Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1898-03-05
NJ zOLA'S CONVECTION
The FarCical Trial Ends as Has
Been Predicted. @
lie IS SENTENCED FOB a YEAR,
While Publisher Perreux Must Serve
Four Months LONGER The Great
Novelist Bears His Conviction and
sertance philnsnnhfcallv.

While Publisher Perreux Must Serve
Four Months Longer The Great
Novelist Bears His Conviction and
sertence Philosophically.
Paris. Sch 24.-The lola trial is end
I'll. r. .ury agreed days ahead on the
VesGa5 AID its unanimity was due to
usrcls. II stayed in the jury room
for q ZEN lAiautes, and the sentence is
enc ye,sr for M. lola and one year and
four ecnths for NJ. Perreux.
The hour was seven in the evening,
and the court was lighted by electric
iiy. which revealed the face Of every
person. A very striking Christ Cruel
fed" hung high behind the bench. NJ.
Laborie ended his speech by saying,
The name of PLATE is the most alb
horred in history" The figure of
Christ caught zola's eye. After sem
tcnoe had been passed, with pompous
decorum, he exclaimed: To-day, as
ISOLATED with Christ, /, too, am vic
tim of mob violence, official cowardice
and a grand miscarriage of justice"
But he did not vince or finch. He
looked as Indifferent as a mere spec
tator. Nine, Zola's devoted heart at
first seemed broken, but when she felt
that she must brace herself up TO rise
TO the height CT Zola's grand situation
she became calm and self possessed.
His friends, the artists. Bruneau and
Desmeulin, we're more broken hearted
than She. They have daily accompanied
lola, protecting him from mob violence.
NJ. Laborie was also greatly upset.
Zola's other friends were delighted.
They declared that by the sentence he
was redeemed from all past faults; that
1t set him on a radiant pedestal, gave
him a unique position and would make
him the representative man of human,
ity. They had greatly feared a severe
sentence, but one wiped off with the
benefit of the first offenders law In
this case he would not have gone to
prison
Are we entering" moderate people
ask. IAN era of pronunciamentos? No,
no, French general ever aimed at mill
tary distature. The first and second
Napoleons were practically foreigners.
But there is a strange combination Of
army, church and people, with one OBJ
jective, to put down Israel in France.
This union is less fortuitous than it
looks. The Jews now control all the
sources of wealth. The minds and feel
ings Of the people have long been in
revolt in secret against this power,
which has no physical force behind it.
What has fermented in the brain is
now going into action
NJ. Zola can remain at liberty for
three days, during which he may de-
eide whether to appeal to the court of
cessation, an appeal which can only
be taken on the ground of irregularities
of procedure. If these were proved it
would Justify an annulment of the trial.
Should an appeal be taken it would not
come on before the court of cessation
until after the next general elections,
when it is probable that a new min
istry will be In power.
Zola's Oldest friend assures me that
he will not die in jail. He was brought
up in hardship. His father was an old
military campaigner with Napoleon, and
was in the retreat from Russia, at
Waterloo and other battles, a sturdy
French peasant. M. lola was reared
by peasantry to be hardy and enduring.
His health is not so good as a while
ago. owing to his anti-fat diet, but the
prison is sure TO strengthen him.