Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-01-29


shows.
There have been many cases, civil and
criminal, which have turned upon the au-
thenticity of a signature or scrap of
writing and the profession OF grapholo-
gist has como to be recognized as one OF
serious importance. Mr.. Carvalho has
been Cor sixteen years the official graph
illogical expert of New York city, and MIR.
Ames. for an even longer period. has been
recognized as an authority in nice ques-
tons of pennranship. They have been en-
ployed in many famous cases, notably in
the Fair will forgery, which was decided
last summer.
There has never been a case of such i'm
portance as that of Dreyfus, involving as
1t does the honor of the French nation.
for the psychologists to decide. 1t turns
apparently wholly upon the testimony OF
handwriting experts. So far as the public
Is aware, the only evidence that has made
Dreyfus lonely exile on Devils Island is
scrap of paper, undated and unsigned,
that Is alleged to have been penned by the
hand of the captain at time when he was
q confidential attache Of the French min
istry of war. On this bit of paper the fate
of Dreyfus hinged. In order to make clear
this fact, and also the connection of the
American handwriting experts with the
CO se, 1t may be well to briefly recapitulate
the story of this celebrated paper. which
The Famous Bordereau.
At the time of the arrest and trial of
Dreyfus it was given out that the incrimi-
mating evidence had come from the waste
basket of the German embassy. and had
teen secured by one Of the secret military
agents of the government This individual.
who was disguished as rag picker, made a
practice of buying and carefully going over
all the refuse paper that came from the
Office Of the German embassy, in an effort
to find some clue to the source of leakage
Of important military secrets winch were
known to be in the possession of the Ger
man ministry of war One day, according
to the story given out by the officers of the
French government, this detective rag
picker amSs AZ Rapers
Of documents This was single sheet OF
buff-color ed notepaper of ordinary size. and
from it's contents seemed to be memo
randum of certain documents winch nan
presumably been conveyed to the Germans.
It was written in French and ran as FOL
lows: 80,
Although / have had no news from you.
to- the effect that you wish to see me- l
nevertheless send you, sir, some fnforma-
ton of interest
1. A note on the haudraulic brake, 12o;
how 1t worked when experiments were
made.
2 A note concerning the covering forces.
Several notifications will be made by the
new plan.
g. A note relative to alterations in the
formations of artillery corps.
b. 4. A note relating to Madagascar.
8. The draft Of q manual OF artillery
field practice, March IA, 1894.
This last document is exceedingly diff
cult to procure. and can only have 1T at
my disposal for very few days. The
minister has sent a certain number of
copies to the different regiments and the
regiments are responsible for them. Every
officer who has copy has to return it
after the maneuvers. So, il you wish to
make such extracts from it as may inter-
est you, will procure a copy, subject to
your promising to return 1t to me as soon
as you have done with 1t. Perhaps. how
over. you would prefer that I should copy
1t out word for word and send you the
copy.
1 am just going for the maneuver.
That was all. There was no address. no
date. no signature. The documents re-
ferred to in the memoranda were scarcely
of vital Importance, but. naturally. the
French government was interested in find
Ing out its secret orders were being sysN
tcmatically conveyed to the Germans.
Tracing the Papers.
Armed with the clue provided by the
bordereau, the secret agents of the minis
try set about the task of finding its author.
The writing Of all the persons from whom
1t could possibly have emanated were ex-
amined and compared with 1t. 1t was
finally announced by Maj. du Patty de Clam
that the writing in the bordereau coin
c:ded with that of Capt Alfred Dreyfus.
stsgiary in the second bureau at the gen.
eral staff corps
Though Dreyfus was under surveillance
from this time, he was not at once placed
under formal arrest The bordereau, To-
gether with authenticated specimens of the
handwriting Of the accused man, were first
submitted to two French handwriting ex-
hnfp nSr,s1~
These authorities-M. Colbert and NJ
Bertfllon-after thorough examination Of
the papers submitted to them, delivered
opinions exactly opposite Colbert decided
by the one man, while BertiIlon announced
himself convinced that both were the work
of the same hand. and later three graph
ologists were consulted. two Of whom
sided with M. Gobert The preponderafice
Of opinion was against the prisoner In
spite of his protestatfo of innocence, the
authorship of the bordereau was fastened
petuai exile and the infamy of being de-
graded as traitor,
The French Experts. -
In order to arrive at some estimate of
the value Of these .dfnering opinions it
may be well to consider Tor a moment the
men who uttered them. N. Colbert is the
expert examiner ofotheIsBank Of France,
and the most distinguished private graph
oiostst in France. ama3w with presumably
no prejudice in favor Of either party to
the case. n. Bertillon in widely known as
2 commissary Of police and chef de Ia
Service de fIdentite Jndiciare-an Official
OF the French government, and probably
acquainted with their overwhelming desire
to fasten the crime upon the accused man.
me otner experts were men OF lesser note,
and may have been Influenced by the
earlier decisions.
After the conviction and transportation
OF Dreyfus his family and frfeEds began
an active campaign to prove his Innocence.
Az one step In this they prepared exact
reproductions Of the Bofdereau, and OF
two authentic specimens Of the condemned
mans handwriting. enc written before and
one after the discovery Of that document.
These were submitted to the most famous
grapho!ogists VI the world. eleven In NUM-
Der. Aessrs, CarvaIho Gnd Ames were
among those whose Opinions were solicited.
and thus were brought into the case. It Is
IN nteresting and significant fact that
these eleven experts. IN half dozen difKer-
ent Countries. working Independently Of
each other. and Uu,S~ -