The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-24
LIVING IN AN IRON CAGE
DAILY ROUTINE or THE PRISONER
OF THE ISLE DU DIABLE.
Wretched, Solitary and UnwhoIesOme
SURROUNDINGS of Capt. Dreyfus De-
seribed by an Eyewitness.

I
/ streets in this city only yesterday with
soldier of fortune, a prospector and a
miner, whom l have twice before met in
remote quarters of the globe, has placed me
! in possession of certain facts in regard to
| the Imprisonment of Captain Dreyfus. under
/ such unparalleled circumstances, which are
| certainly not known to the public in Europe
or in America. Indeed, L am in possession
of certain facts which are quite unknown.
| believe, to all except those particular
officers of the French Infantry of the Ma
rin,s to whom the safe keeping of the
| fortunate officer has been intrusted by their
| government.
| Il have twice this winter" said my in
| fCrmant touched at Devils island, where
| Dreyfus is being done to death by what
| seems to me to be one of the most bar
barous and the most exquistely refined
methods Of human torture. It has simply
| become a question whether the prisoner
will break down first under the systematic
cruelty TO which he is exposed, or whether
he will be hurried off by breathing the
fever-laden atmosphere in which he lives.
| My first visit was made two months ago
when we stopped off the island in coast
| ing schooner in which l had taken passage
| from Surinam to Cayennes. We were hailed
| when some distance from shore and for
| hidden to land, but at last succeeded in
obtaining permission to anchor fifty yards
off shore under the pretense that we wished
to sell stores to the soldiers. We lay off
the southwest point of the island and from
here could see the prison cage and the pris-
oner, too. who during our visit never seemed
to take his eyes off US and our boat. From
the first sight we caught of him could
see him watching our approach with fever
sh interest and following our every move
ment with painful unrest; painful it was
! to us also because we brought to the UNI
fortunate man neither good news nor the
promise of better treatment for the future
Outside the iron cage in which the pris-
oner sits two soldiers stand on guard, who
are changed every two hours. They are
forbidden to speak to the prisoner under
any circumstances, and one sergeant was
recently degraded for having answered in
a moment of forgetfulness a simple ques-
ton as to when the mail could be expected,
which was put to him by the prisoner. With
this single exception, it is said, the prisoner
has not exchanged word with a human
being since he reached the island. To me
it seems wonderful that under these circum-
| stances he has not lost his reason. That
he has not, l can personally vouch, for
with my field glasses l saw his sad, intel
ligent face lined with suffering as clearly
as though he had not been more than TWEEN
ty feet from where ] was, and at IL glance
| it was clear to me that he was bearing up
under his treatment with the fortitude of
a true soldier, and that he still remains in
the full possession of his faculties. The
| food that is given him is the same as that
furnished to the imprisoned dynamiters and
| the Anarchists.
"One of the soldiers told me that the pris-
oner was growing very fat; that his
OF weight is due to the effect of the in
SidiOus influences of the climate and my
experience on the coast of Guiana, which,
believe, possesses the most deadly climate
to Europeans in the world is that man
/ who begins to grow stout there is doomed.
Ills whole muscular and nervous system
| becomes relaxed. and Invariably he dies in
a very few months of intestinal fever or
some stomach disorder | am confident that
this Will be at an early day the fate of Cap
tain Dreyfus unless his place of mprison-
ment is changed to less deadly surround
THE IRON CAGE.
we were allowed to remain at anchor
| for three hours off the island Not for one
moment of this time could / take eyes
| off the spot where the prisoner is confined
in his cage like wild beast or a creature
of the menagerie. The cage seems to be
about ten feet high and twelve long. 1t was
about the size of d large tigers cage. In
the middle is a rough partition of leaves
and bamboo shoots, evidently improvised
as screen by the prisoner himself. One
section of the cage is covered with leaves
which the prisoner has woven about the
pars as netting Here he sleeps and en-
deavorS to shelter himself from the sun
| But | believe in vain. The iron work and
steel screen of the cage is d great con-
! dIctor and storer of heat, and have heard
! it said by a soldier who had been on guard
! and who ought to have known whereof he
| spoke that by O'Clock in the afternoon
/ the iron work exposed to the burning sun
| throughout the heat of the day is hot
enough to burn your fingers severely should
| you touch it,
BY the rules and regulations of his i'm
prisonment, at every hour of the day from
sunrise to sunset, Captain Dreyfus has to
! show himself in the outer or exposed cage
for five minutes. During this time the Off
| Ger in command on the lie Royale scrutin-
ICES the cage with his glass, and so is
| able to report TO Paris whenever called
| upon for that information by cable that he
! has seen the prisoner with his own eyes
within an hour. The surroundings of this
| spot, the land in view and the seas cape
! are both the most dismal and depressing
that the morbidly inclined imagination
| could picture. The water is dead there is
| no surf, the few trees that still remain
standing are all covered with gnarled scars
and with gray moss, and they would seem
afflicted with leprous disease, as
| though they had been contaminated by the
| presence of the leperS who once dragged
| out wretched existence upon this desolate
| point of land. The trees have no leaves,
and there is not the song of a bird to be
| heard only now and again hoarSe Shrek
| OF the vutureS, who dispute with the
sharks the possession of the bodies of the
! convicts who, when dead, are thrown into
| the sea.
| THE sight of this picture had well-nigh
! nauseated me, but there was to come one
| last and more terrible scene of ALL 1t hap
pened just as we were lifting anchor and
! hosting sail. We heard the tolIing of bell
| ana several OF the soldiers, armed to the
! teeth, and four or five convicts rowed out
! into the deeper water in one of the shore
boats. Upon q plank athwart the gunwales
/ was laid out the body of a dead convict.
/ The vultures shrieked in the air, and cut
/ ting through the placid surface of the tide
| less sea we could see the dorsal fins of the
| sharks, who were scurrying about, fighting
among themselves, impatient for their prey.
/ Suddenly the plank was tilted and the body
putt. 1t never reappared Soon the water
tinged with blood, and the boat went
/ back to the shore to the music of the tolling
bells. 1t is said that on several occasions
/ the sharks, who, at the familiar sound of
| the bell come hurrying for miles around,
have been so ravenously impatient for their
| horrid repast that they have nearly upset
! the funeral boat
.'Dreyfus saw 1.-THE terrible scene-and
as we went away / could see the lonely
| prisoner peering through the iron bars of
! darkened with perfectly natural forebod-
/ ings, he watched the fate of his comrade
| in exile to-day, fate which in all likeli-
| hood tomorrow will be his. Darkness
! gathered around the island like pail. and
/ we had gone many miles TO sea before
could Danish from my sight the vision of
the horrors / had witnessed there.
Some two weeks later i returned to the
| island for am hour. but did not see the
a1 hrTf iF1fn