Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1898-09-29
The DreYfuS Case.

The DreYfus Case.
MANY of our readers. who have not
kept up with this now celebrated case,
have asked US to give the facts III
order to better understanding OF it.
We will do 50 briefly as we understand
them.
Several years ago Albert Dreyfus,
who was then captain in the French
artillery, was arrested and tried for
treason, it being claimed that he had
furnished foreign power with valuable
Information in regard to certain militia
nv affairs of France. On the trial
which was then very celebrated, and
has been growing more and more SO
since, he was found guilty by the court
and sentenced to solitary confinement,
we believe for life; at any rate, he is
now in q prison on Devils Island, Oh the
coast of South America, in solitary con-
fnement, provided he has not died, or
been killed.
Under French prison rule it is very
difficult for the person convicted to see
any one OF hear from his friends, and
when in solitary confinement he is prac-
tically dead to the world, as no one but
the prison guards and the prison physi-
clan are ever allowed near the cell, eX-
cept in most extraordinary cases.
In this condition Dreyfus has lain
since his conviction. Dreyfus is Jew,
he was born in Alsace, and his Semitic
origin has doubtless had much to do
with the former feeling against him, as
the feeling against Jews in Europe is
inconceivable to Americans, and very
bitter.
His friends outside. however, have
been active in his behalf, always stoutly
asserting his innocence, and he himself
doing the same Dreyfus' wife is said
to be a woman of much beauty and
force of character, and she has not
rested day nor night in her efforts for
his release. A man of wonderful abili-
ty, a certain Emile lola, also Jew,
rich, and powerful with his pen, has
been the uncompromising friend OF
Dreyfus and has asserted his innocence
in season and out of season. He has al
ways maintained that Dreyfus was the
victim of plot, and that the evidence
Was forged on which he was convicted.
The French people, who hold the army
above everything else, clamored for
Dfeyfus' conviction, as such an act as
he was said to have committed reflected
on the army, he being Il soldier. This is
what led to the Cry about purifying
the army.
Some time last winter lola went so far
as to reflect in published statement on
the court which tried Dreyfus, and he
and his counsel were arrested, tried
and imprisoned for libel. In that trial
certain papers were produced, and it had
been claimed by lola that a certain
Count Esterhazy had written the letter
upon which Dreyfus was convicted.
Only a few weeks ago, a letter that
had figured in the lola trial was found
to have been a forgery. and to have
been the deed of Colonel Henry, an
army officer. AS soon as this was
brought out, Colonel Henry committed
suicide, OF was asSassinated, the latter
being stOutly maintained. A detective
employed by friends of Dreyfus some
ten months ago was almost certainly
murdered.
No sooner did Henry suicide than the
celebrated Esterhazy fled the country.
1t was thought for while that be had
suicided also, but he Is in England in
disguise, but has talked, and says that
nearly 800 of the documents upon which
Dreyfus was convicted were forged, and
says that all he did in the matter, he was
forced to do During the Zola trial last
winter the French people shouted,
"a Bas, lola !" and Kissed him, and were
ready to mob him, if necessary. Now
the tide in public sentiment has turned
and the innocence of Dreyfus is believed
by many, and efforts to revise his case
are being made. This is meeting with
strong opposition on the part of the
friends Of those army officers who are
said to have cOncocted the plot which
sent DT'ytus 10 prison, and every oh
stacle is being thrown in the way 10
defeat d revision. Several cabinet off
GERS have resigned, and at present vast
throngs are paradiug the streets of
Paris crying for a revision. A few days
ago Colonel Picquart wa being tried
for using forged documents in the q Ia
trial, when al army officer, who had
charge of the military department of
Paris, took him away from the civil
authorities. There is a crisis 10 French
affairs. The nation is wrought up over
this trial to greater extent than any
thing that has occurred since the
Franco-Prussian war 1t looks as if it
would cause revolution, and instead of
the conviction of Dreyfus purifying the
army by Kidding it of a soldier who had
been guilty of treason, it now seems in
evitable that the army will be shown
rotten to the core, and its officers capa-
BILE of all manner Of crime. The revision
has not yet been ordered, and Dreyfus
is still in prison.
So far, Cervera is the only Spaniard