San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-11-26
THE DR[YFUS CASE.
French Government Made
A Terrible Blunder
EMILE lola WRITES A LETTER
THAT CAUSES ALL EUROPE
TO WONDER.
He Takes Up The Matter. Indirectly
EuIogizing The Vice President
Of The French Senate, Who
Brought Up The Matter
For Reconsideration

New York, Nov. ga dispatch to
the World from Paris gives in detail
the letter written by Emile lola, the
French author, in behalf of NJ. Drey-
fus. The World says:
All Europe is wringing with the
discussed everywhere. 1t seems GER
tain that the whole subject will be re-
opened and the case retired.
Zola does not champion Dreyfus'
cause directly; he eulogizes M. Schoen-
erer- vice-president of the
French Senate, who has asserted that
he has positive proof that Dreyfus is
innocent and that an awful mistake
has been made in branding him as
traitor and sending him to prison for
life on DEVILS island. lola writes
thus:
What thrilling drama, what magni-
ficent characters.
In the presence of the tragic beauty
of these characters furnished by real
life, my heart leaped in my bosom with
passionate admiration. / know of
nothing in the whole range of physo-
logy which is on a higher level.
/ have no intention of speaking of
the affair itself. If circumstances
have allowed me to study IL and to
come to a formal conclusion, do not
forget that am investigation has been
opened, that courts have taken cogni-
zance of the matter and that the hon
est thing to do is to wait, without ad-
ding to the mass of wretched gossip
which has obscured an affair itself, so
simple and so clear. But from now
on those personages belong to me--to
me; simply a looker-on in life who
keeps his eyes open. And if the con-
demned of three years ago, if the ac-
cused of the present time. is to me
sacred until Justice has done it's work,
the third great character in this great
drama cannot suffer from the effect,
If one speaks ones own mind honestly
and bravely concerning him.
This is what have seen of Scheurer-
Kestner, what / think and what / be-
lieve. Some day, perhaps, circum-
stances permitting, 1 may speak of the
two others.
A life as clear as crystal, as straight
forward. as loyal as can be; not
strain, not the slightest moment of
weakness
An unchanging opinion faithfully fol-
lowed. Without restless ambition;
with, at the end. an exalted political
position due alone to the respectful
sympathy of his equals.
withal, not a dreamer or theorist.
A manufacturer who has lived in his
devoting himself to special
study without counting the daily cares
of a great business house under his
care and let me add large fortune,
wealth, happiness, honor, the browning
of noble life entirely given up to work
and faithful; nothing to desire except
to make a proper ending.
So much for the man about to take
part in the most tragic and absorbing
of dramas.
One day a doubt enters his mind,
doubt that was in the air and had al
scious. A court-martial had found
guilty of treason a captain, who per-
haps, is innocent.
Doubt arose in the mind of Schuerer-
Kestner at once. 1t tormented and
haunted as new facts were brought to
his notice from time to time.
His was solid and logical brain,
which gradually became overpowered
by the Unsuitable desire to learn the
truth.
Scheurer-Kestner at last held GER
taintv. He knew the truth and de-
termined to see justice done.
That was the critical moment for a
mind like his. 1 can imagine what
that moment of anguish must have
been. He well knew the storm he
would raise. but truth and justice are
above all, they will insure the great
ness, of nations. 1t may be that poll
cal interest can obscure them for a
time, but every nation which does not
base its existence upon them is a peo-
pie condemned at the bar of public OPP
inion.
The idea of NJ. Scheurer-Kestner
while doing this work was to keep out
Of sight. He had decided to say to