and has already reached a speed of thirty-two knots. The manipulation
of the engines is a comparatively simple matter, as to reverse it is
only necessary to close one valve and open another, and, owing to there
being no dead centers, small graduations of speed can be easily made.
In regard to the general application of turbine machinery to large
ships, the conditions appear to be more favorable in the case of the
faster class of vessels such as cross-Channel boats, faster passenger
vessels, cruisers, and liners; in such vessels the reduction in weight
of machinery, as well as economy in the consumption of coal per horse
power, are important factors in the case, and in some vessels the
absence of vibration, both as regards the comfort of passengers, and in
the case of ships of war permitting greater accuracy in sighting of the
guns, is a question of first importance.
As regards cross-Channel boats, the turbine system presents advantages
in speed, absence of vibration, and, owing to the smaller diameter of
the propellers, reduced draught.
As an instance, a boat of two hundred and seventy feet length,
thirty-three feet beam, one thousand tons displacement, and eight
feet six inches draught of water could be constructed with spacious
accommodation for six hundred passengers, and with machinery developing
eighteen thousand horse power; she will have a sea speed of about
thirty knots, as compared with the speed of nineteen to twenty-two
knots of the present vessels of similar size and accommodation.
It is, perhaps, interesting to examine the possibilities of speed
that might be attained in a special unarmored cruiser, a magnified
torpedo-boat destroyer of light build, with scanty accommodation
for her large crew, but equipped with an armament of light guns and
torpedoes. Let us assume that her dimensions are about double those of
the thirty-knot destroyers, with plates of double the thickness and
specially strengthened to correspond with the increased size--length,
four hundred and twenty feet; beam, forty-two feet; maximum draught,
fourteen feet; displacement, twenty-eight hundred tons; indicated
horse power, eighty thousand; there would be two tiers of water-tube
boilers; these, with the engine space, coal bunkers, etc., would occupy
the whole of the lower portion of the vessel; the crew’s quarters and
guns would be on the upper decks. There would be eight propellers of
nine feet in diameter revolving at about four hundred revolutions per
minute, and her speed would be about forty-four knots.
She could carry coal at this speed for about eight hours, but she would
be able to steam at from ten to fourteen knots with a small section
of the boilers more economically than other vessels of ordinary type
and power, and, when required, all the boilers could be used, and full
power exerted in about half an hour.
In the case of an Atlantic liner or a cruiser of large size, turbine
engines would appear to present some considerable advantages. In the
first place they would effect a reduction in weight of machinery and
some increase in economy of fuel per horse power developed, both thus
tending either to a saving in coal on the one hand, or, if preferred,
some increase in speed.
The advantages are, however, less pronounced in this class of vessel on
account of the smaller relative power of the machinery and the large
quantity of coal necessary for long voyages, but the complete absence
of vibration at all speeds, not to mention many minor considerations
of saving in cost and reduced engine-room staff, are questions of
considerable importance.
A SURVIVAL OF MEDIÆVAL CREDULITY.
BY PROFESSOR E. P. EVANS.
[_Concluded._]
In the seventeenth year of her age Miss Diana Vaughan joined the
Freemasons, entering the lodge (“triangle”) of “The Eleven Seven,” at
Louisville, and passing rapidly through the different grades until
the “Elect Palladistic Knighthood” was conferred upon her after she
had given satisfactory proofs of her Luciferian orthodoxy. One thing
she refused to do--namely, to stab the host with a dagger--since
this act implied a recognition of the sacramental character of the
Eucharist. She maintained that there would be no sense in piercing the
consecrated wafer unless it was believed to be the real body of Christ;
but as she rejected the doctrine of transubstantiation as a childish
superstition, she was unwilling to make a fool of herself by assaulting
a piece of ordinary bread with a show of wrath. She would not hesitate
to commit sacrilege, but did object to being silly. This scruple, or
rather this lively sense of the ridiculous, rendered her unpopular with
the Freemasons, inasmuch as it marred the performance of their most
important and impressive Satanic ceremony, and thus gave her rival,
Sophia Walder, an advantage, which she was quick to improve.
