tallest office and with very tallest work of found anywhere The York s butlding few e ns the human to be on the earth's surface. A passing g at the sky line of Lower Manhattan shows how decidedly it towers above near nelghbors and closest competitors the St. Paul building, which Is 308 feet high, and the erican Surety building, rising 812 feet above the street. The Man- hattan Life structuré, which was for a new Park Row building undentably in the the world, ce long time the highest in the clty, is, tower and all, nearly fifty feet below the summit of the new buflding. How long the Park row building will enjoy Its pres- ent pre-eminence is, of course, Impossible to say 10 very conditions that have made it may ¢ it to be excelled within the next few. years. To begin with, it walk to the tops of towers is 39 feet. T taller than the dc height from the side- the cupolas on. the is over 100 feet Capitol at e Washington, & f ve the ex- treme helght of the ramids. en these figures do not represent its full proportio The flagpoles on top of the building f height. The foundations extend 54 below the sur- Therefore, fr base of its ndations to the t gpoles the new building spans 501 feet. How great this distance is one may realize by re- flecting that it is equal to the length of two city blocks or by measuring on the distance horizontally for himself. While there are a few structures that exceed the new building in vertical dimen- sfon, it is by all odds the tallest inhabited building in wo! The restaurant on top of the main build: is 208 feet above the street windows comma miles. The two | scen which it faces, ¢ nd of 47 refore be ailey. n three ¢ as high building star Conside The lot on which the this fact and th structure, it need not 1 amount of steel material enters intc a matter of fact, a vas and ston tons. If all the 1pon heavy street require a procession of teams and wagons nearly three miles long to convey it It would I i all the houses of an ordinary subur ban town, with enough left over to con- uct a good sized church It may surprise those who are millar with the art of modern cons tlon to know that this towering struce ’ ture, with all its weight, rests upon a foundation of sand. It is as secure, how- ever, as though its base rested upon the most solld rock. In fact, a foundation equal if not superior to rock was made for it. This was done by driving timbers a foot diameter and forty feet long into the sandy sofl which forms the site of the bu g by means of a twenty-ton le driver. These plles are in rows two t apart and sixteen inches from cen- ter to center under the vertical columns which support the structure. There are 12,000 of them under the whole build- Several acres of Georgia timber land were denuded to furnish the foundations big bullding "he piles were driven into the ground as they would go under the blows twenty-ton pile drrver. They are prepared to s n a weight of tons. As the most that will be 2 them Is about seven tons it seen that they form a tolerably e foundation. Moreover, they are below the water line, so that they are tble by the ordinary process of the plles were driven in thefr full h the nd was cleared away for a around their tops and concrete ured about them, forming a solid rock surface, resting securely upon thefr caps. On this concrete base were laid large blocks of granite and above them the brick piers of the bullding. The welght of the bullding s not al- e e AR Row Binooin: The New ¢Park Row Building.”” New York. The tallest buflding in the world—3% feet. The Postoffice is in the left foreground. The home of the Call, the tallest building in this city, is 325 feet high. Its taller than the dome of the Capitol Even these figures do not rei)renam its full proportions. ‘The foundations extend B4 mids. in helght. at Washington, and 8 feet feet below the surface. Therefore, height from the sidewalk to the tops of the cupolas on the towers {s 3% feet. Thus it Is over 100 feet above the extreme helght of the Pyra- The flagpoles on top of the building are 57 Teet rom the base of its foundations to the top of its flagpoles the new building srnnl 601 feet. How great this distance is one may realize by reflecting that it is equal to the length of two city bl locks or by measuring on the distance horizontally for himseit, comed such a man and hailed him as its guide. ‘“Whence did he come? What his country, his age, his origin? did he get those extraordinary which adorned his dress, he squandered so free mystery. So far as was k had no resources, no letter of vet he lived in luxury. He cured the poor without p: fled with toring t to that he was the Wandering ing a strange gib reither French nor Ita mingled a jargon whi late but called Arabi, with solemn emp fables, and he. found the peo listen and believe him The Count dressed in a manner that be- fited his calllng. According to the most authentic records he was rather a badly built man, clad in poorly cut blue taffeta, laced on the borders. He wore hair in a startling and most ridiculous style, with powdered plalts bunched in cadenettes. His silk stockings were embroidered in gold and the buckles of his velvet shoes sparkled with precious sto: The dis- play of diamonds on his fingers and watch chains went beyond the line of vulgarity. His headdress was a pointed hat orna- mented with white plumes. During eight months of the year he wore a great blue fox cloak. On the street he was a walk- ing scarecrow and the children fled from him in terror. His features were regular, his complexion clear, his teeth superb and his eyes were of marvelous brilllancy. His