Diana Vaughan A Myth.

the Vatican ; but , as he assured his astonished auditors , he was only a false convert , and Diana Vaughan was merely a typewriting young woman whom he employed as ^ secretary , at £ 6 per month : In this capacity she wrote ' and sighed 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 Jpan of Arc , a borrowed affaif , was sung in several churches . Through Cardinal Parocchi the typewriting young damsel received the Papal Benediction , and was informed that her conversion was th , e most , magnificient

triumph of grace ever kuown . The Bishop of Charleston , who doubted Diana's existence , was , said M . Taxil , cold-shouldered by the Pope ; and the Vicar-Apostolic of . Gibraltar , who informed the Vatican that there were no caverns in the Rock where Masonic emblems or steel crowns for 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 s ' tating that Joan of Arc's heart was preserved in one of the cities of the Peninsula over which King Humbert rules . All this was calmly and sardonically uttered by the speaker , who , in

conclusion ,: 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 the Abbe Garnier , a muscular

Christian and militant Catholic , who edits a paper , called the speaker most terrible names , and lamented that he had left his big stick at the door . On leaving the hall of meeting , Taxil had to be protected by the police , whb were in strong force , and

he was followed not only by angry .. Catholics , but by persons who took up the cause of the Freemasons . It is now sincerely to : be hoped that the world will hear no more about Diana Vaughan , who has been a three years' bore to everybody ' . — " Daily Telegraph " Paris Correspondent ., ,

In the early days of the century London was startled by the announcement that an eminent foreign conjuror would upon a stated evening perform , at the Haymarket Theatre , the unparalleled feat of packing himself into a quart bottle . Of course the house was crammed for the occasion , and at the appointed . hour

up went the curtain , disclosing in the middle , oi the bare stage the familiar form . of a reputed quart . > Then there stepped forward froni the wing a moustached gentleman in evening dress , who advanced to the footlights rubbing his hands and eyeing the audience with cheerful complacency . . Amid a hush of breathless

excitement the' magician opened his lips and gave uttarance to these words : , " Ladish and shentle ' mans , dis is von horn bog . " In the twinkling of an ' eye he had vanished—not into the bottle , but through the stage door , where a . cab was waiting to waft him into the " ewigkeit . " . This is precisely similar in all respects but

one to . M . Leo Taxil s performance a night or two ago l . n the rooms of the Paris Geographical Society . He had promised to produce the famous Diana Vaughan , and with splendid effrontery he got' up and proclaimed that she was a myth , and her entire story , a fabrication . M . Taxil , however , had courage and

impudence enough not to run away , and the listeners , strange to say , Frenchmen as they were , made no attempt , to offer him violence . But the Catholic hierarchs whom he gulled- will assuredly not forget- him , and the arm of the Church is pretty long . — - " Pall Mall Gazette . "

. . . The gentleman who calls himself M . Leo Taxil ,, and has acquired some notoriety by recent shocking disclosures on the subject of Satan-worship , turns out to be a practical joker of tbe most determined order . His name-is not Taxil at all , but Jogand , which in itself suggests a bad form of joke , and he has

beeu engaged in a regular series of hoaxes . His conversion to Rome and the confessions of . " Diana Vaughan " were , only , tbe last of his little tricks , but no doubt the most audacious . The Pope is about the last man the average joker would think of hoaxing ; but M . Taxil has .. done it with triumphant success ,

according to bis own shameless confession a day or two ago . Diana Vaughan , who had received the Papal blessing , is only his type-writer , and he himself , who has been received in audience by his Holiness , was never converted at all . But perhaps the confession is all a hoax—with such a liar you never can tell

Anyhow , he was mobbed , and richly deserved it . If the mob would mistake him for a log of wood and throw him into the river , it would do him a world of good , says the " St . James ' s Gazette . " A touch of their own method is the best treatment for practical jokers .

M . Leo Taxil nas at length confessed to the impudent forgeries by means of which he has made an income out of the simple priests of the Roman Catholic Church . Taxil was an iitheist . He made a little money , but not sufficient . He perceived opportunities for making more by turning Roman

Diana Vaughan A Myth.

Catholic and libelling Freemasons—a proceeding of sweet savour in the nostrils of the ignorant French priests . M . Taxil timed his conversion at the exact moment for success . The Pope had been , fulminating against Freemasons and their practices . The interesting convert had revelations to make . He pretended to

have been a-Freemason , and to have assisted his colleagues at the Black Mass . But M . Taxil ' s character as a blackguard was too well known , and , despite his conversion , people thought him a blackguard still—which he was and is . So he created a lady , " Diana Vaughan , " who made the revelations , while Taxil drew the

cash price thereof . ' His amazing impudence overcame some of the astutest Eomanists . At the clerical congress at Trent elninent and educated clerics expressed their belief in the existence of Diana , and in the truth of her revelations about Freemasonry . Now , at last , M . Taxil has confessed that no such person exists ,

that he is a liar , and that his revelations were concocted . His brazen impertinence did not desert him at this . crisis . He made the confession quite cheerfully . Probably it is but a prelude to

his departure . from the Roman Catholic Church . He has made as muPh money out of it ' as he can hope to . Now it is time to seek fresh pastures . The Roman Catholics will no doubt be glad to be rid of him . —" Eastern Daily Press , "

,.: ; , M ; Leo . Taxil has not been kind to his dupes . Some time ago he gave to the world , under a thinly veiled anonymity , some " terrible disclosures "—a result , no doubt , of an overdose of Huysmans—as to the close connection between Freemasonry of native growth and Satan-worship . The scarifying revelations ,

which were made through the intermediary of a mysterious Diana Vaughan were gravely debated at the clerical congress held at Trent , in the Tyrol , last autumn , one speaker , and a prelate , if we mistake not , going so far as to assert that he had met Miss Diana Vaughan and had an edifying conversation with

her ; Now" M . Leo Taxil—who is at present as ardent a Romanist as he was once an atheist—unblushingly tells an audience which had assembled at a meeting of the Paris Geographical Society for the purpose of hearing more revelations from Diana Vaughan on

the subject of Satan-worship , that there " ain ' t no sich person , " that , in short , she was " a myth created by his own brain as a practical , joke . " No doubt M . Taxil has enjoyed his joke , but we wonder what his ecclesiastical superiors will say to it all . — " Daily Chronicle . " ; .

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