We need not follow the career of Sophia Walder, known to the infernals
as Sophia Sapho. She is said to have been born in Strasburg, September
29, 1863, as the supposititious daughter of a Protestant parson,
Philias Walder, and a Rosicrucian dame, Ida Jacobsen, with whom the
clergyman lived after having murdered his wife in Copenhagen. Her
real father, however, was the devil Bitru, who declared her to be
the predestined great-grandmother of antichrist. In 1896, while in
Jerusalem, she gave birth to a daughter, the grandmother of antichrist;
this child was also of demoniac paternity. Owing to her uncompromising
Luciferianism, she was a favorite of the Freemasons, and excited the
jealousy of Diana Vaughan, who tells with zest of the practical jokes
played on her. Thus, at a banquet of the Freemasons, somebody put a few
drops of Lourdes water in her glass of lemonade, which caused terrible
pain and threw her into spasms, from which she finally found relief by
vomiting fire. This incident is cited by a Catholic writer, Dr. Michael
Germanus,[H] in his Secrets of Hell (_Geheimnisse der Hölle_), as
conclusive proof that “Sophia was possessed.”
[H] Michael Germanus (a Latinization of “_Der deutsche
Michel_,” the personification of the German nation,
analogous to the English “John Bull” and the American
“Brother Jonathan”) is the pseudonym of a priest, Parson
Künzle, of Feldkirch, in the Tyrolese Voralberg.
[Illustration]
Bitru’s proclamation of Sophia Sapho as the prospective
great-grandmother of the incarnate antichrist is given in full. It
was dictated in Latin by Bitru at a meeting of Freemasons in Italy,
and written down by Luigi Revello, and bears the devil’s signature,
composed of Satanic signs and symbols, darts, sword, cords, lightning,
bugle-horn, trident, and crowing cock.
This climax of absurdity ought to have served to expose the trickery
and trumpery of the whole affair, but it produced the very opposite
effect. Dr. Germanus refers to “Bitru’s sign-manual as highly
interesting,” and characterizes “the documentary evidence as thoroughly
convincing”; those who refuse to recognize the truth in the face of
such positive proof he accuses of imitating the ostrich and willfully
shutting their eyes to the light.[I]
[I] A photographic reproduction of this document is given in
Diana Vaughan’s biography of the Italian statesman Crispi,
which contains numerous illustrations and portraits of
Crispi, Mazzini, Lemmi, Garibaldi, Giordano Bruno, and
other “Palladists,” or Masonic worshipers of Satan. The
original French title of the book is “Le 33ᵉ ⁂ Crispi. Un
Palladiste Homme d’État démasqué. Biographie documentée du
Héros depuis sa Naissance jusqu’ à sa deuxième Mort. Par
Miss Diana Vaughan.”
The salvation of Diana Vaughan is described as due to her intense
admiration for Joan of Arc, a feeling which was ardently fostered by
the priests with whom she chanced to come in contact. One day, as she
was attended by Asmodeus, Astaroth, Beelzebub, and Moloch, incarnate in
“the counterfeit presentment” of fine gentlemen, she obeyed a sudden
and irresistible impulse to invoke the Maid of Orleans, when these
devils were immediately stripped of their disguise, and stood before
her in their true character as imps of hell, with hoofs and horns, and
emitted an intolerable stench. No sooner did they perceive that they
were unmasked than they vanished with a fearful howl. This miracle
made a deep impression upon her, and led to her conversion. She took
refuge in a Parisian cloister, and, after severe penance and proper
instruction, was received into the bosom of the Catholic Church. During
this period of penitential seclusion she wrote her Memoirs, which
produced an immense sensation in clerical circles, and were pronounced
by a high ecclesiastical dignitary to be “worth more than their weight
in gold.”