wife was a woman of bewlildering beauty, realizing the Greek lines in all their antique purity and enhanced by an Itallan expression. Duels were fought between gallants over the color of her eyes and the dimple In her chin. It was the Cardinal de Roban himself who installed Cagliostro and his wife in the home of Mme. d'Orvilliers, and which 18 now to be torn down. He used to visit the sorcerer almost every day, arriving at dinnertime and remaining until late in the night. It was said that the great Cardinal assisted Cagliostro in his labors, and the people of that time spoke of the mysterious laboratory where gold bubbled and diamonds sparkled in cruci- bles brought to a white heat. The Queen of France bad a strange an- tipathy toward the charlatan, and it was forbidden to mention his name in her presence or at court. The wife of the Comte de la Motte, an adventuress of the first rank, boasted of her ability te con- quer the Queen’s dislike. Bhe first made the acquaintance of Lorenza and after- ward that of Cagliostro, who introduced her to the Cardinal. Then followed the well-known intrigue of the diamond neck- lace. The Cagdinal, the “woman La Motte” and Cagliostro was imprisoned in the Bastile. Here is the Count's own statement of the affair: ‘On the 22d of August a commissaire and eight policemen entered my house. The piilage began in my presence. They compelled me to open my secretary. Elixirs, balms and precious liquors all be: came the prey of the officers who came to arrest me. I begged the commissaire to permit me to use my carriage. He re- fused. The agent took me by the coliar. He had pistols, the stocks of which ap- peared from the pockets of his coat. They hustled me into the street and scandal- ously dragged me along the boulevard to the Rue Notre-Dame-de-Naszareth. Thers a carriage approached, which I was per- mitted to enter to take me to the Bas- tile.” ‘While in the Bastile Cagliostro made the remarkable prediction that one day the Bastile would be razed to the ground. How well that prophecy was realized his- tory relates. After ten months’ imprison- ment the necromancer was released and he recelved a triumphant welcome home. Ten thousand people crowded the boule- vard near his house. They cheered him, kissed his hands and carried him on their shoulders. But his triumph did not last long. An order was issued by the King command- ing the Count Cagliostro to leave Paris in twenty-four hours and France before the end of two weeks. He bowed to the man- date of the sovereign and with his wife visited Bwitzerland and afterward Eng- land, but he had little success. In 1789 he went to Rome, where he en- deavored to found one of his Egyptian lodges, but the Holy Inquisition pro- nounced him guilty of Freemasonry—a particularly heinous offense in papal ter- ritory—and condemned him to death. The sentence, however, was commuted by the Pope to perpetual imprisonment in the gloomy fortress of San Leon, Urbino. The manner of his death and the day of it are uncertaln, but most authorities agree that he died on August 28, 17%, from apoplexy. His wife, the beautiful Lorenza Fell- clani, ended her days in a convent. For elghteen years after Cagliostro had closed the doors of his laboratories in his Parisian home the old place was undis- turbed. It was not until 1805 that the doors were opened, for the purposs of auctioning off the furniture and rare belongings of the Count. Sirfce then the gloomy house has had no history, and now it, too, will pass away. G+ 5302705020020 R+ NN+ RIN4R4 O lowed to come directly upon the granite capstones which surmount these plers. Instead, it is distributed by the system of steel girders which Is famillar to all engineers. These girders are from eight to 47 feet in depth. They are in effect big bridges placed between the founda- tions and the footings of the vertical columns of the bullding to carry the weight evenly. The heaviest of these, beneath one wall of the bullding, weighs over fifty-two tons. Above the surface the method of con- structing the building has been the one that must be tolerably familiar to all res- jdents of the larger citles who have seen tall buildings in process of erection. It consists of a steel framework, buiit span above span as is done in the bulld- ing of a cantllever bridge. The walls are merely the sheathing for this skele- ton structure. It is Interesting to turn from the con- stderation of the vast proportions of the building itself to the human Interests that it will serve. It was to accommo- date the constant demand for more room in the busiest section of the metropolis that this expenditure of time, money and effort, amounting altogether to some $2,400,000, was made. And the addition which it makes in this direction is by ne means insignificant. There are 90 rooms in the building on the twenty-nine floors. Counting four persons to each office this will make the permanent popualtion of the build nearly 4000, or egua! to that of many a flourishing county seat. To this must be added a large tran- slent population amounting probably for one person to each resident at any given time during business hours. This would make an ordinary population, resident and floating, of 76500 for this one building! If 20 persons visit each office during the day we have the result of 25,000 persons using the building every day. In other words, an army as large as that of the United States will march in and out of the building every day. The various ele- vators will have daily passenger traffic of over 60,000, or more than that of many an impertant railway line. absurd le ready to