The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-01
HOW DREYFUS EXISTS
SOME SHOW OF MERCY IN HIS
TREATMENT PENDING REVISION.
EmbaIming Outfit Was sent to Dew
as Island when 1t was First Re-
ported that He Was Ill.
stsrling Heing's Paris Letter in New York

Diable, is at last to benefit by a regime
Of favor pending the investigation of his
case This news comes to the French pub
lie at the Same time with the first truthful
details of what the old regime has been.
And these details present an ensemble as
mysterious as any other part of the mys-
terious affair. Since the beginning of 1897
Dreyfus has been in solitary confinement
without view of either land or sea. He
has even been in irons The government has
furnished him only with rations of goats
milk and bread. And, though the Dreyfus
family is allowed to send him stipulated
monthly sums for extra food and other COM
forts in a tropical climate, the great mass
Of this money has mulated-unused-to
the amount of $1490.
One of the most curious documents that
has come to light is a page from the account
book of the firm at Cayenne from whom all
the monthly purchases of Dreyfus are eff
fected. When it is remembered that his only
rations are goats milk and bread, this
meager list of thirty days provisions is
eloquent of an economy that can scarcely
be voluntary; and it presents vividly the
dilemma of a refined man forced to make
choice between health, cleanliness, comfort
and nourishment. Here is the list
One litre Of wood alcohol, for cooking; 2
bottles of orange flower water, pots Of
preserved butter, pounds of chocolate, 2
boxes Of cheese, bottles Of soda water, 2
bottles Of mineral water, pairs of socks.
2 pounds of tobacco, 80 cigars, L wooden
pipe, 2 large boxes of matches, 1 large
package OF writing paper, packages Of
candles, l bottle of granulated kola, 10
pounds of soap, pairs of white cotton
trousers and white handkerchiefs.
Other months showed orders for canned
meats and vegetables Excepting always the
goats milk and bread, the prisoner has
lived on these canned goods since early in
1897, when his mysterious close confinement
was begun. He might buy fresh meat and
vegetables but it is said he will not cook
them. Between DreyfuS and the dlrecteur
| of the administration penitentia1re there
has been silent struggle going ON, a Strug-
gle in which Dreyfus always gets the wore.
of 1t.
Seven miles out in the ocean, twenty
seven miles northwest of Cayenne, lie the
| three Salvation islands, side by side, anu
| separated only by two narrow channels The
| lie Royale. almost a mile long, contains a
| little colony of convicts. The lie Saint JQ-
| seph contains some stores and small sta
| ton. Between them lies the lie du D1able
| inhabited by only Dreyfus and his guards.
| 1t IS a sun-blistered little island, bare OF
| trees except for one small grove. Down on
| It's lowest barest point, far from the grove
| of trees, there is a wooden tower. Upon
its top there is Hotchkiss gun. Beside the
wooden tower there is wooden house, sur
THE LITTLE PALISADE.
| This is the habitation of the guards. Then
| there is seen beside it high palisade, Be-
high as the first story of house. Within
the palisade there is a hut. 1t is within thu
palisade that Dreyfus lives. The hut is his
prison, and the ground within the palisade
his prison yard. He sees only the sky.
The palisade, the hut, the house, the porch
and tower have all been photographed; and
a traveller who got his information at the
lie Royal itself has told the daily life that
| Dreyfus leads. AT 8 a. m. one of the guards
unlocks the hut door, and the prisoner may
looks UP at the sky And then he walks.
| From IL a. m. till noon he is locked up
again. 1t is his lunch hour. From noon till
| 5 D. IN. he may walk in his yard again. he
| takes the air He looks Up at the sky. And
! then he walks And then he is locked up
| in the hut again until next morning. Within
| the hut he has his room to clean, his bed
| to make, his dishes to keep clean, his daily
! cooking to be done, his books to read, his
writing paper and his pencils. Occupied
hour after hour in abstruse architectural
| Observation-Disclosures is his favortte
/ study-Dreyfus is heard now and then 70
murinur his two favorite phrases, THAT
goes we'll" and Now it will not be long"
The guards never speak to him. He never
speaks to them He has refused to have
traitor. Nor would he reply to the governor
of Guiana when he came to see him.
1t was not always thus. During the nrSt
| two years of his life on the sun-baked little
| island Dreyfus enjoyed what M. Rober-
| deau, the governor, has called a bien-etre
relatif-"a relative well-being." He then
| inhabited a cabin, in which they had kept
/ a herd of goats, little cabin on bluff, be-
side the only grove Of trees; His guards
| lived in a larger building that had been a
| barn. At night they locked him in. BY day
| he roamed about, collecting bugs and sea-
weed in the cool hours. reading and writ
| ing in his grove when it was hot. He mad
| his food from the cantine or the lie Royale.
| During these first two years, the govern
or himself IS credited with having sald, IN
l a moment of indiscretion, the prisoner was
permitted liberties so difficult to explain
/ that they might well authorize certain
| suppositions 1t would be curious TO seek
| along this line-as a psychologist" Guarded
| by men of experience, owing. no allegiance
| to the authorities at Cayenne ana acting
! under direct instructions from Paris, DIey-
| FMS nevertheless, was allowed to roam
| about the island as he pleased, continually
| tempted to engage In plans LOT al eScSApe'
CHANCES TO ESCAPE.
| At low tide the rocky shore of the lie Gu
| Diable is separated from that OF the lie
Royale by less than one hundred yards Oh
| channel. Across it Dreyfus often talked
with individuals from Cayenne. lie consist
Iy refused their offers of assistance. Did he
fear a trap? Did Dreyfus fear he would be
shot escaping? Or, conscious of his inno-
cence had he resolved to wait in patience?
1
population more in sympathy with the con-
victs than their jailers, that he might cas-
ily have been rescued any time within the
first two years. eff he only would! is the
continual phrase which travellers hear in
| wine-shop conversations, now that the re-
| vision has unsealed mems lips. III ne nae
| given a million he could have been rescued
! at any time." The million and the rescue
| are synonymous.
| one Individual, a liberated convict named
| Dupont, now acting as petty money lend-
/ or in and out the penal settlements, even
| made trip to Paris to propose plan to
| the Drevfus family. He was received Dy
| Nine Lucie Dreyfus, but she would not
| comprehend" On the other hand. she was
| extremely anxious to employ him as neI
| her husbands captivity He WOULD be her
| known and official correspondent accepte.u
| by the penitentiary authorities rms posi-
| ton the good man refused, because 10 pe
| the known agent of the Dreyfus tanlly
| would have hurt his business. The man
/ chosen later Paul Dufourg, a negro baker
| and confectioner, has earned MS money.
/ a'Some time after the arrival OF DreyIuS
| at the islands, he said recently TO Jean
| Hess the African explorer, Il received
| letter from my Paris correspondent askl .ls
! If 7 would consent to occupy myseif with
| tba material interests Of the prisoner with
| the letter came a draft for 300 francs. IL
| wos such a mission Of humanity tnat man
| NJ heart could not refuse, however unpieds-
ant might be the consequences. They nave
been painful for me- But 40 not eon ~ IN
| COMMUNICATION penitentiaire replied to me
! that they had received no instructions 10
| Glow the prisoner more comforts than any
| othar convict Like the other convlctS, ne
| raieht order food from the canteen. Now, II
81, iYl9a prisoner