It must be confessed that in weaving this tissue of fabrications Taxil
showed consummate skill as a romancer and a profound knowledge of the
possibilities of human credulity. He made a happy hit in calling the
heroine of his Stygian story Diana, since in the annals of witchcraft
the pagan goddess of the chase is wont to frequent the nocturnal
assemblies of demons, and in mediæval theology the phrase “_congressus
Sabathi cum Diana_” was a common expression for intercourse with
Satan. Another masterly stroke was to represent her deliverance from
the snares of evil spirits and the hallucinations of Luciferianism
as a miracle of grace wrought through the mediation of Joan of Arc,
thus furnishing an argument in favor of the canonization of the Maid
of Orleans, which the cleverest _advocatus diaboli_ would be unable
to answer. At this time Taxil prepared also a Catholic prayer book
entitled _Eucharistic Novena_, published under the name of Diana
Vaughan, and containing forms of supplication against unbelief,
worldly indifference and lukewarmness, hardness of heart, blasphemy,
and unchastity. The covert sarcasm which pervades the entire manual
of devotion comes out most clearly in the section on the violation of
the seventh commandment. A copy of the work, which had been approved
by the Archbishop of Genoa, was sent to Cardinal Parocchi, with a
letter signed “Your Eminence’s most devoted servant in Jesus, Mary, and
Joseph, Diana Vaughan,” and five hundred francs, of which two hundred
and fifty were to be used for organizing an international antimasonic
congress, and the rest to be given as Peter’s pence to the Pope. The
cardinal replied with great cordiality to his “dear daughter in our
Lord,” called her conversion “one of the most glorious triumphs of
grace,” and added, “I am reading at this very moment your Memoirs with
burning interest.” He gave her his blessing, and conveyed “the thanks
and special benediction of his Holiness.” Numerous letters of a like
character were received from the Vatican. On May 27, 1896, the General
Secretary of the Apostolic See, Verzichi, wrote that “his Holiness
had read her _Eucharistic Novena_ with extreme pleasure”; two months
later the Pope’s private secretary, Vincenzo Sardi, thanked her in the
name of Leo XIII for her exposure of Crispi, and bade her “continue to
write and to unmask the godless sect,” and the _Civiltà Cattolica_,
the official organ of the papacy, praised her “inexhaustibleness in
precious revelations, which are unparalleled for their accuracy and
usefulness. Freemasonry is confounded, and seeks to evade the blows
of the valiant championess by denying her existence, and treating her
as a myth. It is a pitiable shift, but Freemasonry can find no better
refuge.” “Your pen and your piety,” wrote Monsignore Villard, October
15, 1896, “are predestined to demolish the foes of mankind. The good
works of the saints have always met with opposition, and it is no
wonder, therefore, that yours should be combated.”
Naturally, there was intense curiosity to see this new convert and
powerful defender of the faith. This inquisitiveness was easily allayed
at first by the plea that the cloister to which she had retired must
be kept secret, in order that she might be safe from assassination
by the Freemasons. Meanwhile the medium of correspondence was a
bright American girl, employed as copyist in a Parisian typewriting
establishment, who wrote all the letters at Taxil’s dictation, and
received a monthly salary of one hundred and fifty francs for her
services. After a time he deemed it politic to introduce her privately
to select circles of Catholics, who were thereby enabled to testify
to her existence, since they had seen and conversed with her. The
following incident may be mentioned to illustrate the adroitness with
which she played her part: M. Pierre Lautier states that he once
breakfasted with her, and offered to pour a little Chartreuse into
her coffee, but she refused it with a singular sign of aversion, and
took a few drops of old cognac instead. As an ex-Luciferian, she
instinctively shrank from a drink made in a cloister, or what she
called “an Adonaïc liquor.” That she should have thought of such a
feint on the spur of the moment indicates that she had not only made a
thorough study of her rôle, but also had been endowed by Nature with
genuine theatrical talent. A full account of the solemn sham, published
in the _Revue Mensuelle_, served to strengthen the faith of waverers in
the reality of Diana Vaughan, and furnished an admirable opportunity
for discoursing on the difficulty of throwing off Satanic influences;
for here was a young lady who, although she had received absolution
and thus become a child of grace, could not forget the terrible effect
of a few drops of Lourdes water on one of her former demonolatrous
associates, and recoiled with horror from a glass of Chartreuse. Taxil
and his confederates confess that they often “doubled up with laughter”
over the success of their imposture, and indulged in jokes about it in
their writings. Thus Dr. Bataille, in the first volume of The Devil in
the Nineteenth Century, remarks, as a peculiarity of Diana Vaughan,
that she “is very fond of wearing male attire,” but no allusions of
this kind, however pointed, seemed to have excited any suspicion of
guile in minds predisposed to credulity by Nature and by education.
