"The Hoax of the Century."

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXII, Issue 6909, 7 June 1897, Page 1

"The Hoax of the Century."

A COLOSSAL LIAR

Itl. Leo Taxil, who recently came forward in France as a convert to Rome from Atheism and Freemasonry, has been making some extraordinary revolutions with regard to his role at a mcetir.g in Paris. According to the account given by the correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, M. Leo Taxil has made a general confession before the public, and unblushingly proclaimed thai he has been for years hoaxing Pope, cardinals, priests, and people. P.r. Leo Taxil, alias Gabriel Jegancl, wrote some years ago a series of antireligious novels and pamphlets. He pretended to reveal the raystei-ies of the Vatican, and to make backstairs revelations about distinguished ecclesiastics. Then he suddenly repented, retracted all his evil allegations, and ■went to confession to a Jesuit priest; and it was believed by hundreds of simple minded 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 ITintesnth Century." The author was supposed to be a Dr Betaille, an exsurgeon in the merchant service, who recounted as a witness events in the 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 " Palladian Grand Mistress of ths Supreme and Mysterious Lodge of Uai versal Freemasonry." In this capacity Diana was alleged to have married the England (Asmodeus)i who was commander in-chief of seventy legions of satanic spirits. After these monstrosities had been launched other publications, entitled " Memoirs of an cx-Palladist 3 " and " The Eucharistic Novena," announced that Diana Vaughan had been converted to Cathehcisni. SII9 wa3 patronised, although she had not been seen, by Cardinal Parocchi, and even by the Popo himself. M. Leo Taxil published hor fame f;vr and in. religious newspapers and periodicals, but in spite of all this some Catholics began to have strong suspicions, and at an AntiMasonic Congress held last year in Trent her existence was denied. This was supposed by the believers in Diana to be a bold step, fur 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 tn have been, and city rcr.-a, until Miss condescended to come from America in order to readjust him. In the meantime the sceptics and unbelievers, who refused to regard Diana as au»iit but a mythical personage, persistently called on M. Taxil to produce her in the llesli and to let her be seen and heard. This the supposed convert promised to do, and hs accordingly convoked a meeting, which took place in the Geographical Society's hnll on the Boulevard Saint Germain, and was attended by many persons, icciudiog 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 Palladisfc as one of the Magi, and the pact which he had. made with the serpent cut in three : the treaty between Thomas Vaughaa and Lucifer, Son of the Morning ; photographs of Albert Pike, Miss Liliana Pike, John Yaughan, and the damsel herself, who was supposed to have contracted a diabolical marriage. Ik w&s also expected that a book was to be seen which had been written by the Devil ; and ranch w-.<s heard about a picture of Miss Yaughan rsceivir.s 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. Fumisiurh was the foandation of his character as a Marseilles man, and at the age of 10 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 cafos-chantants, houses, and gardens deep down in the recesses of blue Lake Leman. A Polish archroologist 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 Da Stall. 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 unmasked the Freemasons 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, he was only a false convert, and Diana Vaughan was merely a type-writing young woman whom he employed as a secretary at L 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 Sacro Coear for Diana, and her hymn to Joan of Arc (a borrowed affair) was sung in several churches, Through Cardinal Paroechi the typewriting young damsel received the Papal benediction, and was informed that her conversion was the most magnificent triumph of grace 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 ths 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 Aic'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 nob only by angry Catholics, but by persons who took up the cause of the Freemasons.

The Sfe. James's Gazette, commenting on the tale of deception so urtblusamgly 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."