The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-09-02
LIKE A NIGHTMARE.
The French People Cannot Discuss
the Affair Calmly.

The French People Cannot Discuss
the Affair Calmly.
New York. Sept. IA special to the
Herald from Paris says:
Everywhere people are discussing the
new phases of the Dreyfus affair. No
| body knows what to make of it; on the
one hand those convinced of Colonel
Henry's guilt insist that his confession
does not alter the case: on the other
hand, the Dreyfus supporters declare
that new revision of his trial is now
| inevitable.
In all quarters there is an air of
hesitancy. The affair has become a
sort of nightmare. People can no longer
talk about it calmly. Upon one thing.
however. Frenchmen of all shades of
opinion are united-that Colonel
Henry's raScality does not necessarily
either incriminate the general staff or
acquit Dreyfus. What, however it does
do. is to show that the affair needs a
far more searching probing than it has
yet received.
Colonel Henry is a man who has
risen from the ranks. He is said to be
the very type of non-commissioned Of
fice-.
This. according to French ideas.
means a man who is a disciDlinarian
first. last and all the time.
His excasers say he thought it his
duty in the interests of the country to
bring the DreyfuS agitation to an end
and that he accordingly fabricated the
document to convince his chief that
DreyfuS was indeed the individual
spoken of in the letters, etc, u0on
which that officer was convicted. What
makes the matter worse, all the chiefs
had to do was to examine the original
documents. If these We're found insult
fcient to convince them of Dreyfus'
culpability, a revision would seem to
be the only thing possible. But for>
the heads Of the war Office to have al
lowed themselves to be led into pledg-
ing their honor that Dreyfus was
guilty on the strength of a document
they had not even examined closely,
seems ineXplicable.
The serious papers are naturally
enough reserved in their comments.
The Temps says:
we Will not Clwell upon the painful
side of the matter. There is something
in it that will prevent the friends of
truth from feeling that some cloud in
tercepting the light should have been
dispersed in an accusation of forgery.
They can only repeat that in spite of
all the army remains intact in our re-
spect and affection. The morrow of
the day that Dreyfus was arrested
upon the accusation of betraying his
country, France, although believing
him guilty, found consolation in the
reflection that original faults did not
attack the entire body. This thought,
natural of ten years ago, is still valid
today"
The Temps then reviews NJ. Cavaig-
macs previous utterances The pres
ent war minister said no consideration
for the national safety could induce
him to maintain an innocent man in
prison. Naturally, therefore, the mo-
ment he finds that one of the most i'm
portant documents, or rather the most
decisive of all, is forgery, ne takes
the only step possible, that is to say,
gives orders to arrest the fcrger.
rs this all?' asks the Temps. mo.
We are only upon the threshold of the
truth. We are holding the end of the |
thread that should guide us through |
the labyrinth into which the country
has been lost. We have everything to |
gain in returning on that dark night. |
The hour seems at hand when the |
viii come to an end. On
ward toward that longed for moment" !
The Journal deS Debats believes the |
revision of the Dreyfus trial an abso- |
lutte necessity. Taken separately, |
Colonel Henry's forgery does not prove |
Dreyfus innocence. STILL says the |
Des Debats, 1.-The fact that one of the |
that a forgery had been committed to !
prove. after the trial, the guilt of the |
condemned men, is a. matter of such |
gravity that it must necessarily pro-
yoke serious reflection and call for the |
most minute examination of the other
documents on which the accusation
against Dreyfus was built, and of the
proofs produced openly or secretly in
the trial.
As to the minor press, they are either
jubilant or vindictive, just as they
happen to be for or against Dreyfus.
The Journal, which is anti-Dreyfus,
says: 'The former officers guilt,
which was more than ever proved dur
ing the scrutiny of the evidence by
was discovered. This, however, is as
sertion. not proof"
The Patri makes the stupefying dec
aration that the discovery of this
forgery is proof that the other docu-
nents concerned in the case are gen.
line.
The Paris. in its last edition. saws
that at the ministry of war. officials
are convinced that the forgery was
committed az the instigation of Com
mandant Patty de Clam. who was
the object of a special attack on Zola
for his "melodramatic'' antics with
Dreyfus when that officer was impris-
)ned awaiting trial. Colonel Du Clam,
according to the Paris, is looked upon
rs mad by his colleagues, a curious
recommendation for a man charged
with such a grave duty as the investi-
cation of evidence brought against a
prisoner charged with treason
The Lanterne says the man who pur-
sued Picquart with his testimony from
he assize court to the cabinet of the
Judge d'institution is a miserable for
ger, who has not hesitated to commit
l crime in order to further some
schemes of general staff.
The Petit Republique says: ''The
confession of the forger Henry opens
10 the denouement of the tragedy
With which France has been fighting
or years in darkness"
HENRY ADVISED TO SUICIDE.