The San Francisco call., 1898-03-13
TO COMPEL
 PlCgUART
 TO FIGHT Friends of EsterhaZy Talk of a Court
 of Honor. Enraged by the Refusal to Accept His Chal-
 lenge. Consider Him the Equal of the Man Who Befriended
 Dreyfus.
OF A TRAGEDY.
Jew Who Supplied Papers in the ZOla Trial Found Hanging
 by the Neck.
Copyrighted. 1898. by James Gordon Bennett

Copyrighted. 1S9S by James Gordon Bennett
 PARIS, March 12.-The appeal to the Supreme Court by Zola against the judgment of the court which con- demned him to years Imprisonment will be taken soon-in a week, without doubt. The general opinion is that the appeal will be quashed, for unless 1t is absolutely and legally necessary every thing will be done to avoid a reopening of the affair at least before the cleo l tions.
 Much more interest attaches to the case of former Colonel Picquart, who
 after having wounded Colonel Henry in a duel, refused to send seconds to Major Esterhazy, by whom he had been insulted. The seconds of the lat ter insist on the formation of court of honor, presided over by a general and composed of six judges named and appointed jointly by the two principals, so as to decide whether or not Colonel Picquart can refuse reparation at the hands of an officer who has been twice acquitted, who still wears a uniform and, consequently, who has not been disqualified, so far as the usual rules relating to affairs of honor are con- cerned. The point is discussed with considerable spirit by a number of per sons particularly competent to speak of dueling matters. They say that Col onel Picquart's personal opinion of Els terhaZy, or even his own conviction, cannot be brought into question as re- gards an adversary whom his brother officers consider still worthy of wear ing military stripes, and consequently O ri al q Ee IN1i to give it's decision from this point of view. If Colonel Picquart refuses this arbitration he will find himself con- frOnted by Major EsterhaZy's seconds or insulted publicly by the latter. to which he cannot be indifferent. The affair has, therefore, become serious, and if a duel results from the proceed ings you may count upon pretty live ly one.
 The other affair of moment is of more mysterious character. It concerns a suicide-a man found hanging to the fastening of a window in a furnished house.
 The identification of the body-estab- lished with difficulty, after a series of investigations which brought out a half dozen names by which the suicide was known-seems to show that he was a private detective who at the time of the Zola trial sold different papers con- necteQ with the a1falr, some authentic and some false, upon which certain evil dence was based. The dead man was Jew, named Kehmann, who, under supposititious name wanted to sell Se- crets to M. Reinach first and then to M. Rochefort These spurious docu- ments were destined to raise a scandal in the Zola trial, otherwise they would have shed unexpected light. The man was, perhaps, only simple adven- turer, who was spurred on by poverty, but the mysterious circumstances of his death, certain visits which he received shortly before his death, the precau- tions which were taken to conceal his identity afterward-all these present momentous chapter in the novel to which an article lately written by Mme. Severine, the well known lady journal ist, has added sensational interest.
 This writer declares openly that the man of the Rue de Seveies was not suicide, but had been assassinated. When summoned on Wednesday by the Judge conducting the inquiry to explain this statement Mme. Severine refused to take oath or answer any question, but she pretends to have in her hands elements of truth of this gruesome story, and she says she will speak out soon and unmask the real o,1lnrit