The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1898-09-08
FRANCE AGAIN IN TUMULT.
SUICIDE LETS IN LIGHT ON THE
DREYFUS CASE.
Colonel Henry Confesses to Forging
a Document that Played an Import
ant Part, and Killed Himself.

PARIS, August 31.-Lieutenant Col |
onel Henry. chief of the secret intelli. |
gence department of the French army, |
was yesterday arrested on charge |
of having forged document which !
played an important part in the trial
of Captain Drey fus. He confessed he
had committed the forgery, was sent
to prison and later committed suicide
in his cell by cutting his throat with
a razor.
The intensest excitement prevails
throughout Paris and France over the
affair. The result is likely to be a
reopening of the case against, Dreyfus
who is now a prisoner for life on
| Devils Island.
| THE DBEYFUS CASE.
Some three years ago valuable pa
pers were noticed to have disappeared
from the war office in Paris. \ sys-
TEN of espionage, essentially French,
| suggestive of the elaborate methods
of Emile Gaboriau or Sherlock Holmes
was set in motion, as a result of
which Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a ma
tive of Alsace, was placed under ar
rest. Dreyfus was wealthy, and apart
from sundry affairs with women, he
bore a good reputation. 1t was also
claimed that he sold important docu
ments touching artillery notifications
and Notifications to the German EN-
bassy, and it was further stated that
portions of the missing memoranda,
with addenda i'm his handwriting, had
been discovered in a waste basket of
the embassy.
General Boisdeffre was the man at
whose instigation Dreyfus was arrest
ed The suspected captain was sum-
moned to his presence in October. of
1894, but instead of meeting the gem
eral himself, the supposed traitor
found himself closeted with Comman-
dant MERCER Patty du Clam, who, I'M
der a pretense that he was suffering
; from disabled hand and unable to
write, dictated to Captain Dreyfus an
extract from the stolen document.
DRIVEN FROM THE ARMY.
According to Patty du Clam the eff
/. feet upon Dreyfus was instantaneous
= and such as to leave no doubt in the
mind of the commandant that the
guilty man sat before HIM. He shud-
dered convulsively and refused to take
further dictation. He was immedi.
ately placed under arrest The 18th
: of the following January Dreyfus was
publicly degraded i'm the Place Fon
- tenoy. His military buttons were cut
off, sword snapped in two-this annie
the shouts of an infatuated populace
IT is no eXaggeration to state tina
had Dreyfus been accessible to rnt
- mob his life would have paid the for
felt As it was he was transported Il
the Isle du Diable. there to pass thu
remainder of his days, Gagged and IL
exile.
lola INTERVIEWS.
- At the beginning of this year Emil
lola, supported by Clemenceau, tn
editor of L'Aurore, publicly proclaim
ed their belief in Dreyfus' innocence
demanded revision of the trial, an
| charged Count Esterhazy with bein
j, the guilty party and made accusation
of corruption against the army. In
stead of securing a new trial TO
4 Dreyfus, lola and Clemenceau wer
tried for libel and sentenced to fin
and imprisonment.
Il HENRY'S FORGERY.
During the lola trial Colonel Henri
accused Colonel Pisquart of falsifyin
ar kilograms. \ duel followed in whic
Henry was wounded. The next seen
occurred in the Chamber of Deputie
OF where Colonel Picquart proclaimed ii
IL letter forgery, and as a result wa
ri arrested, while Henry's villainy we
rewarded by his being appointed Co
onel Picquart's successor in the int
n. ligence department.
1t is now evident that Henry for
- ed the letter with the express obje
of paralyzing Colonel Picquart's e
forts to expose Major Esterhazy, al
to get revision of the Dreyfus cas-
n The letter was written in bad Frenc
; y n fact which first led it to be regar
" ed as spurious.
HIS MOTIVE.
What Henry's motives were can o
ly he guessed, yet his own explain
n ton is believed to have been that, /
u ing sure of Dreyfus' guilt and dete
mined not to publish secret doc
Ak ments that figured at the trial, he
vented his forged letter to cut she
the agitation for the revision of Ca
tain Dreyfus's sentence of life il
tS prisonment.
''' 1t is openly stated here tonight til
to Henry fabricated the letter ON Gem
viii al Boisdeffre's orders. 1t is furth
% said that the former war minister
compromised.
When Henry parted from his W
he exclaimed, "My conscience is PIT
and free from every sting"
This exclamation is much CONNIE
. ed upon, as going TO show that
Al may possibly have forged the let
~ under orders from his superiors.
HENRY'S LINEAGE.
Lieutenant Colonel Henry was
PEASANTS son. He was born in P'
sey in Marine in 1S4S, and enlisted
has foot regiment as his brothers s.
air stitute in 1868. He had a good IN
tary record for bravery and mex
for able discipline. He was a prisoner
war i'm 1870 and was wounded in
on Algerian campaign. He retained c
the siderable of the rough and ready m
emf ners of the non-commissioned Office
TT l.. L.