Taxil’s long series of mystifications, extending over a dozen years,
culminated in the convocation of an antimasonic congress at Trent, on
September 26, 1896, to the president of which Leo XIII addressed an
apostolical brief with his benediction, and expressed the hope that
the assembled representatives of the Church would not rest until the
“detestable sect” had been unmasked and the evil utterly eradicated.
A “central executive committee,” consisting of a score of Italian
papists, issued a circular summoning all Catholics to join “the new
crusade,” and declaring that the Vatican had now raised a war-cry
against Freemasonry, “the den of Satan,” as it did eight centuries
ago against Islam. Taxil was received with ovations, and did not
hesitate to poke fun at the venerable prelates to their very faces.
With an assumption of modesty he reproved them for what might be
misplaced enthusiasm. “One can never be sure,” he said, “of a converted
Freemason, but must always fear lest he may return to his former
friends. Not until the convert is dead can one be wholly free from
this anxiety. I am well aware that this general principle applies
also to myself.” But even this daring dash of irony, hardly hidden
under the gauzy disguise of self-distrust, did not cool the ardor
of his admirers, who continued to greet the harlequin with “_Evviva
Taxil_!” His photograph hung among the pictures of the saints, and
the mere mention of his name called forth loud applause, whereupon
the prince of mountebanks rose and bowed. A few Germans had the good
sense and courage to protest against these demonstrations, and to
doubt the existence of Diana Vaughan and the sincerity of Taxil,
whose sole object, as Dr. Gratzfeld asserted, was to “lay a snare for
Catholics and anti-Freemasons, and scoff at them when they are caught
in it.” This skepticism created intense excitement, and was severely
rebuked by an Italian priest and a Parisian prebendary, who averred
that they knew Diana Vaughan personally, and could vouch for her
saintliness. A French monk used such violent language in his reply to
Dr. Gratzfeld that the presiding officer, although indorsing his views,
felt constrained to call him to order. “Any doubt of Diana Vaughan’s
existence or of the genuineness of her revelations,” exclaimed the Abbé
de Bessonies, “is a sin against the antimasonic cause!” The Spanish
delegates introduced a resolution demanding that all Freemasons should
be legally incapacitated to hold any civil office or military command;
the resolution was adopted, with the amendment that “wherever it may be
feasible” such laws should be enacted and executed. The manner in which
Taxil met the allegations of his opponents is highly characteristic.
“A priest of the Holy Sacrament, Father Delaporte, had often declared
that he would gladly give his life for the conversion of Diana Vaughan.
She attended mass in the cloister for the first time on Corpus Christi,
and left her sacred retreat on the following Saturday. On the very day
of her departure Father Delaporte died. And yet there are persons who
doubt the existence of Miss Vaughan!” The burst of applause elicited
by this irrefragable argument proved his accurate appreciation of
the logical powers of his auditors, whose minds had been fed on the
nutriment which may be wholesome as “milk for babes,” but, when
persistently administered to adults, converts them into intellectual
milksops.
Although the congress was attended by many of the chief dignitaries
of the papal hierarchy, and the Romish Patriarch of Constantinople
sat there in state with a golden crown on his head, Taxil was its
ruling spirit. On his motion, it was resolved to establish antimasonic
associations in every land under the auspices of the bishops and the
direction of national committees, and a commission was appointed to
investigate the Diana Vaughan affair. A few months later, on January
22, 1897, this commission made an indecisive and utterly nugatory
report, to the effect that “no thoroughly convincing evidence had been
furnished for or against the existence and conversion of Diana Vaughan
and the authenticity of the writings attributed to her.” This evasion
of the issue, however, did not shake the confidence of the ultramontane
press, nor prevent its positive affirmation of the points which the
commission had discreetly left in doubt. As a reward for this fanatical
zeal and steadfast credulity, the editor of The Pelican received a
special apostolical benediction, and was thus encouraged to “resist the
raging of Satan.” “Stand firm!” he exclaimed. “The Holy Father is with
us, and who is over him?”
