"THE HOAX OF THE CENTURY."

Dunstan Times, Issue 1819, 18 June 1897, Page 3

"THE HOAX OF THE CENTURY."

A COLOSSAL LIAK. M. Leo Taxil, who recently came forward in France as a convert to Rome from Atheism and Freemasonry, has been making some extraordinary revelations with regard to his rolo at a meeting in Paris. According to the account given by the correspondent of the ' Daily Telegraph,' M. Leo Taxil ha 3 mada a general confession before the public, and unblushingly proclaimed that he has been for years hoaxing Pope, cardinals, priests, and people. M. Leo Taxil alias Gabriel Jogand wrote some years ago a series of auti-religious novels and pamphlets. He pretended to reveal the mysteries of the Vatican, and to make backstairs revelations about distinguished ecclesiastics. Then he suddenly repented, retracted ail his evil allegations, and went to confession to a Jesuit priest; and it wa3 believed by hundreds of simpleminded persons, unversed in the guile of the world, that M. Taxil was a sound, practical, and intelligent convert, who was an undoubted acquisition to Catholicism. Three years ago the supposed convert was identified with the publication of a book called * The Devil in the Nineteenth Century.' The author was supposed to be a Dr Bataille, an ex surgeon in the merchant service, who recounted as a witness events in tho extraordinary career of a young person named Diana Vaughan. This damsel was said to be born of Protestant parents away down in Kentucky, and to have been made " Palladiau Giaud Mistress of the Supreme and Mysterious Lodge of Universal Freemasonry." In this capacity Diana was alleged to have married the Devil (Asmodeus), who was commander-in-chief of seventy legions of satauic spirits. After these monstrosities had been launched other publications, entitled 'Memoirs of an exPalladist' and 'The Eueharistic Novena,' announced that Diana Vaughan had been converted to Catholicism. She was patronised, although she had never been seen, by Cardinal Parocchi, and even by the Pope himself. M. L<so Taxil published her fame far aud wide in religious newspapers and periodicals, but in spite of all this some Catholics began to have strong suspicions, and at an Anti-Masonic Congress held last year in Trent her existence was denied. This was supposed by the believers in Diana to be a bold step, for one man who had doubted suddenly found his head twisted around one night, and he remained for three weeks with his face where his poll ought to have been, and vice versa, until Miss Vaughan condescended to come from America in order to readjust him. In the meantime the sceptics and unbelievers, who refused to regard Diana as aught but a mythical personage, persistently called on M. Taxil to produce her in the flesh and to let her be seen and heard. This the supposed convert promised to do, and he accordingly convoked a meeting, which took place in the Geographical Society's hall on the Boulevard Saint Germain, and was attended by many persons, including numerous priests. It was promised that Diana would make statements about Palladism, the full truths of which were not to be revealed until 1912. There were also to be luminous projections showing a Palladist as oue of the Magi, and the pact which he had made with the serpent cut in three; the treaty between Thomas Vaughan and Lucifer, Son of the Morning ; photographs of Albert Pike, Mis 3 Liliana Pike, John Vaughan, and the damsel herself, who was supposed to have contracted a diabolical marriage. It was also expected that a book was to be seen which had been written by the Devil ; and mush was heatd about a picture of Miss Vaughan receiving a steel crown, made in the caverns of Gibraltar, from the hands of Asmodeus, her Satanic husband. All this imposture was frankly and audaciously unveiled by its organiser amid scenes of protestation and uproar. AN EXTRAORDINARY CONFESSION.

M. Taxil calmly announced that he was born a perpetrator of jokes at the expense of credulous humanity. Fumisterie was the foundation of his character as a Marseilles man, and at the age of nineteen he had terrified his fellow-townsmen by announcing that the port of the southern city was invaded by sharks of the most terrible species. He also announced that there was a lost city under the Lake of Geneva, and some people believed that they saw cafeV chantauts, houses, and gardens deep down in the recesses of blue Lake Leman. A Polish archaeologist even went so far as to write a treatise on the matter, in which he said that he had perceived something like an equestrian statue at the bottom of the inland sea immortalised by Gibbon, Rousseau, Byron, and Madame De StaSl. Then Taxil started the Diana Vaughan hoax. He was prayed for by fervent monks and nuns, who almost regarded him as a father of the church and a candidate for canonisation, since he unmaskel the Freemisons and brought over to Catholicity women wedded to devils. At Rome he was received with open arms, and had an audience at the Vatican ; but, as he assured his astonished auditors, lie was only a false convert, and Diana Vaughan was merely a type-writing young woman whom he employed as a secretary at £6 per month. In this capacity she wrote and signed letters dictated by Taxil himself, and addressed to high prelates. A Triduum, or three days' prayer, was celebrated at the Sacre Cceur for Diana, and her hymn to Joan of Arc (a borrowed affair) was sung in several churches. Through Cardinal Parocchi the type - writing young damsel received the Papal benediction, and was informed that her conversion was the most magnificent triumph of erace ever known. The Bishop of Charleston, who doubted Diana's existence, was, said M. Taxil, coldshouldered by the Pope; and the VicarApostolic of Gibraltar, who informed the Vatican that there were no caverns on the rock where Masonic emblems or steel crowns or devils were manufactured, was not listened to. Then the Italian clergy, according to the hoaxer, tried to get up an imposture of their own by stating that Joan of Arc's heart was preserved in one of the Italian cities. All this was calmly and sardonically uttered by Taxil, who, in concluding his " confession," said to the priests and Catholic writers present that he sincerely thanked them and the bishops for having assisted him in organising the finest hoax of the century, and one which crowned his career. Taxil was vigorously hooted as he uttered these words, and on leaving the hall of meeting he had to be protected by the police, who were in strong force, and he was followed not only by angry Catholics, but by persons who took up the cause of the Freemasons.

The 'St. James's Gazette,' commenting on the tale of deception so unblushingly told by Taxil, says : " But perhaps the confession is all a hoax—with such a liar you can never tell. Anyhow, he was mobbed, and richly deserved it."