The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-11-20


fence Against Military Lsw-Dreyfu
Has Always Claimed To Be Innocen
and His Wifeis Working to Prove Hin
Guil,less.
Chicago Tribune.)
IF Captain Dreyfus had sent any in
formation to the German government
should have heard it. On my word o.
honor, as an officer and a gentleman,
tell you that no such information evel
came to us.''
These are the words of German officer
"a man high in a department which
gives him knowledge of the workings
of the German secret service in France
quoted in cable dispatches which appeared
in The Tribune last week. They, open
up possibility of piitful tale of linus
tioe and sufTering-the story of an inno-
cent man charged with the grievous mill
tary offense of selling the secrets of the
French army to the German government,
subjected to every possible degradation,
branded before the army and people as a
traitor, and now, by the orders of the
French government, living the life Of a
coast of French Guiana.
II Captain Dreyfus Is guilty he has re-
oeived no more than what in the eyes OF
the rigorous military law might seem
right. If he is innocent, he is an injured
mantle victim Of conspiracy, perhaps,
Of injustice certainly-and a man with
an injury unparalleled in modern times.
That he is innocent rests not merely on
the statement of the German officer in
question. This is only the last link in q
chain of evidence and probability that has
| brought about growing belief in Europe
that Captain Dreyfus, despised by the
French people, cut off from communica.
ton with his wife ard friends, living in
an iron cage on the lie du Diable under
continual guard, Is q scapegoat-a scape-
goat for official sim ers in high places.
| The most noted political prisoner of the
present time, the most vigorously con-
| fed, the most carefully watched by gov
eminent agents, is Albert Dreyfus, for
merly Captain in the French army.
so far as the world at large is con-
| cerned he is dead. About him every pre-
| caution which the ingenuity of the
French government can suggest has been
thrown. On barren island, whose sole
inhabitants are himself and guards, he
| lives, absolutely cut off from the world.
His guards never speak to him except in
the regular discharge of their duties
The hut in which he spends most of his
time Is surrounded by an iron cage, and
| when he walks among the rocks of his
| island prison his every step is followed
by an armed keeper.
1t was in 1894 that Captain Dreyfus was
charged with the offense for which this
stern punishment has been inflicted upon
him. Some one had been selling the plans
of the French military works to the Ger,
man government. In the armed peace
of Europe no secret is more Important,
none more carefully guarded, than the
| rapidity with which troops can be
brought into the field and the rapidly
with which they can be massed at Civ
en- point 1t was this which had been
sold.
FRENCH PLANS BETRA YED.
The French secret service, with an eye
to the possibility of such thing. had
been keeping careful watch of the Ger.
man Embassy in Paris. The concierge
OF the embassy had been bribed to save
and deliver to the French the sweepings
from the office-papers, envelopes, wrap
pers, and the hundred and one things
the carrying on of business. Among
them had been found wrapper, which
by the notes upon it purported to have
contained papers relating to the arming
and disposition of the French troops.
According to the claims of the French
government, letter previously obtained
in the same way had spoken OF some
animal de Dreyfus," and suspicion had
already fastened upon him.
Captain Dreyfus was an Alsatian and a
Jew. On both accounts he was little
likely to arouse poular sympathy. When
Alsace was surrendered to Germany he
had refused to give up his French citi-
zenship and had joined the French army.
He was young and rich and a married
man. On the ground of former suspicion
and declared resem blance between his
hand writing and that on the envelope he
was brought to trial charged with sell
ling the plans of the French Minister of
War to the German government among
them plans for the mobilization of the
French army on the eastern frontier in
case of war. In the eyes of the French
people no crime could be more heinous;
from his nationality and antecedents no
prisoner less likely to excite pity.
POPULAR FEELING AGAINST HIM.
The trial was secret 1t was PRINCIPAL.
ly dispute among experts on hand
writing. Popular feeling against the
prisoner ran high. just before his ar
rest the German Embassy had protested
against the stealing of documents by the