With the Congress of Trent the mystification which Taxil had been
playing off on papacy for so many years had reached the acme of
success, and nothing now remained but to wind up the plot with a
drastic _denouement_. Accordingly, Diana Vaughan issued an invitation
to a conference to be held on April 19, 1897, in the great hall of
the Geographical Society of Paris. It was also stated that other
conferences would be held in the principal cities of France, Italy,
England, and the United States. The programme for the evening was quite
elaborate, beginning with a lottery for an American typewriter and
ending with a series of fifty-four stereopticon pictures representing,
among other fantastic scenes, Sophia Walder and her serpents, events in
the life of Diana Vaughan, the apparition of the devil Bitru in Rome,
Eden and Eve with the fatal apple, sacrilegious stabbing of the host
on a Satanic altar in a Masonic lodge at Berlin, and finally Leo XIII
with the encyclical letter _Humanum genus_ as a flaming sword in his
hand, the archangel Michael on his right and the apocalyptic St. John
on his left treading the triple-headed dragon of Freemasonry under
foot. The audience consisted chiefly of priests, with a few Protestant
clergymen and Freemasons, and an unusually large number of newspaper
reporters. The typewriter was won by Ali Kemal, correspondent of the
Constantinople journal _Ikdam_, who only regretted that it did not
write Turkish. Taxil then appeared on the platform, and began his
address with the words: “Reverend sirs, ladies, and gentlemen! You
wish to see Diana Vaughan. Look at me! I myself am that lady!” After
this startling exordium, he proceeded to relate how from his youth
up he had always had an irresistible inclination to play practical
jokes. Once he frightened the inhabitants of Marseilles by discovering
a shoal of sharks in the harbor, and again he set the archæologists
all agog by announcing the existence of a city, built on piles, at the
bottom of Lake Leman. But these were “childish things” compared with
the manner in which he had humbugged the Catholic clergy for nearly a
dozen years. We need not report the details of his discourse; it is
sufficient to say that he gave a full account of the deep-laid plot
from its first conception to its final consummation at the Congress of
Trent. Each new disclosure called forth cries of “Liar!” “Scoundrel!”
“Vilifier!” “Villain!” and similar epithets, but nothing could disturb
the cynical composure of the speaker. As a precautionary measure, all
persons had been required to give up their canes and umbrellas at the
entrance, otherwise the angry words would have been emphasized by
blows. The shameless impostor coolly referred to the numerous presents
received, among which was an Emmenthaler cheese, sent by the Marquis
de Morès, with pious sayings carved in the rind. “It was an excellent
cheese,” he added, “and served to strengthen me in my fight against
Freemasonry.” The money remitted to Diana Vaughan in ten years amounted
to more than half a million francs, and flowed into the pockets of
Taxil and his confederates. He expressed his thanks to the clergy for
their aid in carrying out his scheme, and attributed their co-operation
chiefly to ignorance and imbecility, but partly also to dishonesty,
declaring that among the many dupes there were not a few knaves. As
he left the hall he was threatened with violence, and took refuge
in a neighboring _café_, under the protection of the police. No one
thought any longer of the pictures which were to form such a novel and
attractive feature of the entertainment; indeed, this forgetfulness
constituted an important although unprinted part of the programme in
the minds of those who arranged it.
How difficult it is for constitutionally credulous persons, in whom
this disposition has been nurtured by education, to take a rational
view of things when a strong appeal is made to their prejudices, is
evident from a statement published in the _Osservatore Cattolico_ of
Milan, in May, 1897, that Leo Taxil was held in durance vile by the
Freemasons, one of whom personated him on the occasion just described.
Another Catholic writer asserted that Diana Vaughan did not appear at
the conference because Taxil had been bribed by the Freemasons to have
her shut up in a lunatic asylum.
The history of Taxil’s imposture has been circumstantially narrated
in a book entitled _Leo XIII und der Satanskult_, by Dr. J. Ricks
(Berlin: Hermann Walther, 1897, pp. xiv-301; price, three marks).
The author, a doctor of divinity and pastor of a Lutheran church at
Olvenstadt, near Magdeburg, has collected his materials from authentic
sources and treated the whole subject with remarkable thoroughness and
impartiality. His work is a valuable contribution to the voluminous
annals of religious superstition and credulity.