The San Francisco call., 1898-02-06
Question as to Whether Officers Summoned Will Be Per-
 naitted to Testify.
HENRY'S PECULIAR TALK.
At a Banquet the Prince Speaks Upon the Complications of Several
 Nations.
Copyrighted 1898 by James Gordon Bennett.


 PARIS, Feb. 5.-It is calm before the storm. There has been an undoubted lull in the agitation over the Dreyfus case during the last few days, but fears are widely entertained that we shall go from bad to worse the day after tomorrow when Emile Zola ap- pears before the AssiZe Court of the Seine to stand his trial. Even yet noth- ing is known of the difficulty as to whether officers summoned by ZOla as witnesses will be allowed to give evil dence, nor has any indication leaked out regarding the result of M Zola's application to the Minister of Justice to allow General Billet, Minister of War, to appear in the witness box. The state of popular feeling is indicated by literature which has been issued from the printing presses voluminously. The output of squibs, ballads and cartoons upon the Dreyfus case is greater than even in the days of the Panama and Boulanger affairs. It is a significant fact that none Of these pro-Dreyfus or defenders of Zola suffers especially.
 Prince Henry made reference to the Dreyfus matter in a speech at a ban Guet given in his honor prior to his de- parture for Abyssinia at the Hotel Con- tinental last night. He said: At a moment when Emperor William is sending the Deutschland to Chinese wa ters. when the oldest of Empires is cracking to it's foundations, when h. dia is in revolt and England ready to march on Khartoum and casts covetous eyes on the Nile Valley, you feel there are questions intervening in France that dominate those of party. When at home you see horde of people who in the main have come from across the Rhine, and who, because they inhabit France, think the same hearts beat within their breasts as in ours, and who spew upon the most sacred insti- tutions of the cOuntry-you should un- derstand there is but one flag and that it is the duty of all to gather around it."
 The company at the banquet includ- ed most of the eminent Frenchmen who have given attention to colonial gues- tions and a sprinkling of young men. personal friends of Prince Henry, to whom Chairman M. Miln- Edwards pointed in disproof of the saying that there was no more enterprise and vii tality in France. In the course of his speech Prince Henry outlined the plans of Count Leontieff and himself regard Ing the equatorial provinces of Ethiopia Emperor Menelik had intrusted to them the responsibility of organizing this immense province, which would form his buffer state-it was unnecessary to say against whom, said the Prince. with an obvious reference to England.
 According to Gaulois, a well-known Water-color painter has received many orders to paint flowers on silks for dresses to be worn by leading women of society. A fashionable contempora- ry declares that such hand-pafnted cos tunes will be la mode de demain. The cost will certainly prevent its vulgar ization.
 Parisians are to have a chance of comparing the famous Spanish act tress, Sonora Maria Guerrero. with their own tragedienne. Sarah Bernhardt ba e arranged for her to occupy the stage or the Renaissance, whereon Signora Duse recently played. Sonora Cher fero will be accompanied by her hus- pand, Marquis of Fontanaar. who plavs under the name of Fernando Diaz de Mendoza. His first wife was the daueb~ ter or Marshall Serrano, once Regent or spain. and after her death he went on the stage and married Sonora Guer- rero. " - oei